It's Out!

Yesterday was not a good day. I lost my internet and won't get it back until late next week! It could be worse. The original date for a tech to come was two weeks from yesterday! I love the fact that some people are trying to be cautious and don't want their employees to run the risk of contracting Covid-19, but sometimes those protocols, if followed by the letter of the law, are ridiculous. And why is it so hard to get in touch with support? And why do they have only a three measure recording of pretty awful music that is looped that you have to listen to while you wait for your name to come up in the phone queue? All of that was bad enough, but after the support girl finally did all of the system analysis, she said I would have to have a technician come to my house. She then proceeded to read me a bunch of Covid-19 related questions that would ascertain when she could schedule someone. Where things went badly was when I replied to one question that I had been at a medical lab on Wednesday for blood work for my physical later this month. That's when she said I would have to quarantine for 14 days before she could send anyone! Really??? My doctor had already told me that it was perfectly safe for me to go for this bloodwork. And it certainly seemed safer there than going to the grocery store. I had to have my temperature taken and was asked a battery of questions about my current health, where I might have traveled and who I might have come in contact with before I could even go into the lab. Once there I was the only person in the waiting room, which was being disinfected and wiped down when I first entered. I only saw one other person, well socially distanced, come in. And everyone was wearing masks. So you can imagine my consternation at being told that a technician could not come into my home for 14 days. My house is totally internet run. I have no computer access out into the world, of course. But I also have no TV and no house phone. Nor can I use my Sonos music speaker. The more I thought about this, the more I thought it was just wrong. SoI decided to call back and try to talk to someone in customer service to plead my case. After nearly two hours of being on hold with them, I gave up and called tech support again. That added a bit more wait time and then a comedy of errors where I ended up dealing with two different agents. At least they were willing to listen to me and realize that in my case a quarantine did not make sense. But the calendar for the technician is very full and the best they could do was to schedule him one week out instead of two. I am thankful for good friends, which is how I am managing to get a blog post written today. I am at her house using her internet access. But that is not going to help tonight when my computer will be good for only in-house work and I will be staring at the lights on the modem and the house web mesh device, pictured above. The bottom line of all of this is that I know I do not want to ever be on a desert island with no contact to the outside world!