Rats in the Belfry

Okay, maybe not the belfry, but definitely my pseudo attic. I appreciate the beady-eyed monsters need to stay warm and cozy when winter arrives, but seriously, they could have chosen someone else's home.

Their are several tools that a writer can't live without. Two of them? The computer and the Internet. My lovely houseguests dined well last night on my Internet cable. Toucha my cable and die! I would make a lousy hit woman, but I do declare that these miscreant's days are marked.

Yesterday I was given the task of creating a 16 page publication that had to be in the printer's hands by 8 this morning. I had 5 files to upload to an ftp site, the largest of the files was 45 MB. I didn't go into panic mode until around 8:00 PM after I called my Internet provider and even she wasn't getting a signal. It took another hour for my husband to discover the source of our Internet woes.

I went next door and begged the password from my neighbor so I could use their wireless. I found a spot in the kitchen that was closest to their house and opened up the laptop. I was able to get e-mail and basic service but the signal wasn't strong enough to sustain a hold on the ftp site. In trying to finish the layouts, I had to refer to the information on my e-mail by going to the laptop in the kitchen, writing down the corrections and returning to my main computer in the office. What a pain.

Geek son to the rescue! Being very tech savvy, he just happened to have more cable in the house. He was able to rig a single line for my husband. When DH finally realized that I needed the computer worse than him, he took it off his and hooked me up. Saved. I was able to upload my files. By that time I was exhausted. Today, DH ran new cable and called the exterminator.