This post is here to alert you that this web site will hopefully* be offline next Monday, January 19th. I have an appointment scheduled for that day for Verizon to install FiOS at our home. This means that our internet connection will go down at some point during the day as I switch from Comcast High-Speed Cable to Verizon FiOS. If all goes well, I hope to have everything back up and running that day, but I won’t be surprised if the switchover takes more time for me to sort out, especially as concerns this web server.

* I remain mildly pessimistic about the chances of actually having FiOS installed next Monday. See, last February Verizon salesmen went door-knocking in our neighborhood to let us know that FiOS was available and asking residents to sign up for an installation. Since all three services – TV, phone, and internet – were now available, I excitedly signed up as I’ve been waiting to switch to FiOS since it first came out. So I signed up for the first available Saturday appointment – some two-plus months later in late April – and then waited for the day to arrive. On that day in April, 2008, I was all set to greet the installation technician and have super-fast internet and much better TV service by the end of the day. My appointment was scheduled for between 8:00 AM and Noon. At 9:45 an email arrived in my inbox informing me that my appointment had been canceled; I should call a 1-800 number to reschedule so I can begin the countdown to the exciting world of FiOS, to paraphrase while nearly quoting verbatim. Suffice it to say, I felt a bit let down. They couldn’t even call me to tell me they’d canceled the appointment. They emailed me. On the day my internet service was supposed to be changing. Thanks, guys. After several calls and much time on hold, I spoke to several representatives who absolutely could not tell me why the appointment was canceled. My best guess is that the day was overbooked and the technicians were allowed to cancel those appointments that were less convenient for them. A few days later they told me that it was canceled because there was a problem in preparing my house for FiOS phone service, whatever that means. I didn’t care, I’d given up and decided not to reschedule, at least until after the first wave of massive sign-ups had subsided.

Now it’s nearly a year later and Comcast is raising their rates yet again, so I’m giving FiOS another try. Hear me now, Verizon, miss this appointment and you’ve lost me and anyone I can convince for good. [insert picture of over-confident nerd laughing maniacally here].

I’ll follow up to this post with details of how it went sometime next week.

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