Murphy's Humpday

For most working people today was humpday. For me it was a day much too heavily laden under the burden of Murphy's Law. If something could go wrong, it did.

The weather here in the northeast is cold and getting colder. We are at the beginning of an Arctic blast; the second wave arrives here tomorrow. The high today was 22. The forecat high for Friday is 16. When it gets this cold you just pray the wind isn't blowing. Luckily today it wasn't that bad.

I knew I was in trouble before I even left the lot this morning. There was one mountain of digital equipment to install with somebody's work. As sure as I expected, it was mine. In a way I was happy. Any eqipment to be installed means time spent in a warmer environment than what was available outside.

I am sure many of you have experienced the 'time windows' offered by the office for Cable TV services. They are both notorious and legendary. The reason they offer such 'windows' is that they cannot predict what I will run into along the way and sometimes some 'response time' is required. Today was an excellent example of this.

I got to my first job just after 9 this morning. I'll spare the technical details of what all went wrong. It was almost four hours later when I left. I still had four more service calls scheduled, all time-restricted, my options were very limited. I called my boss to get his direction on how best to proceed; to advise him of my situation. I 'blew threw' the job I had that was scheduled from 10-2, then went to a 9-5, but still had a 1-3, and a 1-5. Those numbers indicative of the time-windows.

I got to the 9-5. On paper seemed like it should be simple enough as the house already had some active digital service; hence, no pole climbing. The wire was in place, too. I had already spoken with the women on the phone as she requested a call-ahead. She knew from early in the morning that I was coming.

I rang the bell and asked her to show me to the TV where I would be installing the HDTV service. She directs me into a beautiful family room and a TV that is not an HDTV. I said, 'Ma'am, we have a problem, that's not an HDTV.' She said, 'Not that one in the entertainment center; the one in the box.' She pointed to the left and sure enough, there was a box with a flat screen TV in it. It was clear by what she said that she expected me to assemble the new TV and dismantle the old TV. I nicely told her that that really wasn't 'my place.' The company wants me to handle people's things as little as possible. That's how things get broken/damaged.

She was understanding; but insistent. She and her husband were 'technically' illiterate; who else is going to do it?; why didn't the office say something?; and the icing on the cake, the last time they came your guys took all day to fix things and they moved everything and put it all together for us. It was obvious I was boxed in. I was going to have to do it.

I went out to the van and called the boss to advise him of the situation. I was annoyed by her presumptuousness. She was an intelligent woman and was very nice. She knew I was having a bad day; she apologized. I told her at one point that I am a 'consumately nice guy.' She responded she was glad to know that because she thought either that or some ax-murderer. I asked if she thought that was a 'fine-line?'

I did try to have fun with her. At one point AFTER I had begrudgingly assembled her TV; I looked at her and said, 'Ma'am, let me draw an analogy for you. If you had a leak in your kitchen sink would you clean out the cabinet underneath it before the plumber arrived?' OH MY....I was testing my limits with this woman.

She handled it most deftly. She responded, 'Let me draw a different analogy. When you buy a washing machine they come in, put the new one in and take the old one away.' I could argue the points of her argument; but she had made her point. She really was very nice and at one point tried to give me a $20 tip as she knew I went over-and-above what I really should have done. I steadfastly refused her tip and told her; were I to accept I would feel even more guilty about some of the things I said. She kept her $20 bill. She really was nice.

I said good-bye and went about the rest of my long cold day.

That was my humpday. Sorry to say, insult-to-injury, it's not MY 'humpday' as I have to work Saturday so today was really 'Tuesday' to me. Ugh.

Hope everyone is staying warm and is well.
Take care, have fun.