A Most Appreciated Person

Last evening, I discovered the identity of one of the most appreciated people with whom I have met during the past few weeks.

It was the Verizon repair technician!

Being back from vacation for 48 hours in a house without TV, internet, or phone is frustrating. Boring. 

I felt cut-off even though I could still both talk to people and access the internet via my cell phone. The lack of TV for news and entertainment was distressing. Maybe it would not have been so difficult had the pool been in swimmable shape, but even that is still recovering from the vacation. 

It was eerie to ask Alexa for something and hearing the response that there was no internet connection. Come on, all I wanted were the lights turned on! I wasn't asking for the news or the weather.

Having the time display return to the cable box was the first indication of success. From there, it was all good as the wireless devices around the house began to "wake-up." A few needed to be manually rebooted, but for the most part the restoration of internet and TV service happened automatically. 

We even received a phone call on the landline last evening in a final confirmation of the success of the repair.

I was vindicated in my assessment that the problem lay outside of the home in the external equipment. In fact, the technician reported that the jumpers providing service to my house had been disconnected up the street in the main service box. I wondered about how that happened and the technician postulated that they may have accidentally disconnected during another repair. 

At last service is restored! Life, post-vacation, can begin to resume some sense of normalcy. I can begin to process some of the images from the vacation. At last count the family had shared 637 images from our week together!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD