"disengagement" from the internet

Finally went home earlier last night, 8pm. I was supposed to go to the gym but I blew that off so I could have some quiet internet time at home (Mr. S was out for a couple of hours and I love having the quiet apt to myself). I promised myself I'd go tomorrow (but now that's today).

And then there was no !!)(&^$$#$%^%R*&^* internet connection! So instead of a nice, relaxing evening, I spent the next hour and a half on the phone with our ISP rep and then the phone co. rep trying to get the problem fixed. "Nope, we're fine here; it must be a Bezek [phone co.] issue; I'll connect you to them." "Nope, it's not us; your phone connection's perfect." "No, ma'am, it's really not us; I'll re-connect you to the phone co. and this time I'll stay on the line." "Ohhh yeah, there does seem to be a problem with your phone line, actually. Let's see what we can do."

THEY, however, didn't do anything. But I was instructed, among other tasks, to dig thru the jungle of tied-up and bundled dusty wires BEHIND the furniture, in 90 deg. weather, remove my modem cable and find another one like it on one of my phones to see if the problem was a faulty cable. It wasn't. They promised to send a technician to check our phone lines sometime today. And we were still "disengaged" this morning.

To mention that I was not happy is, shall we say, an understatement. Fury covers it better. Yeah, just like an addict. An especially spoiled one, actually.

An internet addict without a connection is too much like an asthmatic without a puffer. It's not really like a drug addiction, though, because you can't quit, any more than you can quit eating in order to lose weight. The big I is an inextricable part of our lives now; even 12 hours without it initiates severe withdrawal. For me, at least. (You may be worse.)

I've just heard from Mr. Squarepeg that the phone (ADSL) technician finally called and informed him that apparently there was a problem with some card, which they've now replaced, in our area's central hub [merkazia]. So, [breathing heavy sigh of relief] we are once again ... connected at home.

Funny, though, I was struck when reading this article (about how Arik Sharon, the former builder of settlements, morphed into their destroyer), how the Hebrew word for "disengagement" -- coined for PR purposes -- is "hitnatkut," whose primary meaning is "disconnection."

So, as a result of the relative poverty of Hebrew, I do feel a certain solidarity with today's historic events. Disengagement sucks.