Well This Is A Mixed Blessing....

Remember a while back when I was asking around about satellite broadband service? Well, a new wrinkle has been added to the equation. It turns out that Verizon is going to be laying DSL cable in our neighborhood in the next couple of weeks. That's right - the Butcher's House is going broadband! Woo-Hoo!

But there's bad news too - the line between the transformers out back goes through my fence and lengthwise right down the middle of the back bed of my garden. (Dominion Power was out marking their lines on Saturday - the electricity goes right under the garden path. Verizon will probably dig about three feet over.) This is because the garden actually extends a foot or two past the technical property line. Since we back up on County woods, this usually doesn't matter. But here it means that my power to get Verizon to go around is exactly that of Wile E. Coyote to avoid hitting the canyon floor after he's run off the cliff. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

After an initial bout of gloom about this prospect, it later occurred to me that things won't be as bad as all that. I don't believe DSL lines are all that big or require that wide a trench. If aimed right, the trench could actually miss a fair proportion of my plants. I suppose I can dig up the others and store them for a few days in mulch or sawdust. And as for the workmen tramping around, well, we've already had a killing frost and everything is either completly dead or just about so anyway, so it really won't matter that much.

So on the whole, this will be a major pain, but nothing fatal. And if it means getting DSL, then I certainly think it will be worth it.