I’m Grateful, but Nothing is Simple

The good news is that I now have internet in the house. The bad news, from a blogging perspective, is that I realized how much I have to do to fine tune the look of this thing and get the images under a manageable size. Ah well. I’ll work on it.

Last week really was a week of Bell – Canada’s largest communications company. It took a long time to get the internet sorted out because we discovered I didn’t actually have a landline. Remember, I’m reduced to a phone linked modem which is really only inches away from dial-up.

Whoever had set up my account had reprogrammed the wrong number. I’m getting a refund.

Two days later I did some meditation, drank some calming tea, and assembled my TV. Then I unboxed one of the satellite receivers I had purchased and tried to install it.

Sigh

I wound up spending 7 hours on the phone to Bell Aliant (from whom I had purchased my phone/internet/tv bundle) and Bell Satellite TV (a separate company from which I have to get my tv signal) because I’m on this island and they don’t have cables connecting us to the mainland.

I won’t give you a blow by blow, just the highlights:

• I spoke to 9 people. They were all very nice and really wanted to be helpful. Bell’s staff are great – their internal systems suck.
• I was put on hold multiple times – 4 times some internal phone system grabbed me, offered me traffic numbers and techie stuff and then hung up on me.
• It turns out that you have to have two accounts with Bell to access all the components of one bundle sold to you by one subsidiary. Oh, and they don’t talk to each other.
• I can now use my TV – once somebody figures out why the dish isn’t working. They tell me I’ll have to find a technician, but they’ll reimburse me once I’ve paid them.

I have learned a few other things this week:

• The cats hate the power drill more than they hate the vacuum.
• If you’re going to mount something on a plaster wall – use short screws. Stop trying to do things the “right” way by using the parts which come with the object.
• Plaster walls should have been used for battle tanks. They are impenetrable.
• When the guy at the hardware store says “just use your stud finder”, simply smile and wonder aloud why you hadn’t thought of that. Don’t bother suggesting he google what happens to the efficacy of stud finders through 3 inches of plaster (see battle tank comment above).
• Have multiple bits available for pre-drilling. You’re going to lose your favourite one when it embeds itself in the plaster and breaks in two.

Having said all this – it’s Thanksgiving and I can’t possibly express how thankful I am to be where I am. The Universe has given me a gift I truly appreciate.

Also I’m still addicted to the sunsets. 🙂