Forced Time Out
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Apparently, I have offended the gods of ordinary life. Yesterday was a disaster beginning at 5AM - even before the coffee was ready or the cat fed.
To keep it short, there was no internet leading to the discovery of a dead router. It took an hour of tinkering and phone calls to deduce that the router was a goner and to revive the laptop internet connection via hard wire.
Since life at Chez Bennett requires several Wi-Fi connections, a couple more hours were lost to researching how to buy a router (it had been seven or eight years since I had last done so), deciding how fancy a router I could or should afford, finding a well-reviewed one at the best price and ordering it.
By then it was past 8AM and I still needed to shower and organize myself for a couple of appointments away from home. But wait.
As I was getting up from the desk, an email popped in from the router vendor saying my credit card had been denied. Huh?
That required another hour on phone calls with the vendor and the card company to learn that overnight, a criminal had been trying to use my card number to buy some free stuff.
Hurray to Chase for catching it and making the remedy easy, but time was bearing down on me and I still had not showered. During those ablutions I idly wondered if, given the amount of electronic disarray, it was wise for me to drive to my appointments.
I did and as you can see, I survived without harm to myself or others.
There's more – it was an infuriating day of one damned thing after another. But you've been there and don't need chapter and verse. For me, this rendition is just a place holder to have a page to put today's Elder Storytelling Place link (below).
Come to think of it, however, maybe from this there is an amusing question for us to fool around with: why, do you suppose, time-consuming nuisance problems come about in clusters that waste entire days? It's not like I have a whole lot of them left, you know.
Personally, I'll stick with blaming the gods who enjoy finding opportunities to remind me that any control over time I believe I have occurs only at their indulgence.
At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Marcy Belson: 1942
Ronni:
An old Yiddish proverb says it all: "Man plans, and God laughs."
Posted by: Marc Leavitt | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 06:14 AM
Marc, you beat me to it. Love this one so much. Have heard it all my life, and often say it.
Posted by: Tamar | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 07:10 AM
I wonder in amazement how I would have been to handle all these electronic issues when I was working full time. These kids today must be so preoccupied with enough free time to spend enjoying fixing all these gadgets. And how about the inordinate amount of time it takes to repair a corrupt credit card!
I recall having to sneak out of my office and into the breakroom just to make a call to my Dentist!
Posted by: Yellowstone | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 07:24 AM
Well, ditto to me too. (So glad to have this timely chance to rant!) Credit/debit card was not denied, but the message was "transaction did not go through, try again." It happened 6 times this morning at the tire place where I'd just purchased 2 tires. Then I got to my computer to find out that 4 of these transactions were "pending," thus eating up all my checking account balance. I guess the other 2 transactions that were tried weren't going to be pending because there wasn't enough money. So off I went to the bank, and explained that after 6 tries this morning, I had finally written a check. I was worried (I said) that this tying up of my funds would mean the check might bounce. Kelly (my friend at my local branch) told me she'd make sure the check was not going to bounce, and there was nothing she could do about the 4 pending charges until they processed in 2-3 days. So I have no money though I have money whenever "The System" gets through processing it. I will certainly think twice before using plastic again. AND I did go back to the tire place (on Kelly's urging) and get all those receipts which showed the charge was a $00 amount...not the pending amount that has now tied up all my funds. Incidentally, the WHY of this happening has not yet been determined, as nobody else has tried to use a credit card this morning at the tire place...it could be their problem. I sure won't let anyone process my card more than once in the future!
Posted by: Barb in Black Mountain | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 07:42 AM
Ronni, to state the obvious: apart from all the difficulties we slightly older than usual people have with time, etc,computers consume a fair amount. And it can be exceedingly frustrating.
You work with them more than I do and, I'm sure, know much more about them.
There is something intrinsic about the computer, or the electronic age, that sometimes causes overwhelming difficulties, checking security, checking files, checking cables, and sometimes even finding or remembering where the email address of somebody is. If it's not in the system where is it?
I spent 3 hours in a doctor's waiting room today in a very uncomfortable chair. I'd taken a book but because of the stress of the chair I couldn't read. And my back is suffering tonight.
I marvel at how resilient you are when faced with your problems. I would not like a day when I had to deal with a router, and such unknown things.
My football team in Melbourne is St Kilda, and when we want to rouse ourselves, the cry is Go Saints!
Perhaps you might like to become a follower of our great team?
Keep well Ronni
Posted by: Ross | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 07:48 AM
Funny day it was all around. My car air conditioner fan suddenly wouldn't turn on. Yet these are fixable annoyances.
Posted by: BabyBoomerWriter | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 07:55 AM
I think when I have those days -- and they happen fairly frequently -- I've made my personal schedule impossibly tight. Sure -- I should be able to accomplish everything on my mental list, but only if all goes according to MY plan.
As a long time consultant, I've set my own schedules for many years. I find that when I am working on a discrete project, I am much more comfortable with the fact that I can hardly ever accomplish what I hoped for in a particular day. But when this happens -- inevitably -- to my own projects, I am surprised and frustrated.
Since I am working less, the sense that I am flunking my own schedule builds until I "take a vacation" -- give myself a chance to reset my expectations.
This is a big facet of growing older for me.
Posted by: janinsanfran | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 08:03 AM
Yup, we all have those kind of days sometimes, "even in Australia!" (One of my favorite quotes from "Alexander and His Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day.") But President Obama had an entire WEEK like that!
Posted by: Kathleen Noble | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 08:04 AM
As they say, "my mother told me there would be days like this but she didn't say they would come in bunches like bananas". I like the Yiddish proverb better, though,.
Nothing in my life has caused as much stress and time spent resolving problems as has the computer. When I powered up this morning my monitor said "check your signal" because the monitor was blank. So I spent an hour sorting through that rat's nest of cables swirling around my feet trying to find the loose connection. There wasn't any. I then turned my PC off and powered it up again. This time I got the desktop. Go figure. I blame an evil gremlin that resides in my computer and has a big laugh by plaguing me quite often.
So if misery loves company take comfort in the fact that you have lots of it.
Posted by: Darlene | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 08:07 AM
Marc has it in one. Just don't forget to backup as I did this month when my hard drive died. Today will be vastly better.
Posted by: Mage B | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 08:59 AM
why, do you suppose, time-consuming nuisance problems come about in clusters that waste entire days?
Likely associated with the string theory concept. :-)
Posted by: Larry | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 09:02 AM
I love Darlene's "bunch of bananas"!
When only one thing goes wrong and not three, I'm grateful.
Posted by: Arby | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 09:20 AM
I've solved a few of those problems.
First, every so often I 'export' (copy) my email addresses to a file and send them to myself on my yahoo email site, so I can always access them from anywhere in the world.
Darlene, I have solved the snarled wires problem for free by saving my paper towel (and tp!) cardboard cores. When I get enough, I stuff the various wires through them to the various locations: no more snarl, no more hunting. (The sight is no uglier than a snarl of wires; better if you paint them.)
Lastly, the credit card problems might be due to the recent global $200 million credit card scam, with 178 people arrested so far worldwide. Everyone check your statements!
My own system was offline all day the day before yesterday due to no connectivity. When that happens, I power EVERYTHING down and wait a half-hour. Didn't work -- so I waited overnight, and voila it worked!
On days like these, I apply a 12-step method: acceptance. I found other things to do -- watched two movies on DVD.
Posted by: steve kemp | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 09:25 AM
Yesterday and the day before, I had challenges involving online payments to two public utilities. I had signed up for online payments, but some of the payments which should have gone to one utility went to the other one.
It took multiple calls and much frustration on my part, and I ended up deleting my online accounts. Now I'll get bills by snail-mail.
The only good part is that I got so frustrated my husband felt sorry for me and took me out for a delicious meal at a Thai restaurant.
Posted by: Madeleine Kolb | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 10:15 AM
I know exactly how you feel. My days are numbered, and to waste them on stuff like this drives me crazy!
I hope all is well now, chez Bennett.
Posted by: Hattie | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 10:39 AM
I just want to know which router you picked and why.. I have been researching and looking at routers for months now.
Posted by: Lynne | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 11:13 AM
I chuckled in sympathy as I started reading, knowing that a similar computer/wireless type problem would very quickly have had me in tears and on the phone to my son. As I continued reading, I braced myself for the inevitable "dead battery" or "out of gas" as you rushed out the door to your appointments. Those things only happen when you're running late, of course.
Perhaps it's all related to the domino theory. Once the first one falls ...
Posted by: PiedType | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 11:41 AM
I can relate. We had a similar computer problem a while back. Our router had burned out and thinking back we think it had been breaking down for some time before it finally gave up the ghost. We spent a good hour in the computer department at Best Buy debating the virtues of each (as much as we could understand them) before buying one of the cheaper ones. Besides getting back on line we also gained a router that was easy to lock and easy for us to specify which devices should be able to access it. We were shocked to realize that the old one was a bit more than a decade old. No wonder it died.
Posted by: Mary Walker | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 01:58 PM
The way I heard that old proverb was - Man proposes and God disposes!" ... and then totally laughs her butt off.
At least it's nice to know that She has a sense of humor. After all, She did create the human race, which just goes to prove it!
Posted by: Miki Davis | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 04:11 PM
Welcome to the "Dead Router Club", Ronni! Apparently, one of ours decided to go belly up about 3:00 AM this morning (I'm networked to my company so I can work from home; thus, we also have more than one router). My husband spent several hours on the phone with tech support in Bangalore(?) before they figured out that a dead router was likely the problem. Talk about time! Fortunately, we got the service package when we upgraded not long ago so we get a "free" service call--which couldn't happen today, of course, but is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
I'm endlessly grateful for my husband, the techie--because I am SO not! He was able to reposition a few wires so we're temporarily back online despite the defunct router. Hope tomorrow is a more productive day--for both of us!
Posted by: Elizabeth Rogers | Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 08:29 PM
Thank you for the tip Steve. I can hardly wait for the paper towel roll to end so I can start stuffing a wire in it. It may take years to get them all in tubes, though. I wish I had save the others that I threw in the paper recyclables.
Posted by: Darlene | Friday, 17 May 2013 at 08:57 AM