June 15, 2006
Yesterday, when I came back from the gym around 11:30, I had no Internet service. As it turned out, since I have a cable modem, I had no cable service at all. Neither did anyone in half the neighborhood.

This went on from approximately 11:00 to 7:30. I was the first guy who called the cable company and complained, but I wasn't the only one. And it took them a long time to get it fixed--it took them a long time to figure out what was wrong. Turns out I knew, but it was a wild guess, just one, as it turned out, that was right.

My backyard is one of the cable hubs, so I got a chance to talk to the cable guys a lot, since they were parked in my driveway and wandering in and out of my yard. About four doors down from us--yes, I live in a suburb--somebody was putting in a sprinkler system. It was a do-it-yourself job, or he hired some guy working out of his truck, and they didn't call Ms. Dig to see what gas, electric or cable lines they might accidentally cut in the process. And he cut the cable line.

This was very aggravating, because my business runs on the Internet. E-mail is life blood--how I receive work and send it out. The 'net is how I look for work, how I research much of my work.

I was bouncing off the walls. On the positive side, I did get a rough draft done of the first chapter of a business report I'm writing, although I need to fill in some blanks from info I pull off the web. There you go again.

I don't know how freelancers did it before e-mail and the Web. I imagine they spent a lot of time in libraries, and I imagine they made a lot less money overall because they spent much more time trying to get research done and contact people. As for fiction writers, the Web is a great resource for research.

Anyway, obviously, the cable's back up and I'm back in business.

Best,
Mark Terry