Electrifiying Weekend

This weekend sparks were flying and in the bad way. Sunday night we had some brief but violent thunderstorms. I was in my room  adjusting my SOE single point sling on my AR when I saw  a huge spray of sparks shoot out of my wireless router. Even though the router and cable modem were both on a surge protector they were fried. Oddly enough the cheap surround sound player hooked up to the same strip is fine as is the surge protector itself. I have a few takeaways from the situation I’d like to share with you.

This is by far not the worst thing that could have happened.  The power never went out. The only piece’s of equipment to break were the router and modem. The modem is a rental and I will be getting a new one brought out to me. I will not be getting a new one until Wednesday though. The WIFI router was a G model and several years old. I have been looking to upgrade to a newer model with expanded range.  Now I just have a bigger push to do so.

The fact that Charter Communications won’t be able to come work on it until Wednesday though is a problem. I can’t go half the week with  no blog posts.  I’m currently waiting to hear back on some email’s I sent.  I have a podcast appearance on Tuesday night via Skype that I’ll have to find a way to make. Basically I need the internet to run Survivalpunk.

Another real issue is my Phone. Where I live my cell phone has terrible  service inside my apartment. Usually i have brief spots of service. Outside the apartment is fine. Only 2g on the T-Mobile network. My phone the T-Mobile G2 has an app on it that allows calls over WIFI when connected. This allows me to me able to even make calls and use the phone at home. Which of course means no internet not phone. Its a double whammy

But James you say don’t you have a backup plan? Well of course I do. Backup plans, though are backups for a reason. They are never as good. My main backup plan and the way I’m using to make this post at home is my phone. My Phone has a free WIFI tethering app on it. If I place my phone in the window sill I can get maximum bars of 2g. Not the fastest internet but still better than dial up. Best of all its free.

With the phone tethered I can at lest take care of simply tasks. I’m able to write this blog post and stream Pandora (The Pogues right now) without pauses. Songs take about thirty seconds to load before they play. Searches and pages take an agonizingly long time to load though. I usually like to add a few pictures to the blog posts but I’m going to have to skip it this time.

• I’d I need anything more I’ll have to drive and find a WIFI hotspot. There are a couple in the area. I keep a running mental tally of the places that advertise free WIFI for emergency internet usage. There are at least two in walking distance. The McDonald’s WIFI is built to just barely go outside the building. I’ve only ever gotten spotty connections in the parking lot. I sure this was deliberate to try to entice web loafers inside the buy their junk.

Another more reliable plan is to go visit a friend with internet. I’m sure that’s what I’m going to have to do for Tuesday night. I hardly want to try to have a conversation while in a public place. Having kids yell about wanting more chicken nuggets to shovel in their face might not sound good when I’m trying to talk about why eating a paleo diet is healthier for you.

Lastly maybe spending less time on the internet is good anyway. Last night I just invited a friend over and watched some movies and talked. So no night filled with endless YouTube videos or on nutritional forums. A nuisance, yes, but not TEOTWAWKI. I might have been more annoyed by waking up to find I was out of coffee. Well the good stuff I have instant stuff in my preps.

Have you had anything blow up recently? had to use a backup plan? Any recommendations to better my plan? Let me know in the comments.