Good old insomnia... it's baaaaack. (Grrrr... *$&@#!!!)

So as I sit here listening to the neighborhood birds waking up, I figured I'd do something constructive, like post. ;o)

The roof is done. Thank GOODNESS. Thursday afternoon's "Is 8 AM tomorrow too early? We only have a little left to do, it should take about an hour" observation from the roofer became a "begin at 9:30 AM, finish shortly before 3 PM" event. Eeeee... but at least it's DONE.

All but the paying, that is. He forgot to bring the receipt book, and the receipt states the guarantee for how long the roof will last on it. Long story less long: he or his brother will stop by here today, pick up the payment, and provide us with a receipt.

In other news, the freaking cable box in our living room went kaput yesterday morning. It's utterly dead -- it won't power on for the remote control OR manually via the ON button on the device itself. Mark disconnected the TV, cable box, and DVD/VCR from one another. The plan was that once the roofer was done, I'd head to Comcast and exchange the nonfunctional cable box for a new one.

Sounds uncomplicated, doesn't it? So of course, you KNOW that's not how things are going to work out. I called Comcast to make sure that I'd be able to get a replacement cable box, and the tech on the phone wanted me to try "a few things" to make sure that the box was actually broken. I suppose he wanted to be certain that it's not pinin' for the fjords like the Monty Python dead parrot.

Well, I couldn't have followed the tech's instructions without reconnecting all the pieces of equipment. I thanked him and said that I'd have to call back later, that I was primarily checking to make sure that I COULD exchange the broken device if I brought it in. Moreover, I already KNOW that this thing is dead -- it won't even power on. It's dead, it's shuffled off this mortal coil, it's run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible. THIS IS AN EX-CABLE BOX.

Oops. Got a little carried away, there. At any rate, the roofer left SO much later than I'd expected, that Mark and I decided to just BRING the box in this afternoon. No more calls to the techs, no more unexpected troubleshooting advice, no need to hook anything back up only to disconnect it all again, etc.

Now I'm going to try and get some sleep before *I* join the Choir Invisible. I hate it when I'm weary but not sleepy. Good night. Or good morning. Take your pick. ;o)