Internet through Poe

As I wrote in my previous post, both Travis and I are very thankful that we experienced the March 11th Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami with very little damage. Travis lost his favourite coffee mug, and one of my scrapbooks fell off the bookshelf one to many times and the cover was ripped off past the point of an easy repair job. We were unable to get the internet on March 14th as originally scheduled because of the disaster, and although we were disappointed we understood. Other much more vital things had to be done in areas south of us - those that had been hit the worst.

Japan has proven itself to be incredibly resilient. It took only two days for power, cellphone service, and clean water to be fixed and brought back into our area. A friend of mine from England posted this article from the Daily Mail, commenting "In England, this would have taken 6 months!".

Japanese Road Repair

I have to agree, in Canada there is no way that the road would have been repaired within a week! This is a country that knows it lives on a major fault line. A tragedy struck and within hours the Japanese were working to clean up the mess and repair what had been broken.


That being said, after a couple of weeks, we were wondering what the problem was. Eventually I called the internet company, explained that we had been waiting for internet since December, had had an appointment scheduled for March 14th, and was wondering if I could reschedule the appointment for sometime soon. It was a long frustrating phone call that amounted to "We will help you when we start doing appointments again, we don't know when that is. The company that we liaise with will tell us, and then we will let you know. We don't know when that will be. Don't call us, we'll call you."

Seriously, it took them 6 days to fix the major road ways - what on earth could the INTERNET company be doing for so long? Power companies, water companies, etc. I could understand - they were needed desperately down in Sendai and Fukushima. But the internet people?

By the time our new appointment was scheduled (for April 15th - that is 109 days after we originally paid the company to come and do the installation!!!!) I was so pessimistic towards the entire thing I was convinced that when April 15th rolled around they'd either not show up at all, or call and tell us they were unable to make it - and try to reschedule for mid-May.

When they finally did show up to do the installation yesterday I was completely nonplussed about the entire situation. My utter lack of excitement brought to mind the first stanza of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven":


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more." [exc. "The Raven" Edgar Allen Poe]


When the internet guy rang the doorbell, and I was half convinced he was just here to say "Sorry, you can't HAVE internet!" laugh maniacally, and run. Possibly while kicking small puppies out of his way.


That being said - once the modem was finally connected I was extremely excited. It took them 2 hours, a power drill, and one guy up on a cherry picker working on the electrical lines outside the house but it's HEEEEERRRRRRRREEEEEEEE. Hopefully within the next few days I'll be able to get some pictures up onto the internet and share them with you all! (Along with much more upbeat posts I'm sure. :D)