Life without cable

Well, I have to say that there really has not been a lot going on in the Stephenson household. Jonathan and I are still working hard and doing well. We did have a wonderful week and a half without cable or internet though. Hang on, this get's long! I woke up one morning and Jonathan had already gone and, as usual, turned the news on as I was getting ready for work. Well, nothing happened when I turned the TV on. So I went to the computer (next closest access) and no internet. Thought this was odd, but figured that there was an outage in our area. Came home for lunch, yes, I live close enough to work that I can come home for lunch, and it was still dead. So I called our provider and they said they would send someone out the next day. I wait...He finally shows up, but doesn't know how to do anything because he is brand new. Can't find the problem and says he will have someone else come out the next day. I ask when? He says they will call in the morning. Well, anyone who knows me, knows that I am proactive. I called first thing the next morning. Oh...they didn't know that someone was supposed to come out. The first guy hadn't put in any ticket to have someone else come out. So the second person out finds the problem: our neighbors new puppy had dug up and chewed through the line. Eureka!!! The person gave me the ticket number to have the line repaired and said it should be 24 to 48 hours. Well...6 days later they finally show up, and yes, we called everyday a few times a day to harrass them. Well, the guy fixes the line, buries the line and says that all is good. Problem - I still don't have cable. Well, the guy who fixes the line isn't allowed in customers homes, that has to be someone else. So, on the phone again. They say they can have someone out the next day. Again, I wait... The guy shows up and fixes the problem. We have cable, or at least we thought we did, 24 hours later, we lost cable again. I look over the fence and you guessed it, the puppy had dug up the line and chewed through it, AGAIN! Well, thankfully the line guy that had come out a couple of days before gave us his card. So I called him. He was out of the city, but gave me his supervisors number. I called the supervisor and bingo, what took us six days before was fixed the same day. Then I proceeded to a local hardware store and purchased fencing supplies and installed a chickenwire fence around the buried cable line for my neighbors to keep the puppy out... at least for a little while. AH the joys of internet and quality cable tv again.