Communication in Paradise

Have you ever noticed that it's hard to reach Paradise?  Why do you think that is?  The first person everyone blames is me.  Usually it's "the weather." 

For half of the last ten days there has been no phone service or internet in all the land of Paradise.  I actually imagined that if I had a smart phone I could communicate when the local phone and internet company went down.  I thought wrong.  I paid big money for a Jitterbug smart phone in the hopes that it would be easy for my Mom to use.  Not so much.  It can't communicate with the cell tower.  Not from here.  Not from this county.  Not even from the "tri country area."

Other than getting in your car and driving to see the person you're trying to reach, there is no way of communication.  There hasn't been for ten days.  The bars on the Jitterbug show no service.  That was plan B.  I tried to call them and they actually answered, then they put me on hold during the minute that I had service.  Now they're gone.  

This county is sometimes called "uninhabited" on a variety of news sources.  There are only 8,000 people in this town, and 30,000 in the county.  

But even in "habited" areas, the phones don't work.  Why?  Are we charged less money for shoddy service?  

My brother just called.  I was surprised to hear the phone ring, since it had been out.  He doesn't have phone service at his home anymore, for the same reason, even though he lives in a town of 80,000.  He only uses the internet at the library. He also said that the phone company was used for eavesdropping by "the authorities."  I've had this experience too.  What did either of us do that brought us under suspicion?  We're both Republicans. My tax dollars at work.  If you don't want to go to prison, consider getting rid of your phone service, which he did.  

But lately they haven't been able to spy on me because of the disruption in service due to rain.  If it rains there is no service.  The spies need to think about that.  

I had hesitated about a smart phone because of the tracking and eavesdropping by the NSA that is done via smart phones.  I thought, "Oh well.  I want to take photos and videos."  The ability to remove the batteries of the phones has been disabled so that people can't take them out to prevent being tracked with their phone.  I like to play chess online and imagined that with the problems with the local internet I would be able to use the smart phone to access the internet.  I thought wrong.  I called Jitterbug and complained.  They explained to me that I should look at the bars on the upper left and that would help me, in my dotage, to see that the problem was me.  No.  I had done that.  There was no signal. "Oh, maybe it's because of the rain."  Do they find in Dallas that when it rains there is no phone, no internet, no cell service?  

It gets lonely when one is so isolated.  I wonder who is behind the isolation.  I'm reading more books.