The Cable Guy

We have two cable companies from which we can choose. I decided to go with Comcast, which has On Demand, which means I can decide to watch a movie and don't have to wait for it to come on. It's a dumb reason, since I don't watch TV, but hey, at least I made a decision. They cost more than the other one. The other one is more of a new, upstart company. I had them for the last 5 years or so in the old house.

I figured new house, new cable company. The condos are pre-wired and they imply that only Comcast could be used. So, someone gets a kickback. Who cares?

I called for preliminary info. I priced out the plans and asked how long I would have to wait for service. She said 1-2 days is normal. I thought about it for a couple of days, and tried to call on a Sunday night before midnight. I hung up on Monday morning at 1:20 am, having reached not one human. During that time, I read part of a book, took the dogs out, went to the bathroom, played on the computer using my borrowed signal, and generally did a little housekeeping.

Monday morning I tried again and got a human without even getting 1 minute of voice mail, let alone over 100 minutes. She scheduled me on Friday. I said that wasn't one or two days. She agreed, but said that was the best she could do. I accepted it.

Friday between 12-3 pm. Now, doesn't that just cut up a day? I stayed home all morning, in case they called. This makes no sense since I have only a cell phone. I was hoping he might come early. No. He showed up about 2:50 pm.

He was a big guy with a very heavy southern accent. If I find out which state, I will ship him back home myself.

He came in, with dirty boots, and proceeded to check out my cable access. I repeated to him, as I had to the lady on the phone, that my home is pre-wired. I showed him the access points. He disagreed with me. I should have made him leave then, as I wanted to do.

Noooo, I let him go into my basement. He swore there was no main wire down there. He then rewired me, putting a line all across my back lawn. The lawn service is NOT going to be happy on Thursday. They probably won't even cut my lawn. He went into my attic in my garage. He then asked to go in the attic in my bedroom closet.

He decided that it was too hot in the attic for him and that someone would have to come back and do it during a morning. I repeated to him, for maybe the 10th time, that my condo is pre-wired for cable. He disagreed again. He scheduled me for the 12th of August to be hooked up. I told him I am starting a new class on the 8th where I have to teach computers, and I need a hook up before then, since almost a week had already passed. He took his toys and left.

I thought he did, anyway. I chased him out into the driveway and asked him to replace the cover to the attic in my closet. It's about 9 feet up. Did he expect me to reach up there and do it? I had already told him I don't have a ladder here. Too bad I didn't look DOWN first.

After he was gone, I went to get changed to go out. I found insulation all over the floor in my closet. I had already vacuumed the whole condo, and my shoulder was not happy with me. I bit my tongue and vacuumed the closet, after carrying the vacuum from the laundry room.

Then I went to grab the clothes, and found insulation all over my dry clean clothes that I used to wear for work. All my nice things, full of that crap. I brushed it off the best I could, since I didn't have much time, and of course it went on the floor again. I left it there.

What next? The guy called and asked me if he left his toys here. I said I had no idea, where might they be? He said in the spare bedroom in a corner some place. Sure enough, he did. I told him I would leave them on the porch.

Today I got a call back from the condo people. I am pre-wired. All the necessary wires were right there in the living room, where I showed him.