Tech support

I have been getting warnings from my cable TV provider in the form of offers for "improved" service at reduced prices.  I figured out after ignoring these things for a while that what they really mean is that they are getting ready to discontinue the signal that I have been purchasing in order to upgrade the entire system to something else with it being my assumption that they will make more money on the something else.  I resisted but the most recent missive said that one of my cable boxes was soon going to not be able to operate.

I went over to the storefront and made arrangements.  They gave me two new boxes and two new remotes.  The remotes are "voice" remotes.  Sounds spooky to me.

Anyway I got it all home, got the wires reconnected in appropriate configurations and one of the TVs doesn't work at all,  all I get is an error message.  I called, they are sending out a man on Sunday morning.  I have no signal at all on that TV until at least then.

The other one sorta works but the remote doesn't turn the thing on or off or adjust volume or change station.  I can get other stations by going to the "guide" and scrolling through until I come to the station I want and then "select" but this seems vaguely reminiscent of circa 1960 jumping up to twist the dial to one of the other two stations that we received at that time.

The nice lady on the help line said that there was an issue with some work we had done last fall that involved replacement of our line into the house.  The new line hasn't been buried yet and she says the tech who does the burying has to make some adjustment after that before we can receive the "X1 platform".

The reason why I bring this up on a bicycle blog is all of this cable TV hassle meant I spent an inordinate amount of time today sitting in front of one or the other of our two cable connected TVs waiting for results and not getting them.

*sigh*

I need tech support.

After the first attempted installation had so magnificently failed I postponed action on the second, fearing another multi-hour episode and instead went for a bicycle ride.

It was 68 when I got home.

So THAT was a good choice.

Here I am at the Saint Paul/Falcon Heights city boundary.  I stopped to notice that Saint Paul in that part of town still has those nice old street lamps.

I am on Albert Street there and after proceeding a couple of blocks into Falcon Heights I was rewarded with the view I was expecting to find, the somewhat less picturesque fixture deployed by Falcon Heights to provide night time illumination.

After arriving at home I was amazed to discover that I can actually receive programming on the second cable box.  That should be good but alas it appears that I have no control over either of the remotes.  This seems so weird in that there just shouldn't be anything about the cable installation that should stop the remote that came with the TV from turning that device on and/or off.

The good news though is that I am fairly confident that the company tech will be able to render all of this operable and my monthly cable bill will, in fact, be quite a bit reduced.

Stay tuned.