Light Snow Fallen

A light snow fell on us last night. The first clue; when in a sound sleep, comes from the sound of the snowplow grinding against the ice and asphalt. Your eyes open and against the din of the room you can see the blinking beacon; the tell-tale yellow light. Then you know, it's a sure thing.

I usually get up early. I am a morning person by my nature. I knew this morning's spare time would be consumed dusting off the car and shovelling the driveway. Sorry to say, by the time I got up, dressed and outside to deal with it the precipitation had changed to freezing rain. The stuff was heavy. It didn't take me that long but when I came in I was sweating and wide awake.

I got to work after a slog of a commute on time and, as usual, I was the first one 'out-of-the-gate.' I had a job scheduled '9-10;' which means, 'first thing,' and I was determined to get there on time. I got there at 9:05. The people were home but guess what? They weren't ready. Imagine that.....I had to wait ten minutes or so as the woman 'got up.' Ugh

The 'bright point' of my day came later after a rough start. I showed up at a beautiful home to connect a HDTV box. The nice woman greeted me at the door and showed me into the living room with the brand-new 70-inch wall-mounted 'mother-of-all-TV's' that had already been mounted to the wall. Ugh.

My paperwork indicated that they only had one active CATV line in the house. The house was not only beautiful; it was big. I suspected immediately there was a splitter in the house somewhere. There was no way in a house of this 'magnitude' that there was only one television set. When I am setting up digital TV service I must locate and if not replace I must bypass the splitter.

I asked the woman if this was the only TV set in the house that was connected to the cable. She told me that they had another one; but until they bought this one they only had the one set. As I suspected, there was a splitter in the house. I asked her if she knew where it was? She did not. She called her husband. I'll spare the details but I found the splitter but I felt very bad when she suggested that I thought they she had been less-then-honest with me. Technically, they had 'tampered' with the line but she was honest with me about it. I reassured her that she had done nothing 'wrong' and that I appreciated the fact that she was honest with me. I explained to her I often discover when people are not.

We ended up shaking hands as I repeatedly tried to reassure her I meant no offense by my questions. I only need to ask them to perform my job. We ended up having a nice chat. We talked about dogs. She had three very cute and spoiled minuature poodles. I made sure she knew how to use the equipment I installed and it all ended up in a 'good note.' Whew!

I really do want people to be comfortable with me; and with me being in their home's. I am there to provide them a service. I want to know when I am leaving that I have. I am not there as an 'adversary;' I want to be there as a 'friend,' ya know?

Hope you all had a good day; have a great night, too.