What we have here ...

What we have here …… is a failure to communicate.

There’s still a few of us old timers who can remember when the power went out on a sort of random way.  We were grateful then that we had a telephone and that it failed much less frequently.  Most of us now have, in addition to the landline phone, a mobile phone or maybe two.   We also have additional one-way communication through the telephone.

So it’s particularly disconcerting when all three go out at the same time.  In order to take advantage of certain sales we signed up for phone service, Internet connection, and cable TV all one connection.  However, they’re still different services and up ‘til now we’ve never had two services go down at once.  So I couldn’t believe it this morning when I couldn’t get any email and picked up a home phone to report the problem.  No dial tone.  Just an obnoxious noise indicating phone off hook.  A quick check verified all the phones were indeed on the hook.  I checked the TV signal on a hunch or suspicion.  Also blank.

Surprisingly, SureWest answered my trouble call and we went through an initial exam. Years of accumulated cables and outlet boxes complicated the simple instruction to  unplug the backup battery.  Although we were able to turn a warning light off we couldn’t reset the system.  She’ll send out a trouble technician – tomorrow.  “I am reviewing….the situation…”

Not 10 minutes after I finished composing this blog entry did things really begin to break loose.  Half a dozen email messages dropped into my In box.  My dial tone reappeared and I could make phone calls. Apparently a technician didn't have to come to the house to fix the problem.  

Thank you, SureWest.  Do you think you could work on a system that would catch such an error as mine and fix it before I even knew it was broken?