Work on the patio is progressing. Removing the 50-year-old concrete next to the garage revealed the underground conduit holding the pairs of copper wire used for the Plain Old Telephone System, or POTS.
A long time ago, before Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, I explained the trouble I had with that old Telco wiring.
“With the old copper wires the telephone crackled when it rained, even after Verizon swapped wire pairs in the buried pipe, so we were glad to be rid of it.”