-Caveat Lector- From: Bill Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ><< Both helicopters and small jet airplanes have been flying inordinately low >over my neighborhood for the past week or so, what ever that might mean... >> > >Quite possibily it means that they are doing ongoing air sampling, or maybe >something even more ominous.
Hmmmm...it's the "something more ominous" that I worry about... FWIW, 'my neighborhood' includes a couple of hundred acres of forested land, with a medium-sized lake from which flows a stream which about a mile downstream forms a smallish lake/large pond; until a few years back it was water company property, and the lake was the reservoir from which we got our water. Then the water company stopped using it for some reason, and I have no idea where our water comes from any more... The water company gave about 50 acres of the property to the local nature society (which already had some land adjacent to the water company property), and tried to sell the rest to a company that was claiming that it was going to build senior housing on the property. But it turns out that we have a state law which says that the state has right of first refusal when it comes to utility property going public, and the state successfully gained access to the rest of the water company property, and is supposed to turn it into a state park... But for years I've seen 'strange lights' over the lake/reservoir, which is only about a mile up the street from me... Another strange thing I've noticed for some time now is that the local phone company -- or at least a van marked as belonging to the company -- is out almost every other day, working on the switchbox that is by the driveway out of my apartment complex; this is no exaggeration, at least 2, often 3 times a week or more the phone company van is parked out there and someone in workman's overalls has the box open and they're doing something in it. They are out here so often, you'd think they'd build a permanent office for the workmen at that pole... And to complete the paranoia, over the past couple of months the local TV cable company has been installing digital cable in the area; they've made a big deal of it with commercials showing a clearly-marked van (marked with the name and logo of the cable company), and workmen in obvious workmen coveralls with the company's logo clearly marked on the coveralls... Yet in my own neighborhood, only when the cable was first being brought in -- last July -- did I see the cable company's clearly-marked van and men in the same coveralls as was shown in the commercial; I've had cable from this company since the mid-1980s, and whenever the company did a service call the 'cable guys' always came in a white van with the company's name and logo clearly marked, and they always wore the company coveralls... But these 'obvious' cable guys quickly disappeared, to be replaced by guys in jeans and teeshirts and strange orange trucks with no other markings, who were all over the phone poles in my neighborhood, stringing some sort of black cable which was distinct from the neon orange digital cable that 'the cable guys' had brought in (and which had been laid underground)... In September the cable company sent out a notice regarding the imminent switchover to digital, with no date given but instructions on what to do when it occured... A few weeks earlier I was out at my car in the apartment complex parking lot, when the onsite manager came by with a couple of the cable guys -- again, in clearly marked uniforms -- asking about getting into my apartment to 'rewire' for the 'new' cable...I was busy and didn't have time, and quite frankly would rather they not come in at all if it's avoidable.... They didn't push the matter, and like I said a few weeks later I got the notice regarding the eventual switchover... Nothing more happened until December; one Friday I was leaving for work (I work 2nd shift), and found an orange tag hanging from my door, from the cable company...it said that I had until the following Wednesday to schedule the company to come in and 'rewire', or my cable would be shut off... This was early afternoon, and as I look around I noticed that almost every door had one of these tags on it, which would suggest that the cable company has NOT been successful in gaining access to the majority of apartments in my complex to do this supposed 'rewiring'... I found the timing very interesting -- most of the people living in my complex would not be coming home until after 5pm; it was a Friday, which meant that the cable company would be closed for the weekend and unavailable until Monday, meaning people would only have 2 workdays, during the holiday season, to rearrange their work schedules to be home to let 'the cable guys' in (IF they showed up at time)... When I got to work I called the company on my break, and the gal I spoke to was surprised that the tag said that they were going to shut off my cable..."Oh no, your cable isn't going to be shut off! We just need to get in to put in the new digital wiring, it'll only take about 5 minutes..." For the life of me I can't begin to think of what it is they claim to want to do that they'd be able to do in only 5 minutes, it would definitely take more than 5 minutes if what they need to do is actually bring in new cable to the apartment and hook me up; I know, it took them more than 5 minutes back in the 80s to install the coax cable... So I explained to the person I had on the line that I worked nights, sleep a good portion of the day, and that my employer was requiring overtime, meaning that I didn't know when I'd be getting free time, and most of the free time I would have for the foreseeable future would probably be spent catching up on missed sleep... I don't watch that much TV to begin with; there are a few cable channels that I like, and in the winter I like having the Weather Channel to keep tabs on any approaching storms, but other than that I can easily get along without TV... So I prepared myself to be TV-less, or at least cable-less... But what happened is that towards the end of December, the channels got all messed up; the lineup changed, and I couldn't get half of the channels I'd gotten previously... I called the company, and was told that all I had to do was remove the splitter (it used to be an A/B system) and reattach the "A" cable directly to my cable box; once that was done, they were able to reprogram my box remotely, and I got all the channels back... Except for Animal Planet, which for some reason is CSPAN2; the gal I was speaking to from the cable company had no idea why that happened, but assured me that if I scheduled one of their cable guys to come out that he'd fix it, plus lay that digital cable in 5 minutes or less... As much as I like the Animal Planet, I can live without it...I have all the other channels I did before (plus a couple more), and I don't see any reason why I need digital brought in, since according to the company's brochure I'd have to pay extra to get any of the stuff available on their digital line, and right now I can't afford it...so why bother? But for the past 2 weeks or so, there have been some mighty strange looking characters purporting to be from the cable company, getting mighty pushy about getting into apartments to supposedly bring in this digital cable... These guys aren't in uniform, they wear skeevy jeans and faded flannel shirts and unmarked baseball caps and sunglasses, even when it's cloudy out. One comes in a beatup car, the other in a beatup pickup truck with no markings. They claim to be cable guys. They came around one day last week, and this past Saturday I came back from shopping, it was about 1:30 in the afternoon, and this guy in skeevy jeans and faded flannel shirt and unmarked baseball cap and dark shades (it was cloudy out, threatening to snow) came up to me as I was picking trash out of my garden and asked if I lived in that apartment; I had no idea who he was, but something about his looks and demeanor strongly suggested "undercover cop", maybe it was the shades on a cloudy day... So I lied, I said I was just visiting; he pretty much figured out I was lying, but what could he say? He only said something about needing to get into the apartment to bring in 'the new cable', then he went back down to the end of my building and entered the laundry room, in back of which is where all the utilities are, including I suppose the cable equipment. He didn't take off his sunglasses when he went in... He still had them on later when he not only banged on my door, but on about half the doors in my building, which suggests that I'm not the only one not letting these strange 'cable guys' in... I find the 'fervor' with which they are trying to get into our apartments to 'bring in digital cable' to be strange, and I also wonder why 'the cable guys' suddenly are no longer driving the clearly-marked cable company vans and wearing the clearly marked cable company uniforms, but rather look like typecasts from Central Casting for 'undercover cop type'... June <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
