Amazing Grace in the Philippines

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The Valley of Hell is in the middle of its "monsoon" season, which sounds like it should be raining a lot. In point of fact, last year during the monsoon it did not rain at all in the western part of the Valley. Generally it does cloud up some and look like it could rain - maybe once a week or so, but the heat invariably forces the rain clouds off toward San Diego or someplace civilized. Last night, however, an honest-to-God storm blew up around 10 p.m. (2200 hours for my buddies in the Air Force!), with lightening, thunder, sound, and fury. A wind gust hit Luke AFB, my neighbor, measuring 69 m.p.h. Almost as an after thought, my power went off for about one minute - just long enough where I had to rest everything!

And it rained all night and well into the morning!

This afternoon after work I discovered that I had no television reception. After checking outside to make sure that my satellite receiver hadn't taken off to Oz, I called DISH Network and talked to their machine awhile. The machine finally got fed up with my verbal abuse, and transferred me to a human. Her name was Grace and she sounded as though she was all of fourteen-years-old. Grace spent about thirty minutes leading me through the process of reprogramming both of my remote controls. She was calm, thorough, and very good at her job.

While we were waiting on various things to happen on the screen, I chatted with this young lady. She told me that she was manning a phone in the Philippines, and I told her about my good friend, Odessa Benson, who is from the Philippines and recently visited there. When Grace learned that I worked for the Air Force, she wanted to know if I was a pilot - a very logical supposition. I thought carefully about how to respond to that, and finally opted for honesty!

Grace was very patient and eventually walked me through the entire process. It was a very good experience. DISH Network is so much friendlier, easier to work with, and more honest than my previous provider - Cox Cable Sucks! I made such a good decision in changing over to satellite.