The Utter Absence Of Little Blinking Lights

Day 93: I am writing this entry on a friend's computer. When I arrived home on the evening of January 10, I turned on the computer, expecting to have internet access despite the fact that it had been dicey over the previous few days. Calls to my ISP had been nonproductive, anything from a recorded message acknowledging that they were having "connectivity issues" to a smart-aleck support representative who seemed only interested in impressing me with her superior knowledge. I did not expect, however, to find that my modem had apparently given up the ghost, victim of one too many power outages.

Another call to my ISP left me feeling frustrated but hopeful. I had put in an order for overnight delivery of a new modem and, by their own admission, this model had been slated for replacement for some time. I wondered why that hadn't been mentioned during my previous calls. Hm! Two days went by, and no new modem showed up. I saw the mail go down. I saw both UPS and FedEx pass by. I put in another call. The service rep had to round up a supervisor to track down the problem, and I was not happy...not happy at all!...to learn that the order had been lost.

With a holiday falling on Monday, it will be Tuesday or Wednesday before I have my computer back up and running. I asked if it was possible for me to replace the bum modem with one purchased at a retail outlet and was told yes, but with the understanding that were I to do so, I would no longer have technical support should I need it. Now, in the profound absence of little blinking lights, I am finding the barrel over which they have me rather an uncomfortable place to wait.