Thursday was problematic for Val. It was the day of my three-month-awaited appointment with an orthopedic surgeon about my knee. We had thunder and lightning and 3 INCHES OF RAIN all day Wednesday and through the night into Thursday morning. I was concerned the water might be up too much and prevent me from making the appointment.
I knew the creek would be over the low water bridge. But we have another way out in the other direction. Our bridge by the mailboxes doesn't flood, but water covers our gravel road that runs alongside the creek. Depending on how deep, we should not drive in it. Also, there's a tiny concrete bridge over a tributary wet-weather creek at the bottom of Hick and Buddy's Badly Blacktopped Hill. It has prevented crossing in the past.
Hick left home around 6:00, to check on the water situation, before our departure at 8:00. Because that's what Hicks do: they drive out into the water to see if the water is too deep. Hick found the tiny bridge with about a foot of water over it. Not recommended for driving, but it's only about five feet in length, and you can usually have either front or back tires on the unflooded ground while crossing. He went over it.
Down along the creek, before getting to Mailbox Row, Hick discovered a problem. The water, he said, was "only six inches deep." Again, not recommended for walking in, but Hick got out of SilverRedO to remove the problem: a big log in the road with water flowing around it. The road here is level, so the force of the water was spread out, not a swift current. Hick got the log off to the edge of the road, where there's usually a strip of ground with trees, holding the water in the creek.
We were able to get through to the county blacktop road, and were on time for the appointment. Thanks to Hick's advance planning. That wasn't his only act of heroism that day!
When I got home from the appointment at 10:30, I went about my usual morning routine of sitting down with HIPPIE at the kitchen table, enjoying some oatmeal and a banana and innernetting. But wait! Something was wrong! I had no internet service!!!
HIPPIE is cantankerous in his old age. I think he's almost 10! I tried all my usual fixes. Which include connecting and disconnecting from the internet. Then a couple of re-starts and shut downs. Fiddling with a couple of settings, turning them on and off. Waiting for 1 hour to elapse, which often sees my internet connection restored miraculously. I even gave up on HIPPIE, and fired up my "new" laptop that The Pony got me a couple Christmases ago. No internet on NEWBIE, either.
I even resorted to calling DISH NETWORK! That's our internet provider. Has its own satellite. I found the number in my phone, an old email telling me my bill was ready. About the only thing I discovered there was that my modem showed no power. Of course the gal wanted me to walk down those 13 rail-less basement steps to tell her the lights showing on the modem, and unplug and replug it, and me just having come from an orthopedist appointment for a gimpy knee!
Anyhoo... the DISH rep said that short power outages don't give the modem time to reset. They need a hard reset, unplugged for two minutes. I recalled that the previous evening, the power had gone off five times, but had come right back on. My internet was still working then. I guess the same thing happened again through the early morning hours, which is what temporarily killed the modem.
Well. You know whose job THAT is! Hick is the modem resuscitator. I called Hick, and while I was in town that afternoon, he came home and FIXED IT for me before taking little Pepper out to run around in the yard with Jack. At least we have grass, so they didn't get muddy. Hick's hero status was not sullied.
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