Big trip for such a small thing

Driving up to Mount Vernon today so that I can plug-in my parents Clearwire Modem. THANK GOSH I used to do this type of thing for a living!

For those of you who worked at The Evil Empire, let me just say that my Mom is one of those folks who would get her FULL $1.99 worth out of the Service Protection Plan. There would be permanent notes on the account saying "JUST ROLL TRUCK".

It would have been so simple. She called and said "All the lights on that Internet Box are off. I can't get on The Internet".

That immediately tells me that either (a) The Modem is dead or (b) The Modem is unplugged.

"Can you check to see if the modem is plugged in to an electricla outlet, Mom?"

"Hang on..." 14 minutes of rustling, crashing and swearing. "There's just so many wires back there! Which one is it?"

"It's probably the one that - "

"Hang on..." Another 8 minutes of rustling and swearing. "There... I just unplugged EVERYTHING. Now let me try this... well NOW it says here that The Server Could Not Be Found! Oh, and what's this... I am not currently connected to the Internet? It says here..."

27 minutes of her reading the entire default screen from IE to me.

SO! Molly and I are going on a road trip to see Grammy and Grampy today :)

Mission Accomplished

Ends up that the modem was indeed bad. Clearwire offered to mail it to my Mom and it would be there in 7 to 10 business days so we threatened to cancel service. Retention gave her a free upgrade, 2 months of free service and a new modem that i could pick-up at the Bellingham Cable Store.

Also showed my Dad how to play music on his computer and use Picasa.

So yeah! It was a trip worth taking :)

Frustrating

I keep on THINKING that I smell peee somewhere... like either Cat Pee or Human Pee... but I can't pin-point it because of my stupid allergies! I get just enough of a whif to make me go OH CRAP THERE'S PEE SOMEWHERE NEAR HERE and then it's gone.