Monday’s big excitement started at six in the morning.  We were expecting storms on Sunday night, so I powered down all of the computer equipment.  Come Monday morning everything came backup, but when I opened Windows Internet Explorer to update the blog, I got redirected to an AT&T page that was asking me to update my password information.

At first I thought it was another hack, but eventually I became convinced that this was a real AT&T procedure.  I followed the procedure, but it always ended up getting sidetracked into some irreconcilable error or another.  I started running late for work and threw it into Anne’s lap, who had not been called into work.  She retraced the steps that I had taken, but got no further.  Later she was called in to work.

After work I called the AT&T hotline and got the wunderkind of help line operators, Eldridge.  He was the epitome of etiquette and he knew his stuff too.  We retraced the steps that I had taken, with the same results.  He verified that the line was good.  Then we started to mess with Windows settings.  Eventually he hit upon using the Command Window command, “netsh winsock reset”.  But it didn’t work the first time we tried it.  We had to go back and specifically open a command window with administrative privileges.  This time it worked.

I thanked him profusely and promised him a good rating.  I was easily able to forestall his attempt at up selling, with a recount of my recent iPhones purchases.  Afterwards, I looked up the command, “netsh winsock reset”.  As near as I can tell it resets Window’s communication protocols to their factory settings, anyway it worked.

I have to admit that this problem weighed heavily on me all day.  In the past, car problems use to raise the same levels of anxiety.  Nowadays, car problems don’t seem to affect my sense of manhood the way they use to.  The pictures with this post aside, I really don’t think much about cars, but not being able to keep your own personal computer working, that still hurts.  I thank the technical support at AT&T profusely and I am additionally gladdened that this problem had nothing to do with my recent iPhone purchase.

After the fact, I figured out that Monday’s problems were indirectly connected to the hack that I suffered last month.  That hack caused me to change my AT&T password, but not until Monday morning did my DSL modem’s password need to be updated.  We’ve had this modem for three computers now, so it is understandable that the procedures that it was built with might be getting a little rusty.

Sunday’s sun was picture perfect.  Under this sun, the combination of shining chrome and gloss paint, I found to be irresistable.  Today’s hood ornament theme is birds.  I also especially like the idea of hiding the gas cap for the Cadillac Eldorado under the left rear tail light.  In addition to the fun that could be had with full service gas station attendants, I wonder how many car thieves eventually ran out of gas?