Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Why can't my cable TV be fixed?

Our fine weather continues. Perhaps no rain in sight. The Ch. 6 weather guy this morning said a storm might develop toward the weekend and he says his fair weather forecast is of low confidence at this time, but if a storm develops, it could and probably would stay well to the south of us.

Are you ready for Part III of my tale of woe with the cable TV company? I have been having off and on picture problems for many weeks. There have been technicians, contractors and company employees here, working on the problem. We thought last week that finally the problem was solved, but last Saturday the problem continued. Out of frustration and at the suggestion of the phone technician, I swapped out the cable box. Because I have HD service, I must have the box.

I had hoped it would be all fixed. That hope lasted until yesterday morning when the picture and sound again began to break up. The technician called it pixilization. They can call it anything they want but I call it an unwatchable, breaking up picture. The audio follows suit. I actually have another name for it, but I don’t tend to use that kind of language here.

Yesterday’s technician scheduled me for another home visit from a tech person for today. Will he leave with me being happy? I certainly will reserve that answer until Friday. One good thing the guy did for me today was arrange for my account to be credited with a month’s service to help ease my growing anger and pain. I did learn today that among the notes they recorded is the frustration level of the complainer. I guess I’ve hit close to the top.

As coincidence will have it, Monday’s mail contained what I previously would have called “junk mail” and would have tossed it. This time the notice from DirecTV, the satellite service, remains in my house. I think I’ll have it prominently on display near the TV set while the techie is here. He probably won’t care, but if he should by some chance mention it in his report, it might get some attention.

I might add, too, the cost of that DirecTV for a full year’s worth of intro pricing makes thinking honestly about making the switch worthwhile.

Speaking of techie types visiting today, the company that maintains my air conditioning system will be here today, too. That machine is looking for its annual cleaning before the hot weather arrives. We don’t use the thing often, but during those July/August nights when the humidity and temperature are right up there, that machine makes sleeping a very pleasant experience.

The A/C experience won’t be frustrating. I’m already gearing up for the cable guy.

A short rant today. I hope you’re saving up your pennies as the cost of living in Maine has a pretty good chance of going up in the near future. If the Maine Democrats in the Legislature have their way, and they control it, we’ll be spending more money on gas, health care, and a slew of new items charged sales tax. The House yesterday passed on party lines a proposal to tax your doctors’ bills almost five percent. They are also discussing adding a nickel to the gas tax and adding taxable items to the sales tax. For the few left still paying income tax, that rate could go down.

The State still hasn’t told us how much of the gas tax we presently pay, how much of the money received in the bond issues of recent years, and how much of the road fixing stimulus payment has been used for everything except fixing all those roads and bridges. How much has gone into paying the state’s out of control welfare system and Dirigo? And do we really believe if it passes, all the millions from the nickel increase in gas tax will go to roads and bridges?

End of short rant.

I have to end this day with some congratulations to the U. of Florida softball girls. They lost the national championship series last night to Washington, but it’s the first time a Gator girls team had reached that plateau. So it was a great season and they should hold your heads high and proud. I started watching the whole tournament during the regionals and at that time after seeing the Huskies, I thought, “Boy, I sure do hope Florida doesn’t have to meet them in the finals.” They did and proved what I had seen earlier: Washington was the best team in the tournament. Congratulations to them, too.

GiM

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