Friday Nights

Last night was the second Friday night in a row something unusual happened. Last night a little before 7:30 the electricity went off. I was watching the ALMA awards and ready to enjoy that when all of a sudden - darkness and silence. Anybody see Cheech and Chong? I wanted to see them.

I called the electric department and noticed their truck out there not long after my call. The electricity was back on in two hours but not my cable TV, cable modem, and digital phone - all Comcast subscriptions. When the representative from the electric company called to make sure my power was back on, I asked what happened. He said a tree fell on the lines and broke them.

My neighbor said that his cable wasn't working, either, but that he'd seen a Comcast truck on the street working on lines. I'd called Comcast and didn't stay on the line to talk with a real person after I heard the recorded message that they had technicians working to restore service in Dickson. So I went in the living room and read for several hours and then went to bed.

This morning the cable services still weren't working, so I called Comcast and talked to a person. She said they'd send a truck out today and have it on by afternoon. That happened around 2:45. I told the guy where the lines were down, and he was gone a little while and then came back and checked out the cable on the pole across from my house. Then he came in and told me that he wasn't equipped to work on the heavy cable and that he'd called another truck to come out and do it. About half an hour later, this really hot cable guy drove up. He was also very nice and helpful, like the other one was. He fixed the cable, so I finally had all my stuff back around 4:00. I asked him about how the signal seems to come and go at times, so he checked some things. While we were discussing why this might happen, he said squirrels chew the cable. I knew suicidal squirrels did that with phone lines, so I guess I should have figured out that they'd do it to the cable lines, too. We decided that if he invented something that squirrels wouldn't chew, he'd be rich. Squirrels have to chew or their teeth grow too long. It's a rodent thing. Tina told me that, so it's probably true.

Actually, this hasn't been too bad. I read almost an entire book and took a break from politics for a while even though I got back into it again tonight.

I learned that I need to stay on the line and talk to a person. The second technician said that they have ways of knowing when there is no service and that there were about 40 homes without it. He thought they'd taken care of all of them and that the few left without were for some other reason, so I should call. He said Comcast is really making an effort to provide good service and to keep everything working because AT&T is coming in with cable, and they know some people will switch over. I know people who will switch. I'm planning to get rid of the digital phone service from Comcast because I'm not satisfied with it. I'll be talking to someone, and all of a sudden they can't hear me. I've told people if that happens to tell me they are hanging up because I can hear them, and that I'll call them back. It's annoying.

I don't know if I'll switch to AT&T or not when they provide cable and internet. I've been with Comcast over 22 years (can't remember exactly how long but it was definitely that long - we had that little brown box) and have had a good experience with them. I'll see what AT&T has to offer. It would be good to get in on some deals since Comcast only offers good ones to new customers.

So I'm back online and watching TV! Life is back to abnormal again.

Btw, the Friday night the week before involved the police banging on my door at 10:30 at night.