A New Friend

Last night I was going to add a post to this blog, but my internet service was down. So I thought I would just watch a little TV and forget about it. Oh Oh - TV signal lost too. Well - time to contact Telus! Really not something that I wanted to do after a long day, but obviously an issue that needed to be dealt with. With much trepidation, I dialed the 'help' line. Will I get someone on the line from a far and distant land who I cannot understand, and who cannot understand me? Will this be just another frustration at the end of my day? Should I even bother with it tonight? Should I just forget about it, pick up a book and be done with it for now? No, I need to deal with this now...... Surprisingly, there was not a long time on hold before I got a very pleasant young fellow on the line. I could understand him when he spoke!!!! There were, of course, many things that he asked me to check. Took a little time. Then it became apparent to him that we needed to 'reboot' the modem and the TV boxes. There was considerable waiting time for everything to come back up after rebooting. You just cannot be on the phone and say nothing, so I thought I would start a conversation. "Where are you?", I asked him. "The Phillipines", he responded! We talked a little about the weather, and those impersonal things. I then made the comment that I was going to make a post on my blog, but could not because my internet was down. "You have a blog!', he said. I responded, "Yes - I have recently quit smoking, and I started the blog as an avenue to vent, and perhaps help others in some small way". Well......this turned the conversation. Turned out that he is a smoker, and sooo wants to quit. He is 40 years old, and the only one left in his family that smokes. (They make him go outside - he said) He does not like to do that when it is raining. I shared with him my experience of going outside when it is very very cold to smoke. We talked about the inconvience of being a smoker, and also the expense. He did some quick money conversion and figured out that his cost for a package of 20 'sticks' is $20 Canadian! He then began quizing me about how I have gone about the process of quitting. I shared with him my 'pre-quit' process, the 'post-quit' process, the 'continuing' process, and the support I have gotten of the QuitNet website, as well as the support and encouragement from friends and co-workers. I was on the phone with him for about 1 1/2 hours while all the electronics were 'doing their thing'. When we were certain that indeed the internet and TV signals were restored I thanked him for his help. Get this - his response - "I am the one who was helped here". I was sooo touched by his comment, that I almost started to weep! Oh, if only it would be that I motivated him to start the process of freeing himself from the 'Nicodemon' then it was truly a good day! Ya know what is said "there is a reason for all things"? Perhaps there was a reason that I 'lost my signal' yesterday. Perhaps there was a reason that of all the people that Telus employs, it was this fellow in the Phillipines I got connected to.