Somewhere in the back of my mind, Independence Day, July 4th marks the height of the summer and everything on the backside is downhill toward autumn. I can almost bet money that kids feel that way because school starts the middle of August these day. “Back in the day”, school didn’t begins it’s new year until after Labor Day, the first Monday of September. Of course, we also didn’t get out for summer break until the end of the first week of June either. Yet, even back then, after the 4th of July, it was called “the dog’s days of summer”. A laid-back period while everyone waited for autumn.
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David Cosand
@ https://www.flickr.com/photos/dcosand/
Cable – Will It Ever Be Right?
Last weekend our Internet and phone stopped working. Thank God for cell phones. Hubby called the cable company and got an appointment for a field representative to come out and see what was up.
When the truck arrived on Tuesday afternoon, the cable guy checked the line out in front that started high on the telephone pole. Yes, we still have those ugly poles and wires here. He, then, went to the backyard and checked the cable that was buried a few months ago.
Another cable truck pulled up behind the first one. I guess there was a lot of chatter going on because no one was getting out of the second truck.
A cable van pulled into our gravel driveway. Are we going to blow up or something? What’s with all the vehicles? This cable guy made it to our front door to ring the bell. Whoopee, a real person! I let him in.
He said, “We don’t know what’s wrong so we’re doing to redo the entire cable system here.”
And he and the other cable guys did just that. They spent three hours in the humid summer sun and under the house with all the spiders reworking all the cable and splices. When the cable guy from the van came back to our front door, he was a sweaty, dirty mess. His once pretty blonde hair was sticking to his head and the sweat was rolling down the sides of his face.
After they left, I went to the deck door in back to feed our “outside kitties”. I noticed a large orange hose going along our grass (which is in serious need of being mowed) stretching from one end of the house almost to the other end. I didn’t think much of it at the time because we do have an orange hose. I was a little curious as to why Hubby would leave it out to burn the grass though. When he came home a little after twelve midnight (second shift is weird), I asked him about it. He told me is wasn’t the hose. It was the cable.
WHAT?! I thought they had finished the job. What in the hell?
Hubby said, “They have the burying of the cable contracted out. It’ll be done.”
Okay, it’ll be done. When, I don’t know but it will be done is what I’m told. I have an impossible time accepting secondhand information — even from Hubby. When I see a cable pickup truck pull into our driveway on Thursday, my first thought is that the cable’s going to be buried. Nope, the guy just sat there in his truck looking at a clipboard. I finally opened the front door because — well, you know. He doesn’t even acknowledge that I was there, put the clipboard down, drove backward out of the driveway, and vanished around the bend of our long curvy street.
Okay, that did it. I NEED to know what the #%&@ is going on. I called the cable company. I got the animated voice system, of course. I told the stupid computer I wanted to talk to a representative. Believe it or not, it switched me over to one. The world has come to an end — really.
The rep. don’t know why the guy pulled into my driveway and was there so long. However, she did know that the cable is being buried on July 23rd.
Last Week’s Capers
- Exercise: Still only 3 sessions on the stationary bike. No excuses. Just forgot.
- Reading: Black Cross is a pretty good book so far. I haven’t started Hacking the Billionaire because I’m a beta reader for an online friend. She finished her second episode of a science fiction series so I’m reading that.
- Emotional Health: I’ve come to a place where the only time I’m actually in a good mood is when I’m writing. I know this isn’t what is considered normal but I wonder how many other writers feel this way. Does getting outside help this at all?
- WIP: Got 5887 words down this week, 44,877 for the entire story. I’m over the halfway mark for my projected word count for the book.
This Next Week’s Antics
- Exercise: Try to get on that bike four times. And I really have to make more of an effort.
- Reading: Keep on reading both Black Cross and the second episode of the science fiction series.
- Emotional Health: I have to stop letting the weather have such a determination on my time outside. I really do think more fresh air may help.
- WIP: Winter Bayne has lent me another book on the craft of writing. This one talks about creating better settings. Right now, my skill with this is waning so I’m glad she’s willing to share. I wonder if I’m ready to up the count. Not a lot, mind you, just to say a solid 1500 words per day. The most I’ve had yet is a little over 1400 so it really wouldn’t be a big jump.
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How are you spending this next week?
If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtis flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy’s trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one…he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.- Honore de Balzac
A Scripted Maze 
From what I read, cable is losing to internet TV/shows/etc. Why worry about cable lines if we can get the same shows via the internet? Your experience is exactly why: It’s ridiculous they let you go an entire weekend into the next week without internet/cable. If you can do that, how relevant are they?
OK, I’m done. I hope you report on the 23rd it is all fixed.
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The only problem is, is that in order to have Internet, you must have an Internet Provider. The local telephone company in this area is awful, and that’s the nice way to put it. We’ve been through the satellite thing. They have to go through the local telephone company, plus every time there’s heavy cloud cover there isn’t a signal.
There isn’t any perfect answer, Jacqui. At least this cable company has a field rep. here at the scheduled time.
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I hope that between now and the 23rd, the local squirrels don’t decide that orange would be a nice color for their addition to the next. I think that any time a problem is a little difficult, the system breaks down quickly. I also skipped too many days on the exercise bike, but I did do some heavy yard work. I’m hoping exercise is a mix & match kind of thing.
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I hadn’t thought about the squirrels. We do have some around but they’re leery about coming into our yard. We have 3 grown cats and 3 kittens out there. They’re strays/ feral but we feed them. In exchange, they keep the population of rodents down.
I wish I could do some other form of exercise. The stationary bike is about it for me.
Keep those weeds out of your yard! 😛
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We have had feral cats but a fox took care of them. I’m kind of hoping the fox is gone or these bunnies won’t be here for long. Exercise is hard to keep up with no matter what you do. I comment on that because I feel your frustration. Maybe it will get my butt up on that bike.
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Judging from what you put in your posts at you blog, you’re getting exercise often (all those doors). Don’t be too hard on yourself, Dan.
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Ugh, Internet and home phone outages. That sounds terribly annoying and I’m sure it’s a bit noisy when they dig up the cables. I find that a lot of the times those reps are annoying – beating around the bush and don’t give you a direct answer as to what’s wrong with your connection. It either works or if it doesn’t and if it doesn’t, excuses galore. Congrats on achieving so much with your writing. Coming along nicely 🙂
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Thanks for the support, Mabel. The field reps. we’ve had so far, except for one, have been pretty wonderful trying to fix the problems and letting us know what’s up. But the one bad apple was annoying. He even went so far as to try to blame one of the other reps.
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Sorry about your phone and internet issues. Nowadays, we rely heavily on the internet and when it goes down, things can get chaotic. Yes, thank goodness for cell phones when the home phone is down. Congrats on your progress!
Enjoy the balance of your week!
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Thanks for the ‘high five’ Elaine. I don’t think it would have bothered me at all to not have the internet if I had a decent dictionary and thesaurus. As it is, I use the ones online. As for the phone — I’m one of those people who cuss every time it rings. Now thinking about it, if I had the transportation, I could probably get a lot of writing done in a library. If I ever do get my own vehicle again, that’s what I’m going to do.
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