Mind Games for the Altered Mind? OR "It's Not Me; It's Them."

   I like to record past happenings, probably a form of reassuring myself, so here goes:

  Wednesday, March 28, 2023:   When I turned on the TV mid-morning, I  first got sound, no picture. Knowing the drill, I rebooted and then saw the message that Spectrum Service was unavailable.  I called to report the problem and of course got their usual kind recorded offer to reboot from their end, and to call back if it didn't restore service. The voice said there were NO outages. After the reboot attempt took almost 1 hour, I called back and spent considerable time with Arnold, who tried various ploys and then stated that the reboot was not completing from L-8. He scheduled a service call for 9a.m. Thursday morning. BUT, when I checked later in the day, an email stated that the outage had been resolved. (I'd been told no outage, but what the heck, I tried the TV and it worked. Great. I cancelled the service call.

  Thursday morning, March 29, 2023. Rejoicing in my television viewing, I went to my computer and found, "No Internet Access."  A surprise. I called Spectrum help and received the recorded message, saying there are Intermittent Outages in the area, and they are working to restore service asap. I waited all day---no ebay, no gmail and worst of all no Spelling Bee. 

  Friday morning, 6:30 a.m. I'd waited, patiently, I thought, and then called, and asked if Internet Service had been restored as mine was still out. The rep said "We've had no reported outages, and have you tried to reboot/ When I said I'd been told of the outages yesterday, how could that be, she just said, "I don't know." She identified the problem as likely coming from Trendnet, which is not their property. Then, after  questions about which modem is connecter to which router in what manner, "we" agreed that she would reboot from there. Nothing worked. By now the mass of wires and accessories have a life of their own. I attempted to remove unnecessary stuff, the speakers, the lamp, and a few other devices, and succeeded in cutting access to my telephone service. 

  I was about at the point of ascribing to the Luddite way of life when Ben arrived. He plugged stuff back where it belonged and decided I needed a new Mouse. He doesn't know from where the problem arose or how internet was restored, but he succeeded. And I have a new Coral Reef mouse.