Who knew that I had chosen to down tools and leave town during Telecommuter Appreciation Week, which is set for the first week in March? Instead, I’m celebrating TelecommutING Appreciation Week.
I returned to find that my best tool, the Internet, was also surprisingly down. I recycled the modem several times, but that little light never flashed. My husband settled down to watch ordinary cable.
“Customer service won’t answer in the evening,” he said, but he was wrong. A nice fellow speaking from somewhere else walked me through the usual user-error tests, declared me correct, and gave me a work-order number.
“They should call you by early afternoon,” he said.
“Early afternoon? Forget that!” I replied. “I’ll just call DTE myself at 8 AM.”
But I never did. A nice rep from the local DTE office reached me instead, at 8:10. “I hear your Internet isn’t working?”
I laughed, and told her the last thing I’d said to the man from customer service.
“Yeah, we upgraded your broadband, and your old modem won’t work any more,” she said. “Can you drop by to pick up the new one? Just give me a name and a password and we’ll set it up for you.”
I know I’m not the only lucky person who benefits from this kind of service. There are dozens or scores of others clacking away in these hills. DTE knows who they are, but won’t tell, of course. And we “digitanomads” aren’t much for socializing with each other.
Back to the routine: Early workout, then hit the desk. Work through until about 3:30 and then get out for a hike while it’s still light out.
There was a melt while we were away. The back road is packed by snowmobile tracks, but still really slushy. A much better workout than the elliptical, as usual.
As I trudged along, I heard the exuberant roar of snowmobiles up in the hills.
The dog zoomed around too, joyous in his untethered freedom. After a while, I caught up and found him enjoying a very large treat.
(Benny appreciates telecommuting too.)
© Lois Wingerson, 2017
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