Monday, February 15, 2010

Isolation

Many of you were kind enough to point out that I was not readily available last week. I neither posted a blog entry nor anything on Facebook. I did not send e-mails. I didn't receive e-mails. I was virtually cut off from the outside world. No, I didn't lose my electricity or phone or cable. I LOST INTERNET ACCESS. Here's what happened.

On Friday Feb 5 we had another snow event. Not nearly as big as the one that clobbered Washington, Philly and other points north. But big enough to deposit a 7-layer of snow, a quarter of inch of ice, and another 5" of snow. And then we lost our Internet access.

Saturday, Feb 6. Still out.
Sunday, Feb 7. Still out.

Monday, Feb 8, I called my Internet provider. Ah yes, the dreaded ice on the towers up on the mountains excuse, er, reason. I could accept that.

Tuesday, Feb 9. I'm getting less accepting of no access. Besides, I'm paying for something I can't use. Called my Internet provider again. They sent a technician out in yet another snow event. He realigned our wireless receiver and said we should be fine. We actually had access. I broke out a bottle of wine.


Wednesday, Feb 10. We had intermittent access. I was able to do a little work, check some facts, and get bumped off about every five minutes. I put my Internet provider's number on speed dial and was on a first name basis with Mike and Neal in tech support. I couldn't hold the wireless signal, so I decided to see if I could get online using an ethernet connection. It worked. I moved my "office" into the laundry room so that I could be productive.

Thursday, Feb 11. By now, I'm damned cranky. I called my Internet provider again, only to be told that the problem was inside my house, so "not their problem." Thursday is supposed to be a work day for me, but it turned out to be a series of trials and errors. I bought and installed a new wireless router. So far, so good. Terry could get on wirelessly from his desktop. Neither of my laptops would attach. I spent two hours with the router's tech support. Finally, the frustrated -- but very nice technician -- threw up his hands and said my wireless card in my laptop must be bad. I took myself upstairs and into a time out. I read a book.

Friday, Feb 12. Okay, I was up early and ready to run all the diagnostics again. I reloaded the router program on my laptop. Still great connectivity as long as I was working in the laundry room, tethered to the wireless router. I tried my other laptop. A tweak or two and, voila, I was online. I disconnected the first laptop, took it back to my real office, tweaked it and, again, voila. I was online.

So, if you think I was being a snob last week, I might have been, but I couldn't reach out and let you know I was being a snob.

Sigh. You never know what a crutch the Internet is until it stops working.

4 comments:

Raine Chasing said...

Snow is awful. I hate it. I'm in the Franklin County area of VA and we got a ton of snow. Luckily we didn't lose power or my internet otherwise I probably would've gone crazy. I hate being snowbound.

Glad you're back up and running.

Betsy Ashton said...

Noelle, I'm over in Bedford and am still looking at the same piles of snow you are. When we lost Internet, I returned to an earlier, analog time. I read two books!!! And not on a Kindle either. Actual paper books with real pages. It was very satisfying and peaceful.

Clementine said...

Ugh. I hate it when that happens. Glad you're back!

Sally Roseveare said...

We were without power for two days, without internet for four. Like you, I got no work done. I hate it when that happens. The snow piles here in Bedford County aren't disappearing fast enough!