Last night I had internet, TV was sketchy

Well I Never

Some days it is just too hard to hang on to a Pollyanna persona.

Yesterday, as many of you probably know our whole country, Canada from sea to shining sea went down.

One of our largest providers for television, and internet, for the whole suddenly failed. Correction – they are according to their site Canada’s largest provider of wireless voice and data communications. No service. Rogers.

People could not debit anything, transfer funds, pay bills on line, or buy retail unless they used another provider. I directly to my bank to get cash, but many others could not.

Can you imagine how many millions or billions were lost to companies. I sought to buy a lottery ticket, figuring all this bad luck could be lucky, and could not because the lottery corporation used this company. **It wasn’t.

My cell was fine because I use Telus a different provider, but I use Rogers for TV and internet. TV didn’t matter so much, it wasn’t until tonight that I thought to turn it on, but it still isn’t working, though my wifi is.

Back to my phone working – a good thing, but most of the folk I call have Rogers service so I couldn’t reach them anyway.

It brought home to me just how vulnerable we are. Cyber warfare – where a country can be brought to its knees without boots on the ground. The stuff of futuristic horror shows. **Disclaimer – I don’t know what caused this particular nation wide problem and I am not sure I would believe what they will say is the cause, but regardless, it has devastating potential.

When JB and I were discussing this this evening on our regular Saturday/Sunday night FaceTime we jokingly said we had solved the world’s problems by the end of our call, ha ha.

I am irritable. So this song has been running through my mind this evening.

Lyrics

Well, I never felt more like singin’ the blues
‘Cause I never thought that I’d ever lose
Your love dear, why’d you do me this way?
Well, I never felt more like cryin’ all night
‘Cause everythin’s wrong, and nothin’ ain’t right
Without you, you got me singin’ the blues.

The moon and stars no longer shine
The dream is gone I thought was mine
There’s nothin’ left for me to do
But cry-why-why-why over you (cry over you)
Well, I never felt more like runnin’ away
But why should I go ’cause I couldn’t stay
Without you, you got me singin’ the blues.

Well, I never felt more like singin’ the blues
‘Cause I never thought that I’d ever lose
Your love dear, why’d you do me this way?
Well, I never felt more like cryin’ all night
‘Cause everythin’s wrong, and nothin’ ain’t right
Without you, you got me singin’ the blues.

Oh, the moon and stars no longer shine
The dream is gone I thought was mine
There’s nothin’ left for me to do
But cry-why-why-why over you (cry over you)
Well, I never felt more like runnin’ away
But why should I go ’cause I couldn’t stay
Without you, you got me singin’ the blues

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Otis

Singing the Blues lyrics © Sony/atv Acuff Rose Music

So enough whining and snivelling from North of 43. May your communications be clear.

One Stupid Phone Call

I have a ridiculous amount of fun with my short comings. I mean if you got ‘em may as well enjoy ’em. Or something like that. I have frequently talked about growing, improving, learning. Blah blah blah. Why the Blah?? Because this post from 11 years ago this month proves there has probably been little improvement in this area at least.

It was a dark and stormy night.  Well it wasn’t but I have always wanted to write that.

But it was dark.  Oh no it wasn’t, it was daylight.  But it WAS a stupid phone call.  And I made it.

Usually I do my posts from my iPad because it is convenient and I can do it anywhere, even lying down when gravity gets to be too much. 

Istock photo.com

My lap top died leaving me with my Jurassic Park era PC.   Now wanting to be uncool I fired up the beast to do something picturesque.  Something with a little creativity to it.  But I had no Internet. None.  Nada.

I unplugged things and replugged.  I jiggled wires. I broke out in a cold sweat that turned out to be a hot flash.  They never leave entirely.  Did you know that?? Then I repeated all of the above several times.  Then I would leave and return again thinking it would magically start up.

It occurred to me a couple of hours later that I could call my Internet provider.  Normally I avoid any help lines because most of the time is spent on hold. But guess what!  Being a blooming techie I discovered the speaker button so I no longer have to actually hold the phone.  Now if I had called them two hours previously I would have been close to speaking to someone by this time.

Finally a pleasant woman asked what the problem was.
I have no Internet.
Before any solution could be given you must first give your account information.  I assume they want to be sure you are not negligent in your account, which would explain the lack of internet.  I was in good standing.

She asked what color the lights on the thing were.
There are no lights.
Long long pause.
There are no lights.
No there are no lights.
Is your receptacle working?
Of course it’s working.
Well please unplug the cord and plug it into another receptacle.

By now the cold sweat was not a hot flash.  It was the hint of possible embarrassment.  

I unplug and replug.
Nuts it worked.

Then and only then did it occur to me to check the other things plugged into that power bar.  Nothing else worked.  The natural assumption was the power bar had died.  Do they die?  So I got rid of it.

Several hours later I walked past a wall.  A wall with a switch I never use.  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the switch was down.  It’s always up.

Turns out I remembered brushing against that very wall earlier when I was folding a sheet.

And that is when the full flush of embarrassment hit like a tsunami. Turns out the receptacle worked. The power bar worked. I didn’t. Times like that I really miss having a man in my life. Just so I have someone to blame.

One Stupid Phone Call

One Stupid Phone Call

It was a dark and stormy night.  Well it wasn’t but I have always wanted to write that.

But it was dark.  Oh no it wasn’t, it was daylight.  But it WAS a stupid phone call.  And I made it.

Usually I do my posts from my iPad because it is convenient and I can do it anywhere, even lying down when gravity gets to be too much.  The inconvenient part is that I can’t post pics on my blog from it.  I am not sure if it is the iPad or my non techy ways.

My lab top died leaving me with my Jurassic Park era PC.   Now wanting to be cool I fired up the beast to do something picturesque.  Something with a little creativity to it.  But I had no Internet. None.  Nada.

I unplugged things and replugged.  I jiggled wires. I broke out in a cold sweat that turned out to be a hot flash.  They never leave entirely.  Did you know that?? Then I repeated all of the above several times.  Then I would leave and return again thinking it would magically start up.

It occurred to me a couple of hours later that I could call my Internet provider.  Normally I avoid any help lines because most of the time is spent on hold. But guess what!  Being a blooming techie I discovered the speaker button so I no longer have to actually hold the phone.  Now if I had called them two hours previously I would have been close to speaking to someone by this time.

Finally a pleasant woman asked what the problem was.
I have no Internet.
Before any solution could be given you must first give your account information.  I assume they want to be sure you are not negligent in your account, which would explain the lack of internet.  I was in good standing.

She asked what color the lights on the thing were.
There are no lights.
Long long pause.
There are no lights.
No there are no lights.
Is your receptacle working?
Of course it’s working.
Well please unplug the cord and plug it into another receptacle.

By now the cold sweat was not a hot flash.  It was the hint of possible embarrassment.  

I unplug and replug.
Nuts it worked.

Then and only then did it occur to me to check the other things plugged into that power bar.  Nothing else worked.  The natural assumption was the power bar had died.  Do they die?  So I got rid of it.

Several hours later I walked past a wall.  A wall with a switch I never use.  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the switch was down.  It’s always up.

Turns out I remembered brushing against that very wall earlier when I was folding a sheet.

And that is when the full flush of embarrassment hit like a tsunami.  Turns out the receptacle worked.  The power bar worked.  I didn’t.  Times like that I really miss having a man in my life.  Just so I have someone to blame.