A wasted morning

On the phone with Verizon. You have to grit your teeth and prepare to waste time, eons of it, to get anything done. I've never had decent phone service from them and long ago gave up expecting it. But the latest wrinkle is that callers to my home phone are informed that my mailbox is full. It isn't, because I listen to my calls every day, and remove them. So I called Verizon and after the usual interaction with the bland and irritating robot, I got somebody called John, who said he would call my phone and see what message he got, and get back to me. He didn't, unless "getting back to me" is a new phrase for hanging up. Just to make sure I had ground enough enamel off my teeth, I then called Comcast and informed them they could stop sending me letters threatening to suspend service, because I had canceled them at the beginning of the year. To make the day complete, I called the Boston Symphony to order tickets for a concert in July and found they were closed for something called Patriots Day. Whatever that is.