My New 4-G Modem

Today, in spite of it being a federal holiday, FedEx delivered my brand new 4-G Modem from Verizon. It took about 20 minutes to open, unwrap, and install the thing, but it’s done. I can’t believe how much faster the connection is. It’s like night and day. I’ve had a lot of disconnects, but after I moved the modem over near the window, it didn’t happen so much.

I specifically made sure there was a port for an external antenna for the modem and there is. The only problem is that no one makes an adapter that fits the port. Grrrr! Fortunately, there’s a tower over near I-4.

It rained hard, sometimes really hard, this morning. I’ve spent most of my time reading or on my computer.

I got a Scrabble game for my Kindle. It’s very neat, though the letters could be a little bigger, even with my old eyes, I can still see it fairly well.

My writing prompt for today was: Write about a time you found out about something you weren’t supposed to know…

It was one of the most traumatic days of my childhood and it all happened on Christmas Eve. My brothers and I were very excited about Santa coming. Mom had read us all about it in the story “‘T Was the Night Before Christmas.” We’d heard  Gene Autry sing about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The radio reporter kept us informed of NORAD tracking Santa and his sleigh. We were wired, but we were also pretty clear about having to be asleep or he wouldn’t come.

I don’t know how my mother managed it, but I don’t remember ever being disappointed about what I did or didn’t get for Christmas. You see, we were the epitome of poor, at least financially.

My grandfather didn’t think girls should go to school, so Mom had to leave school after her sophomore year. She worked at a few places before she married my dad, but her education didn’t leave many options for work. After my dad left, the only work my mom could find was as a waitress in my aunt’s diner/truck stop. Try supporting three hungry, growing kids on that.

You see, my dad left seven months before the younger of my two brothers was born and was nowhere to be found until the sheriff caught up with him at my Uncle Pete’s funeral. By then, the older of my two brothers was in the Army and I was in college. But, his capture occurred many years after the day that marked the end of my childhood as I knew it.

I said I didn’t know how my mother managed it, but that’s not entirely true. I have the most wonderful family. I still do. My aunt and my cousins, who lived across the street from us, helped provide the gifts and, no doubt, much more during the year. I’m sure other family members helped too … that is what families do.

Mom wasn’t usually much of a stickler for us going to bed at a certain time, but with reminders of Santa skipping over the house if we weren’t asleep, she shooed us to bed a little earlier than normal. We grudgingly complied and went to sleep as she knew we would.

I don’t know what woke me, but I woke to see Mom and my aunt and cousins putting the presents around the tree. They were careful to whisper, but to no avail. I woke up and learned the awful truth. You can guess what it was, but if you can’t, I won’t end your childhood with the horrible discovery I made that night. I often wished I’d stayed asleep, but once you know something, it’s hard to un-know it.

Until next time…