Just a story here, no real moral or political message. I write these and then think whether I should post it -- but the wife is giving a concert with her amateur orchestra and I'm home alone, so why not.
This story begins early in the week, when my internet connection started to get flaky, slow at times, then a half hour of no service, then would work for a while. Then by Wednesday, nothing from my high speed cable provide by Time Warner. It looked like the old modem had died, so I drove the half hour to their local headquarters to swap for a new one.
There was an older lady there (old means OLD, since I'm old myself) so I let her go in front of me, and then I was next to her doing my business. She was frustrated, since she was not getting her monthly bills and getting late fees, even though she got all her bills from other companies. The woman behind the counter checked her address said it was correct and told her the problem was with the post office. I butted in, "It can't be the post office only looses her mail from Time Warner, so the address that's printed out must be wrong." I told her to put in her address again, and she told me that the women would have to bring back all her cable equipment and start over. I responded to the woman that this was absurd, and she should demand seeing a manager.
Well, it turned out fine, and I felt I had been useful, as the old lady was being pushed around. Now I'm going to experiment with fast forwarding to Thursday...more internet stoppage-- reset router-- could not restore router--got a service call- new router didn't help -- problem a defective filter up the street- how to fix the router--repair guy did it for me-hooray- but now the Dish Network got flaky-- company said I would hve to pay for service call -- me: hell no, fix the dam junky receiver that you swapped a year ago or I'm done with you -- O.K will do -- appt today a few hrs ago--
Lanky young man named Alex with a slavic-German last name. He identified problem in wiring from the dish to the receiver-- but had to go into a closet we haven't been through in five years -- pulled out junk including boxes of Matzohs -- translation unleavened bread for Jewish ceremonial purposes but also a low-fat cracker -- I commented on his being able to pronounce it -- "I should he said" Hmm I thought could this guy from Texas who lives in a red necky part of this area be a Jew, like me-- finally asked him -- Grandmother was, and mother is a missionary Jew (or something like that) and I said that's a Christian, and he said right.
Turns out his great grandmother who just died last year was really Jewish, who he was close to. His grandmother married a non Jew, but is sort of Jewish, like me (and about my age) He never did learn to appreciate Gefilte fish. We sort of became friendly and when he found the problem with the dish cord it went into the same box that held the internet cord from two days ago, so he trimmed those connections- I told him I would check that the didn't screw up the internet - which i did.
I returned from my computer and told him the internet is working fine except for one strange quirk, "When I clink a link to an article that is critical of Texas, it doesn't load." He enjoyed that, and responded with, "Yep, I put on a filter that does that."
As we were finishing up we talked about about his life and goals. He said he was thinking of either going into computers or law enforcement. I asked you mean being a cop, and he assented. I know about the county sheriffs office from some political activities and said it a good system with excellent pay, and the risk of being hurt is less than his present job. He had taken the initial test and scored in the top two percent, and gone though a few more "hoops" but when he was given sixty pages to fill out, he stopped.
I told him he should continue, its a good job, great pension, and many opportunities in mental health and other area for someone who is not prone to need to belong to a gang. I told him not to let being busy at a non rewarding job keep him from a career that could be more meaningful. And do I ever wish I had had someone tell me this when I was his age.
It was a good conversation and I told him if he is ever between assignments in the area call me for a cup of coffee. When I walked back into the house I told my wife, "Sorry I didn't discuss this with you, but I signed the papers and we adopted him." She said, "Great."