Last night, right as I was finishing off my blog, the internet went down. It’s remarkable how quickly and directly this affected everyone. My blog writing was impacted because my grammar checking software and AI assistant are both cloud-based. Both kids were immediately affected: they each approached me to try to get the connectivity restored. I went into troubleshooting mode, but couldn’t get it working. I was also having trouble connecting from my mobile phone, even with the Wifi disabled. That suggested this was a broader issue than just the internet connectivity at the home. For all I knew, the entire country could have been under attack from the Russians, or worse, the People’s Popular Front of Judea. My immediate instinct was to check online for any news about a national outage. That sort of instinctive thinking highlights how dependent I am on internet connectivity.
When I got up this morning, Sandy was already up and still bemoaning the lack of internet connectivity. I thought I might be able to reach the homeowner through Facebook Messenger using my Dutch phone SIM. It wasn’t clear whether cellular networks were also affected, but the message remained pending after I attempted to send it. When I looked closer, I saw that the homeowner had tried to contact me about this very problem. Her message indicated she had been contacted by the internet provider acknowledging the outage. This was around the time I was resetting the router again, so it’s possible that the reset was enough to reestablish the connection, allowing her message through, and the timing was coincidental.
I polished off a few more blog entries before suggesting to Sandy that we go out for breakfast. Both kids were still asleep. Chances were excellent that they wouldn’t even know we were gone until we returned. Left to their own devices, they would happily remain in bed until the afternoon. This has been a full-on, action-packed holiday for them both (I get that’s a bit of an oxymoron, but still). As such, I’m pleased for them to sleep in. Back home, there’s always school or other commitments, and we’re often annoyed at them getting up too late, or at the very last possible minute. Here, it doesn’t matter when they get up. If anything, sleeping in affords Sandy and me more quality time together, which is a lovely bonus.
Following a lovely Waffle House breakfast, we drove over to a nearby Walmart. I had bought a few T-shirts a couple of weeks ago and wanted to see whether they had any more to take home with me. Sandy was also keen to nose around the shop for some bits and pieces for herself. Although it was brief, it was quality time together without the kids. Any time we can steal for ourselves together without the kids is precious and cherished.
Back at the house, the kids had finally started to stir. With just a few precious days left in this holiday, Sandy began the monumental task of trying to pack everything. I remain concerned about how we will get everything squeezed—even with additional bags. Sandy has brought a couple of plastic, foldable luggage totes, but I’ve been continually stressing about whether these will be sufficient to accommodate everything we’ve accumulated. For each extra piece of checked luggage, I will be charged $100. We are taking home considerably more than we brought. Joey, in particular, has acquired a vast array of new toys, some of which are pretty bulky, but everyone has accumulated more material possessions over the past month. Sandy can be an incurable optimist, assuring me everything will fit and it will be fine. That ‘it will be fine’ mentality often conflicts with how my brain works. This can at times be a source of contention between us. I’m much more pragmatic and will believe what I can see—often needing to be convinced with the specific details of ‘how’ it will be fine. Sandy has a more creative mind. Her thinking is more flexible than mine. She tends to have things all figured out well in advance. I’ve made a couple of attempts to understand how the logistics of this problem will be addressed, much to Sandy’s annoyance, but to no avail. What I really want to do is to leave the problem to Sandy and let her own it. Giving up that kind of control is something I find really difficult. My mind continually gets bogged down in the ‘but what happens when…’ way of thinking. I remain concerned.
It’s Thursday, November 6th, today. Since October 1st, the US government has been shut down. No civil servants paid by the US government have received salaries for the past 5-6 weeks. Shutdowns are not uncommon in the US, but they are typically short-lived. However, this one has thus far been the longest in history. Worse still, there doesn’t appear to be any light at the end of this particular tunnel. Fortunately, we haven’t noticed any significant effects of this problem. However, we may yet get caught in the fallout. Air Traffic Control are one of the federal services that are impacted. It’s having an impact on flights, with thousands already affected. It was announced today on the news that a raft of major airports across the nation will now see direct impacts with an intentional reduction in flights across the board. The bad news is that Orlando’s international airport is one of the reported 50 affected airports. The good news, so far, is that this currently affects only domestic flights. International flights are currently spared the disruption. Whether things stay that way remains to be seen. We fly direct to Amsterdam from Orlando on Monday. At least, that’s the plan. Shudder to think about the fallout for us if we’re unexpectedly delayed leaving the country.
After some more blog writing and an all-too-brief nap, we all convened downstairs to load into the car for dinner at our nearby Chilli’s. The mood was quiet, but neither upbeat nor sombre. We’ve reached, and possibly surpassed, that point in the holiday where the excitement has started to wane. We were, to a degree, all running on autopilot. However, once we had all eaten, it was like someone had inflated our balloons again. Everyone perked up and was chatty and laughing with each other on the ride back to the house. There was jovial banter back and forth between Joey and Jae, which is always pleasing to see. I love these moments. It shows that we are still a functional family, and that precious moments can be found in the most unlikely of times and places.