Excess Deaths

[Kellemora]

Thanks for the info on the FLASH button, it is for switching to another incoming call putting the 1st caller on hold.
Hitting the receiver button aka hang up button is how we used to SPLASH for the Operator.
But now it is used also to switch calls, same as the Flash Button, which I forgot what it was for, until you reminded me.

I do know they have a lot of fancy hearing aids out there now, and the price just keeps going up and up and up on them too.

When I worked at Sverdrup & Parcel, I got moved up to Highways and Planning, and then boosted up again to System Engineering, and after all the work I did while there they loved me for, I got demoted back to Highways and Planning, except I had a much harder job than before. They of course said it was a step up not a step back and I did get a small raise to.
My first stint in H&P was simply just doing drafting work and catching errors the engineers had made. After I caught a few real doozies the engineers should not have missed, this is when I got promoted to SE and got into the meat of some things, and where I could design also. My move back to H&P was to the design area so I guess it was a step up.
I just hated driving all the way downtown to work every day, and walking up the 9th street wind tunnel, paying for parking, the city earnings tax, and the whole nine yards.
Landed that excellent job in the county for MRTC.

[yogi]

My career at Motorola was capped somewhat by my own choosing. I started working because I couldn't make the grade, literally, while in college beforehand. I knew I couldn't deal with the rigors of engineering because my math skills were so poor. Thus I followed the Bachelor of Arts program and foreign language proved to be my demise. German in fact. If I were clever enough, or got the right counseling, I would have transferred into the business school and breezed through that curriculum easily. But I didn't, and thus dropped out into the workforce. I was told by a few people who didn't work at Motorola that I would never be able to get into anything but first tier management without a degree. I figured I didn't need to be a manager so I took the advice with a grain of salt. It proved to be true that my advance up the corporate ladder could not even begin without some kind of college degree. I did well and was at the top of my technician category for many years. Every review I was reminded that I could not expect to go further without that degree. But, the people I worked for liked me and even invented jobs that were not considered part of the department, such as the computer desktop support I did for the factory. Eventually I did get to be salaried and exempt, but without that degree I was at the bottom of the pile. Thus when hard times came and people had to be cut, I was vulnerable. I survived thirty-five years of that vulnerability, but when the company changed it's business model I had no other options but to retire or be demoted severely. They were very considerate and let me stay for more than a year to look for a job inside the company. There were bad economic times back then and no jobs were available. They offered me two years severance pay but could not guarantee how long that would be available ... so I left at the top of the bottom category. It was a bitter end but thanks to Motorola I am doing well in retirement. I got to pay my FICA for 30+ years, plus they gave me a pension and profit sharing, not to mention the two year severance.

I'm glad you confirmed my memory isn't a total loss. LOL I was only speculating about that Flash button, but apparently all the years I used it are still hidden in nonvolatile memory somewhere.

[Kellemora]

That's quite a story. I have no degrees in anything, despite the many years of college classes I did take.

Flash is handy when you are on Speakerphone, because you cannot get to the cradle buttons without picking up the receiver.

I'm having a super hard morning and afternoon here also. I was right at the point of being taken to the hospital again, but had the frau wait as I tried an inhaler med. It did the trick, but I'm still not out of the woods yet.

[yogi]

It was not the end I planned at Motorola, but I was working there in some pretty unrealistic situations. Motorola was on the bleeding edge of technology and I got to work with some highly intelligent engineers. My intention was to stay with the company all my working career and end up with 42 years of service. That was totally unrealistic for most companies and particularly not what was going on in the hyper space of electronics. Motorola was big, 120,000 people worked for them worldwide at one point. But I entered their workforce when the founder's son was still walking the factory aisles to make sure everybody was happy. That family type business is why I wasn't terminated immediately when they had to cut 40,000 people from the payroll. It was that or fold. Folding would mean I would not get pension or profit sharing or the group insurance they paid for until I was ready for Medicare. It was the family atmosphere that gave preference to folks with long term service, but there were so many of us when they had to shut down that not all of us could get a cushy job in corporate headquarters. I don't regret working for Motorola, but if my original plan could have played out, I would have left the company with slightly over $1,000,000 in my profit sharing.

I'm dismayed that you are experiencing a stressful day. I hope you can recover from your malaise quickly. Then, too, it is prudent to get help when you need it. If the hospital has super drugs that help, there is no reason to not avail yourself of that luxury. As I've said many times in the past, you're at the stage where the emphasis should be placed on comfort. It ain't going to get better, so you might as well be comfortable to the extent you can be.

[Kellemora]

I hear ya! It was intended that I take over management, and later ownership of our Cut Flower Shop, and CJ's son take over ownership of the Greenhouses, both wholesale and retail at that end. The company would be split, so the resources were no longer combined and each part of the company would have to stand on its own. But then the brothers decided to sell out completely and retire with the money they would get, which turned out wasn't much. My dad ended up with only like 85k is all, after all the taxes were paid for the sale, and for his share of the income he got personally.
If I had even the slightest inkling that our company would close down before I retired, I would have got a degree in something, so I would have a better chance at another job. But as it turned out, I never actually needed that, because I had been self-employed for years before we actually shut the place down. And doing OK at the time to.

When you are flat broke Yogi, you have to weigh the costs. My share of an ambulance ride turns out to be 138 not 60 bucks.
I've not yet got all the bills from my day in the ER, but since I was not admitted, I know I have to pay a larger share of that bill too when it comes. Now if I was admitted, my insurance would have covered all except for 60 bucks for that visit anyhow.

Due to my epilepsy attacks, I've learned to change gears many times throughout my life. One has to be content with the hand one is dealt or you'll be a miserable person. Doesn't mean I'm not scared of what is to come, but I can sure face it with a smile and have a good day everyday mentality wise.

[yogi]

The Galvin family founded Motorola. His son, Bob, took over when Paul Galvin left. Bob was an amazing person and had political connections. He lived in the same neighborhood as did several state congressmen, and was good buddies with them all. Consequently the stat4e of Illinois and many of it's municipalities favored Motorola and granted a few tax breaks along the path of it's growth. I met Bob once at a service banquet. I think it was my 20th year. He greeted me and my wife as if we were long lost friends reuniting for a party. Motorola did well under Bob's leadership mostly because he had so many political and business associates. When it came time for Bob to retire, his son Chris reluctantly took over the reins. By then a lot of the "family" atmosphere had grown thin and Chris didn't have much interest in running a business. He was expected to take over, I'm sure, plus the Galvin family had several million shares of Motorola stock in their vaults when Bob moved on. Among other things Chris had to preserve the family's interests, and I suspect that had to be a terrific burden, especially since he wasn't all that keen on running a mega-sized company. Eventually, under Chris, the company had to break up. They sold off the cellular operations and ended up back with the product line they were famous for when I hired into the company. Chris lefts shortly after I "retired" and I don't know who is running the place these days. I know you suffered a great loss with the flower business, but the Galvin family had to be mortally wounded to see it all end as it did.

I know what you are saying about being broke. There are people who must decide if they should eat or buy the medications they need. It is my firm belief that in a country as affluent as is America such situations should not exist. Most of my life in Chicago and its suburbs was conducted with the knowledge I would have a free ride to the closest emergency room should I need such a thing. That continued to be the case up to about ten years before I left town. I would be billed, $300 I believe, if I needed that kind of transport. My wife's dad needed an ambulance once when they visited and they got a bill for $600 because they were not residents. The hospital was less than 7 minutes from my house, and I'm sure the ambulance made it there in even less time. But that didn't matter. The fact that he used the service meant he had to pay for it. The county I lived in had a diverse population. Some very poor people lived there and could not afford even that minimal fee. I guess they had to make the same choices you are making now. It just isn't right for such things to be allowed to happen.

Facing an unknown future certainly is scary. I guess that's why religion is so important to many folks. There is great comfort in believing the ultimate future will be better.

[Kellemora]

I've seen several very large family owned businesses close down. But the owners themselves were left with several million dollars each they built up while the businesses were in operation.
Quite unlike us who were left with less than 100k for each of the three owners, after expenses and taxes were paid.
One uncles business went bankrupt, yet he still ended up with like 6 million he had stashed away for himself over the years. Plus he had several insurance policies he bought for his mom and dad, so when they died, he got like just under a million from each of them. He insured himself and his wife, plus all their kids as well, but he won't see any of that money.

When I lived in St. Louis County, ambulance service was free. Down here, my insurance is supposed to pick up some of it, but they have this annual deductible you must meet first, which I have not met yet.
Here's another kicker, the medications I need to use after my eye operation is over 85 bucks, not covered at all by my drug plan, because I've not yet met that deductible either, and even if I had, it would still not be covered because it is not in their formulary.

The wife and I supposedly make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid folks get FREE 4g Schmartz-Fonz, with unlimited data, text, and a few other things, like free medications. Some even get totally free housing, or super low cost housing. The sad thing is, most of them make double the amount of money I get from SS, and they all drive the newest cars too. They gotta be selling drugs on the side and not getting caught to afford the things they all have.

I doubt Christ was a hoaxter! Too much evidence to prove He was telling the truth.
But I would rather believe and follow Him and be wrong, than to not follow Him and find out He was right!

[yogi]

You are currently living the examples they use to justify the existence of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits. Those programs exist because some politician convinced his buddies that nobody should have to choose between eating and getting healthcare. I'm not trying to be political, but, that argument typically came from the Democrat side of the congressional aisle. Today, and for many years prior, I've heard much talk from the Republican side of the aisle regarding Big Government and how it is necessary to cut expenses. I won't get into how they had no problems increasing the national debt by record numbers but they are today advocating cutting back and/or eliminating Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits. It's not the ideas they are against, but supposedly the cost to the government is the objection. Thus, if they succeed in their wishes those costs will be passed on to the consumer, people like you and me. If you can't afford the healthcare you need now with the government paying for much of it, jut think of how it will be if the feds stop support altogether.

At its current pace, Medicare's Hospital Insurance trust fund will run out of money in 2028, Today's congress, the House of Representatives in particular which controls funding of government programs, is set against any extension of that Medicare funding. They may compromise and only cut 50%, but the R's that I've heard voice an opinion are not pushing that idea very much. They insist passing all the costs onto the consumer is much better. If it was just a matter of political debate, I'd not be overly concerned about it. But I personally know people who are suffering from a lack of healthcare and medication because they chose to eat instead. I can't tell you how dispiriting that is.

I doubt Christ was who the Bible claims he was. Regardless, when my time comes to exit, my consciousness will fade to black and that will be the end of it. It won't matter who is right or wrong.

[Kellemora]

It won't stop instantly. They will still have to cover all those who paid into the system. Just not accept any new people into the system, and let them get theirs through privatized sources. SS had so much excess money, it was impossible for it to run out.
As far as Medicare goes, they allow themselves to be ripped off big time. Their own stupid rules were designed to put big bucks in certain peoples pockets, and therein lies the problem with Medicare.
I've mentioned this before, Medicare will not pay 29.95 (the retail price) for a Nebulizer, but will Gladly Pay a service company 56 bucks a month to rent one out to a client for one year. In other words, Medicare pays over 650 bucks for 30 dollar machine. Only to line someones pockets!

The government can afford to leave BILLIONS of Dollars of our equipment in the hands of our enemies, rather than bring it back home. They also give BILLIONS to other countries for things we need here, like border control. In other words, they WASTE MONEY like it was water, then make the home folks suffer because of it.

What if you are wrong, and you end up in that black hole of non-existence. Well I guess then you won't know what happened to the rest of us.

[yogi]

I wholeheartedly agree with you about the waste in government spending. It's across the board and not only a matter of concern in Medicare. The military, for example, pays ten times what an item is worth in spite of the fact that its quality is not ten times greater. The nature of politics is based on the "good ol' boy" philosophy. You do me a favor, and I will return the same to you. When you think about it clearly there isn't a better way to resolve polar opposites than to compromise. The problem is that some people get greedy when they know compromises must be made. What was once considered an honor to serve the people of this country has literally vanished from the dialogue. Values, like so many other things in life, change over time. The current political scene was what people valued when those representatives were growing up two or three generations ago. New values are emerging as we speak here, but unfortunately they seem to be from the days of Al Capone.

The funding for Medicare runs out in 2028. I intend to be around longer than that. Thus I will be short changed and out of luck if I can't afford to buy my own private insurance at that time - a time in my life with the risk factors are sky high as would be the premiums. The truth in the matter is that Medicare is not using money I paid into the system to pay out the benefits. Medicare is an insurance policy that pays out from a pool of money collected from CURRENT premium payers and investments. The budget they want to cut is money yet to be spent, not money that has been put away for my personal use.

I am at the point in my life where I understand that neither you nor I are wrong about what comes next. We are both comfortable with our personal beliefs, which is the point of believing in anything in the first place. So who is right? We both are, of course.

[Kellemora]

I agree wholeheartedly with your first paragraph!

I don't see how Medicare, or SS for that matter, can run out. SS alone was trillions of dollars ahead of the game.
Just because the Feds took the money out and wasted it, doesn't mean they don't owe it back.
Medicare is a different matter, they were paying out big time, before they had any income from FICA, so it has always been in the hole, just like SS was when it first started.
I do know the government is behind the BIG PUSH toward the Advantage Plan, because that is private insurers who handle it, and they make it look GREAT right now, but it really isn't, in fact, it is a horrible option. Just look up what they don't pay!

There are tons of bibles out there, and none of them read like the original scrolls, this much I do know.
The main bible is currently the KJV, which was totally rewritten in 1769 to include the newly invented letter "J" which is not found in the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic languages. So does John, Joseph, Jesus, Jeramiah, Job, etc. even exist?

[yogi]

My earlier comment about funding running out in 2028 was in regard to Medicare not about Social Security benefits, albeit they both operate roughly the same way. Premiums are collected from your paycheck or your SSA benefits. Those premiums are not enough to cover the claims that must be paid out. You are correct to cite a multi-billion dollar pool of cash that is used to pay current claims, but that pool is constantly being diminished because the premiums do not cover the costs.

The cash pool for Social Security benefits was at one time not part of the federal budget, and as such untouchable. Well, that changed because the lovely folks in congress were at a standoff when there wasn't enough money for general expenses and nobody was willing to increase the national debt to fix that problem. Thus the SSA pool of money became collateral against the loan needed to meet other public debts. They never went back to the original plan because just about every year the R's and the D's can't agree on a budget. Thus it got to the point that unless some concessions were made the government would have to shut down. The greater problem with that situation is that we would not be able to pay the interest on the bonds we issued - that has global repercussions. You don't have to believe any of this, but keep your eye on the news of current events this year. There will be a time when the government will be facing a shutdown and a default on its loans. One side of the House of Reps says that's OK, while the other side points to a potential collapse of the entire financial system. It will be a reiteration of what I just described.

I know about the many versions of the Bible and the power structure behind them. In my view the Bible is not a valid reference that can be used to explain the world we live in. At best, some parts of the Bible are instructional to people that lived 2000 years (or more) ago. The rest is filled with fables and what I would call fairy tales. To me that's not a realistic way to explain the world I live in. Then again, trying to explain it is is THE problem. There is no explanation. We just exist. Period.

[Kellemora]

Banks are going bankrupt as we speak.

If you look at the salary, especially the pensions of former and present poly-TICK-ians, you would see where a very high percentage of our money is going. I can't say this for certain, but the way I understand it, a poly-TICK-ian gets his pension started after each term in office. So those who have been in for many terms are getting a phenomenal amount of money since their pension builds from each term. I've never been able to find out if this is true or not, but it seems logical the way they work up there in DC.

I used to know a school teacher, long time dead now. Who made like 6 times more than any other school teacher. Back then they were vested after only 5 years. Once vested, their pension is locked in, and they don't have to continue working there.
After she was vested, she claimed her husband took a job in a different city and they had to move out of the district. She took a job as a teacher in the new district and stayed there until she was vested, and her pension was locked in there too. After 30 years of moving every 5 years to a new district, she built up 6 times the normal pensions amount. So when she did retire, she had a lot of money coming in as her retirement income.
I also knew a nurse who did almost the same thing, but only 3 times. And I think it took 8 years to get vested.

Some say we are descendants of aliens and planet earth may have one time been like a penal colony, hi hi.

[yogi]

Banks are going bankrupt as we speak.

Which is the result of the previous president removing a ton of bank regulations. We are now witnessing the brilliance of that move.

My daughter is a school teacher and has worked in a few districts. Each teachers' union has their own rules about tenure and pension; at least that is the way it is in Illinois. The pension she will get is based on length of service. Thus district hopping once you are tenured gets you the minimum pension from each district. It so happens that after something like twenty years of service she will be receiving a pension equal to her current salary. Each year after that adds to it. I don't know the exact numbers but she could easily double her salary as a pension should she work there thirty years or more. Skipping about to collect more than one pension would not equal what she could get by staying in one district her entire career.

I know a couple guys who were career military people, which means they served twenty years or more. That entitled them to a decent pension. They then got a job with the postal system and worked another twenty years to collect a second pension. It would be possible to retire with two pensions at the age of 58. I have no idea if that was worth the effort or not, but it was a popular idea many years ago.

It's not exactly as you speculated, but some things you point out are close when talking about congressmen pensions.

• Good day! How may I help you?
  Explain to me how federal congressmen earn pension pay
  
  Federal congressmen earn pension pay in a similar manner to other federal employees. Like other federal employees, they contribute to their pension plan through a combination of employee and employer contributions.
  
  The pension plan for Members of Congress is known as the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).
  
  Under this plan, Members of Congress are eligible for retirement benefits after 5 years of service. The amount of the retirement benefit is calculated based on the Member's length of service and their highest three years of salary. Members of Congress can also participate in a separate retirement plan known as the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).
  
  Additionally,
  Members of Congress are eligible for other benefits, such as health insurance and life insurance, during and after their time in office. It is important to note that there have been changes to the pension system for Members of Congress over the years, including an increase in the amount that they contribute to their retirement plans, but they still participate in a pension system that is similar to other federal employees.

[Kellemora]

Interesting stuff to know.

I'm having a bad day here, not healthwise, but AT&T wise.
My wife decided to change from Comcast to AT&T Fiber.
The assistant installer was nice, but he CUT the LAN cable to my office in half.
I told him to use the cable from the old camera down there, which is a black USB cable.
So, he had to repair that cable by adding a splice to it, which as you know cuts out 1db of signal.

After all was said and done, we had no working telephone, no working TV, and I still do not have a working phone in my office.
The main installer was not the brightest bulb on the tree either. He had no idea what a LAN switch was, and said that is why we have no connection to the internet.
Now you know as well as I do, if you sit down at a computer and open pages you've opened before, you get that page from your own computers cache. So, because the Google screen came up, he said the internet is working just fine.
He tried accessing a couple of sites he usually does to check the speed and they timed out waiting for a connection.
I opened one of my pages that I've been to before and it came up just fine, but that was because it was in the cache.
Now for the strange thing, I opened Farcebook and scrolled around on it and it worked just fine, but NOT if you clicked on something that took you to a different page. He said the problem was the computer, the network was fine.
He picked up his tools to leave, and I said you can't leave, we have no Internet and no Phone, and no TV.
He said he's already been there longer than he's allowed and stormed out the door and left.

They had to do some work down in my dug-out crawl space, so they could stand up A-OK which made their job easier.
I managed to get the telephone in the kitchen working, but on the wrong twisted pair. But the phone in my office does not work in either Line One or Line Two jack, so I'll bet you they managed to cut my phone wire in the basement and only put the red and green pair of wires back together again, which is Line one, but not the wire that runs up to my office.

I was just about ready to reinstall my Comcast Cable, the Motorola Modem, and my Router. But Debi wanted me to have a bite to eat first, just a short quick sandwich at least.
After I had the sandwich, I went back to her office and changed some of the LAN wires around.
Tried a test on her computer and finally had her up and running.
Came up to my office and nothing up here as far as an Internet connection yet.
Went back down to the house and moved the LAN cable I know that goes up here down to hole #1, moved Debi's to hole #2, the LAN switch to hole #3 and her printer to hole #4. Everything down there was working, even the phone, but as I said on the wrong line, it is now working on Line 1, but not on Line 2, which is OK because Line 2 is no longer used anyhow. Not with the new single line Ooma box.
Get back up to my office and I finally have internet up here, yay.

The bad thing is, the Fiber Optic download speed is only 94.8, my cable was 88.6 - The big difference is Upload, 96 upload, cable was only around 14 upload. But I don't upload hardly anything, hi hi.

As far as the speed goes, I don't see a difference between cable and fiber optics on downloads.

[yogi]

I don't know which is worse, head problems or no Internet access.

I will guess that your house was being wired up to a fiber optic network run by AT&T. They laid a lot of fiber around O"Fallon last year and St Charles has a new Internet Service Provider that is supposed to compete with Spectrum. That new service, however, is coming in at 1 GHz which can be had from Spectrum as well for nearly the same price. I honestly don't know if all this high speed Internet is making use of that new cable because an optical network can do much better than 1 GHz.

In any case the fiber connection should help reduce losses, but only with broadcasts over the fiber wires. A typical installation sees the fiber end at the juncti0on box coming into the house. Most people don't have fiber wires inside their house to compliment the wires outside. Thus the advantages of fiber are greatly reduced. The optimal network would be fiber from the source to the device, meaning that the modem and router must also have fiber switching capability. Then the Ethernet port on your devices should likewise accommodate fiber optics directly. That's a lot of expensive upgrading that most people don't do. About all I can add is some reassurance that each hardware connector does indeed create some loss. The fewer you have the better it is.

[Kellemora]

Fiber Optic seems like it works similar to DSL in the fact that the more people who are on at a given moment use up some of the bandwidth so it slows down. Today I've had a high of 104 mbps and a low of 92 mbps on downloads. Fast.com shows me at 94 mbps, and SpeedTest.net at 92 mbps, while Comcast was normally between 75 and 88 mbps.

With all the headaches it has caused us so far, I don't think I like the switch.
However, Comcast kept going up and up and up, and AT&T along with DirecTV over Fiber is 40 bucks a month less than she was paying, so she's happy with the price reduction.

Fiber optics is not susceptible to stray RF noise like LAN cables or Coax.

[yogi]

Fiber optics is indeed more secure in that it does not radiate electromagnetic energy. It's all done with light beams. That's not only great because it reduces possible interference, but it also makes it more difficult for the bad actors who can steal your data simply by parking their car nearby. In a sense optical networks are like DSL in that they have a finite amount of bandwidth. Unlike DSL the bandwidth is phenomenally large. My buddy Google sheds some light on it:

Each channel carries 100 Gbps and 192 channels per fiber pair, translating to 19.2 terabits per second capacity per pair. Because the channels are physically distinct and don't interfere with each other due to light properties, each channel can use different data formats and transmit at different data rates.

And, just for comparison:

The download speed range for DSL internet is one to ten megabits per second. For cable, it's five to 50 megabits per second. For fiber, it's 250 to 1,000 megabits per second.

Google is pretty smart, but I have cable here from Spectrum and was doing a lot of (Linux and Microsoft) downloads this morning. My router, with the sniffer, was seeing 120 mbps for most of the downloads. That's more than twice what Google thinks cable wires can do. So you can take the numbers with a grain of salt, but they are relatively correct. Fiber optics wins by a broad, very broad, margin.

[Kellemora]

Well, apparently AT&T is throttling their connections.
My son tried them around 3 months and went back to cable, because the cable was faster.

Did I tell you the installers first cut my LAN cable to the garage, the guy did fix it.
But somehow they managed to get their fiber optic cable twisted around the shut off valve for my water main shut-off.
Also, my phone in the office does not work, so I think while pulling their cable, it got twisty and they just yanked it or something which pulled a phone wire loose.
I tried going down to fix it, but only made it as far as the door, and seated there, all I could see was some of the things they damaged while down there. Installation Idiots! Albeit, the assistant was OK, but his boss was a nightmare.
He left with our Internet not up and running and my office phone not working.
He said the Internet is up, and in a way it was, but not getting to our computers.

[yogi]

When Spectrum laid down their cables for me they had something like a Ditch Witch. It cut a very thin groove into the sod into which they dropped their cable. They didn't seem too concerned about the irrigation system, which probably was due to the fact that the cable was not down very deep. It would indeed be very easy to cut a hidden wire that way, but in my case there were no previous wires to the house other than the electric. The house builder installed a cable panel next to the electric breaker box wherein the terminations for all the cables going to the separate rooms converged. All the cable guy did was install a splitter to the appropriate wires which took all of ten minutes to do. Since the phone, Internet, and television all ride on the same cable that simplifies the wiring. It's not fiber, however. I'm not complaining yet, but I can see a time when I will be wanting to upgrade.

I can't make excuses for the installers that broke your connections, but in my way of thinking they are responsible for getting you back to where you were before they came in. As you must know it's just a matter of talking to the right people at AT&T. Once somebody at the top gets the picture, problems tend to get solved rather rapidly. Alternately you might find some cable guy in the neighborhood who might be willing to fix things as a side job. When your choice of service providers is limited it puts you between a rock and a hard spot. That's the time you call in the crews with sledgehammers.