It's 6:30 am on a Saturday morning, and I am sitting here at the computer, totally bummed. I needed to sleep late this morning, I actually had the time to sleep late, and as usual when these conditions exist, I just couldn't do it. I woke up at 4:30 am (close to my usual time), dozed until 5:12 when I absolutely had to go make a trip to the bathroom, came back to bed and tossed and turned until 6:05 when I gave up. Part of the reason that I couldn't get back to sleep is the cold I have. Once all the congestion gets disturbed, the coughing and sinus draining starts to interfere with sleep. And then my brain starts whirring. I start thinking of all the chores and errands I have to do, all the school work I have to do, and this morning, I also started thinking of the meditation I still have to prepare for church tomorrow. So, here I am, with a great cup of coffee, sitting at the computer. The bright spot is that I was able to connect to the internet at a faster rate than we've been able to of late.
We don't have high speed internet here. This summer, Fairpoint brought high speed access to 2/3 of my road, but I live in the 1/3 that didn't get it. We have 2 options for internet access: dial up or purchasing satellite services. We've lived with the dial up connection for years. When my neighbor chose the satellite option we were very interested in his experience. He has had many problems with it, and has been extremely disappointed in the speed. Plus, it's really expensive. Our dial up never connected at top speed of 56 kbps, but we usually connected at 52 kbps. Since the upgrade however, our usual connection speed has dropped to 26-28 kbps which means we usually can't connect to many websites before timing out. I have trouble connecting to my bank services, and trying to shop on line has been problematic. Even email can be extremely frustrating, especially when friends send us photos! We've called Fairpoint numerous times, and finally were told that because of the upgrade, there's less bandwidth available for dial up accounts. In addition, there are no plans at this time, to expand the high speed availability. So, not only are we deprived of the high speed access, our dial up access has been drastically reduced. Does anyone else see a problem?? Occasionally we can connect at 41-42 kbps, which is what happened this morning. So today, you get a blog post! (And I probably won't log off the computer until Monday morning!!)
Work has been pretty stressful. It's been a real culture shock for me to switch grade levels. Aside from the expected burden of learning new curriculum and developing completely new units, there is a huge difference between 6th graders and 7th graders. My tried-and-true classroom management tricks aren't working, so I've been putting a lot of energy into learning new management skills. I've been getting to my classroom about 45 minutes before my contracted time, and I've spent 3-4 hours at school after my contracted time. I've spent most of my weekends doing school work too. Despite the fact that I've been in the classroom 17 years, I've been feeling much like I did my first year teaching. I have some other serious issues to deal with also, which have made it difficult to be positive about work right now. So that's been interfering with sleep too.
Maybe the clogged internet is a metaphor for my life right now -- an overload of information trying to pass through a very limited conduit.
Showing posts with label dial up internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dial up internet. Show all posts
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Repairs
This seems to be the week of repairs. One of the "perks" of living in a rural area are the number of times things go wrong with technology. We lose our power frequently (not always due to major weather events!) and also experience frequent power fluctuations, so over the years we've purchased a generator for those long hauls without electricity, and we early on purchased a battery backup with surge protection for our computer and printer. We noticed recently that our backup system was failing so two weeks ago, we purchased a new battery back up at our favorite office supply store. Another "advantage" of rural life is the necessity of a satellite dish for TV. About 2 weeks ago we began having a great deal of difficulty with it. Lots of interruptions in service and "Signal lost, wait for signal acquisition." We checked everything we could check on our end, so I finally called the tech support line of the provider. They very helpfully walked me through a few more sophisticated tests, and concluded that I needed a technician visit. That visit was destined to cost me just shy of $100. Of course, if I wanted to sign up for the service agreement ($72 per year), then the visit would only cost $15 and there would be no charge for replacement parts should parts be needed. After doing some math, and realizing that we have needed a tech person several times over the past 3 years, I signed up for the service plan. I was promised that a repair person would arrive sometime between 8-12 am.
We've also been experiencing connectivity problems with our DIAL UP internet, so I've been in conversation with our provider to see where the issue is. That issue is still not resolved, but I still have some tests to finish running.
Meanwhile, the very same day, the phone line we use for our DIAL UP internet (another "perk" of our location) died. We tested the phone line outside to determine that the problem was OUTSIDE the house. The phone company promised to send a repair person out sometime in the succeeding 24 hours.
So yesterday was "Wait for Repair Person" day. I was ready and waiting for someone to show up at 8 am. I had a ton of stuff to do, but all of the potential chores were the kind of chores that needed a stretch of uninterrupted time, so I didn't want to get started, at least until I knew how long/what type of repairs were needed. At 10 am I checked the offending phone line. It was still dead. At 10:45 the phone repairman arrived. He did whatever it is that phone repair people do outside, and then knocked on my door. "The phone is working fine, Ma'am. Are you sure you don't have a dial tone?" I checked. Yup, there was a dial tone. He assured me that I hadn't imagined the problem. He said that with all the power fluctuations (due to the heat waves we've been experiencing,) it's probable that a switch was tripped in the electric box down the road. So, that was fixed, painlessly. I was still waiting for the satellite person to arrive. At 11:59 the phone rang. It was the repairman stating that he was running late but would show up by 12:30. He did. It took him about 2 hours to determine that we had a faulty switch out at the dish hookup. At that point he gave me a choice: replace the switch or upgrade my satellite. My response: How much to upgrade? His response: Nothing. To be sure, I called the satellite provider and got the same answer from the sales department. So he spent another hour replacing the dish.
Both repairmen were very friendly, very helpful, and they actually fixed what needed fixing. It was just weird to have both on the same day. And of course, as luck would have it. A friend with whom I've lost touch, called while I was waiting, and invited me out for the day. I had to refuse because I waiting for the repair people. That made me sad. She and I used to be very close friends, but life took us in different directions. We ran into each other earlier in the week at the grocery store, and both of us wanted to renew the friendship. I hope we can!
I'm still having connectivity problems with the internet, but I hope to get those resolved soon. The icing on the cake for yesterday, is that last night as my husband was unloading the dishwasher, he opened the cupboard where we keep the glasses. There was a horrible snapping sound. The hinge on the door snapped -- not from where it's attached to the wood of the frame or the door, but right in the middle. It looks like metal fatigue -as though a rubber band snapped. Now the cupboard door is listing as it's no longer connected to the bottom!
We've also been experiencing connectivity problems with our DIAL UP internet, so I've been in conversation with our provider to see where the issue is. That issue is still not resolved, but I still have some tests to finish running.
Meanwhile, the very same day, the phone line we use for our DIAL UP internet (another "perk" of our location) died. We tested the phone line outside to determine that the problem was OUTSIDE the house. The phone company promised to send a repair person out sometime in the succeeding 24 hours.
So yesterday was "Wait for Repair Person" day. I was ready and waiting for someone to show up at 8 am. I had a ton of stuff to do, but all of the potential chores were the kind of chores that needed a stretch of uninterrupted time, so I didn't want to get started, at least until I knew how long/what type of repairs were needed. At 10 am I checked the offending phone line. It was still dead. At 10:45 the phone repairman arrived. He did whatever it is that phone repair people do outside, and then knocked on my door. "The phone is working fine, Ma'am. Are you sure you don't have a dial tone?" I checked. Yup, there was a dial tone. He assured me that I hadn't imagined the problem. He said that with all the power fluctuations (due to the heat waves we've been experiencing,) it's probable that a switch was tripped in the electric box down the road. So, that was fixed, painlessly. I was still waiting for the satellite person to arrive. At 11:59 the phone rang. It was the repairman stating that he was running late but would show up by 12:30. He did. It took him about 2 hours to determine that we had a faulty switch out at the dish hookup. At that point he gave me a choice: replace the switch or upgrade my satellite. My response: How much to upgrade? His response: Nothing. To be sure, I called the satellite provider and got the same answer from the sales department. So he spent another hour replacing the dish.
Both repairmen were very friendly, very helpful, and they actually fixed what needed fixing. It was just weird to have both on the same day. And of course, as luck would have it. A friend with whom I've lost touch, called while I was waiting, and invited me out for the day. I had to refuse because I waiting for the repair people. That made me sad. She and I used to be very close friends, but life took us in different directions. We ran into each other earlier in the week at the grocery store, and both of us wanted to renew the friendship. I hope we can!
I'm still having connectivity problems with the internet, but I hope to get those resolved soon. The icing on the cake for yesterday, is that last night as my husband was unloading the dishwasher, he opened the cupboard where we keep the glasses. There was a horrible snapping sound. The hinge on the door snapped -- not from where it's attached to the wood of the frame or the door, but right in the middle. It looks like metal fatigue -as though a rubber band snapped. Now the cupboard door is listing as it's no longer connected to the bottom!
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