Total Knee Replacement
The internet is down. I’m not surprised, with the storm we went through. Because we are in the country, with no tower nearby that allows us to access wireless service, we have a satellite receiver on the side of the house for internet access. It is not unusual to lose the signal. This usually requires a trip downstairs to power down everything, then power it back up in a particular sequence. I finally get around to doing this after lunch. My first trip downstairs with the cane. Of course, I have to get the walker down with me because the cane on its own won’t let me move around down there. Fortunately I have a landing half-way down and can reach the walker and after I am down 4 steps and move it to the landing with one hand, then descend, shift the walker, go down four steps, move the walker to the basement floor, then finish descending. What a pain. Why didn’t they put an elevator in this house when they built it?
All my magic doesn’t work so I try calling xplornet, my service provider. Damn. Somebody left a phone off the hook. Back up stairs, tracking down all the cordless phones. They all seem fine, so back downstairs, because I didn’t bother with the ones down there. They are all good. Maybe the lightning strike took out the phone service.
Thank God for cell phones. I call Ma Bell. They have no indication of a problem on their end. They inform me that there is a phone jack either inside my house, where the service comes through the wall, in their little junction box, or outside the house, where the service comes in. If I plug a phone into the phone jack in their service box, I can tell if I am getting service from the telephone pole to there. Then I will know if it is their problem or my problem. As if I care. I just want phone service. I’ve had my leg sawn up, people. I need phone and internet.
Back downstairs. First disconnect the one phone we have that isn’t cordless (gotta have one corded phone in case of power outages), then find something to carry it around in. I locate an old WWII ammo bag with shoulder strap that my dad used for holding fishing gear and dump the phone in that, then start searching for the junction box.
Well, I find the service coming in and being split into the different lines for distribution in the house, but that’s not what she was talking about. So outside I go. Yes, walkers are useable on grass that hasn’t been cut for a few weeks. I find the junction box. Of course, it’s only about two feet off the ground. I get down and squirm my way under to where I can get a look. I can’t see any phone jack. I get up and pry the lid off the thing. No phone jack. Damn. Why do these people lie? Is it just to force you through this hassle?
Back on the cell phone. No problem. They’ll assign a ticket to my problem and have a contractor come and look at it. More outsourcing. Does no one maintain their own service network these days? The help desk I was talking to was probably in New Delhi. The person was polite, and considerate, but my issues with mobility and need for communication were not their issues. Someone would be out to my house to check sometime between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM on Friday. Two days before the phone service could be restored. I wondered how many phone messages were already piled up from potential horse sellers looking for Lynn and Access Center workers trying to get in touch with me to schedule visits.
Shan calls and wants to borrow my laptop so she can have a slide show running on it at the two wedding shows she is going to this weekend. I am reluctant, because I have been typing out this blog and a couple of other writing projects on the laptop, while sitting in an easy chair with my leg propped up. It is a lot more comfortable that trying to sit at the regular computer desks we have at home. After 20 minutes of that and my knee starts throbbing. Oh well, I don’t have internet access anyway, so it’s not like I can post the blog entries or do research for my writing. I’ll get the laptop back by Sunday or Monday night.
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