Sunday, February 22, 2015

Pandora and the box

Hi.  Missed me?  Expected to see a blow-by-blow of Pandora's inundation?  

Me too.  That was the plan, after all.  It's a real comfort to know that during such drastic weather or extreme events, that even though I'm here alone, that I have all the news, weather, and blogsphere to keep me informed and accompanied through crap like this.

Until it all goes south.

One minute everything is hunky dory, I'm checking the oncoming storm on the iPad....

And then I wasn't.

Huh?  Oh, well.  I'd check the weather channel.  What weather channel?  The TV was dead.

HEY!  I went to call ATT and - you guessed it - the U-verse phone was dead.  Everything connecting me to the outside world was toast.  A momentary glitch, I assured myself, and dug out my emergency TracFone from the purse.  Called ATT.  

The woman checked my system from her end and couldn't even see my system.  Something was totally bad.  Soonest she could send a repairman was between 4-8pm Saturday night - during the storm.  Oh holy cow.  I'd be going through the storm blind with no info.  Honestly, I sorta panicked.  Without radar or news, I couldn't tell how bad things were or were going to get.  I couldn't relay any news to my Mom in her house because I didn't know anything. It was an uneasy sleep that night.

When I got up Saturday we already had at least 4" of snow and it was coming down thick and fast.  I started blowing the driveway.  I called over to my neighbor and asked if I could piggy back HIS (working) ATT wifi on my iPad.  "Sure."  Thing is, his wifi didn't make it INto my house.  So every now and then I would slog out down my driveway with the iPad, stand in the snow, hook up and check the radar, then hustle back inside.

While the storm turned out just to be a large snowfall event, I couldn't enjoy it because I felt rather isolated, and because I worked the driveway 4 times throughout the day.  I left the last pass along the length of the driveway until this morning.

Meanwhile, the repairman came around 5:00 pm and while that poor guy climbed poles, visited contral boxes down the street, read all the wires, he could not find a way to get me broadband - there was a complete break in my line somewhere and he couldn't get at it (he said probably down a manhole access).  So THIS morning I saw a lineman going around and I hoped he could fix it.

The router lit up all green around 7:30 a.m.  Yay.  Then it was red within 10 minutes.  Then it came up around 10:00 a.m.  Yay?  Nay....!  Around 10:30 it came back up and it's been up since then.  Again - yay?  Again - nay.  The technician called, told me the lineman was able to rig up temporary service for me, but that the entire line has to be replaced and the engineering department would have to get involved.

Oh good grief.  Thankfully I had the new TracFone AND the snowy albeit quick access to check the radar during the storm and was more on top of things by Saturday night so I slept a lot better.

This morning I finished the driveway early so the sun could work its heat on the blacktop.  

After the driveway was cleared and before the blacktop melted, I spent about an hour sitting on the deck, drinking mugs of tea, taking photos of the blue and white breathtaking beauty surrounding me.  The snow was absolute powder.  The birds were singing spring songs.  The sun was warm on my face (even though it was really only 20F). The sky was brilliant blue.  The air was pure and dry and intoxicating. The whole thing had me flashing back to a week-long ski trip I took to Sun Valley, Idaho back in the 70s.   I felt like I was back up in the mountains on the deck of a ski lodge.  Jeez, how could I have forgotten something like that!

So, there ya go.  Pandora was as mixed a bag as the original myth:  Bad stuff AND good stuff.  We're all okay, digging out, but safe and sound.  How about you?  Hope you rode out the event too.

Glad I got things cleaned up because another bitter blast of cold is coming week - freezing everything in place until the next thaw.  

Something noteworthy, though.  I was outside for over an hour in the most beautiful landscape this side of Vale or Aspen or Stow.  Million-dollar views.  And not one single other soul outside checking it out.  Oh man, I hope I never get like that.

 

4 comments:

  1. Wow-that IS beautiful.

    I love a good snow---but I also LOVE being connected to the world. Glad you made it through ok.
    And I've noticed too that not many people like to be out after a storm. Shame. They're missing some gorgeous views.
    Have a good week, Kris.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Back to frigid (0) this morning. Brrrrr. Come and get some snow! It'll keep all week in the deep freeze out there.

      Delete
  2. It is so hard to live while being on disconnect. I need to go out and start over with phones and internet but don't know what I want to do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Even with this snafu, I'm still really(!) appreciating having all 3 connections (phone, I'net, TV) in one bundle. And the more alone you are, the more you need connection, that's for sure. Hope you get it sorted out, Larry.

      Delete

Thank you for visiting. I appreciate your notes, comments and questions and will try to reply to each one! :-)