What some of us go through just to watch some television:

Wednesday night I was sitting at the computer, was probably in chat, and was watching the Cubs game on the little tv next to me. About 10:30pm I think, I got off the computer to watch the rest of the game on the living room tv. I got comfy (with my right knee elevated and a cold compress on it), and watched the last three innings of baseball.

When the game was over, I was flipping through channels, when the picture and sound started going in and out. Eventually, it went out completely, and I was left with a black screen and a blue box asking me to be patient that the channel would come back shortly. It never did. Not on any channel. Since we were having some thunderstorms pass by, I chalked it up to the storms, turned the tv off and went to bed.

Thursday night, I was again at the computer, in chat, and watching the Cubs game. I was going to go to bed early so I could go in to work early on Friday morning, so about 10pm, I got off the computer. My plan was to listen to a little more of the baseball game from the tv in the living room while I got ready for bed. But, when I turned on the tv, I still had no picture or sound. Grrrrrr.

I picked up the phone to call Comcast. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the number on my acct, and waited, and waited and waited, and waited some more. I hung up to re-try it. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the number on my acct, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited again. Grrrrrr.

I hung up and mumbled to myself that I would do it differently next time. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 2 that I was not calling from the number on my acct. I entered my phone number, and waited and waited, and FINALLY got through to be on hold. Whew! Since I figured I would be on hold for several minutes I got the cold compress, situated myself nice and comfy on the love seat, with the phone wedged against my ear next to the pillow. I closed my eyes and waited. After about 15 minutes, I heard a ring, and thought I would be connected to a live person.

Nope! It took me back to the beginning where I had to press 1 for English, press 1 for an exisiting customer, and press 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the one on the acct. Since I knew I'd now be on hold AGAIN, I got comfy AGAIN with the phone wedged up to my ear and relaxed for more waiting. I almost fell asleep waiting for a live person. It was only another 20 minutes, but I was tired and wanted to go to bed, lol. I finally got through to someone, explained my problem, and set up an appointment for a technician to come out today between 1 and 4pm. I would have preferred Saturday, since I'm usually not home on Sunday, but I didn't want to wait until Monday and be forced to take time off work.

Fortunately, my aunt was understanding, and since there was no new movie to see this weekend, all I needed to do was go out to vacuum and mop her floors for her. She and I also cleaned up some birdseed that had spilled in her garage and was attracting ants, and I ran a couple errands. One was to Farm & Fleet to buy some birdseed for myself. They had 20lb bags on sale for $4.99, and while there I picked up a new finch feeder for her, to match the copper-topped regular feeder I got her for Mother's Day. Then I went to Wal Mart to get her some Rocky Road ice cream she was craving, and some sourdough hard pretzels that she wanted.

So this morning I was reading emails at about 11:30am, and the door buzzes. The technician was 90 minutes early. I scrambled into jeans and a t-shirt and let him in. He determined my cable box was bad, went outside to get another one, brough it in, hooked it up, and still nothing. That one was bad too? He unhooked my vcr and connected the cable box directly to the tv, still nothing. Going back outside, he brings in ANOTHER cable box, a different model with no time/channel display, hooked it up and VOILA! I have picture and sound now!

However, he didn't re-connect what he disconnected, and I didn't watch closely enough to what he was doing to be able to re-connect it myself, so I had to call Comcast back to have him come back and hook it back up the way he found it. They gave me a hard time about it, saying they don't normally hook back up third party equipment they might disconnect during a service call, which I think is a load of crap. He did come back an hour or so later, hook it back up and everything works fine now.

The only thing left I haven't had a problem with is my phone, so that's probably next month! Calgon, take me away!