Can you hear me now?

Two days ago I reported "noise on the line" to my telephone company. The static was so bad I couldn't hear a damned thing anyone said to me. I got an automated call on my cell (they have you give an alternate number) telling me they would be out YESTERDAY between nine and five. No dice. At seven pm, I got another automated call apologising that due to unforseen circumstances they wouldn't be out that day, but instead TOMORROW (no, really?). So today, the guy come to my house and wanders about checking things before ringing the doorbell.

Nice guy. But he took one look at the daisy-chained boxes attached to the side of my house and said, "huh. That doesn't make a lot of sense. Why'd they do that?" to which I had no reply, other than this ISN'T the first time someone has found something screwy with the way they set stuff up (hi, plumbing, I'm talking 'bout you!).

He pretty quickly determined that the noise on the line was outside in the neighborhood somewhere, and he went off to find and fix the problem. I'm surprised I was the only one who contacted them to tell them Whoa, STATIC! He came back after a while and said that since he was here, he was going to install an NID. And he rewired the soon-to-be-three telecom boxes hanging off the side of my house, to just the one. But I now have an NID. And I know how to use it (he says so many people have no idea they even have one - I at least was telling the truth when I said I didn't actually have one!)! So even if the short in my house becomes a big problem, I can hook up a phone line to the outside jack and bypass the whole damned thing.

And now, when they ask me if I have tested the NID when reporting a problem I can tell them honestly yes or no, and no go "huh?"