I have found it's the little things that make us happy, don't y'all think? I'm a simple person. I'm easy to please so I tend to let things slide. I don't forget, I don't let go; I just let it slide. I will procrastinate like I always do while my frustration ferments and bubbles over like yeast for my bread. One of these days I'm gonna explode like a whale on a beach, then look out! I deal with things in my own sweet time.
One of the things that I've dealt with in my own sweet time is the inadequate internet service we've been not so lucky to have here in the suburbs. Even though most families would probably be considered middle class, we seem to be persona non grata when it comes to the finer things afforded the 'townies'.
One example is access to first responders in case of a fire or other disasters. We lived here for over five years before we were informed that our city's fire department would not come way out here to spit on a fire. We have to pay the small town's volunteer fire department located on the other side of us to come take care of any problems. We also found out not to bother with the police department. Apparently, we live (literally) on the 'wrong' side of the street, where the city limit stops, so we have to contact the sheriff. You get the picture. We're treated like the poor 'stepchildren' of the city.
But I digress. Our choices are limited to two maybe three mostly unproven start-ups, who are willing to venture out this far from town. Our last provider was adequate as long as I didn't care to stream any channels our family members and friends were always talking about. I felt like I was back in high school and missing out on all the juiciest gossip.
I hesitated to dump our provider solely on the fact that I am scared of change and hate making longterm commitments to unknowns. Will they live up to our expectations? Will they show up when I call a dozen times with a problem or will they stop answering my calls once word's gotten around that I seem to think I deserve the service I'm paying for? Will they do what they say or is there something in the fine print buried deep in the contract, along the lines of 'We'll do what we want and give you what you think you're supposed to get if we feel like it'? Everyone knows we consumers never read the fine print. I know I don't.
When we first moved into our current home, the internet company we were using in our hometown told us they'd be glad to move our service. Wonderful! I thought. Then came the catch–I'd have to agree to use the 'dial up' service. Thanks but no thanks! For you youngsters, just Google it. I can't even think about it without feeling apoplectic. Anyway, we hired a small mom-and-pop type company but I think they took on more customers than they could handle, and the next thing we knew our devices spent more time swirling than latching on. As much as we liked the people we had to make a switch. Next, we tried a well-known company that is used worldwide. They were fine–at first. I guess they decided they didn't like coming way out here to fix our problems and, I suspect, managed to keep the service so bad that one by one everyone in the neighborhood dropped them.
We switched a few more times which was very hard for me. I hate change so if you do me right I'll stay a customer for life. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as the saying goes. Boy was I wrong.
Now the neighborhood is crawling with competitive companies vying for our business which could be good or bad depending on who you end up choosing. When they're not hooking up new customers, they're busy cutting (accidentally, I'm sure) the lines of their competitors.
With the government promising every redblooded American internet access by paying companies to accommodate us non-townies we are literally bumping into a new company at every turn. A few that abandoned us years ago have returned.
I was reluctant to sign on with a new company and get burned (again) so I waited until our neighbors jumped on the proverbial bandwagon and listened to their complaints about the newest company to enter the ring.
Finally, I could take it no more.
So anyway, we found a pretty good (so far) Internet company and we are happy and lucky.