Verizon is out to get me.
They’ve must have gotten hold of my comments in favor of net neutrality on the FCC website and they’re putting the screws to me. How? By messing with my broadband.
For over a week, I’ve had sketchy internet service. In the early mornings I’m fine. But once people on the East Coast start waking up, I have problems.
Bloggers, are you wondering why I haven’t been commenting on your posts? Because saving a comment prompts the spinning wheel of death and a message in my browser: “You cannot access www.superdogblog.com because you are not connected to the internet.” And you don’t even want to know how many of hundreds of emails I need to answer.
I feel terrible that I can’t even reply to the witty and incisive comments on my own blog.
Don’t ask me what it means for my paid work which requires me to have regular internet access.
But there is one good thing about having hinky broadband. It’s what happens to the dog when the internet goes down.
How Lacking Internet Helps The Dog
Long walks and lunch – After trying and failing three times to send a work email, I gave up. Honey got a long mid-day walk to my husband’s office where we convinced him to take us both out to lunch.
No commercials – Instead of streaming a movie or tv show at night, I pop in one of my own DVDs. How does that help Honey? No commercials means I’m not constantly popping up to do housework and she doesn’t lose her favorite leg pillow on the couch.
Always the cutest dog in the room – Sure, Honey is adorable. But corgi puppies? A pittie snuggling a baby? Let’s just say the internet makes the competition for cutest dog in the room intense.
Time outdoors – I try to work outside on my porch whenever possible. But sometimes it’s just easier to work at my desk. Not when the internet is acting up. I might as well go out and weed the garden or read a book on the back porch. And Honey would much rather keep me company outside than in a dark and gloomy house.
More snacks – Yes, I know it’s wrong to deal with frustration by eating. But more than once I’ve waited for an internet connection by going downstairs to get some cheese and crackers or another snack. Luckily for Honey, I’m a sloppy eater.
More petting – When WordPress tells me I’ve lost my internet connection and they’re backing up the blog in my browser I have the perfect pause for petties. Good thing Honey is hanging out under my desk.
Movie night – My town is showing Ghostbusters tonight at the lakefront park. Not my favorite movie. But without reliable internet for entertainment (and no tv), it will be worth the three-mile walk with Honey to do something social and fun.
Fewer pictures – Even my picture editing software is cloud-based. So sporadic internet makes me less likely to take pictures of Honey. Which she doesn’t mind a bit.
Time for me to stop complaining. After all, dogs are better than social media.
So maybe despite my crankiness, having the internet go down (over and over, all day long) isn’t so bad.
At least not if you’re a dog.
photo credit: (dog delivering newspaper) stylianosm via photopin cc
The ONLY Way To Break Through Fear Is…
Nothing is worse than internet crap. We were totally out of range for a week, which was frustrating and liberating all at the same time. I hope you get it sorted soon.
I’m thinking this is a message from the gods to learn to be more flexible in my plans. After all, boats have notoriously unreliable internet. 🙂
Well that is no good! On the flip side, those other activities seem pretty fun! Hope it’s all sorted out soon!
And you are staying with Verizon because…..?
I have two other options–Time Warner and a local company. I can’t see switching from one behemoth with a reputation for bad customer service for another. And I tried over the course of a couple months to get the local company to check out my property for their radio signal. I found it very hard to give them my money.
Now I look at the tall trees around my house and figure it’s unlikely an internet radio signal would get through. I used to have a wireless modem for my laptop and I could not get more than 2 bars despite the signal tower being at the top of a hill less than 2 miles away.
Funny, the Guna Yala Indians in Panama get better internet reception than I do lately.
Ugh, I hate dealing with internet issues! I bet Honey is loving it though 🙂
Y’know, she kinda goes with the flow. I have great internet this morning (trying to get caught up) and she’s happily sleeping by my side.
But I suspect if this goes on for another half hour she’ll start looking for an enticing squeaky toy to convince me to play.
Mine always seems to go out when I’m trying to work, late at night… it’s not the service, but my router. I don’t know what it’s problem is. I could always go find something else to do, but I’d probably wake up everyone in the house so that’s less than ideal. And I doubt I could fall asleep lol. Maybe it needs to decide to quit on me in the middle of the day instead!
We definitely need to trade. Mine is good late at night but I’m an early bird and can’t stay up past 10. I need good broadband in the middle of the day.
Yeesh. Internet issues stress me out so much, largely because I rely on it for work, as you do. I’m striving to make an effort to work from a local coffee shop or the public library on days with a wonky connection, rather than sit in my chair and fume. I like your list, though! I think the boys would be much happier if I added those to my “downtime” to-do list!
Yeah, I know I can resolve lots of frustration by going into the library. And I really like working with a crowd of people around. But the library doesn’t allow dogs.
And there is my dilemma.
You are lucky, Honey. If our internet goes down, the world ends. Not only is my whole blog and social media situation in peril, Mom can’t work from home. Well, that means she leaves and goes to the office and has internet there. On the bright side, she now has a hot spot on her phone so if the home internet goes down, she can still be online. Mom unconnected is not a good thing at our house, she needs her connection. We have rules like no phones or internet (the phone does come along for emergency purposes) on walks or runs, not even music, not much internet after about 5 pm, so we are doing fine, but during the day “she needs it” and if she doesn’t have it, her mood is not good.
Wow, sounds like your mom is addicted. Even puppy fur may not be enough to save her if the broadband goes out. 🙂
Love this! Sharing 🙂 Pets are definitely better than social media 🙂
Hah, I always feel kind of a shamefaced guilt (which is kind of redundant, I know) when I’m looking at pictures or videos of cute dogs/puppies when Elka is RIGHT THERE in the room. But there are times I really feel like the Internet is an intellectual lifeline….I needs it!
Good thing Elka doesn’t realize you’re looking at other cute dogs and puppies. She might get jealous. 🙂
Well one good thing – you and Honey have plenty of time to discover new adventures for blog material. I empathize with you, it’s happened to many of us at one time or another. we all understand.
I’ve gotten into the habit of writing and thinking on the spur of the moment. I’m struggling a bit to get into a think first, write later mode. But it’s good for my character, right? 🙂
I feel your pain, Pamela! I have rarely had my internet service go down, but when I am away from my computer, I check my email and go online on my cell phone. If I couldn’t do that, I guess I’d be at the nearest neighborhood coffee shop that had free WiFi! 🙂
At least someone is happy about it, right? I know how frustrating that must be for the human though!
Internet issues are the worse – how did we become so reliant on it? However sounds like you have the most brilliant way of handling them!
I actually don’t have the internet at home. I used to – but it was really cutting into my dog-time so I nixed it. Now I just use the computer at work (hey, they are lucky to have me – wink, wink) or at the library. I know some people need it at home for work-related things, but thankfully, I do not. I actually worked from home a couple of times when I had the internet, and surprisingly, I wasn’t as productive as I thought I would be. I was comfy in my pjs, just didn’t get much done work-wise.