missing in action

While leaving Ozzie's apartment yesterday, we noticed a young man talking with the owner of the Red Lobster restaurant in Villa Obregón.  The young man was wearing a Telmex shirt.

It was the logo on the shirt that mattered to both of us.  Over a week ago, I drove Ozzie to the Telmex office in Manzanillo to sign him up for a telephone line and internet.  The very efficient woman who took the order told him he would have a working internet connection by the end of the week.

Well, a certain hurricane and a subsequent flood put paid to that promise.  Of course, the connection does not yet exist.

I have my own complaints with Telmex.  Eleven days after the storm and I am still without telephone or internet.

Ozzie wanted to stop the guy in the Telmex shirt.  I thought it was an exercise in futility.  He was obviously a salesman -- with a chart of Telmex's internet service packages in his right hand.  Sending a salesman into a neighborhood that still lacks telephone service struck me as the equivalent of sending a David Duke canvasser into Harlem.

But Ozzie asked.  The young man appeared to have been well-briefed.  Yes, he was just selling internet packages, but he knew new installations would not occur for at least ten more days -- not until current subscribers had their service restored.  He was even aware my neighborhood in the barrio was without service.

So, it appears that I will be posting the occasional errant message thanks to the good graces of either Rooster's or Papa Gallo's.  It is Papa Gallo's today.

I currently have over 2000 messages in my email inbox.  For those of you awaiting responses, I promise to get to the as soon as Carlos Slim deigns I am worthy of his internet services.