Formerly known as…

 

This phrase has been used a lot recently. Formerly known as Prince. Formerly known as Twitter. Formerly known as the President of the United States.

We all have a previous history. We are not the same as we were in elementary school. We have made some changes and other changes have been done to us.

Changing a name is easy but who will remember who you were? If they do remember who you were, will they recognize you as you are today?

Next month, going to a high school reunion. Most of survivors will have to check the yearbook to make a connection to my name. All of our appearances have certainly changed in the half century, so who-is-who without a name tag.

How much of your ‘former self’ do you want to reveal to a stranger?

Or you can just make up stuff that they can home impressed and never verified. Remember, they could do the same to you.

A reunion is all about catching up of years gone by. Do you talk about your daughter dying of drugs or your son in jail? Do you talk about the office affair? Do you talk about not being able to hang onto a job and going on welfare? Do you talk about fathering children or having an abortion?

Mostly people talk about their (at this point) grandchildren, their illnesses, and their retirement. Some may have hobbies, while a few may have been creative.

Then everyone will try to remember. That building was formerly a restaurant of a forgotten name. That guy was formerly in my office but I can’t remember his name. That unnamed girl was formerly known as my girlfriend. Went shopping there at that formerly known as, but I forgot its name.

Unless you are a family member or read a long detail obituary, graveyards are full of formerly known as names with dates of arrival and departure.

How did you waste your day?

 

We got 24 hours a day to do what we need to do. Some of us have set schedules. Some have events that happen that must be attended to. Some of us lucky ones have all day to decide how to waste the time.

Some have hobbies, like cooking or woodworking or car repair, to pass free time. Some binge watch movies or settle into a good book. Some play sports or watch their kids play sports. Some can sit in the sand for hours and watch the waves roll in (that is called a vacation).

Some use their time wisely, while many more scroll their screens looking for something they cannot find. What happens if all the electronic connections to the outside world stopped?

Some can be creative and do things that don’t require a computer or phone connection. All the things that have become second hand (e-mail, texting, Google, online banking or purchasing and no news (fake or otherwise) are now absent. There are still somethings that can be done with paper and pencil, acoustic instruments, walking in the woods, singing. Write a poem, play a song, dance like everyone is watching, play.

For the two weeks I was off-line, I went back to some projects to work on. I drew some pictures, played some music, went back to my memoir without distraction. I also went back through years of blog writing and corrected grammar errors.

Today the rain has stopped and the Internet is reconnected. I’ve already wasted more time than due to delete junk mail and scams, but I don’t want to get back to the end of the day and say, “How did you waste your day?”

Alone with your thoughts

So, a storm came through the other night and WHAM!

The lights went out.

I had just checked the radar and saw all the orange mass directly over the neighborhood. I turned off the computer and listened to the rain. A big branch hit the roof but did not come through.

I went out on the front pouch to watch the storm go through and the wind dance the trees. The street light was on but all the rest was dark.

And Q U I E T.

After the last beer at midnight, I decided to recline into a silent dark space.

I thought of raising the window to enjoy the cooler breezes, but decided to just take things as they are. I normally have the radio on all night, but tonight in the dark it was silent. Some nights in this house have been scratches in the walls or footsteps upstairs, yet not tonight.

All is Q U I E T

The sleep was pretty normal, with a few weird dreams and the occasional walk down the hall in the dark hoping to hit the bowl to empty the yellow sudsy liquids of hydration. Roll left, roll right and listen to the silence.

Do you know those sounds of voices from afar? Sometimes when you pass a house you can sort of listen to what is on their television or a neighbor talking two doors down. When I turn off the radio and walk in the next room, I continue to hear the voices. I hear these voices before dreaming in a dark silent room.

When the sun came up, there was still no power. People who would probably been sitting in front of a screen were walking the streets. A few others were jogging for what else is there to do without electricity?

I climbed my pony at the regular time to see how far this break in the usual expands to. The traffic lights were also on and working for the few mobile machines up early. On the road ahead there was a blockage of orange cones. I figured it was a branch in the road. On closer inspection it was a gigantic tree leaning on the roof of a house with tree trimmers at work.

I arrived at the Tummy Temple that still has power and walked through the newly installed doorway. There was no security guard today?

Items are still moving from left to right in their game of Hide & Seek but the beer is in the same place and I made it out none of the worse for wear.

Back home, no fan or light or radio. It is still hot, but less movement keeps the temperature down. Thought about taking out a pad of paper and writing my thoughts, but didn’t. Thought about all the things you can do without electricity. Sweeping, raking, napping, walking, washing dishes, combing your hair, brushing your teeth, painting, drawing, writing, thinking, playing the guitar…

And it is Q U I E T

Then a neighbor starts up his generator just to create some noise.

At 2:15 SHAZAM! Tom Edison’s magic fluid flowed down the wiry veins into our electronic machines creating all the whirs and moans and grunts of our daily society. Cheers of JUBLICATION for our power is back.

So, I turn back to my normal daily grind and turn on my computer. Everything seems fine, but there is no connection to the Internet. The usual reboots don’t seem to work so I start looking for a support phone number. The last time this happened someone from somewhere unknown found my IP and did some mojo and everything appeared as usual. It did not happen that way this time.

First of all, what was I missing?

Scam mail? Memes? Girl scouts selling cookies? Dinner photos? Silly selfies? Ole pictures? Too many Tickity-Toks? Trump? Body counts? Road closures? Bad politics? Unruly behavior? Weather radar? Crime alerts? YouTube? Wikipedia? Yahoo? Amazon? Banking online? Facebook?

What I realized I missed most was ‘spell check’.

Also, the research of when I read or hear something and want to go down the rabbit hole, the Internet offers all sorts of information. It is like trying to find out more on a subject but the library is closed.

So, after my daily ride, noticing that tree that was leaning on a house actually took off half the roof and thankful I don’t have that problem but should check my home insurance, I found a phone number to call.

It was on my Verizon Wireless cellphone bill (that is still sent in the snail mail) and called the support number. Some guy named Carl answered and was very pleasant but I asked to be directed to the FIOS area. He understood my problem did not involve my cell phone and worked hard at connecting me to the other support system. He also worked hard at trying to sell me a warranty insurance for ‘all’ my Verizon devices.

I got a callback but was timed out before responding.

I did get a phone number from Carl to dial a FIOS support. After 30 minutes of bad world music. A nice lady tried to understand my problem, but I was over her pay scale and she searched for help. More bad elevator music.

I do not know my Verizon FIOS account number. I signed up 14 years ago with two-previous phone numbers long forgotten and only online billing.

The usual ‘fixes’ of rebooting did not seem to make a difference. The Wi-Fi could see the router but couldn’t make the connection to pages. The fiber line appeared to be connected, but…

Finally, I was switched to a supervisor who seemed to understand my dilemma and offered a good solution. We both confirmed my address and he would snail mail me information with my ‘account number’. Hopefully updated my phone number.

I wait for the possibility of calling back with better information to get back on the Internet which has become my daily entertainment. I’ll still be paying $90 a month for a service that is unattainable.

This situation is similar when I spent a week at the spa Saint Mary’s chained to a bed with tubes, in dark glasses without any communication except my phone with no one to call. The only distraction was the television which had been given up over a year ago. Alone with your thoughts.

At least this time, I have some projects that can continue on the computer without the Internet.

And I waited….

Two weeks letter I’d received no mail and made another phone call.

After several jump arounds of numbers, I finally got a live person. I told her my situation and she recognized my name from the phone number. She made some connections and her plan sounded promising. I did get some more phone numbers.

She did talk me into getting the ‘Home Warranty’ program for $25 a month to get a technician to come by the house. She said she would make the connection and would call me back.

I am still waiting….

Another call and the third tech agreed to send a technician out tomorrow between 1:30 – 3:00 to physically look at the boxes and ‘hopefully’ get me back-on-line.

Then I did get a call back from tech two working hard to be helpful. It just shows if you don’t have all the numbers….

A text on my phone confirms a technician will appear at my front door tomorrow. Another text came in saying if magically everything was suddenly working, please respond so they can cancel the service call. That made me wonder how the tooth fairy would fly over and suddenly I was re-connected to the world.

The text said the technician would call. He didn’t.

Yet, here at 2:30, the Verizon truck drove up in front of the house. An energetic Sean looked at the router and the modem box and said he would replace the entire hookup. You the man, so have at it.

He replaces the outside box connecting the cable. He replaced the inside box to a much smaller unit. He replaced the router and showed the name of the NEW network and the password (something the original installation did not do). He waited until everything was connected and worked.

I’m back.

Being disconnected to the world, except by phone, does show how much we use the World Wide Web.

Now I can order from Amazon.