Wednesday's Words for August 20, 2014

The saga of the Ashbury’s quest for television repair continues. The bad news is we that are still without our television. The good news is, the part that was needed to fix the thing is in the hands of the tech, and has been since last Friday...when the service desk called to give us the earliest possible appointment for said tech to come with the part in hand. That date? This coming Friday, August 22nd.

To recap, our television went on the blink on July 27th. We called the service center that very day, and we received the earliest possible appointment for the tech to come came out to our house which was... Friday August 1. Of course, it turned out that a part had to be ordered. The tech had told us it would take a week. It took two.

I was very polite when the young woman called us last Friday. After she announced (in a tone of voice that suggested I was most fortunate to receive such prompt service) that the tech would make his appearance at our door the following Friday, I told her I only had one question. I asked her how she could imagine that waiting 27 days to have one’s television repaired was, by anyone’s definition, acceptable.

Strangely, the young woman seemed at a loss for words as to how to answer me.

Now here I must be honest and tell you that I, personally, don’t actually miss the thing all that much—but only because it’s still summer re-run season. Even when the new shows start, I won’t, in any given week, watch the tube for more than a handful of hours.

It’s Mr. Ashbury who has been going into withdrawal.

Knowing this would be so, the first thing I did when it we realized we were going to be setting a family record for waiting for a repair was to set him up with a service our cable company provides called “anyplace TV”. This service is included in the astronomical subscription we pay the company and in essence, lets him watch several channels on his computer.

Sadly, the news networks aren’t among the channels provided, and those are the programs he especially looks forward to watching—and arguing with—on Sunday.

However, he’s been able to see a few programs, and of course, he has his kindle, currently loaded up with a good dozen books from his “TBR” pile, so he has been a relatively happy camper throughout this very trying time.

 He has also been spending almost all of every evening since July 27th with me, right here in my office—which is where his computer is. Yes, he and the dog have been keeping me company as I sit here and do my thing. Since I multi-task all day, interspersing my writing time with housework time, and since I also often nap in the afternoon, I end up extending my “working” hours into the evening. After dinner I write, and I also attend to my social media obligations.

It’s very unnerving having him looking over my shoulder as I work. If I’m writing, at some point I stop noticing his attention, because I get lost in the words. But if I’m scrolling through Face Book, following up on “tags”, reading what some of my “friends” are doing, or even posting in my street team, it’s very disconcerting to have a face hanging over my shoulder—even the face of my beloved. I don’t have anything to hide, it’s just...weird. And in case anyone thinks I’m being overly sensitive, Mr. Ashbury himself positively hates it when people look over his shoulder at his computer screen.

So if I seem a little antsy as the days count down this week to blessed Friday, it’s really got nothing to do with waiting to have the boob tube working again, filling my brain with minutia and my ears with noise.

It has to do with ending the twenty-seven days long siege of my office.

 Love,
Morgan
http://www.morganashbury.com
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury