The Sin Bin: The Fiber Is Not About You
The Sin Bin takes on a Victor reader annoyed that Silver Star fiber crews are digging up yards and parking next door. Sully's advice is to do nothing.
What is this? The Sin Bin is The Valley Signal’s advice column for people who don’t deserve it. The sin bin is the penalty box, where you go when you’ve screwed up. You write in with the mess you’ve made of your life, or your neighbor’s, and Sully tells you what you already know but you’re too soft to admit. No soft problems. No participation trophies. No closure. Every story has a pylon, the useless person standing there while the play moves around them. If you can’t spot yours, it’s you. Keep it short or get benched, and send it to [email protected].
Sully,
The local ISP Silver Star is digging up everyone's yard to put in fiber finally. They sent me a letter about this back in Covid and now it's 2026 and they're parking their trucks all over the open lot next to me. The owner called the sheriff on them but now they're still parking there and digging up the yards to put fiber in to everyone. I don't even care, I have Starlink. What am I supposed to do?
— Silverstar Struck in Victor
Buddy, you are supposed to do the hardest thing a modern American can do: nothing.
Not “nothing” as in post twelve photos to Facebook and ask if anyone else is “concerned.” Not “nothing” as in wander outside in Crocs and supervise men with shovels like you’re the commissioner of dirt. Not “nothing” as in write “any updates?” under a county post about chip sealing.
Actual nothing.
Silver Star is finally doing the thing everyone screamed at them to do for the last decade, which is put fiber in the ground so people can send emails, stream football, run businesses, attend Zoom court, upload architectural renderings nobody asked for, and pretend their remote job is why they moved here instead of the ski pass.
And now that the fiber is arriving, the complaint is: the trucks are visible.
This is how infrastructure works, kid. First it is missing and everyone is furious. Then it is being built and everyone is furious. Then it works and everyone acts like it grew naturally from the soil between the sagebrush and the dog poop.
You have Starlink. Congratulations. You own a pizza box that talks to space. Very impressive. The rest of town still benefits from not having its internet depend on whether the sky is mad that day.
The open lot next to you is the real issue here, because an open lot in Victor is basically a blank canvas for every neighbor’s private fantasy. Some people see workforce housing. Some see a future coffee shack. Some see “open space,” by which they mean land they do not own but would prefer nobody else use. Some see a place where trucks can park while crews install fiber.
And then there’s the owner, who called the sheriff.
Beautiful. Local theater. The sheriff gets dragged into a parking dispute because somewhere along the line we decided every inconvenience needed a badge and a county vehicle. Unless the fiber crew is hot-wiring a backhoe, stealing calves, or trying to trench through somebody’s living room, this is probably not the Wyatt Earp moment everyone imagines.
The pylon here is not Silver Star. They’re annoying, late, loud, and probably communicating like the whole operation is being run off a fax machine in 1998, but they are at least moving.
The pylon is whoever wants the benefit of modern utilities without the brief ugliness required to install them.
Could be the lot owner if they just want to yell without solving the parking issue. Could be the neighbors if they want fiber but not trucks. Could be you if you’re pretending not to care while writing to an advice column about it.
So what do you do?
First, figure out whether the trucks are on your property. If they are, say something direct: “Don’t park there.” Not a manifesto. Not a Nextdoor novel. One sentence. If they keep doing it, call the company and the property owner, then escalate like an adult.
If they are not on your property, congratulations, you’ve been promoted to spectator. Grab a coffee and enjoy the show.
Second, if they are blocking access, damaging irrigation, ripping up landscaping, or leaving behind a trench that looks like a Civil War battlefield, document it. Photos. Dates. Names on trucks. Then send it to the company and whoever manages the right-of-way. Boring works. Screaming usually just makes you the guy they warn the new crew about.
Third, stop confusing “I have an opinion” with “I have jurisdiction.” This is a common valley disease. Symptoms include staring out windows, using the phrase “my understanding is,” and believing proximity creates authority.
Fiber installation is temporary. Better internet is permanent. The trucks will leave. The dirt will settle. Somebody will complain that the repair seed mix doesn’t match the native grass they never noticed before. Life will continue.
Your move is to stay out of the ditch unless there’s a real problem on your land.
Let the fiber guys fiber. Let the sheriff go back to sheriffing. Let the lot owner fight his own lot fight. And let the rest of us finally download a PDF without making a sandwich during the loading screen.
Sully’s Verdict: Don’t be the guy who complains about getting the thing everyone asked for.