I Just Found The Internet

Of course I had to lose it first.

We've agreed to sell the property just north of the house to Chick-Fil-A but only after we put in basic utilities. That included a rather deep and large trench to contain the storm sewer line. Its path was right across both the telephone and cable lines.

We called the cable company and told them we were likely going to cut the cable. The customer service representative said that they couldn't really do anything until the cable was actually cut. It did not take terribly long to cut both lines. So we reported to both utilities.

AT&T came right out and ran a temporary line for us. The only problem was they came after we'd all left and with our confusing geography connected it to the house instead of the office. We let them know the next day and they corrected it immediately. This was amazing to me and reminded me of the old AT&T of my childhood and youth. The attitude was "let's fix this problem" and make our customer happy. And they did, too.

Cox, our cable provider, was the opposite though. The repairman came out and looked at the cable and simply told us we were out of luck and they could not restore service. He further told us to contact their business office and ask that it be disconnected to avoid additional charges. So I called and told the story. The lady I talked to seemed to think I was making this all up. She said she would have to fax me a disconnect order for me to sign and fax back. Problem with that was that I was talking on my cell phone and our Internet was down. She was unsympathetic.

But she faxed the paper anyway and our incoming fax is over the Internet. I managed to connect to a hot spot at Starbucks and download the document to my laptop. Then I was able to print it out. By that time AT&T had gotten our phone line back and I faxed the signed document back to Cox. Haven't heard from them since.

AT&T is going to get us DSL and we're supposed to have it working today. Again we received amazing service from AT&T.

Monday night I was at a city council meeting about our Target deal. Due to all the financial chaos right now all new development deals are hanging by a thread. So far ours seems to be proceeding though. But our developer was needing city help and I think it will happen although it is certainly not assured.

The meeting was a work session but all meetings are public unless certain private information is to be discussed. My brother and I attended. We sat and listened mostly. It was very interesting watching how the council members interacted and worked with each other. I was impressed. Also obvious was just how difficult the job really is and how seriously these men and women take their responsibilities.

Anyway that's why I've been off for a couple of days.

Honestly I've kind of enjoyed the break, too.

But I certainly did appreciate the significance of the Internet to our business and and our personal lives today. Amazing.

Yesterday my 5 year old grandson sent me a present by way of his daddy. It was a stick of chewing gum. He told his daddy that he had a surprise for his pop (that's me). So today I had a tin of Paul Newman's organic cinnamon mints that I decided I'd give to him. I wrote a little note thanking him for his gift to me and wrapped it around the tin. Then I gave it to his daddy to take home and give to him. I thought it was very cute.

Thanks to everyone who has emailed me and left comments. I appreciate you all. I haven't caught up yet but hope to soon.