Yesterday I got the bright idea to cancel the satellite internet and swap back to DSL from our local telephone company.
Well, actually it was my son’s bright idea but I went along with it. So I called the satellite company and jumped through the hoops until they agreed to terminate my service. Then I called the telephone company and the phone rang, rang, rang until the answering machine came on.
Ah-ha. It was already past business hours there and no one would be around until the next morning.
Called son to let him know his bright idea was flawed and to let me know when the satellite service ended. Two minutes later he called back to say, yep, they just cut it off. So I went home knowing there’d be no communication with the outside world until the next day.
My internet service is one of the two modern conveniences I really enjoy. The other is a washing machine. Everything else could fall by the wayside and I’d be just fine.
Turns out I’ll be just fine without internet too, except that it’s the only way I can ‘talk’ to Rob while he’s in Afghanistan.
Came to work this morning intending to make my blog post and guess what? No internet at work either. Technical difficulties. Called the phone company and they agreed to fax the contract for me here to work, but guess what? Our fax is tied to the server, so again tonight, we’ll likely have no internet.
This morning I had to alter my routine a bit because ordinarily I get online and email with Rob and check my Twitter and Facebook accounts. Instead I brought my laptop to bed and while the kitchen and bathroom warmed up I edited some on Symbiosis.
That felt quite productive and I think I’ll do it again tonight and in the morning. Besides, when I made my projection for how many pages per week I needed to get done in order to have the whole thing finished by Chicon, I’d forgotten about my 2 week writing and blogging hiatus.
So I have extra pages to do in order to get on track with that in mind.
This morning I went outside to feed horses, chickens, cats and dogs. With no small sense of satisfaction I observed their water nice and defrosted still, even though it was a brisk 14*F. So add power to the heat tape and bucket warmer to my list of modern conveniences I love.
Otherwise I would have been heating rocks to drop in there for them and hauling gallons in the wheelbarrow to the bottom of the hill. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a wheelbarrow filled with gallon jugs of water from toppling when it wants to obey gravity and you want to go slow on the rocky frozen ground?
