What a momentous occasion occurred today! I got Carolyn on the internet with the computer I built for her. She wanted to use 56k dialup for cost reasons, but I talked her into getting the broadband service from her cable provider for just $20 dollars more a month. She hesitated. I installed a spare 56k modem in the computer just in case she changed her mind before I got over there this afternoon.
“Trust me,” I said. “56k with make you pull your hair out. Don’t try to be cheap on this.”
The cable company wanted to “rent” out the cable modem to her when I called them last week. I told her to hell with that. I would just order a docsis 2.0 compliant one online and set it up myself. I purchased a Motorola surfboard modem. The modem arrived via FedEx today and I rushed over giddy with glee like a child on Christmas day. I love this computer hardware finangling shit. The hardest part setting everything up was the customer service treating me like a novice.
“Sir, we need your MAC address for your NIC,” The lady snarkily said on the other end as if I wouldn’t know what she was talking about.
I carefully called out the twelve digit alpha-numeric sequence after pulling it up with a DOS prompt and viola! We were online after a reboot of the computer.
“What cable company do you work for?” The lady then asked me intriqued. “Are you in IT?”
“Ma’am, I slept in a Holiday Inn Express last night,” I replied facetiously.
She burst out laughing and told me that I had made her day. She then told me to ask for her personally any day if I ever needed help again and gave me her name. I blushed.
Carolyn only has to pay for her internet access and not that damnable $15 dollar a month cable modem rental fee (which is highway robbery). That was the cornerstone in getting her to sign up for broadband access. She couldn’t afford to spend a lot of money. I know that $19 dollars a month for dialup looked enticing but her internet browsing would have been an exercise in tedium.
3 comments:
Your are so smart. I can barely figure out how do leave a post on my blog. What if Carolyn finds your blog? You mentioned the other day that she didn't know about it.
Hey Scooby,
Not really smart, just cheap! lol Saving fifteen bucks for a cheap girlfriend can be a harbinger of innovation.
If Carolyn finds it, then it shall be okay I guess. What I write about us is rather benign. I don't write explicitly about our lusty interludes much if at all.
I have a sneaking feeling she will spend more time finding antique heirloom rings on E-Bay though. That is her passion. I am not even sure if she is aware of "blogs."
Andrew
You are smart. It shows in your writing. One doesn't need formal education to be smart. "Smarts" come from many sources. But you ARE smart. And so kind. It was so nice of you to build her a computer. These days, there are so many things one can do with one. And having the internet, endless things to do. The web is constantly updated with information. I don't know what I would do if I got to the point where I couldn't afford internet service, or if my computer went whacko and I couldn't afford to fix it. I use it everyday.
Just looking up things for my child is worth the money. New Moms have tons of questions and don't always have someone to answer them.
Kudos to you Andrew. For helping Carolyn in this way. I sense she's already thankful. But once she gets on the information highway, she will be even more so.
And again, it's nice to know nice people do exist.
Liz
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