Epic Fail

So all my frantic ice making preparations for Hurricane Sandy were an epic fail for keeping the power on along the east coast.  You thought I was joking about that, but usually when I prepare for something, it doesn't happen.  To everyone in the path of Sandy ... sorry.  I did my best.

We lost power for about 24 hours.

That wasn't the only epic fail we experienced.  We lost our land line phone service.

But, hey, I have a cell phone, right?  hmmm ... well sort of.

I have this simple cell phone.  It cost $20 for the unit.  The service was the cheapest I could find - $20 every 3 months through Virgin Mobile.   Early days with this plan (2009) I used it so little I had accumulated about $90 is unused minutes.  I was and continue to be - a low user of cell phones.

But ..

Mom got sick a few times prior to 2011, and then she was sick pretty much all of 2011!  I used that $90 quick.

Now why would I tell you this story?

Well here is the real epic fail of my phone service.

• My house is a dead zone for my cell phone.  Ha!  No problem, since I have a land line in the house.
• The power goes out. No lights.
• My land lines go dead.  No phone.  No problem.  I can use my cell phone to report the outages.
• Oh, that is right.  I need to stand outside to make a call.
• Lest we forget there is a mega hurricane on the eastern seaboard.  No matter.  I stand on the side walk and make the call. (Thinking Rambo thoughts - Sandy doesn't scare me!)
• My land line phone company, AT&T, wants to do some "problem solving maneuvers" while I am on the line before they schedule a technician to visit the property. Maybe this can be fixed quickly. (Bets anyone if this will be quick or not?)
• Remember - if I go into the house with my cell phone to make "the maneuvers," my call will be dropped!  Can't do that.
• Oh wait.  I am not alone! My husband can do the maneuvers, so I yell the phone company instructions to him from the sidewalk (where I am standing in the rain.)
• ahh ... it is very dark in the house.   We have 5 telephones on 3 floors.  He must stumble his way around the house using a flash light and his poor eye sight to do my bidding.  
• Wet. I am very wet.
• Oh, and before you say my husband should use the cell phone and I should disconnect the land line phones - you need to know he doesn't use cell phones.  It is a thing with him.  
• I must admit at that point standing in the rain, I thought he might be on to something!! :-)

So the "maneuvers" didn't work.  We are still without land line service.  But we still have our trusty $20 cell phone - which is soon to be history.

I think I will maneuver this little Virgin Mobile phone with its stinko network into the trash and get myself a "big girl" phone ...  I think an iPhone is looking pretty sweet right now!

Two epic fails in 24 hours is quite enough for me.