Twe'n'sday All Day!

My Monday ended about 7:30 Tuesday morning as usual.  It was when Tuesday got rolling and picked up steam that it barreled headlong into Wednesday.  Thus creating that rare phenomenon known as "Twe'n'sday".  And oh what a day it was!  It began when I again ran up against legislative and corporate bullshit thanks to those charming Assholes in Austin (laughingly called the Texas legislature)!

You see they, in league with the insurance companies got SNB1657 passed and signed into law by Governor Fuckhead.  SB1657 states that if your car insurance company is not domiciled in Texas (their home office) then the insurance companies could add a surcharge to the premium.  In addition, SB1657 allowed an across the board rate hike which all companies doing business in TX did.  The result, my invoice for the last 6 months was $497.  This time the invoice was for $732.80, a difference of some $235.80.  The form I need to sign and return was included with the invoice and included the following at the bottom of page 1:

 Therefore I went to the website, initialed and signed the form electronically according to their instructions, then saved a copy for my records.  This was about a month ago now.  I then awaited an adjusted bill.  It never arrived and the rate was not adjusted on the website.  So I called up my agent last Monday (a week ago) and asked him to see what was up.  He called back and said they could not find the form I signed in their records.  I retrieved my copy of the form from My Documents, attached to an email to my agent who then printed and faxed the document to the insurance company.

The insurance company came back with "well that's not the form we need".  The insurance company then faxed the form needed to my agent.  I had to drive last Wednesday almost out of Tarrant Count to my agent .  His office is out by Eagle Mountain Lake about 17 miles from my place.  I then initialed and signed the very same document that I had signed electronically 3 weeks before.  All of the sudden, that was what they needed because it was a fax of an original signature not an electronic representation.  Go fucking figure!  Anyway, the website was supposed to be fixed by the next day.  They promised the same thing the next day, and the day after that.

Yesterday when I checked the website, it was still not fixed or updated.  I was livid as my insurance expires on Thursday and I needed to pay the premium but I still did not know what it was.  So I told my agent either I have a price by noon or I would cancel their policy on expiration and take my business to a company that actually does what they say they will.  Miraculously within the hour I had a price.  It still went up 15 dollars but not 35 dollars a month thanks to that rate hike their buddies allowed them after a session of whiskey and cigars (maybe even hookers, oh my!) in the backrooms of Austin.  I then told my agent to shop around and ind what else was out there and get back to me by end of day, which he did .  I stayed with my current company for one last renewal with the proviso that this was the last policy I would ever buy from them and my agent will find me a better company for my next renewal. Mission accomplished after a shit tun of heartache and hysteria on my part in the last month.

On to the next project which to affect the purchase of a new bed.  Will and I share a one bedroom apartment, each with our separate spaces, although my space is the more public of the two.  I had gotten rid of my old couch due to a few problems with it, and replaced it with a series of air beds.  One new one every few months or so.  I have been looking for a solution to my bedding crises  and had decided to go the daybed route.  I had spent some time shopping both physically and on line and had decided which bed I wanted and the price I wanted to pay.  This is the bed I wanted:

I did not particularly want that bedding set however, it was just a little too pink for me.  This is the set I found on Amazon and ordered today:

That is more to my liking than the one in the illustration for the bed itself, and it goes with our current color scheme.  Win!!  All that remained was the purchase of the bed.  I had shopped and compared and this one store had everyone beat as far as price and terms were concerned.  Their website lists two versions of this bed with a $100 difference in price.  The more costly one has a platform trundle that rolls underneath and which I did not need.  They wanted to charge me for the trundle even though I did not need it as in the description it said the bed comes with the spring  platform for the lesser price without a trundle.  The man said the website was wrong.  I said 'not my fault', if the bed does not come with the platform at the price quoted, I do not want it.  That's false advertising if you don't sell it to me at the advertised price.  I walked out to smoke a cig before returning to the store.  Amazingly enough they bent over backwards to kiss my ass and make sure I was happy.  The bed will be delivered next week and I paid the price that was advertised with all the parts included.

By the time all this had transpired and I had taken care of the rest of the crap I had to do it was 6:30 PM before I got in bed.  I slept so hard my alarm rang for half an hour before Will woke me up wanting to know what all that noise was.  Then I had to get up and head into truck night which is a whole 'nother story in itself.  I finally got off around 7:30 and today had been just as busy in a different way.  That is why this is posting so late.  I am tire and have to work 11 AM to 8 PM tomorrow, so I think I will try to head on to bed.  But first a little entertainment!

For Music, there is Symphony Number 4 written in 1888 by Charles Villiers Standford with a performance by the Ulster Orchestra under Vernon Handley.  Over on my tumblr, I have Standfor's Piano Concerto Number 2 in C Minor with the Ulster and Handley with Magaret Fingerhut as the Piano Soloist.  

I had a couple of eye candy collections together, a Men In Jeans and a Wet Wednesday which I combined in a Double Feast 4 Your Eyes posted down below.  Over on my tumblr, I have two Hotties of the Day! for your viewing pleasure.  There will be no post tomorrow but I will return on Friday.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Hectic Week

It has been a tremendously hectic week around the house with a seemingly endless list of chores, errands and tasks that had to be accomplished in the moment.  In addition to the crazy schedule, we have been having Internet connectivity issues with Charter.  After the second service visit this week (out of several over the last 2 months), it was determined that indeed there was a problem, and the tab that we were connected to was not receiving the proper signals and needed to be replaced.  They switched us to another tab and it is working for now, but Will will be watching the network performance like a fucking hawk and will inform Charter of any issues that crop up.  

I also found that when I did have time to write this week and I had Internet access, my motivation to do so had waned to the point of failing completely.  I guess you would say I was definitely uninspired most of the week for whatever reasons or no reason at all.  It was just plain weird that I could not complete a sentence.  Maybe it was just a case of writer's block, but nothing got written all week.  I did manage to pull together the music for one of the featured composers this week and will share that with you here today.  

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the University of Cambridge before studying music in Leipzig and Berlin. He was instrumental in raising the status of the Cambridge University Musical Society, attracting international stars to perform with it.

While still an undergraduate, Stanford was appointed organist of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1882, aged 29, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition for the rest of his life. From 1887 he was also the professor of music at Cambridge. As a teacher, Stanford was sceptical about modernism, and based his instruction chiefly on classical principles as exemplified in the music of Brahms. Among his pupils were rising composers whose fame went on to surpass his own, such as Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. As a conductor, Stanford held posts with the Bach Choir and the Leeds triennial music festival.

Stanford composed a substantial number of concert works, including seven symphonies, but his best-remembered pieces are his choral works for church performance, chiefly composed in the Anglican tradition. He was a dedicated composer of opera, but none of his nine completed operas has endured in the general repertory. Some critics regarded Stanford, together with Hubert Parry and Alexander Mackenzie, as responsible for a renaissance in music from the British Isles. However, after his conspicuous success as a composer in the last two decades of the 19th century, his music was eclipsed in the 20th century by that of Edward Elgar as well as former pupils.  Among the best known of his many pupils were Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Frank Bridge and Arthur Bliss.

I made two play lists to share with you today.  The first down below is :

Two "Irish" works by Stanford. First is his Symphony Number 3 in F Minor, Opus 28 "Irish" with a performance by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley and his Irish Rhapsody Number 4 in A minor, Opus 141 "The Fisherman of Lough Neagh" performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult.  

Over on my tumblr I have this play list:

Two Pieces, His Piano Trio Number 1 performed by the Gould Piano Trio and his Cello Concerto with a performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Nicholas Braithwaite with Cello Soloist Alexander Baillie.

Then finally it is time for some Fantasy Fuel which you will find posted down below in this week's simmering sultry edition.  Over on my tumblr, one of my favorite fantasy lovers of all time, Marlon Teixeira is your Hotti of the Day!  Thanks for5 the visit, check back over the weekend for your Sunday Morning Concert.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!