6/3/07
See, this is why I'll never use Vonage. A rainstorm in Brooklyn just took out our internet and television - which is basically located on one black cable that serves us and about fourteen other families around here.
With all this talk of wiring our lives, it's so easy to forget that it all amounts to a tangle of copper bullshit once the power goes out. Do people even realize the thread by which we hang so much importance/
Do any of you use Vonage? What is your ISP, and how do you get here? And what would happen if the power went out for four days?
this gets at my theory for why hurricanes "seem" so much worse now than hurricanes of yesteryear -- we have more at stake. more to lose.
that said, we do use voip. at&t, though. and roadrunner for isp. but when the power goes out, we're all cell phone (charge in the car as needed). if our voip is out, calls are automatically rerouted to the cell.
sorry your cable is out. sucky.
I use Verizon DSL, and though it's slower overall than a cable modem, it has been more reliable. Knock wood. Because if my power went out for four days, I'd drain my Treo, and then I guess I'd have to travel to a place where the power wasn't out, simply to get online. Oh, and I'd throw out all the food in the fridge and stop working at night.
Off-topic question for Annie or any other hooper: Where do you get those groovy hoops? I have one from when I was 13 (yes), and it works just fine, but I'd like to find one of the nifty-looking ones if I can.
My wife & I have our phones through Time-Warner Cable along with cable and internet. We live in Wilmington, NC -- Hurrican Alley. In the past, when our power goes out, we do lose phones, but we have these new things that I think the intelligencia calls "cell phones" or something like that.
Plus, Time-Warner Cable has an actual policy in Wilmington that folks with phone service are moved to the top of the list of power restoration.
We don't have land line phones in our house, we just each have a cell (or mobile, for our English visitors).We have TW Cable high speed internet and it is very reliable.
If the power were out for four days I would go by my office because it usually has power.
We have cable everything and it hasn't been a problem yet but hurricane season has just begun. I am told that luckily we are on the same part of the grid as Carol Woods retirement center and that they are first priority for power around here. During the big ice storm 4 years ago our neighborhood got power back quickly where lots of people went more than a week.
It is a real concern of mine though because cell phone coverage in Chapel Hill sucks too (my phone doesn't work inside my office, in University Mall at our pool and for brief moments along 15-501. Sometimes I wonder why I have the damn thing at all!
You have reminded me to finally put together an "emergency" box this year as I've been meaning to for a while.
I use it and I love it. TWC is who I use and I have never had any problems with their service. Never ever. Not in 15 years and 10 different homes. If the phone goes out I will use my cell phone till it dies and then I will enjoy a good book by the fire.
You might remember that the last time I saw you and Tessa in Cambridge, John and I were preparing to move into a new house in Brookline. At the time, we had cable everything: TV, internet, phone. I made a point to have the cable people show up first on the morning of move-in day to make sure the service was connected. They showed up, but the service was a problem. Turned out that the line feeding the house was ancient and defective, barely carrying enough signal for TV. The repair was free but that was little consolation, because the line ran so much distance (we have an unusually large yard for Brookline - it used to be an apple orchard in the 1920s) that it was a massive undertaking to replace it. The cable people balked at even doing it and we fought with them for literally months over it.
It only took a few days for me to realize that having all of our services with a single company can be really convenient when the bill comes - but can be really precarious when something goes wrong. Never again.
DFB&T - Time Warner may put you at the top of its restoration for cable service, but that won't help you get your power back on earlier. Yes, I work for the power company. Your place in that queue is always situational (depending on the extent of the damage, time necessary for repairs and number of customers affected.) Unless, you live on a feeder line that goes to "vital" customers -- hospitals, sewage pump stations, nuclear plant sirens, etc.
DirecTV is our television service. Great unless it's a wickedly bad storm or, in our case, the neighbors' trees blow in the wind and disrupt the service.
T-Mobile cellie service for the cheap voluminous minutes I almost always exhaust each month. No reception in Lowe's, Kroger, or Target. Which sucks, because it's only after you return home that you realize you needed that one more thing.
Earthlink/Mindspring DSL for the internets. Fast enough for me.
I have vonage. Your fear is irrational. There are always ways to commicate if need be, like walking over to your neighbors house that has a normal land line. I pay approximately $20 per month for my vonage account. This includes all local calls, all long distance calls, and the 60 or so calls to France my wife makes every month. In addition, I can check my voicemail from the internet, any where in the world, which is helpful, and can also forward my phone to any number I want from any place I like. Finally, I can create a phone number in any area code I like so that calls from friends and family need not be long distance.
Hey Beth!
You can make your own hoop, it's pretty easy, but most folks (including yours truly) would rather buy 'em already made.
Here are a couple of websites where you can order custom-made hoops:
http://circushoops.sectorlink.org/eshop/10Browse.asp
(our friend Christabel)
http://www.bodyhoops.com/shop.htm
(our friend Diana)
I don't know if you're in/around Chapel Hill/Carrboro, but we have beginner hoop classes at Balanced Movement Studio on Tuesdays 7:45pm to 9:15pm.
Let me know how it goes! hushpuppymix at yahoo dot com. (Anyone can write to me with hoop questions, btw)
I don't have a Vonage phone and I don't think I want one.
Ian -
I have a Vonage line on Comcast. It's the line on which I make most of my outbound calls at the office. I am still a little leary of transferring my main office number to them. Reliability has been fine, as long as Comcast is functioning, which has become an issue of late.
You can designate a "Network Availability Number" with Vonage. This means that if your internet connection is disrupted, Vonage will forward calls to the number you have designated as your backup. Probably your cell, I am guessing.
I have Vonage for my phone service. It's working perfectly right now.
Unfortunately.
Annie, We just moved to Durham this week and I'd love to try the hoops class, especially since Salem gave it a shot. Do I have to have my own hoop?
SLS! OMG I am so psyched to meet you!
Hell yeah come on over to Carrboro and hoop with us! We have class hoops so you do not need to have your own. You can try some different sizes and see what works for you. If you get hooked (and you just might!) you can buy your own online or from a local hoopmaker.
I've got to show you these pix of Salem hooping--they are PRICELESS. Maybe I should post a few on my tribe account (which I linked to last week) so y'all can check 'em out--will link to 'em here when I have time to do that.
If you can't make a Tuesday night class, we often hoop at the Weaver Street Market lawn on Thursday evenings and Sunday brunch, when they have live music.
Are there going to be any more cool links to videos of Annie hooping to Missy Elliott any time soon? And what is the status of my special hooping montage request?
Annie, thanks so much for the links. I wish I did live in NC--I feel like I'm missing out on the party! =(
We use ViaTalk for our home line on Verizon's FiOS service. I recommend both. ViaTalk is only ~$8.50/month if you catch a deal and includes local, LD and all the extras I never payed for on the $35/month copper line. Verizon installed a UPS with the FiOS line that's good for a couple of hours, I bought a generator during the last hurricane and hook it up of we get past 4 hours w/o power. The reality is that we use our cells for almost everything and would tolerate poorer service on the home line but don't want to go without altogether.
BTW, ViaTalk has a good referral program so if anyone's thinking of going that way, I'd be happy to take credit for steering you that way.
Annie, I'm still in moving in hell, so tomorrow's out, but I think we're going to try for Thursday at Weaver St. I'll look for you and you'll know me by my adorable blonde headed 2 year old son who looks just like Salem. Creepy, I know.