Friday, August 24, 2007

A VERY BAD MORNING

Nothing, I repeat nothing is more frustrating than a computer that refuses to connect to the interweb. It is just about the most annoying thing that can happen first thing in the morning. It screws up my whole day. I’m bad enough in the morning anyway, but no connectivity is enough to send me on a rampage.

It all started yesterday when I got home from town in 90+ degree heat to discover no electrickery in the house. No biggie in and of itself, but, that brings with it no air conditioner, no propellers, no TV, no lights, no phones (except for mobiles) and no computers. First order of business was to move the fridge away from the door to the hall to check the fuse box. All the switches were up. Then of course the fridge had to be pushed back to its place blocking that door. Next order of business was to check for power company vehicles outside. No such vehicles, but there were three guys wearing power company hard hats at a building across the way. Ok, I’m no mathematical genius, but even I can add that up and get the right answer! The next order of business was to open the shutters in my room as wide as they’d go, and settle in with a book. I drifted off to sleep and was rudely awakened by our drug addict neighbor playing ‘bang the fence’ loudly with his sister’s kids right outside my window. He also had to yell at anyone who walked by that there was no power and that it would come back at 1500. That would have been no big deal except he has one of those high pitched whiny drug addict voices that makes you wish for chalk screeching on a blackboard. Thankfully he was wrong by an hour. The power came back at 1400 which sent me on a clock resetting mission, and an e mail check. No interweb on the big computer, so it was off to unplug the WIFI thing, restart the computer, and re do the whole thing three more times before giving up. None of my usual tricks worked and I figured that maybe it would sort itself by morning, but, that was asking too much, wasn’t it?

I got Peg out; coffee made, and then started my jack in the box imitation with the WIFI thing. No joy with this or the lap top. Moving right along to the last step, I called the geek and he’ll be over later. Nice. Later. How am I supposed to start the day without e mail? That was solved by deciding to write this post on Word. I’ll copy and paste it to post later. My dear geek said “later” which is not exactly an accurate time reference. I have to make a quick run into town, pick up a few things, or wait for him and hope that he’ll get here before everything closes. That is not a decision I should be making this early on a no e mail morning. I just can’t wake up properly when my morning routine is disrupted.

It only took an hour on the phone with the cable people to get them to send a techie to replace the old modem, but after repeated threats to go over to their competitors with all of my cable stuff which includes my TVs, a phone line, Striar's phone, and Orna's TV, they decided that it might be wise to send someone. He just left and I managed to get the dialer downloaded. The WIFI can wait until Sunday when my geek will have more time. I'm happy as long as I have the basics on one computer.

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