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These posts are the creation of Doran L. Barton (AKA Fozziliny Moo). To learn more about Doran, check out his website at fozzilinymoo.org.

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Our own not-private Idaho

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 15:38:37

Far too many things have happened the last few days for me to go without "flogging" a bit.

The "Qwest" for a reliable broadband service provider

About ten days ago, around 3 in the afternoon, my DSL modem stopped working. This happened after a brief power outage which affected my gateway system so it took me a few minutes to bring everything back up before I realized there was a problem.

First, I called XMission--my ISP-- and they walked me through some standard troubleshooting procedures before declaring there didn't appear to be any problem with their side or my side of the DSL connection. The problem ultimately lay with Qwest.

So, I called Qwest technical support (800-247-7285). After being on hold for around 10 minutes, my call was taken by a technical support representative who did a lookup on my number and informed me there was, indeed, a problem with the Qwest DSL network in my area, but Qwest had no information on the extent of the problem or now long it would take to fix.

The representative told me he thought the same power outage that affected my home probably took down some of Qwest's equipment at the same time.

I waited until 11:00 that evening and called again. After a long wait on hold, I explained my story again. The representative told me the same thing: Yes, they were aware of the problem but they had no information on when it would be resolved.

Finally, around noon the following day, the DSL modem worked again.

I was able to live with this incident despite it having cost me several hours of potential time to work. Then, it happened again.

Thursday, 24 June at 3:21 p.m. there was a very brief brownout. The lights flickered once and the TV turned itself off. The brownout was so brief, the digital clocks on our microwave oven and stove didn't reset and retained the current time. Both of these clocks are fairly tempermental when it comes to power outages, so I was surprised when they didn't reset to a state of blinking and ignorance like they usually do when there's any kind of disturbance in the (electrical) force.

Lo and behold, our DSL was down. The symptoms were exactly the same as the incident a week before so I didn't bother calling XMission. I called Qwest and waited... and waited. Once again, I was told they were aware of a problem and that a technician had been dispatched. They could not tell me when the problem would be resolved. Big surprise.

I called three more times over the next few hours to be told the same story. My brother wanted me to order an airplane ticket online for him and I couldn't. I couldn't even use a dialup modem because I have "naked DSL" and Christine and I use our cell phones exclusively.

I asked one of the technicians I talked to if Qwest would furnish me with temporary dialtone service on my circuit for the duration of the DSL outage so I could continue to get work done. He said I would incur a hefty cost to do that. That's ridiculous! They should just give it to me if I ask!

I had to visit clients on Friday, so I wasn't able to pester Qwest much Friday. Christine called me around 4:00 in the afternoon to let me know the DSL had started working again. That makes the outage about 24.5 hours.

The interesting thing about the outage is that my Cisco 678 DSL modem registered a WAN link to the Lucent Stinger remote terminal the whole time I was "down." That tells me the Qwest equipment I was connected to was at least partially working. My guess is the equipment that connects the Stinger to the ATM cloud needed a manual power reset after the power fluctuation. I wonder why they don't have a UPS in there. They should consider installing one now!

Lucy's 3½ Birthday

Because Lucy was born on 20 December--close to Christmas-- we started celebrating her half-birthday in June last year in an effort to put some distance between Christmas and her birthday. It was a great success, so we did it again this year.

Christine organized a party at our house and invited a handful of Lucy's friends over for a dress-up party. They donned dress-up dresses and were given small bags with some play makeup. Christine and one of the kids' mom helped apply the makeup. When they were made up, I took their pictures with the digital camera and then printed up some 5x7 prints for each girl to take home.

The pictures came out great and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun.


Abby

Abby

Lauren

Lucy

Lucy is such a doll

Kamree

Nelson family reunion in Juniper, Idaho

Late June is the time for the annual Nelson family reunion at the Leroy Nelson farm in Juniper, Idaho. Christine's mother is the daughter of the late Leroy and the not-late Lillian Nelson, so that's why we get to go.

We didn't go to the Nelson reunion last year because Christine was pregnant with Eli and didn't feel up to the two hour drive.

This year, we went up on Saturday morning and stayed until after lunch and then came home.

While there, we were able to get a family picture with Lillian. That was fun.

Bartons with Lillian Nelson
The Barton family with Lillian Nelson

It was hot and windy, but not overly so. We had a decent time. We got to see Jennie there too and she got to see our kids. It was great talking to her and she seemed to enjoy catching up with the girls and Eli.