Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Welcome to my Blog!

Thanks for visiting. Why did I start this, you might ask? Well, it’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for awhile now and a few people have said they think I’d be good at it. So we’ll see. The problem is that I’m so lazy I hope I actually update this thing on a regular basis!

I have no idea what form this blog will take. I have some ideas but we’ll see what works and doesn’t. Right now I’m thinking it will be a blend of stories of the exciting, interesting, ordinary, mundane, and boring happenings that make up my day to day life; commentary on political and social issues; anecdotes of good times with family and friends; and whatever random thoughts happen to float into my head at any given moment.

One thing I promise you, dear reader, is that I will do everything it takes to live up to the line underneath my photo. I am, indeed, just the guy who does the thing.

So what’s up with me? Well, I think that the drawn-out saga of switching from Comcast cable to DirecTV HD might finally be coming to an end. But I wouldn’t count on it. Here’s the story:

I am from New Orleans, and I now live in Stoneham, MA with Bill. All my life I’ve been a Saints fan, and of course their games aren’t broadcast where I live, so I wanted to get NFL Ticket. Unfortunately, Bill had Comcast and NFL Ticket is only available through DirecTV. Last year I didn’t even think of it until too late, and of course the Saints go on to the NFC championship game. This season I made sure to find out all of the information and order the new system before the season started. Unfortunately, getting this thing up and running has been a one-legged bitch from beginning to end.

We had a 32-inch regular old TV in the living room and Bill wanted service to the bedroom and I wanted it downstairs in the cellar. So we ordered ordinary old DirecTV service and three boxes. Then we went to Circuit City in New Hampshire where one of Bill’s old employees is the manager. Bill wanted to get another computer for his store (http://www.stonehamsportscenter.com/). While we were there, we figured why not look at some HD TVs and see what kind of deal we can get? Dave (Bill’s friend) always gets us good deals on merchandise that is nearly new and returned.

When we told Dave that we just ordered DirecTV, he rolled his eyes and said that we should have called him. Circuit City has this deal with DTV that the store gets compensated for signing people up for the service and CC passes on part of this as $300 off any HDTV priced at $1000 or more when you sign up through them. Dang!

Anyhow, we looked at plenty of TVs and finally settled on a couple of 40-42 inchers that we both agreed on. Unfortunately, Dave didn’t have any in returns so we were debating on whether to pay full price. We had figured out that if we got an HD TV, we’d have to cancel our DTV order and then reorder HD since they’re two different things. So we were going to get the $300 off of the price of a TV. We asked Dave what he had in “open boxes.” That’s what they call the returned merchandise that’s discounted. He said nothing close to what we were looking at but he did have a 57-incher that was the same as he has at his house and he sang its praises.

I can’t speak for Bill, but no way did I ever think we’d be considering a 57-inch TV. But there we were and with the open box deal and the extra off from the DirecTV deal we ended up getting it for less than we would have spent on the 40-42-inch sets we were looking at.

So our installation appointment had to be pushed back since we changed the order to high-def. They sent a survey guy out to check the signal and he got up on the roof and said that there was no HD signal, because of a big tree across the street from the house. Did no one explain to the HD folks that trees exist in nature when they were developing this technology? Unbelievable! But there it was, so we canceled the HD order and reordered regular DTV, and our appointment got pushed back again.

On the date of the actual installation, the installer was a guy from DirecTV, not just a contract surveyor, and he claimed that he was getting a great HD signal! But we had waited long enough, so he went ahead and installed regular feed DTV and that was that.

Except that the regular feed reception sucks on the 57-inch high def. Bill arrived home that night and declared that regular feed simply wasn’t going to work so he called and ordered the HD feed. We were going to Dev’s in Ohio for his 40th birthday weekend so we had to wait another 1½ weeks for the HD. Well, the HD was finally installed on Tuesday and all is right with the world!

Except that when you switch from one channel to another, there’s this awful half-hissing, half humming sound that the TV makes until it settles on the other channel. And when you hit a channel that we don’t get, the sound stays on. And it’s really loud and really obnoxious so we very much want to get rid of it. Bill called and now there’s another guy coming tomorrow to try and fix the thing.

All this and the Saints have started off an impressive 0-3. Why did I go through all this?

Well, now that all of your insomnia has been cured for the night I will sign off now.

Visit often. I promise you that it’s entirely possible that some of the stories will be much more interesting than this one.

Geaux Sox!

8 comments:

Karen O'Hara said...

Since I have had many annoying experiences with the satellite companies I can feel your frustration. Do let me know if and/or how the satellite works during snow storms since the rain seems to prevent broadcasting when it occurs here in The Big Easy.

Love U LOTS!!!!
KAO

Karen O'Hara said...

By the way -- I love your picture!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm too tired to comprehend what I just read but I'm sure if u wrote it --it's great!


Becca

GG said...

this is the first blog i have ever read, didnt know what to expect, but you sure do write good. after all that, we better "bless the boys" and get them moving in the other direction!!! by the way, how 'bout them tigers huh?!?! dont hear any mention of them, r u a fan?
gina

Anonymous said...

I always wanted to know what a blog was. It must be nice to have have all this free time on your hands :) Dig the shirt big guy!

Oh yeah, and I hope you stopped smoking!!!!!!!

Take care,
T

Dennis O'Hara said...

Hi Gina,

Yes I am a huge LSU fan. Can't wait for Friday night!!

And Tommy, that picture was taken in Florida so colorful shirts were in vogue!

Thanks for reading,
D

Anonymous said...

d, biggest game of the year saturday! put on your purple and gold wherever u r, and go crazy 4 the tigers! i will be in baton rouge yelling "tiger bait" to every gator i see!!
gg

Leah Mellin said...

Dennis, Boy do you have gray hair, I just saw your picture on your blog. There must not be much to do in Boston if you can have time to write a blog, lol. Anyway Hi to everybody who knows me that's on this blog. Any body wants to contact me you can e-mail me leah.mellin@wmitchell.edu or leah2craig@hotmail.com. Love you all, Leah