Re-Routing

When Alberto’s noise-canceling headphones stopped canceling noise this summer, I did not snap a photo before parting with them.

Ditto recent replacement of the toilet that played a not-so-minor role in the last morning of his life.

But this router?

This effing router?

It’s a piece of him that’s been both a source of frustration and a thing I just can’t seem to replace.

Six months after Alberto’s death, I tried replacing it: the installation literally broke my cable Internet and left two of my techiest friends stumped.

That new router was shoved back into its box, thrown in Alberto’s closet and the old one has been doing a shit job ever since.

Today, my frustration over the shit wireless actually canceled out my fear of Router Disaster Part Two. Because really, in the four years since that fiasco, I’ve managed to get a new ISP, perform two software updates and add RAM—all without Alberto and without breaking anything.

So, today I did the thing I was dreading.

I replaced the router.

(Again.)

Installation wasn’t half as smooth or simple as the box promised, but all the equipment is actually talking to one another. And none of my devices are saying the dirty buffering word.

I may have gleefully dropped the old router in the trash chute.

And canceled my plans tonight so I could stay in and write about technology.

Although—as you’re well aware—this post has not been at all about technology.