My internet is still out at home, and I'm connected to the world by a thin wireless tether.

 

It's now almost 48 hours since my cable went out, and I'm hanging onto the internet with a thin wireless tether.  What I mean to say is that I'm using my cell phone's data connection for my internet until the cable company fixes its equipment.

On night 1 of the outage, I called the cable company around 11 pm, and they went through some exhaustive tests on their end to find out what the problem was.  No help.  So we scheduled a service call for 11 am today.  During day 2, my next door neighbor's internet went out, and they placed a call to the cable company.  That night, I went through a form of withdrawal.  No longer could I watch my nightly dose of Perry Mason reruns, nor could I watch any of the YouTube channels from which I get solid information.  (I make sure that the channels I watch reference original source media, and not opinions on that media. In short, I don't let outlets such as Fox "News" cherry pick media clips and distort the news.)  Luckily, I kept in touch with the world via my cell phone.

This morning would begin the 3rd day of the outage, and I had the following exchange with my neighbor:

Neighbor: I think they're fixing something down stairs.

Me: Do you see their truck outside?

Neighbor: They came to our apt. It means we have to wait for a different service team to come fix the transmitter that is downstairs. The guy said probably no one in our building has Internet right now or it's very spotty because the transmission is very low. All he could do is put in a referral OSP, which is another service team. He said he marked it as critical, so hopefully it will happen quickly.
 
Me: I'm glad you got a call on this.  And yes I hope they fix it quickly.

Wonderful!!!!  When the service man comes to my apartment in 1 hour (as I'm starting this entry), I'll have to show him this text as well, so that he doesn't blame it on the wire on my side of the wall.

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The service technician came around 1 pm and checked the wire.  Seems like the cable was disconnected outside the building.  I wonder how that happened, and whether it could be connected to my neighbor's outage as well.

"Just because one is paranoid, doesn't mean that one doesn't have good reason to worry." 

Assuming that this is a benign disconnect, I'm not going to worry much.  The technician told me that the line for the 3 apartments in my group of apartments was disconnected.  Given that the ground floor apartment is vacant, that the people on the center floor are never around, that leaves me as the only one connected to the cable company's services at the moment.   Given how much our federal government has turned our national guard and other protection agencies of the government into personal "enforcement" agencies, I wonder whether they are tapping all of my communications mechanisms (with or without warrant).  Although I am probably too low on the food chain to take notice of, I could still be a target of theirs due to being a vocal TG.  

I can't bother to worry much about these jerks.  If things go sour here, I intend to be out of the country, safely ensconced in a retirement haven waiting for things to change.  As for younger people, I will give them as much help as I can while obeying the laws that the International Criminal Court would expect all "Civilians" to adhere to, and not assist in any crimes against humanity. 

 

A ghost package at USPS & billing screwups via my doctor

 

I occasionally have use of the skills I developed when I was a technology guru.  One of them is root cause analysis.  Today, I was able to diagnose the root cause of a problem and have it confirmed by my doctor's office.  But before that, I had to deal with a "Ghost Package" supposedly waiting for me at the local post office.

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When I awoke this morning, I knew that I'd have to visit the post office as Mario and show legal identification to claim a package that USPS said was waiting for me.  So, I got dressed and went to the post office at 10 am, presenting the paperwork to the lady behind the counter.  She couldn't find the package in the back, and asked me: "Did you receive it already?" I responded in the negative, and I heard her chatting with a supervisor, and then crickets for 15 minutes.  When she returned, she said it was a glitch in their computer system.  And I left with nothing to show for it.

But this got me to thinking.  Given that I often have unusual static interference when I use my cell phone to call people I know, could the regime in Washington have me on its watch list?  Could this USPS ticket have been a tool to get me out of my apartment so that they can bug my apartment?  I openly oppose the Orange Snowflake, and being TG, have honest concerns as to how far this government may go to silence opposition.  Even if I sound overly paranoid right now, I'm letting my mind explore the extremes to see if anything fits - even if I don't believe these things at the moment.

When I got home, I found an explanation of benefits from a former insurance provider.  They rightfully did not cover the lab tests my doctor requested.  In early afternoon, I receive 4 different texts from Quest Diagnostics telling me that I could pay the bill electronically, or wait for the paper bill to come. Well, I prefer receiving paper to verify that all is on the up and up.  But I knew I had to call my doctor's office while the issue was fresh in my mind (and when he was in the office).  So, around 1:30 pm, I called the doctor's receptionist and told her of the problem, and she told me that she'd update the account with Quest.  AARGH!!!!  This is what I requested be done over a month ago at my last appointment.  Hopefully, I'll be done dealing with Quest on this issue.  

I had figured that the problem with Quest was a paperwork issue coming from my doctor's office, and I was right.  But how does one communicate something simple, when one doesn't know the precise details of what goes on within a black box?  In my case, I knew that Quest defaults to insurance information provided by the doctor when each test is given.  So, the point of failure was at my doctor's office.  And once I could pinpoint the area of responsibility, the solution should be simple.  We'll see about this when I visit my doctor next month.