Sorry for the delay in blogging for my friends and followers, it wasn’t by choice. But it certainly is a reflection on mountain living and the things that can affect my ability to stay connected with the outside world. Our internet has been down since Friday afternoon, due to a lightning strike of some equipment way high up in the mountains west of here near timberline.
You see, we don’t get internet the way most people get internet — through a cable network. Our internet is through transmission from a receiver mounted on a pine tree in front of our house that transmits to a repeater no top of our neighbor’s house that transmit from another piece of equipment using microwave technology. Apparently, one of these transmitters is located high up in the mountains, where it was struck by lightning and down went the internet connection.
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know how much I value the peace and quiet of Nederland and mountain living. But I prefer that solitude by my choice. Much of my connection with the outside world is via the Interconnect. For the first several years we lived here, we didn’t even have television connection. The internet is where I find out about national news, local news, read my email and stay connected to the outside world.
I can’t even use my smartphone to do that, because we don’t get cell service at our house. So when our Internet crashed on Friday and we didn’t have it all weekend, I found it frustrating and very isolating. I really didn’t know how to get news, or catch up with my friends and families through a quick email or for you lovely folks out there that read this blog regularly to even post to let people I haven’t forgotten about you, but genuinely couldn’t write.
I know a lot of people have proposed we could go down to Boulder in a pinch and find a place to connect — a coffee house, a library, even downtown Boulder. But I moved to Nederland in part for its peace and quiet. And after a long hard day working, the last thing I want to do is climb back in the car and drop another half-hour.
And so we muddle through. We’ve looked into other options — our satetllite tv provider, another local internet provider. But the truth is, everything is about supply and demand. There is very little supply for those of who who live out in the woods, especially outside of Nederland town proper. And the company we pay for Internet services, Mountain Broadband, pretty much has us over a barrel.
Well, at least tonight, I got connected. Until we meet again…
