Barb, Oh lordy - of course when a workman cannot fix something they are in the habit of figuring out how a women will either be at fault of have to take the consequences.
Oh my heavens you gave me a great laugh. My hubby was only home at the ending of this cable guy's work, so he didn't get to really see the interaction going on between him and myself.
First off, he began and ended calling me,
"Lady." Okay, I told myself, I did not offer my name, nor did I know his.
Secondly, I followed him to the basement in case he needed to ask me anything. Well, he first asks,
"Where are my splinters?" Hmmm.... knowing a little about the cable lines and connections, since I always watched former cable guys, and I would relocate the cables to reach our new big screen TV we mounted on the wall, and moved our computer desk, I instantly told him where I knew the lines should be. NOPE, he was not going to listen to me. I distinctly walked to the very spot where I knew the cable line came in from outside, and told him the cable box in located just outside this wall. NOPE, he asked where my circuit box was at. I showed him and he continued to remove ceiling tiles searching for where the cable line would come in from outside. Again, I told him I am standing where I am certain it is. FINALLY, he walks over, moves the ceiling tile and sees the cable.
Thirdly, He asked me to take my ipad to the upstairs bedroom and let him know how many bars were showing, so he could tell the strength of the wifi bandwidth. I did as he asked, came down and told him,
"One bar in the corner where I sleep, and two bars as I leave my bedroom." He replied,
"Well you can't expect it to be everywhere." I stated,
"But up until just a few weeks ago I have always had it everywhere with NO problems, why would there now be a dead spot?" No explanation.
He decided to move the cable box out of the basement and up to my living room. I told him there is an old outlet behind my movable fireplace. I went to take a vase off to pull the fireplace out, and he stopped me in my tracks and said,
"Wait there might be a better spot." I showed him two different prior outlets in my kitchen, one behind my china cabinet, and went to scoot it out, he said,
"Boy you sure to like to move things." He didn't want to put it in the kitchen, and decided to put it in a corner in the living room where I had to move my sofa table. As he was finishing up, I checked my ipad and computer and it said,
NO CONNECTION! I told him and he said,
"Lady you sure are impatient, don't jump ahead of me, you have to give it a chance to connect." A few minutes go by,
NO CONNECTION. I hear him back over by the cables say,
"What the hell? Did I use the wrong cable?" He goes back down to the basement and disconnects a cable, and connects the other one. Instant connection on my ipad and computer. I say,
"Maybe we better check my hubby's computer down in the basement too." His response,
"That should be just fine." I went down and he followed me,
NO CONNECTION! I told him that he disconnected the yellow cable that always was connected to my hubby's computer. He said,
"I have been doing this for 25 years, I know what I am doing, that has nothing to do with this. Your husband has an old computer with Windows XP and you have the nice computer and ipad, that don't seem fair." I said,
"Well I have offered to buy my hubby a new laptop and he refuses to let me." He said,
"Well I think it's time he has a new computer, when do you plan to buy him one?" I said,
"Not til Christmas, so you need to figure out why he has no wifi now." After fiddling around for about ten minutes, I suggested he plug the yellow cord back into the computer. He had to get a longer cord since he brought the cable box upstairs to the living room. Lo and behold.... wifi
CONNECTED! I seriously thought I was in a Lucille Ball & Desi Arnez movie.
He may have worked 25 years with Cable, but what he didn't know is, I not only taught computers at our school, but I troubleshooted, replaced, connected and repaired all the twenty computers, after a tech guy was nice enough to show me exactly what to do to save our school money. I was my step father's right hand helper building additions and repairing plumbing and electrical in our older home. Moving cables and connecting computers in MY home for the past 40 years has been an old hat. As long as there is nothing wrong on the cable end, I can figure out the rest. As for the
"Dead Spot." I was not going to argue with him, and waste any more time of my day. I told my hubby, we may have to switch spots in the bed if I want to use my devices when we go to bed. I do know my son has what they were told a
"dead spot" in their house as well. But for years we have never had one, so why now?
If he took me for a dummy, or a helpless woman, believe me, once he left he realized, NOPE not this woman! Oh the joys of life! It's just one more thing I add to my list of what can go wrong this year, in this house.
Thought ya'll would get a kick out of this fiasco.