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Monday, July 29, 2013

Technology - Friend or Foe



Why is it that when you need it most technology fails you?

For the second time this month, we lost internet service. The first time it was out for three and a half days. Granted it was over the weekend. Granted the cable company sent a technician out who replaced our router for free. But it happened right before my debut appearance on The Rose of Prose blog. I had the blog written and ready to upload. Alas, no way to do so.

Yesterday, we had intermittent service. I blame it on the #@$% modem I convinced Hubs we needed so we could link my non-wireless printer to our computers. Despite reading and following directions, that never happened. Unfortunately, that POS modem replaced a perfectly good one that didn’t give us any problems.

Frustrating doesn’t come close to how I was feeling last night when I couldn’t get online. No, not just to check Facebook or Twitter. I had this blog to upload, tomorrow’s blog for The Roses of Prose (yep, that time again), and my critique partner’s chapter to return. The last was the most important. We meet for lunch and critique today. Since the restaurant doesn’t have internet service, we have to return the critiqued chapters ahead of time. Sure we could go to a different restaurant, but then we’d miss the chips and salsa. No way.

I lay awake last night considering my options. McDonald’s, Burger King, or Big B coffee shop. Our town is so small we don’t have a Starbucks or Panera. I resigned myself to Mickey Dee’s with its hard plastic seats and yelling kids.

When I got up this morning, Hubs greeted me with the sweetest words: we have internet service.

In the grand scheme of things, losing internet service is not the worst that could happen. Just a darn inconvenience. I mean, it’s not like the day the Keurig didn’t work.


By the way, my post on The Roses of Prose blog will be live tomorrow morning just after midnight. I hope you’ll stop by and say hi. http://rosesofprose.blogspot.com/2013/07/fellowship.html

11 comments:

  1. How awful for you, not able to make coffee. We were evacuated one week because of a train wreck that could have been deadly. My first thought that next morning was where my first cup of coffee would come from. No Internet is frustrating too. Glad you figured it out!

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  2. LOL Margo. I remember that train wreck. Seriously, that could have been awful. A lot worse than no internet.

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  3. We don't realize how much we depend on the internet until we have to go without it! It's almost as disrupting as going without electricity - which in turn makes us go without good coffee. Fortunately we're not too far away from several fast food places. Glad you got your service back this morning!

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    1. Thanks, Patty. You're right about dependence on the internet. We expect it to be there when we need it.

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  4. No Keurig? *shudder* That would be the day the earth stopped spinning. And, I agree with Patricia. We depend so much on the internet now, and we don't even realize how much until it's gone!

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  5. I don't like it when technology goes on the fritz, which it often does! but when it happens I get a lot of writing done, lol! Gonna go check out your blog right now :)

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    1. We've gone several years with no problems then to have it happen 2x in the same month. Maybe Fate is trying to tell me something.

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  6. I can so relate. We've been having internet problems for a couple of months now. I bought a new router and hooked it up, went through all the dog and pony act you have to do to set it up, only to be told at the end that AT&T detected a problem and it wouldn't connect. I've tried calling them several times and that is the subject for another day. I ended up hooking up the old router until I feel up to calling them back again. Like you said, it's not the worst thing in the world to happen but nowadays we just have to depend on electronic gadgets so much that when we loose them we feel lost. Crazy, isn't it?

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    1. Unlike my children, I can remember a time without all the gadgets we depend on. Things that are supposed to make our lives easier only add to our frustration when they don't work.

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  7. I got sick of being bumped off cable internet so I got rid of it. I am amazed at how switching from cable TV and cable broadband internet service to satellite TV and DSL internet pretty much eliminated outage problems with the exception of power failures. Unfortunately, that solution doesn't help with the Keurig. Our old mini Keurig plugged up from bits of water filter charcoal while we were vacationing in a motorhome. I solved the problem--and saved our sanity--with a very low-tech tool. I cleaned the mess out of the tiny water reservoir drain using a lowly paper clip. When technology fails us, we have to rely on good old female know how. :)

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