My FIOS Install Day
My FIOS install day.
When I woke up early this morning at 7:30am I thought I was going to have a Verizon dude at my door knocking at 8am on the dot. My window of service was 8am to 12noon (so maybe I was being a little optimistic). I took the day off from work because this was the day that I was given as one of my choices of install day. So I just took it and decided ok let’s just get this over with and installed. I wake up at 7:30am… er… 7:40am… I hit snooze. I got a bowl of cereal and sat on my couch and surveyed the mess. It made me think of those signs you sometimes see in touristy shops. You know the ones that say “Bless This Mess” and there’s a little home with stuff strewn about.
Yep those are the ones I’m talking about.
Well, 8am hits. I decided to read for a little. I was going to shower but I didn’t want to miss the phone call for Verizon! They could be here ANY MINUTE! At 8:30 I decided to start working on organizing things. I put away my clothing. I put away boxes and bins into neat little places and closets. I have 3 closets in my apartment. So that’s pretty sweet. And all 3 of them are basically as big each as my closet was at home! I feel like I can really actually stretch out here and not just be all my stuff inside of one tiny room.
I’m really enjoying having my own space entirely to myself. It’s pretty amazing. I really am very happy with my decision to move here. It’s just all so awesome. Not that living at home wasn’t bad, but well… sometimes you gotta get your own place to really feel all grown up. Ya know?
OK so I started cleaning messes. At about 9:30am I was finished a good part of my living room. I decided next to setup my drumset. I got to work on finding all the pieces for it and putting it back together. This took a good half hour. I actually put it together slightly different than how I had it before and so of course I had to test it out. Well, what can I say? I love the new way it’s setup! It’s sooo much easier to play! So of course what did I end up doing for nearly an hour? I’ll give you a hint… it starts with the letter D and rhymes with rum but add an s. Well I COMPLETELY forgot about the FIOS install entirely!
It’s now 11am. I ran over to my phone franticly thinking he had been trying to call and I missed my setup time!
No missed calls.
Where is he!?!??!!
I decided to make some tea. Then I decided to take out the recycling and trash I had accumulated this far. I took out the trash first and walked by a picnic bench in the back. There were some younger folk who probably are about my age or maybe in college who were all chillin back there talking and reading and such. I said hello and they said hello… then I went back a second time past them to take the recycling out… more hello agains. I’m starting to meet the peoples in my apartment! They seem pretty friendly so far!
So I do that and it’s now about 11:15. So now I’m starting to wonder. I call the automated lady who tells me my setup is still scheduled for today. I decided to play some guitar, read some more clean some more tweet some more. I vacuumed my apartment to try and stay on top of the already little bits of dirt and such starting to show. It’s now just about 12. No FIOS dude. OK seriously? I’m worried now. So I call and push 20 different combinations of numbers and yes and no’s and answer a thousand questions to this automated lady finally, I get a person. They pass me off to another person. He says he’ll look into it. I’m on hold for 20 minutes. He says “the installer is out sick, so they are trying to find someone to take yours on as overtime.” I say “ok”. He says “It will get done today… I’ll put you in for 1-5pm install.”
Time passes… I unpack more organize more, make lunch. I start working on the vocal tracks for my Comedymation animation thing. I finish the vocal tracks. I read more.
Finally at 4:15 the phone rings and the guy says he’ll be right here…
5:15… he shows up… he had to drive from Jersey. I’m just sorta like eh, at least he’s here so as long as I get my internets I don’t care about how long it took.
On a side note I know how it is though to probably have tons of bookings and try to get from one thing to another and each job is different and sometimes you can get hung up for hours on one thing. So I don’t mind. I know they work hard and I know that they probably have way more workload then they can handle. He starts doing his thing and I just kinda hang out… Then I hear under his breath…
“now where the heck does that even go??”
This can’t be good.
He goes out into the hallway then looks in ceiling tiles then goes around outside then comes back and says to me:
“SO this install shouldn’t take long, should pretty easy, if I could just find the termination box… you know where that is?”
I look at him with my mouth probably hanging open going “the what?”
He just stares back and says “shit”.
Umm… what?
Then he says, hold up let me call my buddy who might know something…
This is sounding shady. So he calls his buddy and his buddy says it’s in the back stairwell. We run around looking in all the stairwells… nothing.
I call the landlord and he says it should be in the basement behind the yoga place. We make our way past all the yoga peoples…
We get to the back and the Verizon guy looks around and then hmm’s and ha’s… that’s not it either.
Uh oh. He kinds looks at me and asks if I have any ideas? I shrug. He shrugs.
This can’t be a good sign.
Then I think well at least it’s just internet we’re talking about and not surgery. If I ever need surgery and the dr asks me where something is and then shrugs when we both can’t find it… I’ll be a little worried.
We call the landlord again. He comes out to help us find this thing. The only thing he can think of is the fire escape. OF COURSE… because where ELSE would you put fiber optics boxes but in the fire escape??!?!
Low and behold…
There it is. It’s now 6:30pm. Time to get to work.
So an hour later I’m about 3/4s of the way hooked up. Then, I go into the kitchen to make some food… I offer the guy something to drink and he accepts (he just wanted water… nothing fancy). We talk some more… turns out he actually has a degree in engineering… but he can make more money as a FIOS tech than he can working as an engineer… really? I guess in this job market who knows. He’s super knowledgeable in music as well. We talk about his brother who’s trying to make it in NYC as a musician and producer. Then I go back to finish making food and I hear him saying something… I say what?
And walk back to the hallway… he’s says… “Ok baby, let me just finish this up here.”
Did he just call me baby? Oh… right, Bluetooth. He’s on the phone with his wife…
He hangs up and we talk about families and such. He just keeps saying I got the perfect setup right here. I thought he meant it was setup but he was talking about my apartment and where I’m living. His phone rings again and he talks some more… It seemed important but he was trying to get off the phone to finish the work. I said if you need to you can go talk and come back and finish if that’s allowed? It sounded like something was happening that he needed to address and I mean family should come first over work. So I went and read and he went and made a phone call.
30 minutes pass and I’m thinking he left… he comes back into the apartment and apologizes and just says “kids man. And ladies, ladies rule the world. Keep that in mind.”
Ladies rule the world… ok… got it.
He finishes up setting everything up. By the time EVERYTHING is done it’s 8:30.
Yep. That was my FIOS install experience.
I FINALLY shower. Then I go and get gas for my car… hit up the Beer Yard… put the beer in the freezer, walk over to wawa… come back eat… sign up for my Verizon.net email and activate all that… look at the papers I got… open my now chilled beer…
And start blogging. And here we are.
So now that I’ve got FIOS setup I’m trying to decide between Roku or Apple TV for my streaming player. I’m going to sign up for a Netflix account. Of course I also need to purchase myself one of those fancy pantsy flat panel tv’s too.
What a day.
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