Cable Cutting Adventure - Passive Agressive
So day one of cutting cable is almost in the books. Let's just say I'm glad I waited to do it while the kids were away. It started positively enough. I woke up before Mandy watched my last few shows of cable, nothing spectacular, a little Sports Center, some time killer on Animal Planet and HGTV. You know some shows to encourage my decision, not on purpose mind you, but effective.
I disconnected cable boxes, located bags for transport, cleaned out the car for a planned trip to the wash, and loaded up for the day of errands. First stop was the UPS Store. I had to ship off cable equipment left over from our move from Arlington. Next, a stop at Sully's for a bite of lunch. There, I discovered a place to catch broadcast tv when I need it. That place is literally wallpapered with flat screens playing all sorts of entertainment, sports of course, but also Boomerang (classic cartoons for those without kids or not animation nerds like myself). This discovery made me feel even better. I nice social environment for when I need my sports fix.
Once we finished lunch, it was off to the cable company. Pull your number. Wait in the lobby. We were few, wait was short. I was steeling myself for the onslaught of the sales pitch. I was expecting discounts, bundle plans, maybe even a contract ploy. However, I got none of that. Just a simple, "Why are you getting rid of cable?" My response was honest and hard to argue with. "I'm the only one who watches cable and it is hard to justify the cost for one person." She seemed to be okay with that. I turned in my equipment. Got a receipt and it was done. Wow. That was easier than I expected.
We went about our other errands. Mandy had to go to work and check on the puppies. Then we went to get the car washed. Productive and rather proud of the hour or two that we were out and about.
Then we got home.
I fired up the tv. Switched the receiver to the Roku box and selected Netflix to see what I could watch. I get nothing. Grrr. Switch the receiver to my laptop and try to get to the Internet. Instead of Google, I get a cable landing page with a form to fill out, terms of service and such. Okay, no problem. Fill out the form. Wait. Try again. Same thing. Rinse repeat with other devices, no luck. Call tech support. She runs me through several steps that include power cycling my router. Power cycling the modem. All with the same result. She instructs me to shut everything down and wait about an hour and try again. Grr.
So I busy myself by taking down the Christmas lights. Yes my Christmas lights were still up, but there are several houses that still have them up and they still turn them on each night so don't judge me. Luckily it is a beautiful day, so I chalk it up as a positive consequence. Once the lights are down, I try again. No luck.
Call tech support again. This time I get a guy. Conrad is his name. He has an accent, but to make that more difficult, the connection is terrible. I hear every third word or so. He tries a couple things and then tells me what I think is wait 4 hours while we work on this end. Then try it again. Grr.
So I find a movie to take Mandy to. I've been waiting to see Django Unchained for a while so we catch the 7 pm showing after grabbing a quick bite. The movie is great, but not for the squeamish. As with all Tarantino movies. The violence was expected...the prolific use too the "n-word" was not. It fits with the plot, but still, I hate that word. And I thought it ran a little long. It sort of has two climaxes which always seem to make a movie seem long.
Anyway, after returning from the movie. I focus on the Internet problem. It works beautifully...for about 15 minutes. Then nothing. No cable splash page. No router configuration page. Nothing. Grr. So I turn everything off. Unplug everything that connects to the Internet. More difficult than it sounds. I think our oven might connect to the Internet from time to time. Wait for about 20 minutes. Sorry Mandy. She was reading. Or making cupcakes. Regardless, she didn't want me to bother her.
Plug everything back in. Success! I pull up Duck Dynasty on the laptop. Play it through the entertainment system. Fall asleep on the couch. What a journey.
I'm convinced this was punishment by the cable company. A kind of, "How dare you cut off cable! We'll show you cable cutter!" Well, I woke up this morning and it worked fine. I watched Doctor Who, The Guild, and Portlandia while Mandy slept and went to work. Now I am streaming Pandora while typing this terribly long blog post. Hopefully my Internet struggles are behind me. We are talking about building a machine to augment the Roku box and Blu-Ray player. But that will probably be a stretch down the road. Until then, cable cutting 2013 is underway. Share and or comment if you made it down this far.
I disconnected cable boxes, located bags for transport, cleaned out the car for a planned trip to the wash, and loaded up for the day of errands. First stop was the UPS Store. I had to ship off cable equipment left over from our move from Arlington. Next, a stop at Sully's for a bite of lunch. There, I discovered a place to catch broadcast tv when I need it. That place is literally wallpapered with flat screens playing all sorts of entertainment, sports of course, but also Boomerang (classic cartoons for those without kids or not animation nerds like myself). This discovery made me feel even better. I nice social environment for when I need my sports fix.
Once we finished lunch, it was off to the cable company. Pull your number. Wait in the lobby. We were few, wait was short. I was steeling myself for the onslaught of the sales pitch. I was expecting discounts, bundle plans, maybe even a contract ploy. However, I got none of that. Just a simple, "Why are you getting rid of cable?" My response was honest and hard to argue with. "I'm the only one who watches cable and it is hard to justify the cost for one person." She seemed to be okay with that. I turned in my equipment. Got a receipt and it was done. Wow. That was easier than I expected.
We went about our other errands. Mandy had to go to work and check on the puppies. Then we went to get the car washed. Productive and rather proud of the hour or two that we were out and about.
Then we got home.
I fired up the tv. Switched the receiver to the Roku box and selected Netflix to see what I could watch. I get nothing. Grrr. Switch the receiver to my laptop and try to get to the Internet. Instead of Google, I get a cable landing page with a form to fill out, terms of service and such. Okay, no problem. Fill out the form. Wait. Try again. Same thing. Rinse repeat with other devices, no luck. Call tech support. She runs me through several steps that include power cycling my router. Power cycling the modem. All with the same result. She instructs me to shut everything down and wait about an hour and try again. Grr.
So I busy myself by taking down the Christmas lights. Yes my Christmas lights were still up, but there are several houses that still have them up and they still turn them on each night so don't judge me. Luckily it is a beautiful day, so I chalk it up as a positive consequence. Once the lights are down, I try again. No luck.
Call tech support again. This time I get a guy. Conrad is his name. He has an accent, but to make that more difficult, the connection is terrible. I hear every third word or so. He tries a couple things and then tells me what I think is wait 4 hours while we work on this end. Then try it again. Grr.
So I find a movie to take Mandy to. I've been waiting to see Django Unchained for a while so we catch the 7 pm showing after grabbing a quick bite. The movie is great, but not for the squeamish. As with all Tarantino movies. The violence was expected...the prolific use too the "n-word" was not. It fits with the plot, but still, I hate that word. And I thought it ran a little long. It sort of has two climaxes which always seem to make a movie seem long.
Anyway, after returning from the movie. I focus on the Internet problem. It works beautifully...for about 15 minutes. Then nothing. No cable splash page. No router configuration page. Nothing. Grr. So I turn everything off. Unplug everything that connects to the Internet. More difficult than it sounds. I think our oven might connect to the Internet from time to time. Wait for about 20 minutes. Sorry Mandy. She was reading. Or making cupcakes. Regardless, she didn't want me to bother her.
Plug everything back in. Success! I pull up Duck Dynasty on the laptop. Play it through the entertainment system. Fall asleep on the couch. What a journey.
I'm convinced this was punishment by the cable company. A kind of, "How dare you cut off cable! We'll show you cable cutter!" Well, I woke up this morning and it worked fine. I watched Doctor Who, The Guild, and Portlandia while Mandy slept and went to work. Now I am streaming Pandora while typing this terribly long blog post. Hopefully my Internet struggles are behind me. We are talking about building a machine to augment the Roku box and Blu-Ray player. But that will probably be a stretch down the road. Until then, cable cutting 2013 is underway. Share and or comment if you made it down this far.
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