outages and optimism

“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house ,

not a Facebook was stirring , with or without a mouse ……….

…………or something like that . Suddenly Facebook , AOL , WordPress , and a couple of other sites Ada visits were not working . I knew that it must be the server , that our equipment was good .

I know almost nothing about internet technology . But , after several hours of past conversations with India , and one or two with the Philipines , I know a little bit . I know enough to  ” power down ” and then to ” power up ” , as a start .  I don’t turn things off and then turn them on again these days . Instead ,  I power down .

I used to talk to the computer guy at work when I had  computer problems . Well , that is , when I had  concerns . A colleague of mine used to say , ” There are no problems here ; only concerns . “  Nine times out of ten , maybe ten times out of ten , the computer guy , said to be a tech whiz , said to be a computer genius ,  would tell me “Turn it off and turn it on . “

Turn it off and turn it on ? Are you kidding ? That’s the extent of his great computer knowledge ?  , I used to wonder . Turns out , now that I know a little bit more  about it , his frustratingly inane-seeming  advice that used to make me question his sanity  actually  held some essence of tech wisdom .  Maybe he should have told me to ” power down ” , though . I may have felt a little better , more  confident in his great technical genius , more optimistic as I turned my laptop off and waited a couple of minutes so the invisible internet armies could gather , could stealthily  marshal their magical forces to once again breath life into the now -useless  hunk of metal and plastic that sat quietly  on my desk waiting with me for the magic to happen .

A note about human capacity for optimism:

I walked over to Ralphs Market on Christmas morning to buy a bag of ice .  Ralphs was closed . There was not even one car in the huge parking lot . Not one delivery truck . As I got close enough to realize that the supermarket was closed , which was obvious from  about a half-block away , I saw a  small car with two people drive into the Ralphs parking area . They found a good spot near mid-lot and parked . They  de-car-ed . De-vehicled ?  Okay , how about  de-automobiled ?  The two of them de-autoed and walked toward the store. The entire place was dark .  Wouldn’t you think that one or the other of them would have picked up a couple of hints that the place was shut down for Christmas ?   One of them then tried the door , still not giving up ! It wouldn’t open .

Optimism is a good thing , but I suppose it’s on a continuum with brain-frozenness  . Maybe it’s a fine line, there’s a slippery slope ,  somewhere along that continuum when an otherwise intelligent , functioning person could slide from one condition to the other .

” Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible .”   ———Albert Einstein

One of my nephews was over on Christmas and Ada asked him to look at her laptop . Maybe he could fix the problem . He was sure that he could and so he got to work on the problem . Sorry , he got to work on the CONCERN .  But , after he worked through a checklist of possible problems ,  he gave up . 

It’s the server ,  I said again .  The server —-as if I know what a server is . I visualize something along the lines of the Wizard of Oz  man- behind- the- curtain , with a bank of computer hard-drive boxes lined up on shelves . But my nephew tried .  He had begun the task confidently , optimistically . But ,  I knew that he wouldn’t be able to fix it . I’ve talked at length  to gentlemen in India about such matters   and  so I know a bit about it .

Later on the same day , a friend of ours wanted to try her hand with the problem . Her optimism was almost visibly bubbling up . She monkeyed with the modem , fooled with the laptop , checked in on her smart phone , I think , too . She was filled with self-confidence , armed with computer know-how , staunchly  determined . She disappeared into our small study . I found her sitting on the floor in there  , now with two lap-tops , hitting keys  as if triangulating them with the blinking lights of the modem , going through a mental struggle , bound and determined to overcome it .  It’s the server , I said again , but she wasn’t giving up .

“It must be your settings on Facebook , ”  she suggested to me . ” Did you change any settings recently ?  You’ll have to reset it . “But I hadn’t . ” Maybe get rid of cookies . ” I insisted that she come out and re-take her chair at the table . We were in the middle of Christmas dinner , after all .  She did so reluctantly  .   She again joined us there  , where the  cookies around were gingerbread men , and snickerdoodles , and had nothing to do with computers .

Ada asked me later to call our internet provider to report the problem . I did . A pre-recorded message told me that there had been ” an outage ” and that service would be restored by 10:00 p.m.    Nothing , specifically , was said about a server . I think , to tell you the truth , that the server , simply , had too much eggnog on Xmas eve , bored , stuck in there alone along with his computers , and nodded off for awhile . He , no doubt ,  unexpectedly powered down to take a snooze . It happens . I know a little bit about these things .