Where to start? Every year for the last 8 or so I have had an appointment with an ophthalmologist, named appropriately, Dr. Sharp. He checks my eyes for any signs of damage caused by the type 2 diabetes I live with. That damage is referred to as Diabetic Retinopathy . Checking for diabetic retinopathy consists of dilating the pupil and then shining a very bight into the eye so that the doctor can study the back of your eyeball looking for damage to the retina. Having a doctor look at the inside of your eyeball is much the same as having a doctor study the inside of your ear . You know what is going on but you have no idea what the doctor is is seeing. Three years ago I started going to an optometrist to have my eyes checked to see if I needed new glasses. In his examining room is an LCD monitor Last year he showed me digital images of the inside of eyeballs as he talked to me about retinopathy and other diseases and conditions of the eye. I was fascinated. This year when I went he said that he was going to take a digital image of the inside of each of my eyes so that he could have a very good look at what is going on and also as a record against which future checks can be compared. When I asked he readily agreed to email me copies of the photos so without further ado meet the inside of my right eyeball. – 
A brief geography lesson. The light coloured circle on the right side is the optic nerve and the dark lines emanating from it are veins and arteries. The really important thing about this photo is that this is the inside of MY eye. i actually got see what the optometrist got to see and when he explained what he did not see, any evidence of retinopathy I was thrilled. A large percentage of type 2 diabetics who are 15 years post diagnosis commonly show symptoms of the disease. I am no poster child for diabetes management but I do try and it seems that the trying is paying off. Two weeks after I saw the optometrist I had my annual appointment with Dr. Sharp. To my surprise and great pleasure , at the end of the appointment he announced that there was no need for me to come for an annual examination until such time as there is a change in the health of my eyes. He said to continue going to the optometrist every year that that if he noted any change he would refer me back to Dr. Sharp. Wow!
Any time I have too deal with Bell Canada, aka “The phone company” or any of its sudsiduries my blood pressure goes up. Just that first few seconds of “Emily” the annoying voice of the most satanic voice mail system ever devised is enough to drive me completely friggin’ wild. I avoid calling them like the plague. But today I had to and therein lies the reason for this particular posting.
We have had a Bell Expressvu system in our house for well over 10 years. The original receiver that we purchased back when is still in operation in our living room. It still works but is probably has the equivelant of an 8086 processor in your computer. It works but is old and slow and there are lots of new features that aren’t available on the old clunker. I have thought of buying a new one but I’m just too cheap.
Last week when we got to London we discovered that my sister had rearranged the main floor of her house and turned their family room into a mini-spa. Their giant tv now resides in the living room. The cable that connected their Bell Expreesvu satellite dish to said tv is not nearly long enough to reach said tv in its new location. My sister’s solution, cancel the satellite service and connect o Roger’s Cable. This is a workable if somewhat drastic solution. This meant that their two receivers wwere now surplus to their needs. I had a brain wave. I offered to buy the newer of the two from her for half the retail price and thereby upgrade my receiver at a good price.
We brought the receiver home on Friday and there it sat because I had to go to work Saturday and Sunday. During a phone call home Sunday mid-afternoon Val mentioned that she had connected the new receiver to our tv and it was working fine. Great. I got home last night and while surfing the channels I realized that we were getting the channels that my sister subscribed to not our usual package. This morning I set out to make the switch. I called Expressvu and after more than 35 minutes on hold I got person who said that he could help me. We were doing just fine until I gave him the serial number of the receiver and he told me that my sister had not de-activated it on her system. I wasn’t happy but now I knew. I left a voice mail for my sister asking her to call Bell and de-activate the receiver.
After supper Val was watching tv when all of a suddent here were no channels being received. Ah ha! Cathy had made the call. So I called Bell back and after a mercifully short wait I was again talking to a live person who promised to help me. We got to about the same spot in the process as this morning and he advised me that he could not activate the receiver on my system as my sister had not given her authorization. She had called and de-activated the receiver but apparently had unknowingly not taken this vital second step. I was furious and let the call centre agent know it. I told him that I had not been told if this requirement during the earlier call etc etc. He was very sorry but because of policy could do nothing for me. Now I was really pissed off and in full flight, it wasn’t very pretty and as I write this 1½ hours later I am feeling pretty juvenile. I told him in no uncertain terms that I wanted his co-worker reported to a supervisor for giving me the wrong information. The next thing I knew I was talking to a supervisor, thats a first! I told him about the long wait and the wrong information and he was very sorry but company policy etc etc etc. I finally ended the call and emailed Cathy to ask her to call Bell yet again.
A few minutes later she called to say that she had an Expressvu rep on her other phone and a few minutes later we were all three connected on a mini conference call. The person we were dealing with this time was very helpful and got everything sorted out in jig time. She also had me download the latest version of the software for the receiver. Then just as we were finishing up she told us that she would be reporting the two staff from the previous call because in fact the authorization for me to use the receiver was in the notes! Agh. My faith in the competence of Bell is re-established just a little.
Losing one’s temper is not a good thing to do. In fact it is very counter productive, I know that. I used to instruct tactical communications and and I know all about maintaining your cool. A well used and still true adage I have taught many times is “If it feels good, don’t say it”. This is particularly important when you are going to make a sarcastic or rude comment, or raise your voice in anger. To know something intellectually and then to put it into practice yourself in a stressful situation are often two very different things. This started out as a rant against the phone company and it is turning into a something totally different. In spite of the fact that thiose two workers tonight made a mistake as did the first person earlier in the day it did me absolutley no good to lose my temper. I feel like crap.
I am going to go now and turn on the tv and see if the software update is complete and we are back watching tv in the living room. But I still detest dealing with Bell and I always will.