From Wednesday, Feb. 1, thru Saturday, Feb. 4, I had zero cable TV or Internet. Austin had a freeze on Tuesday night that extended into Wednesday; my electricity was out thru 1pm on Wednesday---which I understand contributed to why Spectrum cable was also out thru 1pm on Wednesday. At that time, I got a text from Spectrum that cable/Internet would be restored by 4pm Wednesday. It was not. Despite the fact that there were no more freezing temperatures in Austin after that. After that one text from Spectrum, I heard nothing else.
I called Spectrum on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Asked to speak to representatives. Tried to be, and was, polite to the poor suckers who had to take such calls. (Each time: "Please tell your higher-ups that it's not cool to not tell customers when service might be restored. And Austin hasn't had freezing weather since Wednesday---why is the cable/Internet still out?")
Four whole days without cable or Internet was the first time I'd been without such since I moved into my current apartment back in 2017, and Spectrum sent a series of incompetent idiots to hook up my service, which ended up not being on for about 2 days after I moved in. I thought THAT was bad! (I was also enlightened during that time to how insanely left-wing NPR Radio was! When I'd previously only listened to them for 15 mins or so in the car, they seemed perfectly rational...)
This time in 2023: First and foremost is the inability of Spectrum to contact their customers to give updates on progress for service restoration. Again: I completely understand why service was off during the freeze (which ended Wednesday). But why then did it take another 4 days (during non-freezing weather) to get service restored? And why no updates to customers?
As for my personal habits: As was first made painfully clear to me back in 2017, I am utterly addicted to cable TV and the Internet. (Well, also: Since I've worked from home since 2020, I absolutely need the Internet for work, though there was a workaround with a smart-phone hotspot---much slower access to files, though.)
As for personal use: I just like having the TV on. I live alone, and I like having news stations or "On Patrol Live" or TCM or sports on low in the background, either while I work from home during the day, or while I try to go to sleep at night. I lived out in the country as a kid, and that was fine for going to sleep in utter silence because everyone else around you was asleep at the same time. But in the middle of this apartment complex in Austin in 2023? I need some white noise. And, frankly, I also need some thought-blockers! The natural psychedelia that goes on in my mind in utter silence at the end of the night isn't as charming or interesting as it once was when I was 15 or so! (p.s. That's one reason that I've never taken LSD, despite the left-over rock-press hype from the '60s when I was growing up in the '80s---I absolutely do NOT need any more of that!)
Soooo, the last 4 days: Rather than just filling the silence with music (which is hard to work and think to), I had to have some low-key visuals and talking in the background, so started putting in some of my DVD collection that I hadn't yet watched. During the workdays last week, had on various films from my 9-disc "Busby Berkeley" collection, which was good for that. And stuff like "42nd Street" was also good to go to sleep to the first two nights. And then I tried to just read myself to sleep in silence, like in the olden days---that was an OK experiment for one night. And then on Saturday evening and night, sans any work or any other stimulation for the whole day, had on DVD docs for The Knack and Lizzie Borden and Tammy Wynette videos and a "Hee-Haw" episode (featuring George Jones and Tammy Wynette) and then, finally, a 4-hour PBS doc on Andy Warhol that took me to sleep. When I woke up today, Sunday, at 6am, the cable/Internet was finally working, thank god!
Now, I do have some DVD sets of Bergman and Fellini and Cocteau films that I could have started working thru from the beginning... But I didn't want to do so while so utterly uptight at not having cable! I want to watch those in leisure, in a calm frame of mind!
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