(Prefatory note: I still have dialup, and I have always had two phone lines because this place used to be two apartments until I combined them...such fun).
This morning I discovered why there is such terrible interference on the phone line in my bedroom. I've lived in this condo for 10 years and never knew about the interference. As the deaf would sign, making a flicking gesture as if knocking crumbs off both shoulders simultaneously, it was "not my problem."
This spring, however, I got a cochlear implant and when I attempted to talk on the phone for the first time in 40+ years, I discovered the interference is so bad on that telephone, I can't talk on it. So I bought a second phone and installed it in the den, where it was sharing phone line #2 with my laptop.
Long story short, I started Nanowrimo today and,in a great burst of laziness, decided to move my laptop into the bedroom so i could write in bed. Lots of authors do this, I've heard. And guess what? To my astonishment, the little airport icon at the top of my screen was lit up and all the bars were solid. If you have an iBook, you will know wot I'm talking about. I clicked the airport icon, and discovered it was ON!! High speed internet, just like Starbucks!! There actually are about 5 or 6 airports for me to take off from, too.
It's been an amazing day! Not only did I stay awake to finish my daily quota of fiction, I downloaded all the software repairs and upgrades that have been nagging at me weekly since last year in less time than it took to clean and slice a quart of strawberries! Usually, it would take all day to download ONE upgrade, and I'd have to sit there and poke the return button every time the dialup connection threatened to cut off.
I got SNOOD on trial, too, and some kind of clip thing that lets me cut clippings online and, once the copyright stuff has been taken care of, post them on my blog or email them or just save them. (Great! Electronic clutter, too!!)
Best fun on the phone for the week: As if being connected at high speed were not enough excitement, I got a NOTHER call from a telemarketer today, and I neglected to turn on my phone coil (more technology)...anyway, I had to ask him to repeat several times, and when he finally ast me to give him the "make and model #" of...??? (I think it was my car, which I sold back in 1991). When I said "make and model of what?" he hung up on me!!! Tsk. I never hang up on telemarketers. I just tell them I'm very sorry but I'm not interested in whatever it is they're calling for, and that's that.
