Monday 13 May 2013

Frittering away the day

Having changed my internet service provider, I somehow hoped that it would be a simple procedure. I opted to have a technician come and sort it all out, plug everything in, leave me with some helpful advice, and that it would all fall into place. Hah!

After his visit, only one of my many phones worked and it took me a lot of time of effort to have that sorted out. The Telstra man should have seen to that.

The new email seemed to be working, and I have not yet cancelled the previous one, as there are still people to notify of the change. Last night I tried to email a photograph, but could not make it go from the new address. Today I rang the New ISP again, It took over an hour, requiring me to allow remote access to the computer, and it still did not work. Ring Apple, they said. So I did.

This call took a long time, too, but eventually (fingers crossed) it seems to have been sorted out. What they did to sort it out I do not properly understand, but it had to do with emptying caches and such like, switching it all off and then back on again. Now it works. I could never have sorted it out myself - not a snowflake's chance in Hell!

The nice Apple man, Simon, told me, when I complained about the failure of the Telstra technician to go through and sort out these issues, that it was very common for the technicians to rush through, and not check such things, although, of course, they are supposed to. And of course, it costs quite a lot to have a technician come to the house and connect, and test it all. And I will be paying another month's fee for the soon to be discarded ISP.

I cannot be alone in all these puzzles and technological issues. It is all too probable that there are heaps of people just like me. I don't have technical help at hand, although my son and daughter and pretty helpful. But they are not here!

And how it eats away the time. All the things you have planned for the day get pushed down the queue, and deferred. Things take forever. Yesterday I tried to go through some travel photos and label them. I am nowhere near finished and there are so many more to do. I look at lovely scenes and wonder where it was. I do have the itinerary of the trip, but still cannot work out just where it was that our little bus stopped as we drove along the coast. I came across a photo of the Colossus of Barletta, which was shown in a TV program last night on the art of ancient Rome. I tried to email it to a friend and found that the email wanted to use my old address and would not recognise the new one. Hence my day on the telephone.

I feel that my time could be better used. I could be out learning things, or doing various courses about how to use your computer. In due course I intend to get an iPad, and improve my skills, but all the recent experiences have made me feel like a useless dunce who is frittering away her few remaining years instead of doing real things. And becoming a burden on my family.

And how stupid is it to spend one's day puzzling,wrestling, telephoning, and moaning and groaning about it all? There is still so much to learn, books to read, and music to listen to again. I have not even found the time to make another call to Fernando, asking him yet again to come and fix up that part of the new floor which has movement in it. Another day has gone and I have not done my Italian yet. Instead, making soup and doing the washing seem to have become disproportionately important.


3 comments:

Relatively Retiring said...

You have my sympathy in all this. It's all wonderful when it works and unbelievably time-consuming and frustrating when it doesn't.

Pam said...

If I didn't have my husband and/or the savvy young around I'd be stuck. You have my deep sympathy - actually I really admire you dealing with this by yourself.

Elephant's Child said...

Frustrating and demoralising. I begin to wonder whether I have any intelligence at all when I am forced to deal with computer issues.