Withdrawal

We had a terrible storm Sunday night… lots of thunder, lightening, rain and high winds.  Storms make me VERY skittish now days.  I keep a close eye on both the TV and internet so I know when I need to take precautions of one type or another.   Ever since April 27, 2011 I come unglued at the thought of a storm.  Sometimes during a storm we lose some of channels because the wind will blow the TV antenna the opposite way that it needs to be pointing to get the signals of various stations.  Such was the case this time too so I was watching weather radar and reports on the internet (DSL). 

At about midnight there was what I assume was a lightning strike nearby… I mean VERY nearby.  I thought someone had fired a shotgun from my front porch.  I was waiting to see if sparks were going to fly from the transformer out front or if we’d lose power.  Neither happened but suddenly I no longer had internet.  I tried to reboot both my computer and modem – no luck.  I tried the little reset button on the modem, still no success.  After fooling with it all for about 45 minutes I finally decided to call tech support at AT&T.  It was about 12:30am (absolute BEST time to call if you don’t want to be on hold!).

The tech support man was very friendly and actually spoke English clearly!  He did a bunch of checking and line tests from his end and it was determined that my modem was fried.  He reassured me he would send one immediately and I should have it late Monday… no internet for a whole day?  No way!  What choice did I have though?  

Monday came and went and finally Tuesday afternoon the new modem arrived.  Thank the Lord!  I could see light at the end of the tunnel.  Yeah, right.  We are talking about internet which I really know nothing about… and we are talking about AT&T.  Need I say more?  

After fiddling with it for nearly an hour I once again decided to call tech support.  Once again I got a gentlemen who spoke clear, unbroken English!  Once again we ran through all of the things I had tried on my end and my lines were checked again.  This time however there were some interference problems on the line bad enough that the internet signal could not get through.  Great.  I was put on hold and fearing the worst… a service call at my expense and a 10 day wait for the service guy to actually show up?  Great.  I few minutes later the gentleman came back and asked if I preferred TOMORROW morning or afternoon?   TOMORROW????  AWESOME!  So I will try to wait patiently for the repair man to come without my computer at least 24 more hours.

Do you have any idea how excruciating it is to be without internet this long?  If I was vacationing on a desert island or in a cabin in Canada fine… but this is no vacation!  I haven’t been able to do anything except off line stuff like write this up for my blog (that I can’t access) and play some games that came with the computer… not as fun as other games mind you but they have kept me from killing both dogs the husband and myself… so far.

I have become very dependent on this little black box that connects me to the world wide web…  I can’t look anything up ( I do all the time… I’ve moved up from ignorant to stupid with such knowledge)  I can’t access facebook!!!  I can’t even remember life before facebook.  Can you?  Email… no big deal: I’m anti-social and it’s mostly newsletters and stuff like that.  BUT… I can’t Swag!  No Swag Bucks since Sunday night and wouldn’t you know I was right in the middle of a survey for 75 swag bucks when my modem puked?  (I multi-task on the computer).  Swag bucks is my attempt at an income of sorts… this is like having 3 days off without pay!  I will never be able to catch up to where I should be.  This in and of itself is overwhelming.  

No facebook and no Swag Bucks… what am I supposed to be doing with my spare time?  Heaven forbid my husband and I actually have a conversation more than him grunting in response to anything I say.  TV?  I don’t “do” daytime TV.  I hope he hasn’t expected me to cook and clean.  He will be sadly disappointed if he has.

I’ve been crawling the walls and am on the verge of delirium tremens…   This is not good.   No, no, not one bit.  We don’t even have any chocolate here at home!  This madness needs to end soon… I hope the repairman can do something about this and I hope he is not 1 minute late.   I’d really be in a mess if I lose it if he’s late.  I might have to go to jail for holding him at knife point for his tardiness.  How on earth am I going to make it through the night?  No internet, no chocolate.  I have to question the value of my life here.  There is nothing left to live for except internet and chocolate!

I am barely hanging on by my fingernails as the clock ticks one slow click at a time…  ♫♫ Tomorrow… tomorrow, I love the repairman tomorrow… it’s only a day away.  ♫♫ What will I do if he doesn’t show up?  What will my husband do with a rabid mad woman with internet and chocolate withdrawals?  He will probably have to put me down like the internet hound that I am.  Can’t blame the poor guy… Being in his shoes I’m sure is no picnic.  Having to deal with me in this state can’t be easy for anyone.

I’m trying to soothe myself with Klonopin and sugary foods… if I can just hang on a little longer…

Okay, If you are reading this it is obvious that I made it until the repairman got my life back in order and I’m not in prison for killing anyone in my path for the last few days.  You must know… All is right in my world again.