Our message light was blinking yesterday morning when we returned from our internet café experience.  It was Justin from ReachOne.com telling me that the “No Internet Access” problem was not mine alone.  Since our conversation of the day before, they had received hundreds of calls; CenturyLink was working on it; we’d be up and running by one o’clock.  (We weren’t.  Still aren’t, eighteen hours later.)

I was pleased beyond all measure to hear from Justin.  I called back and left a message to say so and… he called again and we actually talked “in person.”  Now that’s what I call “good communication,” “excellent customer relations,” and “service with a smile.”  When he told me that I was the very first to alert them, I felt just like the proverbial canary in the mineshaft.

But, since access to the world wide web is still unavailable in Oysterville, it looks like posting today’s blog will be a repeat of yesterday’s.  Ordinarily, we’d have headed to Adelaide’s in Ocean Park, our coffee house of choice.  But they are on vacation for a few weeks so we went to a much-touted coffee place in Long Beach where we saw lots of people we know and were able to get online immediately.  As for the coffee… mine was served in a to-go cup and Nyel’s in a regular cup. Go figure.  Nevertheless, we will be returning today and for all future days until the internet problem is solved or Adelaide’s reopens, whichever comes first.

As is often the case during power outages or automobile immobility or other modern-day difficulties, I think of my grandparents and wonder what their reaction would be.  By the time I came along, they were “connected” to the outside world by both telephone and radio, though they tended to think of both in terms of emergencies.  Whenever the telephone rang, they would get that worried expression as though preparing for the worst.  They mostly listened to the news on the radio, though I do remember my grandfather enjoying “One Man’s Family” when it came on.

I imagine they would have taken computers and internet access and all the rest of it in stride.  After all, their experiences had spanned the years from horse-and-buggy to airplane transportation.  I think they would have accepted cyberspace and its vagaries with equal parts of wonder and amusement.  And I seriously doubt if a disruption in service would have bothered them.  After all, what did Oysterville lack that the outside world offered?  Perhaps it’s an attitude worth cultivating.