Category Archives: WTF

The Underdog

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It helps if you pay attention to EVERYTHING. I should have done that today. It would have spared me a lot of frustration. It started at 9:23 this morning. Bill at work being snarky and feigning surprise that I was up at that time.

Then he ‘caught’ himself, realizing that I was going to help Greg Stevens today. Mindless chatter back and forth. I mention that I would be able to swing by his office and pick up a money order from him. He asks what time and I suggest 2-ish.

No, he didn’t use the standard line, ‘Funny you don’t look 2-ish’. Not his type of humor, didn’t grow up at 13 Riverview Avenue.

He suggested that 3:00 would be better.

The thing with instant messaging is that sometimes you write and focus on what you’re writing so much so that you don’t read what the other person is writing. In this case, I did not read the 3:00 he wrote and just continued on what I was writing.

Totally missed it. So there I was, helping Greg Stevens and I was finished early. I called Bill a little after 1:00 and got his voice mail.

I continue walking my way down towards his office, enjoying the day as well as enjoying a La Flor Domincana cigar that I picked up. Bill has 3 phones. His work phone, his iPhone and his former T-Mobile phone which is now Verizon. Same number as he had when I signed up with T-Mobile.

Every couple of blocks or so, as I got closer and closer I would call one of his phones and leave a message. Eventually I made it down to his office and stood outside, killing time and enjoying the cigar. If it weren’t for the cigar I would probably be freaking out, but I was mellow.

After waiting outside for about 45 minutes I decide to head to the Path train. No calls, no messages, no texts forthcoming. I finish the cigar a block away from the Path train and head downstairs. Finished a New Yorker from January and came home.

The phone rings and it’s Bill. He must have gotten all of my messages. He asked if I had gotten his text and I didn’t. He mentions that we had chatted this morning and then I answered yes, that I did get his instant message.

I pulled it up and there it was at 9:26, Bill saying that 3:00 would be better. I felt like a schmuck. Bill’s message did not register at all, I was too wound up in what I was writing instead of what Bill was writing. No, it’s not the end of the world.

I’ll get the money order tonight when Bill comes home.

I watched the first half of ‘Oliver!’ when I came home. It was a funny thing. A Facebook friend mentioned that she saw a production of Oliver last night at Bloomfield High School and I commented ‘Consider yourself at ‘ome!’.

It was one of the first movies in a movie theater for me so it has a special memory for me. It was also on Turner Classic Movies last night which I recorded. I’m not sure whether or not Oliver or the Jungle Book was the first movie, at least the first movie I can remember.

I’m sure I was at the double feature of A Hard Day’s Night and the Last Man on Earth at the drive in with my family, but I definitely do not remember that at all.

I was probably paying too much attention to what I was writing and not paying attention to what was going on before me.

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Prime Time

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It’s Friday. I have spent a good part of the day waiting for Cablevision to come and do something about the cable box. Last night it started making clicking sounds then in the middle of Keith Olbermann it pixilated and froze.

A simple reboot, unplug the box, wait a few minutes then plug in again did the trick. No DVRing available. Not such a bad thing I thought. About an hour later, this time the cable box did it itself.

It stopped and started again all on it’s own.

I called Cablevision. No easy maneuvering through the phone prompts, you have to listen to everything. Don’t even thinking about pressing 1 for English before they tell you to. It will get you nowhere.

I spoke to the customer service representative from Cablevision and scheduled an appointment for today between 11:00AM and 2:00PM. At 1:59 I called up to see what was going on. They said they would call the man in the field and get back to me.

About 20 minutes later, it was confirmed the guy was running late.

He had my cell number and would call me when he was in the neighborhood. At 2:45 I get a call saying that he’s outside. I look out the window and there he is talking to another cable guy halfway down the street.

About 10 minutes later I buzz him in, all hard hat and tool belt. I offered him some water but he didn’t want any. He hit a few buttons on the box, lot’s of different screens popping up on the TV screen. He deduces that he’s going to have to swap this box for a new box.

So he goes back downstairs and comes back a couple of minutes later with another box, with the remnants of a ‘void’ sticker on the front. He sets it up, telling me everything that was on the old box is now gone.

No more Andy Warhol documentary, no more Bill on Late Night with Conan O’Brien or with Jimmy Fallon for that matter. Everything is gone. It’s a drag but what can you do.

He leaves after I sign a paper. There’s no charge for this visit. I turn on the TV a few minutes later. I start adding the favorite channels to the cable box and it’s pixilated again.

I call Cablevision again, speak to someone else again, and I am told that the guy will be back. An hour goes by. And another hour goes by.

I call again, speaking to someone else again and I am told a few instructions. Hit this button. Turn to the left. Now unplug it. Now stand on one leg. Now blink really hard. Turn to channel 500. Hit A-B-B-A on the remote control. You are the dancing queen. Turn it off. Turn it on. Show us your tits Coco.

Nothing had any effect. They tell me the guy has until 8:00PM to show up. It’s 7:04PM now. The clock, it is ticking. Harpy went through something similar with Time Warner a couple of weeks ago. I hope I don’t have the same problems.

In any event, here I sit waiting for someone who may or may not show up. He did call me earlier and I did have his number in my phone records. I texted him a few hours ago, asking if he had an ETA on returning to 616 Park Avenue. Of course it went unanswered.

I have little faith that they would show up. But I will be quite happy to be proven wrong. Again. There are still 50 minutes left.

Perhaps there will be a postscript to this entry. Or perhaps there won’t.