by Kevin S. Engle
“Deep breaths … relax … you can do this.”
Positive self-talk.
It’s supposed to keep you calm and focused.
I was neither.
I could feel the knot in my stomach. The one I couldn’t untie. This was going to be a disaster.
I’d been avoiding ‘this’ for a month.
But I’d put it off long enough. The time had come to slay the dragon, or at least try to.
There really wasn’t a dragon. It was a router. The device that gives us WiFi throughout the house. And I needed to replace it.
I didn’t want to replace it. Ours was working fine. But the email from the manufacturer said they weren’t going to support it anymore. It should still work, but there’d be no updates and it might be more vulnerable to security threats.
It was time to buy a new one they said. One of theirs.
Of course.
Great.
I thought about it, and forgot about it, but knew I had to do something.
I’d wait until their Black Friday sale. I bought it on Cyber Monday and it arrived a few days later.
And it’s been sitting in my office, in the box, ever since.
Every so often I’d hear the dragon in the box hiss and I’d get that knot in my stomach.
When faced with swapping out any kind of technology, I always expect the worst.
Because that’s what usually happens.
I didn’t realize how many devices in our house run on WiFi until I made a list.
The TVs. Our phones. The printer. A thermostat. And more.
I just knew when I did this, there’d be no TV for weeks. Or months.
I can’t live without television for that long. Yeah, I’m pitiful.
The little card in the box said to download an app to my phone and follow the setup instructions.
I did as I was told.
I read and reread each step at least five times to make sure I was doing it correctly.
My old router had 3 connections. One that plugged into the electric outlet, another that went to the modem and one to the computer. This one only has two wires. One for electric and one to the modem.
I plugged stuff in, closed my eyes and pressed continue.
Nothing.
“Deep breaths … relax … you can do this.”
I knew one cord had to be plugged into the wall outlet. Maybe the other one was in the wrong slot?
I changed it and pressed continue again.
And then I heard a purring sound.
I’m not sure if it was the dragon or the router, but something was working.
A few minutes later, after the router had done all it needed to, I turned on the TV.
It worked!
Everything worked. I only had to reset one TV.
Piece of cake.
I’m not sure how it happened, but I’ll take it.
I love technology.
And taming dragons.
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The author got a call from the zoo. They want him to tame a lion.
The Best of Engle’s Angle is available online or pick up a signed copy at a local bookstore.
