Break Out Your Wee Violins
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life. I haven’t had a very hard life.”
We had some new neighbors move in on Wednesday and, when our cable company came to install the new people’s Internet, they accidentally disconnected ours.
Whoops!
When we called the cable company, the informed us they’d be out as soon as possible…Which was on Sunday. This means Wes and I, and the kids by extension, lived without Internet access in our home for three and a half days.
Woe is us, right?
Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal at all. This just happened to be a really busy few days, during which I had to send quite a few time-sensitive emails. My solution was to schlep my laptop and kids to mother-in-law’s house on Thursday (she was gracious enough to let us come destroy her house for a few hours while I caught up on stuff) and then tote my daughter and laptop into a Starbucks on Friday only to spend $10 on coffee and snacks just for the ability to send one single solitary email.
It made me feel like some kind of unfortunate WiFi refugee and reminded me of a huge storm we had up here eight years ago. Trees went down left and right, taking out homes and power lines across Western Washington and making a huge mess out of everything. We were without power for almost a week, during which I learned a few things:
A house can become too cold to live in within six hours, give or take depending on snow levels outside and insulation and windows and whatnot.
You can take stuff out of your freezer and bury it outside in the snow to keep it from going bad.
Smart people have flashlights with good batteries and plenty of candles handy.
Gas stations don’t work without power, which means you, along with everyone in your city, are all in the same panicked almost-out-of-gas-with-nowhere-to-fill-up boat. It’s a crappy boat. Add to that the interminable wait when you do find a gas station with power and you have to wait in line behind everyone in your zip code, and you’ve got a whole lot of no fun.
Electricity changes things. A city without power is eerie and desolate. A house without power is creepy-quiet. It’s incredible and strange how vulnerable and alone you feel, and how fast, as soon as your cell phone loses battery power for good.
While things were far from this desperate without Internet, it was kind of similar. It’s amazing how frustrating it can feel to know you have an important email you can’t respond to. You don’t realize how fragile all of this is until one tiny part of it goes haywire, and then it becomes abundantly clear what a house of cards we all live in.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome house of cards. Truly, we live in an incredible time. All you can do is hold your breath and hope no one kicks the table too hard.
