adventures of a cableguy

2008-04-16T15:02:00.002-05:00

My day today started with an install. It was a nice little apartment. I was let in by an older woman. The place was cozy with a lot of plants. There were some copies of the New Yorker lying around. I was here to install all three of our products. She already had basic TV, so the job was pretty easy. She was getting ready for work the whole time I was there. At one point she said that having the cable box was going to be great for when she watches her grandchildren.
My next job was at a house not too far away. I was met at the door by another old lady. I was here to replace a cable box with a HD/DVR. The job was easy for the most part. But the box kept giving me problems. half the channels would not show up on one tuner but all would show up on the other so I replaced it with another DVR and it all worked. She used to be a history teacher and principal. She was telling me about how she loves the John Adams miniseries and had missed the last episode, so I showed her how she could watch old episodes and she was very grateful.
My next job was at a house to the north. The place was kind of run down. The lawn was brown with some toys scattered about. The door was answered by a middle aged white man. He was having Internet problems. The line seemed to originate from the basement, but the door was locked. I asked if I could go down but he said there was nothing down there, the cable line just goes straight to the back yard. I thought I heard something move, like a rattle sound from down there but not sure. He had a pit bull in the back in a dog run that kept barking at me and there was dog shit scattered about the yard. I could barely stand the smell. I replaced a bad splitter and rearranged some things and then I left.
My next job was at a apartment building down south. I went to an apartment on the third floor. A large white man got up off the couch to greet me as I approached the apartment. He showed me his TV which wasn't getting all of it's channels. He also told me he was only installed a month ago. Everything inside the apartment looked new, but I replaced a couple things anyways. That fixed nothing so I went out to the main box. I rearranged somethings out there and when i went back to the apartment it was working so I left.
My last job of the morning was another install. This was at the apartment complex right next to my last job. The door was answered by a young man with his nails painted black. There was several large Final Fantasy posters on the wall. The guy spent the whole time I was there laying down. He said he works the night shift and was out until 4 this morning. He already had TV and Internet with us. I was just here to install phones. But he didn't really want it, it is just cheaper to have all three products together than just the two. So I swapped the modem with an EMTA and left.
I went to lunch. I don't know if I'm being paranoid, but I think I keep seeing this red Subaru station wagon following me around. But there are probably a lot of those cars around. Anyways, after lunch I went to my first job of the afternoon. This was a house in the same area as the apartment buildings. I was greeted at the door by an older woman and her very little dog that would not stop barking at me. She showed me to the bedroom where her TV was. She turned it on and there was absolutely no picture but we could hear the sound. It was obvious the problem was her TV. Even though the TV wasn't very old. I told her it was the TV and left.
The next job was an install a little to the south at an apartment complex, which turned out to be not at home. So I picked up a disconnect, at a house a little to the north. It looks like we are a little short on work. I just got a call to go back to that house, where the guy wouldn't let me in the basement. Apparently he is still having Internet issues.

2008-04-15T09:31:00.002-05:00

I started my morning by going to the shop. After picking up the equipment I needed I headed to plasticland. I was there to do an install. It was for all three of our products. There was a woman here with her daughter. I only saw the back of the daughter as she was out the door to school. In the front there was a giant wooden Buddah head. It took me a little off gaurd at first. What I thought was weird was that there was also a bunch of Hindu stuff around the place as well. The customer already had our basic TV, which helped. She had a wireless DSL modem and I had to explain to her that our modem is not wireless. I convinced her to go buy her own wireless router. The cable box went to the TV in the basement. The basement was scattered with various art supplies. I almost wondered if she watched kids or something. And entertained them in the basement. The job went smoothe.
My next job was at a house. I was met at the door by an older black woman. She had one of our routers. She showed me a printout of a page and told me that was all she was getting for a couple days, but everything was fine now. It looked like the router was actingly like it was never set up. But it seemed to fix itself by now, because everything was working. Her computer was painfully slow. I told her everything was fine and I left.
Next I headed to a house to the south in the land of scrape offs. I was met at the door by a middle aged white man. The place looked like it may have been a scrape off. It was nice and there was a bunch of pictures of his kids, all over the place. We talked about how nice the day was and he said he would rather be golfing right now. He got a new flat screen for the bedroom and wanted an HD box for it. He was extremely helpfull and the job was very easy.
I picked up one more job for the morning. This was in an apartment complex. The door was opened by a young man who looked like I just woke him up. There wasn't a whole lot of furniture here, he was still moving in. I saw a paddel and recognized he belonged to a frat. He talked about being at a strip club last night and now he has a hang over. I was here to install all three of our products. Once I got the TV on I turned it to ESPN and he was very happy. We talked some about sports, untill I finished the rest of the job.
I then went to lunch. After lunch I picked up a job at a house. The door was answered by a hispanic woman. I got the impression that she was a nurse. I was largely tipped b y an oxygen machine with a tube that ran to a bedroom in the back. She had no clue why I was there. I turned on the TV and nothing was on. I looked out back and it became obvious that she had been disconnected accidentally. To get to the pole I would have to go to the neighbor's yard. When I got there I opened the gate and out ran the cutest little puppy. I quickley closed the gate, because I didn't want to let the puppy out. I needed to find a way in to get up the pole. So I went to the gate on the other side of the house. The puppy didn't even realize what I was doing untill I was practically at the pole. I hooked the lady back up and left.
My last job was at a house a little to the east. The door was answered by a kid. THe mom quickley showed up. The daughter was on the couch doing her homework. Their modem was out completely. I checked the siganl and it was very low. I looked behind the desk and found a splitter in which both legs were not being used so I removed it and the modem came right back up. I checked some other things and then I went home.

2008-04-10T11:18:00.002-05:00

After our weekly meetings I went to my first job. This was a house. A young woman answered the door. The place was empty she had yet to move in. The place had been remodeled and it looked like they had done a good job with it. I was here to set up basic TV and Internet. The job seemed easy enough, but there was one outlet she wanted activated that I couldn't find. It was in the living room in a middle wall. I climbed into the crawl space to see if I cold find anything their and couldn't, then I climbed into the attic and found the line but it was cut, so it was going nowhere. This meant I had to make a new outlet by drilling to the outside. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't waste all that time looking for the line. I finished and went to lunch.
My first job after lunch was in the land of scrape offs. This was a large house a short round woman meet me at the door. The place was full of Native American artwork. She showed me a TV and said that the audio on channel 2 was dropping in and out and there was no audio on channels 25 and 26. I knew right away the TV was set to SAP I switched it to Stereo and left.
The next job was an install. It was at some dorms at a local art school. I was here to switch out this guy's modem for a router. He was a tall lanky sort of dorky looking black guy. He was really nice. We talked about how rediculous for the dorms of this school to be here when the school itself is in a different part of town. We also talked about movies and video games and comics. He had a PS3 and a Wii. He had some cool games.
My next job was another install. This was at a high rise apartment building for retirees. It was starting to rain I wanted to be quick about it. i checked the box outside and the apartment was already hooked up. I showed up at the apartment and there was an elderly black woman here with her two daughters. It was a transfer so they already had their cable box and it was set up exactly right before I had even showed up. I just activated everything and left, I was there maybe 10 minutes.
Since I was running so far ahead I decided to take a little break before heading to what will be my last job. This job was at an apartment complex near the hospitals. This looked like a corporate account. I was greeted by a guy who sounded a lot like Boomhower from King of the Hill. He was from Alabama. He was moving here from California. He had some family here as well. They flew out to California to move him here and then they will fly back. They were really nice. I told them about a few things in the area, like the nearest 7-11 and some places to eat. The job was easy. The guy already knew how to work everything.
While working on this last job I got called back from the guy at the dorm for art students. His router keeps dropping out. So I went back and swapped his router. We talked more about video games, then I went home.

2008-04-09T14:36:00.002-05:00

My day started at a house in the northern parts of my area. There was a young black man here with a younger black girl (probably his sister). He was excited to see me. I was here to install cable TV in four rooms. Once I showed up he told me that three of the rooms had no cable. So I had to run new outlets to those places. The house didn't look too bad. It had been recently remodeled. The job took me quite a while to do. They just watched one of those judge shows the whole time. I assumed this was because they had an antenae so they were limited in options of what to watch. But once I got the cable hooked up they just turned it back to the judge show (even though they were getting all the channels. One of the cable boxes wasn't working right. I was told it was system wide thing so that's what I told them and left. It was about 11 am when I left and was told there was no more jobs so I took a long lunch.
After lunch I got another install in the same area. I was met outside by a very spastic black man. I went to the front door and his wife opened the door and said the install is next Monday instead. But he wanted it now. They already had phone and I was here to install Internet and a TV. There was one of those house arrest boxes plugged into the phone. Their computer was in pieces on the couch. The guy said he got it from a friend, but it has a password so he can't get into it. He had a laptop as well, but it had no hard drive, so it wouldn't even come on. He and his wife spent the whole time calling computer repair people. They had three kids, the youngest was very small and sleeping on the bed. They had a bootlegged video of Horton hears a Who playing on the TV. Once I got the TV working he was very excited and started watching BET. I got the Internet working as well. He was dancing as I left.
After this I got a disconnect at an old folks home. I have been here often. I just had to get the manager to let me in. Then I went to a apartment building a little south. This building is on a very busy street. The door was answered by a guy who looked like he was in a band. I even saw a guitar plugged into a Fender Twin Amplifier. He was having Internet problems. He was watching The Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I enjoyed that movie)and cooking diner. He said he works at the local Aquarium and this was his first day off in 13 days. I just needed to replace the modem, which I did.
My last job was a house on my way home. The door was answered by an older woman. She said her daughter owns the place and she was just visiting. Her daughter had questions about how to work the remote, but she didn't know what the questions were. I showed her a couple things and then I went home.

2008-04-08T12:33:00.002-05:00

My day started on the backside of resort town. As I was stepping out of my vehicle a man pulled up and asked if I was there for his place. I told him yes and I followed him to the place. His place was empty. They were just starting to move in. From the looks of his shirt the guy works for the sheriff department. I was here to set up two cable boxes. Once of them was at the old house. So I just activated all the outlets and set up the one box he had. He seemed dissatisfied with the place. He told me that you should not count on what you have until you sign the paper work. He would also complain about things to his wife who must have been at the other place still boxing things up.
My next job was a house to the west. The door was answered by a old retired teacher. The place had a very western feel to it. There was a cactus a wagon wheel and western artwork all over the place. I was here to install a new outlet so he could have Internet in his loft. The job was pretty easy, there was already a cable in the vicinity on the outside of the house. He talked about a cabin he used to own in the mountains and how he used to own a couple other properties in the area. He just got back from Florida. He owns a trailer out there and spends the winter out there. Once I finished the outlet I offered to help him set up the Internet. I went to put in a disk and out popped some porn, Hustler's Barely Legal Slumber Party I believe. He said, "What's that? Where did that come from? How did that get in there?" When the computer came on there was a picture of a naked woman standing in a river as the wallpaper. It looked like it came out of playboy. Her breasts looked not only fake but airbrushed, the way they pointed out vertically. He told me she was a Cherokee standing in the Colorado River. I wasn't sure if this was because her hair was in braids, or maybe that was the caption under the picture when he downloaded it or if this was some sort of excuse, like Native Americans naturally roam naked in rivers and he got the picture out of National Geographic. He then commented on her "rack." I finished the job and left.
My next job was in an apartment complex. There was a Hispanic woman here. She said a tech had been here yesterday a replaced most everything but she was still having problems. I replaced a couple suspicious looking cables and tightened some loose connectors and that seemed to fix the problem.
I then picked up one more job for the morning. This was the same exact place I was at this time last week. This was an apartment complex. There was a young couple with their child who had just moved here from Sand Diego. They were still having problems, I guess I didn't fix it last time. The guy here had already figured out it was the cable to the TV, something had gone bad with it. So I made a new cable and everything was fine.
After lunch I had an install. This was on a very busy street. The door was answered by an Asian guy holding a guitar and a child. He showed me around and as I asked him questions it became apparent that he did not live here. He was watching the place for his brother. So he only knew what his brother told him. I went ahead and got started. The place was empty, they still needed to move in. There was still a dish on the roof from the previous residents, which they wanted to use as well. So I had to hook up two TVs, Internet and phone and not use any of the satellite cables in the process. It turned out to be not as bad as it seemed at first. The guy just played his guitar while I was working, I think he got a new FX pedal and was noodling around with it. Once I had the TV and the Internet hooked up I had to do the phone. Which was looking to be very difficult. The building must have had several different phone lines. Fortunately the couple who were actually living here showed up with a base station and satellite phones, which means I didn't need the house wiring at all. I explained everything to them and left.
My last job of the day was a house near by. There was a middle aged woman here with a much older woman (her mom?) and a dog. Once I entered the dog tried to bite my hand, twice! A was taken aback by this. She said he was nice and scolded him for this and told me where her office was. She was having phone issues. The dog escaped her grasp and came running towards me and tried to bit my hand again. But he was wagging his tail. She pulled the dog out of there and gave him a bone. I went into the basement and found what the problem was. When I walked by the dog he did nothing but chew on the bone. She also asked me to string up a TV in the basement so she could watch TV while working out. As I was leaving the dog tried to bite my hand two more times. He would only go for my hand the whole time. At this point I felt it was game, like keep away. The woman kept apologizing for her dog the whole time. Once finished I went home.

2008-04-07T12:56:00.002-05:00

My day started at an apartment building near home. The door was answered by a young Indian girl. She lead me to her apartment. Her Internet wasn't working at all. At first I thought that she was accidentally disconnected but she was connected. I figured that the line itself to her apartment needed to be replaced. It was old and probably had water damage. So I turned the job over to post-wire.
My next job was a duplex in the fancy shopping area. I was met at the door by a guy who was wearing running gear. I wasn't sure if he was about to go running or had just gotten back. He had a Scottish accent. He introduced me to his wife who was Scottish as well. They led me downstairs to where their Internet was. It had been going down, though it was working now. I checked and the signal was low. I rerouted things to improve the signal, which it did in some areas but not others. I looked around and saw that they and their neighbor's were running on the same line from the pole. I could run a new line so that they were separate, but everything was working fine, so I moved on.
The next job was a large house that had been converted into apartments. I was here to downgrade someone by putting a filter on the line. It only took a couple of minutes.
I then went to an apartment building about a block away. I was met at the door by a short red headed woman. She talked a lot in a nervous sort of way. I was here to install basic. I actually hooked up her apartment before I came to the door, so I wouldn't have to go back down. I plugged her TV into the jack and I was done.
I got one more job for the morning . This was a house I had been at last Wednesday. This was a duplex that was in the process of being remodeled. His TV upstairs was having a lot of issues. I went downstairs and tightened the connectors on the splitter and it was fixed. I stuck around and tried to help him set up his Tivo and then I went to lunch.
After lunch I had an install at a house. I was met by a black woman. She told me to wait and got a younger man (her son?) It looked like he just moved into a room upstairs. There was an even older black woman here as well as an equally old black man who spent the whole time I was there watching religious programming on the TV. The young man had a slight limp as he walked around. The house already had service, but he was having a secondary account set up so he could have a DVR and Internet in his room. Since the house already had service the job was easy. I just had to re-rout the place to get him a decent signal. He took off as soon as I was finished.
The next job was a house not too far away. I was met at the door by a black man. There were two women in the living room watching TV. The younger other the two was large and on an oxygen tank. Neither moved the whole time I was there. He led me into the basement. To get down there there was a series of 5 or 6 steps about a 1/4 of an inch below each other and then they end with about a foot and a half drop which was remedied with a wobbly stool. I don't know what that was about. His TV was not getting most of it's channels. I found old connectors all over the house to replace. Once finished his TV was working fine, so I left.
My last job of the day, was a house in the same neighborhood. I was met by a small thin middle aged woman. She talked a lot, the whole time I was there about everything. She had been remodeling her house and doing a lot of it herself. She would say something as a joke and then laugh at and sometimes elbow me as well. She obviously lived alone and was probably rather lonely. She had a couple cats and seemed to me to be on the fast track to being a crazy cat lady. She was having Internet problems. I tracked it to a splitter in her crawlspace. She insisted on on crawling in there her self. I got her Internet working again. I also helped her set up her wireless Internet with a password and everything. I also explained how she could try to help her neighbor, with her Internet problems. Once finished she followed me all the way to my van talking the whole way. I didn't think she was going to leave me alone, but eventually I left and went home.

2008-04-03T13:04:00.002-05:00

My day started up in plastic land. There was a young Russian man here. He seemed really smart. He kept asking me about my job, I think he was tired of his current job. He said he was going to school as well. He followed everything I did, but didn't seem to get annoying. The job was easy. He already had the equipment from his previous place. He made it easy for me.
Afterwards I went lunch. I spoke with dispatch and they said they were giving me another job, but I assumed it was for after lunch. After having sat there for about half an hour I realized that this was a morning job. so I had to rush over there. This job was an install in the fancy shopping district. There was a short guy here. He seemed a little perturbed by my being late. He said I looked familiar and wondered if we had met before. I didn't recognize him at all. i was here to install the Internet. This was an easy job, but I got hung up on a couple things. The first is when I tried to look at the GUI for the modem to see its levels. It brought up the levels for a different modem and ti took me a while to figure this out. The levels were low so I was scrambling to fix them. When I finally figured out what was going on I moved on to his computer. He had a Mac, but was running parallel OS's , so I had the internet up on the Mac side but not the Window's side. It took me a while to figure it out.
Once done I decided to take the other half hour of my lunch and then head to my next job. Of course by doing so I ended up late to this job as well. I was met at the door by a black woman wear a nurses uniform. She had two kids here. She said she had to get back to work in 15 minutes. She told me her router was not working and then said it was in her sons room and had him lead me to his room. It was in the basement. His room was nicer than mine. He had a huge flat screen TV, a PS3, his own computer as well as a bunch of other toys. He turned the router on and I wondered if that was the problem. I looked around and I looked out back as well. I replaced a splitter and then she had to go. She bagged me to come back.
I then picked up another job at a duplex to the east. The guy wasn't there at first some electrician was. The place was being remodeled. He briefly told me what needed to be done. I fixed a couple connectors before the guy showed up. When he showed up he showed me a couple more things he wanted done, then we discussed whether he needed an HD box or a cable card for his fancy flat screen TV. We decided on the HD box and I got it installed.
I then got a job at a restaurant on prostitute row. Another tech had already been there earlier in the day. They were having problems with their audio. There was a power surge over the weekend which I guess blew out the box. He came and replaced the box, but the audio went back out 20 minutes after he left. I looked around and tried to figure out what was going on but I couldn't because the box was only hooked into audio, so I couldn't see what was going on without a TV. So I decided to replace the box, and that fixed the problem. At least I think it did.
Then I went back to the job with the black woman with two kids. I decided to replace a cable in the basement and replace the router. While I was working in the basement I noticed a bunch of fancy belts. It turns out the father is a championship boxer. He had several title belts around and posters from bouts all over the walls. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out. The first router I put on had all the settings on it changed including the password to get into the router itself. So I couldn't get the other computer (which was in the daughter's room) to work. The daughter was in to Bratz, they were all over her room. So I had to put in yet another router and this one finally worked, so I went home.

2008-04-02T16:07:00.002-05:00

They had me south west today. This area isn't too bad, but but I spent most of my day lost. That part of town makes no sense. The first job was in a apartment complex. Though no one answered the door. So I called it not at home.
I then went to a house a little to the north. No one was at this house either. I called the guy and he said he was told no one needed to be there. I told him I would look around but if he still has the problem, he needs to schedule an appointment for when he can be there. I jumped his fence and replaced a couple of questionable splitters. I ripped my jeans in the process. I then left. My next job was a couple blocks away. This was another house. There was an elderly woman here with her two daughters. She had issue with her phones. I pulled out the phone line and put it back in and everything was fine. I looked around outside and found an exposed phone line which I removed because it was probably causing a short. I told her all this and left.
I then had an install at a apartment building in the area. There was an older couple here. They were very nice and ultra religious. This I could tell by the video cassettes and the fact that the guy said he recently upgraded his service so he could get TBN. They wanted a new box in the other room. They used to have satellite and the guy made it a point to tell me how much more he likes my company versus the Dish. So the room already had cable running to it, I just had to hook it to cable instead. They were remodeling the place working on the bathroom currently. They told me they just got married later last year. They were also excited about baseball season.
I then got a call to go back to my first job who wanted me to go back. So I went back. The place was answered by a young woman who looked pregnant. The place was empty. She pointed to where she wanted the Internet to be. I was in the corner with the stains. She had a rambunctious pit bull, who apparently is not house broken. She said the computer was going to go in the corner with the stains once they cleaned the place up. The dog would get in my face whenever she left the room and step all over my computer. She spent the whole time on the phone. I got out of there as quick as possible.
I was then given a job at a gated community. I was here to install a new outlet. There was an older woman here. She said her daughter had just moved back in and needed cable in the other room. So I had to drill a new hole and run some cable. The quickest way to do this was to run it on the ground and set up an appointment to bury it. Once done she asked me to move the cable box in the other room which was easy enough.
I was then given one more job before lunch. This was an apartment above the leasing office. There was a young couple here. They were having serious problems with there cable. Everything looked fairly new and I replaced as much as possible to fix the problem, but nothing worked. I tracked it down to the line in the wall, so I had to schedule an appointment with post-wire and finally go to lunch.
After lunch I went to a house way south. There was a young woman here. Though at one point her kids showed up and they were about 10-12 years old, so maybe she wasn't that young. She showed me the basement where her EMTA and cable box were. I found several connectors that needed to be replaced. Then I went outside and found a bunch more connectors to be replaced as well as some old filters at the tap. Once finished I went to my next job.
This next job was another apartment complex. There was a young Hispanic man here with a young boy. The boy was playing on a gameboy waiting for the TVs to come back on. The guy was his uncle, he seemed like a nice guy. My notes said that all three TVs were not working. Which they weren't when I showed up but they were obviously getting signal so I sent them a download and they all came back on.
My last job was a downgrade. This was a house to the north. I just had to add a filter to the tap on the outside. Once in the alley way a random guy appeared out of nowhere and asked if I was here for his house. I was not. We talked a little bit and then he disappeared again. I finished the job and went home.

2008-04-01T15:31:00.002-05:00

My day started in plastic land. My first job was an install. A woman answered the door and said her appointment was not supposed to be for a couple more weeks. Then she left for work, so I pushed the appointment out.
My next job was another install next door. I woke a guy up and he let me in. I was here to install a DVR and the phone. The job was pretty easy since they already had our services. Eventually the wife came downstairs as well. She looked to be pregnant. They already had one kid who left for school. Then I went downstairs I could see they had a little photography studio in the basement. Everything went smooth. Once done I showed them how to work their DVR and the wife got really excited about getting to tape old episodes of House.
The next job I got was in an apartment complex down south. The door was answered by an elderly black woman. She showed me to the bedroom and complained that her DVR made too much noise. You had to get really close to it, but there was a scraping sound. She insisted that it is much worse at night everything is quite and you're trying to sleep. I went ahead and replaced the DVR for her. She felt really bad about the whole thing. I tried to let her know it was no big deal but to no avail.
The next job was in another apartment complex across the street. I just needed to activate an outlet. The woman here had moved the TV from one end of the room to another and had a cord draped across the room. So I activated a different outlet so we could get rid of that wire.
I then had another job in the same complex. There was a young couple here with a kid. Thy were complaining that their DVR wasn't working right. It would turn off and on randomly. So I switched they box out. They were nice. They had just moved here from San Diego. They told me how expensive it was to live out there. The woman looked like she was pregnant again.
I then went to lunch. After lunch I went to a house. Upon entering the house I noticed there were two black teenage males and their mom and every one seemed to be on the phone. The place smelled like marijuana as well. The woman showed me to a bedroom where the EMTA was and the box was dead. So I replaced it.
Then I got a job at a house just off of prostitute row. An older white man answered the door. He showed me out back and said that he was trimming his trees and a branch took out the cable line. So I had to replace it. It was an easy job though, with the trees cut down there was nothing in my way. I checked in with the guy before leaving and when I was stepping out of his place I stumbled and almost fell.
I was then given a job int he same neighborhood. I was let in by a young woman listening to The Offspring. I hadn't heard them in a long time. She said she was in school, I assume she was doing homework or something. I was here to pick up the cable box. The place was pretty sparse, she mentioned they were moving at the end of the month. I then picked up one more job. This was a house that had been converted into apartments. This particular apartment was in the basement. I was let in by a young guy. The place was extremely cluttered. I couldn't turn around without knocking something over. He had a cat which he kept in a cage and it would keep meowing the whole time I was there. Apparently it attacked the last cable guy. He complained about some things, but everything looked fine. The only suspect thing I could find was the line into the apartment itself which I replaced. After a while another guy showed apparently he lived here as well. He looked a bit older than the first guy. He was dressed like he just came from the nearby hospital, he was possibly a nurse. I was surprised that two people could live here. I saw two burners from the stove on and I joked if that was how they heated the place, but they said yes. The thermostat is controlled by the upstairs apartments. So that's the only way they can heat themselves. Once finished I went home.

2008-03-30T16:30:00.003-05:00

My day started at a house. There was an older couple there. They were having troubles with their television and DVD player. The TV would get wavy and shut off. It would also change the channel on its own. They thought it was the remote control. I told them it was the TV. They also couldn't get their DVD player to open up. They thought the two were related. Somehow they turned on the child lock, so I had to figure out how to unlock it.
The next job was a house further north. There was a big hairy guy here. He had me meet him out back at his garage. He had a box set up out here but it wasn't working right at all. He had run the cable himself and at first I found it to be water damaged. But when I fixed that it didn't improve the signal so we had to replace the whole line. He helped me out which was nice. So we were able to get it done pretty quickly. He worked with wood in his spare time. He was in the middle of making a bookcase, that looked very nice. He said he broke his hand in December helping a friend put up Christmas lights, and hasn't been able to work on it since, so quite of bit of dust has built up. He was very eager to get back to work.
The next job was next door to where my girlfriend used to live. It was weird because it was a place I had seen often from the outside and now I get to see what it was like on the inside. All I knew was that a Hispanic family lived there. The place was dirty. There wasn't much furniture inside and it was dark. I guess no one was awake yet. A young Hispanic woman answered the door. She led me downstairs. The stairs themselves felt like they were going to buckle under my weight. She led me to one room where an older Hispanic man was here sleeping. The box wasn't working at all. It turned out to be something in the system. I fixed it, but it was something that should have been done when they called, rather than having me show up.
The next job was another house to the north. A young tall man answered the door and led me outside. He said the last tech said the line to the house needed to be replaced. This was correct I did need to replace it, but I wondered why the last tech didn't do it. Once I replaced the line I came back inside to make sure it was all working. Walking down the stairs in the basement I slipped on the last step and hit the ground. I picked myself up, checked the TV and left.
My last job of the day was a house even further north. There was a pickup truck in front of the house that had a bunch of shopping carts in the back of it. The door was answered by a black man. He said his Fax machine wasn't working. So I tried to figure out how everything was hooked up. The fax was in the garage. His back yard was full of yet more shopping carts. Eventually I figured it out. As I was finishing a preacher showed up. He had his bible out and was giving what seemed to be private instruction to the man living here. There was also a child who appeared at this point from one of the bedrooms.
Once I left I went to lunch. After lunch I went to a house that was in the same neighborhood. A black woman was laying on the couch, she waved me in. She was having problems with her phone. She didn't move from the couch the whole time I was there. She was just sitting there watching CSI. The EMTA had low signals, so I went around outside and found a splitter I could rearrange. I had her try the phone and she said it sounded better so I left.
My next job was a house a little to the south. A man answered the door and said that his phone wasn't working. He showed me where the phone was and it wasn't completely plugged into the wall, so I plugged it in and left.
The next job was at a complex to the north. I had never been here before. No one answered the door though. So I picked up an install 2 blocks north. There were two young Hispanic women here with a couple kids running around. She showed me what she wanted done, then took the kids out back to run around. While I was working I could hear rooster in the backyard constantly calling out. Which I thought to be a strange thing to hear in the city. I'm not sure whether that's completely allowed but, whatever. The job was incredibly easy, I was out of there pretty quick. so I picked up one more job.
This job was in an old folks home. I was greeted by a black man in a wheel chair. He was missing one leg. He said his cable box wasn't hooked up. I just changed the input and everything was working fine. He said it wasn't working earlier and kept insisting that I did something to fix it. I think he was trying to save face. I went over how to work everything and went home.

2008-03-27T10:01:00.002-05:00

After our weekly meeting I went to a rather nice small house. I was greeted by a middle aged man who had a big fluffy dog. Almost like a chow, but not quite. He already had TV, I was just here to hook up Internet and Phone. The job seemed simple enough. He wanted the Internet in the same room as his TV and the alarm panel was in the next room. As far as I could tell he and his wife were doctors of some sort. There were a lot of plaques on the walls. When I hooked up the EMTA it wouldn't sync up with our system. After a while it became aparrant that this must be due to a filter. So I had to carry my ladder through the neighbor's yard, because there are no alley ways in this neighborhood, and climb the pole. And sure enough there was a filter there. Once I got back inside I proceeded to get everything working, but then my computer would not cooperate, so I had to call IT to finish the job for me. Then I had to set up the guy's airport as well and it would not get on the internet. So It took me a while to fool around with the settings to get that to work as well.
After all that I took lunch. Then I headed to a small neighborhood right outside plastic land. When I entered the house there were three black men here. One was trying to set up an entertainment stand, the other two were on the couch watching. One of the guys on the couch came up to me and introduced himself. He started to show me around to what needed to be done, but when I asked him a question he said the guy who's getting this done isn't here. It turns out that the guy who is showing me around lives here, while the guy who I'm doing this work for is moving in I guess. I don't know how they know each other though. So I take a look around back and see that the line needs to be replaced. The problem is that not only is there no alley way, but there looks to be space designated for one, but it never got constructed. So there is an area between the back of the houses that is all overgrowth. Trees and bushes, that I have to fight through in order to get my ladder up the pole. Once up there I start working when I noticed a fox skulking around amongst the bushes below me. Also while I'm up there the guy who I'm setting up shows up. He was a big black guy with gray dreadlocks. We talked some. It turns out he does IT for a local charter school. He said he wants to set up servers in his place eventually. I finish my work and get my ladder out of there and go back to the house. The rest of the job went smoothly.
My next job was an install in a little duplex in the country club area. I was met by a hippy-ish looking fellow who was playing with three boys in the front yard. He let me in and showed me to the TV I was supposed to hook up. After a while He left to go biking and his pregnant wife showed up to watch the kids. The job was easy, though I had some problems getting all the channels to show up, but I eventually did.
My last job of the day was a house further north. It was so far back on the lot, I missed it at first. There was a middle aged black man here with his son. It was a really small house for such a big lot. I was here to set up the TVs, but he wanted me to do the Internet as well. Unfortuanetly we require a $200 deposit these days, and he couldn't pay it. He said he could barely pay for the TV. He does concrete work as a contractor so he was hoping things would pick up in the summer. The place itself was cramped, with two small bedrooms a small living room (with 2 couches that could easily be beds) and a small kitchen. The place was cluttered and kind of dirty. The whole time I was there he and his kid were outside working on their bikes. I got the TVs hooked up for him and went home.

2008-03-26T14:20:00.002-05:00

My day started at a apartment complex. The door was answered by a lanky black man. He said he was getting nothing on his TV. Everyone in this complex is supposed to be getting cable, it is a bulk account. I went to where the box is and saw a line with his unit number on it hooked up. It was labeled wrong. I had to find the right line and hook that one up instead.
I then asked to pick up another job. I was given an install way down south in an apartment complex. This was a woman who works for the company, probably in the call center. She already had all her equipment and in the area she wanted it. We talked a little about what she wanted to happen then I went to work. I had obviously just woke her up. She was here with her child and they were both sick. She complained about how doctors don't issue medicine for children anymore. They just have to suffer. She talked a lot about her kid. The place was a mess but they were moving in. While here I was given two jobs back in the area I was for the same time frame, so I hauled ass to finish this job.
The next job was in resort town. Nobody was here at first so I called. The woman works in the town, so she arrived shortly. She was pregnant and had a child with her. Her modem wasn't working, neither were two of her TVs. Only one was working and I was the third tech out here. She needed to get back to work so she left me alone in her place. I replaced as much as I could as well as boosted her signal.
I then had one more job for the morning. This was an install in resort town. A woman was moving in. She was her with her mom who was in town visiting and her sister who lives out in the suburbs. There was nothing here, she still needed to move in. This made the job easy. Her mom at some point remarked that she was moving in to a much better situation. It sounded like a divorce or bad break up. Her sister's kid was here too. He was bouncing off the walls the whole time and he would keep asking me when the Internet would be ready. I tried to work as fast as possible because I wanted lunch and I could tell they wanted to get on with their day.
I stayed in resort town for lunch because my first afternoon job was in there as well. This was a trouble call. A large woman answered the door. She had a couple problems. The first was that her TV upstairs was not working. I checked and it was on the wrong input so I switched it over and got it working. The other was that she wanted the remote for her cable box to be programed to her other TV which I did as well. She complained about go up and down the stairs, she said she was recovering from pneumonia. It was an easy job and I was out of there quick.
I ended up with one last job for the day. This was to install an HD box in the land of scrape offs. This was an original house though. An elderly woman greeted me at the door. Her son was there too. She had a weird accent and would speak rapidly. Neither of them knew a whole lot about electronics. The guy kept saying that his wife would explain all this to them later. The job was easy. Then I went home.

2008-03-25T14:42:00.003-05:00

My day started at a new building. These looked to be condos of a sort. Cheaply made as most new construction is. I could see parts where the stucco was already coming off to reveal the Styrofoam underneath. Nobody answered the door, so I called it not at home.
As I was waiting to get a new job I fell asleep. I was aroused by my radio going off, to tell me I had two new jobs. The first was a disconnect at an apartment complex. Nobody was working the office yet so I had to be let in by the cleaning crew.
The next job was a high rise of retirees. Nobody was at this one either, though. So I picked up a job at another high rise. This was a very fancy place, I've been into a couple times before. Each floor of this building is divided in half. I was met by a black woman. She showed me the TV with the box on it. I could see it wasn't working right. I looked and followed the line to another TV. I found a splitter and replaced it and then I found a connector that needed to be replaced. The problem was that there was no slack, so the connector was in the wall and I couldn't replace it. So I decided to try and bypass it. I worked on this for at least an hour, before finally giving up. I hooked everything up the way it was before and slightly tweaked it so it was working for now, and then I left out of frustration.
My next job was across the street. I was met outside by an Asian girl. She led me inside the building. She let me into her apartment and started to speak to her roommate. I then entered the living room where her roommate was. The roommate was wearing a large shirt and when I entered the room she proceeded to move her hands to cover up the lower part of her body. I diverted my eyes and she hurried out of the room. She must have only been wearing that shirt. The place was a mess. This building is a half way house for single moms, though I didn't get the impression that either of these women had kids. I was here to pick up the modem. I guess they didn't want Internet anymore.
My final job of the morning was an apartment in the same area. The door was answered by an older woman, she went to walk the dog and told me the guy would be here in a second. A young man about half her age let me in. At first I thought these two were mother and son, but it turns out they were lovers. His eyes were glowing red. I just woke him up. I was here to put in an HD/DVR. The place was a mess. There were empty shooter bottles on the floor ashes everywhere. Empty pizza boxes. Plates with food that is god knows how old, just laying around. The whole time I was there he would only talk to me by asking questions. Then when I responded he would say, "Right On." After a while I started to ask him questions. He works at night mainly. He told me he was a bike messenger. He mainly just delivered summons. I really didn't want to enter this place it was so messy, so I pretty much did the job from the doorway. Once finished I went to lunch.
I only got one job for the afternoon. This was a large house in the country club area. There was an older woman here. I was here to hook up one TV with an HD/DVR and a modem. She had a computer guy there setting up a new computer for her. The job seemed easy. Though much of the place was old. I had to replace many connectors and splitters, just to get the place up to date. When up on the pole I removed a bunch of filters, but I missed one. This cost me maybe an hour, before I climbed back up there and found the filter. The woman herself didn't know how to work anything. I found myself not only explaining everything in detail, but in triplicate. It was frustrating, but I got through it. I don't think any of it sunk in. Thankfully the computer guy was a friend of hers and he knew how to work everything. Once finished I went home.

2008-03-24T13:14:00.002-05:00

I was once again back in my usual area, which felt great. My first job canceled before I even left the house so I had to pick up another job. This was an apartment complex all the way next to the highway. It was still under construction. There was a young woman here and she had a big dog. It was a very rambunctious dog, so she had to keep it in a little cage. It looked like I had woken her up. Her modem wasn't working at all, it was dead. I just had to replace the modem. She was a little irked about the fact that she had to take this apointment. I guess she wanted the appointment a couple days previous, but this was the only time she could get.
The next job was at a house. This was an install. A thin black woman answered the door. She greated me with a Happy Easter and joked about hidding easter eggs in the snow. She showed me the three TVs she wanted hooked up. One of which was in her son's room, whom she had to get out of bed. The she took me out back and said I needed to go up the pole to hook her up (which I knew) and that she knew this because they were hooked up illegally and got caught so now they want to pay. We laughed at this and I proceeded to work. The job wasn't too bad. Most everything was wired already. She would follow me around and talk to me in a nervous sort of manner. Constantly joking.
The next job was in the same neighborhood but a little further south. The house was for sale. It was a nice house in a nice neighborhood, but they wanted over $600,000 for it. That seemed like way too much. The door was answered by a woman. She showed me the TV which had a blue screen. I changed the input and the box was on again. Though I needed to fix some cables behind, that had been rearranged. An older guy showed up and asked what was going on. I explained everything I did and now everything was working. He said it went out during a movie and he insisted that the situation was more complicated than that.
The next job was an apartmetn bulding about 2 blocks from my old apartment. I was let in by a woman who that raspy emphazema voice. She lit a cigarette in front of me. She seemed to have no clue why I was there. I was told there was a problem with the volumne, but that was fine. I also showed her the HD channels, which she never knew she had. She mentioned a letter she got. (I hate these letters we send out, why can't we let sleeping dogs lie). It turned out she got this letter because she has a cable box but it wasn't hooked up. She was in the process of moving somewhere else, so it was packed somewhere and she didn't know where. She was frustrating, she didn't know how to work anything. Not only did I have to explain everything to her, but I had to explain things repeatedly, because she just wasn't getting it.
So I went to lunch. After lunch I got a big install. This was a big house three story square house. The kind that were mainly turned into apartment buildings. This one used to be offices, but it was bought by some gay guys for about $490,000. This was a steal. But I guess it was foreclosed upon and sat on the market for 8 months. I was here to isntall all three products. They were in the process of moving in, while they were remodeling the place. The hardwood floors were just recently finished and there were some walls torn out. It sounded like they had a lot more work to do. They kept offering mamosas the whole time I was there. I took me a while to figure out how the place was wired. I was working in an area next to the deck where the air conditioning unit was and I saw down there a bottle of cocoa butter, some torn up bras and a syringe. I brought this up to the guys who said some vagrants had taken up residence there while the place was unoccupied. I'm guessing that helped drop the price. I finished the TVs and the modem, but the phones were a mess. I spent an hour and a half trying to figure out the phone wiring, which was very screwed up because the place was a bunch of different offices. I had given up and told the guy he should invest in a base station with satelite phones, at which point he told me that that was exactly what he had. I don't know how I got out of there without yelling or hitting somebody. I then went home.

2008-03-20T11:20:00.002-05:00

I started at an apartment complex down south. A young pregnant Hispanic woman was here with a young boy. I was here to hook up her TV for her. It was a relatively easy job. I try to keep the talking to a minimum. Her kid was cute though, he was following me around watching everything I was doing. I got it hooked up and left.
My next job was at a town home. This happens to be the residence of a starter on the local NBA team. He wasn't hear thought. There was two black gentleman one shorter who seemed to be in charge and the other just hanging out. The place smelled of marijuana when I first entered, they must have been smoking recently. There was a big white guy here two but he left shortly after I arrived, he was probably here to fix something as well. I was here to replace their router, they wanted a modem instead. They were just going to buy their own router. The place was modest. A big screen TV and an X-Box. A table and couch. A few posters on the wall of Bob Marley and Pulp Fiction. I saw into the bedroom which was pretty messy. The place wasn't very big and he didn't have a lot of stuff in it. I did the job and then went to lunch.
My first job after lunch was an install at a house. No one was there though. So I called it not at home and got a new job. This new job was at the fancy new condos in the fancy shopping district that I was at last week. There was an elderly couple here. They just moved from Philadelphia. They said their whole family has moved out into this region so they moved out here to be closer to them. The job wasn't too difficult. These places are all pre-wired. There was an A/V team here setting up his flat screen I would jump in and help him. He would ask me about the gauge of the cable and the signal strength, I wondered if he had worked for the company at all some time in the past.
The next job was a house down south. My work order said the house had never had cable. I was worried about having to do everything. Thankfully she had cable a long time ago. I was worried the cables were too old, they looked very border line, but I checked with my meter and saw nothing wrong. So I hooked up her new HD TV for her.
I then picked up two more jobs. The first was an upgrade. I just needed to remove a filter. There was a couple here going through their garage. The man showed me outback. The place was a mine field of dog shit. He apologized for it. Removing the filter was easy. It wasn't up on the pole like it should have been, it was at his back porch.
The next job was a disconnect. There are no alley ways in this part of town. So I had to go through a neighbor's yard to do it. He was a nice old man. He moved his vehicle for me. I felt bad for making him go out of his way. Once I had my ladder up his dog came charging out of the back door barking up a storm. It stopped right at my feet and then backed off when I didn't flinch. The guy called his dog back. I proceeded to do the job, then I left.

2008-03-19T13:44:00.002-05:00

My first job of the day was an apartment in apratment town. I called the customer to be let into the building but the woman who answered said someone came on Saturday and fixed it. So I cancelled the job. But I couldn't do it with my radio for some reason, like I normally do. I had to call it in.
The next job was a house a little to the east. This house was nice, it actually looked like a scrape-off. A woman answered the door. She was a little flushed. She needed to get her kids ready for school and I was a little early. She asked how long it would take, I told her it hopefully wouldn't take long. She wasn't getting all of her features. I had her show me around but everything I saw looked correct. Then I looked outside and found a cheap amplifier in the system. The woman said that the preivous residents wired the place. I removed it because it looked useless, and everything looked fine. At this point it looked like the problems I was having with my radio everyone else was having, and dispatch was lovingly blaming me for this.
The next job was another trouble call. This was a duplex right on the corner of a busy intersection. The number of the place said it should be on one side of the intersection but it turned out to be on the other side. The door was answered by a woman. She said everything was fine so I could cancel the job.
The next job was another house in the same area. The door was answered by an elderly woman who moved very slowly. The place had a smell about it. It was kind of dark too. It looked like no one else lived here. She had a pitbull named Charlotte, who looked about as old as she did. It wouldn't stop smelling me the whole time. It may have been blind. She was having trouble making her remote work. I think it was on the wrong setting. I changed it and everything was fine. I showed her what was wrong, in case we have this problem in the future.
The next job was a house to the south. The was an install. A woman answered the door. There were three kids here. I got the impression she was watching them, they weren't her's. I was here to replace the cable box with an HD box. She said she had some people out there to put in this HD set up. This was in the basement. There was a nice looking painting down stairs, I wondered if she painted it. I saw right away they didn't leave me any HD connections. I hooked up the HD box and the picture wouldn't fill up the screen properly. I told her this was because of the connecitons, and she needed to call her people back out.
I picked up one more job for the morning. This was a trouble call in an apartment building. The door was answered by a large black man. He showed me to a computer. He told me the problems he had at the install. Then he showed me the problems he was having with his computer. The modem was working fine. There was an error on the computer screen saying that the problem was his ethernet card. I downloaded an update of the software and explained to him what was going on. He admitted that he might get a new computer. He likes to look up porn on the Internet and he got a bunch of spyware and virusus on his computer. Yet he thought it was the modem...
After lunch I went to an apartment building. There was a young woman here, who looked like a skater. There was also an older woman and a child here. I assumed the woman was her mother and the child was her's. But the child belonged to the woman who I guess was a friend. Shw was still very much moving in. It looked like she was moving from another building in the same complex that was being renovated. She was streesed out because she had midterms due today and she was leaving tomorrow for spring break in Mexico. The job was easy. She already had her equipment and even though I was here to set up all three product, she wasn't using the phone. She just had it because it made her overall price cheaper. This made the job easier. At one point I walked in on a conversation where the young woman was talking about how she went to the dentist who said her teeth were decaying. She then referred to an eating disorder she used to receive treatment for (bulemia?) that even though she doesn't do this anymore, it must have finally caught up with her. While working on this job, I called into dispatch again and another system went down at which time I was told to not call in anymore today.
I ended up with just one more job. This was a plcae I had been to before. They are still having Internet problems. This was a square building in the fancy shopping district that has been divided into several units. Last time I was here there was a man who didn't know much about what was going on and kind of watching a child, while he spoke to his friends on the phone the whole time. This time a woman was here. She was watching Oprah and pointed out to me that this episode is for men. I was more interested in finishing this job so I could go home. I tracked some issues down to a line going to a different TV, so I replcaed it. I hope that was the problem.

2008-03-18T12:41:00.002-05:00

My first job of the day was a house in a gated community. I was here to put a box on an account that had cable but no boxes. An older lady answered to door. She showed me to the bedroom where she wanted the box installed. Her husband eventually showed up. He had a lot of questions. He seemed older than she. They both moved around very slowly. Once I had the box set up they had a lot of questions. I would explain things generally like I normally do, but when they asked questions I quickly understood that they knew nothing about this system and everything had to be explained in minute detail. What would normally take 5 minutes, now took over 30.
When I finally left there I headed to a town home complex. A black woman answered the door. On the couch in the living room was a man asleep. The room was dark but the TV was on. She showed me upstairs to where the computer was. She said that she is constantly losing her Internet and would have to reset her router to get it back. This was obviously the router. I looked around and found a splitter that could be replaced. The signal on the modem was low, so I tried to re-rout things to improve the signal, but in the end I explained that it was the router.
The next job was a house to the north. A white man let me in. He was complaining that his modem constantly resets itself and that he has had this problem for three years. He would just replace the modem. I was trying to figure out where the cable in the room goes by looking behind a bookcase. To do this I had to go around a birdcage, but for some reason I didn't see the parrot on top of the cage. Until it was about 2 inches from me and tried to take a bite of my jacket. The customer then said that the bird would indeed attack me so he took it into the other room. I was then able to follow the cable, which goes into the crawl space. I had top replace a couple connectors and a piece of bad cable, but none of this was the problem. I told the guy this was a network issue and that I would turn the job over to the appropriate people. I had to take a look at what was going on up on the pole, and then I turned over to our network people.
I then did a disconnect in the same neighborhood. Then I was given an install in an apartment complex a little ways away. This is a pretty ghetto apartment complex. A tall young white man answered the door. I was here to install TV and the Internet. He had is own modem. The job was pretty easy. He told about a friend of his who gets drunk and orders pay per view movies and then passes out. He'll do this several nights in a row with the same movie driving up his cable bills. As I was finishing up the guys friend (same guy who orders the movies) showed up and exclaimed, "I'm surprised you have running water let alone cable!" I then went to lunch.
After lunch I got an Install. I was here to do Internet and phone. Two middle aged Hispanic men lived here. One knew English pretty well, the other didn't speak at all. The job was easy, I set up the Emta at the only outlet next to the front door. I spoke to the guy about getting a router so he could use his laptop upstairs.
My last job was over by the University. This was a duplex. I arrived right when the woman who lives here showed up. It looked like her parents were here watching her children. She said that her phones would go out for hours at a time. Sometimes it would come back but with a lot of noise on the line. I looked downstairs and everything looked fine. I looked outside and saw a line exposed to the elements and had obviously taken on some water damage. I figured out which line that was and eliminated it from the system. Since everything was working when I showed up, I hoped that was the problem.

2008-03-17T13:42:00.002-05:00

My day started downtown. It was at a condo. There was a young couple here. I was installing an HD/DVR. They already had our services, so the job was easy. We talked a bit. They wanted to know how to hook up their surround sound. I explained that to them. We also talked about the Marathon being run downtown in honor of St. Patrick's Day.
The next job I got was at a house down south east. I was let in by a young man. He looked Persian. His face reminded me of Mel Gibson, a short Persian Mel Gibson. When I showed up I noticed that dispatch had taken this job from me and gave me two others. But I was already inside by this point so I had to tell them to give me back the job. I was here to install all three products. The house had been remodeled so the inside wiring was good. But the previous residents probably never had cable because there was no line running to the house itself. So I had to run a new line and do all the outside work. He told me his in-laws were in town to help move but they just went to lunch, so now he has time to get stuff done around the house like putting up blinds in all the windows. So he was working the whole time I was. He was listening to Kanye West and Tribe Called Quest. Once I finished the outside the inside was much easier. I just had to put in the wall plates and connect all the phone lines together.
I then went to lunch. After lunch I did an install at an apartment building. This building was on a very busy street across from the university. There was a Hispanic couple here with their teenage son. It looked like he slept on a mattress in the living room. I brought everything I needed to do the job only to find out everything was hooked up already. I just had to put the box they already had on the account and activate it. They saw the box I had brought and decided to ask me to hook it up in the bedroom, which I did.
The next job was another install at another apartment building on the same street just a little further north. There was a young couple here. They were watching Knocked Up. I was here to install the TV with an HD/DVR. The job went by really fast.
My next job was a house a little to the south. There was a middle aged woman here. She was having problems with her modem. She seemed largely illiterate about technology. The modem just turned out to be bad. So I replaced the modem and started to head home.
As I pulled up to my place I was given yet another job. This was a house way down south. The woman here already had her TVs hooked up, she just wanted boxes on all her TVs. She had two large dogs which were friendly but a little too friendly so she stuck them out back. The job went by quickly. I hauled ass, because I wanted to get back home.

2008-03-13T11:11:00.002-05:00

After our weekly meeting I headed south east again. My first job was a town home. There was a tall middle aged woman here with a bunch of Hispanic guys who were laying down hard wood floors. I was here to install the TV and the Internet. The wiring in the place was really old. I had to replace a few connectors, but when I removed a wall plate upstairs the connector behind it fell apart. I couldn't find a way to fix it, so I had to drill a new hole and run some new cable, which involved me hanging out of the second floor window. She then wanted me to run a new outlet out of the other room on the second floor. Which I did and had to run that cable across the neighbor's yard to a pedestal. I could tell she wasn't exactly pleased with this, but there was no other way to do it. At this point she told me she wanted another outlet in this other room. I wasn't pleased about this at all, but had to do it. This was the room where they were laying hard wood floor. These guys didn't care that I was there they were working and using all there power tools right around me (can I file workman's comp for hearing loss?). All in all I spent three hours at this place, but finally got it done.
I took a lunch, which comprised of going back to the job I was at the previous day and talk to a contractor about replacing the universal remote system. I was an hour and a half late in meeting him. He replaced it but it was still causing a problem. We mulled over the fact that this may have been a problem from the beginning but we at our company were not able to track it down until just now. We talked and thought about it for a while, but in the end his system was not compatible with ours.
My next job was a house not too far away. I was here to install phone. The customer already had Internet and TV. The thing is he didn't want the phone. He just got it because it made his bill cheaper. So I just swapped his modem for a different one. I replaced a couple of splitters as well, but the job went quickly.
Next I went to an apartment complex. There was a round white guy on the couch and two Hispanic kids playing on the ground. he proceeded to tell me how the box last night started making a bunch of noise and flashing green. So I replaced it. It took the new box a little while to fully load, but that was the only snag.
The next job was in a little gated community. There was an elderly couple here. The woman was a bit of a meddler and didn't really know what was going on. Her husband showed me the TV in the bedroom and complained about his box making noise and breaking up. So I replaced it. He also complained about the TV and cable box not syncing up. I gave him a bigger cable box hoping that would help.
My last job was at a fancy high rise apartment building. There was an older Jewish guy here. He mentioned that he wasn't living here for long, his flat screen TV was on a cardboard box. His cable box wasn't even turning on and the LED display was flashing. So I replaced it. Another easy job. At one point we started talking about Elliot Spitzer and he said, "I don't care who you are, you just don't spend $80,000 on pussy." Then I went home.

2008-03-13T10:20:00.002-05:00

I was in the south east yet again. My day started at a house. There was an elderly guy here. He was complaining that his TV in the basement wasn't working. I go down there and noticed the TV was set to channel 5, so I changed it to channel 3 and left.
I picked up another job. This was in an apartment complex. There was an elderly woman here. She got a thing in the mail saying the cable box wasn't communicating. I looked around and found several old connectors that needed to be replaced. As well as some old filters outside in the box. but when I got back inside I noticed the cable was going to the VCR before the cable box, which was the actual problem.
I was then given an install. This was in the fancy new condos I was at yesterday for a downgrade. This place was nice and more expensive than the typical home. I thought it strange that such a fancy place is right next to the University where the average person could afford to live here. I had to be let in by the building manager. The actual resident wasn't around. There was no furniture in the place. I was just here to set up the Internet, which was pretty easy.
My next job was another install. This was at an even fancier and newer building in the fancy shopping district. They were actually still constructing it. As I was on the 5th floor there were people still painting the walls. I stepped into the unit and the guy here was yelling at some people who had fucked something up in his closet. He then showed me what he wanted done. I was here to install all three products. The job was fairly easy, they were in the process of moving in, but there was no furniture in it. The guy told me he was moving from a town in the mountains. Though I think he is keeping his property up there, he is just going to go back and forth between the two.
After I finished I went to lunch. After lunch I went to another fancy high rise in the same area. This was on the top floor and possibly fancier than the last place. There was a nice old woman here. She said she was out of town and just got back and now none of her TVs were working. Two of the TVs she showed were actually working but her universal remote system wasn't. The third TV was a jumbled mess. So I tried to figure out what was going on. It turned out that a filter had been placed on her unit because she was feedbacking noise into our system. So I sought to find out what was causing the problem. It turned out to be the device that worked her universal remotes. I unplugged it and got in contact with the guy who installed it. We made an appointment to deal with this further the next day.
I then went to a house a little to the south. A very elderly guy answered the door. He had a problem with his TV. It was set to air instead of cable. I switched it and ran through the channel set up. and everything was fine. As I was waiting for him to show me out, he said "I'm 80 and dying." Which was easily the most depressing thing I had heard in a while. I wanted to change the subject so I asked how long he had lived in this house. He said he had been there for 35 years. I realized that was longer than I had been alive.
The Next job was a house to the south east of here. There was an elderly woman here watching Jeopardy. She complained about not getting the guide. Which I knew right away what the problem was. I just needed to change the input on the TV. She said she was largely blind. She also told me that she used to have a 72 inch TV, but her kids said it was fuzzy so they bought her some fancy new flat screen TV. She said her kids also said the TV was fuzzy in her bedroom. She asked me to check it out, but it was fine.
My last job of the day was another house in the area. This woman had an office in her house and had moved it into the basement and had cable ran down there. But now she wanted it moved to where it was and that outlet wasn't working. In running the new line the previous tech had unhooked the old one. This was a pretty standard practice, but she seemed perturbed by it. She wanted me to make sure that everything was working in case she moves things around again in the future. Which I did. Then I went home.

Holy 200 Batman!

2008-03-11T13:53:00.004-05:00

My day started south east today. I'm begining to think this is my new area and nobody bothered to tell me. I struggled to stay awake driving to the first job. This was in an apartment complex. It took me a while to find the customer but eventually I found him. He was a short Arabic guy. He spoke good English but he didn't talk much. The place was a mess, he was still moving in. This was an install of all three products. He already had the equipment and knew how the products work. He just told me to set up where ever. That made me happy. I took me a while to find the box, actually I wandered around until I found someone who works in the complex and could tell me where to go. Once I got that sorted out the rest was a breeze.
I then went to another complex to the east. I had two jobs in this complex. No one was home at the first one. The second one was answered by a young woman. She let me in. She said that her old TV had gone out and she switched the cable box to the new TV and now it doesn't work. It wasn't plugged into the wall. I plugged it back in and left.
I then got a job at a house quite a ways away. This house was being remodled. No one was here. I called the woman and she said she would be there in about 10 minutes. She said the door was unlocked and explained how the phones were not working. She said one tech came out and got everything working. They took out a wall and now nothing was working, so another tech came out and fixed it but now nothing is working again. The phone was shorting out. The wiring looked sketchy but there was not much that could be done since they were still doing construction. I finally tracked it down to this wallplate that was hanging down. Some of the wires had been pulled out and were touching each other. It was a quick fix, and everything was up and running.
I then got an install. This was at an apartment building near the university. There was a young Asian woman here. I was here to install the Internet. Aparently she had Internet in the past with her roomate who left. So she was getting it re-hooked up. It was an easy job. While I was out back hooking her unit up a guy came out with a barrel of peanuts, he started laying it out for the squirrels. I almost felt like going off on him for feeding the fucking squirrels, but I didn't. He said he was recently down in New Mexico near a peanut farm and the peanuts were really cheap, but now he needed help getting rid of them. Sure enough they started coming from every direction for the feast.
I got one more job before lunch. This was at another apartment building near the university. Someone was downgrading their service and wanted me to take their box. There was a young woman here. I just took the box and left.
After lunch I went to a house. It's on a busy street, but once inside you don't notice. There was a woman here with her newborn. One step inside and you get hit with the smell of a baby. It was a very pungent odor. Channel 68 on her box was acting up as well as a few other channels. I found a bad connector and I replaced the splitter. This fixed the other channels but not 68. So I replaced the box. But the new box was even worse. All sorts of channels were flashing in and out. So I got yet another box. This one seemed to work so I left.
The next job was a house in the same area. The door was answered by a teenage girl. She said her mom would be home in ten minutes. So I walked around the outside, but this house had been remodled so all the wiring was internal. Eventually the mom showed up. She told me she kept having problems with her Internet and her phone. I checked and found an old splitter. One that should have never worked. I replaced it as well as a wall plate. It's hard to tell if I really fixed it but hopefully I did.
I then got a job at a brand new apartment complex right next to the university. This was a downgrade. I just had to find the box in order to put a filter on the line. It didn't take me long to find the guy who is in charge of the building. He showed me where I wanted to go and I did my job and left.
I picked up one more job which was on my way home. This was in teh country club area. A nice old guy answered the door. He got a thing in the mail stating that one of his cable boxes was not communicating correctly. I hate when they do this. Because these people don't know anything is wrong. We are just creating more work for ourselves. The guy said he just got back from Vail today. He spent the weekend there. He talked about seeing the Gypsy Kings and how great of a concert that was. I replaced a connector and a wall plate and then seemed to fix the problem.

2008-03-10T14:11:00.002-05:00

When I started the day the computers were down, so no one could see what jobs they had. This put everyone at least a half an hour late for the day. I finally headed to my first job. This was a house. A hippy looking guy answered the door. The place was a mess. He showed me the back yard and the line to his house was laying on the ground. He explained that a branch from a tree came down and took out a whole bunch of lines. He also told me that two other techs had been out there and couldn't replace the line because they had to get into a neighbor's yard and there was a paranoid old lady there with a dog that she had refused to put away. I had notes saying she had been warned that we will got the police and animal control if we have to. When I went over there no one was to be found, she apparently got the message. Now this person who's line I'm replacing goes to this pole which is more of a relay, because the line has to get to the next pole down where the tap is. To get to this next pole I had to go through three other neighbor's yards and of course they each had dogs. In the end it took me three hours of climbing fences and poles and stringing cable. This made me late for the rest of the day. When I finished the guy was so happy he offered me a beer which I had to deny.
Once I finished there I headed to another house further south. There was a middle aged man here with his son. The kid was watching TV, he was cooking. He showed me to a different TV that wasn't working. I looked behind it and a chord had come out. I plugged it back in and everything was working fine.
The next job was in an apartment complex. There was a small round gentleman here. He was watching celebrity apprentice when I showed up. He had a great fondness for the blues brothers. There was posters and various other paraphernalia around. His first complaint was about the quirkiness of his DVR. Unfortunately all our DVRs are the same way. Mine does the same things and I told him this. His second complaint was that his computer was running slow and there was one page that was not fully loading. He showed me a speed test from one web site that showed it was slow. I changed some splitters around outside and came back in. It still showed the connection as slow, but I went to a different speed test site and it showed it as being super fast. As for the web page, I had no clue what was causing that. Either he was having software problems or that web page was having problems.
I skipped lunch and went to my next job. This was at another apartment complex. There was a young couple here. They said they just moved here from California about 5 months ago. They've been living in a hotel room since, and just moved into this place. They had no furniture, it was all back in California. They were still trying to sell their house back there. They had 5 cats, two very hairy ones and three hair-less ones. The hairless cats looked creepy. I was here to hook up their TV which was very easy.
The next job I had was a downgrade. This was another house. I spoke to the gentleman here to make sure I had the right information, then I drove around the block and let myself into the neighbor's yard. I had to find the pedestal and put a filter on the guy's line.
My last job of the day was an install at an apartment complex. I was here to install all three products. There was a young woman here with her parents. They were remodeling the place. The father was laying wood flooring down. The daughter was helping him. The mom mainly wandered around and meddled with everything. She really annoyed me. The daughter bought the place. She was telling stories about the place when she bought it back in Aug. Some woman lived here and never cleaned or updated the place. There was cat poop in the bathtub. The woman died in the bedroom. They've been remodeling the place since Aug, that's saying something. There was one cable outlet, that was probably never used. I had to drill a couple holes to run it into the next room and the bedroom beyond that. It was a bit of a pain to work around them all and what they were doing but eventually I finished the job.
On the way home I got asked to check in on another tech who needed some help. It was on the way home so I agreed. This was a house. He was having trouble getting the phones to work. Somewhere in the house lines one and two were connected so the system was shorting out. We figured out how to bypass it but that only solved half the problem. We also found some wires that were not connected well, so I redid those connections and that seemed to fix it. Then I went home.

2008-03-06T12:45:00.002-06:00

After our weekly meeting I headed south east again. This was an apartment complex, I've been to a couple times before. The door was answered by a young guy. He looked like a D & D type of guy. He was easy going and nice. He had a old big black dog and two cats. I was here to install all three products. He had his equipment from his previous residence, so the job was pretty easy. I went to hook up the EMTA and he warned me that it was in his smoking room so pardon the smell. I though that was interesting to have a smoking room. It didn't smell that bad, bud he did just move in. The room was set up for X-Box live. The only snag with the install, was that some of the information from his account was from a couple address ago. So I had to wait on the phone for a while until they got that figured out.
After that job I had a disconnect in the same complex. Once finished with that I went to lunch.
After lunch I went to another apartment complex. A young African woman answered the door. She had two kids running around. She complained her Internet wasn't working, but it was working fine her computer just wasn't hooking up to it. When I approached the bedroom with the computer in it I noticed the shape of an iron imprinted in the carpet. The computer was working fine. I just needed to set it up so that it would enter the right password for the network.
I then went further south to another complex for another disconnect. Then I went up north to a house. I took a wrong turn which delayed me a couple minutes, but allowed me to circumvent a speed trap in a school zone. This was fortuitous because the way I had been cruising around all day, I probably would have gotten a ticket and they have threatened to fire anybody caught speeding in a school zone at my company. The job itself was very easy. I was met at the door by an older couple. Their phones were not working. I looked and the EMTA was working fine. I noticed that it was plugged into a wall plate with two phone jacks. I moved it to the other phone jack and everything worked fine. The woman blamed her husband for this, he told a joke at her expense, I felt like I was on the set of a sitcom or something. As I was leaving the woman noticed the chord dangling from my meter and exclaimed, "You have a tail!" I chuckled and turned around and could see in her eyes a bit of seriousness about the statement. At which point I left.
The next job was at a town home complex. A young woman answered the door and looked at me confused about my presence. She wasn't expecting me, her roommate made the call. She called him and he said the box in his room wasn't getting all the channels. She didn't know he had a box in his room. We go up to his room and there was a large flat screen TV in there. I could tell she was surprised by this, she had no clue. He was definitely missing some channels. I looked around and found several things wrong. From a low signal to a whole bunch of bad connectors. I spent some time trying to make sense of things as well as fixing everything that was wrong. He eventually showed up. Once I got everything working I could tell he was happy.
I then picked up a job at a house. This was further north, near where a friend of mine's parents live. I was here to hook up one TV. not even with a box. The house itself was already wired, I just had to go up to the pole and connect it. There was an older couple here. The gentleman explained that they were remodeling his place so they were staying here in the meantime. He told me he used to work for one of our competitors. He only had good things to say about them. He said they had bought him out and he got his pension. He also talked about how he picks up the occasional work around a local Catholic school and some consulting work.
I left there and went to my last job. This was another town home complex. An older woman answered the door. She explained that every so often she would lose a web page or have trouble sending an email or once how when she was trying to stream Oprah it kept breaking up and that she was worried that someone might be stealing her Internet. She also said that she was talking to her mother and someone random guy but into the conversation. As for the later of these two things, I have no clue how that would happen. Her wiring couldn't be crossed with a neighbor's because with the way our system works, it would cause problems and just not work at all. So it would have to been a data or network issue. Either way it is out of my hands. She said she had a previous technician out there who told went outside and told her that someone was stealing her Internet. That would be impossible. I wondered if she misunderstood, and the tech said that someone was stealing her cable. I looked and saw signs that such things had occurred in the past, but nothing of the kind was happening now. I told her this. As for the loss of a page or an email I tried to explain to her how the Internet is only as good as the weakest part. She told me she once saw someone on Oprah explain how the Internet works, and that what I just said made sense. Then I left and went home.

2008-03-05T13:32:00.002-06:00

They had me south east today. My day starated at an apartment building. This building is actually on the border of this area and my usual area. It could have easily been my usual area. There was a middle aged guy here. He was complaining about some channels going out. Although it was working now of course. I checked things out and replaced a splitter and a cable, but there was still some noise in teh system. It was coming from a crusty old TV he had in his bedroom, I told him about it and it sounded like he was going to replace it.
My next job was an install. This was a house near a rather large Catholic complex. The complex is rather large and impressive, but you wouldn't know it's there because it's completely hidden by this neighborhood. The house was quaint. There was an older woman here. She already had out Internet. I was here to install the TV and phone. She had Direct TV and while I was there, she was trying to end her service with them. They said she signed an 18 month deal and they would have to charge her for prematurely disconnecting. She was certain she never signed any such thing. She works at a law office and has no problem taking them to court. They also told her they wanted her to get on the roof and remove some pieces from the dish and send it back. The job for me was pretty easy it didn't take very long.
The next job was a house not too far away. This was a nice house right on a very busy street. Though from inside you wouldn't be able to tell. There was an older couple here. The husband I believe was a realtor. They had three different phone lines one of which was not working. Two of these lines came from different EMTAs and when they were pluhhed into the same telephone as line 1 and 2, it created a short and knocked one of the lines out. I wasn't entirley sure what was causing it but I saw a chance to simplify the situation, I moved one of the phone lines so that they were on the same EMTA. That solved the problem. So then I went to lunch.
After lunch I went to a very large house. There were contractors all over the place. The house was in the the finishing stages of being remodled. There woman who lives here met me at the door. She took me to the office and said that the Internet wasn't working. The reason it was not working was because they disconnected the cable and didn't run any new cable to this part of the house. I talked to the guy in charge and he said he wanted me to set up the router in a compartment in the garage where all the cable were run to and he would have people run new CAT-5 to that room to get it hooked up.
My last job of the day was another install. This was an old house. There was a woman here with her two kids. They were in fact twins. The girl acted very innocent while the boy was very mischevious running around causing trouble. The woman was having trouble keeping up with him. She told me the house was about 100 years old. I was here to put a box on one of the TVs and to set up the phones. The job was pretty easy untils I got to the phones. The wiring in this place was old and confusing and it took me a while to figure it out. She told me that the previous owners had the basement as an apartment, so there were different phone lines running all over the place. I got it worked out eventually. Then I went home.

2008-03-04T12:50:00.002-06:00

They had me in the northwest part of town today. I started at some new condos that overlookecd the Interstate. They were new as in still under construction. A young woman had just moved in. I saw something that told me she had moved here from the suburbs way to the south. I was here to set up Internet and TV. I wandered around and found one of the construction guys to show me where the box was to hook up her unit. After that the job was really easy. She already had her equipment and it was exactly where she wanted it. There was a snag when trying to hook up the Internet, a problem with the system. So I had to sit on the phone with tech support for about 15 minutes while they fixed it. Then I left.
I got some coffee and headed to my next job. This was another install at an apartment building. There was a bunch of middle aged Hispanic guys hanging out in the street. In the building there was a police office wandering the halls. The door was answered by a young white male. As sketchy as the neighborhood seemed, the inside of the apartment was actually kind of nice. I was here to install the Internet. I had a difficult time trying to find the line to his unit. I had to tone it out, but I eventually found it. At which point I finished the job. I could tell he was anxious for me to finish, he probably had to go to work.
The next job was a house to the north. A short Hispanic woman answered the door. There was a couple white kids playing in the living room. She told me that there was a couple more taking a nap. She must be a day care provider. She also told me this is here slow day, she usually has more kids running around. Her phones weren't working. I checked the EMTA and it was working fine. I looked around and asked to see the basement. She said alright in that tone that says you don't know what your getting into. She opened it for me and said that she tries to never go down there. I chuckled, but she wasn't joking. I had to walk sideways to get down there. I've had an easier time getting into crawl spaces. There were spider webs all over the place. It was like raiders of the lost ark. I found the phone lines and quickly realized what was going on and what I actually wanted was in fact upstairs. So I hurried out of there and found a phone line that had disconnected, so I hooked it back up and explained to her what happened and how to fix it in case it happens again.
I picked up another job even further north. This was another house. An old woman answered the door. She seemed a little crotchety. She complained about previous techs that had been out there. She showed me to a bedroom and apologized for the mess, saying it's not her room. I saw that everything was working fine at the moment. I asked to see outside at which point she told me that the last tech said something would have to be done on the pole, but then left and did nothing. There was some obvious work that needed to be done, so I went to work. I did have to go up on the pole and replace a bunch of connectors. I hope that did it. She seemed pleased that I actually put some work in. As I was leaving I noticed a young man here, it was probably his room that the EMTA was in. I assume he was her son. He tried to act like he knew what was going on with the cable but I pretty much dismissed him because I was done at this point. I left and went to lunch.
My first job of the afternoon was at an apartment building for retirees. This place was next to a lake and had a great view of the mountains. There was an elderly short Hispanic woman here. Her TV was turned to channel 129 instead of channel 3. Which was a very easy fix. She also asked me to check her VCR and make sure it is working correctly. I put in a tape and it immediately started to eat it. I took me a while but I was finally able to get the tape out. I put in a different tape and it didn't play at all. The VCR was crap. She asked me to remove it and hook up the DVD player that was int he other room which I did. She was happy and tipped me $10 for it.
My last job of the day was a house a little to the south. There was a young couple moving in. I thought at first they were a couple, but they had separate bed rooms. Who knows what was going on. The house was nice, not unlike some of the houses I'm used to seeing in my usual area. I needed to get up the pole but there was some small construction team laying cement in the alley so I had to keep myself busy until I left. They wanted a new outlet drilled which I did as well as all the other inside work. I felt like I was working backwards, but eventually I was getting it all done. At one point the guy offered me a beer, which I politely refused. I finally got up the pole, but when I got back down nothing was working. I climbed up the pole again and nothing was coming out of it. I called one of the line technicians who was already on his way. It turned out I blew a fuse down the line. It didn't take long for them to fix once they showed up, but I felt like a dumb ass for it though. When I stepped inside the house it was obvious he had been smoking marijuana. I didn't say anything I just finished the job and went home.

2008-03-03T13:10:00.002-06:00

When I woke up it was snowing and snowing hard. Though it was not icing up the roads, it was snowing so heavy that after every job I had to re-scrape my windows. My day started at an apartment building. I was her for an install, but no one answered or let me in. So I called it not at home and picked up a couple of extra jobs.
The next job was to check and see if someone might be stealing cable at a near by apartment. The problem was I couldn't get into the building to do so. I wasn't about to call this person up and ask them to let me in.
The next job was at a house a little ways away. As I approached the house I got a feeling I had been here before. The door was answered by a short red headed woman. I had obviously woken here up. I don't think she was expecting me. She made me wait a second while she got a jacket. She said she was sleeping on the couch, she must have cleaned it up while she made me wait. I didn't recognize her at all. But the place still seemed familiar. I wondered if a lot of the houses in this area look the same. They were having problems with their TV. I traced it to a bad cable, which I replaced. I took a look out back at which point I knew for a fact I had been here before. I guess it was her husband that had been here last time. Once fixed I left.
The next job was in the land of scrape offs. The door was answered by a young woman in her bathrobe. She apologized, she thought the appointment was for the afternoon. She let me in and quickly showed me around. She had a router in the basement. one of the rooms upstairs wasn't hooked up. She also wanted me to hook up her husband's office. Apparently he was on DSL, and had decided to switch over to cable. After showing me all this she asked if I needed her anymore. I said no, at which point she said she was going to go get dressed because she wasn't comfortable being in a bathrobe around the cableguy. It became apparent I needed to set up a second router, the first was maxed out. I hope that doing so didn't mess things up. I tried to call some people and ask but no one had a definite answer. At one point it became apparent we needed a long ethernet chord, longer than any I have. So she went and got one. There were a couple kids running around as well. They were in the basement at one point playing dance dance revolution. Once I got everything working the woman was very grateful. She was also having TV troubles but she called our customer service and they apparently walked her though it. She gave me an extra box that she was no longer using then I left.
The next job was an install at an apartment building. There was a young woman here, she said she is a law student at a local university. I was just here to hook up one TV, which ought to be easy enough. But once I found the box where I would hook her up, I could not find the corresponding cable. So I had to run back and forth to tone it out. I finally found it and was able to finish the job.
The next job was back in the land of scrape offs. This was actually an original house. The door was answered by a young woman. There was another woman about the same age here, I assumed they were probably renting the place. She complained that her Internet was out. As well as some of her HD channels. Of course when I showed up everything was fine. I took a look around anyways but could find absolutely nothing. I told them that maybe someone was working in the area and then I went to lunch.
My first job after lunch was an install. No one was there at first. I called the guy and he said he would be there in about 5 minutes. He was a large slightly effeminate man. His place was nice, he had a lot of DVDs for TV shows like Desperate Housewives and Sex in the City. He showed where the cables were. I did the install. It went by pretty easy. The only hang up, was that there was a back up in the system of sending downloads to the cable box. So he wasn't getting all his channels and wouldn't for about another hour. He wasn't too bothered about that.
My next job was in the same complex. There was a middle aged woman here. She bought an HD television and picked up and HD box from us, but thought she had hooked it up wrong. It was hooked up right, but the TV was on the wrong input. Although she didn't have all her channels either, because it still needed the download. I told her to wait an hour. I also explained things and made sure she knew how to work it all.
I then headed to my last job. This was an apartment building that is largely populated by immigrants. I was afraid at first that this was a certain apartment I have already been to a couple times before. I turned out be a new one though. A young black woman answered the door. She was here with her child. Her phones weren't working at all. I looked outside and she had been disconnected. I hooked her back up. When I came back it was working so I left. As I was leaving I saw a flier, that looked like one I had run into last week. Where a guy in resort town had been disconnected and had this sales flier left on his door. I made sure to bring this up to my supervisor. Then I went home.

2008-02-27T21:02:00.002-06:00

We had our meetings this morning then I went out to my first job. My first two jobs in fact were in the same building. This was a building for retirees. The first job was a disconnect which was easy. The second was an install. There was short Hispanic woman here. Her father was moving in later this week and she wanted to get everything set up for him. She was getting everything perfect for him, which I thought was commendable. I was here to install two TVs. The only snag was that in order to get the cable into the other room I had to drill through the wall. We got whatever permission we needed and I did it. Since he hadn't moved in yet there was no furniture to work around. Then the maintenance guy asked if I could help him with something. He wanted me to set up a splitter so he could run a new line in someone else's apartment. Which I did and then went to lunch.
After lunch I went out to resort town. This was for another install. There was a young guy here with his dog. He said he was a trader. He kept asking me a bunch of questions about the Internet. It was very important to him that his Internet be good, for his lively hood. He also wanted a couple TVs hooked up. The job was pretty simple. He told me he had a house in a good part of town. We talked about how this wasn't a good time to be selling. He said there was some development going on across the street from his place that he didn't like. So he sold it. He said he was going to live here until the housing market bottoms out, then he'll buy another house.
I finished that job and got another one in resort town. The guy wasn't home when I got there, he said he could be there in 20 minutes. So I waited. In the mean time I looked around outside and found he had been disconnected. I told him so when he showed up. We went inside and sure enough everything was working now. He handed me some brochure from my company saying to call them for installation. I took the brochure so that I can pass it on to my supervisor, then I left.
The next job I was given was at a rather nice looking building that had been divided into several units. There was a middle aged woman here. She thanked me for coming back. I get the impression that she missed her appointment and I got called back here. Her Tivo wasn't acting right. The channels were all screwy. I looked and the Tivo was saying that the wrong kind of card was in there. I looked at the card and it was right, but the Tivo was reading it wrong. I tried a different card but the Tivo didn't respond, so I put the first card back in and reset the Tivo. Then it started to work right so I left.
My last job was an install in the retirement community. I called and a man answered the phone. He sounded Asian. When I showed up I was greeted by a middle aged Hispanic woman and her son who was in wheel chair. It wasn't an accent it was a speech impediment. I got the impression they were from Venezuela He wasn't retarded, in fact he was very smart, probably smarter than me. Maybe he had cerebral palsy. I was here to install three TVs and the Internet. I had to drill a couple holes. He had a fancy computer that ran on a different operating system than what I'm used to. Probably some variation of Linux. I finished the job and went home.

2008-02-27T13:35:00.002-06:00

My day started out in plastic land. I had an install. I was here to remove a cable card and replace it with a DVR as well as install phones. A guy answered the door. It looked like the whole family was here. His mother was hanging out in the kitchen. I saw his wife briefly when I showed up, but she must have gone to work, because I didn't see her after that. They had a kid too. The guy kind of followed me around at first. I guess to make sure I knew what I was doing. The job was very easy. For the phones I just swapped the modem for the EMTA and I was finished.
I then got another job in plastic land only a couple blocks away. It was an equipment pickup. The door was answered by a guy who was on the phone. He let me in and said one second. Then he went downstairs. He came back up with an HD box. I gave him a receipt. During this whole exchange his daughter never left his side, peeking out at me from behind his legs. She must have been scared of me.
I then picked up a job at a house to the east. There was a lady here working from home. She told me that her computer in the basement wasn't connecting to the router. I tried to maneuver the router to get the signal through the floor. These old houses have some very thick walls. It was starting to work, but I think I broke the antennae because now none of the computers could connect, so I had to replace the router. In the end I could get the computer in the basement to connect but it was a very weak signal, so the connection would drop. I explained to her what was going on, she said she might have to convince one of her IT guys to come out and hard wire it.
I then picked up one more job for the morning. This was back in plastic land. There was a woman here with her child. She wasn't getting a good Internet connection. I found a problem with how things were hooked up down stairs, but the real problem was the router itself. I had trouble connecting directly to it. I couldn't even identify it. I think she was hooked into a neighbor's router and that router was giving her problems. So I told her how to hook directly into the modem and which of her neighbor's routers she could tie into.
After lunch I got a job at a house to the south. There was a woman here. She said that her router was giving her problems when she tried to secure it, but when it was unsecured she could use it fine. But she does VPN to work from home and needs a secured connection. So I replaced the router. The whole time I was there she was scrambling around. She was going to go catch a flight for some work conference and needed to pack. Eventually her mom showed up to help take care of her son while she was gone.
I then got a job a couple blocks away. This was an L shaped building. I had actually been here once before. Though the last time I was here I remember a bunch of Hispanic teenagers being here. This time it was a black woman here. This is the first time I've been to the same unit but there have been different residents. There was a bunch of little African statues throughout the place and a giant fierce mask above the TV. I would love to have a mask like that. She was not getting any signal to the TV. I checked out back and everything looked fine, but upon further investigation I noticed that both connections at the ground block were loose. So loose they weren't truly connecting. So I tightened them up and everything was fine.
My last job was at an apartment complex. An African man answered the door. There was a very cute baby hanging out on the floor. The whole time I was there she would squeal to try and get my attention. They were having problems with getting all our features. He said he rearranged the room and ever since he moved the TV it hasn't worked quite right. Everything looked fine. I replaced a few connectors to no avail so finally I replaced the box and that did it. So I went home.

2008-02-26T14:19:00.002-06:00

They had me south east today. My day started at a house. An elderly woman answered the door. She moved very slowly. She said the TV downstairs wouldn't turn on. Though when I asked her questions she couldn't supply too many answers. It seems her son lives downstairs and it was his TV in which the complaint was made. I took a look downstairs and sure enough the box was dead. So I replaced the box and headed on my way.
The next job was not too far away. It was another house. I could tell the guy was not in a good mood. Apparently some one called in sick so we were behind and I ended up showing up late to the job I was just given. The guy said to me that certain features weren't acting right, but every time I asked further questions he would get frustrated and say that he doesn't know and that his wife is the one with the complaint. So I replaced an old connector and the box. As I was doing this the guy's neighbor called and asked what was going on, because he saw my van. The neighbor told him he say a bunch of trucks down the street working on something over the weekend. The guy told me this and asked me if that could have been a problem. I asked if anything has gone wrong since that point and of course the guy didn't know. He was pretty much useless.
The next job was n install. This was an apartment building. There was a young couple moving in. Most of their stuff was still in boxes. They had two little dogs and a cat. The place smelled like a rodent. That smell when somebody has a pet rat or gerbil. Maybe it was left over from the previous resident. They told me what they wanted. It wasn't too hard. They already had all their equipment and a bunch of cable. I had to drill a hole through one wall, but it was easy.
I ran a quick errand and went to one last job for the morning. This was another apartment complex. I was here for a failed self install for Internet. Though when I arrived it looked like no one even tried. The door was answered by an older woman with one arm. There was a teenage boy here. Their interactions didn't quite seem like Mother/Son. She talked to me about going to a funeral in Chicago last week, and what that was like. She talked about trying to get left handed keyboards (The right arm is missing). She alluded that she had two hands at some point. I almost wondered if she lost her appendage due to diabetes or something, at least that was the impression I got. The job was pretty easy. The woman kept talking and talking, she must have been lonely or something.
After lunch I went to another apartment. There was an uptight black man here. He had a slow deliberate way of speaking. The place was little on furniture and big on papers. They were strewn all over the place. The guy told me he was a realtor. He was having problems with his router. It would just shut down randomly, so I replaced it. He didn't talk much, he just made himself lunch and read while he ate it.
Then I headed to a house, in a little complex. There were power lines running right over the place. I could hear them crackling and had a tingling feeling in my scalp. The door was answered by a woman, who was not expecting me at all. She called her husband and he explained what was going on. Some of their features were not working correctly. I looked around but nothing jumped out at me immediately, So I replaced some suspicious connectors and cable. But since the problem was not a regular occurrence I have no way of gauging whether or not I fixed it.
The next job was another install. This was also in an apartment complex. I was let in by a Marine. He was told that we wouldn't do the wiring in the apartment(I think he misunderstood), but it was to my advantage because he already wired all the TV's for me. So I just had to activate the apartment and set up the cable box. As I was working he said "I don't have any pot, but would like a Propel or bottled water?" and I started to think did I just hear that right? Then he said, "We go through a lot of pop around here." It had been a while since I heard the word pop, I think that's what through me off. The job was easy. His roommate showed up as I was finishing, he yelled in joy about the fact that he had TV. He said its been a boring couple of weeks.
My last job was an apartment building that was right next door. This place was for retirees. I was called in by an elderly gentleman. He had a leg brace on. He was also hooked up to an oxygen tank and had hearing aides. He told me about the problems he was having. He wanted me to remove the cable box and take it back. I was setting his TV up for the just basic cable. He proceeded to talk about his brother who had died about two years ago. He kept saying that his brother was the smart one, he knew all about electronics. His brother was in to Ham operating. And the guy proceeded to tell me about how his brother would keep him up at night talking to people all over and how his brother would build his own electronics. This guy was obviously lonely. He could probably talk forever, but I was hungry and tired and wanted to go home, so I left.

2008-02-25T13:25:00.002-06:00

My day started at an apartment building. It was pretty ghetto looking. It was a square building broken into four units. The door was answered by a young black girl who told me no adults were there, so I rescheduled the job.
The I headed to a house. There was a young white couple here. They had a couple dogs they had to put out back. Their router wasn't working at all. Since it was one of ours, I had to replace it. The guy showed me to the computer and I started to work. He then left me and did things upstairs. The job was easy. I couldn't help but feel that they haven't woken up yet. They might have even been hung over.
The next job was another house. This time there was an elderly white couple here. They were watching Meet The Press and Ralph Nader was on. I asked if he is running for president (I figured he wouldn't be on if he wasn't there to announce that) and the woman said yes. She then began to rain insults upon him. She obviously blames him for putting Bush into office back in 2000. I was here to replace the remote in the bedroom. The lady started to ask me about her TV and whether or not it was HD. IT obviously was and I found the HD connections. She then asked if she could get an HD box in the bedroom. So I set her up with one.
The next job was another house further east. In front of the house on the street, was a pile of puke. Somebody partied too hard last night. I was met at the door by a young Hispanic man in a local sports jersey. There was a woman with a child in the living room. He led me through the house which was dirty and cluttered and down to the basement, which was no better. He took me to what I guess was his room and showed me the router. Everything looked fine, but he said his sister's computer upstairs wasn't working right. So I went up and took a look at it. I could see a couple things wrong. But I fixed them rather quickly and went on my way.
I then picked up a job at an apartment complex. There was a Hispanic man here. He was getting nothing on his TV. The table next to his TV was interspersed with photos of his kids and statues of bald eagles. Behind the TV was a porno. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on here because everything was labeled wrong. But eventually I found his line which was disconnected, so I reconnected it and then went to lunch.
After lunch I went to my first job of the afternoon which was at a bowling alley. I talked to the manager who had no clue what was going on. He said that we called him and said something was wrong. I looked an found that the equipment was small business equipment which I had none of and wasn't entirely confident in dealing with. So I called dispatch and rescheduled it for tomorrow when someone from small business can look at this.
The next job was a town home complex. The door was answered by a black woman. There was an older black man on the couch hooked up to an oxygen tank. He said he was having trouble with a bunch of channels, all of which were working now of course. I looked around and found nothing wrong. There was a couple suspicious cables which I replaced. But everything looked fine, so I left.
The next job was another town home complex to the north. There was an African couple here. They spent most of the time I was here on the phone. Each on their respective cell phone. The guy was complaining about missing a bunch of channels. I was messing around and found a bad cable which I replaced. I also looked outside and found an unnecessary splitter, which I got rid of. This seemed to fix it.
I then headed to a house a little to the east. There was a middle aged lady here. She had a couple dogs. She was complaining about the quality of her HD picture. She swears that her other TVs look better. I hate these kind of jobs because these people are so hard to please. I looked for the splitter and found way too many things hooked up. I rearranged things to give a better signal and she seemed genuinely pleased with the picture. She also wanted me to look at her TV upstairs. It would randomly show a black square while she was watching TV. I told her that was because she had captions on. I showed her how to turn them off.
I then picked up one more job. This was a house towards the west. There was a young couple here, with 3 children. Two were newborns, twins. They weren't able to access all of our programming. I checked and their signal was all weird. I found it was due to a filter on the line, that shouldn't have been there. I don't know how or why someone had done this, but I fixed it and then went home.

2008-02-22T10:11:00.003-06:00

My day started in the retirement neighborhood. There was a woman here who seemed kind of young compared to most of the people here. She said she wasn't getting a picture. She was just watching TV and hear a pop and there has been no picture. The TV wouldn't turn on, the cable box would. I plugged the TV into a different outlet and it still didn't turn on, so I told her it was the TV. She needed a new one.
The next job was an install. It was in the same neighborhood. An elderly lady answered the door, she had a strange accent. I was here to install the phone. She didn't seem to understand what I was doing. But then again most people don't understand that when we o phone it is over the cable. So I worked and she pretty much left me alone. The job was pretty easy. In the end there was one chord that was hanging out. I offered to tuck it under the carpet to hide it and she said it wasn't necessary. She said it in such a way I could tell she didn't want me there anymore. Somehow I managed to rub her the wrong way, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how. So I got her to sign and I left.
I then got one more install for the morning. This was a building that had been broken into about 6 units. A short round Hispanic woman answered the door. There was a couple of kids running around. I was here to install all three products. The place was already hooked up for some reason, I guess the previous residents were never disconnected. I started in the basement. The kids were down here watching TV. I set up the box but it was missing a whole bunch of channels. I looked and replaced the splitter and every connector I could find, but it was to no avail. So I decided to work ahead on the Internet and phone. These I were setting up in the daughter's room. This was the easy part of the install. At about this point another Hispanic woman showed up with her kid as well. All three kids were running around screaming. I resolved to replace the line to the place in order to try and fix that problem with the TV. But I could only get about 3/4 of it done because the last portion ran through the neighbor's porch and I had no way of getting in there. I went to see if I had done enough to fix the TV but I had not. The lady told me that she had to drive her friend to work so she needed to leave, so I left the job unfinished.
Then I took a late lunch. Afterwards I did an install int he same neighborhood. This was another apartment complex. There was a little old German lady here. She was listening to Sean Hannity on the radio. She asked if I had heard about this John McCain thing. She said she was disgusted at how people out there want to tear down a perfectly good man and then lift up others. I wondered at who exactly she meant by others, but decided not to ask. Some people get touchy about politics. I was here to install her TV. She said int he past she only used to get Fox news, then she complained that she couldn't get channel 2 then like magic she could get channel two but now she couldn't get fox news, which was why she is now getting a cable box. The reason for this is that she was not supposed to get fox news and when she called in, someone got sent out to put the filter back on her account. While I was working Sean Hannity started said that Clinton and Obama were both professing Socialism. Then the woman started going off about Socialism and how terrible and evil it was. I don't know what is more ridiculous, Sean Hannity's outlandish claim or her immediate acceptance of that claim. She started going off about how people just want stuff for free and how TV is to blame, and I don't completely disagree with what she was saying but I don't see how that has to do with Clinton and Obama being Socialist. We also talked about Obama some and how he is being compared to John F. Kennedy. She said she never got into the whole Kennedy thing, and she was always more impressed by Nixon. Somehow I thought that summed everything up. It took me a while to get out of there, she just wanted to keep talking and talking.
I eventually got out of there and got one more job. This was an Internet install int he fancy shopping district. This is one of the few original remaining houses here. Just about everything has been torn down for apartment buildings and townhouses, or scrape offs. There was a young guy here with a big dog. He showed me to where he wanted the modem. I took a look outside and saw immediately I needed to replace the line. As I stepped back inside, the dog almost attacked me before the guy got him to back off. He put the dog in another room. That was the closest I had come to being attacked by someones pet. I worked outside mainly, replacing the line. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. I was ready to go home. I finished the job and went home.

2008-02-21T14:20:00.002-06:00

My day started with an install not too for from where I live. The place was in a row of town homes. There was a nice younger gentleman here. I got the impression he is from New Orleans. There was a bumper sticker about Katrina and some magazines and such from New Orleans. To start the job off I had to get in the crawl space. I'm actually spurised I was able to fit in there it was so small, but I got to the line and was able to push it back up through the floor. I then checked out back. The back area was a walkway that went behind the various units. And it was mine field back there. I can't stand the fact that nobody ever cleans up after their pets. Especially this guy, if you know the cable guy is coming the least you could do is clean the dog shit. Hooking this particular unit up was a little weird, because I had to do it at the mid-span (on the strand between the poles) rather than the tap. In fact there was a lot of weird shit going on up there, it looked like there may have been a tap at the mid-span instead of the pole at some point bu tthey removed it, but it was easier to ignore any possible issues going on here than get involved. I finished outside and went back in. At that point the job was easy. The guy knew how everything worked so I left.
My next job was on the same block which was nice. I was here to install all three of our services. This was a fancy new apartment building. The woman who lived in the apartment was actually in charge of the building. She was very nice, she just kind of showed me around then she had to go back downstairs. She had a bunch of old pictures of San Fransisco , which is where she was from. A couple of them were from the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. One was of the great earthquake, it had a woman and her daughter smiling for the camera while San Fransisco was smoldering behind them. The job itself was pretty easy.
Since I was so close to home I had lunch there. My first job of the afternoon was only a couple blocks from my place. There was a young woman here. She said she was a student. The place wreaked of cat. I was here to install the Internet. She was happy to have it installed, otherwise the only way she could get Internet was to crawl into her kitchen sink and piggyback on someone's wireless router. The job went by pretty quick.
I then got another job in the area. It looked like a reception problem, but no one was home. So I had to pick up another job. This was a house on one of the busiest streets in town. I parked on the next street over and walked to the front of the house and saw the gate locked with a padlock, so I thought I should try the alley way. I entered through the alley way and noticed a pond with a small waterfall to my left. There was a dead fish floating in the pond. The door was answered by an older gentleman. He stunk horribly. The sort of stink that comes from a lifetime of smoking. I've known smokers my whole life, but it's been a while since I smelled someone this bad. The stench had infected every pore of his body. I could smell it about three feet away. He was having problems with his Internet. I detected a lot of noise being generated within the house. I tracked it down to bad cables. He said that a while back he was remodeling a bathroom and since the walls were open he ran cables throughout the house. There was no way of running new lines or replaceing these. I could tell he didn't like this explanation, so I replaced the modem as well to appease him. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the problem though. Then I went home.

2008-02-20T14:24:00.002-06:00

My day started with a job at a house. The appointment was scheduled for 7 am to 8 am, but I don't start until 8 am. So I I got there about 8:15 am. There was a note on the door saying they waited for me, but had to go to work. The thing that struck me as weird is that this was an install and would have taken me longer than 8 am.
So I got a new job. This was another house not too far away. But no one was here either. So I did my next job. This was an outside only job. I just had to pull a filter off of a line. This was four houses down, so it didn't take long to accomplish.
The next job they gave me was an install in plastic land. This was for a fellow employee. The woman here works at one of our offices down south. She works with our phone product. I was here to Install our TV and Internet services. The job itself wasn't difficult at all. Most of their stuff was still in boxes. She was moving from out by where my mom used to live. We talked about the company some. In the end she tipped me a $20.
I then went to lunch and headed to my next job. This was at the retirement community. There was an old guy here. He just picked up one of our new remotes and it didn't work his TV. I programmed it to his TV and then left.
The next job was in the same area. This was a place I have been to several times already. There was an old black lady here with her grandson. She recognized me immediately. She was missing some channels. This was a little confusing because the last time I was here I replaced everything, so I know it's new. I walked around outside and found that the line was damaged. The grounds crew sliced it up with a weed whacker. So I replaced it and everything was working fine.
I got one more job in the area, but when I got there no one was home. So I got one more job. This was a large house in the country club area. An older gentleman opened the door. He was here with his wife and grandchildren. It was difficult to get through the front door because they had double doors but in the space of one door. So I had to squeeze through sideways, to get through one of the doors. One of the boxes wouldn't turn on. It turned out it was unplugged. So I plugged it back in and went home.

2008-02-19T13:19:00.002-06:00

My day started at the retirement community. I was met at the door by an elderly woman. She said that the remote wasn't working at all. I picked it up and it worked right away. She seemed confused about it. I instructed her to point the remote at the box. This particular model of cable box only works if you point directly at it. For this reason alone I don't like it. She said she had been pointing it at the TV. That's probably what was going on.
The next job was in an apartment complex in the area. I walked in and there was an old frail black man with a pecuilar mustache on the couch. He seemed confused about my presence there and then an equally frail black woman came out from the bedroom and said she had set up the appointment. She was connected to an oxygen tank. She had a small child here as well, possibly a grandchild. The place was extremely cluttered. She said she moved out of a three story house to this place about two years ago and is still unpacking. They weren't getting some channels. I found some loose connectors, which I tightened and that seemed to fix everything. I replaced a connector too just to make is seem like I was actually doing somehting. She was in disbelief it was that easy.
Afterwords I headed to a house a little north. There was a white pettite shy woman here with a couple children. One child was Asian, which I though was a neighbor's child. But I saw pictures of both kids throughout the place, so maybe it was adopted. The husband showed up and he was as shy as his wife. I could barely hear what he was saying. I was hear to swap their DVR. The old one wasn't working at all.
Once I finished the job I headed towards my place. This job was at an apartment building not too far away. The guy here had a big fancy flat screen TV and was complaining about the quality of his picture. It turned out he wasn't using the HD outputs of his cable box. I switched it over to component and it was better, but he wasn't thrilled. Then I switched it to HDMI and that improved it some more, but he still wasn't thrilled. So I had to educate him about HD channels and programming versus non-HD channels and programming.
I was hoping to maybe have lunch at home, but got stuck with one more job. This was in plastic land. There was a middle aged guy here with his wife. He said that his TV doesn't look right. That about a couple days ago it started to get fuzzy. But when he plays a DVD its fine, so he thought it was the box. I switched the box to a different input on the TV and it was fine so I left and had some lunch.
After lunch I got one big job for the afternoon. This was not too far from where I live. It was actually a lot easier than it was on paper. They already had our video and Internet services, so I just had to set up the phone. They had an alarm but it was extremely easy to get to. There was a guy here with his wife and child. They pretty much left me to my work. So I finished the job and went home.

2008-02-18T10:07:00.002-06:00

I started my day by going to a house. This house looked like it needed a paint job, the front door was a little rickety. I knocked but no one answered. I called and a guy answered and said that everything was working so I canceled the job.
Then I headed to an apartmetn building for elderly folk. There was an old Indian lady here. Her place had a lot of photographs of her various children and grandchildren. She was having TV troubles. After being on for about 30 seconds the screen starts to break into horizontal lines, then it starts to look as though the picture is tilting away from you. It looked like that old Tron game from the 80's. I told her it was the TV, she needed a new one.
The next job was the ghetto apartment complex. There was a young woman here with here child. The place was extremely cluttered. She apologized for the mess. It turns out she works for the company. She was having TV problems. She had changed the input on the TV. I just had to turn it back. She felt really bad that it was so simple.
The next job was in the retirement community. There was a little old couple here. They were only getting the local channels. They just got a new TV over the weekend. I knew right away it was going to be simple. I just had to change the TV from antennae to cable. I tried to explain what had happened and how to correct it themselves, but I wasn't sure if they got it or not.
Next I headed to resort town. A young woman answered the door in her PJ's and she apologized for this fact. There was an empty bud light can as well as an ashtray full of cigarette butts on the table. They had pulled some of the cables off of the back of the box and hooked them back up wrong. So I put it back together, but the box still wasn't working quite right. She said it's always done that, she just ignored it. I replaced the box anyways, with one that works better.
After lunch I headed to an apartment complex. I was here to pick up some equipment, but no one was home. So I headed to another job. This was further north. There was another young woman here. Her Internet wasn't working at all. I switched some things around outside hoping that would help, but it didn't. So I replaced the modem. But for some reason it wouldn't let me set it up. I called tech support and it turned out that something was wrong with the system itself. They put me on hold. I was struggling to stay awake so I started to play spider solitare on the customer's computer. Eventually they told me it was going to be a while, so I should move on and finish the job later.
The next job was at a nice looking old house. An elderly woman answered the door. She had one of those seats that take you upstairs. She showed me her TV. She said she didn't think her son hooked it up right. She kept saying he ripped something out. I think she was very confused in general. As far as I could tell she had never had a box before and for some reason got one, and her son set it up. But He took off before explaining it to her. I changed the input and tried to explain everything to her. She was being a little difficult. She didn't like the idea of having a new remote. I tried to explain how to use everything but I don't think it sunk in. I looked out back and saw an old line to the house, which I didn't necessarily feel like replacing. Everything was working fine, so I canceled the job and moved on.
The next job was on the same street but further north. This was another house. A nice lederly woman answered the door. She showed me to the bedroom and said that last night this TV would break into wavy vertical lines. I couldn't get it to happen again, but I told her that this was probably a sign that her TV was going to give out. She joked about how she just got a new flat screen from her children for Christmas and she doesn't think she could get another new TV so quick. On the way out she offered me some candy.
My last job was only a few blocks away. This was a large house. They were remodeling the front of it. A guy answered the door and showed me his TV in the bedroom. It didn't have any signal. We checked the basement, and still no signal. We looked outside and I could see that someone had disconnected the line. I went up there and there was a note from one of our network techs saying to call him before hooking it back up. I called him and he said there was some noise on the line that was backfeeding into the network. But I checked and found nothing. So I hooked it back up. I gave the guy a new box, because he didn't like the way the old one looked. We talked about about the house. He said it was built in 1896. He showed me a picture, showing only the house in a field, with a trolley line being built in front of it. He said this used to be a town called Mapleton and the street out front was the mainstreet. He even found an old token for the trolley in his garden out back.

2008-02-15T09:44:00.002-06:00

My day started at a town home complex a friend of mine lives in. The door was answered by a middle aged guy, it seems he had just got up. He had two TVs in the living room, and I guess two upstairs. Though he only had a problem with one TV downstairs, the one with the box. He said he was missing a bunch of channels, but they were all coming in now. They were breaking up a little bit so I decided to take a look anyway. I saw a suspicious looking cable, so I replaced it. The guy himself seemed friendly. He said he didn't have to work today but the complex pays him $15 and hour to shovel snow off the walkways, so he might earn a little extra money.
The next job was in an apartment complex on the other side of the street. The door was answered by a young African man. There were porno movies strewn all over the floor. He was on the phone with the police. He said someone hit his car last night and gave him some insurance information, then drove off. But when he called the insurance company, the guy didn't have nay insurance there. The police said they couldn't do anything for him. He was mad. I was here to install the phone. The job itself looked pretty easy. But when I got it all hooked up it wouldn't sync. I checked outside and couldn't sync out there either. So I had to turn the job over to our network people to fix.
The next job was in resort town. The door was answered by a young guy. He said he didn't know what was going on, he was just visiting. He's in the process of moving here from St. Louis. The notes on my paperwork said that not all of there phone jacks were working. I looked around and tested every jack and found some weren't working. I was able to get them all working except one. Either I was missing something or the line had been somehow damaged, because it would not tone out. Eventually I had to give up, because I had more work to do. I told the guy what was going on and went on my way.
The next job was at the headstone shop across the street from the cemetery. I was here because the guy's Internet wasn't working. The guy was nice, it looked like he worked here alone. I asked him how business was and he said, "Dead." The modem was working fine. But his computer couldn't get on the Internet. I told him he must have a virus and he needed to take his computer in to geek squad or something.
After lunch I went to the ghetto apartment complex. The door was answered buy a young black guy who was literally smoking a joint while he opened the door. I was here to install an HD box for his fancy HD TV. Which I did. The funny thing is I went back to the van to get the box and when I came back he had lit some incense. Isn't it a little late for that? I ended up hooking up his surround sound as well. In the end he was very happy.
Then I headed to an apartment building near the hospitals. The door was answered by a guy in his 30's. He was nervous, the type of nervous person who talks a lot. The floor was tiled and everything the guy had was on rollers. It was very cluttered, in fact before he opened the door I could hear him roll something out from behind the door. He was having a problem, where the phone would cut out on him when he called one number in Albuquerque. It was obviously not a problem here so I called up tech support and they put a ticket in for it to get fixed in the system.
My last job was a house in the same neighborhood. It was an L shaped building broken into several units. There was an old black lady here. She was complaining that channel 24 was coming in quieter than all the channels. And it was, but there was nothing I could do about that. It had to do with how they broadcast, which I told her and then I left.

2008-02-14T13:49:00.002-06:00

After our weekly meeting I heaeded to my first job. This was a duplex. An older woman lived here. She seemed slightly paranoid. She didn't really know what I was talking about either. I asked her where her modem was and she said she didn't have one. But eventually I found it. She was watching the footage of Roger Clemmons on capitol hill. I was here to install the phones. Usually I would replace the modem with an EMTA. But this time it was easier to work out of the crawl space. There was a ladder that descended to one part that was actually about 8 feet high so I could work standing up. While I was working down there she got a call. From what I could gather from the conversation I think she was talking either to the Mayor or the Governor. She was talking about how the person she was talking to needed to get a make over or something because they are going to be getting a lot of face time and needed to represent the taxpayers. She also metioned to the person that she has worked with Tom Brokaw and The Clintons back in Arkansas. I finsihed the job and went to my next job.
This job was a big house. There was a little old lady here. She said she wanted a new cable outlet in the kitchen. They just got a flat screen TV. So I drilled a new hole and ran a line. She was very nice and talkative. She talked about how she can't keep up with these technologies. We also talked about how over the air signals are turning digital. The job didn't take too long. As I was leaving her husband arrived driving a Jaguar. He looked as frail as she did. They were both happy when the job was over.
After lunch I went to a house not too far away. This house was getting remodeled. There were a lot of guys here working on the place. I was met at the door by a midget with a Eastern European accent. She is the nanny. She didn't know what was going on, so I had to refer to my notes. Which told me they wanted the drop reworked. They laid a conduit from the house to the pole, with a wire running through it, so I had to attach cable to one end and pull it through to the other. Then I also took down the old drop as well.
The next job was a house further north. The door was answered by an elderly black woman. She said she just got back from Dialysis and she was tired. She has obviously been losing her hair. I didn't ask what exactly she had. She would constantly lock her door everytime I passed through. I felt bad every time I had to leave or come back in. I was here to install TV. Which I did. It wasn't too hard. She used to have satelite. She kept talking about how its supposed to snow tomorrow. And she would talk about Ellen, which was what she was watching. There was some chemisty teacher on the show.
The last job was a couple blocks away. There was an elderly black man here. He said he was 80 and he was obviously slow. He couldn't remember why I was there. He said his wife is in charge of these things, but she was doing something at the zoo and wouldn't be back until late. I had notes about some error from the TV but it wasn't happening. I couldn't recreate the problem so I canceled the job and left.

2008-02-13T13:47:00.002-06:00

My day started with going to the shop. I needed to get some more modems. I've been going through a lot of them lately. My first job was in plastic land. There was a young woman here with her child. She was complaining about phone issues. She said in the middle of a phone call she would hear a sound like someone pushing buttons and then an echo like sound as if someone is listening in. This is the first time I had heard of something like this so I wasn't sure what to do about it. I asked to see the EMTA. It was on the third floor. She said her sister in-law was in there sick. I checked out to be alright. So I looked in the basement and found the splitter. Each of these houses in plastic land has a built in splitter, and all these splitters are really bad. So I replaced the splitter and hoped in the end it was the problem.
I then headed into the land of scrape-offs. This was a large and very nice house. The guy met me at the door and started to complain about the fact I got there at the end of the time frame. I was about to tell him I just got the job, but he asked how long it would take to fix the problem. He explained the problem he was having with his DVRs and I told him at least 30 minutes. He told me that wasn't good enough and said he wanted to reschedual.
The next job was a apartment building to the east. I was met at the door by a middle aged man. I was here to check on his Internet. His modem wasn't working at all. I reset it and it started working again. I explained to the guy what to do in the future, and that this might be a sign that his modem is starting to go out.
The next job was an apartment complex further to the east. The place is usually pretty ghetto. A black lady answered the door. The place was so cluttered it was hard to get around. I wouldn't say it was dirty just cluttered. She was here watching her grandson. She was missing some channels. She also said the TV in her room was fuzzy as well. I went immediately to the splitter which was near the water heater and replaced it. She said I was the third tech there and the first to get it right. I guess no one knows where to look for splitter.
After lunch I went to the retirement community. There was an old lady here. She told me when I entered that everything is fine now, but nothing would work last night. She then asked if I could set up her universal remote. It's one of those large one's that almost looks like a novelty item. She said she had bleeding in her eye which affects her eyesight, which is why she needs such a large remote. I tried to set up the remote for her, but I couldn't find any codes for the cable box or her VCR/DVD player. So it would only work her TV, which was pretty useless. So I had to help her understand how to use her other remotes.
The next job was in the same neighborhood. I had actually been here before. This was the place where a woman who was both deaf and dumb lived. When she tried to talk it sounded more like a squak. I was here to check on her phones. She had this machine which she types into to have conversations with people and it wasn't connecting. I looked at things a bit and thought it must be another machine she had. This was for emergency resonse. She would push the button on her neckless in order to test it. She pushed it twice. She then motioned me to take it into the other room. As I was setting it up in the other room two EMTs show up. I appologized to them and told them that we were working on the phones, so they left. As we were finishing up two firemen showed up and I had to apologize to them as well.
Afterwords I had a job in the apartment complex across the street. This place is pretty ghetto. The job itself seemed pretty confusing. It was a downgrade and as far as I could tell I needed to do nothing. I just opened the job and closed it. There was nothing for me to physically do.
I then did some call backs to my jobs from the previous day. One such job, the one at a busy intersection that had dirt patch full of dog shit rather than a lawn, said that they had no service since early this morning. So I headed back there. I thought that the squirrels could be back, but I didn't think they would chew the lines up that quickly. Once there I saw that someone came by and disconnected the whole building. This is an apartment building. They ment to disconnect only one unit but did the whole building. So I corrected that and picked up one more job.
This job was on the way home. This was another downgrade. But this one I had to put a filter on. Once up the pole I noticed that not only their line but their neighbor's line both had been chewed up by some squirrels. So I fixed the lines and went home.

2008-02-12T13:00:00.000-06:00

When I left my place yesterday I saw that my first job had canceled. So I called in and got a new job. This job was at a nice brick house. An older woman answered the door. She showed me to her modem. It was having trouble seeing the computer and handing out a good ip address. I replaced the modem, but as I was trying to set the new one up, I was still getting a bad ip address. I figured it was her computer, so I used my own. It turned out her computer can't pull a good ip addresses when plugged directly in. So I set up the new modem and hooked up her wireless router and everything was fine.
The next two jobs they gave me both ended up canceling. So I got one more for the morning. This was in plastic land. The nanny was here with a child. She was rather tall, almost amazonian. They were having trouble getting all their options on their TV. I figured it was a bad splitter, but I had a tough time trying to find where the splitter was. This was because they were in the process of having the basement finished. I was affraid they may have covered it up. I eventually found it and got everything fixed. As I was finishing up the nanny asked if I could help her figure out how to use the can opener. It was one I had never used and it took me a little while to figure out, but I did it and then went to lunch.
My first job after lunch was a raise cable. This was an L shaped building that is divided into two units. I had a note on my paperwork saying no one was home, that the work was outside only. I looked around and found a cable hanging off of the front porch. I had to get on the roof to tie it back. Then I headed to the next job.
The next job was in the same neighborhood. This was a building that had been divded into at least four different units, right at a busy intersection. The front lawn was more of a dirt lot with dog shit scattered all over it. An older black gentleman answered the door. He seemed a little out of it. His daughter was sitting on the couch texting someone but quickly left. He said nothing was really working. I went around out back and found that squirrels had been chewing on the lines. Squirrels are the mortal enemies of cableguys. I replaced the parts that the squirrel had chewed up and that fixed the problem. Though it will probably happen again.
The next job was in the same neighborhood yet again. The place had a terrible smell. Almost like a city dump. The front yard was mud interspersed with toys. The door was answered by a young black man who looked like he just woke up. There was a little girl here and a woman who was in a bed in the back. She never got up. There was also a little yip-yip dog inside and a much bigger dog outside. The place was dark and had the heavy feeling of depression. I wondered if they might both be jobless. He showed me to a TV with a DVR and said it wasn't getting a bunch of channels. The little girl came in and said that their is food. The guy, confused, went out there. I looked around and replaced a splitter, then decided to look outside. As I passed back through the front room there was a Native American woman here along with a couple more kids. The guy was eating a Whopper. I checked around back and found that their big dog had been chewing on the cable lines. I replaced the lines and came back inside. This time in the living room were two young black men. The Native American woman and all the kids were gone, while the guy who let me in was now passed out on the couch with an empty Whopper wrapper next to him. I went past the guys and to the room with the TV. I checked an everything was fine. I came back out and now noticed that the phone was off the hook next to the guy who was passed out. The two guys were gone, but I could here noise coming from one of the other bedrooms. I woke up the guy to get him to sign and left.
I was given one last job. This was an apartmetn complex way to the east. I was told that the previous tech got sick and had to leave. This made me wonder whether or not I really wanted to do this. When I showed up the door was answered by a black woman. She was mad that the other guy left and said that he was just lazy and didn't want to do the job. That wouldn't necessarily suprise me if it was the case. She was moving in with her mom. She kept mentioning that she just moved out of a 5 bedroom place to this two bedroom apartment. I couldn't help but wonder if this ment she had been foreclosed upon. They wanted a TV in every room. Thankfully there were already some holes drilled in the walls that allowed me to run cable easily. Eventhough I was here to install all three products, it didn't take too long. After a while the woman started to complain about feeling sick. She seemed a little dramatic. Onced I was finished I went home.

2008-02-11T12:54:00.000-06:00

My first job was in the retirement neighborhood. There was an old woman here. It was booked as a trouble call, but really she just wanted to replace her broken phone with a new pink one. It looked to be in support of breast cancer. She was too timid to do it herself. She was scared of messing it up, so she wanted me to do it. It was a very easy job.
Next I stayed in the same neighborhood to do an Internet install. There were two guys here. An older gentleman who looked to be a WWII vet. The other younger, possibly his son. The place was a mess. At first I thought they were still moving in but after a while I realized they had been here a while. They were switching from dial up. They wanted me to set up their router as well as their Internet. I was happy to oblige, but it took more time than I thought it would.
Next I went to resort town. This was the fourth time I had been to this specific place. Third in the past month. There is a little Jewish couple here. The guy was having Internet problems yet again. It looked like the chord for the modem wouldn't stay in so the slightest jolt would unplug it. I put in a new modem and left.
For lunch I headed home really quickly and then I headed to an equipment pickup. This was in an apartment complex I frequent often. There was a young woman here, the place was boxed up. She was moving to Las Vegas. Her husband is already there. They moved here about 6 months ago but he couldn't find a job. So he found one in Las Vegas and they are moving there. I picked up the equipment and left.
The next job was back in resort town. There was a young man here. He looked to be a Marine. He mentioned his wife was asleep in the back room. He was having problems with his modem. It would keep cycling itself, so you couldn't stay on the Internet for more than a minute or two. I replaced the modem and that fixed it.
The next job was in a high rise apartmetn building. This one has a large immigrant population. This particular job was at the place of a possibly African man. His internet had been disconnected. It turned out he was accidentally disconnected. His line was was labeled wrong. I didn't understand why at first. But I think it was to cover who ever did the install. Since he had Internet only there needed to be a filter that blocked the television signal, but he needed channel 10 to see who is in the lobby, and I had to leave out the filter for him to get this. So I think a previous tech labeled it differently in order to not get in trouble. The man showed me his satelite dish and said he only had to pay for it once, and no monthly charge and he showed me some soccer and the channel Aljazeera. After words he tipped me and I left.
I then headed to another apartmetn building. I called and was not able to get a hold of anyone. I got into the building, but still no one answered the door. So I called it not at home. Once I left the guy kept calling me. I wasn't intersted in answering or going back. I had already picked up a new job to replace this one.
So I picked up another job. This was in an apartment complex for retirees. I was greeted by a middle aged woman. I didn't think she really belonged here. Then when we got inside I realized she lived here with her mom. I was here to install the Internet. This unit was not labeld in the box, so I had to spend a while trying to track it down. I had to work out of the old woman's closet, because that's where all the lines in the apartment came together. Once I found that spot the job was easy.

2008-02-07T22:51:00.000-06:00

They had me south east yet again today. My first job was an apartment building next to the university. The door was answered by a little Asian woman. i could tell her English wasn't too good. She could understand what I was saying fine, but it was a little difficult trying to figure out what she was saying. She already had Internet. I was just here to set her TV up. Which was as simple as replacing the filter outside. I wasn't there for very long.
The next job was a house a little east. Or at least I thought it was. I showed up to the house I had on paper, but the guy who answered the door had no clue why I was there. I called the number I had only to find out it was in fact north not south. There was a young here. They already had TV and Internet. I was here to install the phone. It was real easy, I just put it where the phone was and I was done. The guy was cool, he works at a fancy restaurant downtown. He said him and his girlfriend are food fanatics. We talked about food for a while.
Then I took a long lunch. Afterwards I went to my only afternoon job. This house was in the same area as the last one was supposed to be. There was a middle aged woman here. This was the same as the last job. I was only here to install phone and they already had Internet and TV. The only difference was that she had an alarm. This totally fucked me up. I spent my whole afternoon here trying to get the phone through the alarm first and then through house. I ended up running a bunch of phone wire around this room in the basement. I figured she wouldn't care, since her teenage sons have taken over the place and their shit was everywhere. I was wrong. She made me tuck it under the carpet. While I was there a carpet cleaning guy showed up. All he did though was walk around and spray shit on the floor to make it wet. Then he left. I want that job!

Ninja Warrior is the best show ever!

2008-02-06T17:24:00.000-06:00

My day started with an Install at an apartment building. I was here to install all three products. As I drove up I saw a rabbit hopping around. I'm not sure how it got here, but I doubt it could survive for very long. There looked to be two young girls living here. The one who let me in was faux-punk looking (a la Fall Out Boy), and talked like a valley girl ("Like, my father knows all about that that stuff, so it's totally cool"). It was very annoying, especially when the odds are she never lived in California. The job itself was pretty easy, I set everything up in the same corner, which made my life easy. They didn't have everything yet either. Once I had the TV working she just sat there and watched Planet of the Apes, while I worked.
After that I did another install. This was in an apartment building for retirees. There was an elderly couple here moving from one unit to another one down the hall. The woman must have been hard of hearing because I was having a difficult time communicating to her. Nothing was moved yet. There was some handy man here fixing the garbage disposal. The job itself was pretty easy, mainly because nothing was moved yet.
After lunch I had a video install in my neighborhood. There was a young guy here, he was playing PS3 when I showed up. This building looked new but, it turned out to be renovated. And somewhere in this renovation process they cut the cable and did not put in a new outlet. So I had to drill a new hole down into the crawlspace. When I got down there I saw the cables, but there were six units in the building, I had to crawl through a couple furnaces (talk about an obstacle course!) to get to his unit on the end. Once that was finished the job was cake.
My last job was a house to the east. The guy here was just getting phone, he already had Internet and TV. The phone wiring was relatively new as well, so the job was cake. We didn't talk much , I was more interested in just going home.

2008-02-05T18:28:00.000-06:00

They had me in the south east part of town today. I started at an apartment complex. It took me forever to get there because the roads were terrible and the traffic was as well. The guy here was old and grizzled. He lived here alone. He told me he was a student. He was one semester away from getting his degree in welding and fabrication. I thought that was interesting. He said he had 6 semesters involving every type of welding you can think of. Now he's on his last class, which is pipe welding. I was here to install Internet and TV. The job didn't take long at all.
Next I had another install. This was another apartment complex. There was a little Korean woman here. She was obviously moving in, there wasn't much in the way of furniture here. I was here to install Internet and TV as well. The job went by pretty quick. Then I went to lunch.
After lunch I went to a house further north. There was a short round Hispanic man here. My notes said there was a couple channels missing. But the guy didn't know what channels they were. I looked around and outside found the longest line to a house I had ever seen. I couldn't even see the end. I hoped that wasn't the problem, and thankfully it wasn't. It turned out to be the small cable on the back of the box.
The next job was a apartment complex further east. In the next town in fact. The door was answered by a young woman. She said the problem was the ethernet cable kept coming out of the computer. It needed to be replaced. It also sat rather loosely in the computer. So you had to wiggle it to get an internet connection. I told her to get the port in her computer fixed. It's a brand new apple and I knew it was under warranty.
The next job was in the next apartment complex over. A large man answered the door. His Internet wasn't working at all. My first suspicion was that it was the modem itself, but the cable to the modem looked suspicious. So I replaced the cable first and sure enough that fixed it. He was happy and I moved on.
I then went to my last job. This was in a ghetto looking apartment complex. I was here to install the Internet. There was a young Hispanic guy here with his kid. He wanted to set his computer up in his bedroom. But the only outlet was in the living room so I convinced him that he needed to move it to the living room. He already had a signal which made my job easy. I finished the install and went home.

2008-02-05T13:05:00.001-06:00

My day started at a apartment building near where I live. This is a fancy building where each floor is divided in half. I was here to install a DVR. There was an old couple here they were very nice. They had a 270 degree view of the city which was beautiful. The job was easy. As I was leaving though I got called back because I didn't change a setting on the box. But that wasn't too bad.
The next job was a building a little further north. There was a note about the box falling out. I took a look and sure enough the cable box in the back of the building was falling off, but this was not something I could do, so
I turned it over to post-wire.
I then headed to a retirement home to the north. There was an old black guy here. He was having trouble working his remote. Apparently he has never really dealt with one before. So much so that even though he already had a VCR I still had to explain to him that the triangle is play and the square is stop. So I explained everything to him and left.
The next job was an apartment complex. Who ever did the install plugged the phone directly into the back of the EMTA instead of going through the phone wiring in the apartment. And the customer wanted to plug a phone in the other room. There was a big guy here who needed an oxygen tank and his daughter whom I believe was retarded. She talked like my 6 year old little sister. I had to get into her closet in order to set up the wiring right and move out a bunch of little paper bags and empty plastic bags of candy. After I finished the job I went to lunch.
After lunch I went to another apartment complex. There was a young guy (whom I believed to be gay) and a young woman here. They had no Internet. I checked outside and found that one of their neighbor's had disconnected the customer and connected themselves illegally. So I cut that line and hooked the customer back up. They were very happy.
As I was leaving I got called by dispatch. The guy at the retirement home can't get anything to work. I tried to call him and walk him through it. I didn't work so I said I would drop by later.
The next job was up in plastic land. A guy meet me at the door. He said his kid was sleeping. He wanted me to check out a problem he's been having with his TV. I linked it to a bad splitter, though he wasn't convinced. I replaced it and then none of the TV's were working right. I looked around for a while and found nothing else wrong. I eventually called in to dispatch who said there were problems in the area. So I told the customer and left.
Then I went to another place in plastic land. I was to hook up an extra outlet. Thankfully everything around here is pre-wired, so it was a very easy job. The young woman who lives here met me at the door, and I was in and out quickly.
Then I headed to my last job which was a house to the west. The woman here asked me to take off my boots, which I was not happy about at all. Their modem wasn't working at all. There was a signal though. I checked out side and saw that the line to the house needed to be replaced. Which I did, but it wasn't easy. After words I went back to the guy at the retirement house. And I explained the remote once again hopefully this time he got it.

2008-02-04T13:32:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment building near the hospitals. I accidentally entered the wrong room number in the intercom, but the woman I got let me in anyways. I went to the apartment and the door was answered by a woman who was feeding her kids breakfast. Their TV was working but their Internet and phone were not. She said she's been having problems with all three. Then the woman who let me into the building showed up. She wanted to make sure I was legit, and she didn't just let in some imposter. It also turned out that she was having some problems as well so I said I would drop by when I was done. I looked around outside and found that the way things were hooked up out here was pretty messed up. So I rearranged it so it was more equitable. This got everything working again though the signal was still pretty low. Afterwards I checked on the other woman. I replaced the cable from the wall to her TV and that fixed everything.
The next job was a town home complex to the east. A woman answered the door. It looked like she had some sort of foot injury. She was hobbling around. She complained htat her Internet was slow. I checked and it didn't look bad to me. In fact I could find absolutely nothing wrong. So I replaced the modem, to give her a piece of mind. She said it was much faster. The whole time I was there she questioned every little thing I did. I don't know if I was making her defensive or if she is just naturally that way.
The next job was an apartment building closer to downtown. A young woman let me in. I was here to install the Internet. To do so I needed to get to the roof of the building, so she went and tracked down the maintenance guy, who turned out to be this crusty old guy, who gave me the combination I needed. After that the job was a breeze. We talked about the fact that she is from California. She said she took a spontaneous road trip on day from California, and when she got here she just stayed. She's been here ever since. She works at one of the local hospitals.
The next job was an apartment building near where I live. There was a young woman here who said that nothing was working. I checked in the box outside and everything was hooked up fine. I took me a while to figure out that the whole building had been disconnected. The previous day one of the tenants had been disconnected and the moron who did the job disconnected the whole building instead of the individual unit. I called into dispatch and had them give any other jobs tied to this building. Strangely enough there was only one other unit who had an appointment for the day. So I killed two birds with one stone.
I then skipped my lunch and went to my next job which was in the same neighborhood. This was an outside only job. The notes mentioned that the cable was damaged on the outside of the building. I look and found no damage anywhere. I then looked in the cable box and found some old filters that need to be removed and a suspicious connector. I hope that's all that needed to happen.
I then found a bathroom and headed to the next job. This was in the fancy shopping area. The door was answered by a short round man who hobbled around. He showed me to his computer which was acting very slowly. This room was filled with comic books. He said he had been reading since the 60's. We talked about various comic books and authors as well as some of the movies coming out based on comic books. The problem with his internet was definitely the modem, so I replaced it and went on my way.
Next I headed to an apartment complex to the east. The door was answered by a black man with a thick accent. I couldn't make out what the accent was at all, but he was watching the Spanish stations, so maybe he was from the Caribbean or something. His Internet and phone were not working at all. I turned out that the outlet it was hooked up to, was not activated. The strange thing is that he said it was all working last night. Yet I cannot see how this had gotten disconnected. I don't know how it could have worked or have even been set up in this first place. But I got it running and moved on.
Then next job was was an apartment complex a little further east. This place is pretty ghetto. There was a black woman here with her kids. I saw no furniture. One of her kids was running around naked. She screamed at the other ones to put some clothes on her. All the while she was on the phone with someone. I was there because her EMTA wasn't working at all. I replaced it and took off.
At this point I really wanted to just go home and watch the super bowl, but it was still early so I called dispatch and they gave me a job on the west side of town. This was a crappy town home complex right next to the warehouses. The door was answered by a kid. There was no furniture except a TV and a phone with Dora the Explorer stickers all over it. A large Hispanic woman was sitting on the floor with another kid. She never left that spot the whole time I was there. At some point a man came down, who I assume was her husband. I got the impression he didn't speak any English. I was here to look at the phones. There was an issue with the wiring in the unit. I asked how many phones they were using and she said just the one, so I plugged it directly into the EMTA and was done. I packed up my stuff and went home to watch the game.

2008-01-23T20:19:00.000-06:00

My day started at a house on a street I didn't even know existed before today. There are a few little streets in this town that are nestled mid-block between two other streets. I was met at the door by a black man who told me that everything is fine so I canceled it.
The next job was in an apartment building for retirees. There was an old man here. His TV was possesed. It would open up the menu and change the settings. I changed everything to the way it should be, then watched as the TV proceeded to open the menu again. It was freaky. I told him to get a new TV.
The next job was in the retirement neighborhood. There was an old man here. He had a universal remote, the kind with the giant buttons. Because his brother was pretty much blind. they changed the batteries and now it doesn't control the cable box anymore. So I looked online and found the code.
I'd like to take some time now to talk about how much I love my girlfriend. I'm going on vacation this week and will really miss her.
Now, back to cable talk.
The next job was an apartment not too far away. In fact I did the install here. I didn't realize it at first, but the guy mentioned it and in fact he was right. He wasn't getting some channels. I chased it down to a connector that was loose. I tightened it up and everything was fine.
I then picked up another job in the country club area. This was a large house across the street from a friend of mine. A woman answered the door. She had a little dog and a really cute puppy there too. She mentioned that her TVs were not working as well as her Internet. She showed me to the TV and it was working. Then to the Internet and it was working as well. We talked about their neighbors (my friends) a while then I went to lunch.
After lunch I went to my first job in a apartment complex. No one was here, so I called ahead and went to the retirement neighborhood. There was an elderly couple here. They had bought a new HD TV and a new web TV setup from Circuit City but they wouldn't come and set it up for them, so I ended up doing it.
I then headed to another apartment complex. There was a black man here. His cable box wasn't working at all so I replaced it.
The next job was back in the retirement neighborhood. There was an old woman here, though she didn't look old enough to be retired. She said she was messing with stuff and unplugged something and her TV doesn't work anymore. I looked and hooked things back up right.
This was my last job, but it was still 3:30. I thought about laying low but got bored quick so I picked up another job. This was a house a little south. There was a Jewish woman here who was convinced I had been here before even though I hadn't. She was having problems with her Internet service. I unplugged it to check the levels, cleaned out her cookies and temporary Internet files and then everything was working fine so I left and went home.

2008-01-22T20:33:00.000-06:00

Of the eight jobs I was scheduled today 4 turned out to be not at home and two canceled. The first two jobs were in neighboring apartment complexes and turned out to be not at home. So I picked up an extra job. This was a house up north. The job was labeled as raise cable. With notes that there was no need to contact the customer. I looked and the cable was fine. No one was home so I called and left a message asking what they wanted me to do.
The next job was in the retirement community, but nobody was home here either. So I went to an apartment complex in the same neighborhood. I was flagged down by somebody who works with the company. He just wanted to introduce himself, he only started with the company recently. He works at improving our relations with certain apartment buildings in the area. The job itself turned out to be a place I had been to about a month ago. There was a little frail old woman here. The place wreaked of cat. She had changed the input of her TV. So I switched it back and left.
As I finishing up I got a call back. It turned out that the woman wanted me to shorten a cable that was in the living room. I also ended up giving them a new remote. After this I went to lunch.
After lunch I went to an apartment in the fancy shopping district. There was a woman here that was having some strange problems with her TV. She had a fancy HD set up and when people would move it looked like it was going fast or stuttering. I had not seen this before and wasn't sure what would cause this. Her set up was so nice that she was watching Empire Strikes Back and it was the clearest I had even seen it so much so that it looked almost 3-D. I felt like I had never seen it before. I was flipping the channels and came across some old Eddie Murphy film and it was the same effect. I didn't think it was our problem but I thought I would switch the box just in case. The only DVR I had in my truck turned out not to work. So I took her original box and left for a while then came back in as though it was a brand new box, then I hooked it back up. I'm getting a little too good at the bullshitting.
The next job was a big fancy house not too far away. An older guy answered the door and led me downstairs. The TV wasn't working at all. I looked over and noticed the cable wasn't plugged into the wall at all. He blamed it on the cat. I plugged it into the wall and everything was working fine.
The next job was another house. No one was here, so I headed to the next job. This was another house. The woman here said several techs have been out and no one fixed the problem. Her reception was terrible. It took me a while to figure out, but whoever installed the original line really fucked it up, so I had to replace the whole line. Afterwords she was extremely happy.
My last job was a unit in some row housing. The door was answered by an old white woman who was hunched over. There was also a old black man here. The second I entered the guy started to speak gibberish at me. He would mumble and drool and every so often I could make a word or two, but it didn't seem to make sense. He would also follow me around. He would sit down and talk and then get louder and angrier and then get up and start flailing. I was afraid he would attack me while I was working. At one point I went into another room, I turned around and he was standing there waving his prescription bottles at me. I needed to install a phone outlet in one of the rooms, but there was no wiring, so I just stung along a really long phone chord and tapped it down so no one would trip on it. As I was leaving another black woman showed up as well as a young black man who gave them some packs of cigarettes and some change.

2008-01-21T17:48:00.000-06:00

The day is cold as fuck. My first day was a large fancy house. The door was answered by a middle aged white man. Behind him was his Hispanic maid. One outlet wasn't working. this was a recent thing. I noticed that the connection between the EMTA and the phone wiring in the house looked flimsy and upon further inspection was in fact broken. So I replaced it in a matter much more befitting myself and went on my way.
Next I headed to another house. There was a sign outside notifying that there was a disabled child living here. The place was a large and nice. The mom was here, she told me that DVR wasn't working at all. So I replaced it. She was rushing to get to some meeting, so she left me there. I wanted to get out of there quick because I needed to find a bathroom, so I didn't wait to full load.
The next job was another nice house up north. the door was answered by a guy with a Nordic accent. He was having phone problems and was worried it was going to be something stupid or easy. The dog had a chew toy that looked like giant lips, it was pretty amusing. The problem turned out to be the phone line out back was cut. The dog may have been chewing on it. I replaced it but it still wasn't working. This was because when the guy himself tried to solve the problem he put the phone chord into the line 2 slot in the back of the EMTA instead of the line 1 slot.
The next job was at a duplex. It didn't look like much but it was really nice on the inside. A guy answered the door. He had a large German Sheppard, that looked like it could have eaten me for breakfast. He was having problems with his EMTA, which of course was fine now. I found a suspicious looking splitter which I replaced as well as an erroneous splitter which I bypassed. I was content with this solution so I went home for lunch since I was in the area.
After lunch I headed to an apartment building not too far away from where I live. I was greeted by a woman who told me she wanted to cancel her service and asked if I could just take the equipment now. I consented and took her equipment then I left and canceled the job.
I then drove out to resort town. The door was answered by a young woman who had obviously just got out of the shower. She was shocked that I was early. She had a cat that was black and white. The head was white except one black part that formed a perfect Groucho Marx mustache and another little triangle for a goatee. She was having some problems with her TV as well as her phone was never hooked up. I replaced a splitter behind the wall plate where the TV was. As for the phone it looked like someone had already set the apartment up for our phone system. I don't know if whoever did the install just didn't plug in the EMTA or if the previous residents here had it. Either way it made my job easy.
At this point I was asked to pick up another job by dispatch. I was running ahead so I agreed to take on another job. This was apartment complex no too far away. The door was answered by a Hispanic woman. She was here with her two children and they were watching some Mexican soap opera. She spent the whole time I was there pulling apart chicken with one latex glove on. The problem was that the original modem we gave them was dead. So I replaced it with one that works.
The next job was a house further up north. There was a black woman here. She said she wanted to participate in the Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations going on downtown, but it was too cold. I was here to fasten down some cables that were lying in the hallway. She had tripped and hurt herself. The whole time I was there she would ramble on. She talked like she was not going to be living here soon, but in such a way as to say she is dying. But she didn't go any further than that. She also talked about how she owns her house, and how it needs all these repairs. The place was awfully cluttered.
When I left dispatch tried to give me yet another job. I gave them hell for it. They then called back and said they solved the problem over the phone so never mind. So I went to my last job. This was my third time at this place. There was a wrinkled blond woman here with her kid and her large black boyfriend. they were missing a bunch of channels, so I looked and found a loose connector. I tightened it up and all the channels came back. Then I went home.

2008-01-20T18:03:00.000-06:00

My day started at a house on a busy street. In fact the house was across the street from plastic land. There were two women here. One of them looked familiar, like we may have gone to school together at some point. I didn't bring it up though. They were missing a bunch of channels. They also wanted the outlet in one of the bedrooms activated as well. I looked out back and saw that the cable was damaged in two places. I fixed it and hooked the bedroom up and everything was working.
The next job was a house further south. This is a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. The door was answered by a man. He explained that last night the EMTA started to smoke and emit a foul odor so they unplugged it. I didn't ask too many other questions, I just replaced the box.
Then I headed to another house. There was a young man here. Judging from the diplomas on the wall I'd say he is a Pediatrician. He said that his modem would slow down at time and stay slow until he would call us and we would reset the box. I found some problems with the line to the TV but not the modem. I replaced the line to the TV and then I replaced the modem.
The next job was a place I was at last week. This was in resort town. There was a little Jewish man here. Last week I told him his computer wasn't working. This week the modem is in fact not working. He wanted to replace his modem, and picked one up from us. But that one was dead. So I set up yet another new one.
Afterwards I did a disconnect then I headed to my first afternoon job. This was a very nice house. The guy here also had a modem that wasn't working. The guy here looked to be a lawyer. He updated me on the game that was going on. I replaced the modem and went on my way.
Next I headed to another house up north. This house was so hot and humid, my glasses fogged up the second I entered. The woman here wanted me to set up her remote for the TV. I also needed to get her computer working. This involved adding a driver for using the USB. At first I thought I didn't have the appropriate disk, but was relieved to find that I did. I also showed the lady's teenage son how to hook his X-Box 360 to the modem.
Then I headed to a house further south. This was another large house. There was a thin older woman here. I believe she was an athlete who may have competed on a national level at some point of her life. I was here to check out her Internet. She explained the problem and thought it may have to do with her old modem. It was really old, so I decided to go along with that explanation and replaced it. Sometimes it's easier not to question.
My last job was at an apartment complex. It turned out no one was home, so I went home.

2008-01-18T10:31:00.000-06:00

I was in the south east part of town yet again. My first job was at a run down apartment complex. A young black woman answered the door. She said the box would keep turning off. So I replaced the box. She then asked if there was a way she could get one channel. I asked which channel and she said G4. I was about to tell her I like that channel too, when she said she wants it for the show Cheaters. I watch it for Ninja Warrior. I told her she would have to get moved up into the next package for $15 more a month. She didn't want that.
The next job was another apartment complex further south. The guy here had no service. His line int he cable box was mis-labeled and got disconnected. So I reconnected him and labeled it correctly.
The next job was in the same complex. This guy's cable kept going in and out. He said several techs had been out. Everything had been replaced but the box. So I replaced the cable box and sure enough, it worked. He seemed happy, so I left.
I took a lunch and right as I was about to head to my first afternoon job I saw that it had canceled so I picked up another job. This was a house near the last two jobs. There was an old black man here. He lead me to the TV. It was cutting in and out on certain channels. His son came out of the basement wear scrubs. The two of them proceeded to argue over nothing. I looked behind the TV and saw suspicious looks splitter so I replaced that and a couple connectors and everything was fine.
The next job was a house further north. An old guy lived here with his father. Several of their channels were cutting in and out as well. They said they have had several techs out here and were convinced it was the box. So I replaced the box, more out of hope that the problem really was that easy, rather than my being confident that it is actually the problem. Other wise I would probably have to get in the attic. It did in fact turn out to be the problem. The older guy here started talking to me about how he worked for the transit office and how he would go around and install traffic lights and how they would not work most of the time. They also how a little dog and a cat which was bigger than the dog.
The next job was at a apartment across from the university. There was a young woman here. Here cable wasn't working at all, but her Internet was. It turned out that whoever did the install hooked the splitter up backwards. But the signal was still incredibly low. I went out to the box and it was ripped of the wall laying on the ground. I did what I could for the customer out there and went to the next job.
My last job was a house not too far away. There was a round old man here with a thick beard. He showed me his TV which wasn't getting certain channels. But they were just scrambled, so I new right away it was the TV. He had a small flat screen downstairs so I brought it up and plugged it in and it was fine. he offered me a plant and a pickle while I was there. I canceled the job, because I can't tell someone they need to buy a new TV and then charge them for the visit. That's like rubbing salt on a wound. He was extremely grateful for this.

Wednesday

2008-01-18T10:02:00.000-06:00

They scheduled me with installs in the south east part of town today. My first job was at an apartment complex right next to a busy street and the Interstate. When I showed up no one was there. I then found out that the kid moving in here doesn't even have the key yet. He wasn't supposed to get it until 9 am. The people in the leasing office were nice, they let me in to do my job. The kid is going to college here in town. He was telling me that his dad owns a Telecom company in Nevada. He said he frequently works for him burying fiber-optic cable.
The next job was an apartment complex further north. There was a Hispanic man here with a kid. I was here to install video. There was only one outlet in the apartment and he wanted his TV two bedrooms away to be hooked up. Fortunately it looks like someone else already had this idea because there was already holes in the wall. So I just had to thread the cable through the holes. Which was easy enough. The little girl kept following me around, at one point she asked if she was getting cable. I told her to ask her dad, then she said he's not her dad, that's her mom's friend. He said she was grounded so she's not getting cable right now.
The next job was a house near the university. There was at least four guys living here. They wanted me to run a new outlet in one of the rooms. They said other techs were here earlier this morning to fix a problem with the Internet. So I ran the outlet while they sat around and watched TV. Everything from game shows, Springer and whatever movies they could find.
I skipped my lunch to head to my next job. This was an apartment complex that was right near where two Interstates come together. I was here to install all three products. The couple moving in here just moved from Maryland. The previous tenant here had dish, so I had to spend some time trying to figure out how the place was wired. Which required me to look in the attic of the unit. I had the TV and the Internet working but I ran into the most unusual problem with the phones. I could get them working but I couldn't get them to ring. As long as it was plugged directly into the EMTA itself it would ring. I could hook up the kitchen jack and it would still ring, but if I hooked up the next phone jack in the chain it would no longer ring. I must have spent two hours trying to figure this out, to no avail. I eventually told the customer what was going on and that they should buy a base station and satellite phones.
My last job was in the same area but a little more south. This was another apartment complex. The guy here just moved from Mississippi to work at a hospital here. I tried to rush through the install as quickly as possible because I wanted to get home. The only major trip up, was that the box wasn't working. So I upsold him to a DVR, since that was my last normal cable box. He was talking about HD the whole time, so it wasn't that much of a stretch. i finished the job and went home.

2008-01-15T19:05:00.000-06:00

My day started a few blocks away from where I live. This was at an apartment building for retirees. I replaced a splitter and a couple connectors, but the real problem turned out to be the cable box. I replaced it and everything worked fine. In fact she had been unable to get her VCR to record but that started to work as well.
The next job was another apartment building for retirees. I was met in the lobby by a black man. He had an accent, possibly Jamaican. His apartment was filled with old tattered posters from the 80's of women in bikinis or just plain topless. He wanted to get BET. His TV was so old he didn't get any channels that high. He wasn't too thrilled about this, but there wasn't much he could do.
The next job was just a couple blocks away. I spoke to an angry lady through an intercom who said she couldn't do it today and that she wanted to reschedule for the weekend. Then she hung up before I could figure out exactly when she wanted us to come out. So I just scheduled it for Saturday.
Then I headed to another apartment building. The guy here kept complaining about his cable box changing the inputs on his TV. So I replaced the TV. I also got his big TV working. The coax input of his big TV wasn't working anymore, so I switched it to a different input. He was extremely happy I got his big TV working again.
So I dropped by home to use the bathroom and grab my cell phone which I forgot this morning. Then I headed to the retirement community to do a disconnect and then I went to lunch.
After lunch I went to the country club area. This was a huge house with an Escalade and a Benz in the drive way. A lot of interesting artwork inside as well. But no one answered the door, so I picked up another job in the fancy shopping district area. There was a very little very old woman. There was two young men here, younger than me. She kept calling them her friends. She said she had a problem with her Internet but it was working fine. So I canceled the job and left.
Then I headed to a house up north near a friend of mine. This was a large house. I saw some rabbits in the back yard. No one answered the door here either. So I headed to the next job. This was a house divided into two units. The door was answered by a guy in dreadlocks. He said nothing was wrong, but then he asked me to hook up his DVD player. So I came in and took a look around. There wasn't much in the way of furniture. They had a lot of shit in boxes. I went back out to get a cable and there was a police officer talk to some black woman in front. I'm not sure what that was about but the guy was hiding and trying to see what was going on. It turned out that their TV doesn't have a hook up for a DVD player, so I told them to get an adapter from radio shack.
The next job was near by. I was at at his place last week. In fact this is the fourth time I've been to this house. And once again it was their TV. The grandma was here in a bathrobe, that looked like it was about to fall off. She was watching Springer. She just wanted me to make the screen lighter and show her how to do it herself in the future.
It was still early so I picked up one more job. This was an apartment complex way south. It was a corporate account. Which means I dealt with a company who put some important person here. So I had to call somebody who told me whatever the guy was complaining about. Unfortunately I could find nothing wrong. The place had a few things in. I saw a couple of cans of Chef Boyardee on the counter. This guy probably makes 10 times what I make and this is what he eats. Afterwards I went home.

Monday

2008-01-15T18:30:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment building on one of the busiest streets in town. There was a very short Hispanic woman here. She was dressed like she had to go to work. Her levels were all out of whack. It had to be the line to the apartment, so I turned it over to our post-wire team.
Then I headed to another apartment building. The person wasn't at home, but I was flagged down by someone else in the building also having problems. I had some time so I decided to check things out. I figured out that they needed two lines to the building instead of one, which was standard for an apartment building. I called it in expecting to turn it over to post-wire, but my supervisor told me to go ahead and run the new line. Since it turned out to be a not at home, I got no credit for this, but whatever.
The next job was in another apartment building. The guy has been having Internet problems. His modem wasn't working at all. He said he's been through several modems. So I figured it to be a bad splitter. I found the box and switched him to a different splitter, and he was up and running.
The next job was in resort town. I think I had actually been here before. I didn't detect whether or not the guy recognized me. He was having trouble with his computer. It was running through his router and one of his computers wasn't working. It was brand new and the ethernet card wasn't working. He figured that was the problem, but the company he bought the computer from refused to take his opinion, he needed to get someone from his Internet service out there to look at it.
The next job was in an apartment building for the retired and disabled. This particular apartment was full of little dolls. There was a bed next to the TV. Apparently the woman here is getting back surgery soon. The problem was the chord to the TV. I replaced that as well as a splitter. Everything was working fine, I had all my channels, then they all cut out. I spent the next hour trying to figure out what happened until I was finally informed that the computer in charge of this area had gone down.
The next job was in plasticland. I was greeted by an old woman. She was having trouble with her modem. But of course her modem was working now. So I looked around and didn't find much of anything wrong. I replaced some connectors, I hope that did it.
Then I headed to another house in plasticland. The guy directed me straight to the modem, which wasn't working. So I replaced it. We didn't talk much.
I then went to the fancy shopping district. I was greeted by a possibly Hispanic man. He had a slow deliberate way of speaking almost like that of a Native American. ESPN 2 was breaking up on one TV. I tried to track that particular line. It ran into the basement. He led me down there and there was a Frenchman listening to some broadcast in French over his computer. The basement was full of electronics, like a guitar amplifier, reel to reel machines and various miniature train set pieces. The place was extremely cluttered. They had every room hooked up but only 1 TV plugged in. So I removed one of the cables that was not currently hooked up and that fixed the problem.

2008-01-13T20:36:00.000-06:00

My first job was at a apartment not too far from where I live. A young shy woman answered the door. She had a big dog. It didn't like me at all, and wasn't shy about letting me know that. She said that a couple of days ago both her television and Internet cut out. I knew right away she had been accidentally disconnected. Our audits teams have been out and about and disconnecting people that aren't supposed to be disconnected. She tipped me $5 int he end.
I had a little time and I was close to home so I stopped by to pick up my cell phone which I had forgotten and check in on my girlfriend. Afterwards I headed to my next job. A guy pulled up with his daughter when I arrived. This was in the land of scrape offs. I was here to install an HD box. When I looked at the line outside I noticed a bunch of old filters on the line. So I had to go up there and remove them. He also wanted a box put in the basement. Which I did as well.
Then I headed to the fancy shopping district. There was two young women living here. The one who answered the door said she just got up, she's had a rough day already (hangover). Her roommate was on the couch watching High Fidelity. I tracked the problem down to the chord leading to her modem. I replaced it and everything was fine. They were extremely thank full.
After a short lunch I went to my first afternoon job. This was a house. There was a young married couple here. The guy was watching football. He complained about his Internet going down a lot. Everything looked fine, but the signal was low. The only way to remedy the situation was to redo the line to the house to make it shorter and newer. That improved the situation, so that it was now borderline.
My next job canceled so I headed to a house further north. This was another young married couple. They wanted an outlet hooked up in the basement. Then he wanted a new outlet drilled in the guest bedroom. Then he wanted a DVR installed as well. Usually I get annoyed when people string things along, but today I didn't seem to mind. It was about this time dispatch called to see how I was doing. They wanted me to pick up more work, because there was still a lot of work to be done. Strangely enough it was about this time I started to slow down.
My last job was an apartment building. I was here to do an Internet install. To get the key to the room to hook her up, I needed to call a number, give a woman my name and phone number, then she gave me the location of the lock and combination to the key. The install went smooth. I was contacted by another tech who was on call. He got stuck with the last two jobs and needed some equipment. So he was coming to meet me so I could give him what he needed. We talked a little then went our separate ways.

2008-01-11T10:07:00.000-06:00

They put me in the south east again. I hate being down here because I feel like I'm cleaning up someone else's mess. The first job was an apartment complex. A young Hispanic woman answered the door she said she had some problem with the cable, but it turned out her TV was on the wrong channel. I turned it to 3 and left.
The next job was a house not too far away. In fact it's only a couple blocks away from the area I normally work. There was a young guy here. He has two dogs and they keep chewing through the cable. So I had to fix it which was easy. They also chewed through a bunch of his remotes as well. It sounded like he was pretty fed up with them.
The next job was a little town home complex in the fancy shopping district. The door was answered by an old Chinese gentleman. He showed me downstairs to his TV and it was breaking up on a bunch of channels. His wife eventually showed up too. They had a really low signal. I asked her where the splitter was and she acted like she had no clue what I was talking about. Then she told me to look in the garage. Then her husband said there was nothing in the garage. So I was confused, and then she said I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't appreciate this at all. I told her her husband keeps telling me there is nothing in the garage and she showed me where it is. The splitter looked fine so I went outside. I rearranged things in the box outside to give them a better signal. But someone will probably come by in a couple weeks and rearrange things in the box again and they will lose signal again. I wasn't sure what they should do other than re-wire the whole building. In the meantime they kept talking and talking to me. It was non-stop. They talked about how they used to have their own restaurant. And how he's Chinese but she's Hispanic. After a while I just wanted to get out. I told them I would have someone redo things outside than I left and canceled the job. She was watching me from the window the whole time I was outside. I got really creeped out by the whole situation.
After this I went to a house near the university. I was here to install and second phone line for this guy's ankle bracelet. There was a whole white trash family living here. A grandmother, mother and three sons all of which were in their twenties and thirties. The place was a mess. This one guy's room was completely full of Motley Crew paraphernalia. The job wasn't too difficult, though it would have been easier if I could move the box that makes phone calls into another room.
I took a short lunch and went to my first afternoon job. This was a nice house. The door was answered by a woman with a huge black eye. She asked me not to freak out about it. Apparently she was working with the rain gutters in the back yard and fell and got head trauma. He TV in the bedroom wasn't working it was in the back of the house, in what looks like an addition. She had our old phone service a long time ago, but stopped it. It was never properly disconnected. What this means is that I have to go up the pole in a situation where I normally wouldn't have to. Which sucks because there is no alley way and the only way to the pole is through a neighbor's yard on the other side of the block. Once I was finished with that I replaced a splitter and got rid of an unnecessary cable, and that seemed to do the trick.
Next I headed to house further north. I could see that the line to the house needed to be replaced and I cursed whoever did the install and didn't replace it. The people here just needed me to show them how to work their VCR. Which I did then I canceled it and headed to the next job.
This was an apartment complex I've been to before. A big white guy answered the door. He looked like ex-military. He had a cat he named Shithead. His phone had dropped out. He showed me to his balcony where there was electrical tape on the cable. It looks like someone yanked the chord out of connector then tried to tape it back in. I fixed and talked to the dude a while. He talked a lot about X-Box Live and Call of Duty 4.
Then I headed to my last job. This was a young girl who hooked up her cable box completely wrong. It was an easy fix, but her signal was low. I tried to go out see if I could improve the signal but none of my keys would work on the box. Everything was working in her place so I decided to leave well enough alone and go home.

2008-01-09T18:41:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment complex. I was here to drop off a new remote. I had all day to do it, but i wanted to get it out of the way. I was in and out in a flash.
The next job was an install at an apartment. The guy had just moved here from St. Louis. I assume for work. I wanted to finish quick so I didn't talk much. He just sat there and read I Am Legend. Some of his stuff was still in boxes. He left when I did, he had to get to work.
I then headed to resort town. I was here to downgrade someone. I didn't even need to knock on the door, I just worked out side. Then I headed to a house up north. A young woman black answered the door. There was an elderly lady here as well, who was ridiculously wrinkled she looked like a California raisin. I almost thought she was some homeless lady who just happened to wander in. The place was empty except two old crusty TVs that looked like they were just purchased from the Salvation Army. The job was easy, I was in and out.
After Lunch I went to a retirement apartment building in plastic land. There was a large lady here in a wheel chair. She just moved here from St. Louis. Her son is in the Navy and is posted in the area. She had the usually things to say about the area. I was here to install all three products. The install went well.
My last job was near the first one. There was an old lady here who just bought a fancy HD TV and Tivo. none of it was hooked up. I stuck a cable card in the Tivo and got it working. Then I went home.

2008-01-08T19:17:00.000-06:00

My day started at the retirement community. There was an elderly gentlemen here hunched over. He's been having problem's with his phone. It keeps cutting him off in the middle of conversations. It sounded like packet loss, but that's a tricky thing to track down. I've had problems with the lines to the individual units here before so I turned over to our post-wire crew to replace. Otherwise everything looked fine.
The next job was was a series of town homes a little to the north. The woman here was complaining about her phone. She said her phone would click and pause before she could talk. She thought she was getting prank phone calls. It was her voicemail. It stutters when you have messages. She felt a little stupid. She talk about how her daughter and granddaughter have moved in with her and how she has gone back to grad school. I showed her a bunch of stuff on her TV she didn't know about either.
Next I headed to plastic land. A really old guy answered the door. They had Direct TV installed and the disconnected the phones. I hooked it back up and the EMTA wasn't working, so I replaced that as well.
I skipped my lunch and forged on. The next job was a house. A guy was here and the place was a mess. They were remodeling it. I was here to install a DVR. The job was quick.
Then I headed to a house not too far away. This was actually the third time I've been to this house. Every time I've ever been here the problem was their TV. This was no exception. The only person here was the grand mother. She explained that her daughter plugged in a heater and she heard a pop and nothing has worked since. you hear static from the TV but there was no picture. I told her it was the TV and she needs to get a new one.
The next job was an apartment complex down south. This place is usually pretty ghetto. The door was answered by an African man. He had an infant with him and his apartment was sweltering. He was complaining that he wanted news channels and all he was getting was MTV and BET. I looked outside and noticed that that he had recently downgraded his services and in doing so he canceled those channels. So I had to remove a filter to give him those channels again. He was very happy. He told me he is from Liberia. They just got through 15 years of civil war and it was brutal. He said people had regressed to cannibalism. He also said that the U.S. is now saying it's ok for him to go home, but he doesn't believe it. He said his sister tried to go back and she got attacked with machete and had all her stuff taken including her passport.
My last job was at an apartment just off of prostitute row. There was a young woman here. The placed looked like she was an art student. She had paintings as well as drafting stuff. It looked like she wanted to get into clothes design. i thought I was here for an Internet install, but she already has Internet. She was getting it through a chord in coming through her window. She wanted an actual outlet drilled through the wall, instead of the cable coming through her window. It wasn't that hard to do. i finished and went home.

The more you yell the more rediculous you seem

2008-01-08T18:15:00.000-06:00

So my day started out at a apartment complex. No one answered the door, so I went to the retirement community. The guy here said he didn't make an appointment so I canceled the job. Then I went to a house not too far away and they weren't home either. So then I headed to a house up north. A black lady answered the door. She said she had a problem with her TV. Everything had shut off. So she called her nephew who came down and got it all working. So there was really no need for me to be there. Everything looked fine, so I canceled it and took an early lunch.
After lunch I went to a house in the same neighborhood as the previous house. There was an older black couple here. As I approached the house I saw an army of oxygen tanks on the front porch. Eventually Apria showed up to exchange the spent tanks with new ones. The lady was very tentative about her new carpets in the basement. she didn't want to mess them up. She has been having all sorts of problems since Friday. Her channels keep coming in and out. I checked everything and could find nothing wrong. So I ended up turning it over to line. But I spent so much time trying to fix this I ended up running late.
The next job was in the same neighborhood. There was another old black couple here. These people had an old projection TV in the basement. For some reason it didn't react well with the box. The premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) would flash colors. I guess the wife was blind and deaf, so when it flashes she can't watch it. I tried it without the box and it was fine and I tried the box on a different TV and it was fine. But the wife here thought the problem was my fault. She kept insisting that I somehow compensate her for this. I told her that I would pass it on to my supervisor.
Then I headed to a town home complex. The door was answered by a troll of a guy. The moment he answered the door he started yelling at me. He was assured the problem was outside and was told he was not going to be disturbed. But it is impossible for me to do my job without going inside. It got so bad I almost left. He was cussing at me and at some woman he spoke to on the phone. The TV was perfectly fine. So I replaced a cable outside and told him it was fixed. Then I canceled the job as I left. My last job was taken from me, because I was running so late. So I went home.

2008-01-06T19:47:00.000-06:00

My day started in a townhome complex. A black woman answered the door. She had two kids running around. Everything was working fine, so I was about to leave when she told me that once a month everything goes out, and by the time a tech shows up it's all working again. I really wanted to just leave but I couldn't. I replaced some cables inside and replaced the line to her unit. I hope that did it.
Next I headed to a house not too far away. The woman signaled me from a room in the back to wait. She works from home and was on the phone. She eventually let me in. She proceeded to give me this long sob story. It was difficult to get any words in edge wise. I really didn't care, I was running behind and just wanted to figure this thing out. She assured me that all the wiring in the house was pretty new. I found some old connectors outside, then I noticed some old filters up at the pole. She had a tree right next to the gate and there was no alley way, so the only way I could get to the pole was parking on the other side of the greenway behind her house. I removed the filters and went to the next job.
The next job was a house way up north. There were three doors at the front porch, I wasn't sure which one to knock on. An old Hispanic woman answered the door. I got the impression that her son probably bought the house and she is living with him. The place was cluttered, they hadn't unpacked yet. The problem was the modem had died, so I replaced it quickly and left.
The next job was a ways away. This was a very large house. I actually did the install here back in September. Their EMTA wasn't working at all. It had gotten disconnected. Almost like it unscrewed itself from the splitter. I don't think the customer did it. He started asking me about ethernet jacks versus phone jacks. I explained to him the possibility of having his house hardwired for Internet. He asked if he could get me to come back out and do that for him. It was more work than I really wanted to deal with, so I told him to give us a call and we'll see who gets the job.
At this point I was hoping to get a lunch, but I got saddled with a job. This was a high rise apartment. The guy had a really bad DVR, I don't like that particular brand at all. It had died, so I replaced it.
Then I headed to a house to the east. No one was there at first but then a car pulled up and two guys got out. A white guy and a Asian. The white guy seemed kind of effeminate. I wasn't sure if I should read into this. Nothing was really wrong. I removed a splitter that was useless and convinced them to not use a router, because it was slowing down their Internet connection. The white guy said he works for TIAA CREFF so we talked a bit about IRAs and 401ks.
Then I headed to resort town. The door was answered by a young black guy. He spoke very quietly, with a lisp. They had been disconnected and I was here to reconnect them. They also wanted to upgrade. The job seemed easy enough, but I had to replace some bad splitters behind the wall plates, plus they had an extremely low signal, so I had to try some things to make that better.
My last job was a house on the way home. The guy wasn't getting a signal to his modem. i went out back and found that their two puppies had chewed through three cable lines. The guy tried to act like this had never happened before, but I could tell I wasn't the first tech out here to replace this. As I was fixing one of the lines I got shocked. I couldn't tell from what and I was more concerned with getting home rather than investigating this. So I finished and went home.

2008-01-02T19:51:00.000-06:00

My day started at a house. An Asian guy answered the door and told me that everything was working fin now so I canceled the job. I then headed to a townhome complex not too far away. A short round woman answered the door. She had a little dog with here. She apologized for its jumping all over me, it's still a puppy. Her phone keeps cutting in and out. Whoever installed her phones hooked up the splitter backwards. I also saw some suspicious phone splitters which I replaced. I'm hoping that does it.
I then headed to an apartment complex not too far away. The door was answered by an Indian woman. She said everything was working now, so I canceled it. I then called my afternoon jobs to try and work ahead. I went to an apartment building that is for retirees. There was an old Jewish couple here. Their phones weren't working right. I had to get behind all the phone jacks and fix the wiring. One of the phone jacks was behind the bed. The bed almost fell apart pulling it from the wall.
I then called ahead again and went to a house in the country club area. A young woman with an infant answered the door. It was obvious they had recently moved in, everything was still in boxes. Their phones weren't working. This was because of the EMTA. So I replaced it.
I skipped lunch and went ahead to resort town. There was a woman with a southern accent here with her two parents. Here phones weren't working. It turned out that she wasn't disconnected from the other phone company so their was competing signals over the line. I disconnected the other carrier and went on my way.
The next job was a house way up north. I was greeted by a large man who said he was leaving for work and another parent wouldn't be here for 30 minutes. So I went to another job a few blocks away. This was an escalation. I was the fifth tech out there. My girlfriend is really pretty. A line tech was supposed to meet me out there, but he was a little behind. No one was there at first, but eventually a tall black woman showed up. Their EMTA keeps cutting out. She plays a lot of online games so she would notice this more than others. Eventually the line tech showed up but we really couldn't pinpoint the problem. I fixed a couple things a told her to call us when it happens so that a line tech could figure it out.
Then I went back to that last job. A woman was here now and she showed me to the basement where the EMTA was. It was working fine now, so I canceled the job,
I picked up another job. This was an apartment building near the hospitals. I was met by an Asian woman. I was here to finish her Internet install. The problem was that she has no ethernet jack on her laptop and she doesn't have the software on her computer to run it on USB. So I told her what she needed to get for her computer to make it work. Then I canceled the job.
Dispatch convinced me to pick up one more job. This was an install at an apartment building on a busy street. There was a young woman here I think she went to the nearby college. At this point I just wanted to go home, so I tried to finish the job as quickly as possible.

2008-01-01T18:16:00.000-06:00

My day started in a townhome complex. A black woman answered the door. She showed me to her bedroom and turned on the TV. I could tell the box wasn't hooked up at all and I told her so. She then told me she wanted me to take her cable boxes, so I downgraded her services and took the boxes. But the TV downstairs was getting poor reception, so I had to figure out what the problem is. I replaced a few things both inside and out, but in the end I think it was the cable to the TV. In her basement she had a reproduction of some historical document from 1887 saying that black people can come to the territory of Kansas and buy land for $5.00 to help make it a state. I guess that is where her family is from.
The next job was in resort town. The guy's HD channels were cutting in and out. I knew right away the problem was behind the wall plates. There was some old connectors and splitters back there that I replaced. Afterwards everything was fine.
Next I headed to a ghetto apartment complex. I was here for an Internet install. But no one was home so I went to the next job.
This was a apartment building for retirees. I was met a the door by a guy in his nineties and a woman he was talking to. She informed me it was his birthday. he told me he hasn't had any cable for two days. I looked around outside and found he had been disconnected by somebody. So I hooked him back up, but his cable box was acting up. So I gave him a new one.
I took a lunch and then headed to my first afternoon job. This was a nice house exactly two blocks south of the New Years party I was at last night. A woman answered the door. She showed me to the bedroom and turned on the TV and everything was working perfectly fine. So I canceled the job.
My next job canceled as well, so I headed to resort town. I was greeted at the door by a woman. It became immediately obvious that she and her roommate were both deaf. She showed me to the TV in the bedroom, she wanted me to have the time display on the front. That was easy. Then she showed me to the TV in the living room. She wrote down that the DVR belonged to some guy who didn't pay his bill and got disconnected. She wanted it on her account, so I obliged.
I then headed to a house right near plastic land. No one was here so I picked up two more jobs. These were both downgrades right near where I live. They were both apartment buildings. When I finished these I was about two blocks from home but it was too early to go home, so I called into dispatch. There was no work to pick up but they had me help some tech way down south. I got to the house before he did. A guy met me at the door and showed me out back. He pointed me towards some phone wires dangling out. I tucked them into a nearby box. When I finished the other tech arrived i told him we were done here and we left.

2007-12-31T18:33:00.000-06:00

I got two jobs today. One for the morning one for the afternoon. I had no exactly how big these jobs were going to be. The first was a house up north. A small black woman answered the door. This house only had one cable outlet. She wanted four, neither of which were anywhere near the first. So I had to run four brand new lines. She showed me the basement where two of them were going to be. There were four teenage boys crashed out in here. It looks like they were up all night playing video games. They had an X-Box 360 live and a Wii. The room smelled of B.O. I immediately got to work hooking them up. They weren't really moved in yet which was kind of nice. The woman had a projector TV from the 70's in the living room. I looked unwatchable to me but she was in front of it the whole time. As I was drilling the first outlet the battery died. This cold has been killing my batteries lately. So I had to drive home and get my charger, then bring it to this place to charge my batteries so I could continue working. This slowed me down, but it was a big job anyways. I spent about 5 hours here in the end. The kids in the room finally got up and started playing video games again. One of them said he thinks his neighborhood is boring which is why he just plays video games all the time. I said it keeps him out of trouble. The second I got the Internet up and running he went and hooked it up to his X-Box.
After I finally finished this job I skipped my lunch and headed to the next job. This was a house further up north. Two guys in their early twenties were moving in. The place was empty so far. This is not a good neighborhood at all so I thought it was weird their moving in, but the house itself was nice. Who ever owns the place remodeled it and made it look really nice. The job was pretty easy compared to the last one. The only snag was one room where they wanted a TV, the cable out of the floor wasn't working (probably damaged during the remodeling). So I had to drill yet another outlet to bypass it. As I was finishing they told me they were late for work (I thought it sucked that I have to work tomorrow on New Year's Day, but these guy have to work New Year's Eve night!). I asked where they work and they said Red Lobster. I was surprised by this. The one guy seemed to know a lot about computers and he said he has a plasma TV, so I guess I was expecting something a little more glamorous.

2007-12-30T18:24:00.000-06:00

My first job of the day was at a town home. There was a small round woman here. She works at a hospital. I was here for her Internet. She complained that it had dropped in and out. In her basement was a small oven she used to make ceramics. She called it her studio. She also complained about her TVs breaking up every so often. This made me want to look outside, but I really didn't find anything. In fact I never really found a cause to the problem at all. This turned out to be a theme for the day. I cleaned things up a bit which improved her signal, but I don't think I really solved the problem.
The next job was in the fancy shopping district. A nice gentleman answered the door. He showed me his EMTA. He talked about how his Internet would keep dropping out and when this happened what he was watching on TV would also break up. I looked around and found absolutely nothing wrong. So I replaced the EMTA to make them feel better.
Next I headed to a house on one of the busiest streets in town. A young guy answered the door. He showed me a cable line that was just laying on the ground. He asked me who could clean that up for him. He then said he was going to have someone come out and install a new outlet. I told him that that person should be able to clean up that cable line. Truth be told I was running a little behind and did not want to spend one to two hours extra here. I was here for his Internet. He described rather erratic behavior by it and I deemed it to be the modem. At least I hoped it was the modem.
I skipped my lunch and headed to the next job. This was a little house. A gay guy let me in. He was here with another guy. He showed me to the computer and told me that whenever he plugs Vonage into our modem, the modem goes haywire. Which he showed me and sure enough it does. I swapped the modem hoping it was some sort of brand incompatibility. It seemed to work so I left.
Next was a really large house on a busy street. A guy here showed me to his modem and said that his Internet would get really slow at times. I looked around and found a couple splitters to replace, then I told him that this sort of thing is usually due to a router. If it happens again he needs to bypass his router and make sure it's not the problem.
The next job was up north. This was a dirty cluttered house. A young guy answered the door and wanted me to check out his computer. There are two computers in this house. They wanted me to get both of them working at once. they had this little metal router looking thing that was useless. I told them the only way to get both computers up at once is to get a router. They also were not getting all their channels. Specifically WGN, and occasionally other channels like USA. I looked around the house, but everything was brand new. I have no clue why they would be missing these channels. I told them it might be due to the fact that their signals are split amongst so many TVs. Then I told them some people are working in the area, they might fix the problem.
I then went to the next job. I called the guy on the way and it sounded like he was at a bar watching football. When I got to the house his wife was there. I was immediately apparent the problem was the modem, so I replaced it rather quickly, because I was given yet another job.
This job was a apartment building. There was a young woman here. She was complaining about these lines that crawl up her TV. Which was definitely there. I tried to replace the box but that didn't work, so I replaced the component cables with an HDMI cable and that fixed it.
I was told to go back to the house where the gay guy was. His Internet was down again. I went there and his modem was in stand by. I reset it and went home.

Thursday

2007-12-28T18:34:00.000-06:00

It was snowing bad. I knew it was going to be a long day. My first job was at an apartment building along on of the busiest streets in town. The door was answered by a petite woman with a bunch of sores on her face. She said she was just out of the hospital and she was allergic to the tape they used to fasten down the breathing tubes. She was moving in with her son. their stuff wasn't here yet though. I didn't mind, it made my job easy. The worst part was working outside in the snow. She would try to strike up conversation but I wasn't too interested.
The next job was an apartment building near one of the cities nicer parks. I was greeted at the door by an older woman. She told me she grew up here but moved away about 4 years ago on the account of some guy she married. It turned out to be a bad idea. She said he doesn't even know where she is right now. Here place was full of antique furniture which was a pain to move to get out of my way. It all looked very nice though. The whole time I was there she kept complimenting me on how strong I am and how nice I am. If she wasn't old enough to be my grandmother I would think she was hitting on me or something. The job took a lot longer than I wanted it too. In the end she tipped me a $20.
Afterwards I headed to another apartment building. I was here to pick up a cable box no one wanted. I was late and the guy wasn't here. He said he left and could be back in an hour. I rescheduled it, because there was no way I was waiting.
The next job was a house not too far away. There was a very tiny woman here with her baby. She was moving in as well. I was here to install the Internet. To do so I had to get up on the pole. Since there was no alley way I had to carry my ladder through the neighbor's yard to get to the pole. There was nobody living in that house currently so the drive way had at least a foot of snow piled there. Once up on the pole I was completely exposed to the wind, which was bitter. I also noticed some damage to the line. In order to fix this i would have to carry my ladder into the next yard over. At this point I wasn't too into this so I took the chance that this would not be an immediate problem and ignored it. I then went inside and finished the install.
The next job was up a house up north. There was a black family here. I had to drill a new outlet int he daughter's bedroom. She was in a bathrobe hanging out with her boyfriend. The outlet wasn't difficult to do, I just drilled a hole through the floor. But I had to go into the crawlspace to hook it up, which sucked because I've been walking through snow all day. Once it was hooked up we ran through the channels and BET was really fuzzy. I told them I had no clue what was causing that. Which was the truth, I could see no problem, but I didn't want to put any serious time into this because I still had one more job.
The last job was a really big house about 6 blocks south of where I live. I had actually been in this house before. I replaced their router once a long time ago if I remember correctly. The mom didn't recognize me at all. I was here to drill a new outlet in their kitchen. This involved going through marble tile which I managed not to crack. I was impressed with my own handwork. The job itself took longer than I had wished. While I was there the teenage daughter baked some cookies and the mom kept giving me some. They were good cookies too. I finally left and was able to get home.

boxing day

2007-12-26T18:04:00.000-06:00

My day started in resort town. It was tough getting around in the fresh snow. When I got to the door, the woman canceled. She said she wasn't even aware there was an appointment. So I went to the next job.
This was an apartment near the hospitals. There was an old Hispanic man here. He had to call his daughter to explain to me what the problem was. They weren't getting some channels. I replaced a few things both inside and out to no avail, it had to be the line to the apartment itself. so I had to turn it over to our team that wires the individual units.
The next job was in the land of scrape-offs. A guy answered the door, he obviously forgot about the appointment. His HD channels were not coming in very clear. This was because it was on the wrong input. I changed it and left.
The next job was at an apartment on the same block as me. The guy here was still moving in. He was supposed to be getting HBO, but wasn't. The whole building is supposed to get HBO. It didn't show on his rates though. Apparently there is only one person who can fix this and that person is out until tomorrow. So I canceled the job (since I didn't fix it) and I went to my place to use the bathroom and then I went to lunch.
My first afternoon job was in plastic land. There was a young woman here with three kids. One still very much an infant, one dressed as a princess and one who stuttered (it...it...it...it's raining!). The box obviously needed to be replaced, which I did. But when the new one was operational it wasn't getting all of it's services. Nothing looked wrong though, so I left hoping that they don't use that service. Otherwise I could've spent all afternoon on that job.
The next job was way south. A Greek woman opened the door. She showed me to the box which was completely dead. So I replaced it. They have an appointment for a install of a DVR booked for Friday. I could have done that today, I definitely need it for quota, but not doing it protects me as far as repeats go. Any future repeats will go against whoever does that install.
The next job was further north. There was a woman here with her newborn. She told me the TV in the basement was acting up. I replaced the box and everything was fine. She had another kid as well. I could tell the basement was largely their playground.
The next job was a house a few blocks away. The guy here used to be a contractor for us. His box just needed to be reset which I did. As I was leaving he wished me a happy boxing day.
I then picked up an extra job from dispatch. This was in the fancy shopping district, but nobody was home. So I picked up yet another job from dispatch. This was in the country club area. I twas actually across the street from where my friends parent's live. Luckily no one was here either so I went home.

Monday

2007-12-25T20:36:00.000-06:00

My day started at a house I had been to earlier in the month. The nice thing about this is I know the layout of the house already, which saves me some time. The bad thing is I know have to do the things I was avoiding last time. Like go into the attic and the crawl space. The crawl space was extremely small, I literally had to crawl on my stomach amongst dirt, rocks and feces (cat?). My stomach was sore the rest of the day for it. It was an extremely nice family, I don't think they recognized me as having been here before. There was a banjo out with a book on how to play Earl Scruggs songs. In the end they tipped me $10.
The next job was a house that had been divided into two units. There was a guy living here with his mom and another woman who could have been his wife or just his girlfriend. He also spoke about his kid (when I picked up the remote he told me his kid threw it in the toilet that morning and that I may want to wash my hands afterwards), but I didn't see or hear this kid. It became evident from the outset That I needed to replace the line to the house. To do this I needed to get on the garage, since there was no direct way to the pole. On the garage there was an old basketball hoop in the snow. I cleaned up all the cables both on the inside as well as the outside. In the end they were very grateful.
The next job was a house a little further north. There was a guy here in his PJ's. He spent the whole time I was here noodling around on his guitar. He had a sour attitude. He told he was having problems ever since he first moved in here in July. Half the place was still in boxes though. He also kept talking about some one else, like a wife or girlfriend that lives there as well. How could they have not unpacked by now. The problem turned out to be some damage to the cable. It looked like a dog had chewed on it, then someone just wrapped electrical tape on in it to cover it up.
The next job was way out in plastic land. A woman was here with her kids. She wanted me to look at her Internet connection, but it was fine. The problem was her computer which I showed her compared to mine. Maybe she had a virus or something.
I skipped lunch and headed to my next job. This was a scrape off. This guy had just moved here from Albuquerque. He wouldn't quit raving about it. He said he grew up here but preferred it there. I guess he moved back for work. I was here to install Internet. The place had not had cable yet so I had to run a new line to the house. He was very anxious about the work I was doing, because he didn't own the house. Once I had everything wired the job was easy.
My last job was at a u-shaped building that has been divided into apartments. No one was there so I called and this guy had completely forgotten. At first he had someone else show up to let me in. The job was simple. I was here to install video and Internet. They were under the impression that I was hooking up wireless as well as Internet. It's amazing how many people assume that there is only wireless out there. I tired to get out of there as quickly as possible, because I had a plane to catch that evening.

2007-12-23T18:08:00.000-06:00

I had a light day today. I only had two jobs this morning. The first was an Internet install. This was a little community of town homes. The door was answered by a Russian woman. She showed me to the computer. It became apparent right away she knew no English. I had a question and she had to call somebody else to get it straightened out. There was almost no furniture here, which always makes my job easy.
The next job was a house up north. A large black lady answered the door and got her daughter. Her daughter led me to a bedroom where the computer was. The room smelled of B.O. Her modem wasn't working. I thought it was the modem at first, but a new one didn't work either. It turned out to be a filter on the line. Once I had it fixed they were very grateful. The daughter was going to the University of Phoenix and needed to get some homework done.
After lunch I went to an apartment building off of prostitute row. A black guy answered the door. He seemed kind of nervous and talked a lot. In fact he reminded me of someone I know. He had some turntables. Along the wall where his computer was was a bunch of posters for some video game. The problem was his modem which I swapped and moved on.
The next job was a house a little south of where I live. There was a woman here with two large huskies. The place smelled of dog. She was having problems with their Internet. Of course it was working now. I found some old connectors outside to replace. Her TV downstairs was missing most of it's channels as well. That turned out to be the cable itself, but it was running inside the wall. She decided to get a electrician to come out and replace it.
The next job was at an apartment complex. An older couple was here. Their computer was working right. At one point I needed to reset the EMTA, but they were on the phone with their daughter, so I had to wait and it felt like forever. The problem turned out to be a virus or some sort of spyware that was keeping them from getting on the Internet.
My last job was up in plastic land. I had to add a cable card to a Tivo. It didn't take me long at all. Then I went home.

2007-12-21T10:02:00.000-06:00

I had a rider today. It became evident that she is a talker. And in fact she did talk my ear off through out the day. She works in our purchasing department. The first job was at a house converted into apartments near one of our city's parks. We rang and no one answered, so we called it not at home.
The next job was a house further north. A tall, old black man answered the door and invited us in. He moved really slowly and led us to his bedroom. His TV needed to be changed to channel 3. Everything was fixed I went back into the living room and now there was a smaller black man, whose body looked out of proportion, like he was deformed. I went out back to check on the line to the house and of course it needed to be replaced, it was too old. So I went a head and replaced. Then a third black man came out to take out the garbage. I wondered exactly how many people were living in this house.
The next job was a house a little to the south. There were two black women here trying to watch BET. But it was breaking up. I looked around and tried to find something to fix but everything was new. So I replaced the box and everything was fine. Mary J Blige was on and my rider proceeded to talk with the women about her.
The next job was further south. The front yard had some sculptures in it. The house on the inside was full of really interesting artwork. There were two gay guys here. One owns an antique store while the other writes for a local publication. My rider sat and talked with them the whole time while I worked. There was another guy here. He was staying here while dealing with his divorce. He has been a meth addict for the past 10 years. All four of their TVs were acting up for different reasons. One was having audio problems, which I wasn't entirely sure how to fix. Then the TV in the kitchen only acts up sometimes, which was not now. The TV in the bedroom upstairs was obviously the box and the one in the office looked like a bad cable. So I fixed everything, but the TV in the study did not get better. So I investigated further and replaced some splitters. That fixed it. As I was finishing up a redheaded woman, who looks kind of like one of the DJs I know at a local radio station. She was a fine art photographer, and had a presentation this evening to get a show at the local art museum. She was here to get some advice on how to go about it.
We went to lunch. During lunch she proceeded to tell me about how when she's nervous she doesn't eat, food doesn't taste good to her (earlier her parents called to say they were driving into town 2 days early in order to beat a storm). Her husband is the same way. She also talked about Into The Wild and how it is borne out of Jack London's marital frustrations and how they mirror her own marital frustrations. She lives plastic land. Her husband is a realtor.
After lunch we went to a apartment building. I was here to hook up this guys VCR. She played with the guys cat. We weren't there for very long.
The next job was a town home. There were two gay guys here. There was no real problem here. The guys wanted me to make sure everything was right, which it was. The whole time she joked with them about porn and various jobs she had been on in the past. She talk about this one job where when she entered the carpet was crunchy. The guy was in a wheelchair and had a colostomy bag which was leaking, for god knows how long. Enough to soak into the carpet and make it crunchy.
The next job was in a complex near by. We were met in the hallway by a little frail old woman. The place had the overpowering smell of cat. She had a glass case full of old dolls. She talked about how one of her dolls broke and how she has someone come by three times a week to clean, but she doesn't think the lady has enough to do, so she is going to have her drive the old lady to somewhere to get the doll fixed. She had some how gotten her cable box to act like a DVR. It was easy to fix. But there is no real way to prevent her from doing it again.
The last job was in the same complex. This was an install. A young woman lived here. I was here to install video with a DVR. The install was really easy. It took a while, but we has time to kill. The women chatted it up while I waited for everything to work. Then I dropped her back off at the shop.

2007-12-19T18:22:00.000-06:00

My day started late, because my laptop wasn't working right. I spent about an hour on the phone with IT. The first job was a house not too far from where I live. There was a couple here in their late 30's. They had a couple kids. They already had TV and a modem. I put a DVR on the TV and set them up with two phone lines as well. The guy here was complaining about their Internet being slow. Both him and his wife work from home. He sells blinds and window dressings and she's a realtor. There was a white board that had several local properties and their price tags next to them. I thought the prices were all high. The job went remarkably smooth. Especially since they had an alarm.
The next job was an apartment building near a park. There was a young woman here, she had just moved in. She thought her appointment was earlier, so she had been waiting all morning for me. I rushed to get the job done, because she needed to get to work. I could here her talking to a guy in the back room. He sounded effeminate. I never saw the guy. But I wasn't there for long.
The next job was in the fancy shopping district. A guy answered the door. They weren't yet unpacked. He told me he moved here from Pennsylvania. He is a Patent Lawyer. He was brought out here by a law firm. It sounded pretty interesting. The job was pretty easy.
My next two jobs were in the same apartment complex. The first was a disconnect. The other was an install. At the install I was met at the door by a Hispanic woman, she told me she didn't know and English. She was cooking and she had her daughter there. I went outside to hook them up and when I came back her husband was there with their two sons. The husband spoke perfect English. The job went off with out a hitch. Then I went home.

2007-12-18T19:21:00.000-06:00

My day started at a house to the north. I was there to add two more boxes. There were two large black women living here. They didn't know how to work their computer, so I had to show them that as well. The job overall didn't take too long.
The next job was in plastic land. This was a place I had been to before. The last time I was here I moved the EMTA to another side of the room. Apparently this somehow fucked up the alarm (I thought I had it working). So some guys came back out and fixed that but now one of her phone jacks wasn't working. She had to go so I rescheduled it for tomorrow.
The next job was further south. I called and was told to cancel the job. As I was leaving a young woman pulled up and asked me about the job. I told her I was told to cancel it. She said no one knew what they were talking about and asked me to come in. I checked it out and one phone jack was working but the other one wasn't. I spent a whole lot of time trying to figure out why but couldn't come up with anything. The line must have been damaged during construction, but there was nothing I could do about it. So the job remained canceled.
The next job was in an apartment complex. A Hispanic woman answered the door. I was here to Install Internet. I was running a little behind so I rushed through it. I think she was watching Cold Case the whole time I was there.
I made a quick stop for lunch and then headed to the next job. This was a house. No one answered the door at first. I called the wife and she said her husband was probably asleep, then he answered the door. I was there because their dog chewed through the cable line. I replaced as the dog kept barking at me the whole time I was there.
Afterwards I did a couple disconnects. These were at the same location. As I drove up I saw why. The place was burned out. I could still smell the burned wood. The whole place was torched. I did the job all the while a cat kept trying to get my attention. The cat looked an awful lot like Garfield if only it was orange.
Next I headed to a house down south. The job was scheduled as 1-5 pm, but there was a note saying the customer would not be there after 5pm. So I called it not at home. I did not want to be here that late.
The next job was an apartment complex. There was a black woman here who said her phones kept going out. I thought it was connected to a bad cable so I by-passed it. I'm hoping that fixed it.
Afterwards I did a couple more disconnects and then headed to my next job. This was a fancy high rise apartment building near me. I was let in by a young gay man. I couldn't tell if he was a friend or an assistant to the men who actually live here. They weren't getting a dial-tone, but nothing was plugged into the EMTA. I hooked it all up and everything was working fine. The guy said they had been gone for 2 months and came back and nothing was working. I checked their computer to make sure it's working and on the screen was a picture of two guys in leather and one of them is licking the other.
Afterwards I did another disconnect and went home.

Monday

2007-12-18T18:21:00.001-06:00

My day started out at a house. A little old lady lived here. Her front door was being worked on so I came around the back. She was complaining about her cable box not working, but the fact was it wasn't on channel 3. I turned it back and checked out her other TV because she was complaining about not getting channel 71 and channel 67 coming in fuzzy. I ended up replacing everything between the pole and this TV and it still didn't work, so I told her it was her TV. Towards the end her family had shown up and they were packing things away into boxes for some reason. My next job canceled while I was there which was good or I would be running really late at this point.
The next job was among some town homes. A white trash looking guy missing his front teeth. He was nice. He complained about his cable box but said it was fine now. I checked anyways and found a low signal. I re-arranged some things outside to give him a better signal. But I suspect there was another splitter in the crawl space. The only problem is that it was locked and I have no clue who to talk to to get it open. So I got everything working then I canceled the job.
The next three jobs were all on the same block, which usually denotes a network problem. I ran into a tech who told me he found a network issue in that area yesterday. So I called the first one who said everything is fine and that I should cancel the job. The woman at the next job also said everything was fine, but wanted me to check out her VCR to make sure it was working alright. At the third job I was met at the door by a woman who told me everything is fine, so I canceled that one as well.
The next job was in the fancy shopping district. This place is a box that has been divided into three different living units. The one I was heading to was the lower one. Their Internet had been going down. Of course it is working now, so I had to try and figure out what may be causing it. The only possible cause I could find was an old connector outside. I hope that was the problem.
The next job was a house I had been to before. There is an old black woman here who runs a daycare out of her house. She was having issues with her DVR which of course were not occurring today. I believe these were the same issues as the last time I was here. I told her she needed to have it replaced, but she was not wiling to replace it just yet. There were recordings she still wanted to watch. Which I'm pretty sure was the same conversation we had last time. So I left and rescheduled the job.
The next job was a little further north. There was a Hispanic woman living here with her kids. They had a small puppy that wanted really bad to run around and play. These people weren't getting all their channels. I thought it was the box at first, so I replaced it. After a while I saw the worst squirrel chew I've ever seen. There was a hole under the eve of the house where squirrels were getting into their attic and our cable line was right next to that spot. Once I replaced it everything was fine.
My last job was just off of prostitute row. There was a round Hispanic woman here with a guy I took to be her gay brother. The phones weren't fully hooked up, this required running a phone line up over the room following a beam. I finished this and went home.

Sunday

2007-12-17T19:41:00.000-06:00

My first job of the day was in a small house near a park. At first I thought the place used to be the garage of the near by house. But the lady here said it used to be a convenience store. As I was leaving I could see it. It was a small house. She said her daughter, who goes to a nearby college, was staying here. She was sick with mono. I was here to get her Internet running. I replaced our modem with one she owns. She had two cats. One of which tried to climb up my leg.
The next job was on one of the busiest streets in town. A Jewish man answered the door. His modem wasn't working at all. I just needed to replace it.
The next job was at a apartment complex. A young black woman answered the door. She wanted me to move the EMTA to another room where the computer was going to be. She was here with a buy (who spent the whole time on the phone) and her kid. I moved it and tried to get their laptop working, but it was ancient (10 years old). It didn't have an ethernet port and none of my USB software worked for a computer this old. So I told them and the guy told the woman to get a new computer.
After lunch I went to a high rise apartment not too far from where I live. The guy here seemed happy to see me. He had a low signal. So I had to go to the box outside and re-arranged some things. That did the trick.
The next job was another high rise apartment in my neighborhood. There was a couple here watching football. I've been in this building before and I knew what the problem was right away. Their modem was plugged into the antenna outlet instead of the cable outlet. I moved it over and everything worked fine. I watched a bit of football with them and headed to the next job. This job was a couple of lesbians living in a house just off of prostitute row. They were watching golf. They were having weird signal issues which I believe I tracked down to a bad splitter. I say believe, because sometimes you don't know.
My next job was in the country club area. This was a huge house. I called the customer and she said she was about 20 minutes away. I told her I would wait. In the meantime I sought out the pedestal she was plugged into. I noticed her neighbor had their line replaced recently, at least since the last snow. Dispatch called me up and convinced me to pick up one more job. Which at the time I was running ahead so I didn't mind. She finally showed up and it became apparent that the line to her place needed to be replaced as well. Of course the majority of her house was surrounded by porch, and the line had to enter underground. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we were going to do this. After a while she showed me something in the front which solved the whole dilemma. When I finally got it up a running she still had a low signal, but I decided I didn't want to fuck with it anymore. As I was leaving I saw that dispatch took some pity on me and pulled that last job from me because by this point I was running late.

2007-12-14T02:12:00.000-06:00

My day started up north in the poorer neighborhood. I pulled up next to a snow covered shopping cart with a stuffed animal in it. The neighborhood smelled like the near by dog food factory. The front yard was littered with various Christmas decorations and a broken down Foosball table. The door was answered by a Hispanic woman. There was a younger woman here, who didn't live here (possibly a social worker) and a young boy, whom she constantly referred to as friend (possible foster child). The problem here turned out to be a bad cable. As I was leaving I noticed that the neighborhood now smelled like a dump.
The next job was house a little to the East. No one answered the door. There was a blue van out front that was running. Eventually a Hispanic guy jumped out and let me into the place. I was here to replace the remote.
The next job was a house a few blocks away. The door was answered by a skinny black woman. She called out to her dad in the other room. He poked around the corner wearing a bath robe, with tubes from an oxygen machine sticking up his nose and latex gloves on his hands. It looked like saran wrap was stick out of the gloves. He showed me to his room and described the problems he was having with his box. There was a white woman in the bed. She didn't get up the whole time I was there. So I replaced the box. He was also having problems with the Internet, which I fixed as well. In the end he was extremely grateful.
The next job was a house to the west. A woman answered the door and said she did not schedule any appointment, so I canceled the job.
After lunch I went to an apartment building. There was an older gentleman here. He seemed to be way into opera. Tons of recordings and books. I was here to swap the cable box, which I did and split.
The next job was a house not too far from where I live. An old man answered the door. He showed me his remote, he wasn't hitting the buttons right. I tried to explain this to him. He showed me these instruments he uses to read since his eyesight was bad. It looked like microfiche or something else you see at the library. He also gave me a box he wasn't using. He wasn't getting all his services. I couldn't for the life of me get them all to work. But it became apparent that he never used these services,so instead of stressing out about it I took off.
The next job was a house further east. This guy had switched the channel on his TV off of 3. I switched it back and checked everything. It was working fine. I looked out back and saw that the line needed to be replaced. This was a long line that ran through somebody else's backyard. I did not want to do this, so I told the guy that I was going to cancel the job so he didn't get charged. He tipped me a $5.
The last job was in a fancy high rise. I needed to replace the HD box. The guy here was very nice. They were baking brownies and gave me some. I hung out for a while to kill some time and then headed home.

Wednesday

2007-12-14T01:44:00.000-06:00

Instead of a meeting today the supervisors cooked us some breakfast, which was nice. My first job was a nice house. It had been recently remodeled, which means they cut the cable line. So I had to string a new one. Of course it was fucking cold and everything was still icy in the alley. The nice hot summer helped me forget all about the winter. Once I finally got that finished I worked on the inside. Who ever remodeled the place only put in two cable outlets and three phone jacks in the place. This was the most asinine remodel job I've ever seen. I got the cable jacks working but could not get all the phone jacks to work. First I got one jack working, but when I got the other two working the first one wouldn't work. Eventually I had to go into the crawl space. The crawl space was about 4 1/2 feet high with no way to get down, so I had to get a ladder. I by-passed the bad line and finally went to my next job.
The next job was an apartment building. There was a young woman here. She said she just moved here from Boston. She graduated from college and was looking for something new. She said she spent the summer working in Martha's Vineyard. I had a hard time finding her line. When I did it turned out to have water damage. I had to turn it over to post-wire. The job had to be finished another day. I was running way late, so I skipped my lunch and headed to my next job. This was in plastic land. I was here to install the phone. A Hispanic woman opened the door. She said she was the cleaning lady. I set up the EMTA but for some reason I could not get the phones to work. I finally tracked it down to the patch-bay the alarm was hooked into. It was loose. The woman who lived here had finally showed up. I showed her the problem and told her to contact the builder to get a replacement.
The next job was at an apartment building. I was here to pick up some boxes. The door was answered by a young black woman. There was a couple guys on the couch. I just grabbed the shit and split. When I left there was a cop car blocking my van. He had pulled over some kids who were joyriding.
The next job was in a house that had been divided into two units. This was a family living upstairs. The place was a maze. I was here to do an Internet install. It took forever, mainly because the guys computer wouldn't cooperate. It turned out to be his firewall. He said him a his family just moved here from Arizona. He was out of work do to the housing crisis. He was working with mortgages, now he's just picking up odd jobs as a handyman. They had two very elegant looking greyhounds.

Tuesday

2007-12-11T20:16:00.000-06:00

I started my day late on account of the bad weather. Traffic was slow. But I didn't mind. The first job was a nice house. A woman answered the door. She showed me what was wrong with her TV. It was some settings, but I noticed something else wrong. I replaced the connector behind the wall plate and that fixed it. The place was largely empty, they were still moving in.
The next job was in a town home complex. There was a black family living here. I saw at least three woman two teenage boys and two kids. The place stunk. One of the boys told me what was wrong. One TV wasn't getting a channel and the other wasn't working at all. As I was working in this one bedroom I saw two cockroaches or maybe it was the same one twice. I replaced a cable and a box.
The next job was in an apartment complex. The door was answered by a Hispanic woman. She didn't even know I was showing up. She told me something was wrong but she didn't know what. I looked around and I found a loose connector. I wasn't sure if that was actually the problem so I canceled the job.
The next job was a house to the east. A guy answered the door. He showed me his new HD TV which was having problems. It had a really low signal, but for some reason that I was never quite able to explain his Internet worked fine. I looked in his attic and everywhere else, but it turned out it was behind a wall. I told him he either needed to get an electrician to replace that stuff or I could drill a new hole. But by drilling a new hole another TV he had would quit working, because it was also coming off the splitter in the wall. So I ran the new outlet.
I was running late so usually I would go straight to my afternoon jobs, but I had an errand to run. Afterwards I went to my next job which was in a very nice house. A woman answered the door and apologized for the mess. She told me about how her Husband had a heart attack and had some severe brain damage. She hasn't been able to clean up or anything. She also started to complain about her dog which had puked on the couch and apparently uses the basement as its personal bathroom. She turned on the TV. There were cracks and a big round gray spot on the TV. You couldn't see half the TV. It told her it was her TV. It looked like someone threw something at it. She mentioned it was probably her kids.
It then went to a house a little further north. A woman answered the door. There was a guy there working on a lap top. The two of them spent the whole time working on something. Another guy showed up with their box, he was going to go switch it out with a DVR but got called back. They had re-arranged the living room and wanted the TV off of a different outlet. So I just had to activate it and make sure it worked.
The next job turned out to be the house of someone I know. We have mutual friends. He took me to the basement, where the TV wasn't working. The basement walls were plastered with advertisements from magazines and old Boondocks cartoons as well as fliers for the band we both know. I replaced a cable which got the box working. I thought my job was done. I took off but got called back because apparently there was some audio issues. We had the box going through the DVD player before, but he wanted it through his VCR and it made a horrible noise. It turned out to be his TV.
The next job was in a apartment complex. No one answered the door so I called it not at home. I thought my day was over, but they gave me one more job. This was in the land of scrape offs. The door was answered by a guy. He showed me to his modem and router. Apparently he can only get one computer to work at any one time. Which defeats the purpose of having a router. The problem was that they have had nothing but problems since switching over to us. So when I told them that the problem is their router, they were mad and said they might go back to the competitor.

Monday

2007-12-11T19:10:00.000-06:00

I started my day up north in the poorer part of town. This was a u shaped building divided into four units. A short Hispanic woman opened the door. She was really twitchy the whole time, like she was on something. I was here to check out her Internet. I saw a couple things to replace, but ultimately I had to replace the modem.
The next job was in a apartment complex. The door was answered by an Asian guy with no shirt on. His modem wasn't working so he went and got a new one, but that one wasn't working either. It turned out it was in standby, so I set it up and went to my next job.
The next job was at another apartment complex. But no one answered the door. So I went to an early lunch. I tried to run some errands but couldn't. I just ended up doing some reading then going to my next job.
The next job was an apartment building. At first no one answered so I called and the woman said she was about a block away. She let me in and said there were problems with her Internet. The place looked like an office not a place of residence. I replaced the modem and went on my way.
The next job was in a house in a nice neighborhood. It was for sale. The woman here said she was selling it for about $450,000. I really didn't like the way house looked on the outside. I don't care how good the neighborhood is the house isn't that good. She wanted me to move the modem and router, which I did. But in the end I needed to replace the modem.
The next job was part of a series of town homes. Thankfully no one was home. I had a feeling I didn't want to do this job.
The next job was an apartment building. There was a middle aged couple here. They needed the passkey to their modem to log in. So I got it for them.
I then picked up another job. This was in an apartment building for retirees and the disabled. An little round Native American woman answered the door. She told me that "they" were listening in on her phones. She could tell, because she sometimes hears a clicking noise when she picks up the phone. I tried to explain to her that it was her voice mail. She would listen. She kept going on about a family of immigrants that follow her. She would list all these places they used to live. She said they had a blind grandmother who would move into these places then they would show up and act like they were visiting but in reality they were moving in. She said she has really good ears and she can hear them. At night they party and and yell out to people to stop ratting on them. She said that some of them are in the building but some of them just moved in across the street. She also said that when she turns on her TV she can hear voices sometimes out of the vents. Her telephone was hooked up to our box which was hooked to the cable. Her telephone was in no way connected to the building wiring. There is no way anyone could hack into it. I listened to her story, the whole time thinking what story I was going to give her in order to get out of there. In the end I told her we would get people on this and I left.
I was given yet another job at this point. This was near the hospitals. The woman here had forgotten that she had an appointment. Her phones weren't working. It turned out to be the phone its self. So I went home.

2007-12-09T17:36:00.000-06:00

I started my day late. My first job was at a really nice house. There was a young couple here with their kids. This was a nice house in a very nice area. Their Internet was acting up. Their signal was low. I saw some things that needed to be fixed, but it wasn't enough. I then had to go into their crawl space and replace a few things. Then once I got back to the modem it was no longer working even though the signal was fine. So I got a new modem from my van. But I hooked it up to their computer and saw no response. I started to go over the house again to see if I missed something. It turned out to be something wrong with the computer itself.
The next job was a house further north. A guy answered the door with no shirt on. There were two kids sleeping on bed in the living room. They were still moving into the place. There was very little furniture. One of their cable boxes wasn't working because whoever did the install the previous day didn't put this one box on the account. Their Internet wasn't working either. The guy who did the install didn't setup the Internet at all. Once I had that set up it turned out the telephone didn't work. So I had to replace the EMTA as well.
Afterwards I went out to resort town. There was a little old man here. He was having problems with his e-mail account. It was a quick job, which was nice because I was way late by this point.
The next job was in the fancy shopping district. There was a guy here who just moved here from Seattle. Apparently he just missed all the nasty weather that's been going on up there. He said he really likes the weather here. He said whatever problem he was having is no longer an issue but asked about his TV. The problem with his TV was due to a loose connector. I checked things out and everything looked good, so I canceled the job.
I got some gas for my van and then I went to my afternoon job in order to get back on time. This was an apartment complex. A guy was here watching TV. I checked out his Internet and the signal looked off. I found a connector that was in bad need of replacing. Once I fixed that everything looked better, so I left.
The next job was way up north. As I approached this house a lady in the door way said she had canceled the job already. So I went to the next one.
This was a house to the west. An old black guy in a bath robe answered the door. He said he just got out of the hot tub. He showed me to the computer, but said he didn't know what exactly the problem was. His wife and daughter were the ones who were always on it. I checked it out their router wasn't working at all. I showed it to him and went to my last job.
This was the apartment of a friend. He wasn't there at first so I waited for him. In the meantime I did what I could to boost his signal from the outside. I did what I could to give him some extra channels as well. When he showed up I checked out the inside and everything looked good, so we talked a while and I went home.

Thursday

2007-12-07T11:31:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment complex. The door was answered by a guy in a bathrobe. I told him I was here to look at his cable. He said it was fixed yesterday so I canceled it.
The next job was in a high rise apartment building. This place is mainly filled with retirees. A woman answered the door. She started talking about how her TV kept saying unusable signal. I knew right away it was on the wrong input. I just switched it over and it was working. She felt bad, I had to convince her that everything was fine.
The next job was closer to downtown. This guy answered the door. I had obviously woke him up. He showed me around back and said that his neighbor had been stealing his cable. When he disconnected his neighbor, his neighbor cut his line. So I reconnected everything and I cut all the cable that the neighbor was using. Then I canceled the job, because the odds are the neighbor was going to do it again.
The next job was in a high rise apartment building for retirees. The guy who lives here is hard of hearing so it took forever for him to realize he needed to answer the door. I knew I had to replace the box, so it was a quick job. We communicated through hand gestures for the most part.
After lunch I headed to an apartment. The was a box looking building that has been divided into four units. There were three old black ladies here. Each older than the last. One of them said that the youngest was her daughter and the older one was her sister. They didn't have any signal, so I looked out back and saw that one of the other units had disconnected them and hooked themselves up. I almost never run into people stealing cable, yet this is the second time today. As I was out there I looked over and saw a white pickup truck stop in the middle of the road. A black kid about 19 in a puffy jacket came over from the kids playground across the street and started to talk the the guy in the truck. I'm pretty sure I just witnessed a drug deal.
The next job was a few blocks away. An old black guy met me in the driveway. He said he didn't need me to be here and I looked at my radio and noticed that the job was in fact canceled. He said he wanted me to take the box with me which I did. I then picked up another job. This was further south. A guy answered the door wearing doctor garb. He was complaining about his TV stuttering. I found a couple things to replace but wasn't sure if I fixed it or not. So I moved on.
The next job was on a busy street. A guy answered the door and said everything was working fine, but he wanted me to check things out. He wanted to make sure everything was good for the fight this weekend. Which it was so I left.
The next job was in a house near a friend of mine. The wiring in the place was really old. His cable box wasn't working quite right. I replaced everything outside and cleaned it up. That fixed the problem.
At this point it was about 3:45 p.m. and too early to go home, so I called in a picked up one more job. This house was just off of prostitute row. It was a rickety little house. The paint was peeling off. The door was falling apart. I was afraid to knock too hard, the whole place might fall apart. I called and a guy answered the door. He came out and showed me the side of the house. It became immediately obvious that the line to the house needed to be replaced. Not only was this the longest line I've ever had to replace but, I didn't have enough cable for it. So I had to find another tech in the area to give me some cable, so I could do the job. When I had finished I had to call him again. He came outside to sign the paperwork. I never saw the inside of his house. If he wasn't so frail, I would wonder if he had dead bodies in there. In the end I went from being early to getting home late.

Wednesday

2007-12-07T10:35:00.000-06:00

Today I was on installs. Which I usually enjoy. The first job was a house. A young perky woman answered the door. She told me she was expecting a lot of contractors over the day. The house was an old Victorian that had been remodeled recently. The woman here said she got the place for a good deal. That's probably because it's on a busy street and there is a lot of construction going on out front. Construction crews were tearing up the road out front. They were unearthing the old rail lines that ran through this town. She told me where she wanted everything. It looked like I had to drill some new outlets. As I was there some electricians showed up, as well as some plumbers, and some furnace guys. The house was crawling with contractors. The job took a long time. As I was drilling the second outlet, I saw sparks and smoke. I pulled my drill out out of the hole right away. I could see more smoke. I was certain I hit something electrical. It even burned into my drill bit. I grabbed one of the electricians and had him take a look at it. He checked out the nearest outlet and said it was fine. Consequently I did a follow up call in the evening and it turned out I hit the wire to the light switch and it wasn't working. I finished the job, but it took me all morning.
I rushed to the next job in the land of scrape offs. This was a nice old house. A guy answered the door. He showed me his one TV. I was here to install a box. But it wouldn't get one of his channels and I couldn't figure out why. I replaced all I could, but nothing was fixing it. I spent over two hours trying to figure this out.
Eventually I had to head to my next job. This was an apartment complex. A woman answered the door. She already had some services and was upgrading. She didn't have too many nice things to say about who ever installed her last time. I was running late so I tried to speed through this install as quickly as possibly. She spent the time I was there talking to her neighbors.
The next job was in the fancy shopping district. This was a series of town homes. This guy was having the place painted before he moved in so the place was empty. Thankfully the place was still hooked up too. I moved quickly because I had to be somewhere, So I got things working and headed home.

And that's why I didn't see the gun

2007-12-04T17:32:00.000-06:00

My day started at a apartment complex. A guy answered the door and showed me his TV. It was perfectly fine, there wasn't a single thing wrong with it. He was convinced that ever since the power went out about a week a go his TV hasn't been right. A previous tech had gone out there and gave him some bullshit excuse in order to leave. I wish I could pull that off. I went outside and replaced a couple connectors and then tried to convince the guy the picture was better. He didn't really buy. Then I had to convince him that his picture was good and wasn't going to get any better. The whole time I was there he would stray off topic. He would start talking about the terrible weather in the north west or about the fact that it was his birthday. He also talked about how is on the board for the complex and is in charge of paying the bill for the complex. This he said in a passing tone, but its hard not to see it as an attempt to gain some sort of special attention.
The next job was in the land of scrape offs. An elderly gentleman answered the door. he said this was his daughter's place and she had to run out. There were getting no signal to their TVs. I went to the splitter in the garage and checked everything and put it all back together. When I got back inside everything was working. I removed an unnecessary splitter. Then the daughter showed up. She told me how her son has a sling box, so he can watch local sports from where he goes to school in upstate New York. And how he was mad he couldn't see the football game yesterday. He didn't miss much.
The next house was little south. The door was answered by an elderly gentleman. him and his wife were here. They said they weren't getting all their channels. I looked and found some filters on the line, which I removed. We reprogrammed the TV and it was fine. On my way out the wife gave me some cookies.
The next job was in an apartment complex. a guy answered the door. The place was decked out in Christmas decorations. He complained about some channels acting up at night. I looked outside and found a bad connector. When I got back inside I talked to the guy and it turned out he works for the company as well. So I made sure he was getting the best possible signal I could get. Eventually his kids woke up and started running around. I guess he stays home to watch them some days.
My route today was all fucked up so I called one of my afternoon jobs which was in this area and fortunately they were home. I went to an apartment building. There were two young women here, I assume they were both in college. They were only getting the local channels for some reason. I switched them from one splitter to another outside and that seemed to do the trick. So I ran a quick errand and then headed to my next job.
This one was an apartment building near a park. A lady answered the door with half her upper body in some sort of brace. Apparently she broke her arm really bad slipping on some ice not too long ago. She said the pain was killing her and sometimes she looses feeling to her hand altogether. She's been having serious problems off and on with her cable. but it only seems to happen at night. I could see that several techs had been out here in the last couple months. Even so I did find some connectors to replace. The funny thing is the whole time I was there she kept referring to the last guy who was there as a supervisor. He is in not a supervisor he's in my squad. She also kept referring to the piece of paper he had left behind with his notes. But she had puked on it one night, so it was all crusty. I'm not sure why she bothered to keep it.
The next job was a place I had been to before. Which had it's advantages. I already knew what had to be done. but no one answered the door so I went to the next job.
This was a house that has been converted into two apartments. Right behind the sketchy 7-11 two blocks from where I live. A guy answered the door. He showed me his DVR. It was making this obnoxious clicking sound. So I replaced it. He told me he bought this TV at some sort of Black Friday sale. Got it for about $1200 in the end. It was nice. Maybe I'll be able to afford that some day. He also told me about that friend of the Clinton's who supposedly committed suicide right before he was going to testify against them back in the 90's. He said he worked for the fire dept who were the first people on the scene. He said before the secret service got there there was no suicide note or suitcase and there was no blood splatter. He said it looked like the body was dumped there.
I then headed to my last job. This was a high rise apartment building near a park. One of those where each floor is divided in half. There was an old couple here. They said that ever since they got their TV fixed they haven't been getting all their channels. This TV was a giant cube and it weighed a ton. It took while to figure out, but it was a setting on the TV. They were so grateful they tipped me a $10.

Beep...Beige

2007-12-03T18:46:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment near one of the larger parks in town. There was an older woman here. She had a brand new router, and it looked like she had our Internet before. After a while I pieced together that she was recently divorced. Her bed was her couch. this was a really small place. The screen saver on her computer was of her with a big band. I guess she's a singer. I hadn't heard of her before.
The next job was a really nice house in the land of scrape offs. There was a family here. I was here to get their Tivo working. It sounded as though they live in Connecticut as well and they just move back and forth. This was the first time I've installed a cable card. It was pretty easy. It just took a long time for the Tivo go through the set up. The wife brought up a problem she was having with her Internet. We looked at it and it seemed to fix itself. I think she is a doctor. There was some architectural plans on the table. The whole time I was there the two kids were running around yelling.
The next job was in resort town. I was here to install some cable. I woke the woman up. When she opened the door she looked at me and asked why I was there. Then she realized why I was there and then she apologized saying she works the evening shift. She had two dogs that barked at me most of the time I was there. She spent most of the time I was there online, researching the price of Tivo's.
The next job was in a town-home complex. The door was answered by a middle eastern woman, who spoke no English. It looked like they had our services before and I was just there to hook them back up. The keyboard of their computer had the various characters of Arabic drawn on the corresponding English characters.
The next job was a house. At first no one was there except some insurance guys looking at the roof. I waited and right as I was about to call it not at home. Apparently she had a flat tire and was desperate to get back and not miss the appointment. She had just moved here from Seattle. She said she used to live here and got tired of Seattle, so she came back. The place was empty, she was still waiting for her stuff to get moved. The line to the house was old, so I had to replace it. I also had to drill a hole through the floor to get cable into the living room. She talked a lot. The first modem I set up had to be replaced as well.
My last job was in plasticland. I first walked in the place and it looked under construction. There was a guy cutting tiles (for the bathroom). Eventually I found the owner. He said the place was foreclosed upon. The previous residents trashed the place. So he was cleaning the place up and remodeling it. He bought a modem from us but it had not arrived yet, so I had to set things up for him to do it himself. I was also able to upsell him to a better video package.

2007-12-02T17:52:00.000-06:00

My day started at a apartment building near where I live. An effeminate Hispanic guy lived here. He just moved to town from Los Angeles. He said he dabbles in Real Estate and wanted to get in on the market here. He bought this condo for $100,000. He said the previous owner offered 120, but he could tell the person wanted out bad, so he low balled him. The place was empty. All he had for furniture was his fancy flat screen TV. He said he wanted to take out the carpet and put in hard wood floors before he gets furniture in the place. He tried to install the Internet himself and failed. It was because he was trying to run it through the antennae. The cable outlet was in fact disconnected. It was an easy job.
The next job was an apartment building. It was right next to some Buddhist center, I didn't even know existed before. A young black guy with no shirt on let me in. His girlfriend was still in her pj's. They had just moved here from St. Louis. The guy was still looking for a job, so I told him to apply with us. Their modem wasn't working at all, so I replaced it. I also programmed their remote for their TV. They were extremely grateful.
I then had an early lunch and tried to get to my next job a little early. This job was in an apartment complex. A short round Asian lady answered the door. She took me to her kids room where the modem was. She said it would keep going out randomly. I guess her kid plays a lot of X-Box Live, so he notices this sort of thing. I thought the problem was possibly outside, but I could tell she wanted me to swap out the modem. So I poked around outside then came back in and switched out the modem. Every so often she would watch over my shoulder which was a little annoying. Her kid would just sit there and text message people, while she tried to bond with him.
The next job was house further up north. There was an older couple here with their son. I got the impression he was visiting for the day, possibly from college. The place smelled nice, like they were recently baking. I was here to fix their modem. I found some bad splitters, but there looked to be a lot more going on than this. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get a better signal to the modem, but was still a little short. I could see that someone is going to be here on Tue. to install an HD box. This ultimately gives me a pass on the job. Assuming that I don't get repeated between now and then, and future repeats go against whoever ends up here in a couple days. So running out of time, I made sure things were working and headed to my next job.
This was a house back south. The door was answered by a guy wearing a Chicago Bears shirt. He looked a little confused. I said I was here to check out his Internet. He said it was fine, he was on it now. So I canceled the job and went on.
Next was a job in an apartment building. A black lady answered the door. I couldn't tell if she lived here alone or not. The problem with her modem was a bad cable. I replaced it and left.
My last job was an apartment building. This building is filled with older, retired folks. Upon entering I could tell some sort of party was going on. I could smell Bar-B-Q. I went upstairs and the door was answered by a little old Hispanic lady. She had a thick accent. Her flat screen TV was not working. I pulled the connection off to check it. I saw a piece of tinfoil in there, which I removed. I re-attached the connector and it worked fine. So I canceled the job and went home.
But as I called into dispatch to close out my day, they gave me yet another job. This wasn't even in my area. It was a little gated community. there was an old Jewish couple here. It turned out that they had changed the channel of their TVs off of channel 3. So they weren't getting any cable. I got out and went home as quickly as possible.

Thursday

2007-11-30T11:08:00.000-06:00

My day started at a house. An old woman answered the door. Right away started to apologize for her cats which were running around behind her TV and unplugged something. I quickly found it and plugged it back in. She proceeded to complain about her cats and about how they like to climb up the Christmas tree. There was also a planet that they have terrorized. In the end she tried to pawn them off on me.
The next job was in a high rise apartment building. This place is mainly inhabited by immigrants. I have been to this apartment before. There was a Jamaican lady here who loves to watch westerns. She was having a problem with her box. She was complaining about missing Dancing With the Stars last night. I replaced it, but that wasn't the problem. It turned out to be a loose connector.
The next job was a house. A young guy answered the door. He works from home. He said him and a friend bought this place together. It was a nice place. They weren't getting the NFL network. I determined it to be a bad cable. Which I replaced.
Then I went to a job I was at yesterday. The woman who had one eye closed and the other squinting. She had somehow messed up the volume. I fixed it and canceled the job to avoid a repeat.
Being in the neighborhood I had lunch at home. Then I went to my first afternoon job. This was a nice new house. The woman here wanted me to re-arrange the audio so that it would come through both the TV and the surround sound and to program her remote to control her TV, Cable Box and Tuner. Which I did.
The next job was in the fancy shopping area. This were a series of town-homes. An old guy answered the door. They had a Christmas tree that was completely covered in ornaments. You couldn't even see the tree. His DVR was on the fritz so I replaced it. Then went to the next job.
This was only a couple blocks away. A woman answered the door. She turned on the TV and it was working fine. She explained what had happened and I tried to re-create it but couldn't so I canceled the job and left.
My last job was a small apartment building. The woman was having problems with her cable and Internet. It turned out to be a low signal. It took a little while but I had figured out how to improve it. The problem with her Internet was because of her work computer. It had been set up in some way where it wasn't going to be able to get on. So I helped her set up her new apple computer and got that on the Internet instead. Then I went home

Wednesday

2007-11-30T10:00:00.000-06:00

This was the day of my weekly meeting. It had snowed last night and the roads were icy. On the way in I turned on a side street, but I hit it too fast and spun around about 270 degrees until I was finally stopped by the sidewalk. The whole time I just kept thinking I hope I don't roll over.
The first job was a home in the land of scrape offs. This was an old home. The woman living here must have lived here for a long time. She was on older lady. She had to put her dog up. She explained that is was abused and then left out in the country, the dog eventually ended up on her farm. But its not too friendly to strangers because of this. Her front screen wouldn't open for some reason so I had to go around back. I was just here to switch out a box for a DVR. The room I was putting it in had a litter box in the middle on a plastic sheet. In fact all her furniture throughout the house had plastic on it. This room had a couple of desks but no where to really sit, so I thought it was weird to put a DVR in this room.
The next job was a house. This guy had recently bought the place and was still moving in. I just needed to move the EMTA into another room. But there was no cable or phone in that room, so I had to run a new outlet. This took a bit of time. At least he helped me out, which is always nice. I replaced his DVR for him as well, while I was there.
Then I headed to a row of apartments. The door was answered by a round woman, who had one eye barely open while the other was completely closed. She said she had some extra money so she bought an HD TV. I was here to install an HD box. I was running very late, so I took off quick.
The next job was at an apartment building near where I live. There was a young woman here. The place was laid out differently. the is the first place I've heard that is cheaper than my own. Though she said she knew some one, that's why she has such a good deal. That and the fact that it's really a half-way house. The place was furnished with a really crappy little TV. The kind that have big knobs. She couldn't get most of the channels and the ones she did get were crappy. I also installed the Internet.
I went straight to the next job. This was a house not too far from where my girlfriend lives. A big rotund fellow answered the door. He had a long beard and moved very slow. The place was full of very interesting art work. It turned out that both his parents were artists. His dad did paintings while his mom worked with pottery. The place was full of their artwork. The kitchen was painted as well. He gave me a brochure for an exhibit of their artwork at a museum here in town. The install was very easy. As I was leaving he mentioned that before I showed up he wasn't getting a few channels. It sounded like a filter, so after I left I went up the pole and removed the filter.
The next job was in plastic land. I just had to downgrade somebody, which I did from the outside.
Then I headed to my last job. This was in the land of scrape offs. This was a very nice ranch home. It took up a loot of land. There was an older lady here, with 20 year old guy and a woman who was in her mid-twenties. She is an architect and the two others she enlisted to help her. She said she had gum surgery yesterday, so one of the others fixed her a drink. I was here to switch out an HD box with a DVR and fix one of her TVs which I did. We talked a bit and then I went home.

2007-11-27T20:28:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment not too far from where I live. There was a little woman here, who wasn't getting some of her channels. Her place was full of Garfield dolls. She was watching a Poirot movie. I replaced everything I could and when I was just about to give up I switched her to a different splitter in the box and that cleared it up. So I went to my next job.
The next job was a house. An older gentleman opened the door. His place had a lot of interesting art work. He was complaining about the sound being fucked up, which it was. At first I thought it was his fancy HD TV. But it turned out to be the box, which I switched out.
Next I headed to the land of scrape-offs. This place looked like a scrape-off but I was assured it was a remodel (not that there is much of a difference). There was one TV that wasn't working. It had a frame around it which pulled up a picture, when you are not watching TV. Basically it wasn't getting any signal. The line must have been cut during construction. It took a while to convince the woman here of this. We ran a new line from a different outlet. While waiting for the TV to work, she gave me a Pelegrino and a Clementine.
The next job was in the fancy shopping district. The door was answered by a woman who had a shit tone of make-up on. I thought it was still Halloween. She showed me a TV that was missing a couple channels. I asked to see the splitter. She called to her husband who was in the basement. He came up. Never in my life had I ever seen so much hair on a person's ear. It was thick too. Downstairs he showed me to where everything came together. It looked like a switchboard. It took us a long time just figure out how it worked. Let alone get anything fixed. Eventually I left and by this time I was starting to run late.
The next job wasn't too far away. The door at this place was answered by a tall thin woman. She showed me the TV. I asked where the splitter was and she showed me to the basement then she went to get her husband. The basement was his work area there were empty bullet shells in zip-lock bags. He said he was a corrections office in a town about 45 minutes to the south. He showed me where some other things were, then he proceeded to give me a tour of the place and point out a bunch of things that were completely irrelevant. In fact the whole time I was there he would bring up things that had nothing to do with the problem even when I had already explained to him that it wasn't problem. Eventually I had to figure out a way to bypass the outlet in question. I spent way too much time there and now I was even later.
The next job was in an apartment complex. They were not getting a few channels. I knew exactly where to look, so I moved quickly to gain time. There was a Hispanic family here. They had statues of bald eagles carrying the U.S. flag next to their flat screen TV. They also had some toy trucks around as well. I then headed to the next job.
The next job was up north. It was a series of town-homes. I walked in and a woman told me nothing was working, but she turned the TV on and it was working. I saw that the splitter was hooked up backwards. So I fixed it and went on my way.
As I was heading to my next job it got canceled, so I was ready to go home, but got stuck with one more job. This was a faulty router. The family was eating dinner as I was working. I could tell one of the sons was applying for college. He had an impressive list he was going out for. AT one point the dog came in, tossed one of the pillows off the chair in the room, then tossed the other one around until it was right for him to lay on. As I was leaving the wife offered me some food to take with me. I declined and headed home.

Monday

2007-11-26T19:41:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment complex. I was doing installs today, and the woman here already had everything set up for me. Which made it all very easy. She had just moved from a town up north. She's a Presbyterian minister and just moved to a church that was only a couple blocks away. I was jealous about the fact that she can walk to work. She said she would still have to drive back to that town once a month to do pre-marital counseling.
The next job was in resort town. There was a young couple here, still moving in. Once again they had everything already set up for me, so the install was super easy.
I was called to pick up another job in the retirement community. I was greeted at the door by an old man. He told me that the woman I was here for is both deaf and dumb, so she is waiting for me in her room. I asked him what was wrong and he didn't know. At her place he asked me to press a doorbell. I could see that it caused a light to flash. At this point I heard a squawk. I thought it was a parrot, I see lots of parakeets in this neighborhood. I came in and there was no bird. It was in fact her that made the squawk. In a way she reminded me of one of the singing sisters in the Triplets of Bellville. She motioned towards the TV and shrugged her shoulders. I turned it on and saw that it was on the wrong channel. I changed it and she was immediately grateful. She blew me a kiss to show her gratitude.
After lunch I went to a house way up north in a poorer neighborhood. A young guy answered the door. The place was a mess because they were still moving in. He showed me where everything was. Out back i could tell that everything was old, but a previous tech out here had tried to cover it up and make it look new. So I ended up having to replace the line to the house. Which took a while, but after words, the install was easy.
My last job was only a couple doors away from a friend of mine. I had to call her and she showed up. Her place was empty. She had moved from Tamp Bay. She used to live here and missed it, so she has moved back. Currently she's waiting for her stuff to arrive. The place was depressing. She said she's been staying with her friend down the street. I almost wonder if it's the same person I knew. She looked like they may know each other. But for some reason I didn't ask. It wasn't a difficult install.

sunday

2007-11-26T18:37:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment building, that looks like one of those large Victorian buildings that has been converted into apartments, but it was actually a scrape off. A woman answered the door and mentioned that her boyfriend was slow to getting up. So she acted as a diversion until he was dressed and out of the room. She was having problems with her Internet. Her signal was a little low, which I fixed but the real problem was her router. I showed it to her and went to my next job.
This was another apartment building. A guy meet me at the door. He apologized for the mess. He said his girlfriend was out of town, which meant he got to live as a bachelor for a while. So there was clothes all over the place. I had to jump over some clothes to get up the stairs to where the modem. It turned out to be the modem, so I replaced it.
The next job was a house. The door was answered by a nice gentleman. He showed me to where the modem was upstairs. It was the modem so I replaced it and went to the next job.
This place was a house. But there were several people living here. The atmosphere was that of college. I was showed upstairs to a room where the modem was. It was getting a low signal. I looked outside and saw that the line needed to be replaced. In fact I saw things wrong all over the place. In the end I spent almost three hours there replacing everything. All the while a couple of guys just sat there and watched Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back and some football.
Afterwards I went to an apartment building near where I live. There was an older couple living here. There were having serious Internet issues. Their signal was low. I did what I could to raise it but, the issue was both the signal to the building and the line to their apartment. But considering that I was running behind at this point I decided to let things remain the way they are and hope it doesn't come back to haunt me.
The next job was just a few blocks away at another apartment building. This guy was having Internet issues as well. It turned out that the connector wasn't hooked up right at the splitter. It as a very quick job.
I was then given another job. But no one was home. So I went to another apartment building. There was a woman here. She was having TV issues. It was due to a low signal. So I fixed the signal and left.
As I was leaving I was given yet another job. This was in the country club area. This guy looked and sounded a lot like Robert Culp. He was having a problem with one of his TVs. But it never happened while I was there. We actually just sat there and watched the football game. Every so often we would remember why I was there and make some comment about how it hasn't happened yet. Eventually I just left.

2007-11-21T11:11:00.000-06:00

This day started out in the fancy shopping district. I was actually at this place about a year ago to replace the DVRs. This time I was here to program her remote to her new TV. It was a simple in and out job.
The next job was further north. The door was answered by an old black woman. She went to go wake up her son. He showed me a TV int he basement that wasn't getting too many channels. The son was in town for Thanksgiving, from Austin. It turned out that the line to the house needed to be replaced. It was old and squirrels had been chewing on it. But that wasn't the problem, it was the box itself.
Next I headed to a house near the hospitals. This was a nice looking brick house, that had been divided into two units. A woman answered the door. There was a kid there as well and they were cooking. I thought it was her daughter but it became apparent that was her niece, because the kid started talking about her parents. She wasn't getting a bunch of channels. I replaced a couple connectors and a bad looking cable and that did it.
The next job was a house in the land of scrape-offs. This was actually the house of the Norwegian guy who's condo I worked at last week (the one with marble floors and Andy Warhol Marylin's). When he setup his account for that they disconnected him here, but he wasn't moving he wanted to keep both places active. So I just had to go up the pole and re-connect them.
The first job after lunch was an apartment building about 2 blocks away from me. The door was answered by a guy who had a strange way of talking. Like a stereotypical nerd. He had posters on his wall of Laurel & Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and Charlie Chaplin. He was having some issues with one of his channels. It turned out to be a connector that was not properly tightened.
The next job was an apartment building about two blocks from where I live in the other direction. A old woman answered the door. She walked very slowly. There was a couple bongs around. She apologized and assured me she only smokes for the pain. She asked me to move the cable box to a new TV, because she was getting surgery done soon. I did so and left the other TV hooked up with regular cable. Then she asked for me to replace her remote. Which I did. Then she asked me to give her a new remote for the TV without a box. I tried to tell her that we only give remotes for TVs with boxes. She tried to tell me that she always got a remote, then asked to speak to a supervisor. I went to get her a remote because I didn't want the hassle. When I got back with a new remote she was a complete bitch to me. She started acting like I had lied to her about the remote then she asked to sign the paperwork and slammed the door behind me.
The next job was at resort town. There was a young couple here, who had just gotten an HD box. It wasn't working quite right. She had it on the wrong input. So I went to the next job.
The next job was near the land of scrape-offs. There was an old man here. He moved slowly. He was having some random issues with the boxes, but everything looked fine. I suggested we replace the boxes but he wasn't too receptive. In the mean time he kept talking to me about his life. From the fact that he is a widower, to the fact that his family not only had the first TV in the neighborhood, but the first color TV in the neighborhood. He also gave me a Arizona Ice Tea.
Next I was given a job in the land of scrape-offs. These people were still moving in. Their Internet and phone weren't working correctly. It turned out his EMTA was in stand-by. That's why his Internet wasn't working. His phone wasn't working because of something in our system. It only took a phone call to fix.
My last job was at a house way down south. A previous tech left the job unfinished. One outlet wasn't working. It was because it wasn't even hooked up. I also had to fix a splice in the line, then I was finally able to go home.

2007-11-21T10:34:00.000-06:00

My day started out in the retirement community. The lady here had several parrots about the place. As I approached the TV one of the parrots started to sound off like an alarm. Very loudly too. The lady picked the bird up and brought it into another room. She said it was her alarm bird. It sounds off when it sees a stranger. The problem turned out to be with the phones. It was a very simple fix.
Afterwards I went to and apartment complex near by. A black woman answered the door. She described that a picture had fallen and she hasn't had any TV or telephone since. I checked outside and it took me forever to get a key to the room. Apparently whoever the last tech was out there must have taken the key home. Anyways the problem was in the the unit itself. While I was fixing it she was on the phone with her friend. Saying that she can no longer handle being a single parent, and that she wanted to move in with her mom or someone who could help out.
The next job was in a building largely filled with retirees. I was met in the parking lot by a black lady who moved very slowly. We made our way to her place. Her telephones weren't working. I replaced a few things and eventually tracked it down to a bad splitter. She asked me to activate the phone jack in her bedroom as well. So I went ahead and did it. She was extremely grateful.
After lunch I went back to the retirement community. This was for an install. I showed up and the unit was being remodeled. A woman was there. She was getting the place remodeled for her parents who were going to move in shortly. It looked as though the place was wired, which had me thinking this was going to be an easy job. Somehow it actually took longer than usual. There was a lot of talking about what needed to happen, which always takes time. At one point she started talking about how she woke up one night and caught her father (who is deaf) watching porn.
The next job a large house. I was caught by surprise because this is easily the largest house in the area. It may have been the first. I was here to install an amplifier. The guy wanted some extra outlets activated. The problem was we couldn't figure out which outlet went to which line, so I hooked them all up. Which got everything working but one TV. He said he would have to figure that out later.
The last job was at a house near where I live. The door was answered by a slightly effeminate man. He showed to the broiler room in the basement where his router was. He explained what was going on and though I saw nothing wrong I replaced the modem anyways. Then I went home.

2007-11-16T10:33:00.000-06:00

My first job of the day was a condo in the fancy shopping district. A woman answered the door in her bathrobe. She apologized and said she just got out of the shower. The place was nice, she had a fire going. She showed me the TV which was connected to an outlet in another room. She wanted it to go from the outlet in this room. The problem is I couldn't figure out how to activate that jack. So I made her a longer chord so it would look better. I also replaced the box, because her roommate said it was making a weird noise. In the building a small frail old woman approached me and asked me to help her open her door, she couldn't get the key to work. I obliged.
Next I headed to a nice house near a park. I guy answered the door and led me to a TV. He said he wasn't getting one channel and that the audio wasn't matching up with the picture. We turned the TV on and everything was working fine so I canceled it.
The next job was on a different side of the same park. This was a high rise condo. I went to the 13th floor. A contractor meet me there. He showed me the TVs that weren't working. It was an issue with the cable cards. Honestly this is still a new technology, this is the first time I dealt with it. All it really took was to call dispatch and be on hold forever. The contractor told me the renovations on this place cost more than his house. There were three Andy Warhol Marylin Monroe's, marble tile floors. he said the guy owns an island off of Norway, a condo in San Diego, a 5 Million dollar home in Vail, CO. a 2 million dollar guest home in Vail and a couple other properties here in town. He said the guy bought this place at auction for 2.1 million. With the renovations the guy had spent 2.5 million on the place and the insurance listed it as over 4 million. It must be nice to have money. The contractor was nice. The view was amazing.
The next job was an apartment building. There was an older guy here. He was complaining about certain things not working, but everything was working fine. So I replaced the box to appease him.
The next job was on the same block. This was an old Hispanic woman. She said nothing was working but I turned it on and everything worked fine, so I canceled it.
At this point I was ahead of schedule so I took a lunch. Then I went to the retirement community. At this place I was met by a large black guy. Large as in Andre the giant large. He breathed for heavily, talked with slurred speech and moved very slowly. His mom was in a little motorized chair. The bottom half of her body looked twice as large as the top half. There was an obnoxious smell about the place, it didn't take long to get a head ache. The place was filthy as well. He wasn't getting a few channels. I just had to tighten up a few loose connections and replace a splitter. He asked me for a new remote which I gave and I hooked up his DVD player as well.
The next job was in the same area. But no one answered so I called it not at home and went to my next job. This was a house I have already been to twice already. In fact when I saw it I almost kept driving. I was anticipating something bad. But we joked around about it. It turned out she went out and got a couple more boxes and wasn't able to get them to work. I got them both to work but one of them turned out to be bad. I didn't have any of the smaller boxes and that was all that would fit there so she is going to have to go to one of our payment centers and swap it out herself. This was the first time I had been in her basement though and she has a large collection of black dolls down there.
My last job was an apartment complex, this one takes up a whole city block. The door was answered by a young guy. His Internet wasn't working. I unplugged it to check the levels and plugged it back in and everything started working again. Everything looked fine, so I canceled the job.

2007-11-14T17:24:00.000-06:00

I have installs again today. The first one was a block away from where I live. It was a large house that has been turned into apartments. Which I never realized in all the times I passed this place. Each apartment has it's own door at a different part of the house. This particular apartment was resided by a young black woman. She had two very cute and precocious cats. One was a Siamese that looked exactly like my girlfriend's cat. I told her that. Not long afterwards she start to talk about her girlfriend. I thought she may have been lesbian, but it wasn't very obvious. To hook up her apartment I needed to be let into the basement by the landlord who lived in the building next door. I got the impression that he renovated the place himself. If so he did a good job. It was a nice place. The job was easy. A little time consuming. At one point she was talking to me about how her landlord had been caring for a straggly stray for 12 years. There was a lull in the conversation when I heard something about Kanye West's mom, I remarked about it, but she thought I must have been responding to the story involving the cat, because she proceeded to talk about it some more.
The next job was at some fancy condos near a small park. An older Hispanic woman let me in. I was here to install all our services. We talked some about how it was going to be set up. I could tell she didn't realize the full extent of what needed to happen. I wish whoever sold her the package would explain this stuff. The job was easy at first. I got the TV working and the Internet, but the phones took forever. I overlooked what the problem was and worked on a different part. Then when I finally fixed what the problem was and it still wasn't working. In messing with some other things I had created a whole new problem. Which took me a while to figure out and fix. When I finally finished I had to skip lunch and head to my next job.
My last job was a house. The place was trashed. A black woman answered the door. She made reference to the fact that the previous residents had been evicted because they trashed the place and weren't paying their bills. Everything here was there stuff which they are supposed to come back and pick up. The place was filthy. At least it didn't smell bad. The woman said the place belongs to a friend of the family who is willing to let her stay there for cheap if she clean the place up. This place is going to take a lot of work. The up side for me , is that everything was already wired. The previous residents even left their old cable boxes. I just had to plug in some new ones where the old ones were and I'm done. I did have to go into a neighbor's yard to get to the pole, which involved dodging dog shit. That's not an easy thing to do when your carrying a ladder. Anyways, I got things working and headed home.

2007-11-13T17:53:00.000-06:00

My morning was spent in the poorer neighborhoods. The door at the first house was answered by a large black woman. The place was a mess, they were still moving in. Boxes everywhere. She apologized for this fact. They weren't getting a bunch of random channels. I traced it back to the cable to the box and a bad connector outside.
The next job was only a few blocks away. This was a duplex. A young black guy answered the door. He showed me a TV downstairs that wasn't getting a few channels. The basement and the stairs down tot the basement were covered with linoleum. The place smelled like cleaning products. At one point someone showed up holding a vacuum and a mop in a bucket. I took a peek outside and saw a couple things wrong. I fixed them and sure enough everything was working. We talked a bit about the local sports teams and I took off.
Next I headed to some row houses. The door was answered by a Hispanic woman who spoke little English. She had two cute little kids there that followed me around and watched everything I did. Another adult was there cooking and it smelled great. They weren't getting Telemundo or Univision. I replaced the splitter and the line to the box and that helped but didn't fix it completely. I spent a while trying to figure out what the problem was. It turned out to be the line to one of the other TVs.I took lunch and headed to my next job. The first job of the afternoon was a scrape off. There was a woman here who looked slightly pregnant and an older woman I assumed to be her mom. I as there because her box quit working in the middle of watching football. She unhooked it to keep watching TV. I hooked the box back up and it was working fine. So I canceled the job and went to the next job.
The next job was a house that has been recently remodeled. There was nice old couple here. I wasn't paying attention and one of there dogs jumped on me and landed both paws in my stomach. It almost knocked the wind out of me. That's what I get for not paying attention. Their EMTA wasn't working, because they had a new outlet working in the renovated part of the house, which disconnected that outlet. I just had to switch it around. They also wanted an HD box, so I set them up with one.
The next job was in plasticland. They had one of our really bad DVRs and I needed to swap it. There was a young guy here. He looked like he used to play sports. We didn't talk much, he just worked on his laptop.
My last job was in an apartment building. The guy wasn't there when I showed up, so I called and he said he just got off of work. He would be there in 20 minutes later. So I replaced everything I could on the outside while I waited. The guy finally showed up about 30 minutes later. The guy was an effeminate Hispanic guy. He showed me in and told me he was missing Telemundo and Univision. I found a splitter, but there was only one TV, so it was useless. As soon as I got rid of it, everything worked. So I then went home.

2007-11-12T17:36:00.000-06:00

I got installs today! That's how I like to start my week. The first job was in a apartment building near plastic land. A young guy let me in. He said he just woke up and apologized for how messy his place was. He was still moving in. When I first showed up I heard someone in the shower and assumed it was his girlfriend. He had a couple little parakeets in a cage. They spent most of the time quietly watching me. I had brought in my equipment and his girlfriend was sitting on the couch. I go the impression they both work in the airline industry. At one point I look down and see bird shit on the cable box. I have no clue how it got there. Those birds must be snipers or something. So I cleaned it up and continued with the job. The guy would check to make sure I was doing alright, but for the most part left to do my job. His computer did not have Ethernet, only USB. But it did not have the driver to make it work. This took some creativity as far as making it work, but eventually I solved the problem.
The next job was in the retirement community. A woman let me in. She didn't seem too old. She talked in a slow deliberate way which I wasn't sure if it was an accent or the result of a medical condition like a stroke. She was nice. I was here to set up a couple cable boxes. She had never had cable before, so I had to show her how to use it. I don't know if she got it all.
After lunch I went to a house. Both the husband and wife were here. The wife was smiling the whole time I was there. After a while it came off as creepy. They had TV and Internet, I just had to install the phones. Which was incredibly easy. They had many questions, all of which I answered.
The last job was in plastic land. I called ahead and the woman's mom was there. She had a accent like Zsa Zsa Gabor. When I first showed up she asked me to help bring in a TV. We aren't supposed to, but I was feeling generous. This woman had no clue what the hell she was talking about, but that didn't stop her from meddling. She would not stop asking me questions and bothering me. The worst part was as I was getting close to finishing she decided to switch things around and move the modem into the other room. At this point I was completely annoyed with her. I just finished the job was quickly as possible and go home.

2007-11-09T11:20:00.000-06:00

The day started with an install. The house still had some Halloween decorations out front. I had woken her up. She already had Internet, but I was here to install the TV. She had satellite but switching over, so the job should have been easy. I had it all done, but I was concerned about the signal to the Internet being to low. I should have kept my mouth shut, because I spent more time trying to fix this problem than I did on the actual install. I never did end up fixing the problem. At one point I saw part of a movie with conjoined twins playing guitar and singing in harmony which I thought was pretty cool.
The next job was at a town-home complex. The place was a mess. I couldn't quite tell if they were moving in or if it always looks like this. It was very filthy. The job itself went pretty quickly. She spent the whole time on the phone with one person or another. At one point she was fighting with her fiancee.
I then headed to my next job which turned out to be not at home, my last one canceled. So I picked up two more. The first was in the penthouse of a fancy apartment building near the fancy shopping district. The guy here was very nice. I saw autographed pictures of Ronald Reagan, and both President Bush's. He was having Internet issues. It turned out to be his router. He spent most of his time on the phone. Talking to his daughter about her new boyfriend. He told me he just got back from a trip to Hong Kong and was telling me about how China is the place to be as a business. He works in the restaurant industry and co-founded Chili's. After I got his computer working again he asked me to change the voice on his AOL, so I changed it to Madonna. After all of this the guy tipped me a crisp two dollar bill.
The last job was a little house near a park. A young woman wearing pajamas answered the door and said the TV in the basement wasn't working. It looks like several recent college grads live here. The problem with the TV was the line going to it which was a very easy fix. As I was there they were cleaning the place getting ready for a party. There was a keg in one corner and a bar as well.

2007-11-09T10:28:00.000-06:00

My day started in a town-home complex where a friend of mine lives. The door was answered by a young man. I had just woken him up. I noticed a necklace of a hatchet man hanging on the wall. He had a giant flat screen TV and a few video game systems. His cable box wasn't working, but that was because the cable was plugged into the TV instead. I hooked it up correctly and left.
The next job was at a huge fancy house near a park. I had to get buzzed in through the gate just to get to the house itself. The place was filled with all sorts of artwork. Everything was locked, I had to keep asking the lady's permission to get doors opened. There was a team of guys here remodeling the place as well. She complained that one of her TVs kept breaking up and another has worked in a little while. The place was extremely confusing. There were splitters everywhere. I spent over two hours just trying to figure out exactly what went where. The painters who were there kept talking about bringing a radio and listening to books on tape. One suggested listening to religious texts, because they are too tedious to read. Later they were talking about possibly getting some Tolkien. In the end I spent almost three hours there and not all the TVs looked perfect.
I then rushed to my next job which I was now late to. The was another large house, this time in the country club area. The woman told we the local power company was going through the alleyway cleaning up old lines and they left her's hanging in a tree. She asked if they cut it, and they said no. But they did. So I replaced it.
I next headed to another large house in the same neighborhood. No one was here because I showed up late. There was a note saying they waited but left. I called it not at home and headed to my next job.
This was in resort town. A rotund Arabic man answered the door. He was playing Call of Duty on his X-Box. His wife was doing work on a laptop next to him. He complained that some of his channels would break up from time to time. Of course everything seemed fine now. I could find nothing wrong. He said the last time it happened he tightened up something and it hasn't happened since. I guess I didn't need to be here.
The next job was at a nice apartment building next to a park. There was an old Hispanic woman here, possibly Cuban. She knew little English so she called her son, who is a police officer, to come by and help. When he entered the room I felt the need to stand out of respect. The problem was the box, so I switched it out. They weren't getting all their channels as well, so I replace the cable. What they really wanted was a Cuban TV station they had seen in Florida. But we don't get that station here. So the odds are they are going to cancel their service.
Next I went to an apartment building right near a hospital. I was here to program the guys remote to his TV. But I could not find the right code, so I canceled the job.
The next job was only a few blocks away in an apartment building on a very busy street. The door was answered by a black guy smoking a cigarette. He told me to wait and came back a couple minutes later. He said he was babysitting and asked me to come back. I was suspicious about the fact that he was smoking while babysitting but I rescheduled it anyways.
The last job was not at home so I went home.

2007-11-06T19:33:00.000-06:00

I was given a whole bunch of installs today. Most of which were just switching out boxes for DVRs. I started near the fancy shopping area. I was greeted by a big dog who kept barking at me. A gentleman came out and I joked about the fact that he doesn't need a doorbell. He was switching out his HD box for a DVR. It sounded as though he moved here recently from Baltimore, though maybe he lives in both places. Anyways it was a very quick job.
Then I headed to a house. I was greeted by a woman. She had a very rambunctious dog that at first would not quit bothering me, but then all of sudden decided it's own tail was more interesting and proceeded to chase it. I was here to add an HD box. It was another quick job.
Next I went to an apartment building, which was actually the first place I ever went when i started this job. I hadn't been back here since. This place is a dump. The guy wasn't here. I called him and he said he was at the hospital with his mom, he would be there shortly. He showed up about a half an hour later. He was an effeminate gay black man. He was there with a young woman. I was there to install the Internet. His TV was already set up. The place was empty. There wasn't even a bed, just a sheet and a pillow. But he has a TV and a computer. While I was there he got a phone call, from someone he didn't know, but he proceeded to try and figure out who the person was. At first I thought the person had called him for drugs, the way he was talking, but the call turned out be for a hook up. Although the whole thing was a prank from the beginning. At one point he was talking about missing school and it sounded like he was still in high school.
The next job was in plastic land. There was an old lady here with a young couple. I was here to swap her HD box with a DVR. She offered me some candy so I put a bunch in my pockets. She asked me all sorts of questions, all of which I was able to answer. The couple left, apparently they are her neighbors and they are moving to Seattle. She gave me a bunch more candy as I left.
I took a short break and headed to my first afternoon job. A woman answered the door to this house. She had several dogs and it seemed that every time I turned around I saw a new one. She had an old telephone switchboard, as well as several antique phones, and a lot of antique cameras. I was here to set her up with an HD box. Another quick and easy job.
After this I had to go to an apartment building. For this I just had to downgrade someone. This involved adding a trap outside. Then I headed to another house. I was met by a woman. She was very happy to see me. She had just been delivered a flat screen TV that morning. So I was there to get it working. She had a very old senile dog, that just followed me everywhere and smelled me the whole time. It would keep barking at me as though it just saw me for the first time. She had a kid there, he would follow me around and check out everything I was doing and try to talk to me.
The next job was another house. A pregnant Asian woman answered the door. She had gotten a new flat screen as well and wanted an HD box. There was a line coming through the floor but there was no signal. The woman said her husband had set up the line. She wanted me to install a new line. It's rare when someone actually wants you to drill a new hole in their wall and have cable draped on the outside of the house. Anyways it took a while , but I got it done and headed home.

2007-11-05T19:00:00.000-06:00

My day started at an apartment building near where I live. This was actually right off of prostitute row. I was there for their phones witch were not working. But there was no way I could get a hold of them to let me in without being able to call them. So I had to call the job not at home.
I was then given a job for the afternoon, but I was told they were home. So I went there and was met by a young man. He's works from home. There were degrees from Duke University for both him and his wife on the wall. He complained about his phones cutting in and out. I fold some old connectors outside and one too many splitters hooked up. I gave him my number and told him to call me if it keeps happening.
The next job was only a couple blocks a away. The house was being remodeled. The woman wasn't there yet. She said she forgot about the appointment and asked me to hang out until she arrived. She showed up with her kid and let me in. She told me the problems she's been having and made a reference to squirrels. I asked her about splitters and she led me into the add on area still under construction. The she pointed out some squirrels who have taken up residence in this area. They were hanging out in the corner. She said she evicted them once but they came back. Then she pointed to where the squirrels had been chewing on the cable. So I had to replace that section of cable. At one point her dogs had got out and were running in the street and she had to chase them down. I hope I actually fixed the problem and there wasn't more to it than that.
The next job was in the retirement community. This particular until I had actually been in before. I installed the Internet in this place. Her TV wasn't showing all of it's channels. I first looked behind the wall-plate and replaced that connector to no avail. Which meant I had to replace the line to the unit, which was on the third floor. So that took a long time. She had a very cute little kitten that was very curious about everything I was doing.
That job ran through my lunch so I headed straight to my next job. This was a house. The door was answered by a very nice Asian woman. She explained the problems she was having. I replaced the splitter and the basement, which was pretty easy. It felt too easy in fact. I've run into so many bad drawn out jobs lately, that I've begun to question the easy ones.
A couple jobs previous I got called back by one of my morning jobs which was still experiencing problems. So I went back to replace the EMTA and headed to the next job.
This was the worst clean up job I've ever had to do. A black woman opened the door. Her two teenage daughters were sitting at a table, they were about to eat something. She showed me the TV in one room that wasn't working at all. It was hooked up completely wrong. Then she showed me the phone which wasn't hooked up at all. The place was a mess. I basically did the install.
My last job was in the land of scrape-offs. This was indeed a scrape-off, which was still a work in progress. I was here to check out her DVR. She said it hasn't been working since a power surge. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it started to work fine, so I canceled it and went home

2007-11-01T19:39:00.000-05:00

I started my day at a large house near one of the parks. The guy here was nice. He wanted Internet installed and a new outlet put in the adjacent room. He was nice enough to move his furniture out of my way. The job took a bit of time but wasn't difficult. The guy works from home. I set up a TV in his office and he asked me how common it was to have a TV in one's office. I said it was pretty common. He said he's been working on a book that was about having distractions in one's office. And how one only has so much attention span and has to partition that to cover everything going on. Which made sense as I was trying to set up his Internet, listen to him talk and all the while the TV is on to my right.
Then I headed to resort town, back to the job I was at yesterday. The woman and her daughter were both still there in their bathrobes. They were watching CNBC in their respective rooms and would yell at each other about the financial news. I replaced all the connectors and a splitter. I hope that did it.
Then I headed to an apartment complex near by. There was a couple here moving in. I think they were moving from out of state. I asked where the TV was going to be, the woman said one place then looked at the guy who said, "I don't know, you're the boss." The job was very easy, I had been in this complex before and knew where everything was.
After lunch I went to the next job. This apartment building I had been in before, but it's been bought out by some new company which has renovated it. I was met by a contractor outside. He was there to disconnect someone, but his ladder didn't quite reach, so he wanted to use mine. Which wasn't a problem since I was there to install someone. The woman here wanted TV in two rooms, but there was only one outlet. I told her the cable would have to go across a walkway, but she wasn't it. It was supposed to be her daughter's room. When her daughter showed up I could tell she was disappointed. This job was easy as well, largely due to a lack of furniture.
I then went to the next job which was in an apartment building about two blocks away. Unfortunately I was early and she was running late. I ended up waiting an hour, but I didn't take a lunch so I hung out and read a bit. Eventually she showed up. She was short. She looked half my size. Her place had these really amazing photos. One of a temple in Cambodia with these giant tree roots growing over it. It struck me as very powerful. I would love to see it in person some day. There was also a photo of a great white shark coming out of the water with it's mouth open wide and of a parrot eating a bowl of fruit loops. We talked a bit about traveling. She is a teacher, we talked a little bit about that. She seemed very dissatisfied with it though. Which is weird, because I know a lot of teachers and none of them are dissatisfied. Anyways I just wanted to finish a go home, so I rushed through the job.

2007-10-31T18:25:00.001-05:00

My day started in the country club area. I was greeted at the door by an old well dressed man. His wife was in a bathrobe. He wasn't getting a whole bunch of channels on the one TV with the cable box and the other TVs were getting bad reception. I thought it might be the line to the house, so I went ahead and replaced it. While I was working in the alleyway on two occasions someone drove up and asked me to move my van. In any other part of town people will see that I'm working respect that and find a different path. Only in the wealthy part of town am I expected to drop everything and get out of the way. When I finished the line it turned out to not fix the problem. The problem for the TV with the cable box was a connector behind the wall plate. To fix the other TV that had reception problem I needed to get on the roof of a sun-room. When I had finally finished this job I was late for my next job.
The next job was in resort town. The door was answered by a frail old woman. She was watching The View and Tony Bennett was on. She complained about the box flickering in and out. I never saw this happen, but I went ahead and replaced the box. At one point her daughter came out of the bathroom in a bathrobe brushing her teeth. She then went into her room and laid on her bed. At which point she complained that the box in her room was doing the same thing, so I replaced it as well.
When I took off I headed to a very poor neighborhood. This apartment building I had never been to before. There was a playground in the courtyard and a sign in front saying that kids can only play on it until 7 p.m. A black woman opened the door and said everything was working. I checked it out and agreed. So I canceled the job and moved on.
The next job was an apartment building near prostitute row. The guy here spoke in a slow deliberate manner that reminded me of my grandfather in North Dakota. I needed to replace his box. I asked if he had the day off from work. He said he doesn't work anymore, he's disabled. Then he said that everyone in the building is disabled, it's all HUD housing. I asked him what happened. He said that he is mentally unstable. About 20 years ago he had his own business then one day he ended up in a hospital and lost his business, his wife and family. He's lived in this place ever since.
Afterwards I ran some errands and headed to my first afternoon job. A woman answered the door. There were a couple of cats about. I asked what happened she pointed to the cat currently sitting on top of the cable box and said that it puked in the cable box, it hasn't worked since. So I replaced it.
The next job was a house by the hospitals. A young guy answered the door. He had two dogs. One was a puppy and wouldn't quit jumping all over me. He was missing a few HD channels. One shows a lot of Hockey, which I could tell the guy was really into. I replaced a couple connectors but could not find what the problem was, everything looked fine. I called a couple guys, but could not figure it out. Then I went to replace a splitter and everything looked fine. I wasn't quite confident that it fixed the problem, but I had spent too much time here already, so I left.
The next job was at an apartment building. As I approached the apartment I could smell marijuana. Really good marijuana. There was a gay guy here rearranging his apartment. He said his roommate was gone at work and he was going to rearrange the place before he had to go to work. Nothing was working, so I replaced the box.
My last job was at another apartment building. A young guy met me in the hallway, he was very nice and friendly. His girlfriend had an English accent. They weren't getting some channels. I replaced the connector behind the wall plate but that didn't fix it. So I went outside and saw some old lines to the building. I moved the customer to a different drop and the channels came back. I then called dispatch and set up an appointment for someone to come and replace the lines to the building.

Tuesday

2007-10-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

Today I started at a town home complex. I was supposed to call ahead but had forgot, so I called and left a message. Then I headed to the next job which was in a gated community. I was here to replace their box. They complained about the picture being a little fuzzy and would brake up on occasion. So I replaced the box. I think they wanted a smaller box but I had none. I got called by dispatch who dumped another job on me for the morning.
This job was in an apartment building on one of the main thoroughfares in town. This place is run down. A black woman answered the door and said her box wasn't working. She then took a shower to get ready for work. I hooked the box up and it was working fine. So I watched TV and waited for her to get out of the shower.
Next I finally headed to the first job. The guy was not too much older than me. He spent the whole time sitting at the kitchen table watching a DVD on his computer and drinking vodka out of a bottle. He said he has gone through several cable boxes with the same problem. It would keep blacking out on all the channels. I called a line tech and he said he could meet me down there latter. So I told the guy I would be back latter with some help.
I went to my next job which was back in the gated community. I was greeted by a woman on the phone. It seemed she was trying to set up a medical appointment for her kid. Every connector in the place was bad, which took me a while to replace. Afterwards the TV in her kids room would still not get Toon Disney. It took me a while but I figured out it was the TV its self.
Then I headed to a town-home complex. A woman answered the door. She said her Internet was not working and she had to get to work in about an hour. Everything looked fine, so I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong. So I just replaced the modem. Which turned out to be a problem. It turned out she was a masseuse. The basement had a massage table and had all sorts of lovely aromatherapy type odors. As I was finishing up she came down and started to light some candles and play some Indian/New Age music.
Then I went back to the first job again. The line tech was already there and watching TV outside. We determined the problem was not outside, so we headed back in. Sure enough the guy was still watching movies and drinking vodka. We tracked it back to the box. I don't know what the odds are that he got four bad boxes. But if you look inside the box you can see what looks like a brown substance had been spilled inside. I showed the customer this and he said he couldn't have done it, he doesn't drink anything brown.
Next I went to a house. The door was answered by a black guy. He seemed very slow. Like burnout slow. He wasn't getting some channels, and he asked me to move the box into the other room. I decided to move the box first, in case that killed two birds with one stone. Which it did. When I brought the box into the other room there was another black guy there. He didn't say much.
I headed out of there quick, because I was running behind. I then headed to a retirement complex. This was actually a problem I had already been out here for about a month ago. Nothing had been done since then, so I had been sent back. I explained to people in charge again what they needed to do to fix this. Then I explained it to the actual resident with the problem.
Then I headed to a town-home complex. This was the actually the neighbor of my friend. He couldn't get all of channels to work on his new box. I replaced everything. It turned out to be the line going to the unit, which required me to get on the roof to replace. The guy would not stop asking me questions the whole time. Most of the questions were stupid. He would also follow me around and observe my every action. It was very annoying. Afterwards I talked to my friend a bit and headed home.