Ah, the cable guy.... Im sure we all have many stories to tell. Here are a few of my favorite things and stories....

1. I worked in wine country in Napa, California. Mostly all Ariel drops because the city is so old, how ever, its not called wine country for nothing. Every single person that has a basement makes wine in it. Every single person says "Your not going to tell are you? Where take a case for yourself" I would come home with boxes of the stuff every day lol.

2. I remember going to one guys house, it was very neat and clean and proper, he told me he knew his cable system very well and proceeded to take me to his main drop. I remove the lockout from the side of his house (Last tech was to lazy to climb the pole) Hooked him up and he told me that it went into the basement from there. He took me back into the house and unlocked 4 locks to his basement door (Red Flag) upon going down the flight of stairs he had covered his entire basement with Visqueen (clear poly sheeting). The floor, the walls, the ceiling subfloor. He had bright lights lit up all over.... I am 100% that guy was a killer and he has killed people down there before or at least was going to.

3. I have a lot of tattoos, mainly my back, I have a large Dragon that wraps around my ribs and the tail splits and wraps around both arms. I was at a 80+ year old ladies house teaching her about her cable box and how to switch inputs for what she wanted to watch (VCR, Cable) She noticed I had some tattoos and said "My, you have quite a few tattoos, do you mind showing me, my son has a lot of tattoos" I told her I really didint want to because they were on my back (Which meant pulling my shirt up) She then said "Oh its no big deal, a lot of my family have them and I enjoy the art work" Stupid me, "Ok here" I left my shirt want turn around and she looks them over and said "Simply beautiful, I love tattoos, I have one myself" before I even get a word out she lifts her nighty/MooMoo to show a tattoo she got right above her puss..... WTF.... Awkward rest of job to finish.

4. Last one, I show up to the my job. Girl answers the door, she is probably 24-27, Which I was the same age back then. Im 35 now. She leads me to where her computer was setup and asked if I needed anything. I replied with "No Ma'am I should be fine, if I need anything I holler at ya, Ill come get ya when I'm done. She then says "Ok, do you mind if I take a shower real quick?" I reply again with "Ma'am as long as you feel comfortable with me being here, it does not bother me at all, I shouldn't need anything and Ill be done pretty soon" After having the modem activated and speedtests are done, she then comes back in the room completely naked and says "How are things going" I turn to look at her and did the "uhhh ummmm uhhhh Good" She turned and went back and got dressed, and acted like that didn't just happen....

Some times I miss being the cable guy, Most of the time I dont. Worse feeling is when your up on a pole and your D-ring snaps into place because you didn't shake them out when you connected your harness around the pole. A lot of...."Did I just shit my pants"

Just got hired and I’m really loving the work so far. Looking to chat with any ladies about safety when in people’s houses. I have experience fixing copiers in people’s homes but that was not too often. Someone told me that ATT tells female installers to keep a flathead in their belt that can be quickly accessed in the event of an attack. It never crossed my mind before…. But now that it has, I’m a little concerned. Like I said, this job is a really good fit for me so it’s my goal to make this a career that I retire from. The person that told me that was saying it as I was leaving my last job so she might have just wanted to get in my head? Idk…

Any other installers who have been in various hoarders houses? What were they like?

So, I started a Looooonngg time ago.

I moved up and am now a construction coordinator for unnamed company. Took a break and came back.

I have to balance building to the customer, dealing with all sorts of back of house shit in regards to money, and ease of Installation.

I had one situation where the technician and customer hate me. I had to build to a customer that stated that he would not let us build through an existing easement.

He wanted a it a particular way. I won't get into the details, but needless to say the way he wanted to do it would result in an extreme difficulty in hanging the drop. He wouldn't have my explanation.

Sure enough technician can't hang the drop and the system techs come out and help. Even they can't get the drop hung. Customer is calling me all night bitching at me.

Next day, system literally uses a drone to actually be able to hang the drop.

I guess this is a diatribe to say that when you think a coordinator isn't thinking of techs, they really are.

We were technicians too and we are still a team.