- Prepare your dogs for the dry weather or winter by feeding them fat drippings and adding vitamin E oil to their food. This helps their skin stay moisturized, preventing dandruff, and prevents cracking of their foot pads and nose skin.
- Clip mint plants down to the ground when it starts freezing at night. Save the clippings and place them in areas where you don't want mice to visit. They are a spreading plant perennial. Your cat wants some, too....
On Friday of last week, I stayed at the house to wait for the cable person to come for an installation. The provider up here is called TCT. The installation appointment was for 9:30 am. An actual, specific time. Mike, my installer, was running late, so he called shortly after 9 to tell me that. In all my prior cable experience, the installation time period is usually "between 8 and 5" or something similarly frustrating. Here, TCT covers a large area of Wyoming, and Hyattville isn't really on the way to anywhere else. So, I was impressed with the near-accurate timing of their dispatch system.
He did the install which when through the basement and exactly as I'd asked. Once connected, he gave me an impromptu User Training session on the remote. Sure, I could have figured that out on my own, but I thought it was a nice touch. During the process, I learned about a channel that I would not have otherwise bothered to view - it shows community news, events, obituaries (yikes!), lunch menus at schools and retirements homes, and very, very specific weather forecasts for each of the tiny hamlets scattered through the Big Horns.
Over the weekend, it turns out I noticed that when I was on the phone, the wireless internet signal would drop. After the phone call, it would reconnect automatically, so not a huge issue, but frustrating. It called to mind the old days of dial up when you couldn't be on the phone and the computer at the same time, unless you had two phone lines. So, I called up TCT, and let me tell you, these folks could show the likes of Comcast and others how to do business. Let me explain:
- My call was answered by a real, live, human. The next town over. I told him the issue I was having, and he asked for a few additional details. He said he didn't have an answer for me at the moment, but he'd get right back to me.
- About 15 minutes later, he actually did call me back and told me that the problem was with the splitter. He said that this would be handled as a trouble ticket, and their policy for trouble tickets is that they are handled as a priority, so someone would be able to come by on the same day. I was surprised - it certainly wasn't an urgent situation.
- A few minutes after that, I received another call - this time from Mike, my installer from the Friday before. He wanted to confirm the details of the issue, he apologized for the inconvenience, and then he told me he'd be at the house around 3.
- Sure enough, at 10 minutes to 3, he arrived - replaced the faulty splitter, had me confirm internet access while he was on the phone, and all was well with the web again.
As someone who has done fairly well to keep myself super-busy, I've heard the old cliche that sometimes a job done quickly isn't as appreciated as a job done with personal attention. A few months ago, I would have said, "there's no time for that personal attention stuff - get in, get it done, get out". But, in this case, that personal attention didn't take any real additional effort, and made a lasting impression on me as a consumer. It's what we all know already. It just so happens that I'm in a position to see and appreciate those little extra touches that make a significant difference now.
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