Dog chews the internet cable
Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth
Stress happens when there is an excess of emotional or mental pressure. Something totally unexpected happens and the body does not know what to do. The flight or fight reaction creates a conflict which leads to stress. Dog chews the internet cable taking my stress levels to a new high.
The Lunchbox show Every Thursday
I am a volunteer with Tring radio and I have a weekly show that lasts for an hour and starts at 12 noon. It is a one-man chat show, I play some music so less chat. I always start prepare myself for the show at about 11.15. This week at about 11.20 my screen displays the message telling me to check my Internet connection.
I don’t believe it
The BT Internet Hub is in my wife’s office. I went in and told her Internet wasn’t working and I must reboot the hub.
“That won’t help”, she says “A dog has just chewed through the cable for the Internet”.
“My radio show starts in 40 minutes, is there a spare cable”?
She checks but no luck.
Now it’s an emergency
My wife gives me the cable and I ride my mobility scooter up the road to our local friendly DIY shop. I showed them the cable and said the dog has chewed through it so we have no access to the Internet.
“OK we have some in stock”
“Excellent I’ll take three please”.
Back at home again
Pleased as Punch I showed my wife the cables. Maybe there will be no crisis after all because I still had 15 minutes until the show started.
The plug on the cable fitted into the socket on the wall but the plug was the wrong size for the BT Hub. It was going to be a NO SHOW on the radio show. I sent a text to the radio station explaining my problem. Now I’m back on my mobility scooter to the local friendly DIY shop and purchase the right cable.
Finally mission accomplished
Finally by 12.30 the Hub was wired up, booted up and connected to the web. Now I could join the radio show. There is one golden rule for magazine radio shows, only ever talk about good news. Nobody wants to hear about your stresses or problems.
Live on air with the Thursday lunchbox
Only 40 minutes late and so an easy start. I play a couple of tracks back-to-back then I say a few words. Line up some more music and talk again. Another track, bit of talk then the last song and it was over for the week. Now I look down at the microphone switch on my headset. It was red, turned to off. My voice was cool, calm and collected when talking but it was total silence on the show. I groveled to the manager of the radio station.
Something totally unexpected happens
Dog chews the Internet cable is a pathetic schoolboy excuse but it happened and led to astronomical stress levels in the house. Not MS related, just pure undiluted stress. Now just move on and present the next show and pretend nothing untoward had happened. Listeners won’t remember.
Associated articles
Now I’m a volunteer with Tring radio
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July 2021
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