Ok, in layman's terms, if you read a post title like this one, you may get visions of a beautiful specimen of a man, fit, trim, tanned and charming........entering your home, asking you what the problem is and telling you he has arrived to assist you.
WELL THINK AGAIN! The only reason I'm using the word HOT here is because the cable/telephone company is called HOT and this balding, grey, rotund technician with an attitude is the one who has graced my presence this afternoon.
He arrived minutes before three, because of course I was home since one, and they told me he would be here between 1 and 3. As he walked in, I began to say, "The problem we're having is..." Then he cut me off..........."I know what the problem is, just show me where the modem for the telephone and internet is."
OOOOO kay.......he MUST know more than me I thought, so I showed him. He began to fiddle with the wires, and I left him downstairs to do his thing. He came up about 20 minutes or so later and asked where the phone was. He picked it up off the couch, turned it on, and listened for the dial tone. "Here..." he said to me as he handed me the phone, "it's fixed."
"Wait," I said, "that wasn't the problem to begin with! We've always had a dial tone, and if you had let me explain when you walked in here, you would know that the problem is this....." and I called the house phone with the cell, it rang ONCE on both ends, then stopped. He gave a look of frustration, then had to go BACK up to the car (now for the second time, and we live 2 floors down.........poor guy, he's sporting a gut as big as mine!) for another bag of tools.
When he returned, he made me come downstairs with him, goes BACK over to the modem, unscrews something and screws some other technician's phone in it's place and had me call the house again. RING once, RING twice, RING three times............ he looked at me like, well?
So I started in on him again, "IF YOU WOULD HAVE LET ME EXPLAIN WHEN YOU WALKED IN HERE, WE ARE NOT RECEIVING CALLS, IT RINGS ONCE ON EACH SIDE THEN NOTHING. MY HUSBAND SPOKE WITH THE TELEPHONE COMPANY TECH AT LENGTH AND THEY SAID THAT IT SOUNDED LIKE A PROBLEM WITH THE SOCKET WHERE THE PHONE IS PLUGGED IN...." in israel, the sockets are not something you get in the hardware store for your phones like in the US, the telephone company installs it.
so back upstairs we went.
I showed him the socket in question, and STILL he wanted to know about something else...something to do with a place where all the wires come together.........huh?.........I showed him what I thought he might be talking about and I preached again saying that it seems like the problem is just with this one socket that maybe he should check it..........this one, here, just behind, but not fully blocked by the couch.
"Okay, move the couch and I'll check it." he tells me!
WTF??
"I'm pregnant, I'm not moving the couch, you'll have to move it." I tell him, proud of my new assertive Israeli attitude. So he moves the couch the 6 inches away from the wall (okay, maybe a little more than that, remember, he's not a small guy). And he proceeds to work as I sat and watched. He worked for 10 minutes and it still wasn't fixed and he said something about the plug downstairs that is blocked by the shelves in the playroom and we would need for someone to move the shelves.
"BUT THE PROBLEM IS NOT DOWN THERE, WHEN WE CALLED DOWN THERE, IT WORKED FINE, RIGHT? I'M TELLING YOU, IT'S THE SOCKET....WE MIGHT EVEN NEED A NEW ONE." I said, losing patience............I mean really, don't mess with a pregnant lady busta!!!
So he agreed, worked a bit more and voila! Would you look at that, after all that, he switched the socket, fiddled a bit more and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY we have a normal ringing phone!
I must say, I'm proud of myself for speaking up, but what a pain in the ass............I've got an appt. in an hour to get my blood pressure taken and all the monthly check-up stuff........I think I"m going to go do some deep breathing for a bit to calm myself down! haha
by the way....................PREGNANCY UPDATE: doing well, 21 weeks today, and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY people are starting to notice. Appt. this evening for some insight on some blood tests we took, but not placing too much emphasis on the severity of the results. Thinking positive and would LOVE LOVE LOVE positive vibes in return.................
