The Cable Guy

Rob stays up late waiting on the cable guy.

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Hi, I'm Rob. Tale number 32. The cable guy. I had just moved into a new house in Athens, Georgia, and I called the cable company to turn on my internet and my TV. And they said they're gonna have to come out and switch something on. I said fine. And then they said, Do you need us to do anything else for you? And I was like, Well, what do you mean? And they said, Do you need any wall jacks? And actually, I did need some wall jacks. There was only one, and it was in my bedroom. And there was a cable connected to it that went into the living room, and there was a splitter attached to that cable. So I guess that's where the last person had had their TV. And then there was a cable connected to that splitter that went all the way into the second bedroom. And all these cables were like out on the floor, everywhere. They were going through doorways and stuff like that. It was sort of a mess. And I had actually tripped over this cable a couple of times since moving in. So I said, yeah, I could use some wall jacks. And I told them the situation. And they said, okay, it'll be forty dollars each for those. I said, great. And they said Josh, the technician, would be out tomorrow between 6 and 8 p.m. I thought that was pretty late, but whatever. So I told them thank you and goodbye. At around seven the next night, Josh called me and let me know it was going to be more like nine. And he knew that was really late, and he was very apologetic, and he understood if I needed to cancel, but he still wanted to come if that was okay. And I said, sure, no problem. I wanted internet, so yeah, come on. He got there around nine and very quickly turned on the internet and my cable TV. Then he said, I see here you need two wall jacks, and I showed him the situation, and he let out a deep sigh, and he was like, Okay, I can do this. I know it's a little late, but but I can do this. First he put the actual like wall plates onto my wall, so it looked like a cable jack was there. Then he said all he had to do was connect it. I was like, great. And he said, um, can you show me to your crawl space? And so I led him outside, back around my house, to this little door that was the crawl space under my house. I had never opened it before because I had just moved in. So I opened the door for him, and you know, it was dark and dank and gross. And I apologized, but he said, hey, this is what crawl spaces are like. I asked him if he needed anything else. He actually did need a flashlight, so I went and got him a flashlight, and then I went back inside and sat down and waited. Over the next hour or so I could hear drilling going on. I could hear what sounded like hammering, and then I heard his voice. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but it sounded like he was like yelling, like cussing, and then more hammering, more drilling, and then I could hear him talking again, but this time it wasn't yelling or cussing. He was having a conversation, he was on his phone. I still couldn't hear what he was saying, but it sounded like he was having a lively conversation. And I just sat there waiting and waiting and waiting, and the phone conversation kept going and going, and then it stopped, and by this time it was like eleven o'clock, and I wasn't getting like upset or anything, I felt bad, and then he started hammering again and then more cussing, and then I could hear him moving, and I heard the cross space door open, so I assumed he was almost finished, and he walked up and knocked on my door and I opened it, and he was covered in sweat. He said he was so sorry, he was having some trouble getting it done, and he wasn't finished, and he just wanted to check and make sure that it was okay, that he was still there. At that point it was around midnight. And I was like, Yeah, it's fine. Um, and I asked him if he needed any water or anything, and and he did want a glass of water, so I gave him a glass of water and he gulped it down, and then I gave him another one and he gulped it down, and then he asked me if I had any more batteries for my flashlight, and I did, so I gave him more batteries for the flashlight. And then he told me, uh, hey, if you want to, you can go to bed because you know, after I finish this in the crawl space, I need to come back inside and actually like make the final connection at the wall jacks. But since that's not in your bedroom, you know, you could go to bed, shut your door, and I'll keep working, and um I can just take care of it and I'll leave when I'm finished. And I was like, um, you know, I might do that, but I probably won't fall asleep, so don't worry about waking me up or anything like that. And if you need anything, just you know, knock on the door or you have my number, you can call me. No worries. Um, and then I asked him how long he thought it might take, and he said, he couldn't say for sure, but he thought he was about to push through and it shouldn't be too much longer. And I said, Great, and he went back down. And I went and sat on my bed. I didn't fall asleep, and I wasn't worried about him coming in and stealing or anything like that, and I wasn't against the idea of falling asleep, but I have a hard time sleeping if there's someone that I don't know wandering around my house. So I just sat there and I was reading a book. I don't even remember what book it was, but I sat there reading this book and the same cycle started up, drilling, hammering, cussing. He definitely made some more phone calls, and then there was just this like really long period of silence where I didn't hear anything. And it's getting later, like probably around 1.30 or 2 in the morning at this point, and I start to wonder if he's fallen asleep. The idea kind of grows in my mind, so I stand up, and then I hear him, again, hammering or drilling or doing something down there. So I sit back down, reading my book, and then there's another really long period of silence, like a half hour. And I'm like, what is he doing down there? I mean, it is, you know, the next day, pretty much at this point. And so I decide to go check on him, and I get up and I open my door, and I notice that his truck is gone. He's left. I walk back down to the crawl space just to make sure he's left, and I open it, and you know, I don't have my flashlight, because he had it, and I yell out to him. He's not in there, so I I walk back around to my front door, and there's a note on my front door, and it just says, Sorry, I had to leave. And I have internet, so I'm not too bummed out about it. I mean, it would be nice to have these two cable jacks, but it's not like really negatively impacting my life, so I just get in bed and fall asleep, and I'll deal with it in the morning. I wake up the next morning, um, it's light outside, so I decide to go look in the crawl space and see what's going on down there. And I open it and it's kind of a mess. I can see where he's drilled a bunch of holes, and to my surprise, like there's still a bunch of tools down there, like a toolbox, a drill. On top of the toolbox there's a book, and I walk over and I pick up the book and it's Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I had to read that book in middle school, I think. It's not really the book I expected Josh to be reading. It's like a Victorian British novel about a girl, Jane, and, you know, her struggles in life. That's a very general summary. Um it's an interesting book, I recommend it if you've never read it. But its position on Josh's tools, you know, makes me think he was reading it, and I'm just kind of baffled, and I I think back to the night before, and I'm wondering if maybe in those like really long silences, if that's what he was doing, if he was reading this book. And he had been there a long time, he was entitled to a break, so maybe that's how he took a break. It was just an unexpected item to find in the crawl space, and you know, it was also weird that he had left his tools there, and I put the book back and I I walk up to the front of my house, and and as I do, Josh's truck shows up, he's back, he's got another person with him. Josh gets out, he's very apologetic, he hands me my flashlight, he says he accidentally took it with him, and he said, Hey, I'm just gonna come clean with you. I am not good at this part of the job. Most of our work is just going and basically flipping a switch, turning on people's internet. I'm not good at the part where we have to like, you know, lay cable and things like that. I'm gonna finish this up right now. I brought my brother-in-law with me, he's really good at this stuff. He tried to walk me through it on the phone last night, but I just couldn't get it to work. I'm so sorry you had to wait all night. I would really appreciate it if you did not mention this to anyone, and we're just gonna get back to work if you don't mind. And I'm like, no problem at all. And they go down and they get it finished in like 15 minutes. And then when he was leaving, I asked him if he was reading Jane Eyre, and he said yeah. He said his daughter was reading it, and he was helping with some stuff, and he found it really interesting, so he just decided to read it for himself, and he was enjoying it. So Josh and his brother-in-law left. I had everything I needed, everything worked fine, and all was well as far as my cable went. Tiffin. I had some additional editing help from Ben Lamb. The cover art is by Marcella Johnson. She also came up with the title of the podcast. Our theme music is by Mitchell Harditch. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and at Robtellstales.com. This podcast would have not been possible without Ben, Marcella, and Melanie. Thank you, and thanks for listening.