Cowgrit wanted me to get my cholesterol checked. She’s concerned about my health because I’m getting older, and my diet is . . . less than good. I don’t feel unhealthy. I get some exercise each day — I can run and jump and climb stuff with my boys. I’m not fat — I can see and touch my feet.

So I had some blood drawn for the tests. I just got back the numbers, and in the words of the nurse at the doctor’s office, “You’re good.” All my numbers — more than just cholesterol — are deep in the healthy range. Ha! My meat and potatoes (and desert) diet isn’t killing me.

My personal gauge of healthiness is whether I can pick Cowgrit up off the floor. When it comes that I can’t lift her up, then I’ll say that one of us has a problem. But with my “over 40” status now, I fear that I’ll be the first to have the problem. I’m more likely to be the one whose body starts failing the lifting test. Maybe I need to tempt her with cake and ice cream more often. Skinny chick.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

July 17 was my 41st birthday. It kind of came and went without much notice by me. My family remembered and gave me cards and cupcakes, but to me, the day just kind of passed.

I usually like to take the day for myself, to do whatever I want without any plans or expectations from anyone else. I play computer games, go to comic book and/or game stores, I watch TV, I read, I go to lunch or dinner by myself with a good book, etc. This time, though, I just went to work like a regular day. It was my usual game night, though, so I did get to play D&D with my friends. But that’s something I do every week, so it wasn’t something special.

Next year is the big four-two, when maybe I’ll learn the answer to life, the universe, and everything. This year just officially put me in the “over 40” category. I don’t see anything particularly exciting about that category.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

The cable guy showed up at the first minute of the two hour window we were told. Thank you cable guy.

It seems that the thunderstorm killed my ethernet port and my wireless router. So, he connected the modem to my computer through a USB port. I went and bought a new wireless router, but now I can’t connected it between the modem and my computer because it doesn’t have a USB jack. For now, until I can take my desktop box in to a repair shop (maybe in a couple days), Cowgrit will have to use my desktop computer for her Internet needs.

We went a week without Internet access at home (I had a connection at work), and poor Cowgrit was about at her wit’s end. She had no email, she couldn’t get to her regular Web sites, she was half cut off from her normal world.

I was in my hometown over the past weekend, so I was able to post a couple of days through my mom’s Internet connection. And the short notes I posted announcing my Internet problem, I posted from work. Even though no one would probably notice or care that I was posting to my blog from work, I don’t want to make that a habit.

So, yay, I’m back.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

So after the failed fix for our Internet connection on Thursday, I started calling the cable company number again the first thing Friday morning. Surprisingly, I got past the automated system and actually got a live tech on the line.

The first thing the tech did was ask for our account information. Now this is something that annoys me about any help system that uses an automated system as the gateway to getting a live tech. The automated system gets account information in the beginning, but when you get to the live tech, they still have to ask for account information. Why does the automated system not forward that stuff on to the tech when you get transferred?

I explained that a thunderstorm had knocked out our connection, and that we had gotten a new modem, but we were still without the Internet. The tech had me go through all the basic procedures that I had already gone through before, on my own: shut everything down, restart in a certain order, etc. Unfortunately, my keyboard stopped working.

I have a wireless keyboard, so there are a  number of things that could have been going wrong. I tried a couple of quick fixes, but they didn’t work. I told the tech I’d have to call back once I figured out my keyboard. She gave me a ticket number for my call, and I hung up. I ended up just plugging in an old wired keyboard. Then I called back.

I went through the automated system, again giving my account info and going through the first level of “diagnostic” that I had to do every time I had called before (just before getting disconnected). Then I was connected to another live tech. I gave the tech my account information and my ticket number.

This tech again had me perform the basic procedures for checking my system. We tried some more options but nothing was working. This tech needed to transfer me to another department to see if they could help me. Fine, let’s resolve this. He transferred me, but I waited on hold for 30 minutes, and then got disconnected. DAMMIT!

I called back, went through the damn automated system again — giving my account info, doing the basic diagnostic — and got through to another live tech (my third of the morning). I explained what had happened a few minutes ago, and he read what the previous techs had written under my ticket number. He tried to help me again, but ran into the same problems the previous tech had.

All three techs were friendly and helpful, if ultimately, unfortunately, ineffectual. I have no complaint about the people. But this tech had to transfer me to that other place, too. I waited on hold another 30 minutes only to be disconnected again. DAMMIT TO HELL!!!

I had wasted two hours of my morning trying to get this problem resolved, and I was no closer to a solution than I was a day before. We had been without Internet access for over 24 hours, and we were looking at a weekend of more. Cowgrit said she’d go by the cable office and demand someone come out to our house and fix it. I went on to work, and she went to the company. Because of this problem throughout the area, the earliest they could get a service person to our house would be Wednesday afternoon.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com