Interruptions

We lost our Internet connection this morning, something that happens with annoying frequency here.
I did the routine troubleshooting and found I'm getting a good strong Wifi signal from our wireless router and repeater. So I stopped short of rebooting the modem and router - something that requires disconnecting the repeater and re-synching it with the router at the other end of the house - and called the cable company to see if the problem might be on their end.
Their tech support guy opined it probably was and offered to send a guy out to work on it. After some discussion, I determined the guy can also go into our attic and connect the two cable outlets in our upstairs office, which will make it possible to hard-wire our two desktop computers to the router and free the repeater for use elsewhere in the house in support of any roving laptops we may want to use.
And he'll only charge $20 to do it. What a relief.
The guy is coming tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, the Internet connection is up, however shaky it may be.
We also got the final printed albums for our last wedding clients and they look fabulous. I had them sent to us first, in case they had any defects. I'll mail them to the clients in Atlanta this afternoon and at long last be done with that job. We shot the wedding on my 62nd birthday last July 14. The obligation caused me to miss the BMW MOA national rally, which I considered a major sacrifice.

Me vs. Technology: I win again

I spent the afternoon fighting technology.
But, by God, I won!
I bought a Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander from Circuit City in hopes of being able to get a stronger WiFi signal up here in our office.
The wireless router is at the nearest live cable outlet, which is in the kitchen. That results in a usable but weak and slow signal in the office.
The alternative was to call the cable company and have them send a guy out to hook up the cable in the office, which would probably cost some serious bucks.
Naturally, I ran into trouble.
I spent about 30 minutes on the phone to Linksys tech support in India until they dropped the connection.
Then I called my tech guru Tim Balough in Alma, Colo. and he talked me through several scenarios for about an hour until we both ran out of ideas.
I finally came back upstairs, worked my way into a corner with the software for my Netgear wireless card, but managed to get a working connection on Maria's computer. Concluding that my Netgear card is hopelessly tangled and not being in the mood to sort out its software problems, I hard-wired the Linksys Range Expander into the ethernet port on the back of my computer, muttered a few incantations and was stunned to discover I now had a working, super-fast internet connection. Finally.