Ok. I’ve had some trouble this past week with my internet connection at home. All week long it would work intermittently. You know how incredibly frustrating it is to be in the middle of a show and have it stop midstream. And then get the error message from Netflix, saying it can no longer connect. It was a good thing I was distracted by the warmer weather. However, this past weekend, it got to the point where it was out more often than it was working. I was doing my blog from my cell phone, which has its own unique frustrations (part of the reason I wasn’t writing all that much). At any rate, late yesterday I had had enough and called my internet provider. The guy on the phone was trying to be helpful, but I kept having to ask him to repeat himself because I couldn’t understand him over his accent and mumbling. We were both getting exasperated. At one point, he asked something about the DSL cable and where it was located and whether I could see all of it. I answered that the router was very close to the wall jack and therefore, most of the line was wrapped up behind my TV cabinet. Apparently that was a problem. He said I should unwind the cable because the kinks could be causing the difficulty. Really?! I did not know this. I didn’t realize that electricity and internet magic could only follow straight lines. To mollify his questioning, I went ahead and unwound the entire 10 foot cable. It did not make a difference. Could it perhaps be caused by the fact that the cable going into my house is simply laying across the ground outside? I asked. And that we’ve had several rainy days lately? That prompted an appointment by a technician who came today.

Now this is the fourth time in the past nine months that I’ve had to call because of internet problems. Each time, the technician comes out and does something different. Last time I got a new router. This time, the tech laughed when I mentioned the coiled cable inside my house. That shouldn’t matter, he said. Instead, he tacked up the outside line, put a filter on the outside of my house, and fixed a problem at the junction box. Then, when I asked about the fact that the house phone I’m supposed to have hasn’t worked from day one, he went back out and somehow got the phone line connected. My old rotary wall phone does indeed work. Well, only for incoming calls, we discovered. Apparently, my service contract doesn’t include outgoing calls. Really?! What is the point of that and how did I not know this? I guess when I discovered that the TV/internet/phone bundle was cheaper than just TV/internet alone, I agreed to a house phone. I should have read the fine print. At any rate, I am thankful today to have my internet working again (for now) and thankful to know that the old phone I bought off of eBay last year actually does work. And I know it works because I got a phone call on it right after the technician left. It was a collections call for whoever last owned my home phone number. And you know how those calls start with if you are xyz person, press 1, if you are not the person we are looking for, press 2? Well, they really mean press a button. Rotary dialing doesn’t work. This should be interesting…