When the Internet Goes Down

Addicted. It's an appropriate word for the way I've felt most of the weekend.

It rained, and my internet first became spotty, then died only to occasionally revive itself.

I couldn't blog, couldn't play video games, couldn't look up answers to questions. Oh, some of it I did on my phone, but I have a very low data usage plan, so I couldn't spend a lot of time on that doing things I'd otherwise do with the wi-fi.

There went my plans to watch the new Louise Penny series, Three Pines, on Amazon. No streaming without the Internet.

So too my plans to write blog posts in advance, although the main thing that stopped me there was anxiety and nerves. I could have written the posts in MS Word and saved them to cut and paste later, if I'd really been desperate.

Mostly it was knowing I couldn't do things that made me want to do them.

Strange how that works, eh?

We still have a landline, and that also went dead. Old fashioned, I know, but my husband had to have one for work - it was in his contract - and the landline number is the one on his business cards, still. So, we keep it, and many things are tied to it.

I had medicine called in for refills, so I couldn't get the call from my pharmacy to know when to pick things up because it's tied to the landline. I couldn't look it up online, either, to see if it was ready.

Some online shopping awaited my attention too - a pickup order for Sam's Club, a little something I thought about for my husband (and no longer remember because I didn't write it down and couldn't order it the moment I thought of it). 

The internet has us all tied to a way of life that is very different than it was 25 years ago. It's amazing how much it has changed the way we function and operate.

Being old, I knew how to entertain myself - there's always house cleaning and a book - but still, I noticed the lack of internet in my routine.

I felt off kilter. It also frustrated me to think I'm so dependent upon a computer and access to the outside world.

It really is a time suck, and my husband, who seldom is online, is probably far better off than I am, addicted as I am to my online reading and adventures.

Thank heavens it's fixed. Now if I could only get a fiber line and stop using DSL.

(I tried to visit Saturday 9 and Sunday Stealing blogs during the small windows when I had service. If I didn't get around to you, I'm sorry!)