Well, Cable Guy showed up precisely between the hours of 5:00 and 9:00 the other day and swapped out the old cable modem for a new Motorola cable modem. It wasn't as simple as that, however. Because Cable Guy didn't really know how to use a computer, I had to help him test to see if it worked. He was grizzled-looking guy, and I could tell he was a Newfoundlander by his accent and the fact that he called everyone "my friend". As in, "Hello, my friend, I'm here to work on your cable modem."

Cable Guy had to wait twenty minutes on hold while phoning the technicians at Shaw. Apparently they keep their own employees on hold too. When he finally got through ("Sacred Heart, my friend, where is everyone?!") he got me a new IP and a roaring fast 5 Mbps account. The wait was worth it. Downloads are zippy.