Phone guy finally showed and managed to fix the problem in about three minutes. He's from San Jose, he says. The local company is so overwhelmed with trouble complaints that they've brought hundreds (he may have said "thousands") of technicians from other cities. He started work at 7 AM this morning and is expected to make at least two more stops tonight. Tough job.
I want to emphasize that I wasn't complaining earlier about the repair people. They've got a lot of fixin' to do and it would be absurd to expect them to always be able to predict how long each stop will take. (He was here for maybe six minutes. His previous stop, he told me, took two hours.) I just think that if companies want us to use the 'net more to transact business, they could give us something back — like more accurate info — via that same connection. And I guess I'm also amazed when they urge us to use their website instead of the phone but manage to make it less efficient. (I forgot to mention. I originally tried to schedule this service call through the phone company site but it wouldn't accept the appointment.)
Okay, I'm off to the market. Finally.