A Momentous Monday
Posted By admin on September 6, 2010
We have lived in this house for four years. The day we moved in, we discovered we would not have DSL. We had dial-up Internet access. Dial-up. I get a little twitchy remembering that moment. I won’t even talk about the five hour chase through the bowels of AT&T’s so-called customer service to turn off our bill for DSL. All right, maybe I will.
“Wait–when you transfer me, as has everyone else in the past four and a half hours, will the next person be able to do anything for my problem?”
Silence. More silence. “Ummm. No.”
“Then maybe we could try to find anyone on earth who knows how to stop billing for a service I’m not receiving?”
“Oh. Okay. I guess I’ll try.”
Yes–it’s been a long, tortuous road.
So–then we moved on to satellite. Where no one mentions the bandwidth limit, and our IT guy (me), was not clever enough with the fine print. When you get within 75% of the bandwidth limit, and I’m married to a man who believes bandwidth is just a guideline for him, the whole works slow down to dial-up speed or worse.
So–last spring, I got the big idea of moving to a mifi–normally used by business travelers–and when you go over that 5G bandwidth limit (the beloved, again), they just charge you more. About two months ago, I realized two mifis would be less expensive than paying for the beloved’s excesses on one.
The beloved has not been all, “I’ll just use all the bandwidth, and you all can just enjoy my enjoyment.” Two years ago, he literally lobbied city hall trying to bring DSL to our little corner of the black hole (6 miles from the center of town). His operations included petitions and questionnaires and the gathering of people who were like-minded. Trust me, that’s no easy feat. We also have no HOA because every house in even a tiny subdivision has to be filled before our county will allow an HOA. Houses filled; HOA never gonna happen here. People are not like-minded. But–to return from my tangent, the several-month process he followed led us all the way to a meeting with the company representatives for the local cable services provider. After which, all our “earnest money” checks just returned in the mail one day.
Suddenly, about a month ago, the beloved learned that a member of his motorcycle group worked for that company, and the beloved asked him about the prospect of extending cable the 200 ft. or so it would take to reach our neighborhood. It was already in the works! Imagine. As though a fairy godmother had bashed us on the heads with her technological wand! Just ’cause she could.
Over the past four years, to send a file to my CP, to receive a file from her, to make an airline reservation, to shop online for a gift, I’ve had to use coffee shop wifi. (Tangent alert: I’m mystified that any coffee shop would turn off it’s wifi. Hello, California. I can’t be the only coffee/Internet addict. Do they know the profit they’re losing?) End tangent.
Last Friday, we got cable high-speed. We’re turning off mifis. We’re watching music videos. I am sorry to report that when I should have been working last night, I was watching Inspectors Lynley and Lewis online.
And now, I’m singing hymns of praise to our Internet connection. It drops occasionally, for no reason. People in our town find that annoying. You know what we do when it drops? We just hit that connection button on our screens and what-do-you-know–it connects again! At high speed.
But I’m going to have to do the unthinkable right now. Select “Turn AirPort Off” and get back to work on my tycoon! (I always want to say typhoon because of a Thin Man movie. Ooops, tangent again!)
It’s Labor Day, a holiday for workers. But I holidayed like crazy yesterday. Gotta work today. For those of you who aren’t making up for slacker time, have a lovely holiday. I hope you’re enjoying friends and family and cookouts and fun.
I’ll be over here, culling words, adding words, and listening to rain on my headphones while I toil–and avoid using that excellent connection just a software menu selection away!
Happy Labor Day!
Comments
Leave a Reply
Please note: Comment moderation is currently enabled so there will be a delay between when you post your comment and when it shows up. Patience is a virtue; there is no need to re-submit your comment.