Long-time readers are aware of my persistent issues with phone and internet connectivity. The phone system out here in the Far Boondocks is roughly equivalent to two tin cans connected by a piece of string. It doesn’t take much stress on that string to zap my internet connection.
Last Friday, right after I finished moderating the comments that had come in overnight, my phone and Internet went out. Clear blue sky, no wind, beautiful day — and the phone went out, just like that.
I’ve learned from experience that when the phone goes out on a Friday, I can expect it to stay off all weekend. The phone company doesn’t send technicians out here to fix outages in their off hours. Repairs are scheduled for normal work hours, Monday through Friday. So if the phone goes out on Tuesday, it might be fixed on Wednesday, if I’m lucky. But if it goes out on Friday, I can forget about any repairs over the weekend.
As it happened, Saturday was the day of the memorial service for my very good friend who died last month (see “Thanatopsis”, August 6). The future Baron came down for the weekend so that he could attend it. Before he left yesterday, I had him come with me while I drove us to where there was a cell phone signal, about eight miles from here, and used his phone to call tech support in Bangladesh. After going through interminable touch-tone menus, and listening to horrible music while on hold, I finally got to talk to a personable young lady with a thick Bengali accent. She apologized profusely for the difficulties I was having, then made me listen to the horrible music for a while longer while she looked into the situation. When she returned, she told me that there was an outage in my area, and there was no estimated time for the repairs to be completed.
I knew ahead of time that she would say that, because that’s the way it always goes. But it’s important to go through the forms, just for propriety’s sake, and set up a trouble ticket.
I also knew that the phone would come back on today, because it always happens that way. The technician comes to work on Monday morning and looks at his trouble tickets while he drinks a cup of coffee. Then he gets in his panel truck and comes out here to Eerie Hollow to reconnect the string to the tin can.
It had been more than a month since the previous outage, which was a pretty long run. Let’s see how long it takes before the next one.
Generally speaking, if you see me disappear for a weekend without any advance warning, you can assume there’s been an outage like this one.
Glad to hear it was nothing serious; as you say this is nothing new for long-time followers of your site.
It’s a pity you can’t get them to pro-rate your bill for all the time that you spend without service…
Oh, I can and do get my bill pro-rated. I keep track of the outages in a spreadsheet. I got an appropriate credit for July.
Good to see you back 🙂
I would look if starlink in available in your area
I’ve prepared more than one email to address this topic with the Baron, but I’m afraid he’s a stubborn soul- so I never pressed send. I often wonder if he simply enjoys us being worried?
I don’t read often. But was worried about you. I’m glad that it was just a technical problem with your service and that you are well.
I am so happy and grateful that you are back and nothing was amiss: now I won’t be so concerned thanks to your explanation. Well, nothing amiss with You personally, but yes it must be pretty frustrating to deal with those string/can issues.
You are no longer a young person, and therefore there is cause for concern. So many wonderful blogs have ALREADY been lost forever.
You need to find a companion who is ready to take your crown.
Do we know the origin of the pic of the “aeronauts”? From the clothes, I’d date it c1930, so the ‘plane looks quite modern, but the ‘phones decidedly clunky.
(While it’s quite well known that Arthur C Clarke predicted communications satellites, I suspect fewer are aware that Robert A Heinlein did the same for mobile ‘phones; I think in a short story in the late ’40s, but can’t find it. Any ideas, “Moon”?)
Seneca III supplied the image to accompany one of his essays, but I don’t know where he found it.
He made mention of them in one of his early short stories “Between Planets” which came out sometime in the 40’s.
To be honest, I never read that one; many of his earliest works were adolescent oriented. I was able to find that information in less than a minute by searching online, something which Heinlein also predicted in his novel “Friday” which I have read and enjoyed. The cell phone makes a reappearance in that novel as well. I think it was one of his last works and came out sometime in the mid-eighties when mobile phones were big and clunky and just starting to make an appearance in high-end luxury cars.
Thanks indeed.
This is the source with explanation for the image. Apparently it was part of a series of drawings from Echte Wagner, a German margarine company, which imagined the future.
Interesting, some of them are quite prescient, while others are way off mark. Imagining that people would be noticeably dumber in the future than they were in the 1930s apparently wasn’t contemplated.
https://flashbak.com/wonderful-futuristic-visions-of-germany-by-artists-in-1930-381451/
Glad to know it was only a temporary issue and all is well. I admit I couldn’t help worrying about other possible scenarios, like others expressed. All the best to you and as many more years as you wish for yourself!