Heres a little christmas story for you.. what a weekend.
Many of you know, and several who will not be named, that i was looking forward to COD4 for about 3 weeks now. finally the day came, and saturday at my christmas party, amidst the presents at the family christmas, was my box calling for me. My sister was kind enough to get it for me for christmas, and my oh my how giddy i was. the nioght drew to a close, and we all parted our seperate ways.
I flew home opened up my box o' death, plunked it in, and installed away. whilst installing, Good ole Cain popped called me up and said "Hey! you got the game! congrats! finally! Let me give you the ole walkthrough, and a quick tour!" so i fired it up, and me and Cain went on a sight seeing tour. gotta love the christmas map i said, and of course Cain, the vengful guy he is(for all the steve martin & old guy comments" motioned me closer, and SHANK! gutted me on the spot! Not to be disuaded, I come back guns a blazing, and Bonk! dropped Cain Dead! but hah! he has the last laugh. kicked by punkbuster i recieve for my dubious efforts. between the 2 of us, and for about an hour we tracked down the PB problem, got it squared away, knifed eachother a bit more, and he sent me on my way, into the wild deadly world of COD4. i played for about an hour with the rest of you all, before calling it a night.
As some of you know, i tend to play VERY early on sunday mornings in the winter, as i usually take my wife to work at 4 am(she's panick stricken about driving in the snow due to some bad incidents) and this morning was unlike any other in the last few years. Hurricane class winds, steady at around 75mph and a nasty snowstorm brewing followed me to her work and right back home, and hammered west michigan. being out in the styx amplifies this issue a bit. so finally i complete my trip, get back home, settle down in my nice comfy chair, and prepare for some serious fragging, after 2.5 hours of driving to complete a trip normally taking about 50 minutes.
No sooner than the connecting to server message appears, do i hear the Faint sound of static, and i get the message, connection interrupted. checking the tv's and phone in the house, my worst fears have come true. i FINALLY get the game and POOF! the weather has taken out the cable lines! DRAT! so i proceed to wait an hour to see if it comes back. i pick up my cell phone, call my wife to to let her know. the first words out of her mouth are "Have you lost power yet?" "no" i answer, " not ye..." and pop. out goes the power... "yep, i have now." curses. with a storm this nasty, this isn't oing to be pretty. so i called consumers energy, and the phone line for emergencies is BUSY! busy! what does the mesasge say? " Please go to our website, and report the power outage & emergency" WTH! how am i supposed to go on the internet without power or internet ability? DUH! Think here guys!
so i decided to head out to her work for breakfast with the kids(she works at burger king), pack th kids up, in the dark, get them in the car, and start on my not so merry way. shortly after turning out my drive, i notice the problem a tree has fallen and severed the lines about 1/2 mile from my house. its laying in the snow. arcing madly. so i call the power company again. this time i get a person. what does she say? we'll get someone out there Tomorrow(monday) around noon, to get that fixed.
Great. Just great. i get my game, and now i can't play. more importantly, i got to find somewhere to go for the night with the kids. i can stand the cold, but my kids can't. not to mention nothing constructive for them to do in a nasty snow storm. my eldest some would have a grand ole time in ny, but my other son, who is 4, weighs about as much as a phonebook, would EASILY get blown away. and then there is my 1 year old daughter, who REALLY couldn't take it. so me and my wife, decide that we'll just stay in a motel for the night. so i took off, headed home to pack up some stuff with the kids. my wife calls me and says, my brother in law(the guy i pick on) and her dad, can't stand the thought of us being cooped in up a hotel, and to head on over to his house for the night. Bless his heart. to make matters more intresting, he calls me personally, and tells me to go ahead and bring my pc with me, so i can play my game.
so i pack it all up, head over there, and shortly there after my wife arrives. not to be disuaded, she calls consumers energy hoping for a miracle. we didn't have bad arrangements, but 3 kids and 4 adults in a singlewide mobile home is going to be a bit cramped. To our surprise, we get ahold of the power company, and they say the power will be restored tonight(sunday) by 9pm! SWEET! so we head out to dinner, get back, pack up our stuff, and head the 2 hour drive(normally 45 minutes) drive back home in the weather. we arrive about 9:30, to a dark landscape. NO POWER! furious and frustrated after the trek, we call the power company, and now its been pushed back to 10am monday for restoration. so we turn around, and head back to her dad & brother home. tired and whooped, we crash for the night.
Wake up the next morning, check consumers energy, after all, they frumped us once before, and its still 10am. 9am, we pack up, and head back home. no power. its now been pushed back until noon again. furious, we head over to the neighbors house. since we moved in, we have spoken to them twice. the kind hearted folks had a generator running, and took our cell phone number, and offered to call us once power had been restored.
Once again, we head back out. the house is now 36 degrees. all we can do is kill some time, visit my grandfather, and head about our business waiting my wife has other plans. she calls the power company and just lays into them about this whole deal with them waiting until the last minute to update the status. we realize they are booked, but its gotta end somewhere right? As she is yelling at the lady, she stops my wife, and says "WAIT! the power is back on, 11:08 am! 3 minutes ago they fixed it!"
not to be fooled, we called our neighbor, who takes the time to unhook his generator, only to find out, THEY LIED! no power! we call back, and are unable to get a rep, but now the time has been updated to 11:00PM.
So we go back home, pack up our christmas presents, and anything else we'll need for the night, and head to town to kill a few hours before checking into a motel. What a christmas this will be. my wife is in tears, as she REALLY wanted to spend christmas at home. we head to the hotel, get ready to check in, when our nieghbor calls. the power is finally on. because my brother in law was such a help, we headed to UPS and pleaded for the package we had waiting for him, a REALLY last minute christmas present from Newegg, a shiney new video card, so he could have as good a day as he can since he helped us out so much. ups was kind enough to call the driver, had him meet us(since we couldn't make the original pickup), and got the package! 4pm, and we rush back home.
crank the heat up, and nestle into our beds for a nice night's sleep, and a wonderful christmas day. we returned the favor to my brother in law and father, but helping them put together the new computer desk he got, the new monitor, and the new video card i got for him.
The holidays are a time when family and friends can come together to make the best of things. My christmas that started out looking very bleek was redeemed by the kindness of my friends and family. I hope you all had a good one too, spending time with those near and dear to you. and remember the the meaning of chistmas, Giving without the want to recieve, as thats what our Lord Christ did for us.
I hope you all had a merry christmas, and to yours and all i wish a happy new year.
Many of you know, and several who will not be named, that i was looking forward to COD4 for about 3 weeks now. finally the day came, and saturday at my christmas party, amidst the presents at the family christmas, was my box calling for me. My sister was kind enough to get it for me for christmas, and my oh my how giddy i was. the nioght drew to a close, and we all parted our seperate ways.
I flew home opened up my box o' death, plunked it in, and installed away. whilst installing, Good ole Cain popped called me up and said "Hey! you got the game! congrats! finally! Let me give you the ole walkthrough, and a quick tour!" so i fired it up, and me and Cain went on a sight seeing tour. gotta love the christmas map i said, and of course Cain, the vengful guy he is(for all the steve martin & old guy comments" motioned me closer, and SHANK! gutted me on the spot! Not to be disuaded, I come back guns a blazing, and Bonk! dropped Cain Dead! but hah! he has the last laugh. kicked by punkbuster i recieve for my dubious efforts. between the 2 of us, and for about an hour we tracked down the PB problem, got it squared away, knifed eachother a bit more, and he sent me on my way, into the wild deadly world of COD4. i played for about an hour with the rest of you all, before calling it a night.
As some of you know, i tend to play VERY early on sunday mornings in the winter, as i usually take my wife to work at 4 am(she's panick stricken about driving in the snow due to some bad incidents) and this morning was unlike any other in the last few years. Hurricane class winds, steady at around 75mph and a nasty snowstorm brewing followed me to her work and right back home, and hammered west michigan. being out in the styx amplifies this issue a bit. so finally i complete my trip, get back home, settle down in my nice comfy chair, and prepare for some serious fragging, after 2.5 hours of driving to complete a trip normally taking about 50 minutes.
No sooner than the connecting to server message appears, do i hear the Faint sound of static, and i get the message, connection interrupted. checking the tv's and phone in the house, my worst fears have come true. i FINALLY get the game and POOF! the weather has taken out the cable lines! DRAT! so i proceed to wait an hour to see if it comes back. i pick up my cell phone, call my wife to to let her know. the first words out of her mouth are "Have you lost power yet?" "no" i answer, " not ye..." and pop. out goes the power... "yep, i have now." curses. with a storm this nasty, this isn't oing to be pretty. so i called consumers energy, and the phone line for emergencies is BUSY! busy! what does the mesasge say? " Please go to our website, and report the power outage & emergency" WTH! how am i supposed to go on the internet without power or internet ability? DUH! Think here guys!
so i decided to head out to her work for breakfast with the kids(she works at burger king), pack th kids up, in the dark, get them in the car, and start on my not so merry way. shortly after turning out my drive, i notice the problem a tree has fallen and severed the lines about 1/2 mile from my house. its laying in the snow. arcing madly. so i call the power company again. this time i get a person. what does she say? we'll get someone out there Tomorrow(monday) around noon, to get that fixed.
Great. Just great. i get my game, and now i can't play. more importantly, i got to find somewhere to go for the night with the kids. i can stand the cold, but my kids can't. not to mention nothing constructive for them to do in a nasty snow storm. my eldest some would have a grand ole time in ny, but my other son, who is 4, weighs about as much as a phonebook, would EASILY get blown away. and then there is my 1 year old daughter, who REALLY couldn't take it. so me and my wife, decide that we'll just stay in a motel for the night. so i took off, headed home to pack up some stuff with the kids. my wife calls me and says, my brother in law(the guy i pick on) and her dad, can't stand the thought of us being cooped in up a hotel, and to head on over to his house for the night. Bless his heart. to make matters more intresting, he calls me personally, and tells me to go ahead and bring my pc with me, so i can play my game.
so i pack it all up, head over there, and shortly there after my wife arrives. not to be disuaded, she calls consumers energy hoping for a miracle. we didn't have bad arrangements, but 3 kids and 4 adults in a singlewide mobile home is going to be a bit cramped. To our surprise, we get ahold of the power company, and they say the power will be restored tonight(sunday) by 9pm! SWEET! so we head out to dinner, get back, pack up our stuff, and head the 2 hour drive(normally 45 minutes) drive back home in the weather. we arrive about 9:30, to a dark landscape. NO POWER! furious and frustrated after the trek, we call the power company, and now its been pushed back to 10am monday for restoration. so we turn around, and head back to her dad & brother home. tired and whooped, we crash for the night.
Wake up the next morning, check consumers energy, after all, they frumped us once before, and its still 10am. 9am, we pack up, and head back home. no power. its now been pushed back until noon again. furious, we head over to the neighbors house. since we moved in, we have spoken to them twice. the kind hearted folks had a generator running, and took our cell phone number, and offered to call us once power had been restored.
Once again, we head back out. the house is now 36 degrees. all we can do is kill some time, visit my grandfather, and head about our business waiting my wife has other plans. she calls the power company and just lays into them about this whole deal with them waiting until the last minute to update the status. we realize they are booked, but its gotta end somewhere right? As she is yelling at the lady, she stops my wife, and says "WAIT! the power is back on, 11:08 am! 3 minutes ago they fixed it!"
not to be fooled, we called our neighbor, who takes the time to unhook his generator, only to find out, THEY LIED! no power! we call back, and are unable to get a rep, but now the time has been updated to 11:00PM.
So we go back home, pack up our christmas presents, and anything else we'll need for the night, and head to town to kill a few hours before checking into a motel. What a christmas this will be. my wife is in tears, as she REALLY wanted to spend christmas at home. we head to the hotel, get ready to check in, when our nieghbor calls. the power is finally on. because my brother in law was such a help, we headed to UPS and pleaded for the package we had waiting for him, a REALLY last minute christmas present from Newegg, a shiney new video card, so he could have as good a day as he can since he helped us out so much. ups was kind enough to call the driver, had him meet us(since we couldn't make the original pickup), and got the package! 4pm, and we rush back home.
crank the heat up, and nestle into our beds for a nice night's sleep, and a wonderful christmas day. we returned the favor to my brother in law and father, but helping them put together the new computer desk he got, the new monitor, and the new video card i got for him.
The holidays are a time when family and friends can come together to make the best of things. My christmas that started out looking very bleek was redeemed by the kindness of my friends and family. I hope you all had a good one too, spending time with those near and dear to you. and remember the the meaning of chistmas, Giving without the want to recieve, as thats what our Lord Christ did for us.
I hope you all had a merry christmas, and to yours and all i wish a happy new year.
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