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September 7, 2017

Community

Internet gone!

With all of the hurricanes and wildfires going on here in the USA, we haven’t been plagued by any of those tragedies, but we have had our own little hiccup, it was just a taste of being out of communication, a reminder of what can happen when things go wrong. In the middle of last week, our internet suddenly quit working, no advanced notice, I was actually online when it happened, it just stopped, something that happens on a semi-regular basis but usually only lasting a very short period. A few days later it was still out, I found out that a large fiber optic line was cut a few towns away, it was affecting most of our towns, I heard that stores were not accepting credit or debit cards, possibly not even checks, only cash. I assumed that the problem would be fixed rather quickly because of the number of stores not able to fully do business.

As the weekend rolled into Monday, a holiday, I was still waiting for my internet to come back on, I was learning that my neighbors internet was back up and running, but mine was still out. I had tried to troubleshoot my system, one thing I discovered was my antenna/receiver was full of water from some sideways rain we had earlier. I drained it and could see that it was getting power, the green light that indicated power as well as a separate light indicating that the LAN was working. The other lights that indicate the strength of the signal, were not on.

Once Tuesday arrived, I was finally able to get a-hold of my internet company, sure enough, our internet to the neighborhood had been restored, it was just mine that wasn’t working. I knew I wouldn’t be home all day on Tuesday, an unusual set of circumstances would result in the SkyCastle being empty for the majority of the day (something I’ll tell you about in a future post, link to be added once it is live), since our place is not near the road or even really visible from the road, it is not easy to find so the internet tech folk would not be able to visit on Tuesday. I figured they would be able to arrive on Wednesday, but the day passed with no tech visit. Another phone call later, it would be later in the afternoon on Thursday before it would be fixed.

Needless to say, I have been really missing our internet, I was able to check my email at my neighbor’s house, but it’s satellite internet and painfully slow, my cell phone does not work where I live (no one can use cell phones out here), I could do a little when I was out on the road, but honestly when I’m out, it’s because I’m working and don’t really have time to play …

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