I'm back online!

Well, it's been an interesting week in my technological world. Last week about this time, actually I think it was Monday, but who can remember exactly that far back, I was online, checking blogs and getting ready to post, when I got a neat little message from AOL. It said, "Your ten hours of online time have been reached." What ten hours? The last time I checked, it was unlimited access. They did raise my rate from $9.99 for unlimited access to $11.99, or I assume they did because I got my credit card bill and it went up. But apparently, when the rate went up the amount of time I was allowed to use the internet went down. Then I checked billing, and apparently last month I went over my ten hour limit too, because my credit card bill was $47.

For several months now, I've been wanting to get rid of my dial up access anyway. If there's anybody out there who actually remembers dial up, well, I was the last person actually USING it. And it was actually getting faster, given that nobody else used it anymore. But the suprise from AOL did it for me. I swore that I would go to the Time Warner office and join the 21st century. That took a day, and I wasn't sure if I could pull it off because I thought I might need a loan for the installation fee. But if I install everything myself, it's cheaper. So I walk out with a cable modem and a DVR box for my tv set.

I don't really need the digital cable. But if I get the high speed internet, I have to get rid of my landline phone to compensate for the cost of the internet. That means Mr. Tivo will be out of service. And it's so convenient, I really do want to keep that. So I had to upgrade the cable too. when all is said and done and balanced out, it will only cost five or six dollars more, after I cancel the landline phone service and the AOL service (yipee!).

Another day later, I go to hook up the DVR box. I unhook Mr. Tivo (I am emotionally attached to Mr. Tivo, it turns out, and am a little sad about that.) and hook all the wires in to the DVR, turn the TV on, and I have a black screen. I push buttons. More black screen. I push more buttons. I get frustrated but refrain from saying bad words at the DVR box. Only because Jupiter is awake. Finally I call the cable people to see if the box is broken or if I got the box that the Forest Lake people have to use because their original cable is different than ours. The lady tells me to check all the cables. Then she says to point the remote at the DVR box and push the power button.

I would have felt less stupid if she would have said "Maam? Did you turn the box ON?" But in my defense, when the box turned on, it defaulted to channel two which isn't a channel that anything actually comes in on, so it would have been a black screen anyway. Now we have tv, which is great. I'm still feeling a little guilty about the number of channels we have now. It's certainly not a necessity. But I enjoy watching the smurfs. And the Jetsons. And so on and so on.

The next task was the internet. About which I know next to nothing. So that took a day and consulting with about everyone I know. I haven't gotten the road runner up and running (lol) yet, but I can use the explorer button to at least get on the internet. I need some kind of user id and code which supposedly I got at my local office when they gave me the stuff. Not so much. So Road runner is tomorrows task. Along with calling AOL to have them cancel my service. Which will be a great half an hour I will never get back.

The Red Sox are playing game 7 tonight.....I won't be able to stay up for the whole thing, or probably not even half of it...but they do better when I don't watch anyway. Lets go, Red Sox!