This Old House

When Bob Vila of “This Old House” fame made it big (i.e. sold out, went commercial, left public television) the first thing he did was build his family a new house. Why, you ask, would the start of “This Old House” build his family a brand new house, instead of renovating an old one? Vila himself gave the perfect answer: “Because an old house is an old house.”

We live in a 100 year old victorian house, and something is always going wrong or in need of repair. In our case, it’s usually the phone lines. We lose phone service everytime the wind changes, or an ant farts outside. I’m on a first name basis with most of the Verizon operators at this point. Unfortunately, it seems to be an internal problem.

I did a simple test this morning. I took the phone out to the external box and plugged it in. Voila! There was the elusive dial tone. That means that up to that point, Verizon’s equipment is working fine. So, the problem is somewhere in the house. Unfortunately, we probably have the original wiring that was installed when this house first got a phone, probably around the turn of the century or thereabouts. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alexander Graham Bell installed it himself.

So, a tech has to come out to the house this afternoon and check out the internal line to see just what the problem is. I have to wait here from noon to four.

So, how am I blogging without a dial tone in the house? Easy. I just ran an extra long chord from the external box to my computer. Voila. DSL works again.

Hey, I gotta have something to do until the tech gets here, right?