THE BEST MADE PLANS.........

What is it they say about the best made plans? You know how angry you can feel when you have decided exactly how you are going to spend some time, only to find that the job in hand is completely out of reach?. Well hold that thought. This is what instigated the creation of this hub.

IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME

Today, 6th July 2009, we have had bad weather. I would imagine that it has not been as bad as many parts of the world may encounter from time to time. However it has rained and I mean rained.

The morning began with bright sunny spells and the promise, or threat, of scattered showers. We had a couple of heavy cloud bursts this morning. One minute it would be lovely and sunny and then, almost at the drop of a hat, it would be chucking it down, as we say in Yorkshire.

Heading home just after lunch I could see that black clouds were gathering as I waited for my bus home. The sun may have not been shining but something or someone shone on me today, as the torrential rain waited and began as soon as I sat down on the bus.

The heavens opened and a deluge descended upon us. The rain was beating down and bouncing a good few inches of wherever it fell. The bus windows looked as if we were travelling through a car wash which was turned on full. Inevitably the rain penetrated the bus and I started to feel a fine shower slightly wetting me, but cooling me down. I guess my fellow passengers encountered the same. Still at least there was the silver lining of being cooler.

With thunder crashing overhead and lightening flashes illuminating the dark midday sky the scene was spectacular. As usual when such events occur I thought “ I wish I had brought my camera” but of course I had not.

Thankfully by the time I was nearly home the rain turned to a trickle. However, as the bus driver remarked “I don’t think its over yet, do you?” I saw the much blacker clouds approaching and I had to agree. I decided to head straight home rather than chance the local supermarket, as I could always pop out later.

Boy was I glad that I did. I just made it to my door by the time the rain poured down again and the thunder and lightening raged on. All the poor flowers in my garden that had been looking forward to some welcome rain now look battered and beaten.

My first concern as I opened the door was my two pooches. Both are a little afraid of hearing heavy rain and thunder, and seeing lightening flashing all around. I think they have been worse since we were flooded 2 years ago. They soon settled down, now that they had company, and I decided to spend the afternoon catching up with my Internet chores.

The pooches were happy at this, as they prefer upstairs in such weather, and we all settled down in the back bedroom, come office, so that I could get busy

WRONG!

So now we get to the point of this hub and the reason why I decided to create it. Just what do we computer nerds or geeks or writers or entrepreneurs or whatever you like to call us do when the ISP is unavailable?

The weather has kicked my local ISP offline and any hope of utilising this crappy afternoon to catch up on some writing. We all take our computers for granted these days but almost as many people also take their Internet connection for granted.

Such a lack of service, if for an extended period of time, could see many people losing money, their own network, work and more.

After the initial tantrum I thought I would turn my misfortune into a hub to be published as soon as the Internet connection is re-established. For the time being I will use my Microsoft Works to put to together a few articles and the like to save time later.

However all of this has made me consider:-

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION WAS LOST FOR A WHOLE DAY?

Would you think that it would not matter or would you be like a junkie undergoing cold turkey without his or her fix?. Please let me know, in your comments, what you think.

Me? I just keep pressing the Send and Receive button in my Outlook Express to see if we are back on line yet.

I could do some much needed house work but it is still hot and I am tired from my busy morning’s work. I will more than likely take a cat nap as I am quite sleepy. This is partially due to my hay fever medication and the fact that I only had a couple of hours sleep last night.

Going to bed late I had just managed to drop off to sleep, at around 1.30am, when a thoughtful neighbour arrived home without any keys. His persistent hammering on his front door, and subsequent shouting, must have woke half of my city not just the people in our road. With the hot weather every window was open and so the noise would have been hard to miss. Thanks neighbour. I will see if I can return the favour some day.

So back to the job in hand.

JUST WHAT WILL YOU DO, ABOUT YOUR INTERNET WORK, IF YOUR INTERENT CONNECTION IS UNEXPECTEDLY OFF LINE FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD?

For now I have tidied up the computer desktop. I have moved all the hub related junk such as images onto my external hard drive. I have updated my Microsoft Money accounts with recent receipts. I have run the disk defragmenter, Scan disk and my anti-virus scan. I have even vacuumed the dusty back of my computer tower and cleaned the desk and screen etc. I have re-booted and cold booted the computer. Nothing.

I have managed to throw in the odd game of Spider Solitaire but with nothing computer related left to do all I can say is that:-

RAIN REALLY HAS STOPPED PLAY. BUMMER

SCARY EH?