July has arrived and the footings are in for the foundation of the house and garage. Late on Tuesday, the final load of concrete was poured and smoothed giving it a full day to set up over the 4th. As Frits and I were surveying the base for our new home, our neighbors' dogs appeared through the trees. This is not unusual and often they enter our cabin through the dog door to join us for breakfast or meet us outside for a BBQ.
Immediately we saw what was to happen next. There was no clear path from the woods except via the newly poured footings. Short legged Lola bounded towards us making it over the first obstacle with only a few shallow footprints before she lost steam. In spite of our efforts to distract her from her course she ended up sinking up to her armpits in the liquid cement right before us. Next came Kofi. He is a Basenji and quite graceful in his movement. Not only did he traverse the footings but managed to pirouette in a few places. Fortunately none of it really mattered but you can be sure we will give our neighbors notice before the slab is poured.
During this time of excavation and before the area is back-filled it is necessary to bury any pipes and telecommunication wires etc. We decided that with the Olympics coming up that this would be a good time to install a satellite TV service. Until now we have had over-the-air TV through an antenna which, most of the time, is adequate but not great. Having had an account with Dish Network at our old house I called them to set up new service. After more than a half hour on the phone opening a new account and giving them the new location, programming needs and credit card info, the installation was scheduled. At least 2 emails and a couple of phone calls followed to confirm the day and time and to make sure someone was on hand for a five hour period but still, no one showed up. It seems the installer had gone to our old address! A new appointment was scheduled and another week or so passed. This time the installer arrived but the most ideal place to site the dish was on a post that would need to be set in concrete. No problem! Frits would set the post when the concrete was being poured for the foundation. In the meantime, since the service hadn't been started they cancelled our account. Another lengthy phone call was necessary to open yet another new account.
Tuesday was the day the installer was to come and we were ready. It was a different man who showed up and after setting all his coordinates and doing his figuring, he determined that the designated site was in fact not going to work because of interference from branches. With no other apparent options other than taking down about 10 tall trees and even then not knowing if it would be enough, he left. Foiled again!
Now we have contacted Direct TV to see if they can do any better. It will be a sprint to the end, I fear, to have service by the time the Olympics begin at the end of the month.
