Off-Line

My blog today is more of a rant. I apologize in advance. It’s just....well, you know if you read this blog often enough that several of us are internet addicts. Addicts! I mean, my icon has a computer mouse in it for goodness sake! I check my email every 5 minutes the entire time I’m at work and several times throughout the evening at home. At the old house, I had cable internet. Very speedy - 8.0, I think. Not super-reliable – every time someone digs up the wire, the whole neighborhood goes down, but they’re usually pretty quick at fixing it.

The new house was close enough to town that I could now get DSL, which is a little cheaper and I could bundle it with my phone, cellular and satellite service to save money and get some cash back bonus. I closed on the house Wednesday, had an appointment to turn on the phone Thursday and an appointment to setup the DSL Friday. All lined up in the neat and orderly way I do things. Thursday of last week there is a card on the door that says there’s no phone lines available and it will be setup within 5 days. I had to cancel the DSL appointment, of course.

Tuesday was 5 days. Wednesday was a holiday. I call this morning for a status as I still have no phone. They tell me its going to take another 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS!! That’s just for the phone. Then I have to get on the schedule for the internet installation. No way. Can’t do it. I don’t care if they have to run the phone cable from the phone company building 20 miles to my house – this is unacceptable. It’s a new subdivision, they should be equipped to handle the new houses coming in. They, of course, are not very apologetic about it. What am I going to do about it, right? Can't very well call and complain with no phone.

So I call my old cable company and decide to reup my cable internet and add the new online phone service – something like Vonage, I guess. Same price as the other guys, but includes unlimited long distance and all the bells and whistles. They can get out to install the internet on the 12th, the phone on the 17th. Not great, but better. We have cell phones, so the internet is the most important (read above: internet addiction!).

First time in my life I’ve said this, I think, but thank goodness for work! At least I can check email and blog from there. Poor DB has no access at all, forcing us to make several trips a week to visit my mother and use her computer. His internet addiction is far worse than mine and he is getting quite crabby. Normally, I'd suggest he install some cheap dialup software until we could get the high speed, but again...no phone line.

I can’t live this way. It’s making me crazy. I can’t do web updates for us or our RWA chapter without going to someone’s house. I’m way behind on email. I’m cut off from the world from 4:30 PM – 7:30 AM every night. The other night I even lost my cell phone (it was on my floorboard, but I thought I left it at work) and sat on the couch all night, not sure what to do. No phone, no internet. ARGH!

I know some of you are laughing and thinking things like “Fifteen years ago, we didn’t have all that internet nonsense.” I KNOW! What did we do back then? I honestly don’t recall. I do know that I was forced to do icky things like use the phone book, call stores and ask for their hours, do research in the library and buy an Atlas. The horror of it all. I can't buy a tv, shop for shoes, research a book, find a phone number...my life has just become wrapped around it now.

So, what can’t you live without?
SP

(PS. I won't be responding to any comments today because I'm not at work, ie. no internet access until Monday when I come back. Oh the suffering!)