@%#$^#@#$ Weekend

Well, this past weekend could have gone better. *sigh*

We had a big storm come through. Not a big deal, right? Just turn off the sensitive electronics and sit back and watch the light show. Except that for this storm, the power outage came before the storm. "Hey, I think it might be getting bad out." BBWAAAaazzoooop. "%#@%@!"

We instantly turned off and unplugged everything, then went out and played in the rain. Ah, blissfull ignorance.

Later that night, I was plugging everything back in and I saw that the cable modem didn't have any lights on it. Uh-oh.

For those that have never had the joy of calling Linksys Tech Support, let me share a couple of insights with you. First, every 20-30 seconds the hold music is interupted by a voice that apologizes for the wait and then invites you to go online to contact them. The whole reason I was calling them is because I *couldn't* go online. That was really annoying. The second valuable insight that I have to share is this... you know as much as that tech guy does. If you think it's dead, it's dead. Just pitch it.

The next day we bought a new cable modem. Upon installation, we learned that it wasn't just the cable modem that was dead. It was also the router, and two of my network cables. Such revelations are never exactly speedy. I was annoyed.

Of course, it's not all sour and discolored. The new cable modem we bought was on sale with a fairly hefty discount. And the new router we bought was on sale. One computer now has internet access, and once the router ships, the whole ugly incident will be behind us.

I wanted to upgrade all that stuff anyway, just not at gunpoint. *sigh*