It was Like 1997

1997.

Doesn't sound that long ago, really.

Only 13 years.

But over the last week I realized how much has really changed in that amount of time.

I came home from work last week, ate supper, and then went to my iPad to see how many Words with Friends games I need to make a move on.

Couldn't get in the game. It said my network was not working. OK, pretty standard stuff. There's lots of days I come home and it has disconnected. No biggie, I thought.

Wrong.

Instead of the normal DSL light glowing red and the rest green, this time the Power light was red and the rest were dark.

Now, in my mind IF a light is glowing at all I figured it must be getting power. In this old house, it isn't unusual, unfortunately, for a one plug in an outlet to go bad.

Seemed like a fairly simple fix. Just plug it in somewhere else.

After an hour of plugging and unplugging and switching plugs I finally called technical support. I'm sure most of you would have done it long before then, but I'm a "little" hard headed (no comments from the Peanut Gallery out there that is my family) and was convinced I could fix it myself.

Well, Missy with AT&T, was happy and chipper and went through all the questions. Did you plug it in? Yes. Did you switch plugs? Yes. Is there a light? Yes. It flashes red and green and acts like it wants to come on, but then stays red.

Oh. That was her response. I can hear typing on her end as I guess she's going through her flowchart to see what that means.

That means the DSL modem is defective.

Defective was not a word I wanted to hear.

Furthermore, we were not enrolled in the equipment maintenance plan so a new modem would be $100 and for an additional $20 they could overnight it. It would be at our house before Friday at 7.

Let me get this straight. YOUR equipment is defective and I have to pay for it?

Yes ma'am. You're not in the program and the modem is 3 years old. No longer under warranty.

I don't know if it was my hesitation, or if I cleared my throat, or just what, but suddenly we WERE enrolled in the program and they would be HAPPY to send out a replacement.

I'm no longer in panic mode and pretty sure I could survive a day or so with no Internet. Thursdays are very busy in my world anyway. And FedEx is usually here early in the day.

I could do this!

The next day I used my work computer to post on Facebook that I was down and would be out of commission for a while. I couldn't, however, tell all my Words with Friends players. Oh well, they'd figure it out.

Friday comes. I checked with Billy probably 3 times during the day. Is the modem here yet? No was always the response.

I wait. I'm like a kid waiting for Santa Claus. It's now 7. 7:30. Maybe he's just running late. Might have had a flat tire or something. 8. 8:30.

I go to bed dejected.

Saturday morning. Still nothing. I call AT&T. Kevin looks up the order. There is it. The UPS tracking number is this.

And it's still on the truck.

UPS doesn't deliver on Saturdays.

The website shows a delivery date of 10/25. What happened to the overnight I ask?

Apparently, they would overnight it when I was paying for it. When they were paying for it, that option came off the table.

So, I had a room full of "toys" that have limited use without the Internet. Billy and I had to drive around with a laptop all weekend looking for free WiFi if we needed to do something on the Internet. I did, almost, breakdown and see if I could still figure out how to do dial up.

Monday night I was back to "normal" and quite happy about it.

But I learned some lessons.

Last Thursday and Friday I got up and walked both mornings when I normally would have been sitting at my keyboard - emailing or Facebooking or reading the newspaper online. I studied over the weekend since I couldn't do any of those other things. We cleaned out a few things in the house since Billy had the pack rat's full attention.

But I also realized how truly dependent we are for some things. We had a list of stuff we needed to order that didn't get done until Monday. Natchez is a small town and we can't always find things we need here. Especially things that help Riley. Or ordering the supplies that Billy needs for his work. Those all come from California and I usually take care of that stuff by email because of the time difference. I was up late Monday trying to get that list taken care of so things could start shipping on Tuesday morning.

I know what you're all thinking - couldn't you just call them or email them from work? Well sure. Except I'm at work to work. And while I do check emails some during the day, I don't spend time ordering things and that kind of stuff. I'm paid to do a job and my time gets billed to my clients and they need to be billed honestly. My nonchargeable time is scrutinized to find out why I'm not billing. And I'm really very busy so often I look up and its time for lunch or past time to go home and I'm late again.

I do remember having more "free" time before I got all plugged in. But I missed my contact with my friends, even if only electronically. One of my Words with Friends opponents is now a Facebook friend. She became concerned when I wasn't playing and reached out. So, some good came of it.

So, what did I learn?

Yesterday, I walked in the morning instead of sitting here. I'm trying to remember to schedule the time away from here and do the things that need to be done. Like studying or making cakes or cleaning up or whatever.

Because the world didn't end when I wasn't 100% connected to it. I'm pretty sure most all of you will still be there when I get back online.

Because in your house it is still 2010.