Our cable is out this morning, which means no internet, no phone, no nothing. I’m okay about the phone, and the TV–never much use either most days. But OMG, where’s my internet????
My plans for today are now in flux. This Monday was to be catch-up on everything I’ve ignored the last couple weeks. Which is a lot of email, a lot of internet surfing for specific items and information. Sending in my corrections, via email natch, for the galleys I just proofed. Dealing with the growing chaos of my One More Room–at which time I WOULD turn on the TV to distract me from dealing with said chaos.
Can’t do any of that. I had arrowed toward this Monday since Friday, when I finished a book. A few chapters of which were written in Montana on my new Surface– with my ancient DOS WP.
Yes, I said DOS.
My genius geek son found a way to make the new tech talk to the old. However, no one realized that the version on the Surface had a Canadian dictionary for spell check. Which isn’t recognized by my USA dictionary on my PC. But the genius geek fixed that just yesterday. So I need to spell check those chapters–and save my editor’s sanity–and send in the book. Electronically. Which I can’t do because–No Internet–and get THAT off my list.
Today was to be almost a mental health sort of day. Tie off those loose ends, deal with the piles of duties. How did so many duties become attached to the internet? Well, they did, and there is sadness in the House Of Nora today.
I can’t call to report the cable issue because, haha, no phone. So BW will report it from Boonsboro, where hopefully the 21st century is humming along.
He also started the Roomba before he left. When you have three dogs, a Roomba is essential. I don’t like walking over layers of shedded dog hair. However, I noted the quiet, went downstairs and spent a good ten minutes hunting for the Roomba. I figured it had gotten hung up on something, though this is rare. Looked and looked, down on all fours, peering under beds, chairs, tables, playing hide-and-seek with the busy little tool we call Raoul.
And began to wonder . . . could it have left the house? Just said: I’m sick of all this dog hair, and I’m out of here.
I finally found it hiding in the bedroom, claiming it needed to be charged. Since it sits on the charger when not in use, this puzzled me. But I dutifully cleaned it out of an amazing amount of dog hair, and put it back on its home base. Now I ask myself . . . this can’t be tied to the internet. This is simple electricity. But why? A coincidence, you say. But I don’t trust coincidence. And I think dark thoughts.
Is it a revolt? Should I go check the other appliances? Is this just the beginning, the first step into Maximum Overdrive?
I think I’ll go work out instead. Spend an hour or so in the gym and hope everything’s back to normal after. Of course, I need my DVDs for that, and the DVDs require the television–no cable, but still.
We’ll see how that goes.
One way or the other, I’ll answer emails and put the responses in the Mail To Be Sent folder, as I’ll put this.
If and when this posts, you’ll all know No-Internet Hell is over. For now.
Nora
Wow, Nora! It’s amazing how we don’t realize how much of our lives are tied to the internet until we don’t have it.
I hope you’ll find some peace another way and leave those duties for another day.
I feel your pain. I remember when there weren’t TV’s in every home. Now I’m as tied to the electronic ball and chain, er, devices, as anyone. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve become dependent on these things!
Hubby says, if the batteries are dead on the roomba, then it is RE-VOLT! Lol he thought himself funny! Lol
Reading this, I’m remided of what Eve said about machines talking to each other and conspiring againt us humans. And I couldn’t help but laugh. Sorry to see a little humor in your grievances.I hope your day gets better and I believe it has, since we got this post. Have a great day!
I was thinking the same thing! Eve is right about electronics having a conspiracy against humans.
I feel your pain! I live in a place where the electricity goes out about once a month for a few hours. If the male humans are home, they go bananas – “When will the power be on?” [as if I know everything.] “There’s NOTHING TO DO now!” [and I am supposed to entertain?] and so on, ad infinitum. Glad you got your cable back, and can complete your “Mental Health Day.” 🙂
I think the Tech Gods and The universe are in cahoots and they’re trying to prove a point about how we mortals can’t live without them while getting their jollies from watching our confusion. LOL! I think a glass of wine is in order. I’m sure the trees around you are thinking about changing from green to some great Fall color. Sit outside and take in the wonderment of Autumn. Tomorrow is a new day and I hope it’s a good one.
Luckily for you, as long as you have electricity, you can play your DVD’s. You don’t need to have cable to play them, just a working TV. Hope your day improves and you get your internet back soon.
Well it seems you kept your sanity, got stuff done, albeit in an unconventional manner, and managed my entertainment segment for the day. All in all a great day’s work!
Nora, this just re-emphasizes my love affair with your writing, you make No internet hell sound exiting. Almost want to try it out my self…wait… nah I could not survive, even for an hour…. kudos to you!
Raoul must have been interfacing with the home system. You probably interrupted the finalization of complete takeover. The first time this happened to me, I called the phone company to get my old land line re-instated, which they told me a lot of people are doing lately. They’re not dependent on anything, not even the power. A few months later I got to test it and got a dial tone. I was very happy and its worth the cost. Glad you’ve got your very own McNab who understands your needs and keeps you going!
OMG! I hear you. This has happened to me. We were out for three days. I was amazed to discover how much we depend on the Internet. Addresses, phone numbers, shopping, contacting people, recipes, and in our case online food shopping to get food delivered. Hope it doesn’t last too long for you.
At least you have your own McNab. For me it’s my daughter-in-law who lives a 45 minutes drive away and works 50-60 hours a week.
Hey nora if you have a cell with a data plan and that your cable companie is your provider you can call yoir cable companie and ask them to comp. you unlimited data on your cell, then you can use your cell as a hotspot and use your home computer
Why not check in to a hotel with the magic speedy thing with which we all work wonders? Don’t you own an inn? If it’s full up, bummer. You have to pay for a room. But still.
I think leaving home in order to do at-home work defeats the purpose of the day.
Laura
I feel the pain, our wifi was out for ten days while we changed supplier (things move slowly in Cotland) an I was twitchy by the end of it… Wish I had a Roomba, sounds great!
My suggestion is forget the Internet and cozy up with your Irish Born Trilogy. That’s my favorite comfort book. Couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve read it, has to be 40+ and I love it. Would also love for it to be a movie but I like having my own visual of what people look like through your words. We have a lot of family medical stressors right now so Irish Born is my go to book.
I recall being without a computer for ~5 days after the internal hard disk crashed. Was heading out on a business trip too; had to buy extra stuff, as there was no computer to upload stuff to; and pay the expense of using the hotels’ business center to check mail. (Several thousands of dollars for new computer and disk recovery, I’m a believer in backup.)
And then a few years later, the mother board of my computer crashed. Fortunately, I had full backups and the gurus were able to upload my disk to a borrowed computer until they were able to diagnose the death of the mother board and I got a new computer.
I have also “branched out” to have my important email accounts accessible on my phone. (So that if I don’t have a working computer, I do have ability to post.)
But I have also experienced internet outages (one reason I left one “service” provider), but only minutes (compared to hours/days) of outage since.
Technology is a wonderful tool, and it’s frustrating when you don’t have it.
I can sympathize with all the frustration the lack of cable/internet has caused. It certainly does show how tethered we all are to our electronic devices. I wonder how we survived even 25 years ago. And, I am sure it would be time consuming to have to go through your manuscript and change all the Canadian spelled words to American. All I can say is sorry, eh (LOL)
I know the feeling but not quite that badly. My internet and cable are both connected to the same cable. I spent a couple of hours one afternoon without the TV or internet while they worked on my cable. I had never thought about how much I use the internet until that afternoon.
Hahahahahaha! I wouldn’t object to the Canadian spelling at all!
You are very lucky to have your own tech geek around to help. But DOS- my husband is a tech expert, so I know how old DOS is. But i don’t get one thing- didn’t you realize in Montana that your spell check was not working-? I hate to say this- but I see so much of Eve in your sentences on tech revolt and conspiracy, and I think it’s just adorable. Yes, you can hate and curse me, we’ll still be friends.
I don’t spell check until the final draft. I wasn’t on final in Montana, so never used it.
That is so frustrating… I had this same problem recently it took the two days to fix it… Thankful I have lots of DVDs and books to keep me occupied…. I loved how there was a brief moment thinking Raoul may have deserted due to excess dog hair… There was a. It of Eve in this post with the distrust of machines…. I hope all is well and your cable, phone, and Internet stays up amend running with no new hitches.
Want to see total meltdowns at our house? Try no internet hell. Amazing how many things are tied to the internet these days. And DVD’s will work without the internet on TV. Just have to change the setting to DVD
Our Roomba has a name, Jenashdee, after the 3 nieces!
We were in Boonsboro staying at your Inn — would have loved to have run into BW -lol — as beautiful as it was outside — I would have said the heck with the Internet and all things electronic and just stayed outside !
It’s amazing (and somewhat startling) to realize how dependent we are on the internet. I was just sitting here this morning being frustrated at work because I can’t process accounts without being able to get into QuickBooks (online) and pull the information. I am old enough to remember that not being a problem and it makes me somewhat amazed at how reliant we have become. Glad your no internet hell is over. I keep thinking about the Roomba, but I’m always afraid my pug will destroy it when my back is turned like he does most other things. LOL
You started my day out with a big laugh. Am still laughing, because I have gone through the same with my telephone, internet and direct tv, and have become so unglued. Oh, how we all have our addictions. At 71 years old , I would have never thought that I would be so dependent on the internet (especially facebook. Just finished Devoted in Death, and enjoyed it very much. Take care of my favorite Author.
Glad your internet is back and your day will start to normalize. Some days I long for DOS – when things aren’t working right on this ancient Dell Dimension with XP that I won’t let go of even though I have a new laptop in the bedroom. I used to make websites with DOS and I met my husband on a local DOS-based bulletin board here in St. Louis back in the early ’90s. Good luck!
Glad to see you got your Internet back. Isn’t it crazy how dependant we’ve become on technology?
Did Eve get her paranoia from Nora, or vice versa?
Just out of curiosity, were there any cows in the area?
Thanks for the laugh. As I read it I laughed more and more because I could picture what you were going through.
things fall apart quickly, at least for a while, when something zaps a computer system – look at what happened to that airline the other day (Southwest?) when they had a computer glitch – lines out to the parking lot! Where is Feeney & his crew when you need them!
LOL. I know it’s not funny, but I have these days often. And my Roomba went on strike with all the pet hair long ago. I use one of those construction sized dust mops and go through the house daily with it.
I love my goldens though so I just deal with it.
Dawn
I feel your pain about the Internet and television being down. I came home from work one afternoon and my husband greeted me with the same sad news. I phoned my cable provider to ask about outages and was informed that there were none in my area. The technician then pinged my lines and informed me there were no problems so we set up a service call. During the service call it was discovered that our cable line and one of the neighbor’s had been cut in half. Apparently an installation tech from another provider had cut the line when he was connecting another neighbor to the other service.
The service technician wondered exactly what had been “pinged” by his counterpart the day before. Thankfully my cellphone has audible books and my iPad has movies and books downloaded so I could amuse myself during the outage.
I either need to purchase a roomba or avail myself of the vacuum device my hairdresser uses at his salon for thedog hair problem at home. Never an easy task battling the dog hair since I have a border collie/Great Pyrenees mix and a Labrador retriever.
I loved using WP in DOS. I have to use word at work and despise it and the other MS products.
Glad the technology revolt did not last for long. ??