One Phone Call

I am doing the A-Z challenge; today’s letter is X  for Xfinity.

One Phone Call

Living on a ridge-top, five miles off the highway, as I do, there is no such thing as cable internet service (or cable anything).  So I have a smart phone, which gives me rock-bottom access to the net.  I am not whining; it is what it is.  I used to get satellite service through a company, which I grew to despise, because of its capricious withdrawing of all internet access, for no discernible reason.  Even when I phoned them to cancel, after getting my smart phone, I had to explain my reason to five different people.

Annie, however, has Xfinity, which is as fast as snapping one’s fingers.  I can actually see all of the posts on my FaceBook wall, if I have time, which never happens on the mountain.  Up here, I just get to watch the icon spin and spin and spin... I inevitably end up restarting my computer, over and over, in order to go from say FaceBook to sfgiants.com, or to check the stats on my blog.

So being in Willits makes for awesome internet access; being on the mountain is very primitive.  Then I get to thinking about what internet is, and what it provides.  I think back to when I was overseas, from June of 1972, until October of 1973.  I made exactly one telephone call home during that sixteen months; otherwise, it was snail mail only.  The fastest I ever got a response to a question I had sent home, was twelve days, and that was rare.

I remember when email started, a while back.  Our teaching staff was asked to report to the library, to be inserviced on this new tool.  I remember being totally baffled as to what the whole thing was all about, but my teaching partner got it, and told me not to worry and he would explain it all.  My point is, that bad internet service (that is, slow) is infinitely better than what we had available back in the day.  

We get spoiled with quick internet, and then we don’t want to go backwards.  Many people from the old school, still will have nothing to do with the modern technology, figuring that what has always sufficed in the past, will continue just fine, thank you very much.  I was surprised when my mom (ninety years young) recently got on FaceBook, even though I had been trying to convince her to do so, just to be able to see the pictures of her great-grandchildren.  You just don’t encounter that many ninety-year-olds on FaceBook.  At least, I haven’t.

So when I spend time in Willits, I get spoiled with the excellent internet service, and have to curb my impatience, when I get back on the mountain.  The irony is that I have Dish Network, with its DVR capability, (and, of course, the San Francisco Giants, live) so I have a zillion films recorded in my library.  Annie has just the most basic of TV reception, so we usually don’t watch much.

Choose your poison: good TV service?  Or good internet access?  I just don’t know.  Can you tell me if the Giants are playing today?