Recently I placed an order for the highly coveted fiber optic to the curb product, known simply as Verizon FIOS. This cabling has the necessary bandwidth to deliver absurdly fast internet connectivity that I hope to sap along with a plethora of television channels that I'll mostly never watch, and telephone service that I'll mostly never use.

Right away, I found the process to order FIOS was surprisingly painless, I was able to arrange it all online using a slightly buggy but ultimately effective series of web pages. After placing my order I was delighted each day to receive updates via email from Verizon as my install date approached. All that was left was to stay home on the designated day and wait between the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM for the Certified Verizon FIOS Installers, to arrive.

That day was today.

I would like to stress the word was in the prior sentence, as in "It was the plan." or "It was almost a good Michael Bay film".

I woke up this morning at 7:00 AM, making sure the house was ready for them. I had been told this would likely be an all day install given the specifics they had for what all I needed to have done, and to expect them early. As I waited at home and the hours passed I began to suspect something was wrong. I decided to phone Verizon at 1:00 PM to make sure they were still scheduled to come out today. I was informed by the friendly customer service droid that they were very busy today but would definitely make it there soon. As a longtime fan of redundancy in all things, I was able to fully appreciate that at around 3:00 PM I received a call saying they were on their way and should arrive in the next half hour, and at 4:30 PM I received the same call, again.

If you haven't read "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow, then I would recommend you take the time to do so, or you can just wait around long enough and live through the events outlined in this near-future work.

You can download the book for free (legally) here.