OK.....I promised....at least to myself...that I would not continue to skip a day of writing on here......but (isn't there ALWAYS a "but").....yesterday the internet went down here at the sticknbrick and I had no service until about noon today! The story????.........
Yesterday morning when I hauled/drug my sagging ass out of the bed, I made my usual coffee...and sat down to read online the emails and the morning newspapers. Ok......I tried to get online....and the screen flashed that the server was down....no internet!!! WHAT THE HELL????!!!! With my laptop sitting on the bar at the edge of the kitchen, I got up and went into the den where the wireless modem is located......and, the red light was flashing on the DSL light....and the rest of the lights were very erratic. Soooo, I unplugged the power and the DSL cable from the back of it....waited the required amount of seconds......and then replugged everything......and it worked!!!.......FOR ABOUT ONE MINUTE!
Soooo, again I went through the process of recycling the modem......three different times, with no positive results. Sooooo, the ordeal began.............I called AT&T, and after going through the required answers to the tinny sounding answering service, I found myself talking to a young man with a heavy accent.....soooo damn heavy that I had to ask him to repeat most of what he said....slower....so I could understand him. He was in Manila....I asked him where I was talking to......and for the next almost two hours....repeat: TWO HOURS......I talked with him about my problems....and he attempted to get them fixed. The main problem ????.........
We had decided after much discussion to disconnect our landlines...our sticknbrick telephones, of which we had six in various rooms around the house. AT&T did that during Wednesday night.....and with the internet service being DSL with AT&T, this confused everything since the internet came in on the telephone lines. Sooooooo, the young Manila Man worked with me to get the modem reconnected, re-registered, etc., etc., etc. with new passwords and system ID and no phone number.....so, I had to talk with someone else to get a strange number assigned to our account....and on and on and on and on. And when that was all completed....and my battery was about out on my iPhone......I had internet service...........until...
About 30 minutes later, red light was flashing once again. Soooooo, over the next 7 and a half hours, I was on the phone with AT&T with 12 other voices....humans.....on the phone attempting to get this problem resolved. About 7pm....this ordeal began, remember, at 8am......I finally was connected with a tech service manager in StL!!!!! YEAH!!!!!! MISSOURI!!!!!! Not the Philippines, not India, not California, not Nevada, not Washington state, or wherever else I was connected to humans might be.......and this great guy walked me through the problems AGAIN for the umpteenth time after telling him my story about no service, no telephones, DSL......everything that I had told all of the other 12 voices on the other end of the phone during the ENTIRE DAMNED DAY.......and he finally began to check his machines and was able to tell exactly what the problem was......a bad wire/cable somewhere down here between my sticknbrick and the AT&T office less than a quarter of a mile down the street!!!!!
Sooooo, he set me up for a service tech man for today...Fri.....and then he called me back to tell me the times he might be here....between 8 and 12noon. Soooo, happily, but exhausted I day on the phone was over. In fact......hahaa....I asked the guy in STL if AT&T had medical insurance??? He stammered, wanting to know why I asked.....and I just told him that I was going to have to now have surgery as my iPhone was grown to my ear...and that it would be impossible to get it off short of having it surgically removed!!!!! He did laugh quite loudly.....and we ended the evening that way. I fell into bed........and was gone very quickly!
FRIDAY/today: Up at 7am.....coffee and morning rituals.....and at 8:15 the phone rang and it was the service guy.....telling me he would be here in about 5 minutes. OK.....he arrives at the front door....and asks me what my problem is with the internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD GOD.....he was supposed to know all of this since the guy in STL had told ME what needed to be done.....surely to goodness he must have told him when he made out the service trouble ticket.....wouldn't you think????!!!!! Sooooooo for the second umpteenth time I went through the same damn story......and soon, this guy named Tom was off and going around the house with equipment. Well........he was gone....and gone....and gone....and then he was on a ladder fixing a wire/cable that had been almost on the ground next door at our neighbor's house and this wire had been soooo low ever since the inland hurricane which we experienced last May 8th!!!!!
Finally....after getting here before 8:30, he came to the door at almost 12 noon....and said he was finished and I should have great internet connection. Some wires were crossed and put together wrong....at some point in time.....and he got them fixed......that is a quote from him. GREAT...I thought..................uh oh....I went inside and in less than 5 minutes online, the red light was flashing AGAIN!!!!!....and there was not intenet!!!!!
Sooooo, I called Tom back....I had his phone number on my iPhone...and told him the problem. Well, of course...he was on another job. He returned to the sticknbrick about 30 minutes later and I told him things were not working correctly...no service!!! Soooo, suggested that I hook my laptop up to the modem with an ethernet cable and see if that would help......and, at first it did....but then the service went down three times within 20 minutes!!!! I called him back....and he said he would try to come out here tomorrow morning. I finally suggested that he call me first...just in case it decided to work....somehow! Sooooo, by 4:30 we talked again......and it had worked for an hour without breaking down.....!! He agreed to call me in the morning........
With a dinner engagement at the Hanner House at 6pm.....I decided to have a glass of wine......and before I left here for dinner....I had had at least three.....ummmm, perhaps four!!! TWO DAYS OF HELL on the phone!!!!!
Dinner was great....relaxing...and quite a bit more wine, plus some of that incredible "1921" Creme de Tequila of which I had brought back a bottle for the Hanner's and gave it to them in Mobile, Alabama when they were there for the wedding. And now.......I am on the internet.....and we shall see what tomorrow brings forth...........
And.......I suppose that these internet problems are minor to the problems that sooooooooo many others have which are soooo much more important to their daily lives than this was/is to me......so, as always........
LIFE IS JUST REALLY, REALLY GREAT!!!!!!!.......And, I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!!!
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