Here in Utah we have Baja Broadband for our internet and cable service. It’s not like you have a big choice. Last night around midnight we had a power outage for a couple of seconds. It was enough to screw up the internet service today. All day long we have been obsessively checking to see whether we are back on line. Finally this afternoon service was restored. What did we do before we had internet? I guess we had to talk to people face to face or on the phone (shudder) and we had to wait for the newspaper to find out what the sports scores, stock market prices and news stories were. I bet we had to walk outdoors to discover the temperature!
Even though we are in the same house, John and I often send each other emails. I am trying to talk him into instant messaging but so far he is resistant.  So you can see that having the internet working is really important to us.
We called Baja Broadband this morning to report the outage and find out what was happening. They told us the system would be down for several hours while they waited for a spare part. If one is to believe the esteemed Senator from Alaska, they must have been waiting for a replacement tube.