Adventures in Lawn Maintenance

I thought I might have a story to tell today and I was right.  I decided last summer to get an in-ground sprinkler system installed in my yard.  This way I know my flowers will get enough water and I can start to work on making my grass look better.  It did not come out of last year's draught in good shape at all.  I'd hoped it would come back this year, but it did not.

So today was the big day my system was set to be installed.  My dad as usual was acting as construction supervisor.  They were originally supposed to come in the afternoon and be finished around 5pm, but the company called on Monday and asked to start in the morning.  They'd send a technician back at 3pm when I got home from work to run through the control box with me.  I'm thinking, how hard can this box be?  And I think I can figure out the instruction book, but whatever.  My dad wanted me there for the box run-through.

There I am at work, frantically running around, trying to do six million things that managed to pile up on my desk, and the phone rings.  I never like it when the first thing I hear is, "The good news is...."  Okay, so what's the bad news.

Despite the fact that all the utility lines going into the house were marked, the guy managed to sever the cable and phone lines.  Apparently, he got just a little too close.  When my dad reported in, he'd already called the cable company and they couldn't come out until Wednesday--before 1pm they promised.  That means no baseball on while I write!  That means no e-mail or internet!  He'd taken out the primary (cable) and back up (phone line for dial up) internet systems.

I didn't expect to still see the guys there working when I got home, but they weren't quite done yet.  And they patched up the break with tape so that I can have cable until Comcast can get out here and repair the line.  The phone guy showed up around 4:30 and that's fixed.

So I am online and I do have baseball (even though the Cubs are losing as I write this), but the patch slipped once before the crew left, so the possibility is still there that I could lose it again. The guy said he only misjudges and cuts a line about once a year.  Gee, great, it's my house that gets the yearly boo-boo.

I hope I love the sprinkler system after all this.

Life Gets Back to Semi-Normal

Or Adventures in Calling the Cable Company.

Things are on hold with my dad right now--at least until his doctor's appointment on Friday. We'll know more then about when he has surgery. In the meantime, things have returned to how they were before he went into the hospital--except, of course, we all know nothing is normal.

So let's talk about the cable company. I ordered the Major League Baseball package so I could watch more games. (I love to write with a game playing and there just isn't enough baseball on television any more.) The other day, though, after their free trial ended, I go to turn on the Cubs game and I get a "Not Authorized" message. Thinking that the rep I'd talked to had done set it up wrong, I talked to another sales rep and he assured me that everything was fine--and oh, yeah, I'd been double charged for the package. I'll have to talk to a tech, he tells me, but he fixed the double billing.

The woman gets on the phone and tells me that all of MLB is down and that they're working on it. No clue when it'll be taken care of, but I should just wait.

Eight hours later, I was still waiting. I called again.

This guy says he'll reset my box because I shouldn't be having any problems. Apparently he had no idea that MLB had ever been down and it made me wonder if the woman was just making things up. Anyway, he starts the reset process and puts me on hold. While he's away, the box shuts off and comes back on and I have baseball! When he comes back on the line, I tell him everything's great, thanks and hang up.

Little did I know what was lurking just minutes away....

Before I can lift the remote to figure out which game I want to watch, the cable box shuts itself off again. When it returns, I can only get channels 13 and 906! I call the cable company back.

The guy tells me I'll have to get a new box. I'm like, huh? It was working fine a few minutes ago. Nope, I have to exchange it for a new box. He can't reset it again because that will damage the box worse than it already is--although I don't know how it gets worse than only 2 channels being accessible. I'm like, but, but I'll have to move the entertainment center again. Ah, gee, and all the pictures on top of the entertainment center. I'll have to call back to get the new box activated. Ugh!

His response? Yeah, too bad, sorry. Grrr.

Not quite ready to accept that response, I turned the cable box off again, gave it a minute, and then turned it back on. This time it said the guide was loading. This was an improvement. I wait, and lo and behold, everything is working again and I have baseball!

My final fall back would have been unplugging the cable box for a short time and then plugging it back in again, but it didn't go that far.