When You're Depending on the Internet for Pretty Much Everything...

...and your internet starts having a problem the day before your IT professional husband takes off for far off places, it quickly becomes a problem.  We use the internet for television, we use the internet for music, we use the internet for shopping, we use the internet for getting library books (because we're lazy that way), we use the internet for banking and paying bills, we use the internet for our landline, and we use the internet for, well, surfing the internet...seriously, we use the internet for everything.  When I say "internet problem", I actually mean the internet keeps going down completely, as in, completely not there!!  I tell you, we've become so spoiled, I was looking at my Roku-hooked-up television and asking it, "what do you mean, "Not Connected"?  We were just watching Defying the Nazis on PBS!!!"  (Or, the finale of American Ninja Warrior!!, or that new show The Good Place!! -- it really depends upon which night we're talking about here...)  Trust me, though, it was a PROBLEM.


So, in addition to not whining myself when I discovered we had a big internet problem, I had to be mature and parental when confronted with a teenage daughter who WAS NOT HAPPY about the internet problems. (The internet problem required her to use a lot more data on her phone and her speed was throttled back!!!!)    Interestingly, your son doesn't care--he just uses the internet at his girlfriend's apartment - problem solved.  Sigh.  Anyway, when you discover the problem is, in fact, at your end and NOT at the CenturyLink end, it becomes an annoying problem which YOU have to solve.

Fresh out of the Amazon box--still in cellophane--waiting for Superman.

 Actually, you just tell your husband who is off adventuring in far off lands that there is a BIG INTERNET PROBLEM and he has to fix it...it was in the marriage vows he said all those years ago and adventuring doesn't absolve him of that responsibility.  (No, seriously, it was in the vows...check the fine print.  Never mind that we were married long before the internet was a thing.  The "handle the internet problems" vow is right that after the "fix all the car problems" vow.  Check it out...you'll see that I'm right.)

The cellophane is off and, if you look carefully, you can see my cell phone in the background off to the right and you can see there is an active call on the screen.  This was the part where Superman was starting to tell me what to do.

When you tell your IT professional husband that you're having a problem with the internet, he does magical things from those previously mentioned far off lands, logs into your home modem, verifies the problem is, in fact, on your end (because he's pretty sure you don't really know what is going on with your home network and its three different wifi networks--yes, three!), and jumps onto Amazon and orders you a whiz bang router to solve your problems. 

Apparently this lovely router will have four channels (upgrading from our current three) and will solve the bandwidth hog problems we'd been having before we had the "real" internet problem.

This huge thing arrived on my front porch this morning.  Doesn't it look impressive?  After a brief phone call this evening, it is now powered up and plugged into our modem.  That doesn't mean it is busily solving my internet problem.  That will require Superman to log in and configure it to his liking in the wee hours of my morning, so I will have another night of internet problems, but this, my friends, is the light at the end of the tunnel (or so I'm told!)

Food for Thought

"Marriage is about banality.  Its purpose is banality, to create an environment of surpassing safety and predictability for young children to grow up in, the foundation of life, the root of inner peace."

-Esther Smetski in Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

"The house always smells like good food," said Piotr.  "It's the perfume of love."

-Piotr Smetski in Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

Early Morning Date!

I am a firm believer that married people with children need to remember that their children will grow up and live adult lives one day (if we do our jobs correctly), leaving those two people alone with each other once again. If you've spent 20 years being Mom and Dad and not ever being the Boy and Girl you used to be, then when the kids fly off to live their own exciting lives, you'll be left living with someone you don't really know any more.

This belief, however, runs headlong into my absolutely pathological refusal to take vacations without our children. You read that correctly...in 19.2 years of marriage, almost 18 years of parenthood, Superman and I have NEVER taken a vacation away from our children. I won't do it...I just, well, I just can't. (I don't think Superman wants to, either, but I accept full responsibility for this fact.)

So, that means we've had to be creative to get time together. We've been on dates to the park when we had just one baby, so we could watch him play and still be alone together. We've been on dates to the back deck when the kids are sleeping. When we both worked, we made sure we came home on the same train and considered that 30 minute ride every day to be our time together. Because we do it deliberately and consciously, these little times count for something. They add up. They are meaningful. They matter.

Now that the kids are older, we can sneak out for a dinner alone, or, since we're counting pennies and paying down debt, a breakfast date! These days we have a standing Monday morning date at McDonald's...we take two cars so he can head off to work and I can come home to my work...he's dressed beautifully because he's heading off to corporate America and I, well, today I'm in workout clothes so I can't renege on my workout commitment, but it still felt like a date! We talked about our hopes, our dreams, and weird things that pop into our minds. He told me I'm pretty, I told him he's awesome. He walked me to my car and gave me a kiss as he held the door for me. I told him to drive carefully and that I loved him. It was terrific.

You know what? After 20 years together, Superman is still my boyfriend...and I can hardly wait for our next date...

P.S. For anyone who is keeping track with Kate, I did, in fact, have another Egg McMuffin today, so that brings my 2009 tally to 6!