As you may have come to understand from reading my post about T-Mobile, I do not like companies billing formats. Monthly service charges, taxes, fees, etc... all adding up to way more than you bargained for when you signed up. I would like to say, however, that there is one company that I love giving money to. That company is DirecTV. They are my satellite television service provider, and I love them. Since the day I signed up for DirecTV over 10 years ago, I have been 100% completely satisfied with everything they have ever done. I do pay quite a bit of money per month for my services, but in return I get a veritable shitload of awesome channels.

As part of their ever-expanding system, they have recently launched a few more satellites into orbit to enhance my viewing experience. Once the new satellites were in place, they began to beam down their streams in MPEG4 format, which has a smaller footprint than the old MPEG2 format. Better compression equals smaller signal, which in turns equals more shit fitting in the same pipe so to speak. So this is all a good thing. Once they flipped the switch on MPEG4, my hardware was not latest and greatest anymore, whereas it would not decode the MPEG4 stream, because it was invented well before the stream existed. Old technology. Once I realized that with newer hardware, I could not only get my local channels in HD through the dish as opposed to an ATSC over the air antenna, but that they also offered approximately 70 national HD channels, with another 30 or so coming in the next several months. Since I already pay for the HD service, all these new channels would come at no extra charge.

I had a few wiring changes that I needed to make prior to upgrading, because the new system also meant getting a new physical dish mounted to my roof, and if I was going to go through that upgrade, I may as well get everything all set exactly like I wanted to do the first time, but didn't. Also, I researched making the call to ask for the upgrade, to increase my chances of getting this done all for free. It seems as though almost every single person that calls ends up getting a different kind of deal for some reason. I had called a few months back to inquire, and they were trying to charge me $200 for the hardware. I turned the offer down. So, I had been tinkering with the idea of calling back, but I wanted to be well prepared.

So a few weeks back I am watching TV and the phone rings. It is DirecTV asking me if I would like to upgrade for free. What? Really?!? It is like they read my fucking mind. That's amazing! I emphatically say yes. They attempt to schedule for the following Monday. Wow, it was already Thursday, so that would only leave me a few days to get everything in order. I asked if they could move it to Wednesday, and they said no problem. They scheduled me for the install between 8am to 12:00pm. I checked the website after the call to confirm it got entered correctly, and it said 6am-8am. Well, ok, no problem, earlier the better I guess. Wednesday arrives, 12:00pm arrive, no installer. Hmmm. I call into DirecTV, and they immediately get the third party installer company on the phone to find out what's what. The guy says he is running behind, but he can be here between 1pm and 1:30pm. Ok, no worries, I am working from home anyway, while I wait for them to arrive. 1:30 rolls around and no installer, then 2:30pm... and he arrives. In fairness, he called at about 2:15pm and asked if it was still OK if he did the install today. Of course I say.

Ok, now, that's a lot of prep for the real meat of today's post, but I wanted to give DTV their props, they really are a top notch operation, and I highly recommend them.

Ok, so the guy starts working immediately. He installs the dish on the roof, which takes about 2 hours total, because he also, without prompting, installed a grounding mechanism and a nice drip loop, with separate connectors. A nice added touch that makes my system better all around. Anyway, so it is a relatively warm day, and I know he is hot and sweaty. I intend to offer him a drink when he comes in the house to install the receiver, but I forget to do so. After about 30 minutes of working in the house replacing wire ends and whatnot, he asks if I could possibly get him a drink of water. I say sure, no problem. Then I think about how I could probably enhance his drinking pleasure by offering him one of the many soft drinks I have. I go down the list... Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, sparkling water, Pepsi, etc... I had about 7 different varieties at the time.

He thinks about it for a minute, then asks if he could have some of the tea he sees in the refrigerator. The tea was not in a can mind you, it was in a 1 gallon pitcher. This threw me for a loop. This man is a complete stranger. He does not know me from Jesus, yet he has opted to ask for a drink that I made myself. Who the hell knows what I might have done to it? To some extent, its an assumption on his part to guess it is tea. I ponder for a second, sort of mumbling to myself, then I warn him ahead of time that it is not normal tea, that it is a mandarin orange type of green tea, that I sweetened with Sweet N Low, and not sugar. He says it sounds excellent, and would like a glass if possible. Wow. Really?

I pour him a glass, and then I think, somehow, that it will make him feel better if I had one too. Not that he would fee weird for asking, but that if I am also drinking it, it must not have three week old jizz floating in it. In my head, that was the justification. So I setup two glasses rather than one. He drinks some of the tea, and says it is very good, and thanks me again.

So, what in the hell would possess a person, in this day and age... in this Post 9-11 era to go into a complete strangers home, and opt out of canned sealed 'safe' drinks in favor of a mystery tea that some guy 'made'? Is it possible that this guy is just really trusting? Is it possible that maybe he is a risk taker that gets off on sampling peculiar beverages in the homes he visits for installs, to see if he ever gets a hold of one that's way off? Was he just raised that way? What the fuck?

I should point out a few things that may or may not be a factor. One, this man was black. Two, this man was not an American. He may have full citizenship, but I believe him to be a Jamaican heritage. Three, this man was VERY courteous and friendly, and eager to answer any questions I may have had. Do these things factor into his decision making process? I am 100% guaranteed NOT A RACIST [references available upon request], so do not let what I am about to type force you to form any opinions of me, but my personal experience seems to indicate that perhaps black people enjoy non-carbonated beverages more so than carbonated ones. This is based on my real world experience, and nothing else. My sample for study may be too narrow to produce effective results, but my findings at least appear to be worthwhile. Secondly, I have been to Jamaica, and most (98%) of the people I experienced there were tremendously courteous and trusting, so perhaps this carries more weight than the color study. Still, it boggles me to no end that he would make this choice. I naturally assumed he would not want it, that is why I never offered it up in the first place.

Put yourself in his shoes, would you ask for and drink a home made beverage in the home of someone you have never met before, provided that sealed canned sodas were clearly available? I wouldn't. In fact, I typically would opt for sealed canned drinks even at the home of my best friends. But, maybe there is a lesson here. Maybe his life is just a little bit better than mine, because he implicitly trusts his fellow man, and he is not afraid to try things that other people typically wouldn't. Thus, I am going to make an effort to be more receptive to what the world offers. So cheers DirecTV installer guy, and thank you very much!