Day of 'Rest'

We had three very simple errands. Library, food bank, comcast. Library was easy. Food bank was closed, so we went back there this morning (we now have an incredible amount of food. Lovely church people who gave us tons of help, and even told us that the UGM kind of sucked :). Comcast. Comcast comcast comcast.

THE HUNT FOR COMCAST

I'm really not sure why we didn't return our modem in Seattle, but for some reason it didn't happen. No worries, though... Comcast is a big company. They should have stores everywhere, yes? And Yakima's a decent sized town. It should definitely have one.... But no. We couldn't find it.

Called Comcast. Sure enough, there's nothing in Yakistan. 'There are drop spots in all the major cities, so just drop it anywhere along your bike trip' the oh-so-helpful dude said. That was the last real live Comcast person I talked to until this morning. So... no worries, we're headed to Portland.

Portland's drop spot is no longer there.

Even that was ok. Frustrating.... but ok. After all, Salem is coming soon, and it will definitely have one...... right?? And yes! Google gave us the address; it was downtown, close, easy. Cruised over there.... the address did not exist. No Comcast. Checked the mall... nothing. Asked around. Turns out there's one in the mall on the other side of town. Biked 5 miles to get there. At this point in our 'day of rest' it's about 330-4ish. We still want to go swimming and relax. So.

I walk into the mall, holding my breath as I look at the map..... Gasp. Comcast is actually really here! Yayyyy! I rejoiced a whole lot. Walked through the mall looking for it.... after a while I felt like I'd gone too far, so I checked another map. Sure enough, Comcast was behind me. At this point I was a little suspicious. Went bakc to the correct spot.

THERE WAS NO COMCAST.

Questioned the security guard... turns out they moved out a couple weeks back. As I ranted to him, a very nice lady offered to look up the address for me. It's someplace far out in North Salem, obscure, in the industrial district. Woopdeedoo. Then I tried calling Comcast to check their hours..... Fair warning to you all. NEVER try to find information, or a real person, by calling Comcast. It was death and fail.

It's 415. We have no food. We decide to find groceries and save Comcast for the next day.

On the ride back to the river, Miah got a flat. More rejoicing. On the plus side, I am now fully confident in my tire changing abilities, AND we've discovered that Starbucks will give you samples of coffee if you ask nicely. A super nice kid saw that we were having a bad day and gave us treats. Made it to the river by 630ish, took a very cold bath, and watched shooting stars (one of which spanned half the sky, curved a whole lot, and may have hit ground in OR somewhere. Dono.)

So this morning. Comcast... the hunt continues. Food bank people helped us find out where it was (good thing. We'd never have found it on our own..) and we finally made it there. There's an equipment return box outside, but just to be safe I went inside. Good. Fucking. Thing.

For some reason the computer won't recognize my box... try the phone number? Nope. Try the address? Oh, you're from Seattle? We can't process equipment from out of state. You'll have to go up to Washington.

....

After 'nicely' explaining the situation, she agreed to mail it to the Seattle warehouse, we got an equipment receipt, and the whole ordeal SHOULD be done with.

To all of you..... Join with me in the general fucking of Comcast, because they are my new object of hate.

In brighter news, I think my favorite part of the trip so far is watching the greenery change. Fascinating. Also, there are orchards down here with absolutely no undergrowth.

Salem, we are leaving you today. Thankyou for the sack lunches.