A John Story

After work yesterday, I had to go to Wal-Mart to get some large envelopes and baggies for my students to put their research materials in.  (Yep, paid for out of my own pocket because after I ordered Grade Master forms with my teacher allocation money, I have a whopping $1.33 left over.  Not a whole heck of a lot I can get with that.)  Anyway, it was after 4:30 before I got home.  John had gotten the grass cut and was about to do the trimming.  After he did that, I heard him crank up the push mower so he could do the part of the yard that is fenced.

While he was doing that, I sorted laundry and started a load and then sat down to watch the news and read the paper.  The picture on the TV began to do weird stuff, but I figured John had just bumped into the satellite dish.  A few minutes later, the satellite signal was completely lost.  I still didn't think anything about it and figured I'd just tell him when he came in.

A few minutes later, his cell phone rang.  I saw that it was Mark, so I took it out to John.  I waited while they talked, and then I told him about the satellite signal being lost.  Like me, he figured he'd done something when he was mowing.  So he went out to check, and I came back inside.

Weeeeeeelllllllllllllll, John actually DID do something, but it wasn't as simple as bumping the satellite. 

Before I tell you what he did, let me explain our satellite experiences.  When we first bought the house, we had cable, but it was horrible.  Every time it rained in Roanoke (where the company was based) we would lose service.  After a while, that got old, so we decided to go the satellite route.  I don't remember why, but we went with Dish first.  At the time, neither Dish nor Direct had local programming for our area, so we had to have an antenna to pick up the Birmingham and Montgomery channels.  A couple of years later, our reception with Dish was more sporadic than our cable reception had been.  We tried everything, but nothing ever worked.

John, the grump that he can be at times, got fed up and cancelled the Dish service and signed up with Direct TV.  When the installer came, we learned WHY our Dish reception had been so horrible.  That installer had spliced the cable and didn't water proof it, so over time, dirt got into the splice.  Every time it would rain, water would get in too, and there went our signal.

Another few years go by, and for whatever reason, John got fed up with Direct, so we went BACK to Direct.  By this time, Dish offered local channels out of Montgomery, anyway.  The installer came and informed me that no, we wouldn't be able to get local channels because a tree was in the way.  Of course, they cannot tell you to cut the tree.  He said he would call the expert and have him come check it out.  So, the expert came out a couple days later, and said, YES, we COULD get the local channels but the satellite needed to be mounted higher that normal so that the angle would be above the roof line.  He showed me exactly where the pole needed to be so I could show the installer.

The installer returned a couple of days later and again was insistent that it would not work, even after I showed him where the expert said the pole needed to be and told him that the expert said it needed to be mounted higher.  He said he would call the expert himself to find out.  He did, and the next thing I know, he is installing the satellite dish in the same spot I had just shown him, and when he was finished, the satellite was about 3 feet higher than they usually install them.  And we have rarely had any problems.

Until yesterday.

When John came back in, his first words were "Those idiots ran the new line to the old pole."  I was confused because I didn't know which idiots he was talking about.  Turns out that when the last Dish installer came (the one who said it wouldn't work), he connected the new Dish cable to the old Direct cable.  The cable ran from the new dish to the old pole and from the old pole to the house.  For probably five or six years now, John has been cutting grass and dealing with the cable being in his way, but yesterday, he decided to do something about it.  He cut it, therefore cutting our satellite reception.  (My reply to him when he said they were idiots was that maybe he should have checked for himself to see where the cable went.)  He was quite ill.  (I was sort of ill because I figured it would mean that I would have to miss the basketball game last night.) 

We went to eat, and then he tried to fix it.  It didn't work, but he tried, so I couldn't be mad.  I was having an allergy attack, so I wouldn't have been able to stay awake for the game anyway.

When I got home today, I asked him if he got the cable fixed.  He said he did.  I asked what he had to do.  His reply:  "I called Dish."  LOL  He called them and explained what happened, and they sent someone out to fix it the right way.  So now he can cut grass without having to worry about the cable being in his way.

I love this crazy man o' mine!

Have a GREAT day!