Monday night we lost our internet, our two landlines and our tv connection. We’re hooked up to Verizon Fios and have been for years. We love it and have never had a bit of trouble with the service.
But it all came to a screeching halt at 8:30 pm.
A call to Verizon led to a young woman (possibly overseas) talking us through the troubleshooting of the equipment. Two hours later, in the workroom of the basement while standing on a pallet of leftover roof shingles, Banjo Man lost patience. He shone his flashlight on one of three opened Verizon panels and once again told the woman that he did not see a white cord inside the medium-sized box to unplug. They had had this discussion for close to twenty minutes, if not more.
The cord was red. It was not in her script.
She said a technician could be at our home on…Friday.
Banjo Man, who runs his business here at the house, cannot possibly be out of touch with clients and the internet for a few hours, never mind four days, so he explained–quite forcefully– someone had to fix it Tuesday morning.
To get rid of him, she said someone from Verizon would call us Tuesday morning. He believed her; I didn’t. We staggered off to bed.
The next morning I called Verizon and through an automated phone call learned we were scheduled for a repair at 2 pm (this was later discovered to be untrue, but that’s not the point of this story).
So, my life without television, phones and internet????
Television? No problem. I don’t watch it until after 5 pm, at the earliest. Most of the time we watch something on Netflix. I’m a radio gal and I have a favorite local radio station and three radios perched around the house. (Banjo Man has Fox Business News on his downstairs tv all day long).
Phones? No problem there either, not for me. I’m rarely ever on the phone. Yesterday I made sure I had my cell phone with me (most of the time I forget where it is) and was waiting for a call from the furniture delivery men who were to deliver Mom’s new loveseat, corner tv stand and new recliner that day (Banjo Man has his business line and takes frequent calls).
Internet? Uh-oh.
This is where I took it in the gut.
It turns out I obviously “waste” a lot of time with emails, blogs, news, etc. It was very strange not having access to all of those things that make me feel like I’m connected to the world.
So instead I cleaned out a big closet, sorted my winter and summer clothes, did three loads of laundry, cleaned out shelves, loaded a bag of stuff for charity, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned my bathroom, took a shower, found my electric blanket and put it on the bed, traded summer quilts for winter quilts, burned a couple of cd’s, tuned my new dobro and finished cutting the weirdly shaped pieces for the new Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt…..all before 11:30 AM.
I’d also walked over to my mother’s old house in order to help Banjo Man get on the internet over there–which didn’t work.
In other words, I accomplished a lot without the lure of the internet calling me to sit down at my desk and read a lot of entertaining stuff.
It was a revelation. I told Banjo Man I think I will go “Verizon Free” at least one day a week from now on, just to see how many closets I can clean. I don’t think my world will come to an end without access to the internet. It was annoying, but certainly not torture.
The furniture guys called at 11:30, which gave me time to drive over to my mother’s apartment for a noon delivery (it all looked wonderful!!), then back to the house to make another automated Verizon call only to learn we were once again scheduled for repair on FRIDAY.
Banjo Man flipped out. A technician was here within thirty minutes of his next impressive tirade. Turns out that a power outage Monday at noon (we were only out of power for 20 minutes) had somehow burned out a lot of Verizon boxes in our area. All of our wires were fried.
By 5 PM we had it all back, except for my cable box in the bedroom (which I discovered wasn’t working at 9:30 last night). Since I rarely use my television there I’m going to save that repair call for January. It’s just not important enough to make one of those long phone calls right now.
So this morning here I am, coffee mug on the desk next to the keyboard, radio on, as I’m writing the blog. I’ve read the news and the other blogs I love to follow. I’ve checked email (nothing but ads and coupons!) and very soon I’ll head to town to do a bunch of heading-to-Texas-for-Christmas errands. Somehow two hours have passed since I first sat down.
Oh, dear. It sucked me in again.
What do you do when you lose your internet?? Television??? Does it change your life or is it barely noticed???? Would you miss your phone? Or does your cell phone fill the gap?
is there any more pie? 