Unplugged

I don't smoke or do drugs.  Never have.  I am somewhat addicted to eating, but don't go through withdrawal symptoms if I'm not around food at all times.  I never thought of myself as being addicted to the internet, but since I've been home, I've been going through a real withdrawal without it.

I didn't worry when Ashley wrote to tell me there had been a power outage and the modem was not connecting.  I explained to her what I do to kick start it.  She tried and had no success.  I figured I would fix it when I got home.

But it didn't work.

I did what I always do (unplug, replug) and still no internet.   No internet means no iPad, no Facebook, no e-mail, no streaming video from Netflix.   I was able to connect to parts using my smart phone, disconnecting the wifi and just using the 3G.  But it's so frustrating for someone who communicates the way I do with a keyboard to try to type feelings one letter at a time on a text message or e-mail.   

I called our internet provider.  The nice thing about having a local provider is that you can call 24/7.  Of course there was nobody there over the weekend.  There was an emergency number, which I recognized as the personal cell phone of the guy I've worked with for 20 years.  I decided this wasn't THAT much of an emergency and that it could wait until Monday when the office was opened.

I reviewed all the times I've had fixes before, and dutifully wrote everything down, but having all those important numbers to enter didn't really help when I didn't remember WHERE to enter them and how to get to the screens I needed to get to.

By last night I was really going into withdrawal.  Words are my life and writing is what keeps me sane.  There are so few close friends in my life that I have nobody to go hang out with or call to get that social connection I crave so I really count on my internet relations.

This morning came and I didn't remember what time the office opened.   I gave them to 9:30 to answer my pathetic message left on Sunday and finally I called and miraculously got someone right away.

I always feel like such an idiot because I know they ask me questions and they are difficult to answer.  For one thing, my modem is on one side of my desk and the telephone is on the other and there is a mountain of stuff (most of it being the computer tower) between the two, so when he says "what is it saying on the modem?" I can't tell him without getting another telephone and then digging the modem out and trying to decipher the symbols I'm seeing.

We had a bit of a confusion because I was thinking "router" when he was talking "modem" and when I finally understood what he meant when he asked me about the modem, I told him there were no lights showing at all.

"It's unplugged," he said.

Unplugged?  That's it?  I've been going through withdrawal over something that was simply unplugged. 

Then I remembered that this isn't the first time that visiting dogs probably got under my desk and loosened something.  Problem was, though, that I couldn't REACH the damn cords.  The flashlight we keep handy for situations like this wasn't where it should be (due to a major kitchen clean up Walt did before we left).   Walt was out picking up our mail and going to the bank and didn't come back and didn't come back.  I have a hard time getting to my knees to check things out, but I was so desperate I actually did get down on my knees and everything that I could reach seemed to be plugged, but the modem cord went into the vast morass of cords that I need a flashlight to see.

Walt came home, found the flashlight and went probing around and got the modem plugged back in again.  But I still couldn't get internet access.

Called the provider back again and he insisted that there was a cord unplugged.  I couldn't see how because nothing had been removed and everything that was plugged in was plugged in tight.

But then Walt found a cord hanging.  I can only assume that Ashley or her boyfriend unplugged the router from the modem and didn't plug it back in again...it was plugged in much too tightly for a dog to have accidentally loosened it.

We got it plugged in again, but things still needed to be tweaked and together the rep and I managed to do that and finally ... finally ... we have internet access again.

I feel like a druggie who has just finally had another hit and all is right with the world again.

OK.  I admit it.  I'm addicted.