Installed, Not Working, Soon To Be Furnished.

Such an “interesting” process.  I received a call from the Telefonica installer at 3:30 this afternoon.  He would be at the apartment around 5 or 6 in the evening to do the hardwired internet hookup.  I didn’t know anyone was coming today, but where else would we be?  So, no complaints.

WHAT I WAS LOOKING AT JUST A FEW BLOCKS FROM THE HOUSE WHEN TELEFONICA CALLED.  MAGICAL.

We contracted with Vodafone.  So, I was momentarily confused.  But then I remembered Jerry mentioning that Telefonica still had the monopoly on the phone lines. He therefore suspected that Telefonica would be doing the installation no matter who we contracted with.  I confirmed this fact with the installer.  Jerry was of course correct.

The installer got delayed on the job before ours and didn’t get here until around 8.  He was a very nice guy named Enrique, and he seemed to know what he was doing.  However, he couldn’t install a new phone outlet in the office, which is where we want the router to sit.  He said Vodafone does that.  I had asked Vodafone about this earlier in the week and was told it would be easily done as part of the installation.  He also couldn’t tell us our landline phone number, which I thought we would learn at the time of installation.  He said Vodafone would tell us.  Hmmm. So, the router and phone are sitting on the floor in the alcove off the living room plugged into the only phone outlet in the apartment.

EXCEPT FOR THE TOOL BAG WITH ENRIQUE'S FLOWER APPLIQUE,
THIS IS WHAT OUR NON-FUNCTIONING HOOK-UP LOOKS LIKE RIGHT NOW.

Enrique left very pleased with the signal strength, which was clearly glowing on the front of the router.  The landline phone was plugged in, too.  After he departed, I tried to call my cell phone.  I figured my mobile would display the number I was calling from and the mystery of our home phone number would be solved.

There was just one problem.  We had no service on the landline.

Jerry then tried connecting to the internet via our great new WiFi connection.  Forty-five minutes later, he hadn’t gotten very far. So, he plugged the “stick” back into the side of his laptop and connected the original wireless way.  Two steps forward, two steps back? But, we are at least not dead in the water.

We suspect that Vodafone will now schedule a separate final installation of our internet and landline.  Vodafone is much better with communications than is Telefonica (surprise!).  They texted me last week and said they (not Telefonica) would be here in about a week to complete installation.  Our assumption is that they will now be informed that Telefonica has completed our hook-up to the building’s phone lines and that will put things in motion.  We’ll see. 

I’d walk over to visit my friends at Vodafone in the morning to find out for sure, but I will instead be waiting for delivery of our furniture!!!

MY PERSONAL PIZZA CELEBRATION TONIGHT AT LA LACONDA,
A FANTASTIC AND FRIENDLY ITALIAN RESTAURANT ON LA ALAMEDA DE HERCULES. 

Ruth (remember Ruth?) phoned this morning to say she had managed to schedule us for delivery Wednesday instead of Friday.  The truck is supposed to leave Malaga around 7 in the morning, which gets it here between 10 and 11, she thinks.  We can’t believe it.  Jerry hasn’t heard back from anyone in response to his “scathing” email sent Friday night.  We think maybe Ruth moved us up as a result of that email, but we’ll never know.  What we DO know is that we MIGHT have our “stuff” Wednesday!

More or less.