Thursday, May 8, 2008

My kingdom for internet service that works

This post is coming to you via my dial-up connection of a whopping 28.8 kbps from beautiful Maryland where the weather is warm and lovely.
Wait a minute. Did she say dial-up? Why, yes I did. I'm temporarily back on dial-up. Actually, I've still got the old account until the 11th, so it's there for the using. And I'm being forced to use it because guess what? My satellite internet connection that was installed just two days ago is not working.
It hasn't worked correctly since the guy left on Monday evening. It's been intermittent at best, and tonight it gave up. Oh, it says it's connected, and I've done the usual things to check. But it's not. So I finally gave up and called the hotline and after waiting for almost a half hour on the phone, spent another half hour listening to someone say "now, let's see here" about 24 times. I swear, if she said it one more time, I was ready to go crackerdog.
Extra points if anyone knows what that means.
Anyway, I live out in the middle of nowhere. Actually, somewhere is nearby, but nowhere is closer. Hope you got that. A couple of years ago, I saw on their website that Verizon Internet Service was available in our area. I was excited! Elated! I checked their site again and sure enough, we were eligible for service. Yay! So I ordered it. A modem arrived immediately with instructions and nothing worked. My computer geek son was still living here at the time, and it still wasn't working for him. After spending a total of 4 hours on the phone and on hold over the next few days, I was finally told that a service man would be able to come out and troublecheck it for me, but I'd have to stay home from work all day just to wait for him. I opted to cancel the whole darn thing and returned the modem.
Turns out that Verizon never was available in our area, and it still isn't. It was just showing otherwise on their computer.
Suffice it to say that I haven't had much luck with internet service, except for the trusty old dial-up. Hopefully, this too shall pass, and my service will be fixed soon. The repairman is coming on Friday and then I have to deal with billing, when I tell them I'm not paying for all these days of no service. See how fun this all is?
But hey, it could be worse. I could have no internet at all. Thank you so much for listening to my little rant. I'm feeling much better now and I promise not to make a habit of this.
Oh, the picture was taken last week of a little one asleep near his mother. It makes me feel soothed somewhat to see that life is gentle and sweet, and good internet service or the lack thereof, does not mean it's the end of the world . . .

13 comments:

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

"Go crackerdog"--you must be a James Herriot fan.

I love the photo. Hope you get your Internet woes sorted out soon.

abb said...

I feel your pain....may all be resolved soon. If it isn't, your blog followers will suffer!

It's frustrating, and I do hope your problems can be solved...(sigh!)

Love mama & babe...God's gift...

Anonymous said...

Yeah satellite can be annoying. I too had problems when it was first installed, but let me tell you, once it's going it's great. Coming from NY where cable was the best and always available it was scary thinking I'd have to revert to dial up.

Of course now that I have the satellite there is good word DSL will be available here by year end. I'll have to find a way to break the contract on the dish without a penalty. Hmmm how can I sabotage a satellite dish.

Shimmy Mom said...

No it's not the end of the world, but it can sure feel like it. We didn't have any internet service for 9 days during our recent move and it was painful! I've never been so glad to be hooked back up. I hope that your troubles are over soon.
The picture is so cute.

Anonymous said...

((hugs)) Praying God sends an angel on Friday to fix your internet woes. Your readers need your inspiration photos!

BTW, I own most if not all of James Harriet's book. "Dog Stories" is one of our favorites!

dlyn said...

We say we are going crackerdog around here all the time - I drive Larry crackerdog frequently. I will always love Herriot!

We are unbelievably fortunate here - they ran cable on a nearby road and I got enough of the neighbors on our road to commit to the service for at least a year and they ran it the extra mile to get it here - and we are genuinely in the middle of nowhere. Sure hope they get yours fixed soon - fast internet is a basic human necessity!

Treasia Stepp said...

I do hope for your sake they get the internet service restored for you. I cannot imagine having or using dial up again. Especially with pictures involved.

Mary said...

Now I have to go back and reread my Herriot -- you cracked me up with that "crackerdog!"

Hope you get everything straightened out soon, and with a minimum of hassle. Are there any studies of computers and blood pressure? I'm sure they raise it more often than not...

Love the picture!
xoxo,
Mary

Anonymous said...

Oh, how I miss my horses! I gave them away (unable to sell my babies) before moving to Washington live with my husband. He's promised that I will have them again when we move to Kentucky. That is four years away and let me tell you -- I am counting down the minutes.

Thank you for posting such beautiful pictures. For those of us who are currently without their horses -- it is a form of torture but good for the soul.

Blessings!
Lacy

Country Girl said...

Welcome to Lacy at Razor Family Farms. I'm hoping it will be soon that you'll see your horses again and until then, I apologize for the torture! You're right, though. It's good for the soul . . .

Mary, you crack me up, too!

~ C.G.

Anonymous said...

Have I mentioned what a HUGE sucker for a picture of a foal I am? Darnit, I miss my horses!

Beth from the Funny Farm said...

I have a sprint thingie and can go anywhere with my laptop. I love it! I also have dsl at the house.

I feel your pain... dial up bites!!

Jo said...

Good luck with your internet service. Yesterday evening our service provider crashed and burned too, and I couldn't even get through because the lines were jammed.

Whatever did we do before computers???