one of the things about being at sea

that drives a person nuts is being on the edge of internet and cell service.

It is a frustrating mess of dropped calls and 'Internet Explorer cannot display this webpage' that is intermittent.

Now last summer when I was in the Gulf of Mexico cleaning up the BP mess we would be out of cell/net range for over a week at a time. Please to note that I said 'out of range', meaning that we had NO service at all.

Now there were constantly bars on out cell phones but we quickly discovered that they were from the various oil rigs out there and that they were no good to me as I have a simple cell service through Wally World and Tracfone and they were not part of the oil rig system.

One of the guys thought he would do something r another and found out that the call he made home from one of the rigs cost him an arm and a leg so for practical purposes we were out of cell range.

Our internet service runs through cell towers so that generally put the kibosh on things.

That we can live with. When something is broken it can be lived with because it is a constant. You get used to a constant. There is nothing you can do to change things so you simply learn to live with it and that is simply that.

On the other hand, when you have something that works on a part time basis you have frustration based on hope and expectation.

It gets frustrating hoping you can get a project done only to have things go to hell on you when the signal drops or the electrical gods turn their head. You have to start.

Incidentally, any financial things that take place are thrown into bedlam and chaos. Out here it is common knowledge never to either buy something or pay for something unless you have a certain strong signal.

Still, there have been blog posts that have had to be reposted and emails that have had to be rewritten and that can be a royal cause for frustration. Most people hate doing things over and over again.

It will drive a person nuttier than a cukoo clock factory at midnight, as my father used to say.

Many years ago I had a radial arm saw that used to work when it felt like it and it was dangerous because you would position the work, snap the switch and sometimes nothing would happen. You'd smack it a couple times and it would start and when it did you would not quite be ready for it.

Finally one time the damned thing was being cantankerous and I finally flew off the handle and fixed it so that it would be reliable. Cursing loudly I used an old fire axe on it and hammered it into a twisted piece of wreckage and crammed the wreckage alongside the foundation of the house I was building at the time where it became part of the backfill. It became very reliable. From then on I knew I could count on it to rust in peace, and I believe it is there doing that to this very day.

While I admit it drew looks from coworkers that told me I was an inch from being carted off by nice young men in clean white coats, it sure felt pretty good both to vent the frustration and simply make further annoyances go away.

It is now among the most reliable things I can think of. It can be relied on to decay.

Anyway, I am, as I write this, in a fringe area and I sure hope we can either go into a place where the signal gets better or dies out all together because it is just plain frustrating.



my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/