It has been a frustrating morning. It rained here all night, and today our telephone connection is so crackly it almost drowns out the usual loud background hum on the line. For the last several years, we’ve been trapped in a direct cause-and-effect situation… it rains and we lose our telephone and Internet service. Several repairmen have told us that the fault is a long stretch of telephone lines “somewhere” with exposed connections. When the connections get wet, the lines short out. This problem has existed for probably twelve years now, and every time it rains or the weather is humid, the Internet disconnects and our telephone becomes unusable. We keep reporting the problem, and the telephone company keeps acknowledging the problem and apologizing for the inconvenience, but they never make a permanent fix. Today the phone lines are about as bad as they have ever been. We could report the problem yet again, or we can just wait a few hours until the sun we are starting to see now dries out the connections. That seems to be all the repairmen do anyway… wait for a drier time… because even when they have supposedly “fixed” the problem, the same thing happens again the next time it rains.
We have a cell phone, but that is no help here because there is no cell service in this area… and of course the only broadband access is through a DSL connection over these incredibly bad telephone lines. Contrary to the impression given by those television commercials where people are using wireless broadband in the desert, underwater, deep in the woods, or in otherwise generally inaccessible areas, and the voice-over says that no area is out of reach… this area IS. Although we CAN get satellite TV here, the satellite broadband companies available in our area tell us that the mountains and forests surrounding where we live block the line of sight to their satellites. We have one last possibility… the telephone company has been promising a wireless broadband for our area for over two years now, but so far they haven’t delivered on those promises. We are still hoping that sometime they will… and that their wireless broadband connection would be better than their telephone service.
Which brings me back to today. The Internet connection has disconnected five times while I have been writing this post and has just disconnected again. We have spent the last four hours trying to conduct our normal business and “work” with our current telephone reality, and it is frustrating. Sometimes there actually is a dial tone, and if we keep trying and trying and trying, we can occasionally make a short call or connect to the Internet and try to get an e-mail message through before the connection cuts off again. The static on the line is still so loud, we can barely hear the person we’re trying to talk to… and they of course can barely hear us… making a necessary business call nearly impossible.
This… and our unreliable electrical service… are probably the biggest downsides to our life here… but that (the electrical service, I mean) is another story.
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Christy
Keep your chin up! There will always be sunny days where it runs like the wind! Ironically, those will also be the days when you’re likely outside enjoying the sunshine and don’t care. ;)
LizBeth
I hear you, sister! That’s our last small town all over again. All I can say for it was, sure was nicer than the Big City and all its frights. We’re in the middle of a blizzard right now. Guess I ought to go see if the phone is working today right here! . . . . . .Really enjoy your blog. Thanks for all you put into it. Liz
Ashley
Yep. I grew up with the same rain/static phone lines. :)
Now I live in town. Where the power outages don’t always coincide with bad weather?!? It seems pretty random. And we have a stoplight that goes red and stays red in damp weather. *shakes head*
I’ll trade you! Actually, our house is on the market next week. We are doing everything we can to move ASAP. Life is short, ya know. We don’t want to spend more of ours where we don’t want to be, if we can help it!! :)
Jo
Dear Shirley,
I can relate to your frustration. I don’t know how long I have dreamed of having all utility lines either buried or inside sectional pipe that can be easily accessed by utility workers. It would cost a bundle for the switch from pole mounted lines but it would pay for itself over time.
And the trees would love it!
cricket
Well at least they didn’t tell you that it’s in your head like they did me!!!!! So now my main phone is the cell and von/cable phone. They need to replace the lines to fix the problem.
Shannon
We have the same problem with our phone in wet weather! It crackles and pops!
We have satellite for our internet. Otherwise we could never get on in the Spring! lol!
I’ll take living in the country any day. :D
Hugs!
Marybeth
One of our rural homes had the opposite problem. When it got too dry we had to go pour water in a certain spot to fix it, temporarily at least. Something about it not being properly grounded. Thankfully we lived in a rainy climate. It always gave me the heepiegeebies to pour water on something I knew had wires!