The Mysterious Case Of The Loss Of The Internet In Late Evening

Tuesday night, I was hap hap happily tap tap tapping away on New Delly when I heard Farmer H stumping around above me. He'd been to an auction. Right then, my phone buzzed with a text.

"I'm home now."

"I know. I heard you stumping."

I further heard him La-Z-Boy. That's when he cranks it back, making a specific noise. A cranking. Closing it up is more like a slam. I sent him another text.

"Trash goes out tomorrow." Farmer H has been pulling it to then end of the driveway with his Gator.

"Okay. I'll do it now."

I didn't mean he HAD to do it right then. The new trash service doesn't get to the Mansion until around 11:00. So Farmer H, the early riser, had plenty of time. I guess he was afraid he'd forget. Or maybe he likes driving the Gator in the dark. Anyhoo...I heard him come back in the house and crank back in the La-Z-Boy again.

I'd been typing up a stockpile of blogs to post during CasinoPalooza 3. Blogger was playing up, giving me that little pink bar at the top, saying something went wrong trying to save or publish. It does that sometimes. I ignore it, and it goes away. Or I click on that DISMISS button. But this time, it KEPT giving me the pink bar.

Lucky for me, I'd just finished one. Or so I thought. To be sure, I copied and pasted it into a Word file. Then I closed out Blogger, and did a restart. New Delly said he was installing my updates. Huh. I didn't order any updates. They're supposed to happen at 2:00 a.m., and it was right at 11:00 p.m. I could see this was going nowhere. I checked the System Restore thingy, and saw that the last updates had been on December 9. This was the 11th. So that couldn't be the culprit. I did not do a System Restore.

What I did was get up and leave New Delly, retiring to my OPC (Old People Chair). Tuesday is a good TV night for me, and I had several hours of shows to catch up on. I did leave New Delly on, just so I could come back and check to see if I still had the yellow triangle of noncommunication. I did. At 11:40, and again at 12:05.

I'd pretty much resigned myself to unplugging the router thingy and the modem thingy, like Genius has talked me through from Kansas City. I figured I'd do it in the morning. Then I figured I didn't want to be traipsing downstairs in the morning, preferring to limit my step-descending and ascending as much as possible. So I figured I'd try that when I was done watching Below Deck.

I went to my dark lair sometime around 12:30 or 12:40, just to check, on the off chance New Delly had mysteriously healed himself.

HE HAD!

I have no idea what caused my internet outage, but I'm glad for New Delly's regenerative powers! Of course I suspect Farmer H had something to do with my lack of connectivity. The timing was suspect. Right after he came in from towing the trash. I can't prove anything. Or even imagine a scenario where walking on the porch would stop my internet. But I HAD hollered up to ask him if he still had TV (he did) and if the weather was doing something that would interfere with my internet (it wasn't).

I'm still holding Farmer H responsible. He is guilty in the court of Mrs. HM's opinion.