Squeaky Wheel

I so got the grease.

Don't tell me complaining doesn't do any good. I was talking to my neighbor yesterday and she said the phone company is offering DSL service on our street now. Hers was hooked up already and she was thrilled. So I came straight inside and called the phone company, and guess what? It's true.

The phone line is in Alex's name so I need him to take a picture of his government-issued ID card and E-mail it to me so I can provide them with a "photocopy" (What? It'll be a copy of a photo) of it along with his "signature" (What? It'll be his name, written at his request, just the way he would write it if he were here) on the filled-out forms. It's supposed to take two to three weeks once the forms are in, but my neighbor says hers was hooked up in 10 days. Woo hoo!

And get this - it doesn't even cost more than dialup. Not really. Dialup is $15/month for unlimited access, but local calls are not free here. (The phone company, being a government monopoly, has no reason to offer anything resembling custom calling plans.) So, at the level I'm currently using it, my "unlimited" dialup ends up costing me another $10 to $12 a month in phone usage. The DSL is a flat $28.

So okay. Lesson learned. You can expect to see a lot more bitching and moaning about things I'd like someone to do something about.

(Umm, does this mean I have to stop telling the kids not to whine at me when they have a problem with each other?)

Updated to add: Well, the Internet has put me most emphatically in my place. Crowing about getting improved Internet service by complaining about my Internet service? Yeah-huh. Couldn't even publish this post, which, you will observe, contains not a single photo.

(Kids, quit yer whining. It doesn't change anything anyway.)