Why Wednesday Fell Apart

Have you ever had one of those days?  As I said in Wednesday's post, I crawled out from under the wrong side of the rock anyway, so it probably shouldn't have been such a surprise that it all went downhill from there.

Actually, things were looking up not too long after I wrote that post.  I was feeling more positive and ready to take on the day.  That should've been my first clue.  Maybe if I hadn't been feeling all sparky I would've left the call to my DSL provider until Monday.  But being all positive and junk, I thought it would be a short call telling them my modem was dying and they'd send me a new one.

Wednesday wasn't meant to be that easy.

I did have an awesome chat with the first tech support guy (who just happened to be a Michigander) while he put my modem through its paces.  After plugging and unplugging, shifting filters and moving to another phone jack, he pronounced my usual jack as the culprit.  He said it needed replacing and he'd be happy to send someone out to do that - for the mere cost of a service call, parts, etc.  "Umm, it's the day before Thanksgiving," I said, "so I'll be happy to just limp along from a different jack and call you back for an appointment next week."

So, I moved my husband's desk (because it's the smallest desk and he has a laptop) into the kitchen and set everything up off of that jack.  Sure, it took some doing.  The jack's in an odd spot, so I had to string the cord up and over and through - with a sign hanging off it that said 'DUCK' so my husband wouldn't garrote himself if he went into the utility room.  I got online, tried to check my email (forgot my password, btw, which is a whole other issue), managed to check my Amazon account, and then BAM - I got the stupid red light on my modem again.

Either first tech guy was wrong or this whole house's wiring was taking a poo.  Time for another call to tech support, because if nothing else, he can reset my password and I can get my email from the ISP site.  Second tech guy (whose name just happened to be Jack - which made talking about phone jacks interesting) put everything through its paces again, put me on hold for fifteen minutes while he 'checked some things' and came back to tell me it wasn't my modem and it wasn't my jacks.  It was something in the wiring outside the house.  He needed to set up a tech appointment to fix it.

Fine, I thought, whatever.  Do it.  He said the soonest he could get someone out was Saturday morning.  Again, fine whatever do it.  Meanwhile, I cleaned the spot where husband's desk had been and tidied up so I could move it all back and limp along with the crappy outside wiring.  Thirty minutes into it, as I was on my hands and knees brushing dust bunnies off the rug, the phone rang.  The local service guy was on his way - on my street in fact - and could I please tell him where my house was.

Great.  He'd come, fix the phone lines and maybe I'd have supreme DSL for the first time since we moved here.

Except it wasn't the phone lines outside the house and it sure as hell wasn't the jacks inside the house.  It was...  :drumroll: ...my MODEM.  (Just like I told both tech support guys, btw.)  It took the local guy about twenty minutes all told - and that included him going back to the office to get a new modem.

What started out as a simple phone call at 9am finally finished with a simple solution at 2pm - after which I had to move all the furniture back, put the modem back into position with the router, and tidy up the mess.  At 3pm, I collapsed on the couch. 

So you see why I didn't get any words out Wednesday night.

Of course, Husband and I had a good chuckle about the whole thing later.  Sometimes you gotta laugh at the sheer ludicrousness of things. 

Ever had something truly ludicrous happen to you?  Share your experiences in the comments.