Back Online

It has been a little bit longer than usual between posts, and that is because the Winn home has been without the Internet until just recently. You see, when we moved to Delaware for the summer Jarom cancelled the internet and cable, figuring it wouldn’t be used much while we were gone. When he finished his lonely drive from the north a few weeks ago, the first thing he did was sit down to have some dinner and watch Sportscenter. It took him a few minutes before he realized that the cable had never been disconnected, and that they were now the recipients of the coveted Free Cable. His next discovery was that several new people had moved into the apartment complex and had wireless networks that had not been password protected, allowing accessing to Free Cable’s cousin, Free Internet. Unfortunately, the universe will only allow a certain amount of freeloading, and Jarom and Alixa pretty much used up their lifetime quota over the summer at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. One by one the wireless networks became secured, until there was no more Internet. No more blogging, no more checking email, no more playing Settlers of Catan online. This was unacceptable. So a trip was made over to Knology, the local cable company. When Jarom had cancelled the services for the summer he had been wise enough to obtain a written promise from the company that he would not be required to pay the installation fee upon his return. He had saved this receipt, wisely anticipating that they would try and get an installation fee out of him when he came back. He was correct in that assumption. Due to some “problems with the system” in the branch office, Jarom had to call Knology’s customer support number to set up a time to have the already existing cable service re-installed. When told that he would be required to pay the installation fee and first month at the time of the appointment, Jarom explained to the rep why he did not have to pay the fee. She told him that she was not authorized to remove the fee. He asked if he could speak to whoever would be able to remove the fee. She responded, “You mean someone like me?” I guess the hiring standards aren’t real strict over there. After some haggling, he was able to get the girl’s manager on the line, who explained to him that they would need some sort of documentation to prove that a promise had been made. Fortunately, Jarom had just such a document. Unfortunately, the manager then told him that his document was no good because Knology had failed to keep a record of it on their own system. At this point Jarom got feisty and was rude to her, much to Alixa’s delight. In the end, the cable was left alone and a modem was dropped off, with no installation fee, and now we can all play Settlers of Catan online again.



Internet has not been the only thing that didn’t go smoothly this week. Jarom celebrated his 28th birthday, and only got one non-return phone call of congratulations, from his favorite sister Jolene. This did not bother Jarom, in part because he received about 45 facebook birthday wishes, but Alixa had her feelings hurt on his behalf. She is very sensitive. Perhaps as a result of this show of unlove, Jarom caught a cold for the first time in Alixa’s memory. He has spent the last week blowing his nose 62 times a day, and is excited to be almost done with it. He did get a great birthday present from his parents, a brand new driver. According to JD, he is now a real golfer.





Some of you may recall that right before leaving in May, the ward boundaries here got changed up a bit and it became known that we were in the wrong ward. Now that we are back, Jarom spoke with the bishop and made a formal request to be allowed to stay in the ward that we know until December, when we will be headed to _________. The bishop said that he would love to have us, but that the Stake President was being pretty hard-nosed and he would have to run it by him. Yesterday word was received that no exceptions were to be made. This will be a serious test of the Winn’s faith. Alixa is especially upset by the news, and holds some significant ill will towards our local ecclesiastical leaders.



As for Jenna, she is growing plenty fast and more of a real person every day. She tries very had to talk, and makes a wide variety of squeaking, squawking, velociraptor noises. She can stand up pretty well, is starting to roll over, and smiles a ton. She still spits up more than we would like, and had one particularly bad day this week where she ruined about 4 consecutive outfits of her mom’s. But we all love her anyway and enjoy watching her personality develop. Jarom and Alixa have begun to talk for her, which is strange to listen to. And for some reason whenever Jarom does it he uses the voice of the Quizno’s rats, which as an aside is one of the best commercials of all time.