March, 14, 2014

Things are beginning to thaw on the other side of the polar vortex.

The sun appears in the sky more often and stays there longer. 

The days are extended.

And I am writing again.

My apologies to my loyal readers…all 10 or 12 of them.

I realize that the idea of a blog is to write…regularly. So, off we go.

Once my employment benefits ran out, (and by the way there is news on that front…I got a news alert from CNN today that said that there was progress on a vote to extend long-term unemployment benefits for 5 months. Good News, although I’m not certain that i will qualify to file a new claim. Just have to wait and see.) I continued to keep a daily log of my job search activities. I figured it was good discipline and kept me on the right path, even though it was only required by the state to continue to receive the paid benefits.

Once March arrived and I had come so close to getting that 3-month freelance job for the start-up magazine, and after ordering the new computer, printer, desk and chair to set up my little office here in 53965, I took a week off from the daily log to clean out Mom’s old upstairs bedroom. I sorted and cleared and tossed and recycled for hours, to make room for my desk. I painted over the faded flower wallpaper with 4 coats of KILZ (bright white) on just one wall…the one facing the front of the house with the morning sun and great all-day light. I swept and washed the wood floors. 

A shell-encrusted flamingo found among the boxes
 and why I needed 4 coats of KILZ over the wallpaper.

While I was sorting through boxes and bags of old mail and papers, cards and letters, magazines and saved but yellowed newspaper articles, I found quite a few gems, including my Mother’s diary, written in her 16th year. She has since taken it downstairs to her current bedroom, scolded me, laughing, “That’s personal, you shouldn’t be reading that…” She has it on her bedside table where she reads a page or two and tries to remember all the people who are attached to all the names written on the pages. She shared some of those pages with my brother and sister and I the other night.

Dear Diary. Mom's 15th year.

Madame Bruni and the "crowned heads of Europe."

There was a card from her Aunt tucked into the pages, a card that was answering a question asked about her Grandparents and their Norwegian ancestry.  It seems that we had a quite potentially famous Opera singer in the family, who went by the name of Madame Bruni and who had once performed for the “Crowned Heads of Europe” as a young woman.

Who knew?

Certainly none of us, although Mom didn’t seem that surprised by the news.

I found old advertisements and illustrations, old Valentine’s Day cards we used to send (and receive) as young children. I found billing statements for Dr. Carlson, our childhood dentist. The fee for my sister was $12.00, for my brother and for me? $1.00. Those were the days.

Old Advertising. Gems.

Childhood Valentines Day cards.

Instructions for the use of pantyhose.

My computer, an iMac; my desk and chair (from IKEA), my printer…they all arrived in a couple of days and when I finished all the superficial “updating” of the room with that one fresh wall of paint and a clean floor, I set up my little office. I am ready now for anything that comes my way…and more.

Well…almost ready.  There were a few small challenges to my master plan.  There are no electrical outlets in this room and if there is one thing that modern technology needs, it’s electricity!

In discovering the absence of any electrical outlets in that particular room, I actually discovered that there were absolutely NO electrical outlets upstairs at all, with the exception of one lone outlet in the room that Harry and I are calling home. I bought a power strip (a surge protector, because who knows what is going on with the electricity in this old house?) and a 40 foot long extension cord. I set about tacking it down to the floor originating directly between Harry’s and my identical twin inflatable mattresses (his now covered in the circus-themed comforter), along the floorboards, to the corner of the room, past the closet, around the door frame and out the door, across the hall, around the door frame and corner of Mom’s old bedroom, in front of that closet and to the computer. Works like a charm.

The other challenge was the elusive Internet. 

And elusive it was.

I made calls to Verizon, my cell phone carrier, but that was a bad idea. I can’t even get a decent signal to make a phone call here. And if I do manage to get a signal to make a call, it drops just slightly after “Hello?” And for those reasons, a Verizon hotspot didn’t seem a feasible idea in this area.

I called Frontier Communications. I talked to two different fellows in central and south Florida. Why I was talking to Florida about an Internet connection in south central Wisconsin, I have no idea. They really wanted to sell me the whole package; TV, Internet, phone, streaming this and that. I just wanted to be able to use the Internet. I finally got hooked up with a deal that I thought would be the answer. We made appointments and I waited. 

I got a call one afternoon to confirm my appointment, but the appointment was for a different date and time. I agreed to the new details, after explaining that was not what was recorded in my calendar. Then the fellow actually said he was available the next morning, so we set the date. We had just had another blast of cold from Mother Nature and a few more inches of snow. He came. Wandered around the back, side and front yards and determined that there were exactly two places that a pole with a satellite dish facing the clear southwestern sky would make my connection dreams come true. Then he delivered the bad news. Because of the frost levels or depths (this year’s being extremely deep) he wouldn’t be able to dig a pole for a month. And he was gone.

I got back on the phone…to Florida.

They checked and re-checked and called and talked with supervisors and supervisors’ supervisors, but it was true. There was apparently, absolutely no way...in the year 2014...to dig a hole in the ground when it’s cold. 

I abandoned Frontier Communications and sought out another option.

I asked Harry’s home school teacher, Miss Margie, who her carrier was. I knew from Harry’s infatuation with The Nutcracker and the Winter Olympics that they had cable television, at least. And Miss Margie seemed to be a kind of connected person. She couldn’t stop talking about Reedsburg Utilities. (Reedsburg is a small town, about 25 minutes drive from here.) They had switched from Frontier (big surprise) and couldn’t be happier. The speed was lightning, the cost was one third of their previous bill and the package even included NetFlix. Unfortunately for us, we cross a county line when we drop Harry at School. Reedsburg Utilities serves Sauk County and not Juneau. Juneau, of course, being our county.

While I was interrogating Miss Margie, Mom had been doing her own investigating and found that our neighbors to the rear of the property used US Cellular for their Internet and television (at least streaming videos).  This news on the heels of a story that they had violated some law, (US Cellular, not our neighbors) doing some thing, some where and were paying a massive fine to their customers. I wasn’t that thrilled to find that this was a viable option and one that I would actually, finally commit to. 

The initial phone call wasn’t terrible, but took way longer than it should have. I’d say about 30 to 40 minutes, give or take. The fellow on the phone said the “equipment” (which is a hotspot just slightly larger than a credit card, but an inch thick) would be sent two-day air and arrive in 4 days. Yes. That is what he said. Two-day air, arrive in 4 days. 

It did arrive as promised. Then came the phone calls. 

I called to activate the hotspot, but I wasn’t listed on the account. Strange, since I spent those 30 to 40 minutes a few days earlier, adding ALL my information to that account and confirming it more than once. I called Mom, who had to call US Cellular, and then had to call me, who than had to call US Cellular...again, and the device was finally activated. At this point, we had achieved success. We had access to the Internet! I went online to register the hotspot so that I could check data usage and pay the account online, etc. 

More calls.

I had to fill in some information like account number, etc. and it would generate a PIN, which I would enter into the electronic form and it would allow me to complete the registration and establish an online account. But it would not generate the PIN.  I would get an email saying that a PIN was sent, but there was no PIN on the device.  It was frustrating. I called Customer Service.

I talked to a young woman who tried to help me, but couldn’t, then explained that I would have to go physically into a US Cellular office to get that fixed. My device, my computer…all at my house. Why in the world would I go into an office, miles away, to fix what I needed fixed?

I asked for her supervisor. 

She was pleasant. She tried to help me, but couldn’t. She said she would connect me to technical support.  I thought that I was already connected to technical support, but O.K., technical support. The technical support woman greeted me pleasantly, apologized for all the trouble I was having and assured me that she could solve the issue. Then… she hung up on me!

Sigh.

I called again. I was sent fairly quickly to technical support after explaining my day spent with US Cellular employees. The fellow was pleasant and we got right to work.  We tried the same thing over and over and over and over again. Seriously, so many times. I finally said, fairly exasperated at this point, “I’ll try this one more time and that’s it for today. It is not how I intended to spend my day.” The tech fellow laughed, rather nervously. 

And it actually worked!

We had done the same exact thing at least 13 times, but the last time, it worked. I was registered and could start to view my data usage. The problem solver fellow stayed on the phone until I went through the entire registration, step by step, and clicked on the page where I should actually be able to see my data usage. (I had only signed on for a 3GB data package and was anxious to see what a day online would consume, so that I could estimate whether or not the plan I’d chosen was the correct plan or if I’d be paying severe overages.) So, I’d gotten to the page where I could see that data use. The page where I was greeted with a simple, one-line statement written in ALL RED LETTERS: “We are unable at this time to show the data usage for this account.”

Seriously? 

It seems that technology isn’t always proceeding at lightning speed and although I was indeed connected to the Internet - a miracle in itself - the account would need some time to “catch up” to my use. 

I said my final goodbyes to the US Cellular Customer Service team and rejoiced in finally…finally having access to the Internet right here in Mom’s slightly...drafty...old farmhouse.

Morning. Sunshine in the sky.