Moving the Cable

Some projects are definitely not one-person jobs, some definitely are. And some really could be one-person jobs, but would be much simpler, or even just less yucky or with a second set of hands. My most recent was one of those. I could have done it on my own, but knew my frustration level would peak far too soon if I tried. It was one of those projects that I knew would not play out as smoothly as imagined, and an extra set of eyes, hands, opinions, if not make it easier, would at least remind me to laugh.

I bought a new TV; flat panel (of course) requiring a new cabinet (of course), so I decided to take the opportunity to rearrange the living room, and put the TV in a new spot. This meant moving the cable (of course). I know I have the skills to do it. I know where the cable runs under the house, and I have the tools to do the work. But as I said, I didn’t want to do it alone, who wants to do the under the under-the-house stuff alone? So after acting all pitiful, I talked my Mom into coming to help. The original plan was that my sister would, but one of her kids was sick. Don’t get me wrong, Mom's more than just a back up - I just try to not abuse her with the yuckier (like going under the house) chores.

I told her my plan, she agreed in concept, and under the house we went. My crawl space is more like a walking space -- fairly tall, so you only have to watch your head when you are crossing under the floor joists. I only smacked my head a couple times, and I think Mom learned after her first smack. No large beady eyed critters were glaring from the corners, and only mid-sized spiders hanging around. We figured out where we needed to drill, to end up where we wanted the cable. I had already made a small hole in the wall. I'd found this cool doodad that the cable would run through, just big enough for the cable, instead of needing a full sized plate, and there by, needing only a small patch for when I decide I don’t want the cable there. From under the house we drilled, and drilled, and drilled! Not separate holes, mind you, but dang, these old houses are built! Subfloor, decking, bottom plate of the wall… it ended up being a hole about 4 inches deep. We ended up using the old fashioned brace and bit. Dad's tool supply comes to the rescue once again. Sure, I could have headed to the store to buy a really long bit for my cordless drill, but when would I need that again? And why spend money on that, when there's a perfectly good old fashioned tool handy. Definitely showing some hereditary behavior here.

At first, we thought we were drilling in the wrong spot. Once through the floor, and the bottom plate of the wall, shouldn't we see light? Finally with me holding the flashlight right up at the hole in the wall, Mom looking from underneath, she could see the light. Now to get the cable up into the wall, and with a wire hook, snag it. Yeah, it doesn't really seem reasonable when I type it. But that didn't stop us from spending about an hour farting around trying to make it work. We tried the thin wire to catch the cable, we tried a ball-chain to drop down through the hole, then we'd tie the cable to that and pull it up, we tried a coat hanger straightened out, sort of as a combo between the slip-down or pull-up method. Gosh, that small doodad needing such a small hole, was so nice. But it was not to be. So off to the store -- you didn't think we could do a home project without a trip to the store, did you? My favorite is HD, even though it is about twice the distance as L's. But where I live, that's 1 mile versus 2 miles. If I'm walking, it is enough to matter, but in the car? Nayh. We got the new plate for the cable outlet, looked at a handful of other things, Mom got something that was on her list... a typical run to the store.

Back home, bigger hole in the wall (so much for the future patch job that would be so easy), and now that we can see, I don't know how we missed the cable before. We were RIGHT THERE. From there it went easy; pull the wire through, put the cable end thingy on, new plate in. Cable hooked up, lights showing on the cable box; TV plugged in, HDMI running from the cable box to the TV. Run through the TV set up stuff. No signal. hmmm... really, there are so few parts. How can this be wrong. Call the cable company, "thank you for waiting, your call will be answered in approximately 18 minutes" oh brother. So we decide to carry the old, very heavy, TV out to the garage, and just as we are getting there, the lady come on the line! Shouting to the phone - "don't hang up, don't hang up! I've got something really heavy in my arms! just a sec!" Quickly setting the TV on the counter in the garage, I smash Mom's finger. Nothing broken, and she hasn't called to complain about major bruising. After telling my tale of woe, the cable lady says, "after you set your HDMI to cable, did you select that setting?" uh, no. So that works. Now, my cable remote that came with the new box doesn't seem to work, but my old one does. Um, yeah, I put the batteries in backwards. At this point, I'm blaming fatigue and hunger, not inherent stupidity. Please let it be fatigue and hunger.