Coping with an all-out 5-alarm technological breakdown

I’m convinced that my dependence on modern miracles--technology as we know it—was gradual. I cannot pinpoint an exact time that it happened. Now as I suffer through it, I can see how it has changed my life, both for the better and worse.

To give you a status update, here’s where I stand in the breakdown. I STILL have no cable or internet access. However, God-willing, we have an appointment for service on Tuesday. This comes after a customer service representative at Cox cable told my wife last week that it could be up to a year before our service could be installed. I promptly called the corporate office in Atlanta and spoke to someone in the Customer Relations department. We had our appointment by the end of the afternoon. This is 8 weeks after our promised service date. Anyway, on to the other ingredients in my breakdown.

Before we moved, we thought our monitor had gone out on our home PC. So, in anticipation of our reunion with high-speed internet service, I bought a new flat panel model on Ebay. When I hooked it up and realized that the monitor was not the problem, I was very scared. Fortunately, with the help of a techno-genius friend in Louisiana, I got the computer back and running and still have a new monitor. I still feel like I might be in a leaky-roof situation though and know that a computer upgrade is on the horizon. Plus, the speakers no longer work, but I can live with that.

After 3 ½ years of faithful service, I regret to say that our Sony digital camera passed away this week. This one is very disturbing. I cannot even estimate how many pictures we have taken. We recorded the moving to two new cities, two new homes, the arrival of our daughter and all of her milestones to date, plus tons of other photos that would not have been worthy of a photo if I had been forced to pay for processing! As with the computer, we knew that this replacement was coming. We were not ashamed that our camera was so much bulkier than the new sleek models that everyone else was sporting, nor the fact that the memory card door had broken off. So, I started the process of looking through sales papers today.

TiVo. Some might consider this trivial, but none of those people actually have TiVo. We cannot use this service because it runs on our home network, which is obviously out since we do not have internet service. It’s also pointless right now because we get 1.75 channels with our rabbit ears.

And today I find out that our VCR may too have gone on to be with the Lord. (We were only using the VCR as a backup to TiVo.)

What have I learned from my breakdown?

Before this breakdown, I brought the office home with me a lot. I didn’t realize how many additional hours I was putting in at my job from home. With a home network and a wireless card, I was almost as efficient at home as I was in my office.

I watch a lot of TV. I’m okay with this though. I could be doing worse things. Hell, I live in Las Vegas, I could be gambling all the time! I have also realized that local television stations have come to believe that their answer to cable networks is almost-continuous local news. Since I basically only have ABC, this one hits close to home. There are only so many local stories, and dragging them out over 10 hours per day is a recipe for absolute boredom. Last night I even tried to watch PBS!!!

I had forgotten that prior to the internet, we used newspapers, telephones and even maps to find where we were going and what movies were playing. This has been a crippling discovery living in a new town.

So where does this leave me?

I want my MTV. Will I even watch MTV once I have cable? Probably not, but I am very ready to return to my technologically enriched life, and hopefully I will be on the track to its return by Tuesday! I’ll keep you posted.