24 Hours Unplugged Or How to Drive a Media-Pop-Culture Junkie Completely Crazy

February 22, 2011 in Blogs & Blogging, Home

I live for TV. I love my Internet connection. I refuse to give up my land line. I would no more pull the plug on my cable willingly than I would jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. No voluntary living off the grid for this gal. So imagine my surprise, and then panic, when 24 hours ago I discovered my cable, internet and phone service had mysteriously disappeared.

I called my neighbor and asked, “Are you online? Is your cable working?” Her Comcast cable and internet connections were working fine. I called Comcast next. Trying to be patient and polite (and not wail or bitch), I begged Comcast to fix my problem – at least the one regarding my Internet, phone and cable service. It appeared the difficulty could not be handled remotely. It would be at least 5 p.m. the next day before anyone could attend to my little corner of the universe. Afterall, yesterday was an official holiday – Presidents’ Day – and many people were not working at all. Guess I was lucky three people answered my phone calls and one answered my tweet for help!

Truth be told – I am a baby, not a survivalist. Yes, I had electricity and heat. Yes, I even had a working Blackberry. The thought of being completely in the dark and cold was too much to contemplate. I am a spoiled consumer, no doubt about it. I admit it. However, I am trying to conserve as best I can. I recycle. I’m trying to be responsible. I turn off the lights in empty rooms and use those long-lasting fluorescent bulbs, even replaced most of my windows with EEE rated glass.

Clearly I was not going to be able to work much since most of what I do requires being connected. Before taking refuge at my local Starbucks for wifi, I tweeted my situation. To my surprise (although I really shouldn’t have been since I used #Comcast) an alert Comcast executive in Philadelphia read my plea for help.

In the meantime, I went outside to make sure there was nothing amiss with the cable that had been brought above ground because of an issue with my digital service several months (a year?) back. All the snow, ice, salt, sand, wind and melting-freezing-re-melting-and-then-refreezing was not helping the situation. Nor did my plow guy. To be fair, he probably couldn’t see the cable buried beneath a fresh coat of snow from earlier in the morning along the right side of my driveway. And therefore, severed my cable which is something akin to severing an umbilical cord when you’re as tuned into media and pop culture as we are around here.

I have written before of my lifelong devotion to broadcast television. I should have been a television critic, except that I seem to find a redeeming quality in even the most ridiculous show (read: I watch and like “Two and a Half Men” but don’t get me started on Charlie puh-lese…).

Now with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the blogosphere I find myself spending part of my time participating in activities that require an Internet connection (or Starbucks wifi). No apologies. A lot of people are doing it. In fact, if you’re reading this, most likely you are, too.

Once I discovered the severed cable, I called Comcast again and updated my trouble report. Ah, this required a different kind of service call. The good news: I was moved up from 5 p.m. to 11 a.m. with a different kind of technician. So I happily answered e-mails and worked on my projects at Starbucks until dinnertime and came home. I don’t know about you, but one of the first things I do when I come home is to turn on the TV in my kitchen. Either my local newscasters or Brian Williams of “NBC Nightly News” keeps me company while I make dinner.

The quiet was noticeable. No Brian Williams, no nightly update on the pop culture world with Billy Bush and his crew at “Access Hollywood.” I couldn’t tune into “Jeopardy” and the teen tournament. I missed my favorite Monday night shows: “How I Met Your Mother“ and the aforementioned “Two and A Half Men.” And, if not for my Blackberry, I would have completely missed the news about the earthquake in New Zealand. I did not like the experience of being unplugged. I didn’t look forward to waking up without my daily dose of Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera on the “Today Show.” I’ve been watching “Today” almost every morning for the past 25 years. Maybe longer. Shucks.

But because I had my electricity and heat, I knew I couldn’t complain. Much. Although I’m a voracious reader, I like to read as a choice, not as a last resort. NBD really and I had a novel to read for our upcoming book group. So last night I cracked open “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave and haven’t been able to put it down. Well, until Bobby showed up soon after 11 a.m. to splice my cable back into service.

Voila! Re-connected in a jiffy. And I received several phone calls from a local Comcast executive, impressing me with their fabulous customer service in this situation. Even @ComcastBill checked in to make sure I was up and running again. Which all makes me very happy and relieved and satisfied.

And makes me wonder why anyone would voluntarily unplug? This woman, Susan Maushart, did it for six months. Six months?! I could barely last 24 hours and I thanked the universe that my daughter was away for the February school vacation week. So Maushart and her teens unplugged and then she wrote a book about the experience, “The Winter of Our Disconten t.” I guess Maushart, a published author, did it in part so she could write about it, but also in part because she was frustrated with the constant hum of the computer and the clicking of those text messages on the ever-present smart phones attached to us, like, well, umbilical cords.

So it’s a choice. Plug in or not.  Live on the grid or off. I choose plugged in on the grid and hope the plow stays away from my precious lifeline – er, cable – for the rest of this winter.

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