My day today started with an install. It was a nice little apartment. I was let in by an older woman. The place was cozy with a lot of plants. There were some copies of the New Yorker lying around. I was here to install all three of our products. She already had basic TV, so the job was pretty easy. She was getting ready for work the whole time I was there. At one point she said that having the cable box was going to be great for when she watches her grandchildren.
My next job was at a house not too far away. I was met at the door by another old lady. I was here to replace a cable box with a HD/DVR. The job was easy for the most part. But the box kept giving me problems. half the channels would not show up on one tuner but all would show up on the other so I replaced it with another DVR and it all worked. She used to be a history teacher and principal. She was telling me about how she loves the John Adams miniseries and had missed the last episode, so I showed her how she could watch old episodes and she was very grateful.
My next job was at a house to the north. The place was kind of run down. The lawn was brown with some toys scattered about. The door was answered by a middle aged white man. He was having Internet problems. The line seemed to originate from the basement, but the door was locked. I asked if I could go down but he said there was nothing down there, the cable line just goes straight to the back yard. I thought I heard something move, like a rattle sound from down there but not sure. He had a pit bull in the back in a dog run that kept barking at me and there was dog shit scattered about the yard. I could barely stand the smell. I replaced a bad splitter and rearranged some things and then I left.
My next job was at a apartment building down south. I went to an apartment on the third floor. A large white man got up off the couch to greet me as I approached the apartment. He showed me his TV which wasn't getting all of it's channels. He also told me he was only installed a month ago. Everything inside the apartment looked new, but I replaced a couple things anyways. That fixed nothing so I went out to the main box. I rearranged somethings out there and when i went back to the apartment it was working so I left.
My last job of the morning was another install. This was at the apartment complex right next to my last job. The door was answered by a young man with his nails painted black. There was several large Final Fantasy posters on the wall. The guy spent the whole time I was there laying down. He said he works the night shift and was out until 4 this morning. He already had TV and Internet with us. I was just here to install phones. But he didn't really want it, it is just cheaper to have all three products together than just the two. So I swapped the modem with an EMTA and left.
I went to lunch. I don't know if I'm being paranoid, but I think I keep seeing this red Subaru station wagon following me around. But there are probably a lot of those cars around. Anyways, after lunch I went to my first job of the afternoon. This was a house in the same area as the apartment buildings. I was greeted at the door by an older woman and her very little dog that would not stop barking at me. She showed me to the bedroom where her TV was. She turned it on and there was absolutely no picture but we could hear the sound. It was obvious the problem was her TV. Even though the TV wasn't very old. I told her it was the TV and left.
The next job was an install a little to the south at an apartment complex, which turned out to be not at home. So I picked up a disconnect, at a house a little to the north. It looks like we are a little short on work. I just got a call to go back to that house, where the guy wouldn't let me in the basement. Apparently he is still having Internet issues.

I started my morning by going to the shop. After picking up the equipment I needed I headed to plasticland. I was there to do an install. It was for all three of our products. There was a woman here with her daughter. I only saw the back of the daughter as she was out the door to school. In the front there was a giant wooden Buddah head. It took me a little off gaurd at first. What I thought was weird was that there was also a bunch of Hindu stuff around the place as well. The customer already had our basic TV, which helped. She had a wireless DSL modem and I had to explain to her that our modem is not wireless. I convinced her to go buy her own wireless router. The cable box went to the TV in the basement. The basement was scattered with various art supplies. I almost wondered if she watched kids or something. And entertained them in the basement. The job went smoothe.
My next job was at a house. I was met at the door by an older black woman. She had one of our routers. She showed me a printout of a page and told me that was all she was getting for a couple days, but everything was fine now. It looked like the router was actingly like it was never set up. But it seemed to fix itself by now, because everything was working. Her computer was painfully slow. I told her everything was fine and I left.
Next I headed to a house to the south in the land of scrape offs. I was met at the door by a middle aged white man. The place looked like it may have been a scrape off. It was nice and there was a bunch of pictures of his kids, all over the place. We talked about how nice the day was and he said he would rather be golfing right now. He got a new flat screen for the bedroom and wanted an HD box for it. He was extremely helpfull and the job was very easy.
I picked up one more job for the morning. This was in an apartment complex. The door was opened by a young man who looked like I just woke him up. There wasn't a whole lot of furniture here, he was still moving in. I saw a paddel and recognized he belonged to a frat. He talked about being at a strip club last night and now he has a hang over. I was here to install all three of our products. Once I got the TV on I turned it to ESPN and he was very happy. We talked some about sports, untill I finished the rest of the job.
I then went to lunch. After lunch I picked up a job at a house. The door was answered by a hispanic woman. I got the impression that she was a nurse. I was largely tipped b y an oxygen machine with a tube that ran to a bedroom in the back. She had no clue why I was there. I turned on the TV and nothing was on. I looked out back and it became obvious that she had been disconnected accidentally. To get to the pole I would have to go to the neighbor's yard. When I got there I opened the gate and out ran the cutest little puppy. I quickley closed the gate, because I didn't want to let the puppy out. I needed to find a way in to get up the pole. So I went to the gate on the other side of the house. The puppy didn't even realize what I was doing untill I was practically at the pole. I hooked the lady back up and left.
My last job was at a house a little to the east. The door was answered by a kid. THe mom quickley showed up. The daughter was on the couch doing her homework. Their modem was out completely. I checked the siganl and it was very low. I looked behind the desk and found a splitter in which both legs were not being used so I removed it and the modem came right back up. I checked some other things and then I went home.

After our weekly meetings I went to my first job. This was a house. A young woman answered the door. The place was empty she had yet to move in. The place had been remodeled and it looked like they had done a good job with it. I was here to set up basic TV and Internet. The job seemed easy enough, but there was one outlet she wanted activated that I couldn't find. It was in the living room in a middle wall. I climbed into the crawl space to see if I cold find anything their and couldn't, then I climbed into the attic and found the line but it was cut, so it was going nowhere. This meant I had to make a new outlet by drilling to the outside. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't waste all that time looking for the line. I finished and went to lunch.
My first job after lunch was in the land of scrape offs. This was a large house a short round woman meet me at the door. The place was full of Native American artwork. She showed me a TV and said that the audio on channel 2 was dropping in and out and there was no audio on channels 25 and 26. I knew right away the TV was set to SAP I switched it to Stereo and left.
The next job was an install. It was at some dorms at a local art school. I was here to switch out this guy's modem for a router. He was a tall lanky sort of dorky looking black guy. He was really nice. We talked about how rediculous for the dorms of this school to be here when the school itself is in a different part of town. We also talked about movies and video games and comics. He had a PS3 and a Wii. He had some cool games.
My next job was another install. This was at a high rise apartment building for retirees. It was starting to rain I wanted to be quick about it. i checked the box outside and the apartment was already hooked up. I showed up at the apartment and there was an elderly black woman here with her two daughters. It was a transfer so they already had their cable box and it was set up exactly right before I had even showed up. I just activated everything and left, I was there maybe 10 minutes.
Since I was running so far ahead I decided to take a little break before heading to what will be my last job. This job was at an apartment complex near the hospitals. This looked like a corporate account. I was greeted by a guy who sounded a lot like Boomhower from King of the Hill. He was from Alabama. He was moving here from California. He had some family here as well. They flew out to California to move him here and then they will fly back. They were really nice. I told them about a few things in the area, like the nearest 7-11 and some places to eat. The job was easy. The guy already knew how to work everything.
While working on this last job I got called back from the guy at the dorm for art students. His router keeps dropping out. So I went back and swapped his router. We talked more about video games, then I went home.

My day started at a house in the northern parts of my area. There was a young black man here with a younger black girl (probably his sister). He was excited to see me. I was here to install cable TV in four rooms. Once I showed up he told me that three of the rooms had no cable. So I had to run new outlets to those places. The house didn't look too bad. It had been recently remodeled. The job took me quite a while to do. They just watched one of those judge shows the whole time. I assumed this was because they had an antenae so they were limited in options of what to watch. But once I got the cable hooked up they just turned it back to the judge show (even though they were getting all the channels. One of the cable boxes wasn't working right. I was told it was system wide thing so that's what I told them and left. It was about 11 am when I left and was told there was no more jobs so I took a long lunch.
After lunch I got another install in the same area. I was met outside by a very spastic black man. I went to the front door and his wife opened the door and said the install is next Monday instead. But he wanted it now. They already had phone and I was here to install Internet and a TV. There was one of those house arrest boxes plugged into the phone. Their computer was in pieces on the couch. The guy said he got it from a friend, but it has a password so he can't get into it. He had a laptop as well, but it had no hard drive, so it wouldn't even come on. He and his wife spent the whole time calling computer repair people. They had three kids, the youngest was very small and sleeping on the bed. They had a bootlegged video of Horton hears a Who playing on the TV. Once I got the TV working he was very excited and started watching BET. I got the Internet working as well. He was dancing as I left.
After this I got a disconnect at an old folks home. I have been here often. I just had to get the manager to let me in. Then I went to a apartment building a little south. This building is on a very busy street. The door was answered by a guy who looked like he was in a band. I even saw a guitar plugged into a Fender Twin Amplifier. He was having Internet problems. He was watching The Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I enjoyed that movie)and cooking diner. He said he works at the local Aquarium and this was his first day off in 13 days. I just needed to replace the modem, which I did.
My last job was a house on my way home. The door was answered by an older woman. She said her daughter owns the place and she was just visiting. Her daughter had questions about how to work the remote, but she didn't know what the questions were. I showed her a couple things and then I went home.

My day started on the backside of resort town. As I was stepping out of my vehicle a man pulled up and asked if I was there for his place. I told him yes and I followed him to the place. His place was empty. They were just starting to move in. From the looks of his shirt the guy works for the sheriff department. I was here to set up two cable boxes. Once of them was at the old house. So I just activated all the outlets and set up the one box he had. He seemed dissatisfied with the place. He told me that you should not count on what you have until you sign the paper work. He would also complain about things to his wife who must have been at the other place still boxing things up.
My next job was a house to the west. The door was answered by a old retired teacher. The place had a very western feel to it. There was a cactus a wagon wheel and western artwork all over the place. I was here to install a new outlet so he could have Internet in his loft. The job was pretty easy, there was already a cable in the vicinity on the outside of the house. He talked about a cabin he used to own in the mountains and how he used to own a couple other properties in the area. He just got back from Florida. He owns a trailer out there and spends the winter out there. Once I finished the outlet I offered to help him set up the Internet. I went to put in a disk and out popped some porn, Hustler's Barely Legal Slumber Party I believe. He said, "What's that? Where did that come from? How did that get in there?" When the computer came on there was a picture of a naked woman standing in a river as the wallpaper. It looked like it came out of playboy. Her breasts looked not only fake but airbrushed, the way they pointed out vertically. He told me she was a Cherokee standing in the Colorado River. I wasn't sure if this was because her hair was in braids, or maybe that was the caption under the picture when he downloaded it or if this was some sort of excuse, like Native Americans naturally roam naked in rivers and he got the picture out of National Geographic. He then commented on her "rack." I finished the job and left.
My next job was in an apartment complex. There was a Hispanic woman here. She said a tech had been here yesterday a replaced most everything but she was still having problems. I replaced a couple suspicious looking cables and tightened some loose connectors and that seemed to fix the problem.
I then picked up one more job for the morning. This was the same exact place I was at this time last week. This was an apartment complex. There was a young couple with their child who had just moved here from Sand Diego. They were still having problems, I guess I didn't fix it last time. The guy here had already figured out it was the cable to the TV, something had gone bad with it. So I made a new cable and everything was fine.
After lunch I had an install. This was on a very busy street. The door was answered by an Asian guy holding a guitar and a child. He showed me around and as I asked him questions it became apparent that he did not live here. He was watching the place for his brother. So he only knew what his brother told him. I went ahead and got started. The place was empty, they still needed to move in. There was still a dish on the roof from the previous residents, which they wanted to use as well. So I had to hook up two TVs, Internet and phone and not use any of the satellite cables in the process. It turned out to be not as bad as it seemed at first. The guy just played his guitar while I was working, I think he got a new FX pedal and was noodling around with it. Once I had the TV and the Internet hooked up I had to do the phone. Which was looking to be very difficult. The building must have had several different phone lines. Fortunately the couple who were actually living here showed up with a base station and satellite phones, which means I didn't need the house wiring at all. I explained everything to them and left.
My last job of the day was a house near by. There was a middle aged woman here with a much older woman (her mom?) and a dog. Once I entered the dog tried to bite my hand, twice! A was taken aback by this. She said he was nice and scolded him for this and told me where her office was. She was having phone issues. The dog escaped her grasp and came running towards me and tried to bit my hand again. But he was wagging his tail. She pulled the dog out of there and gave him a bone. I went into the basement and found what the problem was. When I walked by the dog he did nothing but chew on the bone. She also asked me to string up a TV in the basement so she could watch TV while working out. As I was leaving the dog tried to bite my hand two more times. He would only go for my hand the whole time. At this point I felt it was game, like keep away. The woman kept apologizing for her dog the whole time. Once finished I went home.

My day started at an apartment building near home. The door was answered by a young Indian girl. She lead me to her apartment. Her Internet wasn't working at all. At first I thought that she was accidentally disconnected but she was connected. I figured that the line itself to her apartment needed to be replaced. It was old and probably had water damage. So I turned the job over to post-wire.
My next job was a duplex in the fancy shopping area. I was met at the door by a guy who was wearing running gear. I wasn't sure if he was about to go running or had just gotten back. He had a Scottish accent. He introduced me to his wife who was Scottish as well. They led me downstairs to where their Internet was. It had been going down, though it was working now. I checked and the signal was low. I rerouted things to improve the signal, which it did in some areas but not others. I looked around and saw that they and their neighbor's were running on the same line from the pole. I could run a new line so that they were separate, but everything was working fine, so I moved on.
The next job was a large house that had been converted into apartments. I was here to downgrade someone by putting a filter on the line. It only took a couple of minutes.
I then went to an apartment building about a block away. I was met at the door by a short red headed woman. She talked a lot in a nervous sort of way. I was here to install basic. I actually hooked up her apartment before I came to the door, so I wouldn't have to go back down. I plugged her TV into the jack and I was done.
I got one more job for the morning . This was a house I had been at last Wednesday. This was a duplex that was in the process of being remodeled. His TV upstairs was having a lot of issues. I went downstairs and tightened the connectors on the splitter and it was fixed. I stuck around and tried to help him set up his Tivo and then I went to lunch.
After lunch I had an install at a house. I was met by a black woman. She told me to wait and got a younger man (her son?) It looked like he just moved into a room upstairs. There was an even older black woman here as well as an equally old black man who spent the whole time I was there watching religious programming on the TV. The young man had a slight limp as he walked around. The house already had service, but he was having a secondary account set up so he could have a DVR and Internet in his room. Since the house already had service the job was easy. I just had to re-rout the place to get him a decent signal. He took off as soon as I was finished.
The next job was a house not too far away. I was met at the door by a black man. There were two women in the living room watching TV. The younger other the two was large and on an oxygen tank. Neither moved the whole time I was there. He led me into the basement. To get down there there was a series of 5 or 6 steps about a 1/4 of an inch below each other and then they end with about a foot and a half drop which was remedied with a wobbly stool. I don't know what that was about. His TV was not getting most of it's channels. I found old connectors all over the house to replace. Once finished his TV was working fine, so I left.
My last job of the day, was a house in the same neighborhood. I was met by a small thin middle aged woman. She talked a lot, the whole time I was there about everything. She had been remodeling her house and doing a lot of it herself. She would say something as a joke and then laugh at and sometimes elbow me as well. She obviously lived alone and was probably rather lonely. She had a couple cats and seemed to me to be on the fast track to being a crazy cat lady. She was having Internet problems. I tracked it to a splitter in her crawlspace. She insisted on on crawling in there her self. I got her Internet working again. I also helped her set up her wireless Internet with a password and everything. I also explained how she could try to help her neighbor, with her Internet problems. Once finished she followed me all the way to my van talking the whole way. I didn't think she was going to leave me alone, but eventually I left and went home.

My day started up in plastic land. There was a young Russian man here. He seemed really smart. He kept asking me about my job, I think he was tired of his current job. He said he was going to school as well. He followed everything I did, but didn't seem to get annoying. The job was easy. He already had the equipment from his previous place. He made it easy for me.
Afterwards I went lunch. I spoke with dispatch and they said they were giving me another job, but I assumed it was for after lunch. After having sat there for about half an hour I realized that this was a morning job. so I had to rush over there. This job was an install in the fancy shopping district. There was a short guy here. He seemed a little perturbed by my being late. He said I looked familiar and wondered if we had met before. I didn't recognize him at all. i was here to install the Internet. This was an easy job, but I got hung up on a couple things. The first is when I tried to look at the GUI for the modem to see its levels. It brought up the levels for a different modem and ti took me a while to figure this out. The levels were low so I was scrambling to fix them. When I finally figured out what was going on I moved on to his computer. He had a Mac, but was running parallel OS's , so I had the internet up on the Mac side but not the Window's side. It took me a while to figure it out.
Once done I decided to take the other half hour of my lunch and then head to my next job. Of course by doing so I ended up late to this job as well. I was met at the door by a black woman wear a nurses uniform. She had two kids here. She said she had to get back to work in 15 minutes. She told me her router was not working and then said it was in her sons room and had him lead me to his room. It was in the basement. His room was nicer than mine. He had a huge flat screen TV, a PS3, his own computer as well as a bunch of other toys. He turned the router on and I wondered if that was the problem. I looked around and I looked out back as well. I replaced a splitter and then she had to go. She bagged me to come back.
I then picked up another job at a duplex to the east. The guy wasn't there at first some electrician was. The place was being remodeled. He briefly told me what needed to be done. I fixed a couple connectors before the guy showed up. When he showed up he showed me a couple more things he wanted done, then we discussed whether he needed an HD box or a cable card for his fancy flat screen TV. We decided on the HD box and I got it installed.
I then got a job at a restaurant on prostitute row. Another tech had already been there earlier in the day. They were having problems with their audio. There was a power surge over the weekend which I guess blew out the box. He came and replaced the box, but the audio went back out 20 minutes after he left. I looked around and tried to figure out what was going on but I couldn't because the box was only hooked into audio, so I couldn't see what was going on without a TV. So I decided to replace the box, and that fixed the problem. At least I think it did.
Then I went back to the job with the black woman with two kids. I decided to replace a cable in the basement and replace the router. While I was working in the basement I noticed a bunch of fancy belts. It turns out the father is a championship boxer. He had several title belts around and posters from bouts all over the walls. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out. The first router I put on had all the settings on it changed including the password to get into the router itself. So I couldn't get the other computer (which was in the daughter's room) to work. The daughter was in to Bratz, they were all over her room. So I had to put in yet another router and this one finally worked, so I went home.