And another thing...

I just love Starchoice!

I completely loathe the cable company ever since they came out with the whole negative billing thing where you have to pay in advance, and when they come out with new channels you have to call to tell them you DON'T want them. And if you want one channel you have to pay for a whole lot of other channels you absolutely hate, just to get the one you want. Not to mention the fact that you have to stay home all day on the off chance the cable guy "might" show up. So I wanted to get a dish.

Well the first two I tried (the ones you can hack) didn't work because I live in an area with too many trees and tall buildings that were, unfortunately, right in the line of sight.

So, on my last birthday my friend Kim gave me a Starchoice satellite system. The programming costs the same as cable, but you can pick and choose what channels you want. I told her the problems I had with the others, but installation was free, so I gave it a shot.

The other two guys who came went directly to the roof. I didn't like that idea because if anything happened I did not want to have to climb on the roof to fix it. So this time...no roof.

I called the Starchoice guy (Ken) to set up a time for installation. He said he would be there the next day during my lunch hour.

WHAT? Did I hear you right?

He said "yes". Their policy is to come within 24 hours of being called.

You are definitely not the cable company!

So the next day he shows up and 10 minutes later I have dish! He slaps it up on the side of the house and BAMM! 99% signal.

Before he leaves he says "I am just concerned about that tree, in the summer we might have to cut a branch off it."

Which brings me to today. I called Ken this morning (I had been without signal for 3 days) and he met me today at lunch to cut a branch....which turned out to be 3 branches.

It was funny, the neighbors were all out in force to see the funny little man hanging from the tree. They were watching and commenting, and I am sure one of them ran home to call my landlord who owns most of the houses on my street. No worries though I had already okayed it with him, along with the screen porch thing.

The best part of the whole thing? I didn't have to pay the funny little man with the saw. "It is all part of the service Miss."

On the way home today, I saw a cable company truck and gave the guy the finger.

Even though I have to pay for it, I just love Starchoice!