Interruption in service

One side effect of being out in the sticks is that services that can generally be taken for granted in the city are not so reliable out here. Last night was a case in point. The monsoon rains have finally arrived, and last night they came with a vengeance. We had torrential rain, high winds, and a great deal of lightning. Consequently, we also had a power outage. The power was restored fairly quickly, but telephone service was spotty still this morning -- the weekly Bible verse that the Seventh-Day Adventists leave on our machine about 9:30 every Friday didn't come through until after noon. Even after telephone service was restored, the ISP's local phone number still wasn't working until this evening, so I couldn't get online to check on the Internet world.

The one service that wasn't interrupted was the satellite television. Even at the worst of the storm, there was nary a blink on the screen. That's not to say the satellite system is totally perfect -- rodent activity can loosen connections in the cables, so they occasionally need tightening up. However, now that Miss Kitty's on the job, we have far less rodent activity. I have considered getting a satellite modem; however, even that wouldn't have worked this time, because, while it uses the satellite signal for downloading data, it still requires a telephone line for information uploads.