I am writing this in my office.

I am INFURIATED. The cable guys never showed up - never even bothered to call. I called the "head office" (which is the only number I have, it's in Georgia or some darn place) and the lady I talked to seemed shocked that no one had called me (but didn't offer any advice). I called around 11:30, again at 2 - both times they promised the guys would call and then come out - and finally at 5 to confirm that no one had bothered to come.

I have no internet service any more at home - they shut off the dial-up.

Someone MIGHT come on Saturday - she claims there is an on-call person but frankly at this point I'll believe it when I see it.

Oh - and they won't pull cable. You have to get a contractor to do that. Or you have to buy yourself a router and set it up yourself, if your computer's in a room where there's no cable outlet.

Gee, I thought they were, you know, a CABLE and INTERNET company. You know, they did this stuff so you didn't have to know about it?

I don't know whether to try and buy a router at Wal-mart tonight - considering that I know diddley-squat about them and will probably buy the wrong one or something - or whether to move my computer into the living room (which means moving my printer and my office and everything else into there, and moving my bookcases out, and my nice big comfy chair I watch tv in out.) Or what.

I'm really, really fed up by how customer "service" works in this town.

I had another issue today - my toilet began leaking again. I knew what was wrong - needed a new wax seal. Called the plumber I usually use - got the answering machine. Waited until 10 am, when I figured any reasonable plumber should be at work, tried again. Tried a couple other places, left messages. Got a receptionist at one place and she told me the first appointment I could have was next Friday.

#$)$*#)%(#*$%)@#$(()(*$#. I explained that I have but one bathroom in the house, and so that means I

a. deal with a toilet that is leaking, ahem, used toilet-water on the floor

or

b. go stay in a motel for the week. (Or run over to my place-of-work when I have to pee, which would be mightily inconvenient, if not downright scary, at 2 am)

So I kept trying. Called the one plumber in town who boasts "emergency service." He explained to me that he was totally booked up.

At that point, I started to cry a little. I did not want to, but I was so fed up and I thought I was looking (seriously) at a week of either chamber-pots (dear God, no) or the Discomfort Inn here in town.

I hate it when I start crying out of frustration - I am honestly not trying to manipulate people, it's that I am - as TChem said - fresh out of cope - and I'm frustrated and fed up and because it would damage my knitting hand to punch a wall, I start crying.

He kind of sighed - which is the typical older-male response, I think, to tears - and explained that it should be possible for me to change it myself. He told me what to buy and what to do.

So, I called the cable company to give them my cell phone number (my life seems needlessly complicated sometimes) so that if the cable guys were planning on coming, they could call me while I was at Lowe's. (As it turned out, there was no need).

I got the stuff, and amazingly, successfully changed the wax seal. (I can just barely lift the toilet; that was the hardest part of the situation). The toilet is not leaking now.

I'd be a lot happier about that if I weren't so angry with the cable company for their non-service. (I don't mind it if they were very busy and needed to reschedule; I would have appreciated a call to let me know that though).

Incidentally, of the dozen or so plumbers I left messages with, ONE bothered to call me back. I guess that the "building boom" (especially of commercial/office type buildings) has sucked the service-guys away from homeowners; I presume they'd rather work in a new, "rough" building where they can start with scratch, than deal with crazy picky homeowners who often live in old houses where everything was jerry-rigged 15 years before they moved in, and they don't have any clue of how it was jerry-rigged because the owner who originally did the jerry-rigging died before the current homeowner even moved to town...

If there were another cable company in town, I'd be talking with them now, but there isn't. (Yes, there's DISH, but then you don't get local channels or weather, and in Tornado Alley, I consider being able to see real-time, local weather, a big plus).

I'm on the phone with the tech support line right now, to see if I can ask (if anyone ever picks up) what type of router they recommend.

(Okay - now I know. If I have a built-in wireless network adaptor, I can use a wireless router, and the guy seemed to think that would be easier.

I suspect - from what I've read of other bloggers' woes with routers - that there will probably be a lot of connectivity/communication issues in the future but whatever. I'm unwilling enough to office-ize my living room, and after the nightmare of trying to find a plumber, I don't want to try to hire someone to pull cable.)

Man, what a day. This is why I tend to let the little messy detail things go - because it's such a headache to find people to deal with them. Or I learn to do it myself, like with the toilet seal.

(Wonder if I can put that on my c.v.: "knows how to change a wax toilet seal.")