Forget what I said, please!

Raven by Greg’s Mom

“I ken eat crow, but hang me if I hanker arter it.” That line from James Swan’s The Northwest Coast has been hopping around in my mind for several weeks now but, in my case (and unlike Swan’s) it’s not the literal meaning of the thought.  In fact, sadly, the crow I’ve been eating has to do with the dreaded CenturyLink.

Not long ago, I notified the first alphabetical half of my email correspondents that we were giving up our landline.  I even wrote a blog, cleverly (not!) titled “Cutting the Cord.”  We made all the arrangements – no land line but keep the broad band connection because here in glorious rural America, we have no other option.  When push came to shove, it would save us $20 a month.  BFD!  But then saving money was only part of the point we told ourselves.

It would all go into effect at the end of our billing cycle which was still several weeks off.  So, I got busy notifying folks and expressing less-than-charitable thoughts about our dealings with the telephone company and about life since deregulation and how it was easier in the olden days when Ma Bell ruled.  Then, Nyel had one of those sudden epiphanies.

“We can’t give up our landline,” he said.  “My daily CardioMEMS report goes to the UW Medical Center though our landline.  And my pacemaker…”  Duh!  And double duh!  For those in normal parts of the world, those life-saving communications go by satellite.  Not so from Oysterville.  No signal.  So, without a telephone landline, Nyel’s life could be in jeopardy.

Lily Tomlin as Ernestine

We called CenturyLink and I must say they were very nice about it all.  “No problem,” they said.  And there was no penalty or extra charge for which I was inordinately grateful.  “Why should there be?” grumbled Nyel.  “All they have to do is flip a switch or press a button.”

“Why’s a hen?” as my mother used to say. Meanwhile, I’m back to those words to live by that I apparently had forgotten for a moment or two:  Never Say Never.  Not when it comes to the phone company.

2 Responses to “Forget what I said, please!”

  1. Nancy Holden says:

    Nyel, after working all my life for the dreaded telephone company,
    it really does take more than flipping a switch to get phone service
    operating again. Believe me !!

  2. sydney says:

    In this case, though, that’s all it took according to the woman Nyel was talking to. The changeover was not to go into effect until the next billing cycke so it may be that she only had to notify another department not to proceed. OR… maybe they’ve becom more automated in recent years. Whatever happened, we are back to square one and not really happy with our second class standing because of living rural.
    BTW — Nyel says to start packing. Your house is on the market again and we’d love to have you back as our neighbors!!!

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