I have a fetish.  Having a very good screen resolution on my TV. 

When I first visited Belgium at my friend Lydia’s home in Maarkedal, we’d sit down to watch a TV show.  And my eyes burst open!  The clarity of the images was far better than in Canada.  And Lydia said her TV was in the middle range while I had bought an excellent one.  This did not compute.

I arrived in Ghent in January.  The internet  provider I’d signed up with was a good one, so I had been told.  Trouble was, although the resolution was excellent during the day, it faded away to 720p or even 480p after supper.  That is … blurry.

Technicians came and went.  Reps on the phone tried this and that.  The consensus?  Everything is fine.  Of course the techs came during the day when indeed everything was fine.

I had many talks with myself, with comments like “You should be more mature, more spiritual.  Sharpness of image is not important.”  Except for me it is!  I’m willing to be seen as obsessed, living at the mercy of the technological world.  Having sharpness on the screen somehow does feel like spirit is entering me, especially if the story is moving.

I changed internet providers in June.  It was more of the same: every evening the blurring, reps and technicians assuring me that all was well.

For all these months of TV viewership, no one at either company said they’d heard of my problem.  Was I this alone in the world?  Was my apartment on the Oudburg haunted?  Was my vision declining so my eyes could no longer detect the subtleties on the screen?

Throughout all this, I have remained determined that somehow the problem will be solved.

Nearly a month ago, a rep named Omaima said “I know your problem and I’ve helped clients solve it.”  Oh my God – no longer alone, no longer perhaps seen as an irrational complainer.

Omaima worked with me in changing the cable connections between modem, TV, TV box and WiFi booster.  For a week, everything was golden, even at 8:00 pm.  And then back came the evening blur – not every night but some.  (Sigh)

“You’re not giving up, Bruce!”

Two nights ago I was on the phone with Gihane, another rep.  For the second time I heard the words “I know your problem.”

Gihane rebooted this and that, installed new software to deal with the bugs, and cheered me on!  “This should work.  Try it for the next two nights.  I’ll phone you on Friday.”

And … the screen resolution was excellent Wednesday and Thursday evening! 

We agreed that Gihane would phone me between 10:00 and 10:15 today.  Almost always when an internet rep has said they’d phone me at a certain time, they didn’t.

So I was ready at 10:00, scared that “one more time” would happen.  At 10:10 the phone rang.  Gihane was thrilled that it worked, that I was finally happy with the images I see.  She gave me her ID number so I can contact her if things fade again.

***

Long live the fetish

Long live the idiosyncrasy

Long live the success