420 Summit

Ka-blooey

I have broken the Internet.

Three locations.

Two days.

All perfectly good connections until I touched them.

Yesterday, I got a new computer. I went through my usual installation routine; removing worthless crap I’ll never use, installing a few key applications, moving some backed up data — you know the drill. I then plugged in a USB wireless adapter and all was well. Until it wasn’t.

The sucker just stopped working with a generic cryptic Windows error message. Code 10, which seems to mean: it don’t work. I uninstalled and reinstalled drivers, made sure the adapter worked on another machine, wished I was still a drinking man… then I gave up and went to bed.

This morning I went to my summer office — a lovely home where I house sit while people who have lives live them — fired up a browser and got busy. Life was good and all was well. Until it wasn’t.

The sucker just stopped working. I rebooted everything. No joy. I ran the router diagnostic (all the lights were on) and was informed that the software only supported Linksys routers, despite the fact that sitting on top of the desk, is a brand new Linksys router. A router that was just fucking fine three minutes ago.

Okay, maybe the cable is out. Rather than deal with Time-Warner, always good for twenty minutes, I went across the street to try a friends computer. It worked fine. Of course it did. Until it didn’t.

Are you sensing a theme?

So, I’m writing this post from the library. A library that I fully expect to lose all Internet access any second. But I won’t be here. I’ll be taking a nap, dreaming of opiates and trying to convince myself that I have a few good years of banging nails left.