In the dark

Crazy winds overnight tore down next door's TV cable and brought my Internet connection with it. I noticed that something was amiss next door as I was going to the hospital for my PSA blood test, but only realised that I was affected when I tried to check email when I got back home.

Oh dear, but it's stressful dealing with UPC!! During my first call I was told first that it would be Thursday before anyone would be out. When I explained that all that needed to be done was to plug the cable back in, the rep said he'd get someone to me today. All well and good, but ... A text message just after 3 o'clock told me UPC crews had identified a local fault and were repairing it, which meant that it would not be necessary for anyone to come to the house.

So I phoned again. Once again the rep (a different one, of course) took note of the disconnected cable and told me he'd need to talk to a supervisor about getting someone to me today. I thought he was getting back to me when the hold-on music stopped, but all that happened was that I got cut off. Another different rep answered the next time and told me it highly unlikely that anyone would get to me today, but that she'd "see what she could do".

A while after that I got a phone call confirming a service call ON MONDAY!! I was having none of that, since I'd originally been told that someone would call on Thursday. I had to go through everything all over again for the fourth time, at the end of which this rep told me she'd "do her best" to get someone to me tomorrow. By this stage it was after five o'clock. I gave up and went for a lie-down to calm myself down.

When I surfaced again I took a notion, checked local movie times, and went to see the 9:30 screening of the latest Mission Impossible movie. It was okay escapist stuff, though Simon Pegg was very disappointing. I didn't get home until after midnight. I would normally have done a bit of surfing and email checking, but obviously couldn't because if my UPC problem.

The nasty new-year gap will be filled in once my internet connection returns to normal.