As I was going to be away from home on business and there was a major snowstorm in the forecast, my wife wanted to make sure she had all the backups she needed. We long ago put in a generator that covers us when the power goes out, meaning water from our well and lights for our rooms are covered. We had also installed an extender for our mobile phones linked to the internet, as we live in a fringy cell zone. We had plenty of oil in the tank for heat and hot water. And our shelves had lots of food of all types. Other than being prevented from getting out, some bad weather would be more of an inconvenience than anything else.
Indeed, when the snow came it proved to be just that. Our usual guy plowed her out, and she shoveled the walks. The power did wink on and off, but never enough for the genny to kick in. We kept in touch and talked about any other adjustments she had to make, the biggest being whether to turn on the wires that line the roof edge so the gutters didn't freeze up. Then I got a text from her that seemed strange: the power had gone on and off, but the phones hadn't come back on. We've had this happen many times, but it always came back after a short spell. I assumed she was being an alarmist. Give it a minute, I wrote back, it'll reset like always. Nope, she wrote back, I know the drill, it has happened before, and this is different. All has been out for more than 15 minutes, well beyond the normal timeframe. Phone is out, TV is out, internet is out. Fifteen long minutes.
I tapped into our account from my hotel, and had the system run a test. It came up blank: no connection to our system. I tried a few more diagnostics. Dead end. After a few more pings, it appeared that the power fluctuations had fried our system, and a technician would have to come out and repair it. First appointment: two days later.
Like many over the past few years we have slowly linked more and more of our infrastructure to the internet. Our phone lines had long ago migrated from copper wires to IP (internet protocol) systems. Our entertainment, both TV and radio, had gone from rabbit ears and transistor radios to streaming services for video and audio. And of course our connection to what used to be called the World Wide Web had become a daily, if not hourly, if not moment-by-moment source for shopping, communication, business, social interaction... the list goes on. The fiber that ran from the box outside our dining room to the central station was quite literally our link to everything outside our home.
The good news was that my wife was in no danger. She had heat, water, lights and food. She had books, crossword puzzles and a daily newspaper to read. Once the roads got plowed she was able to go to meetings, stores and other activities. The world kept spinning, and she was still a part of it.
But as I said, we live in a fringy cell phone area. That meant that when in our house her cell phone, her only connection beyond our four walls, only worked in some parts, while others were dead zones. And not just for streaming or googling or cruising the net, but for calls and texts. Especially at night, when there was no one (namely me) to chat with, if she was in one of those areas, she was as cut off as if she was on a desert island. Nothing to watch, nothing to listen to, no one to talk with. Let me be clear: my wife is very competent and capable. But she will say that you don't know just how dependent you get until you are cut off from it all. And in this case "all" was really "all."
Thankfully, the tech showed up as scheduled two days later. There was a brief moment of concern when he looked at the system we had and, because of its age, wasn't sure he could fix it. He got on the phone and reached out to some fellow repairmen, and figured out a solution. It took more than an hour, but eventually all was reconnected, tested and working as it should. (Side note: In the "what about me?" department I was VERY happy that HE was indeed needed, and it wasn't something that I could have fixed simply by unplugging a cord and plugging it back in. Then I would have felt even worse that she had to deal with this alone.)
Yes, we are once again connected, but my wife's experience showed that it is both a blessing and a curse. It enables us to reach far beyond our physical borders with an ease that is unimaginable. But it is a fragile thread that, if severed, isolates us as never before. And unfortunately, not that we want to, there is no putting that genie back in the bottle.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford is trying to figure out backups for his backups. His column appears weekly via email and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/ and https://marcwollin.substack.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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