I wonder if my rocket stick is ready??

My main internet access is using a mobile rocket stick for my laptop. About two weeks ago, it died on me and I'd only had it for around three months at that point. Now I know I'm an internet addict, but that's just ridiculous for "wearing it out". I spent a good hour or more on the phone with the customer service/ help department before it was finally decided that I needed to go into town to have my stick sent in on warranty repair.

Now first of all, this all happened the same day as last time I dropped off Derek at the airport. The (normally) three hour drive was extended by less-than-ideal highway driving conditions due to the weather. Plus, I had spent an extra hour or two in town doing some shopping to try and find him a unique luggage tag. I arrived home and was playing along happily when suddenly pages stopped loading. This happens occasionally, and all I do is just disconnect and then reconnect the stick. Even this didn't work, so I tried rebooting, and that didn't fix it either. My next step is to contact the guy that sold it to me, who tells me to call 1-888-ROGERS1 for the customer care department. My next message to him is, "What is that in numbers?" I have a BlackBerry, and there's no letters on the numbers! LOL!! While on the phone with them, I go through my rebooting process again, changing settings in the connection, uninstalling and reinstalling the software... no luck. After finding out that this software is supposed to be compatible with my snail-driven dinosaur in the craft room, I head over there, and once again try hooking up... still no luck. That's when I'm told that I have to take it to the Rogers dealer and have them send it in. I contact my dealer again, and find out that he can't deal with it, that I have to take it to the corporate kiosk... which of course I have no idea where it's located! So after already being stuck in the truck driving for about 8 hours that day, I hop in and dash off to town. Of course it takes forever and three days to get all the paperwork done to send my little stick off, and issue me a temporary loaner. But all is now good in the world again because I "haz interwebs agin".

We shall now fast forward in this story to Monday afternoon. I get a phone call from the dealer to let me know that my stick is back and ready for pick-up. I politely say "thank you", and hang up. I wasn't worried about going to pick it up right away since I already had plans to run some errands in town the next morning. About an hour later, I'm sitting on the couch happily knitting away on my KP-IDP sock and watching LOTR: The Two Towers on Blu-Ray. My laptop is in its usual spot on the coffee table, screen black from being in sleep mode. I hear a bird chirping noise come from it, and am slightly puzzled since I am off-line. I start checking the various open web pages to see if one of them has an ad on it with sound... still skeptical because I've been off-line for at least an hour, and hadn't heard anything, and there was no way a new ad could have loaded. I finally realize that I had received a text message on my connection manager. I am paraphrasing here, but it basically said that my stick had been repaired and was now ready for pick-up. I shrug it off, since it was an automated message, but still a touch annoyed since I had already been phoned. Around an hour after that, I'm in the kitchen doing something with supper. I hear my phone's ringtone for an incoming email. I check my email folder to find that I had now received an email from Customer Care, telling me that my stick had been repaired and was ready to be picked up. REALLY?!!?? YA THINK?!!? Of course this starts a sarcastic conversation between my BFF and I, which is completely typical in this kind of situation.

The next day, I prepare all of my shopping lists, and head off into town fairly early so that I would still have the afternoon to do things around the house. I had to leave the house quite early Wednesday morning to pick up Derek, so I wanted to be able to go to bed early without a lot of housework and such on my mind. I mentally planned my route... start at Walmart, go across town to the mall where the Rogers dealer is, Giant Tiger, and finally Sobeys on my way out of town. I wasn't sure if the mall opened at 9:30 or 10:00, so that's why I went to Walmart first. I get to the mall around 10:30 to get my stick back to find out (after standing there for close to half an hour), that they couldn't do the exchange because their computer system was down entirely! I explained that I lived out of town, and it would be at least Thursday or Friday before I could return... and how their automated system was giving me fits about picking up my equipment already. I was also counting on getting my deposit back for planned purchases in the city the next day. Since there was nothing that could be done, I simply resumed my errands with plans to call them before I left town and inquire if their computers were back up or not. It turns out that they were, but again I was stuck driving across the city to get back to the mall once again... and to add insult to injury, I received my $50 deposit back in $5 bills because they hadn't done any business yet for the day and only had their float for change! I finally arrived home much later than I had intended... totally exhausted!


Nicole =o)

P.S.: I have come to the conclusion that Derek being home not only throws my housekeeping routines off, but my blogging routines as well!