Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Telephone Service and Erma Bombeck


You may have noticed that there was no post here yesterday, March 14th. Our power went out Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours. An hour after it returned, our phone line was dead. I called the phone company repair line on my cellphone and was told to hold, that volume of callers was high so it might be 8 minutes. Thirty minutes later I gave up. Called again Monday morning and this time they said volume of callers was very high but did not let me hold for an agent. Instead, the recorded voice told me my phones would be in working order by 8 p.m.

I looked out my kitchen window a short time later to see the repairman's truck. Hooray! He called me on my cellphone to let me know he was here and working on the problem. I noticed he walked a great distance from our house, wandering around for a long time. Then he left. Still no phone line.

Later in the day, he called to tell me they'd tracked down the problem in a large box of some kind quite a good distance from where we live. So, obviously, I was not the only one affected. He said a crew from Topeka was on the way to fix it. That was at 4 p.m. Monday and now, at 9:25 Tuesday morning, I still have no phone service! Somehow, that guy on the recording forgot to tell the repairmen of his promise to have lines restored by 8 p.m. Monday evening.

No phone line = no Internet service. But this morning, it dawned on me that I could use the Guest service connection here in our senior community.It's not a secure server so I don't want to use it for all day. One of the things I pledged long ago to my blog readers was to post five days a week and I hate to break that promise. But sometimes technology steps in and changes all those pledges we make.

I resisted having a cellphone for a long time but I'm so glad that I have one as I can still be semi-connected to the world with my iphone. Checking on facebook, I found messages from people who had tried to call me and received no answer. So, technology of all kinds helps out in situations like this.

I'm trying to be patient with my usually fine phone company but my understanding is wearing thinner by the hour. I suppose someone could write a very humorous essay about what has happened here. Right now, my humorous self is on the underside and the frustrated side is on top. Four of my fellow writers in my writing group are attending the Erma Bombeck Humor Writing Conference in a couple of weeks. If you like to write humorous essays, take a look at what they offer. She was the best of the best.

Hopefully, by tomorrow, I will be writing a regular blog post about writing. I have some exciting news to share with you. Exciting for me and perhaps of interest to you who write for publication.

Meanwhile, think kind thoughts about telephone repairmen who have the ability to make me and many others happy by being successful. Today! Soon!


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