[conspire] [Re-]planned downtime, move status

[Rick Moen]

1.  Our cherished Ma Bell reincarnation, SBC (which is in the middle of
re-naming itself to AT&T, thus completing the circle), found a creative
way to screw up relocation of our telephone service:  They unilaterally
rescheduled it (for fairly dumb reasons) -- and then decided not to tell
us.  As a reminder, this matter affects CABAL's online presence because
its Raw Bandwidth Communications DSL service piggybacks atop SBC's line.

What happened, you ask?  Here's us, about 5:20 pm Monday, sitting on the
living room floor, calling Ma Bell from our still-active telephone:

  Deirdre:  "Hey, what happened to the telephone move order you guys
  agreed with me to perform today for 650-561-9820?  It's not happening."  

  SBC:  "Er, that job is listed in our records as rescheduled to
  Wednesday."

  Deirdre:  "WHAT?  Why?"

  SBC:  "Well, the outgoing occupants had not released the line, and so
  it would not be available to you until they did, which would be when
  they scheduled shutoff, i.e., Wednesday."

  Deirdre:  "And you were somehow incapable of ascertaining this fact at
  the time you committed to a _Monday_ due date -- because, what, you're
  more accustomed to hanging draperies for a living?  And you were
  incapable of calling my contact telephone number to advise us of the
  delay because you needed, what, smoke signals?  Semaphores?  Telegraph
  lines?  Carrier pigeons?"

  SBC:  {mumble}  {snivel}

Anyhow, considerations of logic and customer service do not apply, so
it's going to be Wednesday -- which means our new house will be sans
telephone and DSL service until then.  Our _old_ house still has
service, and our servers are still camped out on the living room floor
-- but I'm removing them tonight in order to turn over the house to the 
landlords.  So, from around 10 PM tonight until SBC/AT&T reconnects
telphone service, and then I reconnect the DSL -- probably around a full
day, unless things get further screwed up.


2.  We very nearly pulled off a single-day move.  Honest, it was close,
but there remain items from the kitchen, living room, and garage, plus
significant amounts of clean-up all around the house.  By 10:30pm when
we quit for the day, we were all barely able to function, so it wasn't
worth racing the clock to finish everything.

Mark Weisler, Karsten Self, Duncan MacKinnon, and Bruce Coston were all
immensely helpful when we most needed it.  Much obliged, gentlemen!