New Curbs and The Land Line

Good morning,

Remember the recent post about the tree cutting across the street from our home because the curbs are being replaced on our street?

It gets better....

Now it is time for our side of the street.

These folks have a great machine that comes along and pours the concrete for the new curbs after another machine has come along to dig out the old curbs.

Sounds easy, right?

It is easy until the land line phone stops working.  I had gotten up at 6 AM, checked email, answered email, checked the blog, read other blogs, written comments on other blogs, then had gone back to bed (we are on vacation, you know), and had a nice snooze for another hour.

I heard noise out in front as the old curb was being removed in anticipation of the new curb machinery to follow.  I got up. I logged back on to the computer.  Well, I tried to log back on to the computer.  No connection.  I knew what happened.  My Honey knew what happened.

We connected via our Verizon air cards.  We had computer service.  BUT, that is not unlimited (we use the air cards when we travel) so eventually we would use up our allowance if we didn't get our Zoomtown connection fixed.  Yes, I know, we could get Internet service through our cable service, too, but that's another story.... 

 My Honey went out to talk with the men working out in front:  "Our land line phone and Internet service is out.  Did you hit a cable?"

"Nah, we aren't digging that deep."  The man went back to work.

I called Cincinnati Bell with my cell phone.  Have you called your phone company recently?  First you go through so many different recordings, you decide you really don't need their service.  Finally, after waiting 45 minutes for a call back through their automated service, I got a live voice who sounded like a recording himself.  Monotone:  "Have you tried to reset your Internet?"  I won't tell you the rest of that conversation except to say I am always professional, calm, and polite.  Before I got off the phone I got a promise that someone would show up to check on our lack of service at the first available time - two days later.  Hmmmm.

I went out and tried again with the guys working on the curbs.  I found a supervisor.  I was polite, friendly, but direct.  "Our phone and Internet service is out. I'm sure you hit a cable." 

The supervisor was very, very nice and got down into the trench himself to feel the soil at the edges for a broken cable.  A man operating a large earth moving machine drove it up the street checking for broken cables for us, too.  He found it about 50 feet up the street from the front of our home.

 Sure enough.  They had hit a cable.  The curb people had more pull with the phone company to get a repair person on the scene right away than I did.  In fact, they got a repair man to come and fix the cable before they poured a new curb over the spot.  Good plan!  The image above gives you an idea how the phone company fixes it.  See the electrical tape?

 And, so, the cable was fixed and there is a new curb over it now.

We and the rest of the neighborhood have phone service once again.  We are on the Internet and the part of our multi-faceted security system that requires a land line is functioning just fine, too.  ;)

How's your day going?

Lois

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 BlackBerry Storm 9530 Unlocked GSM + CDMA Cell Phone with 3.15 MP Camera (Black)- FACTORY-REFURBISHED

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