A Day Without Wi-Fi

So when I arrived Sunday in CA I knew that I would have to go nearly an entire day with no Wi-Fi and unfortunately the cell phone signal is very weak around this area which means mobile hotspot is virtually unusable and even the normally fast LTE network on my Verizon cell phone is sputtering at an alternating 1X and 3X signal.  This means very very limited Internet access with brief ability to respond or status on FB, check an email or two and text/Skype a message or two to my kids back in Arizona.

Sunday was not so bad, and I was almost ecstatic when one of my neighbors gave us the password to their Wi-Fi only to find out that it was turned off, and they didn’t know how to turn it back on and get it online while their son was away.  This meant I was back to virtually no Internet access, mobile hotspot would get page cannot be displayed even trying to load Google to search for Cox website to try and bribe them to come out in an earlier time slot to repair the line.

I am about as Internet addicted as they come, showing all the classic signs and stages of addiction when losing access to my Internet life line.  It isn’t just that I need Internet for my day job (I telecommute, therefore I always need an active Internet connection for work) but I also consume and generate so much online activity that I feel empty and bored without having access to it.

Denial

This can’t be, how can the Internet not be working?  I scanned all Wi-Fi networks in the neighborhood in the hopes that some poor schlub wasn’t securing theirs and I could piggy back off of it, no luck everyone is at least bright enough to use WPA2 and not use the default router name/passwords in this neighborhood and I won’t stoop low enough to try and brute force my way into another’s Wi-Fi network.  I retraced all cox lines, tried everything possible to get some sort of online light on the router.  Heck, if I had enough Coax cable, I would have crimped new heads and ran a new line out to the box.

Disbelief

I can’t believe I can’t get online, I simply am like shocked that there isn’t a way I can connect, unbelieving that the mobile hotspot is so damn slow and just like “I can’t believe this” repeatedly.  For the first time in years I went to bed at 8pm just because I was bored (I happened to have an ear infection and lung infection too) but hoping sleeping the time away would make my Internet come back faster.

Anger

Frustration and anger sets in, I can’t believe stupid wall jack won’t give me Internet.  Anger that my Verizon phone signal is so weak in this house that the mobile hotspot is like a 300 baud modem, can’t even load 1 email every 3 minutes.  Clenching and unclenching fists in frustration on how to get back online.

Acceptance

Finally the acceptance comes and I start to think about how much productivity and what I can do while I have no Internet, like finish writing my mid year reviews at work, write several blog posts and queue them as draft for when I get online again (like this one) and eat breakfast and talk to my wife a bit before the contractors come.

By the time this is publishes my Wi-Fi would have been restored, but this is obviously a problem with me and I recognize this.  Actually had I not had to work today and this Internet connection reducing me to being only able to join conference calls and limited email responses, I would have probably been fine, I can take a PTO day, go for a 1 hour job, enjoy the beach, but it is mostly because I have to work that this really frustrated me so much.