I Should Have Known

Due to our ISP switchover yesterday afternoon, our Internet connection was down for a while. It was offline when I came back from lunch at 1:00, and remained so until around 3:00. One result of this downtime is that I didn't get to attend to my blog as well as I intended.

One thing I would have mentioned yesterday, had I been able to, was that the Reds game against the Braves was scheduled to be televised on TBS. I hadn't been able to see the Reds play yet this year, so I was pretty stoked about that. Time Warner Cable in Bowling Green used to televise available Reds game on an unused channel, but they don't seem to be doing that this year. I was planning to make a joke that, with my luck, the game would be rained out and I wouldn't be able to watch it.

Silly me. I should have known better.

The game went on as scheduled. The Reds won, and it was a good, classic game: close and low-scoring (3-2), with good pitching on both sides. Also, it was a short game, lasting only two hours and twenty-seven minutes. In short, it was everything a baseball fan could want.

I didn't see it.

When I got home from work yesterday, my cable service was out. I turned on my TV to watch ESPN's Pardon the Interruption and got nothing but static. I figured it was a temporary outage and would be back on soon.

As it approached gametime, still with no cable, I attempted to call the cable company. After choosing the menu option that indicated I was calling about cable television service, I got nothing but a buzzing noise. I tried to call several more times over the course of the evening, with the same result.

Of course, in addition to providing me with cable television service, my cable company is also my ISP. As luck would have it, my cable modem was down as well. I had no television and no Internet, and I felt totally disconnected from the outside world.

My cable finally started working again around 11:30 last night. Unfortunately, the Reds game ended at 9:30. At least I was able to check the box score.

Losing my cable for several hours wasn't the end of the world. I'm aware of that. It just irritates me, because I really don't sit down in front of the television and actually watch it all that often. I have it on a lot, but mostly I'm doing other things. Last night was one of the rare occasions when there was something I really wanted to see, and that was when the cable was out. I know that's just the way things go sometimes, but it's frustrating.

As luck would have it, none of the remaining games of this series will be televised, even on Atlanta's network. It may be a while before I get to see the Reds play, and I may have to drive down to Cincinnati and visit Great American Ball Park to do it. I plan on doing that at some point anyway, but it would be nice to catch a game or two on the tube in the meantime.

I'm tempted to call the cable company to see if those lost hours will be credited to my bill, but I think I know how far I'll get with that.