The Weekend Is Upon Us

I'm not due back in to work until Thursday at 4:00. The apartment is relatively clean, the laundry is done and the bills are paid.

Speaking of bills, I was on-line paying some bills the other day. Halfway through it my internet connection just ... stopped. I observed a blinking ready light and an internet phone light showing a dropped connection. I'm pretty good at troubleshooting problems and set to cycling my modem. No luck. I pulled down the whole system and cycled my internet phone, DSL modem and router. Nothing. I did it again in another configuration. I checked the connections at the back of my system. Nothing again. I speculated that Verizon might be down and left the apartment, hoping I would return to the problem resolved. Not.

I finally broke down and called Tech Support. He walked me through some common fixes that I had already tried, but tried again because he was Tech Support. Finally, he claimed he was pinging my system and the resulting numbers showed that my modem was fragged and it wasn't coming back. I should call billing first thing Monday and get them to send me a replacement. I was distressed because: a) I'm assuming if I have to call billing to solve an issue it will cost me money. and b) if I have to wait to have them ship me a new modem it could be a week if not longer. The Duchess needs her Internets.

I stopped in to the gym and was ruminating on the problem on the way home. The modem going from fine and zippy to not at all functional made no sense. I decided to check the connections at the phone and the jack. As it turns out, when The Ex decided he was hot and opened the window, the window blind swung out and back in, not unhooking the DSL line, but knocking it loose enough to interrupt service. I clicked it back in and voila, The Internets are back up and running. Yet another reason why I wish I lived alone.