For whatever reason today I was in the best mood I've been in for a while, maybe it's because this is my Friday and i get the next two days off or maybe it's because I actually got some sleep last night. Either way I don't care I just hope it sticks around for a while.
My first job was at an apartment complex I was at yesterday. When I showed up a guy was hanging out on the steps. He left after a little while then, someone else came out of their apartment and sat in the same spot. All the while no one was answering the door. Then some kids were out by the steps and someone from another building walked up and the woman came out of nowhere, and they were all hanging out on the stairs. No one showed up so I called it not at home and went to the next job.
The next job was large house across the street from a school. My job here was to move an outlet, because the previous tech drilled the hole through a heat duct! The guy who answered the door was round black fellow. He showed me where to work. A kid (his son?) came down stairs in his bathrobe and started playing some role playing game on his gamecube. The job didn't take too long, I didn't interact with them too much.
the next job was in a fancy apartment above the ritziest shopping area in the city. When I got inside I realized I've been in this apartment before. They wanted me to hook up their DVD player, but it was hooked up, so I told them that the DVD player wasn't working. As I was leaving I noticed a blind woman across the street and her dog had stopped because she was about to walk into a construction site. She looked confused about this, so I went over and asked where she was trying to go. It turned out to be across the street so I led her there.
My next job was a little closer to where I live. This apartment building is for retirees. This particular gentleman opened the door with no shirt on. He had a scar going down the center of his body. He had a bunch of Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffin novels. As I was helping to fix his cable he started telling me about how he only watches Fox news anymore, because everyone else has a liberal bias and he wants news without any slant. He wants to make up his own mind. He talked about how he used to watch CNN until they started lying. While I was waiting for this to work we were watching a history Channel program about roads and highways. He mentioned he was a trucker in the 50's and how rough the roads used to be until Eisenhower built the highway system. Accept rout 66, which was alright back then. He said he did some trucking in the 60's and it was much better. Then he mentioned in '47 he did trucking on what he called the Alcan, which I guess is the highways between Alaska and Canada. He said in the Yukon it would get to 65 below. They had to have gas heaters in their truck incase they broke down, so they wouldn't freeze to death. They all had blow torches to defrost truck parts that had frozen. As I was leaving I ran into a rather talkative fellow in the elevator. He was wearing an ascot and would hold his throat when he talked which tipped me off that he must have had a tracheotomy. His voice sounded good, but if you listened closely you could a machine like hum when he talked. And when he didn't hold his throat it would make a terrible wheezing sound. He talked about how he's been going around hooking up his friends cable boxes for them and how he's been getting frustrated at trying to explain to them how the stuff works. I told him I knew how he felt.
It was about lunch time but I wasn't hungry so I went to my next job. It was an apartment building only two block away from where I live. The door was answered by a very nice old black woman. The problem was that she had the box hooked into her antennae instead of cable and she accidentally took away the cable line. I explained this and we grab the cable line and hooked it back up. She got mad at herself for this, because she had the cables specially tacked along the walls. She seemed very capable in terms of doing handy work around her apartment. While she was taking part of the line back she start cussing, but in her own way, so as to try an avoid any serious words I guess. Then she started singing some gospel hymn under her breath, but enough so I could hear the melody and some of the words, and I have to say it was beautiful. I didn't say anything about it, maybe because it seemed kind of private, like my hearing it was voyeuristic or something. She mentioned she was going to do a lot of traveling. She was going to take her great-grandchildren (she did not seem that old!) to California to visit their grandmother, then she was going to go to some other places as well. I got most of her channels working but a couple were still missing, I went to replace the splitter when I noticed it was hooked up backwards. After that everything worked fine.
After this I found a bathroom and ate some lunch. I was still ahead of time so I called around to see who was home. So next I went to a nice large house in the country club area. The woman their was a nice old white lady, who seemed very proper. there was an old black man their and they were talking about interracial couples they know. She had tried to hook up the boxes herself but when one wasn't working she gave up. The people on the phone told her to hook each up individually, when the truth is they won't work correctly until all of them are working correctly. So I was going around hooking each of them up, when she brought to me a toner and said the last tech out there, who was there months ago left it. This was great because I lost part of mine and had yet to replace it. They give you a lot of shit for losing tools and I had already lost one of these, so i was working without it for the time being. While I was working on the job I got a call on my personal cell phone and recognized it as being from Albuquerque. I thought to myself, "My friends john & Aubrey are in town, so who would be calling from Albuquerque?" so I didn't answer. Then afterwards it dawned on me that it was my mom who had just moved down there, so I called her back. After I got all the TV's working I proceeded to explain On Demand to her, and it was like I opened a whole new world to her. She joked that she may never leave the house.
Next I went to a house that is right around the corner from a coffee shop i used to work at is. It's also right near where some friends of mine live. If I had time and wasn't in such a rush to get home (this is my Friday after all), I may have stopped by either, but did not. This was a nice older house, with the little button light switches. They only had one TV and it was acting up. It turned out to be the line to the house, which I needed to replace. The day had been really easy until now too. I guess I actually have to do some work. I really didn't talk to the guy much, I just took off when I was done.
My last job was right in between the shopping area from before and the country club area. It was part of a series of town-homes on a really busy street. Theses were really tall, really nice town-homes. From inside you don't hear the street at all. The door was answered by a really old lady. She kept mentioning that she is a teacher and that she doesn't like technology. I was there to explain how to work her TV's. She told that kids today area illiterate and this is because of TV and computer. She told me a story about the fact she saw OMG on a paper and had to ask one of her students what it meant. She also mentioned that she teaches citizenship classes and she doesn't know that if the recent failing of the immigration bill will be a good or bad thing. She described how paranoid people were, that they were afraid that showing up to class would single them out or if they made a phone call to Mexico their call would be intercepted and they would be sent back. She also talked about how complicated things are today and when she was growing up all they worried about was Hitler, now we worry about everything and it's all because of the internet.

My first job I showed up to a little early. It was at an apartment building I haven't been to. The door was answered by a woman who obviously just woken up. She explained the problem was in the room then she got back under some sheets on the couch. I proceeded to find the problem, a bad splitter, and as I was fixing it I was joined by a little kitten. When I finished it I proceeded to play with the kitten for a little while. They are so easily amused. There was a torn page of the bible laying next to the bed. I had to wake to woman back up to get her to sign the paperwork.
The next job was a house not too far away. The trim of the house on the outside was a very light turquoise color that looked very 50's. I once lived with a friend of mine in a mountain town and our kitchen was this same color and everything was tin. The door was answered by an old jewish woman. I have noticed that there is a large jewish population in this area. There are a couple temples in the area. The woman said they fixed the one problem but she wanted me to check something out. I looked at the TV and noticed that the reception could be better. So I went out back and noticed that the place was wired backwards. In fact I'm surprised that they had as good reception as they had. She spent most of the time on the phone with her daughter who is apparently leaving soon.
I showed up to the next job about an hour early. The couple here were nice, the guy mentioned that he works outside as well, we were talking about the recent heat. As I was checking the TV I noticed a plant with a note above it saying, "Water Me." I turns out I had to replace the line from the pole. I could reach the pole from their backyard but the line to it came at it from such a weird angle that I had to get at it from the backside. It turns out there was no alleyway or other houses, but on the other side was a bike path that follows a creek that runs through town. I finished the job and headed to the next one.
The next job was in a complex just a few doors away from some friends of mine. I would drop by but they were both at work. The guy who answered the door was putting his clothes on while he opened the door. He told me to go upstairs. As I went upstairs the place obviously smelled of pot, poorly covered up. The whole time the guy would say something fractured and then laugh at his own joke, like somebody stoned. The most I could was just ignore what he had said. Very little of it made any sense anyway. The problem was that he had his cable box plugged into an antennae jack. So I told him I would have to string cable up the stairs in order to get cable up here, and surprisingly he was for it. Usually when you say that the customer doesn't like the sound of it and wants to cancel the job, in fact that's why i say it. I finished it as quickly as possible and left.
I wasn't feeling too hungry so I called my next job to see if I could shop up early. She was home so I went there. The problem here was that she had some people trimming the hedges and they cut the line. There was vines all over the pole climbing up and growing out over the lines. I loved the look of it. The whole thing was humming with the collective buzz of bees and flys. When I got inside she told me to bill the company who was doing her yard-work. Now I was hungry and decided to find a place to eat. I decided on a burger joint, since I can't remember the last hamburger I had.
I got a call from a job I was at yesterday. The one where I hooked them up from the outside and left a set-up kit. They say they don't have a signal. I went back out there and sure enough they have a signal, so the problem has to be from the outside. I tried to call him again, but I couldn't even leave a message.
I then went to my next job. This was another apartment. The door was answered by an attractive young hispanic woman. She showed me the TV and then proceeded to clean the place afterwards. But this was already one of the cleanest places I've ever seen. They had ivy growing along the walls and ceiling, I kind of liked the look. The job was simple they had the cable running through their VCR first instead of the cable box. At some point a teenage girl came out of nowhere, I'm pretty sure they were sisters.
At this point I was early again but neither of my two remaining jobs would be there early. So I found a bathroom and then picked up some extra work. This job was in the land of scrape-offs. It was a very large very nice house. At one point I was upstairs and saw two staircases and wasn't sure which one I needed to go down. The had these really awesome japanese water colors on the wall. They also had a theater, with actual theater seating and an old pepsi machine in the back. The problem here was that some wiring had come loose. It was a pretty easy fix.
The next job was a really large house in one of the newer parts of my area. the woman who answered the door looked to be about the same age as me. They had some July 4th stuff in front of the house. The problem was that they were not getting discovery channel, which I fixed quickly and went to the next job.
My last job was a very nice house in a neighborhood that I've never thought much of. When I looked at the paperwork I noticed the next customer had playboy, but the name was a woman's. I noticed the small dog and the somewhat masculine way she carried herself and immediately thought of my new lesbian neighbor. She was smoking cigars the whole time (swisher sweets?). I was trying to figure out why she was getting showtime on one TV and not on the other. Then I called dispatch who told me she shouldn't be getting showtime at all.

My first job today was a house near some hospitals. A woman answered the door and started talking to me about her back gate in a very fractured way, then apologized and said her mind was like 60,000 thousand miles away. She then mentioned channel 16 which this being my first job of the day I was admittedly running a little slow myself. But eventually I caught on that I needed to remove a trap from the line. she said she needed to leave for an appointment and left me to work in her backyard.
When I finished I headed to another house a little to the north. I had a feeling before I showed up that this place was accidentally disconnected and I was right. The place was a mess but that was because she had a kid. She asked if how hot it's been was common for around here, because her family just moved here from Ohio. I told her it was and that it would be best to invest in an air conditioner.
Due to my being slow this morning I forgot to get something for my next job, so I had to go all they way back to the shop to get it. For this next job I didn't even have to go into the house, in fact no one was there. I just had to make sure they were connected for internet and i left a self install kit.
i then called one of my afternoon jobs that was only a couple blocks away to try and get them done early. The woman was home so I went there. They were having phone and internet problems, though after I checked the signal everything seemed fine. I replaced one little thing, but I don't think it was the actual problem. The place was cluttered and hard to get around. The woman there was telling me about how she is going with a niece and grandson on a trip to South Dakota. She's lucky to get out of the heat. I left feeling like I didn't do much.
I then grabbed a smoothie, made some phone calls and had some lunch. Afterwards I went to an install in an apartment complex that takes up a whole city block. the whole time I was there people in the surrounding neighborhood were lighting fireworks, and you can hear the sound ricochet throughout the complex. The woman here was nice and had slight accent that I couldn't place. She was unpacking while her husband was at work. Since I got some of my afternoon work done already I took my time with this job. When I left it was 4 p.m., she gave me some bottled water and tip as well.
My last job Was in a different apartment complex. My notes said no one would be there until 4:30 p.m. So I looked around and found the problem to be outside and fixed it. All I had to do was wait. When 4:30 rolled around and nobody showed, I called the number on my paperwork and the woman answered and said that Iw as supposed to give a call ahead, and that she's still at work and will be about 25 minutes. So I went back to my van and pulled out my lap top that work has recently gave me and hopped on to someone's unsecured network to check my email until she showed up. When she finally showed up she was nice about it. It turns out that she works at a local hospital, so we talked about her hospital for a while. I just made sure everything is working and then headed home.

My first job this morning was a house not too far from where I live. It was a young couple here (by young I mean younger than me). It was weird because the house around here area expensive, it makes one think about where there life is going. The woman was feeding her baby when I entered. She told me that they bought it a couple months ago but have been working on it till now. The place was obviously cluttered from the fact they were still moving in. The husband left immediately and after a while some friend of hers showed up with a child as well. As I was working on the back of the building I noticed little baby bees flying amongst the vines.
Afterwards I took an early lunch, I parked at one of my favorite shaded places and made some phone calls. I talked to a friend of mine who just got back from New York. He offered me some connections if I wanted to move out there and try to get some audio work. I read some and decided to head to my next job early. As I was leaving the park a fox jumped out from behind a car and i had to hit my brakes. I stopped for a while and watched it scurry about the neighborhood before going on my way.
The next job was also in a very nice house. They haven't had cable for a while, so I needed to put a new line to the house. There was a woman here who is raising her teenage son apparently. She made an allusion to her ex-husband but didn't go into any details. Her sons room had two TV's which I was to hook up, because apparently he watches both at the same time. He had a lot of video games and a bunch of records. He was also into skating. The office area in which I worked had a bunch of collage art which made we wonder if she made these.
The last job was at a high rise apartment complex, that I thought was for retirees. This gentleman didn't seem that old and by the amount of calls he was getting while I was there it certainly seemed like he was working. The majority of his calls seemed legal as well, which had me thinking that maybe he is a lawyer. Everything was going smoothly until about I was about to finish the phone when it was starting to act up on me. There were more phone wires than jacks, which was a problem, causing some sort of loop. But as I was trying to fix this the cable went out. I searched everywhere and figured out that it has to be the cable that he installed under his baseboards. So unfortunately he had to tears those out for me so I could replace it. I feel bad for having him do it, but he didn't seem to phased by it. With that fixed I was able to finish the job.

When I got into the shop this morning, there were doughnuts. God I love Doughnuts! I'm a fan of pastries in general. Before I left my first job had already canceled. They scheduled me today in the southwest part of town. This is probably the part of town I know the least. The first house I went to had a fence all the way around it. It was a Hispanic guy who lived here and when I showed up he was across the street under a tree talking to some other guy. He obviously didn't speak much English, but he explained to me that he has been out of town and wasn't sure why I should be there. The lawn was a mess with various things. Inside they had large statues of Jesus and Mary both with rosaries wrapped around their neck. He spoke to a woman there who explained that they were accidentally disconnected and needed to be reconnected. But as she was saying this I turned on the TV and cartoon network was on, so I explained to them that they currently had cable.
Then I picked up a job near one of the nicest parks in town. When I got there no one answered the door. Then I took a peak in their backyard and the job looked a lot more involved than I originally thought, so I was glad to call it not at home and leave. I had some time to kill so I read a while before going to my next job.
Next was a house that was kind of small and nondescript. No one answered the door right away, than an older lady showed up from around the side of the house and said she was going to get her son. He obviously just woke, shirtless he offered as an excuse that everyone in the house are big drinkers. The problem was a really low signal and I traced it all the way to the tap, so I had to give the job to the next person down the chain. Though it took time and I get nothing towards my daily quota for it.
My next job was at a run down apartment building a ways away. This is the sort of place where the stairs are rusted and the concrete is falling apart. All I had to do here was show the woman how to work her remote. This was a very quick job but the first one that actually goes towards my workload for the day, and it 11:30 a.m.
The next job was another one that I picked up. This was a house that I believe is the southern most area that my office handles. What's ridiculous is that there is another office less than a mile away while this area is at least 30 minutes away from my office. All I had to do here was replace the cable to her house which she cut while doing yard work. She needed to leave, so I worked quickly and got out of there.
After a short bathroom break I forged ahead to my next job. This was another little house. The guy explained to me what was going on but of course it wasn't happening while I was there. So I looked around and replaced various things in and around the house. While I was in the basement I noticed that the windows were blocked with a plastic with stars decorated on it. the whole far side of the basement was decorated with this same plastic as a backdrop. There were two mattresses laying on there side and a rather large sound system in front. I'm not sure if I really want to know what goes on down here. In the end I just had to leave and hope I fixed the problem.
The next place was answered by a very elderly woman, who looks like a man. I just had to set up a box that her nephew had picked up for her from on of our offices. Eventually he showed up as well and was curious about what he did wrong, but really it was our fault and I should have never had to show up.
The next job was another house. The man greeted me at the door and mentioned that whatever the problem was it was no longer happening. I took a look around and saw nothing wrong, so I cancelled it and left.
I called in and picked up one last job. An install. This was a retirement apartment complex in the north west part of town that has recently been built where an old amusement park used to stand. This woman was moving in and had her two daughters and their husbands there to help her move in. There was a lot of confusion it trying to figure out what exactly I was to do. One guy would say something to me, while another would say under his breath, "Don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he's saying." It was interesting how everyone was going out of there way to try and make her feel comfortable, dragging people in from the hall to introduce to her. This was going to be her first night here. She mentioned that she spent her whole life in Michigan until about three weeks ago. In fact she seemed to really enjoy talking to me. Told me how she had all her teeth removed by Michigan State University, because they were infected, and they only replaced them about a month ago. She also mentioned about how she worked at Arby's for about 14 years and when she mentioned she needed time off for this surgery they told her not to come back. She was nice, she reminded me of my step-dad's mom. She seemed very nervous about his endeavor, she kept talking about the move and how she's out here because all her family had moved out here. I kept telling her it's good to be with your family, I kept re-assuring her.

I started the day at a house. Even-though it's listed as an apartment it's actually a small community of houses which is right next to one of the biggest roads in town, and yet if you didn't know where to look, you would completely miss it. The place was owned by a nice old couple. The place was filled with impressionistic looking art work. Of course the TV wasn't acting up when I got there, so I looked around and replaced a few things.
Afterwards I went to an apartment complex for retirees. The woman who lived there had an accent the seemed british with a hint of scottish, but very aristocratic sounding. She had a much nicer apartment than the ones I'm used to seeing in there buildings. I tried finding the problem but nothing was showing itself. After a while I became convinced it was the cable itself, so I replaced it but the lady was convinced it was the box, so I replaced it to appease her.
After those jobs i was running a little behind. The next job was another apartment, but I was there do something about a cable that was hanging outside the building which was not something I do so I quickly set up an appointment for a different crew of people to come a deal with it so I could go to my next job.
The next appointment was in the next apartment building over, which is always nice and convenient. This building in particular has a lot of immigrants from Africa, India and the Middle East. I enjoy coming here because you can always smell someone cooking something fantastic. The lady who answered the door on this job though was white and very old. Then when I came in I noticed two more elderly ladies one sitting behind the other smiling at me. The one that was closer had squinting eyes and a large smile and looked like something out of a Daniel Clowes comic. The whole scene creeped me out. Apparently the one in back was the mother of the other two women. Only one woman would talk to me directly the other two would coax her to ask me something. The problem here was that they had it hooked up wrong. An easy fix. I got out of there quick. I took a short lunch and went to my first afternoon job. This was a house in a very nice part of town. My paperwork said apartment but this was a house. Though the man and woman here seemed to approach each other with a formality that made me think they were not together. There was actually no problem here, everything was working fine so I cancelled it.
Next I went to another house, but I a different area. This area is quickly being known for it's scrape offs, but this house hasn't been touched yet. The man was nice, he said he's an auto broker. He was accidentally disconnected so I needed to hook him back up. When I was checking the levels inside I made the mistake of mentioning that his levels were low. So I had to spend the next half hour fussing around to try and improve the signal to make the customer happy.
The next house was in the same neighborhood and was a scrape off. The place smelled of Italian (my guess is Baked Zitit), the was a made going around cleaning things. They had one of those universal remotes that controls everything. The problem was with one of her TVs. It was a piece of shit but I somehow got it to function better, though it probably went back to the way it was once I left.
My last job was in the same area still. The door was answered by an older gentleman with a cane. His wife was sitting down, she had a walker with her. When I first heard her speak I didn't notice, but later one it became apparent that she had some sort of impairment or condition. Her speech was strained, and her husband spoke of her being in a wheel chair and how he would have to bathe her. They weren't getting most of their channels and I narrowed it down to the pedestal in the neighbors yard. There was a four foot chain link fence that separated the two yards and I ripped my jeans trying to jump over it.
As I was on this job I was called by a customer from earlier in the week who was having problems, so I need to go back there. I had to get some white cable from another tech, then I went there and replaced a whole bunch of their wiring. They have this newborn who is sitting in a swing and had these huge eyes starring blankly out. This made me think how surreal it must be to be a newborn, to experience everything for the first time. As I was heading home I was sitting at a stop sign and I saw a fox on the other side of the street. A bus passed me by and when it was gone so was the fox.

My day started at a house at the southern most area of my region. The man answering the door was a small, round, German man. The place was decorated with a lot of Native American art. In his back yard were little miniature models of army vehicles, that looked like they belonged to a train set. I'm pretty sure the problem was with his TV but he thought it was the cable box. So I switched the box and told him if it keeps happening the problem is the TV.
My next job was at a large complex that looks more like a resort. The woman here was very nice. The problem was that whoever hooked up the place put things in backwards, so one TV wasn't working. I didn't end up talking to her.
The next job was at a retirement community. The man here was walking around with his shirt open. The problem was that we recently moved discovery channel and it has been moved to a channel that used to be Cinnemax. So one of our old filters that would block that was still on the line, keeping them from viewing Discovery Channel. This was an easy fix.
The next job was a house to the north end of my area. The man was having trees removed from his property and took out the cable line to his place. So I was here to replace it. When I originally showed up his daughter answered the door. So I had to wait for him to come home. Of course it was starting to get really hot out. The job didn't take too long (it's amazing how much 90 degree weather can be an incentive!), but by the time I was finished I was sweating profusely. The man gave me a paper towel to wipe myself off and let me clean my hands.
I wanted to keep going so I called one of my afternoon appointments that was only a block away. There was about four hispanic people here that looked to be in their late teens, with a few kids running around. The problem was a damaged cable which wasn't allowing them to see some of their channels. It was an easy fix. They wanted me to hook up one of their other TV which I did for them as well.
Next I went to another job in the same area. As I showed up the man seemed to breathe heavily while, the woman there was on the couch the whole time rapped in a blanket. Whatever the problem was it was no longer taking place. It sounded like it was probably due to someone working on the lines in the area.
Next I went to another house in the area. I have been to this house before. In fact this was the same TV that I worked before. In the living-room was the mother she didn't move from the couch and was missing most of her teeth. There was a man here who wasn't here last time, he was walking around in his boxers. Then there was the woman who showed me to the TV. The problem was the TV, just like last time. This time it was making some awful noises, I had to switch the TV to a different input. The room was full of styrofoam heads, for wigs. Some had wigs some didn't, while some looked more human while others looked generic.
Afterwards I headed to the last job, but I was early so I had to wait. I decided to run an errand. Then I tried to read some, but between my exhaustion due to this week, and the heat I could barely stay awake. Eventually I went back to that last job. The problem was with the box, but it took a while to get it up and running. The people living here both worked at my favorite bookstore downtown. I couldn't tell if they were a couple or not. The had two of the friendliest dogs I've ever met. I spent my time working on a TV in the basement, which was very cluttered. There was a lot of fish tanks and various religious paraphernalia. We talked about their bookstore and various other things related to it. When I walked out back I noticed that the line to the house needed to be replaced, not because it was bad but because it was of a particular style which we are forced to replace. If we don't and get caught we get written up. Their TV's were working fine though and it was after 4:00 p.m. so I decided not to replace it and cancelled the job so my name wouldn't be on it. Besides I still had to go back to that job from yesterday and finish it.
I went back to the job from yesterday with the Russian gentleman and finished the job. Thankfully it didn't take too long to finish.

Yesterday I received some bad news and weighed upon my whole day. I had to get up early two hours early to get a laptop from work. My first job was at one of the new apartment complexes that take up a whole city block. The woman who let me in was nice. She was young and perky. She is a teacher out in the suburbs and just finished her first year. She said she is leaving for Wisconsin at the end of the week and is going to spend a month out there. I'm envious because I know it will be cooler out there. She was still moving in, slowly unpacking things, in that manner where you pull something out look at it for five/ten minutes then put it away. The job took me forever, largely because my head wasn't in it, so I had to keep going back to my van for stuff.
The next job was at an apartment building only a couple of blocks from my place. The woman was nice and obviously moving in. She was asking me about my job, and I cracked that it's better than retail. She remarked that she is a manager at a retail shop, sunglass hut to be exact. I gathered that she had to go to work soon so I tried to hurry up.
After lunch I went to an apartment building for senior citizens. This woman was perhaps the most difficult person I've ever had to deal with, and this was the worst possible day to deal with her. The moment I stepped in she started flying at me with promises made to her over the phone. She was getting a DVR and she started asking me about whether this will affect her ability to record with her VCR. I tried to explain to her she will not need to record with her VCR but she was just not getting it. When she got frustrated she got belligerent. After a while I would start raising my voice at her. Every time I tried to explain something she would roll her eyes and hem and haw. I would also have to explain it at least five different times. She tried to explain that she isn't slow or anything, but it seemed to me that she was just being difficult. I would try to explain that the TV needs to stay on channel 3, and that you change the channel on the cable box. This more than anything confused her, she could not in her mind separate the TV and cable box. All in all I spent about an hour trying to explain it all to her and I'm pretty sure she didn't get any of it. It was a struggle just to get out the door.
The next job was a house a few blocks away. I was actually her a while ago, but I remember rescheduling the job because she was pregnant and working from home, and did not want me to disconnect the internet to try and figure out what was wrong. For some reason I acted like I had never been here before. I think the woman recognized me but said nothing either. She had the kid. He was sleeping the whole time, so we talked in a hushed tone the whole time. I couldn't figure out what was causing her phone and internet to act erratically, so I replace a couple things and took off for the next job.
On my last job the door was answered by a russian man, which confused me because he ordered the latino package. The was a large brusque woman sitting on the couch. She had the gruffest most masculine voice I have ever heard. She was watching a spanish soap opera that was subtitled in russian. They have satellite and wanted the cable as well, but all the cables were being used for satellite, so I needed to run brand new lines to three TVs. As I was half way done with the job I got a call from a tech up the street who locked his keys in his van, so I had to speed over there and help him out. My drill ran out of power as I was drilling the last hole, so I have to go back tomorrow. I was heading home about 7 p.m. which means I put in about 13 hours. I'm glad I get over time and I'm glad this day is over.
I can't wait for the week to end.

Today I was in the South East part of town again. I'm starting to get to know this area. My first job was in an area I admittedly don't know too well, but never thought too highly about. Partly because of the how the nearest big street looks. This was an apartment next to the interstate. The place looked kind of nice, they had a well cultivated garden. The woman was nice. I was there to install phone, she said she's starting a job where she takes calls from home and didn't want to use her cell phone. She was talking about her son that lives with her, but she seemed a little old to have a teenager in the house. I peeked into his room and I saw stuff that belonged to a veteran so I guess he is a lot older. The job went by real quick.
the next one was about 2 blocks away in another apartment building. The guy was moving in a listening to a lot of good indie hip hop. The place looked real nice, but was a little more expensive than my current place. this was another quick job.
After this I went to the grocery store to pick some things up, I washed my van, then I made some phone calls and then I read for about an hour an a half, before heading to my next job.
The next job was at a very nice house. The lady showed up late. It turned out that I needed to create a new outlet in her office which was in the garage. This took some serious rigging. I spent about 3 hours there. She had to take off at one point to deal with some crisis at work, but she left me with some ice water which was nice. The place looked like a scrape off or at least recently renovated.
The last job was in an apartment complex that looked a little run down. This was in a town thats been completely surrounded by the city. I was told that there are no houses in this town only apartments and businesses. The guy's apartment was messy, he said he was still moving in. I notice allot of romance novels laying about. I finished this job in about a half hour and headed home.

Once again they had me in the south-east part of town. The first job was in a small community right near one of the Interstates in town. As I approached the community I saw four little bunny rabbits. I had to stop because one wouldn't get out of the road. The elderly couple who live here were very perky. They kept talking about how good this day was going to be. The husband's finger was bandaged up, he said he had gout it his finger. It turned out I just needed to show them how to use their VCR.
Next I went to a town-home community that is only about a couple blocks away from my usual area. The woman who lived here was nice. The place was empty. She said she just moved here from Ohio and the moving company won't have her stuff here for another week. It's got to be kind of depressing to live in a place so empty. This job was an easy fix.
I then went to a retirement community. The woman here was entertaining. She wouldn't stop talking the whole time I was there. The problem turned out to be the box, but she asked me if it was the squirrels. She then said she wanted to get a shotgun and shoot the squirrels with a potshot. I guess some of the people in the complex like to feed the squirrels. She then told me that her husband is in the hospital with diabetes. They had to take off his leg up to his knee. She kept talking about her son as well.
The next job was at a run down little apartment that was only a couple blocks away from a place I used to work at. The door was answered by a very large woman who apologized for being of slow response since she was just taking a nap. She had at least three different cats and kept complaining the whole time about how dirty her roommate is. That she plans on spending the day cleaning up after her. Once again all I had to do was switch out the box.
After lunch my first afternoon job cancelled. I called my second one and they cancelled. I went to my third and they cancelled. Went to my fourth job and nothing was wrong so I cancelled it. I picked up some extra work from dispatch. This was back in my usual area. The house was under construction, the guy said he's been working on the place for four years. It turns out he runs four different construction companies. His internet and phone signal are way to low, so I had to reroute some things. He used to have four different cable signal in his garage, which I guess he converted into his office, but for some reason the city would not let him do that, so he has to move it into the house. As I was rapping up they guy and his wife were fighting with their son over the phone, because he wants to smoke. They were yelling at him and giving him reasons why he can't. As I was leaving they gave me a diet grapefruit soda, which was surprisingly good.
After finishing I called dispatch for more work and they said there was none and told me to go home. 1 1/2
hours early!

I decided to work some O.T. to get some extra cash. Thankfully they gave me all installs, but it was in a different part of town. The first job was in town that has been completely engulfed by the city. The building looked nice on the outside, but once I got inside the place looked trashed. It smelled vaguely of incense. The customer was slightly retarded, he kept talking about how he's moving from the other building across the way, because the woman below him kept calling the cops on him saying that his music was too loud. It took me a while to find where to hook him up, it turned out to be on the roof.
The next job was in a apartment complex near one of the Intestates. The door was answered by a korean man, he wanted me to put grocery bags over my boots so as to not mess up the place. He was still moving in so the place was very cluttered and hard tog et around. This job took way to long, but that was because the box took forever to load.
The next job was almost out to where my parents live. When I knocked no-one answered so I called it not at home and left. About ten minutes away I got a call from the customer saying he was asleep and wanted me to come back. I was feeling generous so I went back. He was an African man. He offered me some food which looked good, but I had to turn him down because I just had some sandwiches which I packed for myself.
The next job was at an apartment building which was being renovated. There was all sorts of tractors, scaffolding, plywood and twisted metal. I even saw a trough full of cement. The guy had just moved from Maryland. He said this place is more in tune with his hobbies. He told me that the cost of living is actually more in Washington D.C. than here and that he's making more money as well (he's an accountant), so he's got so much extra money he's buying a second car. The place was minimal, but I guess you don't want a lot of stuff if your moving.
The last job was in a town-home complex. No one was there and when I called the woman, she said her son was coming. He showed up with a friend of his. They looked like they just graduated from high-school. One of them mentioned he just got his driver's license. While I was there they were talking about some girl they know and how easy they think it would be to have sex with her. The place was clustered, because she was just moving in. Her son was pretty useless, whenever I asked him a question he just responded, I don't know it's her place.

So yesterday I ended up with another rider. She was a short asian woman, whom I can't say talked any more than the others but for some reason was starting to annoy me towards the end. She kept talking about whether or not she could do the job. I seriously doubt she could carry the ladder. The first job was at a retirement community. When we knocked on the door, the woman didn't want to open the door and said everything was fixed, so we left. The rider I had needed to go to the bathroom and which point she informed me of her small bladder, which I couldn't help but feel it might have something to do with the large cup of coffee she was drinking.
The next job was in a new part of town. The job just needed us to swap the box, so we didn't hang out much.
Afterwards we went to an apartment building that was right next to a lot of hospitals. The man told us he would be right down, which took him a few minutes. He was very beleaguered in moving around and breathed very heavily. His shirt was tattered like moths have been eating it off him. When we got to his apartment the bed was in the middle of the place right next to the TV. There was a table full of canned goods as well as various military paraphernalia everywhere. I just reset his box and he was fine.
After this I got a call from a previous customer who was still having problems. I called around and it looked like I needed to call a line tech to come in a check out what was going on outside the house. So I had to meet him out there, which was actually right next to where my second job today was. We replaced some things outside and I headed to my next job.
This was a very nice very large house. The people here were nice. My rider pointed out to me that the woman's feet were black, I guess she was diabetic. I just needed to re-rout some things, so I wasn't here for long either.
I called around to see if I can show up early to any jobs. One cancelled on me and another let me show up early. This was in a poorer neighborhood. The woman mentioned how she lived there for 30 years and it just keeps getting worse. I guess there's allot of gang activity around there. She just wanted us to hook up her new TV.
Afterwards I went to a town-home complex. The door was answered by an overweight man wearing a large stained green shirt. So large you couldn't tell if he was wearing shorts (I hope he was!). There was another guy with a very pock-marked face who sat there and didn't say a thing. He watched finance shows on TV and had a computer screen showing stocks in real time. The first guy was describing the problem and then made a joke about how he can't get his playboy channel, which I didn't think was particularly amusing especially since I had a woman with me. She was obviously freaked out by the experience. I think I spent most of my time with this job outside.
The next job was in a neighborhood I'm not usually in. This guy needed two new outlets install. The worst part about this was that the day was at it's hottest point. At least my rider helped me quite a bit with the job. The guy was very nice.

My day started in an apartment building in a very wealthy part of town. The guy who answered the door was very nice. They had a lot of interesting little antiques about. While I was waiting for something to work on the TV, I noticed a deck of playing cards based on greek mythology. As I picked them up and started looking at them I got Deja Vu, I swear I had dreamed this sequence. The gentleman told me his wife got that while she was at the olympics in Athens. It turns out she was a producer for the olympics for NBC (even got a few Emmys), she worked Torrino as well. Now she produces shows for the Food Network here in town. In fact she works in the building that I'm trying to get a job in. Unfortunately she has no sway in the department I want to get in to.
My next job was at an another apartment building. The second I stepped in the place I was overwhelmed by the horrible cat smelled that filled the place. I don't know why some places with a cat smell horrible and some you don't even notice they have a cat. The job was easy.
The next job was in an apartment complex for elderly people. The woman greeted me at the door. I noticed that her hands were clinched and somewhat disfigured. She could only use her thumb and index finger. The problem was that C-SPAN on digital cable is a different channel than on analog, so she couldn't find it. I don't know why someone couldn't cover that over the phone.
After this I went to a house. This neighborhood seems to have a large russian population. This couple though isn't russian. The place was trashed. There was a weight lifting bench in the front yard as well as four tires and some car parts. The inside was equally trashed. I don't know how people let their place go like this. The husband answered the door in slacks and no shirt. The wife apologized and said they are on vacation all week. After a while the wife kept talking to me, about random stuff. Once again an easy fix.
After this I was so ahead schedule I started to call my afternoon jobs to see what I could finish early. So I went to a house, where I was greeted at the door by an elderly couple. They were nice, but the problem turned out to be a setting on their TV.
Unfortunately nobody else was going to let me show early, so I had to wait. After lunch I went to my next job which I was actually at a little over a month ago. This was the Jewish masseuse, who told me stories of living in Berlin while they built the wall. He told me that the Stazzie were worse than the Gestapo. We talked about various things. his was excited that his kids were coming home for summer. He said one is in an all boy Orthodox Jewish high School, where the kids live on campus and the other is studying to be a Rabbi at a prestigious school on the east coast.
I was still ahead of schedule so I had to wait once again before the next job. For the next job I had to go into one of the poorer neighborhoods in my area. The place seemed cluttered. The husband obviously seemed to think himself a handyman. He obviously wired the place himself. It's hard to fix things that a guy has done, especially right in front of him. Some guys take it personally, like your emasculating him. But I did have to replace everything that he did. I had to go into the crawl-space. There was a TV playing in the background and right as he opened the crawl-space, the was a rattlesnake on the TV. The timing was perfect.
My last job of the day was in a very rich neighborhood. The disparity can be pretty extreme between my jobs sometimes. The place was very nice. The lady said she was retired and spends her free time working for non-profits. She doesn't look that old, but if you live in this neighborhood I guess you might not need to work. She said she is currently working for a non-profit working or research for Alzheimer's disease. For this job I had to get into the crawl-space as well. This crawl-space was full of rocks and shards of some broken light bulb. At one point I looked down and saw my wrist was bleeding. By the time I finished it was 6 p.m. I was supposed to get off at 3:30 p.m.

My first job was at an apartment building near one of the parks in town. It's a new building and a great location. I know the code to get into the building, so I just went in. The guy there was nice. I'm pretty sure that he is gay. He started talking about how over the weekend he went to a music festival with Cindy Lauper, Debbie Harry, and others, and his ears are still ringing. He obviously was still moving in. The job was easy.
The next job was only a few blocks away. Though the neighborhood itself isn't bad, the buildings along this road are HUD houses. I was greeted at the door to the apartment building by a guy with no shirt on. He had no top teeth. I went upstairs and there was a woman with her two children, one was a newborn. As I was working in the alleyway there was two men and a woman who all looked native American digging through the dumpsters fishing out cans. I began to wonder what that sort of life must be like. They were sunburned from being out all day. When I get inside her boy was very intrigued by me. He wanted to know what all my tools were. When he was asked what his phone number was, he recited his social security number. At one point he showed me his toy nail gun. His mom asked if I had kids. She looked younger than me. She was telling me how hard it can be to raise a child. The job went by quickly.
After lunch I went to a very nice house. The lady here was very nice. She moved here from San Antonio to be with family. She works as a person who helps ship art, especially paintings. She helps preserve paintings and makes sure they get shipped properly. This reminded me of a story I was told by someone I know who's family is very wealthy and owns a lot of art. They bought a particular piece of art in europe and because of it's bulkiness they had to get a private plane, since paintings have to be shipped upright. Anyways the job required a bit of work. Her phone wiring was a rats nest, but she said she had an electrician coming in a couple of days so I passed on sorting that out. I spent all afternoon on this job.

My first job today was at a house. The door was answered buy a guy who seemed pretty clueless about what's going on, he said he was just visiting. Then some other people appeared. One of them took over and showed me around. Eventually he stated that he doesn't live there either. He said his son is on his way to the hospital to pick up his wife and newborn child. Seems like I've been seeing a lot of newborns lately. It looks as though everyone here at the house are the grandparents, watching their one other child and keeping the place in order. The job started out as a nuisance, because I had to carry my ladder about 100 yards to get to the pole. Though once I did that the job moved along fine. He had a poster of a Hieronymus Bosch painting on the wall of his office (It wasn't Garden of Earthly Delights). I wanted to ask him where I could find one, he's my favorite painter. When I finished the neighbor across the street flagged me down. She was a small asian woman, she wanted me to fix her cable that was hanging down low in the back. So I went ahead and fixed that, before going to the next job.
I was worried about my next job because I thought it was in rather poor part of town, but it turned out to be one block north of where I thought it was. This neighborhood is rather new and nice, it's amazing the difference one block can make! It turns out that this place only has two cable jacks that are no where near the phone jacks, and I'm here to install phone. So I told the woman that to do this I would have to put a chord around her bedroom, which she didn't like. So we had to reschedule, until she could get someone to install a new outlet.
I got to have lunch, which was nice. My first job of the afternoon was in a poorer neighborhood. This house had some trees and a 3 foot chain link fence in the front. A Winnie the Pooh doll was in the rain gutter. The door was answered by an old black woman. She showed me around and at one point went to look for her husband in the backyard, but couldn't find him. She was watching some soap opera. I left to hook them up at the pole and when I got out to the alleyway her husband was there all of a sudden. When I got back inside they were watching Maury Povitch. The job was really easy, they just let me work without interruption.
My last job was a very nice house. I got there early so I checked things out in her backyard. When she showed up she couldn't get her keys out of her car. Her place seemed minimal she kept referring to the fact that she doesn't have any time to unpack since moving in. This job moved quickly.
Lastly I had to go back to a job I was at yesterday. I still couldn't find the problem, so I just replaced as much as I could.

My first job today was an apartment building over by some local hospitals. When I got to the right floor the woman was doing yoga in the hallway. Which she continued to do while I was working in her apartment. By the way listening to the grunting and moaning of whatever various position she was engaging in, made for an interesting soundtrack. Her apartment was interesting as well. She herself was probably in her 50's and she had a lot of star wars stuff (books, photographs, trinkets). One wall was dedicated to pictures of wolves. Somebody was renovating the apartment upstairs and it sounded like they were going to come through the ceiling at any moment. I was waiting for someone to come crashing down on me. The job was easy but I had to wait almost 20 minuets for the box to start completely working, so I sat there and watched part of the French Open, wondering when this person is going to come through the ceiling while this woman was grunting in the hallway.
Next I went to a series of rather poor apartment buildings. The door was answered by a guy in his boxers. There was a glass coffee table that had little animals figurines all over it. He showed me to his room, where he wasn't getting hardly any channels. Eventually I needed to get into his daughter's room to solve the issue. When I went in there, there were two people laying in the bed with a baby. The baby seemed to be the only one awake. The TV was on the MTV movie awards. I Tried to fix it as quickly as possible and get out.
Next I went to a part of town I can't stand. Simply because it's new and seems very plastic/fake. Once again the guy answering the door was only wearing shorts. His wife was holding a newborn. As I was trying to figure it out I realized I left a tool at the last job. So I had to go back. Eventually I got the job done.
As I was driving to the next job I called them and they cancelled so I got some gas and tried to get a jump on my afternoon jobs. When I arrived at my first afternoon job I immediately recognized the place. When the guy opened the door I said, "Wait, I've been here before." He vaguely remembered me as well. The place was littered with Indianapolis Colts paraphernalia. He led me to a splitter in the bedroom closet. His girlfriend was sleeping in the bed approximately 5 feet away from where I'm working. She acknowledged me when I first came in but shortly started snoring. I don't think I could sleep with some stranger working 5 feet away from me. Eventually I had to turn this job over to another team because I couldn't fix it.
The next job dispatched had guilted me into picking up. It's a little out of my area. but when I got there no one was home.
Then I headed to a retirement home, that's across the street from where some friends of mine used to live. The woman was nice. I was there to install a box she had sent to her through the mail. You think it wouldn't be that hard to hook up a box, but I've been sent to a lot of these jobs lately. she just quietly watched me work the whole time.
This next job I knew was going to be my most difficult. I needed to put in a new line to the house but I had to trace it around the house. I spent about 2 hours there, but what I most dreaded was the fact that it's nearing 90 degrees. The people were doing yard work in the backyard the whole time. They had filled the kiddy pool and their kid was running around naked most the time. At one point she wanted very badly to jump on the trampoline and I found this a little amusing because last night I saw the movie Dark Crystal and the sound she was making reminded me of how the little dog character cried when they were about to leave it behind. When I was finished with my ladder I was awkwardly bringing it down to the ground when it popped up and hit me in the chin. That drew some blood. When I stepped inside to make sure that everything worked right, there was this turtle in a tank and it started freaking out. It furiously paddled about following my every movement. Eventually I finished the job and moved on to the last one.
The last job was at some town-homes. The first thing I noticed was that she still had Christmas decorations up. She also had a lot of dolls. The problem here was that the box was listed wrong in our records. She said I was third tech there in a week. This was such an easy fix...sometimes I wonder about by coworkers.

Today I felt a little off. you know that feeling like your forgetting something, kind of like that but perpetual. Good thing I have been at this job long enough to get by on auto pilot.
My first job today was at the apartment of a nice old man. he kept asking me questions about what it's like to work for my company. He used to work on elevators be he gave that up to work in the textile industry. He used to have his own business but had to shut it down and retire, because his business had dropped off after 9/11. As I was waiting for the cable box to start working I noticed he had some movie posters. One of Dracula with Bela Legosi, one of Rebel Without a Cause and one with Marilyn Monroe. I complimented them and he pointed me in the direction of a color photograph of Elvis Presley in army fatigues. He said he was the guy to the right of Presley in the photo. He used to be a sergeant in Germany when Elvis was in service. One day Elvis showed up and asked some favors of him. In return he got the photograph. He said about 150 guys crowded around and elvis stayed for 14 hours signing autographs and taking pictures. Later I was showing him how to order movies and he saw Wild One on there. He told me that when he was a teenager he saw an advanced screening of Wild One and they asked him afterwards what he thought. He said he wanted to buy a leather jacket. In fact after that movie came out all the kids were wearing leather jackets.
My next job was in a nice large brick house. The woman there was very perky. She had too children that were very wrapped up in playing. They barely noticed me. I wasn't there for long though, because I was close to running behind.
The next job was only a few blocks away but this place was rather run down. As I was walking to the front door I noticed an aluminum plate with the skeleton of f fish on it. The woman who answered the door was friendly. She asked me to set up her DVD player and see if a TV the her husband brought home yesterday was working or not. This TV he apparently bought off some guy who's car had broken down. When I was checking things in the back, I noticed a large satellite dish in the back yard. She said he bought that off the neighbor when they moved and hasn't done a thing with it since. In fact there was a lot of stuff cluttered around. I wonder how much of it was acquired under this same pattern. As I was leaving I noticed the fish bones were gone. I then noticed a squirrel starring at me from the bush in front of the house.
Afterwards I went to a retirement community. The couple here looked very familiar, thought I swear I've never been in this room before. I just had to show them how to work their remote.
After lunch I went to the house of someone who works for one of our communications rivals. I wonder how he could afford a place so nice, probably his wife. He had just had surgery on his elbow a couple days ago and was obviously a little out of it. I heard him trying to read the painkiller that was prescribed to him, to one of his friends and thought he's pronouncing that all wrong and then wondered if it is a bad thing that I know so much about prescriptions meds. I couldn't fix the problem here and the guy was a bit of a dick about it. He wanted some sort of a discount because he wasn't getting the absolute best HD possible but the second best (the difference is minimal). I gave him my supervisors phone number to let them hash that out. He kept bad mouthing his wife as well while I was there, calling her high maintenance and kept refereeing to how she incessantly nags him.
The next job was one of those apartment buildings I always drive by but this is the first time I actually went in. The problem was that her TV was on the wrong channel. She asked if I was going to charge and I replied yes. This unfortunately rose the tensions in the place and made me want to get out.
The next job was at a very nice house. The problem was the the line to the house was damaged, so I had to replace it. Which took a long time because I had to go through some trees. This caused me to be late to my next job so I didn't chat too much.
The last job was at the house of a nice old black lady. It turned out her TV wouldn't turn on. this had nothing to do with cable and I told her so. So I cancelled the job and went home.

My first job today was a row house in a nice part of town. I didn't realize this building was even here before. The woman wasn't there. I called her cell phone and she was off getting coffee. I waited a while until she got back. She apologized for the mess and said she was still moving in. Though it looked rather average to what I'm used to. The problem was that her TV periodically faded to black. I tried to convince her of this but she wouldn't listen to me. By the time I left there I had barely enough time to get to the next job.
The next one was at a complex I'm at pretty regularly. One of the line techs called me before hand to tell me that he had disconnected her, because she had some problem inside that was affecting other people in the area. When I showed up she had to leave, because I was at the end of my time frame and she had an appointment. So I agreed to come back at 4 p.m.
The next job was for a bulk account at a large apartment complex, but I didn't have any specific information about where the problem was. I tried calling the leasing office, but they couldn't help me, so I cancelled it.
Next was an apartment complex near one of the largest parks in town. I couldn't get in to the building though and I wasn't able to get in touch with the customer, so I had to call it a not at home.
After lunch I went to a house not to far from where I live. The place was nice and looked recently renovated. The guy was nice. He said he moved here from Phoenix and definitely prefers it here. I would too. The fix was simple, I just had to replace his box.
Next I went to this house that is right on the corner of a major intersection. Though it wasn't too noticeable inside. The woman seemed very absentminded. She asked me to hook up her DVD player and run it through her stereo, which I did. Then I took a look at her computer. She thought it was running too slow, but that was because of all the programs on her computer bogging it down.
Next I went to some town-homes. No one was there at first, so I sat in my van. Eventually a kid bouncing a basketball came up to me and said they were home. I came up to the place and a couple were sitting there eating breakfast. It looked like they got if from 7-11. This was another easy fix. It looks like they tried to install it themselves and got it all wrong. There was just enough tension in the room to make me think the man is probably a boyfriend. The woman and kids seemed more comfortable than he did.
Afterwards I had some time, so I found a shady space near a park and parked and did some reading. I looked up at one point and a girl was riding past me on her bicycle. Shortly after that two women walked by with a dog. I continued reading. After about 10 minuets I looked up and saw the same girl ride her bike past me exactly like before. Then the same two women walked by me again with the dog exactly as before. I read some more and went back to that one job.
when I got to the job, she was there with her two grandkids. Whilst I was working the little girl insisted at various times in getting my attention to the point of getting in my face, in that way that kids do. It seemed to make her day when I responded to her. I had to move quite a bit of furniture to get to the various bad connectors causing the problem. She had a chest that is apparently over 100 years old. As I was finishing they were getting ready to leave. the little girl started to run for the door and her grandmother said, "Don't leave without us or a diver will get you!" The girl quickly turned around a came back. I inquired and she explained that the girl was very into little nemo and her parents would say that if she wandered too far a diver would get her. They even went to an aquarium once and she freaked out when she saw a diver cleaning one of the tanks.
As I was leaving I got a call from an install I did a while ago (just moved here from Oregon after graduating from law school), saying he was having problems on one of his channels. He had gotten situated. The channel that was acting up, was animal planet, but of course it was working fine when I was there. So I wasn't able to do much for him, since everything looked fine. I told him to call again when it acted up again. Hopefully it was a anomaly.

Nothing cures an illness like good old fashioned hard work

I was happy to get installs again today. the first one was in aplace I've driven past many of times, but this is my first time there. The couple that lives here was a nice Jewish couple. The man is a radiologist, he was telling me he was one of the first people to get broadband in the area and it cost him $600 to get it installed. The basement was very cluttered, I had to spend most of my time working in his storage area. I was here to install two phone lines and I had to run it through his alarm. I spent over 3 hours on this job. There was no easy way to go about it unfortunately. his basement had a lot of random instrumetns about. the was a violin with no strings, a bow for a bass and a vibraphone. He said his son plays upright bass. I also saw a book on how to care for and restore bindings and next to this were an old illustrated copy of 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea and an old copy of Poe's Poems. The man was very nice.
I barely got to the next job on time. I was greeted by an A/V guy who did all the internall wiring. He showed me where everything was and explained that I was going to need to run a new line to the house. This is a scrape off, which are common in this area. The nice thing was that I wss only here for internet and no had set up an appointment for video, so I got a commission for taking his video order. I installed it as well since I was there. This job took me about 3 hours in the end as well. This guy had fancy universals remotes that controlled everything, I wouldn't be suprised if they even flushed the toilet. He also had a wireless thing for one of his TVs. I had to skip my lunch just to not fall too far behind.
I showed up to the next job a little late. I would have been there on time, but I desperately needed to find a bathroom. When I showed up there were three girls on the oppostie corner selling lemonade. There was a nice old couple living here. This place was one of the most cluttered I have ever seen. you couldn't take a step without knocking something over. Thankfully i didn't break anything. They had all sorts of glass and porceline things on the walls. I recognized the call letters of a couple local public radio stations written on his computer monitor. This was the only job of the day that went exactly as it should have.
The last job I got to on time. I was there to hook up the internet. There was this really nice sunroom in the back that went out onto a nice wood porch. I really liked the place. The guy was just moving in, he had no furniture, he said he was moving from a 1 bedroom apartment. He told me his fiancee was moving in in a month and a half. She currently lives on Oklahoma and the only get to see each other once a month, but they are getting married next month. He seemed very happy, I have to say I'm jealous. He works as a pharmasist at a local hospital. I needed to make an outlet in the sunroom, for the cable. That's where he wanted his computer. It didn't take too long though.

I actually have installs today, instead of trouble calls. It's been about 3 weeks since the last install I've done. I'm still sick, though it's moved out of my head and into my lungs, so instead of a runny nose I get coughing fits.
The first job was an apartment complex I find myself in at least once a week. The couple was just moving here from Venezuela it turns out. I only spoke to the husband the whole time, I don't think the wife knew any English. His though was perfect. I asked him about the recent riots in Caracas, his answers were rather short and to the point so he may have been uncomfortable answering the questions. He works for an oil company. His wife the whole time was watching DVDs of Mexican Soap operas. I was tripped up early by the fact that one of the cable jacks was not working. Otherwise the job went smoothly.
Next was a very large apartment building, the kind one could get lost in very easily. The woman had nothing except her brand new TV and her laptop. Some guys showed up to deliver her bed while I was there. It turned out that she just moved here from South Carolina, because she got a job with an airline company. It was going to cost her $3,000 to move her stuff here, so she just decided to leave that stuff with her parents and buy all new stuff here. The job was very easy.
The next job was in the same vicinity so I went there early. The door was answered by a hispanic couple who then called their sons out to talk to me. I guess they didn't know any English. They wanted four TVs hooked up as well as internet and phone, in this four bedroom apartment. It took me a while to get the levels where they need to be to make this happen, So I ended up there a while. After a while the kids took off and left me with the mother. When I got the TV in her room working I left to work on something else, then she went in there and changed the channel on the TV and not the box. She called me in to say it wasn't working and I had to proceed in trying to explain she needs to leave it on channel 3. I then continued my work. After I was done and putting everything back away in my van, she flagged me down because her telephones were not working. It turns out they were plugged in to switched outlets, which means she turned one of the light switches off and shut the phones off. I had to try and explain this to her as well.
The last job was in a run down apartment building. The black woman who answered the door had no eyebrows. She had two penciled in; a set of black ones and a thinner set of purple ones underneath. She had 10 to 15 different purses hanging on hooks, on the door to her bedroom, which made it quite a feat to get in. Her closet was filled with shoes. She spent the whole time i was there on the phone with a friend of hers, stopping the conversation momentarily if I had a question. They were talking about an upcoming wedding (I don't think she approved of the groom) and her 35th birthday later this week. She had stacks of DVDs surrounding her TV, with the occasional porn mixed in. This was another simple job, so I wasn't there for long.

I'm sick today. Though I never call in sick. It's more of a nuisance than anything else; runny nose, sneezing, the full gambit.
My first job was in what's referred as the "projects" around here. As I was pulling up the customer was leaving. He was a very nice African man. He let me in and said he needed to run his wife somewhere but his daughter is in the other room. I assumed he would be back shortly though it turned out to be about a half hour. I started working on the TV and it turned out that the problem was the VCR it was running through. So after fixing that and finishing my paperwork, I proceeded to sit and wait for him to come back. After about 15 minuets his daughter comes out of her room wearing a towel and what looks like nothing else. Not only that but the towel looks like it's going to fall off at any second. She asked if I was done and said I could've come to get her from her room. I quickly told her what the problem was and had her sign the paperwork. As I was heading to the door her father showed up. I explained to him what the problem was and left.
Next I went to one of the newer areas of town. This was a nice house owned by a nice older couple. They asked me about their internet problems. I quickly diagnosed the problem and proceeded to fix, then they started asking me questions regarding other things and I started to answer those as well.
Afterwards I went to a house that looked new but it may just have recently been stuccoed. The door was answered by a woman who apologized for having just woken up. She said she worked late last night, apparently she is a manager for a downtown restaurant. The backyard was littered with cigarette butts. There was also a weathered, broken basketball hoop as well. Inside was sparse, none of her roommates were to be found. I was just there to replace her remote, so I wasn't there very long.
My next job was near where I live. It was a large house, that's been cut up into apartments. The woman who lived there was nice. I noticed various Grateful Dead paraphernalia around and a Widespread Panic tour poster. She had an old (i.e. not digital) camera with various lenses. This was another easy fix so I wasn't there for long.
After lunch I went to a very nice house. The place was littered with artwork. Mostly pop-art, all contemporary. Shortly after entering from the front door there is a pedestal with three oddly shaped plungers on it. In the basement there was a wicker basket full of femurs. I'm not sure to what animal they belonged (I hope they weren't human). I asked if they were artists, but apparently they are just avid collectors. The husband I believe works for a mortgage company (I'm in the wrong business!). The wife asked me to take off my shoes because some of her carpets are new. So as I was walking through and around the house I wore the husbands pair of crocs (on a side note, I've never worn crocs before and they are really comfortable, but can't they make them look better?). This one took me forever. It turned out to be a bad cable in the wall, which I couldn't really replace so I had to wiggle it just right and hope it doesn't get moved.
Next I went to another new area of town, in fact this is probably the furthest region of my typical area. It looked like I woke up the woman who opened the door. She's obviously still moving in. I was late at this point so I was trying to move quickly. I got the impression she might actually be depressed and not tired. There was bubble wrap taped in some of the windows, perhaps in an attempt to block out some light.
Lastly I went to a house that was probably about half way between the last job and my place. The place was extremely cluttered. The gentleman wanted me to look at his DVR which has been acting weird, but it was fine when I got there. They didn't want to lose some of their recordings, so I cancelled the job. The guy also wanted a new outlet ran to his bedroom, but the place was so cluttered I had to schedule that out a couple days. This made me glad or I would have been there for another hour. But since I got it scheduled out I got to go home basically on time.