September 13, 2023
I have a confession that will
come as no surprise whatsoever to anyone who is a loyal reader of my essays. I
am a creature…of habit.
I have often said, in one way
or another, “you know what happens if the day doesn’t start off right. It’s all
downhill from there.” On Monday and well into Tuesday of this very week, that
proved to be the case once more.
Friends, it’s never a good
sign when you are awakened because of a text ping and discover a message from
your Internet service provider that begins, “We have detected a service interruption
in your area.”
Our internet service provider
also is our television provider. You may recall that there was that dark, awful
day about a year ago when my daughter left a message on my keyboard informing
me that our provider was down, all across Canada. I think within that message
was the phrase, “welcome back to the dark ages.” That was the day when I
decided that we needed a radio so we could keep up on things if that every
happened again. But I digress.
I didn’t let myself worry overmuch;
we’d gotten through that day, and we’d get through this day, too. At that
moment I wasn’t awake enough to remind myself of my personal caveat about the
day not starting out right.
At first, things didn’t look
too bad. I was actually able to do Wordle (the third thing I do after my
devotional time and my look at my twitter notifications). But when I went to
check my email, I discovered that “that site is not available”.
Neither were either of the two
game sites that come next in my schedule: one that is a free acrostic game site,
and one that is an all-round game site (NOT a betting site, just a playing one).
After my acrostic and two other games—one a Mah Jong and one a match-three—my
next step in my morning routine is getting to work.
Working is writing but it is
also research. As it happens, I find that I need to stop several times in the course
of writing a story to look things up. Monday morning, that was what I was supposed
to be doing, and had to do before I could proceed with my work in progress.
But I couldn’t look anything
up because the response to practically everything was “site not available”, or “you’ve
timed out”. My usual solution to computer problems is that I go to the Geek
Squad and let them deal with whatever my challenge is. But that is impossible
to do if you can’t get on their site.
I sat back and practiced some
relaxation techniques. Likely, this was just temporary. I had been awakened
just an hour before by that message; probably, in the afternoon, all would be
back to normal. So, I took up my iPad and opened to a book I was reading and
went to my recliner to spend the morning there. David joined me because, of
course, his computer was having the same problem.
Well, the afternoon wasn’t
much better. I had Facebook; I had YouTube. But I had nothing else. I could
watch videos on YouTube but that is my end-of-day-winding-down-for bed thing,
because some of them quite literally nearly put me to sleep.
I turned my computer off and
then on. When I turned it back on, I saw there was an update ready. Hope
bloomed in my little heart. I performed the update, and when I started the computer
again, there was another update notification! Alas, all updates done, still no
change. I was stuck in a hell of timing out, or unavailable sites.
I went to bed confident that
on Tuesday morning, all would be well. Only it was not. Another day of regular routine
not started. This time I couldn’t even do my Wordle! I got out my laptop, just
in case the problem was computer specific. And once I updated that, I found I
had access to my emails, and other sites. But I didn’t want to use my laptop.
It’s small, and while it’s good to have when away from home, it’s not my usual.
But the one good thing was that apparently my problem was computer
specific.
I comforted myself that I had
options—I just needed to review what they were. I could do what I could about
maybe scanning for a virus; I could call tech support on the phone, both the
Geek Squad and my service provider. If needs be, I could take my tower into the
Geek Squad and have them check it. I had a plan of action!
So, I began a full system scan
on my desktop. And…. five and a half hours later I ended it. But in the midst
of all that, my daughter asked, “did you try shutting the router off then on?”
I hadn’t. I should have,
because I knew that if I called the ISP company that was going to be the first
thing that they suggested I do. It was mid afternoon, just before David went
for his nap. He has to perform the unplug/plug in because the router is under
my desk, and I cannot reach it at all. So he crawled under there, he reached
down and pulled the plug, waited a couple minutes, and then plugged it back in
again.
And that turned out to do the
trick. While David napped, I was able to ensure that all my sites were now
accessible.
It wasn’t until supper time
that I asked aloud why my laptop had been able to work but my computer had not
(same Wi-Fi). The suggestion was made that my router—installed in 2019—was old.
Four years is old? I know my eyes crossed at that point. It may be true. But I
will think about that, a bit later. Maybe. In the meantime, I focused on the
most important thing. My day, but more
importantly my next day, had been saved, as I knew that on Wednesday
morning (today) I would be able to return to my regularly scheduled
programming.
I would also claim that my
sanity had been saved, as well. Except that I know that the jury is still out
on that one.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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