Tonight around 11pm EST, lightning struck… Quite literally, just outside the house. The TV, DVR, DVD, VCR, all went blank… Surprisingly we still had electric, which rarely is the case out here in the sticks when we have a bad enough storm.
I ran into the office to check the computers, everything was still up and good. The cable modem wasn’t happy though. No blinky lights. I’ve been here before too. So I rebooted it. Amazingly, the power light and the cable light lit up. But no PC or data light. I figured the cable network was probably zapped. Again, not unusual.
Back into the living room to check things there and to verify that the cable was dorked up. All of the entertainment stuff was plugged into a surge protector, but it was dead, no juice. I ran down stairs and found a circuit breaker popped… I’m thinking this is a good thing.
Back upstairs all of our entertainment devices have power, even the TV, but the TV is non-responsive. You can turn it on with the remote, but that’s it. No picture, no changing inputs, nada… Of course this would be our 42” plasma pride and joy… Our Black Friday special two years ago for $999. Coincidentally the same amount as our home owners deductible. Oh goody.
So back in the office to deal with the Internet situation. The cable modem appears happy on the cable side, but no link for the PC connection. I swap out the router hoping that it’s not toast. Nope, nothing I plug into the modem is seen by the modem. This isn’t good.
30 minutes of troubleshooting with TimeWarner on the phone they finally give in and offer a service call to replace it. Today is the 9th, and it’s only been the 9th for 30 minutes. The earliest they can service me is the 15th. Isn’t that special? I explain that isn’t good enough for $50/month internet that’s already somewhat flakey. I offer to come pick up a modem and be compensated for my time to drive there, stand in line and drive home. They just laughed but did offer to credit me for the lack of service.
I think I’m just about done with TimeWarner, but I don’t think CBell is going to be any better.
Here’s hoping they’ll actually have one when I get there tomorrow.