This is How Tech Support Hears Us...

Props to Shoebox Blog and Chuck & Beans.

Just A Few Minutes

It took just a few minutes for me to drive to the hospital today. My brother-in-law was having his second brain surgery. A tumor had returned.

I parked the car and it took just a few minutes to get inside and up to the waiting room. My sister, mother and nieces were all waiting anxiously while he was being prepped for surgery.

We waited for just a few minutes before the nurse came to take us back and see him and wish him well. His face and head looked like an almost empty bowl of Fruit-Loops. He was in good spirits as the anesthesiologist gave him a run-down.

Back to the prep waiting room for just a few minutes before we were ushered upstairs to the ICU waiting room. Not sure why. The surgery took place downstairs. It was quieter I guess.

In the waiting room next to us was another family. There were many, they almost filled the room. Their loved one was on life support. They were waiting just a few minutes to hear from their doctor as to the future of their loved one.

We waited patiently for update calls to come via the desk phone. They did. Things were moving along as well as could be expected...for brain surgery. The family next door was restless. In a mater of just a few minutes that all changed.

The doctors came to the family next door. With nurses. And in just a few minutes they explained how they could do no more to save their precious loved one. There was no hope and his life was effectively over. He had just a few minutes to live.

It hit like a tsunami. The wails. The cries. The heart-wrenching sobbing. It was hard to listen to. Our room fell silent. They had just a few minutes to call every member of the family who wasn't there and let them know they that life support would be turned off in just a few minutes.

Call after call. Wailing, crying and sobbing into the phone. The hallway echoed their pain and anguish louder than the carpeted waiting room. They only had a few minutes before their loved one cease to live.

In just a few minutes someone very important to these people would be turned off. Like a switch. By other humans. Who would go home and have dinner tonight. In just a few minutes the hope of talking to, walking with, sharing something with that special someone would be over. Forever.

Two be two, just a few minutes apart, the nurses took the family members back to the room so each could say their goodbyes to a lifeless, beeping, whirring, pumping body. Each returned with greater sobs, louder moans and deeper pain.

After the last of them had said goodbye...it was over. They moved on to another room. I assume a grief counselor. In just a few minutes we expected to hear about my brother-in-law.

The phone rang. It was good news. He came through surgery alright. He will be in recovery for a while. I took a few minutes to hug my family before departing to get my son. In just a few minutes I'd be looking into the bright, thriving eyes of my beautiful, energetic son. In just a few minutes.

Stickin' it to 'The Man' is stickin' all of us.

Reading through industry news, I came across this article. It's not the first of it's kind that I've read. I've seen many articles that encourage wireless customers to argue their way out of multi-year contracts w/o paying ETFs (early termination fees) because some government mandate imposes an additional 10 or 20 cent hike to the monthly bill. I attempted to post the following comment (currently being held for approval):

• Before you devise reasons to get out of ETFs first stop and think about WHY mobile carriers have ETFs! Did it never occur to you that you're cheating an American business? Your driving the cost of doing business higher and making it harder on everyone else. Every 1 or 2 year contract comes with $200 - $400 worth of equipment subsidy. That's cold hard cash the carrier is fronting on your behalf so you can be trendy, hip and cool. The "free" phones aren't free. Paying $199 for a $600 phone sure seems awesome until 12 months down the road when you want a newer phone and are looking to stick it to the American business that funded your first round of hip, trendy coolness.
  
  How would you feel if Sprint called you up and argued with you for an hour, day after day, about why you should pay them an additional $200 cash for that BlackBerry you got last year? Maybe you were late one day on your payment - WOOT! BREECH OF CONTRACT!! Pay up sucka'!
  
  It blows me away how many people in this country talk big about "buy American" and "stop sending jobs overseas." Every single mobile carrier in this country has been forced to cut jobs and personnel over the last several years in large part due to people like [those who try to get out of ETFs].
  
  Did you know that every mobile carrier will sign you up on a month to month service contract? All you have to do is pay full retail for the phone of your dreams and you can live contract free -with a clear conscious- w/o trying to devise sneaky, snaky ways to cheat the company. What I think would be more fair is mobile carriers that prorate the subsidy. The longer you honor your contract, the lower the ETF until it's $0 near the end of your agreement.

I'm all about being a smart, informed consumer. I don't like to hear when a working family is taken, cheated, scammed or overpays. Coupons, rebates, store loyalty programs and similar schemes work to the benefit of both consumer and business. It's a partnership. Let's do our best to be honorable consumers, which will in turn help keep American jobs American.