rumiNATION

Our cable modem died sometime on Tuesday evening. Once RCN came out and confirmed that it was indeed the hardware and not a problem on their end, I headed out to secure a replacement modem. My internal compass originally pointed to Best Buy, but then I detoured to Walmart in Glenolden because it was a lot easier to get to. (I know, Walmart is horrible, non-union, sells stuff from China, blah blah blah.)

When I got to the store, they had exactly one kind of cable modem in stock - a Motorola Surfboard. This made the decision of which one to buy really easy, thankfully. And I'd actually researched this modem when I bought the first one 5 years ago, so we were good to go. I took it up to the cash register and that's when the story got funny/interesting for me.

So the lady at the checkout starts ringing me up and as she scans the modem, she looks at it with a puzzled look on her face. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what do you use this for?" she asks. I hesitated a moment, fearing this was perhaps a trick question. "I'm uh... using it for my internet connection with RCN...," I said. Another puzzled look. Seeing my chance to enlighten the masses, I said, "You can buy your own modem to use with their service and then you don't have to pay the modem rental fee every month." "Oh," she replies, "I was gonna say, don't they give one to you? I didn't know you had to pay for it." Yes, dear, you're not the only one who doesn't look at your bill when it comes in. But, nay, I won't go there. I'm trying to be helpful. "Yeah, they charge you $5 a month to rent their modem. So if I buy this one for $60, in a year it will have paid for itself. And my last one lasted for 5 years, so you figure I saved $240 during that time." This information is met by a look of dawning comprehension. "I guess that does make sense. But $5 a month isn't too bad, though." And I quit.

I guess logic only works if it finds a willing host.