The dish installer finally called me last night at nine o'clock, without apologizing for ignoring my messages for almost a week. "I think I had a message from you a couple of days ago," he said. I pointed out that I'd been calling him every day (but just once a day since so as not to make him mad) since Friday.

"If I don't have the signed work order, I might not get paid," he told me. "It's happened to me before." I explained to him that the dispatcher told me she faxed him the paperwork last Thursday. She said she'd asked him to call me then to set up the appointment. His voice trailed off as if he didn't want to discuss the possibility that he might be the one in the wrong here.

After I explained to him (as I'd had to explain twice already to his dispatcher) that I was exchanging a single dish for a dual dish, in order to hook up a TiVo receiver, he asked me if I'd bought TiVo or Ultimate TV. "TiVo," I repeated.

"I've installed a few of those lately. They've had a lot of problems with them. A couple of them have failed."

Well, thanks a lot, Mr. Negativity. That's not exactly helpful. I don't know anyone who has Ultimate TV (a Microsoft product, for whatever that's worth). But I do know, or know of, several people who have TiVo and love it. And I've already spent the money, so just install the dish and save the commercials, please.

I reminded him what I've been telling his voice mail and his dispatcher and her boss and the people I bought the system from in the first place, that I'm leaving Thursday for vacation and have to have this taken care of before then. "I can't make it tomorrow," he said. "I couldn't clear any time, getting the order this late, so the best I can do is 7:30 Thursday morning."

Well, 7:30 Thursday morning will be fine, I told him. If the system "fails," as he so ominously predicts, I probably won't know about it until after I get home. I don't think I'll be able to set it up to record anything while I'm gone anyway, because my understanding is that it takes a day or two to download the programming information so that it's available to use.

Anyway, it's not as if I have a lot of options. Maybe this guy isn't quite the jerk in person that he seems over the phone. I hope not, because (unless he's also a liar) he'll be here Thursday before I'm even completely awake. My self-control when it comes to ill-mannered louts isn't usually fully engaged when I'm half asleep.

And this is good news! The last major hurdle that I've been obsessing over is being handled, and I'm not going to lose the $350.00 assessment for not signing up with the service within thirty days of purchasing the equipment. And, some time after July 23, I actually will have a useable digital recording device functioning in my home, so that I never have to miss another episode of Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.

Man, this was hard to take, at the end of the day. I've been worrying about getting this all in motion, while still trying to get my work done. I did payroll right up to the start of the All Star Game last night, and then I remembered I needed to pay my personal bills. So that's what I did during the game.

I think my resistance is down a bit. I shouldn't let things get to me the way they have lately. My allergies are worse than they were all spring; I'm sneezing violently and breathing shallowly. My head hurts. And by the time I started trying to wind things down and get to bed last night, my back was aching, too. If I think hard enough, I can probably come up with a few more complaints.

But the end is in sight. Mom came by this afternoon so I could show her where the hoses get hooked up. She offered to water the garden for me while I'm gone. I left the details in her hands, since I don't have a clue what I'm doing anyway. I just hold the shower nozzle out and let the spray hit whatever looks like it needs it.

I pointed out to her some things that I never water. Those are the ones that seem to grow and spread without any coaxing from me, like the mint and the lamb's ear, and all those wild grasses. If they needed water, they could probably find it on their own, since they seem to get around the yard better than I do. Everywhere I look, there they are.

This was my last full day here, so it became all-day laundry day. The problem with that is that I keep forgetting there's a load in the washer that needs to be taken out and replaced, so it turns into all-day-and-all-night laundry day. I'm getting up early enough tomorrow morning that I can probably get a few loads in, if necessary.