Addiction

Hello, my name is ab and I am an internet addict.

If, before this week, I was unsure if I was an internet addict, the events of the past few days have confirmed my fears.  I most assuredly have a hardcore internet addiction.  : /

Starting around 8:00 p.m. Tuesday and continuing to approximately 11:00 p.m. Thursday, I did not have internet access at my home.  That's more than 48 hours without the ability to check e-mail, read the numerous blogs I follow, or post on facebook.  To make matters worse, I was unable to keep up-to-date on the hard news, forecasts, photos, and human interest stories surrounding the blizzard that had all but paralyzed the Chicago area and most of the upper midwest.

Yes, I did have cable television, but it wasn't the same.  For awhile the local broadcasts were all blizzard, all the time.  But eventually the non-stop news reports gave way to regular programming with only an occasional news report.  (Just a piece of advice TV station people -- timing is everything.  There really was no need to interrupt the entire Double Jeopardy round for the lame news conference where some poor City of Chicago Director of Yet Another Patronage-ridden Department fell on his sword so no snow would stick to the great Teflon-coated Mayor Daley, especially when the regular four o'clock news broadcast was scheduled to start in a mere ten minutes!)

But I digress.  Even though I was internet-less, I really wasn't that out of the loop, but I still felt lost and at loose ends.  I would gladly have traded cable television for internet access, even though it would have meant missing new episodes of NCIS, The Good Wife, and The Mentalist. 

While I was compulsively rebooting the computer and unplugging and replugging the cable modem and wireless router, my husband was "working" in warm and sunny Orlando, basking in an abundance of internet riches at a technology and consulting conference.  He might have been fortunate enough to miss the drama of the blizzard, but he didn't escape the rantings of an internet junkie desperate for a fix.  After reading untold pathetic texts and listening to me whine endlessly on the phone, he called Comcast and was able to talk with a customer service rep/technician.

Heaven only knows what the problem was.  Initially it was probably storm-related, but somehow while computers all over my neighborhood came back online and were surfing the net with ease, my computer couldn't connect.  Thankfully the Comcast employee was able to remotely reset the cable modem and, voila, I was back online in time to write the Thankful Thursday post!