Yesterday morning was one of those days! My post for today is a copy of my email to my cohorts in crime, the Central Illinois 9/12 Project Watchdogs:
Just so you know guys, I am at the visitor center due to the fact that we have no wi-fi in our expensive resort condo here, even though my brother paid $100 a week for it…..grrrrrr! Of all the mornings to have no internet connection! So I had to drag my lazy butt out to this remote location to see what happened last night. I crashed at 8:30 last night. Man, I couldn’t wait to read whatever a certain anon watchdog dug up while I was sleeping. I was not disappointed when I finally got to my email…thanks and WOW!
I must tell you though that it was no easy task to get to this email this am. Even on a good day here I can’t get a signal in my room. I have to go to my brother’s room which means I must get a key to his room before going to bed. So this morning key in hand I go in very very early. My brother and sis-in-law are still sleeping of course. I fire up the laptop and “no internet connection available” appears. I think this can’t be true so i go thru the usual routine of troubleshooting all to no avail. So I call the front desk, they say they will connect me to tech support. I am ready to give them a piece of my already too small mind when I hear a fax machine screaming in my ear. I hang up, call the front desk back. A different person answers of course. I explain, she puts me on hold, then comes back with an 800 # for me. Fine, now I can give them whatfor. I dial the 800 number, guess what? another fax machine! I am not happy. I call the front desk for the 3rd time….did I mention that I am extremely persistent? Yet another person answers (do they have a full room of phone answerers at 6 am?) She puts me on hold, comes back and says someone will have to reset the internet connection. But only a manager can do that and he won’t be in till 9…..oh my, I think steam came out of my head. So then she tells me I can come to the visitor center and use the internet. I said great but that won’t do me any good b/c I can’t use my laptop there. She says yes you can. Just come to the front desk and ask for a wire.
So then all I have to do is GET DRESSED, wake my brother and wife up at 6 am to get the keys to the van, pack up all my medical needs and my computer and drive down to the visitor center. OK, so I do that. I am in such a hurry so I skip the shower and the all important CUP OF STARBUCKS. I drive down, go to the front desk where all the people I just talked to plus a few more are standing there watching me drag my extremely heavy bag up to the desk. I say in a not too nice voice “I need a wire”. So then we must go through the red tape of filling out the proper form of course. They give me a cable, then tell me I must go outside (where, by the way it is raining) then follow the sidewalk and go back in a door, get on an elevator and go to the second floor. That’s easy right.
They forgot to tell me that there is more than one door. Eeny, meeny, miny mo. Here comes a housekeeper, I ask her. She says I have to go around the corner to another door, then use my room key to open the door, take the elevator to second floor. I do that. Find the room with only one dirty old man in it on the computer. Did I say that out loud?
I unload the laptop, only to discover that I FORGOT MY MOUSE. Ugh. So then I try to rob a mouse from one of the other computers. The problem is the mouse is hardwired in to the keyboard. In my not too calm state of mind, I just unplug the entire keyboard from the other computer, then discover that my notebook does not have the correct port to plug it in to. So, put the other computer back together. Then start looking for the port to plug into the net. About this time a couple comes in, sees me in the floor with wires all around me and says “You can just plug in over here”.
from google images - not really me - I look a lot worse!
There is a port right on the wall! I feel like a total idiot but am so thankful that they rescued me. I was just about to have a mental melt-down with only a dirty old man to assist me! Ok, he might not have been a dirty old man but I was just in the mood to accuse anyone of anything at this point.
again, not really "my" dirty old man
I plug in and still don’t have a connection. Why am I not surprised? Then the nice couple told me I had plugged in to the only port that did not work. I am really batting 100 today. So I change ports and now here I am…on line at last. Oh what joy! So….
thats my story and I’m stickin with it and you guys were the lucky ones that I had to vent to today. I feel better now.
Well, now I can go back and brew that much-needed cup of Starbucks and maybe even take a shower (as I said, I couldn’t wait to get my fix). These poor people in this computer room have to deal with my lack of grooming.It’s 9 now so maybe the manager has plugged in that loose connection by now….Will be in touch and it will be shorter next time, I promise.
