Month: September 2011

The last time I posted that on my blog someone from Time Warner contacted me and my problem was solved. I’m saying it again because there is just no getting around how deplorable their customer service is. On Monday my cable went out showing an error 13.

These are the various answers I got when I asked what an error 13 was.

– We don’t know. (A fair response, but get me to someone who does.)
– That’s not our error. (Hackers? Ghosts?)
– It’s something new. (It isn’t, I later learned.)
– That’s an error code. That made me laugh, but that person was actually nice and emailed me what it was, but by that time I had googled it and knew what it was. It means there’s a bad or weak signal to the box.

A technician came yesterday (after the time he was supposed to come, but that was pretty quick to get a technician out, I will admit). He changed out the box, it didn’t fix the problem, we went to the roof and discovered that the cable on the roof is hanging by a thread. He said “plant” would have to run a new cable. I left for choir (late) thinking the next step was getting a plant guy out to run a new cable on the roof.

I get back from choir expecting a message from Time Warner. I call and they told me that they were waiting for me to call to request them to fix the cable on the roof. What?? I call because my cable is out, and when the problem is found I’m expected to call again to request that they now fix it?? (“Hi, I’m calling to tell you my cable is out. I’ll call again when I want you to fix it.”)

This morning I get a call that went as follows:

– We can send a technician on Friday to check the signal.
– What about fixing the cut cable?
– They have to check the signal first.
– But the problem is a cut cable. A technician was here yesterday, he already checked the signal and he found the cable was cut on the roof.
– Well, he didn’t put that or the signal readings in the report so we have to send another technician out.
– Send another technician out to find the cut cable the technician already found yesterday?? Let’s just get that guy on the phone.
– I can’t do that.

I’m currently waiting for a call from her boss.

All of this said, there’s something weird about that cut cable. It wasn’t completely cut, but mostly cut and yet he still got a signal in my apartment. How can that be?

I’m leaving out so much because I’m sure this post is boring enough as it is (like the insistence on repeatedly sending signals to the box even after I’ve told them the cable is cut!). These people are just so poorly trained in general. But I feel bad because I’ve lost my temper (almost always wrong, I am a jerk) with people who even though they are not doing a good job they didn’t make the decision about what training they would and would not get, or what protocols to follow.

I want to yell at the right people.

Palms trees in New York City!

I was so looking forward to curling up on the couch last night watching don’t-have-to-think tv, when my cable box gave out. I had to think. It was HORRIBLE. How do thoughtful people do it??

Actually, I’m feeling so sick of chasing down people to fix things. Today I have to deal with fixing the cable box, trying to reach the people who fixed but didn’t actually fix my printer, the landlord about fixing the intercom, the dentist about my teeth.

I took this on Sunday, it’s one of the 9/11 families entrances to the site. The firefighter is a young man, but he is certainly old enough to remember 9/11, the little boy was probably not born yet. Oh wait, does that balloon say happy birthday? A child of one of the families born on 9/11? Christ. That pretty much sums up life—every day there’s something to mourn and something to celebrate.

Music returns to my life, thank god. We’re doing a mostly a cappella concert which will include Randall Thompson’s Peaceable Kingdom, which I love. That reminds me, I heard the Trinity Choir this weekend. Holy shit. Those people are good. They sang Bach’s O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe, which is probably very famous, but I’d never heard it before. Seriously that is one amazing choir. If you ever have the opportunity to hear them take it. After taking the opportunity to hear the Choral Society of Grace Church, of course.

This was the NYPD corralling pedestrians on Church Street. I hate when they do this. I never feel more unsafe as when I’m rounded up like this. I feel trapped and that if anything bad happens I’m screwed. I’ll get trampled before I have a chance to get out.

I’m not saying I won’t think about it or observe it in some way, but this is my last year heading downtown on 9/11. I almost don’t want to go today, but I’m part of a service and besides, I like seeing the friends I made.

I’m also hoping to catch a glimpse of the Obamas!

I took this yesterday, it’s behind St. Paul’s and in front of the World Trade Center site.

I’m so tired, I have to crash, but I just got back from the barbecue for volunteers, 1st responders and recovery workers. That’s 1 World Trade Center rising up behind the trees. I’m at the end of one of the lines for food. This is the cemetery in the back of St. Paul’s Chapel.

I’ll be back with more pictures tomorrow. Actually, probably the day after tomorrow. I’ll be tied up all day and I’ll probably come home and go right to sleep.

I just started watching 9/11 as it Happened on MSNBC, but when the second plane hit that was it for me. I decided I need to watch something as far as possible from 9/11 which turns out to be The Wedding Planner.