Give Thanks...For Internet Access

 Funny, how things that did not exist in our lives at one time become necessities...necessities to the point that we as a society can almost not function when that necessity is removed.

Hence, the absence of internet access.

It's quite a thing.

All in all, we've been lucky as far as having access to the internet, arguably one of the most amazing (for good and otherwise...) inventions to affect humanity since the Industrial Revolution. I've written a blog post every day--every single day--since January, 2011. This means, that I've had access to the internet every single day since then. 

Some people would consider this a curse, to be so "connected" to a thing. And, they'd be right. It's hard to  imagine living in a world where the internet doesn't exist. Last week, I got a taste. Wednesday afternoon, just before 5pm, we noticed the internet went out. We thought it was due to road construction close by. 

Nope...turns out it was something else.

With the internet out, it was a nuisance, an inconvenience. But, we still had our phones. 

Nope. Phones weren't completely out, but were so slow, they might have been out.

Strange. A few weeks ago, the power went out and we had phone internet service. This time, we had power, but no phones. I wasn't worried. In our modern society, professionals are very good at restoring services. We waited for an hour...no service. It was hard to even find out why since we couldn't use our phones. We eventually found out that a truck took out power to a section of town about five miles away. The power to a local cellphone tower also went out. Now, we understood. Still...it will back on soon.

Around 8pm, I got a little worried. I had a photo and blog post to add to the trillions of other posts on the internet. The phone access had gotten better, maybe because other people trying to get online had gone to bed. It took a while, but I posted a simple screenshot of my non-access and wrote a short blog post recognizing our youngest on his birthday.

It's unbelievable how addicted I am to the internet, how much I depend on it. I was sure it would be up and running by morning, but it wasn't. All night long, the flashing red light of the modem told me it was still out. The next morning, I got ready to go into work, instead of working at home, but around 9am the next day...connected.

I'm thankful I can get news, post a short story now and then, and also a picture. I'm thankful I can keep in touch with family and friends. Time will tell just how much the internet has changed humanity (for good or otherwise...), but I do know, for one day last week, it affected us more than I liked.