All right, where to start. This morning I got up with a glimmer of hope in my eye. Verizon promised me that today will be the day I would have my phone installed. I was skipping around the house kicking my heals every once in a while with the anticipation of knowing I may be able to use the phone. I may even call a wrong number just to say that I could.
At around 11:30 I started to wonder if something was up, no sign of anyone. Linda and I had to run into town to pick up an additional water barrel but my parents were here to keep everything in check when we were out. As we drove out we kept our eyes open for a maintenance truck but saw nothing. We then lost the hope we had. About 8 miles up the road we noticed 3 Verizon trucks at a “relay” box and I pulled over to ask if they happened to have any plans to come up my way. After they finished looking at me like I was a Martian and chuckling they waisted no time telling me they didn’t have any tickets for my work. I will call again in Tuesday morning.
Now as if the telephone torture was not enough, I have been fighting another battle trying to get trash pickup at our place. Although it has not been near as challenging as the telephone it has not been wothout it’s problems. To cut to the chase on the story, we were told by the post office that we “had” to put our mailbox a half mile back up the road (this entire mailbox issue is a blog on it’s own). As we were heading out to pickup our supplies today when we went by our mailbox there sat our newly delivered trash can, a full ½ mile from my house.
So back on track heading the 6 or so dirt road miles to hit the 2 lane asphalt we started seeing more and more dust (typically meaning we were catching a car in front of us). As the dust thickened, we noticed it was the Trash Truck. We started whooping and hollering and I mashed the gas to catch up. Flashing my lights and honking the horn I finally got the drivers attention and he pulled over. After some explaination it looks like next week they will actually pick up my trash from our house. All I can do is hope… again.
Off-Grid in West Virginia 
I’m am so sorry to laugh but you have the luck!!! Well hopefully the trash will get picked up! That is just amazing about verizon. I feel bad for the person who answers in Tuesday!
Yea, no voice mail either. There will be some chewing of someone come Tuesday. Those techs I talked to waisted no time telling me that the line quality out this way was especially poor and mentioned that I should expect outages whenever we do get a line.
oh man Sonny….Verzion…Trash….what next? Goodness…..ugh I feel for you. I never had this much trouble, except for trying to manufacture parts on demand (while on a ship overseas). Some freaking CDR thought all he had to do is say “I want this!”, and he would get it.
I called Verizon last Tuesday and they now say it will take up to 4 months before they can run a line out my way. I told them in 3 months I will call them back and see if the story will sound any better.
[…] I mean check out the earlier blog “My Telephone Nightmare” and the follow-up “Stood Up Again“. Be sure to bring a hanky to wipe your eyes. I only hope I can keep my frustration level […]
[…] Well it is nearly 3:00 p.m and no one has showed up yet. For anyone interested in reading about my nightmare dealing with the phone company check this out. First Contact and more on the story here at More to Come. […]