Tone, no tone

Soon after it begins to rain, the telephone dial tone becomes worthless. This used to affect a lot of people, but I think they've all switched to other telephony and don't care that much about their land lines these days. Several crews worked at a nearby pole for several days; the verdict was squirrels and something they did that let water in where it shouldn't be. The repair held for several months. But now we're suffering again. It's about being able to call out, not about incoming calls. The AT&T repair site seems to blame all dial-tone trouble on something inside a customer's house. So I'm not optimistic. The next time this happens, though, I'm going to request assistance. If a call does come in or go out, the noise on the line makes it impossible to decipher what's going on. More often than not, an outgoing call cannot be made; the bad dial tone cann't be broken. Modems don't work under these conditions, either. It used to be that, if it was rainy in Houston, incoming calls from other area codes would be met with the "all circuits busy" recording. Maybe that's what happens in the neighborhood.