Dec 11 2008
Cable Guy Stories: What The Hell Is That?
I’ve told this story to a few people and thought that I’d share it here..
Back in August, I was working in Abbotsford. While I don’t remember every call I go to, this is one I’ll never forget.
At this call, I was installing digital phone for a lady that lives in a trailer/mobile home. After I explained what I needed to do to install it, I went outside to find our connection point for cable (CSE) and telephone demarcation point.
What luck! Our CSE was on the front of the trailer! Usually they are underneath the skirt of the trailer! I follow the telephone drop and discover that it goes underneath the trailer.
*SIGH*
I’m a pretty big guy, so crawling around under a trailer isn’t exactly fun, but it’s part of the job. I look around for the access panel to get under and discover I can’t find it. In the customer’s carport, there was a lot of.. well.. crap really. She mentions something about her daughter recently moving in with her and blah, blah, blah..
Eventually, we find it. I pop the panel open and peer in through the opening. There is a lot of insulation hanging down, but about six feet in, I can see the demarc. As I get ready to crawl under, I see something on the ground just inside and to the right.
“What that hell is that!?”, I exclaim. A slightly closer look and I realize..
It’s the skeleton of some animal! No flesh or fur, just this skeleton of some animal! I’m not talking about a mouse or rat, but something much larger. I say to the customer, “What is that? It doesn’t look like it’s a cat.. maybe a racoon?”
She replies, “It might be a possum! We have lots of those around!” I looked a little closer at it and then noticed something.
“It has no legs!? And how would it get under there?”
The customer’s answer is what I found amusing! She said, “There’s a big hole in the back under the trailer. You know, come to think of it, I remember a few months ago hearing a big fight under there. And for the longest time, there were tons of flies out front here for a while too!”
I close the panel and tell her that I had no plans for going under there. Fortunately, the customer understood why (mainly because I don’t know what’s still under there and alive!) Then she asked me who she would call to remove and dispose of the legless possum remains.
I smiled and said, “I don’t know.. but certainly not the cable guy!”