I'm totally back in the saddle, or whatever

And it's not one of those excerise saddles at the electronics store either. More on that later.
Seriously though, my internet had been out for a week, perhaps two. Time moves strangely when you lose that connection. I actually got some things accomplished. I wonder if, in the future, when I can get an internet connection in my brain stem, I will be more productive because it will be easier to multi-task my household chores with my surfing. Please forgive me for using multi-task as a verb. Transitive no less.

It was an interesting experience getting my internet back online; the NTT English help line was quite busy and I don't like to wake up before eleven or twelve o'clock, so it was a rather long process getting through to them. After some phone exchanges where I complacently agreed with the representative: "Ok, I'll unplug my modem. Then I will wait three minutes. Then I will plug it in. And if, somehow, that does not work, I will call you back." Of course as you, my avid fans remember I am still masquerading as "Samuel Alexanoer Bawdin." Yes, it's spelled that way on the bill but all of the reps I've spoken to pronounce it "Alexander," I trust that they know what they're doing. Obviously, they know who this guy is and the intricaces of the unusual spelling and pronunciation of his middle name.
There was a lot of "I don't remember"-ing on my part, i.e.:
"Are you renting or buying the modem?"
"When did you buy the modem?"
"What's your account number?"
And so forth. Tech-support called me one morning with the above advice. I answered the phone in the middle of getting ready for work. One handed, as I was applying stuff to my hair, I answered the phone.
"Let me give you a reference number for your case so that you can call back if you need more help," she said.
I begged a second's wait from her, ran to my room and manuevering the mouse deftly with my free hand opened up the "sams#" text file where I kept information I needed for dealing with the internet-people. I prepared to enter this reference number below my 24-digit customer ID number.
"I'm ready," I replied.
The answer came, "Ok, your case number is 4."
Stunned I entered that into the computer, thanked her and continued with my preperations.

Some six days after this I was able to get an engineer to come to my house. He came in, looked at the modem, switched some wires and told me to go to the electronics store and buy a modem because if he sold me the modem he was carrying it would be too expensive. I did so and accidentally signed up for a credit card. But, that, with the saddles is a story for another day.

It's good to be back.