I Want My Cable

So I haven't had cable TV since Wednesday. First it was the outage, now they say it's just me. Of course. Because, as you know, stupid things happen on or near me. All the time.

I've been surviving quite nicely. I have lots of things to do. But I pay a lot of money for cable. The cable needs to come back. All I get is a fuzzy channel of ABC, which is good cause I got to see Lost and Good Morning America all week, which is really all that matters. But still.

So last night I was chatting online with Comcast. That sounds funny, doesn't it? I had been calling their 800 number for about an hour and every time I pushed the button for technical assistance, the line went dead. Nice trick, Comcast. Pa insisted it was because they were probably overloaded with phone calls, but I think it was just the cable company trying to piss me off.

When I call for customer service anywhere, I'm really nice. This works better for me than getting pissed off. I'm sweet. I say nice things to ladies. I flirt with the men. This keeps them from doing evil things to me, like casually deleting my account. I've never understood being totally mean to customer service people unless they are f*cking with you, owe you money, or are so inappropriate that they deserve a good "talking to." Then Beast Blondie comes out. But for some reason, I've felt rather serene about the cable. I just want it to come back--no hard feelings; no harm done.

So anyway, I'm chatting online with the help service. It's a computer that responds to you with a person there just in case your key words don't line up with their answers. So I kept getting multiple answers, like "did you try...." quickly followed by "you already did that...?" It was funny. I thought of the 3 Laws Robot rule Pa told me about when I was young. The cable lady sent a signal to my box and I waited a half hour before logging back on. Still not working. So now I have an appointment today between 1-5pm.

I've had the cable people come here twice in the past. Each time, they miss their appointment and I end up getting 2 months of free cable. I'm pretty broke right now, so I can use all the help I can get. But I really don't want to just wait around for Comcast all day today, tomorrow, or next weekend (because I have to work during the week and all). So we'll see.

I'm going to try this nifty thing where I'm positive about it.

I am going to trust Comcast.
They are going to show up.
This is not going to happen.
This is not going to happen.
This is not going to happen.
I will have cable by the end of the day!!!!

I'll let you know what happens.

UPDATE: WTF?? The cable guy showed up AND fixed the cable. ON TIME.

So at a quarter till 1, I get a call from a machine to have me confirm my appointment. Ma calls to tell me I can call her if I feel afraid of the cable guy while he's here. Her reception is weird, so we hang up. A few minute later, the phone rings. I pick it up and say:

"No, the cable guy isn't here yet."

Dead silence.

"Hello?"

"Hello? I'M the cable guy."

"Tee hee..."

He's calling me to tell me he'll be here in 10 minutes. He shows up, checks, sees that I have no cable, and shimmies up the pole in the alley to check things out. He calls me again:

"Working now?"

"No."

"Yeah, there's no cable in this line."

"Wait a minute, my neighbor moved out last week. I bet they turned off HER cable instead of mine!!"

So he switches our lines, comes back in, I sign a sheet, and he's gone. All by 2pm. He even said he called around 11AM and could have been here earlier (I didn't recognize the number, so I didn't answer the phone.) And he's cute. Seriously people, this has never happened to me before. I'm totally writing an email to Comcast to praise him. Now I get to watch the Sopranos on Sunday night. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!