" It's a Facebook Thing"

This picture was taken June 30, 2011.  It is the high line going up over Buffalo Pass.  We have never seen this much snow this late in the year!

This spring we have been having a lot of issues with our phones.  I have written about the cell phone problems in earlier posts. See There's No {lace Like Home and Update on Cell Phone Situation  but now I want to talk about our home (land line) phone. (Click on these links to read more about my cellphone woes!)

As soon as we got home in late May we noticed our phone would get a lot of static on  it while we were talking and then it would cut us off.  This is a usual problem every spring and it takes maybe a month for the repairman to find the problem and get it fixed so we are quite used to it.  We had reported it maybe 2 or 3 times so far this spring and were assured they were working on it so no big deal.

About 10 days ago, first thing in the morning, Bob picked up the phone to call our neighbors who are on the same phone line.  He got a message about no longer being in service and hung up.  He was going to try again but discovered the phone was completely dead.  This would not have been too much of a problem except we had friends coming to visit that afternoon and they needed to call us to get directions for driving out here!  As mentioned in our cell phone blogs our cell phone was useless at the cabin and our neighbor's phone wasn't working either.  Bob finally suggested I should email one of our kids or all of them and tell them to call the repair department.  That would have been good if I could be sure any of them would check their emails before the evening.  Then I hit on a great idea.  I would put out a plea on Facebook!  Someone from Walden is always online and maybe they would call for me.

I put up my status and went to do the dishes,  I decided I'd see if anyone had seen it and lo and behold There were all kind of responses!  Former students and friends were asking what company, my phone number, etc.  I posted all the info including the repair department  phone number.  I went back to my dishes and a little while later I checked again.  At least 2 people were on the phone with them and writing on Facebook telling me what to do and adding their own assessments of the situation ("the lady I'm talking to is stupid"; "The woman I'm talking to thinks it is a hoot that we are doing this on Facebook!") .  I guess the phone company received quite a few calls about my phone that day and one of the callers explained it to the lady like this:  "It's a Facebook thing!"

Not more than 15 minutes later our phone had a dial tone!  By early afternoon The phone guy called to see if we had service!  Pretty fast for our area!  And shortly after, our friends were on the phone getting directions to our cabin!  Not bad for North Park, huh? Truly, A Facebook Thing !  Footnote:  Another phone company thing; The next morning our phone was dead again!  Within the hour, without any Facebook prompting it was back in service and we have only gotten occasional static since!

Just a a quick update on the cell phone.  Jim changed our service to Verizon.  While I was in Steamboat on Monday I got a new Verizon  cellphone (a Samsung very similar to the ATT one--but of course with different technology!) .  It works!  Even at our dining room table and in many parts of the house.  It is not perfect but is so much better.  We are all much happier cell phone users now!

Here's a recipe to celebrate our Fun on Facebook days!  This is a very quick and easy recipe, but quite delicious.  I made about double the topping that the recipe calls for  and it was yummy!  This recipe comes from allrecipes.com.

Some great muffins that are really easy to make!

Banana Praline Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup chopped pecans*
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar*
• 1 tablespoon sour cream*, I didn't have sour cream so used heavy cream.  Someone else used plain yogurt.
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 small ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups packaged pancake mix, I used Quick Mix (similar to Bisquick)
• * I doubled these

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine pecans, brown sugar and sour cream; set aside. Combine egg, bananas, sugar and oil; mix well. Stir in pancake mix just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Drop 1 teaspoon of pecan mixture into center of each muffin. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until muffins test done.  I put more than 1 tsp. of pecan mixture.

Yummy, moist, muffins with a tasty crunch!