Mood:
incredulousNow Playing: a nearly silent new computer.
You know how, lots of weekends, I catch up the last two or three days on Monday ? It always gets busy on weekends, so much to do, especially now that the weather's not so blasted miserable. But this week, I had an exceptional reason for not writing the Doll Diaries the days they're due - our new place got hit by lightning !
No joke. While I was waiting for Dearest Son in his school's pick-up area, a bolt hit a tree in the backyard. It went to ground, which was more of a lake than anything else, due to a solid week of intermittent rain. Power has to go somewhere, and it found a path of low resistance via phone lines. Blew the DSL filter apart, pieces landing eight feet from the socket. From there, it caught the DSL modem on fire, scorching the desk and propelling it off the surface and onto the floor, where it smashed and smouldered. The new monitor bascially became a high-tech Pop-Tart, and the less-than-one-month-old fax was similarly toasted. My cell phone was charging when it got a good dose of more power than it was supposed to ever have, all at once, and it's now a higher-quality toy cell phone for Son. Somehow, it also messed up the heat/air unit, so that hasn't been working either. Luckily, another blanket on the beds and we didn't care.
Of course, I knew nothing of this when we got back. I just heard a high-pitched 'eeeeee' noise and thought I smelled smoke. Tracked the sound to the upside down modem and its ominous single red light. Picked it up and almost dropped it, it was still so hot. I noticed the front diode plate was missing and saw the scorch marks. Hastily put it down, and several capacitors and resistors, black with carbon and still lightly smoking, fell out. The wall plate now had black streamers of scorch, too.
Phone lines were completely out. Visited the Day Care center next door, they saw a bolt of lightning, but didn't know where it hit. Felt the ground move from the force of the strike, though. Still bloody raining, too. Hoofed it across the street to the 7-11 and its pay phones. Called Beloved Hubby with the exceptional news, so he wouldn't worry when not one communications method worked, and then called the phone company.
Two hours later, I was back home. Now, I don't mean to suggest that the phone part took that long. No, reporting fried lines for repair service took about 15 minutes. Dealing with the DSL people...that took most of my out-in-the-rain-on-a-pay-phone time. Bascially, since the modem's more than a year old, it's ours, and they're not gonna replace it. I could either pay $70. (plus $12.95 s/h) for a new modem like the Krispy Krittered one, or upgrade to $35./month service and get a $50. rebate on an $89. wireless router modem (plus $12.95 s/h). Or I could cancel our service for a $99. early-termination fee. At least that one didn't have a shipping/handling fee...and I was seriously considering it.
Then the tornado alarms went off. Geez, how much can I deal with in a single afternon ? Evidently more, because I just laughed. The tornado warning was about 15 minutes long, so we flipped the XM radio to a local station (heavy rains and clouds eliminated our semi-crappy TV reception) and heard the forecaster ride out the last few minutes. He even said, "Let's see what's gonna happen during the last minute of this warning !", which would make a cat laugh, it was so serious and silly at once. I heard there were funnel-cloud sightings, but we were fine, luckily. Talk about a day of fire and rain...we had one !
So we spent our 'rainy day fund' (Ha !) on a new computer tonight. Not something we were looking to do, but Hubby's business and most of the family's recreation and news run online so... And, as it turned out, where we bought it sells the exact same modem in their stores. Sure, we gotta pony up tax, but we'll have it in hand without waiting for shipping. Plus tax is cheaper than s/h. Not that the phone company told me this. I honestly thought, from their words, they were the only source of modems that work with their system. Bastids.
We have Windows Vista, which seems nice so far. Luckily I backed up my patterns a few months ago, so those aren't lost - just the three I scanned this week are. Can always scan 'em again. Someday. Lost about four months of Musings - my personal journals - and about a year's worth of photos. Gosh only knows what Hubby lost.
So while I'm a bit upset, I know how lucky we were. That modem could have caught the house on fire. And while I'd have liked to watch about $2k worth of equipment go up in metaphorical flames, it's probably best nobody was home when it happened. Nobody got hurt, repairs have either been affected or professionals called, and we still have power, the fridge didn't get hit, and there wasn't a tornado down Main Street. Beloved Hubby knew I'd be feeling morose, so he ordered Chinese food for us tonight. He's so sweet. So, on the whole, it wasn't that bad.
But I'm kind of mourning anyway.
