Too Much Pressure -- The Tire Pops

Tuesday, May 20, 2008What a night? Came home from work expecting to setup his wireless router he purchased about a week ago, but PoBoy had even more problems. Somewhere something is not cooperating. The Belkins wireless seems to work. Comcast cable box seemed to work but still no connection. The folks were here 3 hours trying to get everything to work, and the lady is coming back tomorrow afternoon to try again. Bless her heart. However, once they left they said I was on the internet. But this was not true as the "Comcast" box was not functioning and unable to get internet access. This is about the 5th or 6th time that I have had trouble with their equipment. Then you call with huge wait times for customer service and you can't even get a native American on the line so you can understand what is being said. No. You get one of those illegal aliens that speak much english -- oh! you can make out a word about every tenth word or so. We the Americans are a minority in our own country. It's just not comcast, but other large organizations have the same exact talent.

Wednesday May 21, 2008Again the PoBoy came home from work. The folks had said they would probably already have the router setup before he came home. PoBoy observed their car in his driveway. His heart sunk as he expected the worse.

Sure enough the folks were busily at work on the router. About 6:30, they had to place a phone call to Belkins. They could not get it to work. PoBoy still believed it was in the cable box, as he had on several past occassions had to return the box for replacement.

After about a 10 minute conversation with Belkins, they told the folks that it would require the expertise of a higher tech and that tech would call back in five minutes. About 45 minutes later, the folks called Belkins again.

Like all major companies you never seem to get the original person you were speaking with originally. Tonight was no different, the folks had to go back over what the problem was and how the other party had tried to help and that they had waited forty-five minutes for a return call. The new guy went over the procedure to the point they had reached before, and then it was the "secret" number thing where they were stumped. The new tech told them to enter a certain number and both the cable box and the Belkins lit up. Everything worked again. PoBoy was wrong. It wasn't the comcast cable box.

Last came the going over the different parts of the "new-used" laptop. PoBoy had them take it out to the dining room, about 30 feet from his bedroom, separated by a wall, and see if it would work there. Sure enough it worked like a dream. They showed him how to start the machine and what to do at shut down. They checked the internet setup up. Everything worked fine. Finally a they showed him how the little round ball that looked like a diving helmet worked. It's a cam. Not sure if that works as you need someone on the other end of the line to accept your cam, but the little green light did come on. PoBoy is in business now.

Now it was close to 9:30 and after getting ready for bed, he crawled in with the puppies around 10:00. The puppies were tired out too. Each of them slept through the night all snuggled against the PoBoy as did one of the kitties. PoBoy relaxed and fell to sleep.

Thursday, May 22, 2008Today was the PoBoy's birthday. He reached the age of 66. Funny for the longest time, he believed he'd die before 65 as did is mother. But surprise, your old PoBoy is still here.

The office bought lunch for everyone in celebration of PoBoy's birthday. They had sub sandwiches. Pretty good too. Everyone chattered about the upcoming conference, June 12-14, 2008, in Bay City, Michigan. Because of lack of funds these days, PoBoy would not do the whole conference. He is suppose to arrive on Friday the 13th, oh my god! He suddenly realized that it was going to be Friday the 13th. He wonders what kind of fun that day will bring.

He called Avis to check on a rental vehicle for the 36 hour adventure, and it will cost about $54.00 plus gas providing he gets the car back on time. The 202 mile round trip will take a couple of hours each way.

Oh his way home from work that day, the traffic was bottlenecked for four or five miles. PoBoy new about the road construction, single lane going each direction because the other two lanes don't exist at the moment, but generally the traffic flow moves slowly but steady. Not this day. Bumper to bumper they inched there way toward the end of the construction zone.

About 3/4 of the way PoBoy saw the problem. A young man lay face down in the four foot high, 16 foot wide, two center lanes dug up for repair, with his motorcycle about 30 feet from him. He heard later that someone had hit the motorcycle from behind and flipped the man into the lanes that had been dug up. PoBoy flinched as he tried to figure how they would ever get an ambulance in their to help the man. There just was no room at all. Can't stop though or the traffic will become worse. Funny how it makes PoBoy feel so bad and helpless not to be able to help. In fact other then a woman bending over the prone man, who's face was still in the dirt, not even the construction workers came to his aid.

Friday, May 23, 2008Well today is the last day of the week, thought PoBoy. It's even better because he will have 3 days to rest and regain his composure. The heart doctor made arrangements for him to speak to a ministerial/emotional counselor. The doctor believes PoBoy had been under more stress then he could handle by himself. The doctor also believed that it was this stress that not only was a significant factor in his heart attack, but also a definite possiblity of why his blood pressure was still running high --- 163/92.

"Come in PoBoy," Ralph Roberston said. "I hear you might be having some severe emotional problems and possibly causing your blood pressure to remain high." Well, PoBoy said, that's what the doctor thinks. "PoBoy, do you know that stress is a main factor in heart attacks?" Mr. Robertson, I don't think I've ever known exactly what stress is, PoBoy replied. "Well PoBoy, because of stress your heart works harder then its desirable limits. When that happens something has to give -- in your case, your heart just gave up."

The first interview was short and sweet. PoBoy had to admit he found Ralph to be a nice and knowledgable person. In a way, PoBoy looked forward to his next visit.