Well its official, we are rednecks. We just had a satellite dish put up in the front yard, right by the driveway and road. You see I have been waiting for high speed internet connection for a while and our phone company sent around a notice saying it was now available. There was this really good deal on combining phone service, high speed and satellite TV, it worked out to be less than we are now paying for the phone and dial up connection. So we said yes.
Yesterday, Sunday, the guy was supposed to arrive and put up the satellite dish between noon and 5pm. He arrived about 5:30, when it was full dark outside. Immediately he began grumbling about all the trees around the house. I apologized but no one said anything about trees being a problem when I called to order the dish. We haven’t had satellite TV in about 6 years and that dish went on the roof. The installer said his company used another satellite and the roof location wasn’t any good.
He was a tall skinny guy with a foreign accent. He said he never saw a house with so many trees around it. Really? Our house has some mature trees on the south and west but we aren’t really in the woods. I said it was ok if he couldn’t install the dish, we’d just get the internet and phone. Oh no, he said, I drove all the way out here-( another sore spot with him was that we lived so far in the boonies)- and I am going to get paid for this job.
He looked around with his flashlight and asked if he could cut some tree branches. I said sure. He proceeded to get a 20 foot extension ladder out of his truck and climb the tree with a hand saw and a light clipped to his hat. I was afraid I’d have a heart attack. The ladder was placed so that it was nearly straight up and down, and he would climb way up it - nearly to the top, hang on with one hand and saw away. Large limbs fell, some hitting the ladder on the way down. He actually bounced the ladder to move it a couple times.
I stayed out in the cold and dark watching him because I was afraid he’d fall and impale himself on the sawed off limbs below him. He acted annoyed when I would gasp or say be careful. He sawed away on two different trees for about 45 minutes. Then he came down, cut them up a little and piled them by the driveway. He was efficient, I must say.
Next he had to dig a hole for the pole, mix cement and then trench the line to the house, which wasn’t far. He had to drill a hole into the house run the wires in and hook up the TV. When he found out we had a second, old TV in the bedroom (from Steve of course) he insisted on installing a double unit and hooking that one up too. Its free he said,( it better be) and there’s no sense not using the second one. We haven’t used that TV since TV went digital.
At about ten pm he was finally ready to leave. I was exhausted. He did do an excellent neat job. I gave him a dozen of our fresh eggs and he was very appreciative. He said there was no charge for the extra work. All that work for an installation fee of $34.99. I hope he gets paid more than that. So we now have satellite TV which pleases Steve no end. And I wasted an hour or so this am watching Animal planet.
Next week the guy comes to install the computer modem. I wonder if we should plan on that taking 5 hours too?
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