The Great Cable-Internet Drought

So there sure wasn't a drought of rain, thunder, or lightning last Thursday night. In fact, probably one of the worst storms we've had since we've moved to Kansas City. We never lost power, but we sure lost our cable...and internet....and phone.

My life does revolve around the internet. I keep in touch with people. Communicate via email. I reference information online. Download journal articles for my research. And most importantly, I get my powerpoints and podcasts so I can pretend I'm learning something. Not having internet is really a problem.

But not having it makes me feel like I need it SO much more. I neurotically amplify the problem. Really, I had the urge to check my email every 5 mintues. You don't know how many times I opened up firefox just to get the ominous error message. I even tried resetting the wireless modem. I KNEW none of that was going to change it, but I couldn't help it. I really must avoid the crack or any kind of drug for that matter. It would not be pretty.

And of course I NEEDED to watch TV. No not because I had the time, but because the cable was off, of course. And this is the one week Anthony is up to date with his television viewing and the DVR isn't overflowing with programs. Nice. So I watched a Dateline and two 60 Minutes out of desperation. I don't even like 60 Minutes.

I did find my new love though. Antonin Scalia. OMG. I've got at least two books lined up that I plan to read in Greece now all thanks to his interview on 60 Minutes. It will still probably make my mom unhappy, but it's not as bad as coming home with my Rush Limbaugh book (right, Mom?).

Friday...no internet. Saturday...no internet.

I finally called Time Warner on Saturday afternoon. No outage reported in my area. After explaining that it wasn't the cable box because a boxless TV in my room also wasn't getting a signal and spending 15 minutes turning the box on, off, unplugging the box, waiting for the time to disappear, and repeating, the guy half way across the world determined it wasn't the box. Ugh. So I had an appointment for Sunday. And somehow I became Mrs. Jack in the entire process.

5 minutes and a splitter later, the cable, internet, and phone were restored with my sanity. Scratch that, half my sanity. I watched two seasons of Laguna Beach on DVD in a crazed TV binge. I'll go hide in shame now.