the better Bell battle

It will be fun to share with all of you the details of my battle with Bell - fun for me, that is, if not for you - and of course, good to let Bell know that many are along for the ride. Because otherwise, I just might spend too much time screaming at the wall.

There are hideous telephone lines running right across my backyard - the phone lines for this entire block start in my garden, for some reason, and then Rogers Cable piggybacked on them, so there's a thick wad of wires anchored by a big metal junction not far from my house. From the house, the ugly sight is partially hidden by an old lilac branch that will soon have to go - so I now want the wires moved. Bell has no legal rights here, no easement on my property. I just want the wires moved further down the yard, away from the house.

Called, got cut off twice, called again, got through to someone. After much talk, they arranged for someone to come and take a look. On the appointed day, I waited for the 3 hour window. No one came. The next day, I called back. Oh, the call must have got lost; I explain it all again. Someone else will come. A few days later, someone did - a nice young man who had no idea what to do with the wires. After standing and looking for some time, and agreeing that yes, they're very ugly, he said he'd get in touch with the engineering department, who would call. Later that day, another young man appeared, answering the same service call by mistake. He had no idea what to do either.

That was two weeks ago. In the meantime, my daughter had a baby, so I let it slide. Now I'm trying again. Yesterday, another long call to a nice woman who was very concerned. So so sorry! She would get in touch with the right department and get right back to me. That was yesterday morning.

I know, this is what Anna calls "a first world problem." I am also arguing with U of T, because I discovered, to my shock and surprise, that the marketing department has rewritten the creative writing course descriptions in the course catalogue on-line and in print. They want all the blurbs to sound the same, apparently, so have cheerfully changed the copy. I don't know about the others, but my course descriptions are not only badly written, they're both completely wrong. I have asked my boss for them to be changed, and he's not sure they can.

My hackles rise. This morning, I went to to an eye appointment, my file got lost in the shuffle, and several people with appointments after mine were taken first. Hackles. I know, first world problems. And - they affirmed, once I finally got in, that unlike my father and grandmother, I do not have glaucoma, which is the good news. However, the terrible blurbs and the hideous wires are still there. Somehow my Buddhist serenity is failing me this morning. Maybe it's the heat.

Any advice, O serene readers?