I was sending weird signals......

or so the cable company declared!  
I've been identified as having "signal leakage" !
Have I been loose talkin'?

Evidently, my leaky cable wire signals can interfere with all kinds of things from airplanes to air traffic controls to FCC things to spy equipment to someone's internet access as much as 10 miles away.
Pretty exciting stuff.....huh?
Imagine...me?  Technologically taking down the entire communications and security of the world?
Maybe it was my blog!!!

So, they turned off my internet and didn't even tell me.
It was such a covert operation that they could not even tell me???   Did they think I wouldn't notice?
Well...for the record.... they sort of told  me.
They put a big orange tag on one of the high wires leading to my house.
I am so unfamiliar with what the hell all those wires leading into my house are for and I don't look at them often enough to know if there's always been a big orange tag on one of them.
And, even when I did notice the tag (because Carmen suggested I go outside and look at the wires....as if that would do any good), I didn't understand what it said and further, it didn't have the name of who left the tag on the wire.
Yeah, I know....confusing.  Imagine how I felt. 
So,  I called the cable company.....the customer service person walked me through the steps of trying to access the internet.  Even when I told her about the big orange tag (she said she didn't know what I was talking about....), she said we had to go through this big process....looking at blinking lights, pulling out plugs.....sheesh....
We hung up having not solved my problem.  
I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Since I'm the mother of an almost computer-PhD and I work at the place that practically invented the internet and computers, I figured I had a special aura about me--the magic touch---I was going to fix things once and for all.  After all, I figured I just had to do a little of this, a little of that, yell at it and then do a little more of this and that.  Right?
Notsomuch.  
So, yeah, I ended up calling customer service  back--telling the new guy my story of woe.  He had no idea what the big orange tag was either.     He said they would NEVER put a tag on anything without telling you who the tag was from and, when they do shut something down, they put a big door hanger on your front door that explains the situation.   So, he didn't think THEY shut down my internet and he was SURE THEY DID NOT PUT THE ORANGE TAG there. 
Well, Mr. Customer Service, I have a big orange tag, my internet is not working and I am going to be having blog withdraw any moment and there was NOT a tag on my door telling me that my internet was shut down.  So,excuse me fine sir but this is an emergency!



He set me up with an appointment for Sunday afternoon.

When Carmen arrived on the scene, he called the cable company. Again.
He was going to get to the bottom of this!   They told him they had no idea what the big orange tag was.  As a matter of fact....this customer service rep  said that she knows for sure that it's always there.  Then, after some further questioning,  she suggested  that maybe the electric company put it there!  ahhh-haaa
My husband works for an electric company.
They don't shut down internet!  They shut down power! 
 He asked to talk to someone in maintenance. 
Carmen told the maintenance department guy about the big orange tag and the loss of internet.
Carmen read what the tag said to the maintenance guy......something to do with ingress.
The guy in maintenance said it could be their tag but there's no reference about it on our account.
But, it very well could be their tag.  
And, they might have shut it down.
He said that ingress means that signals are leaking.
How would I have known what ingress meant?.....I couldn't GOOGLE it! 
He told Carmen that they have people whose job it is to go around and find leaking signals.
Clearly, we were a problem.....we were giving off weird signals or having signal leakage.



No,  I didn't make up that story as an excuse for not blogging.

But, if there's a breach in security somewhere......