Mrs. HM was thrown back into the Stone Age on Thursday morning. Like living in Bedrock, but without the long-beaked bird that played Fred Flintstone's phonograph records. Nothing to do but sit and wait, with a downpour taking out the Mansion's TV and internet.
It came at the worst time! Just after Farmer H left around 6:15. I was watching Leave It to Beaver. An episode I've never seen! Beaver and Larry Mondello stayed after school on a Friday, to clean the blackboard for their teacher, Miss Landers. They stayed so late that all the staff had gone home except the janitor. Larry told Beaver that Mrs. Rayburn, the principal, had a spanking machine in the closet in her office, but that she only used it on big boys like the 8th graders. Not 2nd graders like Beaver and Larry.
As they were leaving, Beaver went back to get his hat. Larry said he was late enough, so went on ahead. Beaver snuck into Mrs. Rayburn's office to see the spanking machine. But the closet only held hangers and a couple of stray jackets. Meanwhile, the janitor noticed the door open, and went in to investigate. Beaver hid under Mrs. Rayburn's desk. The janitor closed the closet, and locked the office door with a key. Beaver was trapped! On a Friday night. He tried the rotary dial telephone, but could not make a call out. So he pulled the fire alarm. Heh, heh! Beaver arrived home on the fire engine! THEN MY TV WENT OFF!
Dang it! The episode description had said that Beaver got his head stuck in a fence. So I was wondering when THAT misfortune was going to befall him. I might never know!
Here's the thing: our TV and internet operate off two separate DISH satellites. It is hard for me to believe that nobody can develop a signal or a satellite receiver that can send/retrieve through rain and clouds. C'mon, man! You're telling me that in the 1960s, we could send men to the moon (and back!), and the President could talk to them on a landline (what is the area code for the moon?), but half a century later, we can't have TV and internet during a rainstorm?
Maybe a spanking machine could goad somebody into perfecting this cutting-edge technology.
No TV and no internet? We rarely have both go out and we're way down at the bottom of the earth, almost. When they do go out it's usually because everything else is also out, complete power blackout for a whole suburb or even several suburbs because someone or something (lightning/windstorm) knocked down a pole with the wires or something like that.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they'll show that same rerun another time when you are home to catch it. Which doesn't help with today's angst.
Is there any way for you to find out why both went out at once?
River,
ReplyDeleteIt always happens during a heavy rain or thick cloud cover. You live in the city, so you must not be getting your service from a satellite, but from something wired. I thought I'd seen all the Beavers, but apparently I missed a few. Hopefully I can find that one again. There are two channels that show the reruns, and they are not in the same sequence.