Stumbling back online

I took the day off so I could enjoy the inauguration. I had two real goals. First, pay witness to the inauguration of the first African American president. Second, witness George Bush's last official day in Washington. (There were moments when the second goal seriously outweighed the first.) A third unrelated goal was to get the oil changed in my car and to get new wiper blades.

My plan was to get up this morning and take care of a few minor tasks for work, and then to get on with own goals. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to have any Internet connectivity when I arose. This happens once every couple of months. Typically, I just power cycle my router and modem a few times, and all is good. That didn't do it this morning. I was able to plug my work laptop directly into the modem. So, I took care of the work tasks and changed my plans for the day.

Before I left the house for the lube shop, I set up TiVo to record the beginning of the inauguration coverage, in case I didn't make it back before things started. I timed my departure so that I'd be done with my lube job just about the time Best Buy opened up. I then went from the lube place to Best Buy and picked up a Vonage router. My dead router was a Vonage-enabled Linksys router. (So, yeah, we had no phone service either - that was my actual clue that the thing was really dead since phone service usually came right back after a power cycle.)

Once I got home, I was multitasking big time. I was watching the inauguration lead-up while disconnecting old router and reconnecting new router. I kept popping back and forth between my husband's office (he has a tv) and mine (I have an over-sized closet for an office.) After the ceremony was done, I was able to get basic Internet going again on my network. However, I still need to get the phone service working again.

*sigh* This was NOT how I wanted to spend this day of joy and reverie.

Once I get the phone service working, I think I deserve a nap!