Remember that old,OLD song, I think from the ’70’s? “Pave paradise and put up a parking lot,” dadada…..

Well, I had just about forgotten how wonderful DSL is, even to the point of sometimes grumbling about it being so slow. Then: disaster! Right in the middle of my work, I had three rather long blogs I had to complete last night, and had just got started when my DSL signal suddenly disappeared, and my internet connections went tango/uniform. Troubleshooting is the same whether it’s an aircraft, a radar, or a computer. First, I tried the other computer – remember, Nurse Jenny has the desktop now and it’s mostly off limits to me. No, it didn’t work either. I was really scratching my head by now. The wi-fi system was telling me that I had a signal but not an internet connection. Down I went, into the cabinet, and ripped out the modem. It looked like it was working, lights on and so forth, but nothing. Connected the laptop directly to the modem. Nothing. Connected the phone line directly to the laptop, did the dialup thing, and bingo, dialup, at 56K, worked. Well, as well as dialup works. You have to wait forever on it, but it gets there.

At this point I was pretty sure that all my equipment was working, I had checked the phone and it was working, and it was looking more like something wrong up the line from me. So I got on the phone with Bellsouth, and after the really frustrating obligatory period of talking to dumb – I mean dumb – computers, I finally got a live person on line. Don’t faint! I know it’s almost miraculous, but you really CAN get humans to talk to from the phone company at very extraordinary times, and this was one!

The phone company human did his thing and came back on the line, telling me what I did not need to hear. The dsl is down, and they can’t get it back on until Monday. I went ballistic! Monday!!?? Good God, man, I pay through the nose for this service, I have work to do, and you can’t get me back on till Monday?? “Supervisor!” I had a go at him, no help, he can’t get at it either. No one can help, the phone company cannot fix it until Monday. OK, then I’ll have to do dialup.

I spent until 0330 getting out what should have been done by 10 PM. I was fried, fritzed, and really tight-jawed. This stuff is so ancient, and so slow, I have to be more thankful for a good dsl signal when I get one back! All weekend I have been lurching forward at a snail’s pace, and having to get offline when someone needs to use the phone – I’d forgotten about that, too. GRRR….

OK, now it’s Sunday night. Guess who’s gonna get a cancellation call tomorrow AM? Bellsouth ring a bell??

I’m signing up for cable internet in the morning, they’re local,I know the techs, and I can find them if something goes down on the weekend. Now, if they could just get that satellite back up that crashed in the thunderstorm this afternoon……..