Have you ever been let down by your computer? I think most of us have had problems. Perhaps the computer itself was not working properly. The screen, the sound or something that you knew what was wrong and also knew what to do to put it right again, or even have it repaired. These are things that give you a little bit of hope that all will work again, although it might cost something, but at least you know the answer to the problem.
A funny thing happened to us and it all sort of started on Thursday morning. Mr. Swiss was up early at 05.30. When I got up at 6.00 his first words were to forget the computer, the internet connection is down. This was a shock to begin the day with, but I composed myself and ate breakfast. after my visit to the bathroom and getting ready for the days work, my usual routine is to spend 10-15 minutes on the computer checking on the nocturnal activities of my virtual colleagues somewhere in that big country called America, as well as a few night owls that live in England (those concerned know who I mean). All this was missing. I could not do my check and was feeling completely lost. Mr. Swiss said he would contact the computer people as soon as they were awake, which would be around eight in the morning, so I substituted my fifteen minutes on the computer by reading further in my current book (The Foucault Pendulum by Umberto Eco in German as I took too long to get the english version and basically it was written in Italian originally so it made no difference to me which version I read).
Anyhow back to the computer. I am only working half days at the moment so when I arrived home at lunch time my first question was .. Is it working? The answer being negative I resigned myself to my book after lunch wondering how life could go on. Up to this point my husband had spoken to at least two different people at the help desk and had fetched a new modem and new wiring. All this was fitted, but to no avail, computer was not connecting. The funny thing was that we have a net work at home combining three computers and this was working perfectly. Our modem (see picture of the new one - the box at the front) just did not want to turn green but was yellow. Just like the traffic light that prepares you with yellow, but does change either to green or red.
Thus this was Thursday, a day without computer. I had read one hundred pages in my book in the meanwhile. If I smoked I would probably have gone through a packet, but I gave it up fifteen years ago, so this did not come into the question. It is funny how you miss things. After the evening meal I am used to writing a few words, visiting my various favourite sites and checking my mails. This was all missing in my life. I even went to bed earlier.
Friday morning I awoke hoping that modem had turned green in the night, but he didn't. During the morning Mr. Swiss was again on the telephone to computer help (known as Swisscom or something like that). Up to now he had spoken to at least four different people. He even started differing according to the ones that were ok and those that spoke as if he was a complete idiot. My husband fitted our network up at home (with a little help from our computer specialists in the village) so he does know what he is talking about. I arrived home in the afternoon and noticed that Mr. Swiss's nerves were becoming a little frayed at the edges by his word selection. Most of the words he used describing the helpers are not translatable so I won't go into details. Eventually he asked if it would be possible that someone could come past and they told us they would call back.
I was quite surprised that they did. A young lady was on the phone and informed my husband that someone would come next week on Tuesday. Mr. Swiss became very strong with his word choice and the young lady did say something about she would throw the visiting ticket away if he would not calm down. However, my husband did win the battle and the young lady informed that someone would visit on Saturday, today, from eight in the morning until twelve lunchtime. Twelve lunchtime arrived but our visitor did not. Mr. Swiss once again called and was informed that the repair man, or whatever he was, had been delayed in another part of Switzerland (thank goodness it is a small country) but would definitely arrive during the afternoon. After a while the repair man called to say he was going to lunch and would come and see us soon afterwards.
Our next call was from the computer central in Solothurn our nearest town. The repair man seemed to understand what he was doing and decided to call there first of all to see if there could be anything wrong on that side of the tracks and there was. Our modem in the central was kaput, broken, burnt through or whatever. He said it had now been switched through to another new one and should be working. Unfortunately our new modem was not the same opinion so eventually the repair man called past. I decided it was time for me to go shopping and leave the experts to solve the problem. I can't remember where the actual worm was, but when I arrived back home from my shopping trip everything was working again. It is now much quicker and our modem shows a flashing green light instead of staying yellow.
I now feel much better being on line again. I really must say I managed to keep cool all the time. Thank goodness the doctor gave me some "keep cool" tablets after my Burnout. They are very useful for such situations and I am now half way through my book. I even started sorting out some photos I wanted to do for the past year. I am not really addicted to computers, I just cannot live very well without them.
So now I feel much better.
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