Catch-up - FINALLY!

Things have been really SCREWY since my last post, and the majority of it has to do with bitchy MOTHER NATURE. Let me explain:

In the past week, we have had major thunderstorms, deadly lightning, tornadoes, major straight-line winds . . . all the good stuff that Mother Nature saved up and decided to give to us ALL IN THE SAME DAMN WEEK.

Gee, thanks, Mom. You shouldn't have. REALLY.

Early last week I was awakened during an early morning thunderstorm with a bright blue flash that seemed to come from inside the bedroom, along with a very loud "SNAP!" sound. I looked around, but did not see anything damaged, so I went investigating through the house . . . nothing noticeable.

I went and took my shower, and then decided to call Steve to let him know what had happened, so he could check things further when he got home.

The phone was dead. As a doornail. So I figured (naturally) that the blue flash I had seen was the phone line being zapped by lightning. Steve got home that night and checked the junction box outside the house - - the main line had a dial tone outside, so the problem was inside the house. No problem - - we have paid AT&T Linebacker for years, so they will come in and fix it for no charge; however, they are not able to get to it until MONDAY, JUNE 9th.

*sheesh* That's a whole week away!

That evening, we checked the computers, and we had no Internet access either. Now we got a little worried, because the computers are only a month old - - but we were finally able to determine that the problem was on our Wireless provider's end, due to storm damage. So we were without Internet connection for 2 days.

THEN - - the brand new printer, which unfortunately had not acted quite right ever since we got it, decided to quit altogether. Dead. As a doornail. *sigh* Here we go again . . . Steve got on the phone with HP Tech Support the next day, and spent almost an hour on the phone with the Tech guy. NOTHING the guy asked Steve to try worked. So the upshot is - - they are sending us a brand new printer as a product exchange. It should be in this week.

Keep in mind that during this whole time, we are having severe storms and heavy rains on a regular (read: DAILY) basis. In fact, last week we had right at 9 inches of rain. That's not a typo - - I said NINE.INCHES.OF RAIN. IN A WEEK. Everything around our area is flooded. There were some streets in the city that had water standing higher than I have EVER seen, to the point that even the very high-profile vehicles were getting stalled out and stranded in the standing water. Very, very scary.

And the rain KEEPS coming down . . . in fact, we are expecting between 1-3 inches additional rain today.

Anyway - - back to the phone problem . . . today the AT&T guy calls and I meet him at the house. He checks the junction box outside, and everything is cool. He comes in to check the inside wires, and also asks if we have any satellite receivers hooked up to the phone line. I said I wasn't sure (I don't usually handle that stuff - - that's Steve's thing), and he said if so, that could be causing the problem, that he had seen that many times before. But first he headed down to the basement to check the wires.

When he got that done, he came upstairs, pointed to the far northwest end of the house and said, "What is in the room right back there?" I said it was the Master bedroom. He went back there to check the phone jack, which worked fine. BUT - - the phone line was connected to a satellite receiver in the bedroom. He unplugged the phone line from the receiver and plugged in his diagnostic equipment . . . and there was the problem.

Apparently, that bright blue flash I had seen that morning was from the receiver being hit by lightning running through the phone line, and even though my back was turned to the receiver, it reflected brightly in my dresser mirror. The receiver would still work and receive satellite signal so that we could watch TV, but the satellite sends updates to the receiver via the phone line. When it doesn't connect, it keeps trying to redial, and the phone line is in a constant busy state.

Once the guy unplugged the receiver, I plugged our phone back into the main jack, and "voila!" - - the phones work again!

SO - - Dear Hubby Steve has to call Dish Network tonight after he gets home and get a new receiver. They will send one out, and we will have it in a day or two, and we will send the damaged one back.

And hopefully this is the END of this ordeal - - it's been exhausting!

On top of all this, it's my busy time at work, and I have been working evenings and weekends presenting orientation sessions for new online students. Also, my boss is out of town this week, so that means double-duty for me right now.

I think I'm looking at needing some serious ROR time in the very near future!