Don't know what you've got until it's gone...

A beautiful ballad by heavy metal band Cinderella, by the same title, used to be one of my favourite songs as a teen and the phrase has so many applications. Today, I'm thinking of it in terms of a silly little thing like internet access as I type this entry...

We had a brown out or power surge at home early on Saturday morning and, at the time, we didn't think much of it. The lights flickered, one of the computers rebooted but the other two didn't show any affect. Until, that is, we tried to do something online and there was no internet.

OH NO!!! No internet?? Say it isn't so?!!

About an hour later after much experimentation and cursing, we resigned ourselves to admitting that that itsy bitsy brown out had fried our highspeed modem.

We spent several hours either on the phone or in person at local stores trying to procure a replacement modem to no avail. No one stocks highspeed modems. We've ordered one from our ISP and should have it by Wednesday.

It wasn't until later Sunday afternoon that I realized I had all kinds of spare time on my hands and was actually bored (a real rarity for me). While I puttered around the house, I was thinking what I should be doing was working on the computer.

I know I spend a lot of time at my desk. I manage 3 websites, edit thousands of digital photos for both work & pleasure, I dabble on ebay and msn with family & close friends but I had no idea it was such a huge element in my day to day life.

I think, when the new modem comes, I may just have to disconnect it from time to time and take a break from virtual reality and take time to smell the real roses.