Retro Post

6/1/2006
Before cable TV and high speed internet...
The most unwanted, most awful thing happened at our house yesterday. Around 4:00 PM yesterday a big line of storms moved through our area. Yes, our cable/telephone/internet hookup was gone all in one fell swoop!

Every 5 minutes Jim would turn on the TV remote on the off chance that by some miracle the cable would be back on. I was just as bad. I would check my computer just to see if I could access the internet. Neither one of us cared anything about the telephone not working. Why worry there. I called our family on the cell phone and told them to call the cell phone number if there was an emergency.

What did Jim do before the days of cable TV??? He couldn't remember...it had been so long. I used to read a lot in the days before high speed internet. I started 3 paperbacks before I found one that interested me. Still jumping up every few minutes to see if there was any action on the computer. The telephones were all blinking 'line in use.' We ignored those.

During the course of the evening we sat on the porch. Then we played a game of cards. Then we talked to the neighbors who were not bored because they were getting ready to leave on a trip to North Dakota.

When we retired at 10:00 PM we still did not have any of the so called 'finer things of life.' This morning when I got up the first thing I did was to pick up the telephone. YES!! a dial tone. YES!! I am sitting here at the computer typing this and YES!! Jim is drinking his coffee in front of the TV.

Life is normal again.