From Shawn's Office

Nothing goes the way I expect it to. NOTHING. I should learn to expect that (then maybe things would go as expected?)

The move this morning started out fine. The TV's cable box was flashing a message that digital cable had been turned off. Harbinger of things to come ... or foreshadowing or something.

I was sure I wouldn't be able to go online, but I was able to turn on my computer, check work e-mail. So we got going with the reserved elevator and the borrowed dolly. After moving the dressers (still full), the closet-thing and the kitchen table, it was time to move the desk. Internet was still working, but we had to disconnect to get the desk out and leave only the tower, monitor, mouse and keyboard. Once we moved the desk we set the computer, modem and router back up. For a moment it worked - I saw a few current tweets on my iGoogle start up page. Then nothing.

Nothing.

We tried a few things, then decided to go shower before hassling with it anymore. I called Time Warner Cable (not quite as bad as Comcast, but still it's a cable company). Originally they told me the cable in 5H wouldn't be turned off until AFTER it had been turned on in 8G, which meant I could continue working with minimal interruption. I spoke to a different person when I called today to check on the problem, and she said I was mistaken and was very short and downright rude (what else should I expect from customer service, right?). She couldn't do anything for me/couldn't remotely turn on the Internet in either apartment and had no explanation for why I'd been misinformed or why the Internet had briefly worked this morning.

Anyway, no cable or Internet in either apartment until the cable tech comes tomorrow - 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. window. Great.

So I have this vintage 2003 laptop (sounds better than saying crappy hunk-a-junk, and it can probably read what I'm typing!), and the last time I used it was at a hotel in Alexandria and wifi worked fine/automatically. So I pack it up and head to Cosi, planning to wile away the afternoon working on this ancient machine and sipping semi-OK coffee. After ordering lunch and securing a table-with-an-outlet, the computer decides nope, wireless won't work today. The device manager is entirely empty, and who knows what the problem is. Definitely stems from the pre-big-work-event melt down, but I hope to just get a new computer instead of spend time solving this one's problems.

To recap - no Internet, no computer, no problem. Shawn lets me go to his office while he finishes up moving our powerful air conditioner to the new apartment (installers coming tomorrow morning). His office mate is A-OK with me crashing the party. I'm able to do a bit of work, but of course there are files I need here, or VPN access I need there. When Shawn got to work (after the AC move and a shower of his own), I gave him back his computer and fired up my own, which does work when it's connected directly to the university network.

So here I am, with a decrepit computer, borrowing Internet and hobbling along workwise. Thank goodness this is only for one day (possibly less than one day if the cable guy comes at 2 p.m., yeah right) ... and once I'm all set up again it will be smooth sailing (knock on wood).

One good thing: we have the season 2 Dexter finale DVD to watch tonight, and there's plenty of unpacking and nesting to be done. And by this time tomorrow everything should be golden again.

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