We had moved and bought a 1 year bundle deal that came to around $143/mo on the final bill with all the taxes and fees that are fully expected but they can't tell you a real number when you sign up...

The problem is that the calendar Comcast uses has only 3 months in a year so every few months the bill for the month is $198 which no doubt many suckers will pay. For those that won't, it means a sweaty ear'd phone call where you are on hold for 45 minutes, listening to "Hi I'm Shaquille O'Neill" or, whoever they may have now, and an obnoxious music feed, with clicks and pops, as various voices pop in at widely varying volume levels, telling you how important your call is to them...

Then you finally get a human who tells you that the offer has expired and you insist that a full year has not passed, so they have to get a supervisor to review the tape. Then they come back saying "My Bad" and you are all set for a few months more.

Finally at the end of the year they did it again a few weeks early and I called telling them to cancel my service I was done with them because of this crap. They then extended the offer for a full year and made me a happy customer until once again their short year came up...

This time I was very busy working a job where I left the house at 5AM and sometimes didn't get home again until 10pm... midnight... and even 1am a time or 2...

I didn't get to call until the service had been cut and finally on a Friday night I was home early and called...

I was pretty pissed, and a bit short on the temper, having been nagged by my wife who was a hopeless TV addict. We went through the usual hold, straightening the bill out, and we were just about to make the payment when I asked the question...

"Now... These past couple of days while we were without service because I was too busy or tired to call, am I getting a credit for those days since I had to call and straighten out the bill before paying it?

"Oh no... We don't do that." Bad Answer!

"Really!!! When exactly do you stop charging?"

"We charge until you turn in the equipment at our office..." Another bad answer that wasn't working.

"Really!!! Well listen up! IDGAF how you charge! I'm not paying you another phuckin dime ever! So charge all you phuckin want because IDGAF. As for your phuckin equipment you better get someone over here to pick it up because if your phuckin shiot is still here Sunday night I'll be putting it out with the trash for overnight pick up!" At which time I slammed the phone down...

Early the next morning (Saturday) a Comcast employee stopped at the house to pick up their equipment...

On Tuesday the equipment from my new broadband provider arrived and life went on quite normally for me... I guided my wife to Hulu, YouTube, and a variety of other sites including those with full episodes for past seasons of the shows she liked...

Several years later she doesn't understand why she was ever so hooked on having cable... Her interests have broadened and she finds anything she wants on the web...

Comcast trying to gouge me on the bill was the best thing that could ever have happened to us...

Hundreds of channels with nothing on... What's the point?

I still believed into something positive coming out an Obama presidency:
Democracy is coming to the USA:
[video:https://youtu.be/vHI9BTpGkp8]

Democracy didn't come to the USA. I wished there would be a new song, when Sanders becomes President. We need democracy. Something to believe in. The alternative would be so depressing, if not catastrophic.

I love the lyrics.

"Democracy"

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.