Friday, January 16, 2009

When technology fails

I'm incredibly dependent on my technology, especially my internet connection. It allows me to avoid cleaning my house for one thing, but I do love FLYLady and her BlogTalkRadio shows. I can play on Ravelry.com and find knitting patterns that inspire me to finish that never-ending baby towel I started in June for my friend's baby who was born in late August. At the current rate I'm knitting it, I think it will be her gift for her first birthday. In any case, the DSL also is now my son's means to do his schoolwork on Florida Virtual School so he can stay on pace to graduate on time. So, I got up this morning to log on to the computer so he could do his schoolwork, and my modem was blinking, which means "no connection". I tried the usual tricks and to no avail. I called the phone company, and there's no signal coming from my modem. I have a feeling that with recent rains, and last night's freezing temperatures (yes, Florida gets cold, and last night was 17 degrees), that the phone line the dog chewed a couple years ago may have come apart just enough to stop internet, but still allow phone calls. We don't have the dog anymore, he died on Mother's Day weekend, and on my watch no less. Of course he wouldn't die on anyone else's watch, he made sure his Alpha dog (me) took care of him. In any case, before he died, there was a night he was trying to dig out, and I heard him yelp, then my internet crapped out on me. The next morning, I found a hole in the yard with the phone line chewed. Ah yes, that little zap is probably what made him yelp. Devildog is also an electrician by trade, and he patched the line, because he loves me and knows how much I must have my internet, and wants to maintain the semblance of sanity we get when Mommy can talk to her chat buddies while we clean house. (Ok, so I do some things but I cheer the other girls on while they actually work!) We scheduled a service repair and the phone guy got here at the same time Devildog had to be somewhere else and we only had one vehicle, so I had to take him there. I kind of suspect that the phone guy just relied on my husband's work, called the ticket complete and moved on to the next call. Well every time it rains, the phone crackles terribly. We hear static frequently. And lately, I've had connectivity problems and keep losing my internet connection. Today, it was gone. I called the phone company to see what their stuff indicated, and they aren't getting a response back from my modem. It might be back later when it warms up, but cold makes things contract and that could have been the last straw for the thread of wires holding things together. I had to set up the dial-up backup connection so the boy can do schoolwork, and a tech is being dispatched Saturday. So now we are going to be digging that hole back up so the phone guy can fix the connection. And I'm going to be making a mad dash to rescue my office area in case the tech has to do anything inside the house. THAT is what makes me afraid...except I'm sure the tech has seen worse. I mean for pete's sake, we haven't even taken the Christmas tree down yet! I asked for the kids to undecorate it a few times already but today I'm going to demand it, or I'll be moving the entire tree into the room of the primary tree decorator. At least I took down the outside lights the other day.

2 comments:

Persnickety Ticker said...

Doing better than me...our outside lights are still up. FCB couldn't get up out of his fudge coma to be bothered yesterday.

Anonymous said...

I have spent many an afternoon with my laptop sitting at Panera Bread because our Internet connection went out. The employees know when I show up, it's because I'm desperate to find a table with an outlet to plug in ... and I'll only buy a bagel and hot chocolate out of courtesy. LOL