Withdrawl Sucks!

I had no idea I was addicted as I apparently am...

For once, I'm not talking about coffee. Although, truth be told, I don't see how anyone has the right to judge my deep and abiding love of the greatest drink ever as an "addiction". That implies I return to the Fount of Caffeinated Heaven time and again out of need, rather than want. Believe me, it's a want.

Oh boy, is it a want!

But, as I said, this isn't about that. I'm referring, instead, to the Internet... The World Wide Web, as it were... This global collection of computers, inextricably bound together by high-speed and dial-up connections alike. And, for what seems like longer than I can remember, I have been a part of all this... One small link in the greater chain... A daily commuter on the Information Super Highway... A surfer on the electro-charged waves of Cyberspace.

And not a bad metaphorist either, I might add.

Okay, on to the meat and potatoes of this working man's entrée...

My cable modem packed it in Saturday evening. Dead. The only warnings I had were a couple dropped connection hiccups... the final death-throes, yet unbeknownst to me. I tried my darndest to revive the little sucker, though... checked the cables, rebooted the system, rebooted the router, rebooted the modem, checked the cables again, struggled with tech support. In the end, I called the time of death at 5:25pm. As luck would have it, my ISP's customer service closed at 5:30, meaning I'd have to wait until the next day for a replacement.

Of course, there wasn't anything I needed to do on the 'net for those 21 hours, 32 minutes, and 7 seconds (roughly), but as soon as I wasn't able to get on, I wanted to get on. Did I have email? Was there a clever comment to one of my less-then-clever blog posts? Was it cold outside? I don't trust just stepping outside... these things can be very local, you know.

I was cut off from the world, people, and I didn't like it! Not one bit, I tell you!

Thankfully, once the new modem was home... I've named him Herb, by the way... Anyway, once Herb was home, and everything was back to normal, I let out a sigh of relief and "got connected" once again. Of course, no new email, no comments, and it really was cold beyond my back porch.

It figures.