Saturday, December 09, 2006

Out of work at home

The whole week I was caught up in work, yesterday I got time, but I started fooling around the house. Trying to move my internet connection cable form one room to another. When the house was wired up for broadband my computer and I used to stay in the bigger room. Then came the third roomie, and I moved to the smaller room with my computer, but the wires were not so easily transferable. So we, no my roommate suggested we will call up the broadband guys one day and get it moved. I secretly nurtured the desire to do it on my own. I am not silly enough to call outside help for something so simple.

The situation is this. There are three 2 square inch boxes, which you first open up. Then you unscrew the wiring, and you try to remember where the wiring should go back. Another hurdle is to make a hole in the window mesh in my room. I pick up a knife, a kitchen knife, and it goes through, a little pushing around and there it is big enough to fit in two wires.

I go to the roof to check where the wire is coming from, whether you can move it nearer to my room's window. Not possible, too heavy. Go back to the other room. I have successfully opened up all wires, but they are twisted, somehow I push them out of the window. The whole wire drops to the floor. We are on second floor. I can pull the wire in with the help of floor mop, but the wires' cover has come off, it’s a pipe near about 3 cms wide.

So I march to the ground floor. I realize it’s not fallen on the floor, but is in limbo between the ground floor and the first. There is a sand pile next to the wall as there is some repair of the flower beds going around. I stand their contemplating for some time, how to lift myself onto the platform where my pipe is lying. The sand pile shifts quickly under my feet, if I try to get a grip. So without much ado I lift myself up and land on the platform. Pay attention I am still in my office clothes when I am messing about.

Victorious I stand their on the pedestal holding the pipe in the hand when our apartment security guy comes to nose around what I am up to. I mumble something and jump down, run up to my floor. I am having fun.

Now my battle ground will entirely be my room. I bring the floor mop, like a cowboy swinging his lasso, my floor mop ropes in the wire in just the second attempt. The real painful struggle begins now. I have to thread the wires through the 10 feet long pipe. I succeed in ten minutes.

I am invincible.

This is the part where I start cursing myself a teeny weenie bit. I forgot to note down which color wire would have gone to which point. Six loose ends and six connection points. Damn I could have clicked a snap. Yes from now on I will click a snap of any wiring that I intend to unwire and then wire. And end up rewiring the whole house. I just decide all blues go on red and whites on green. If it doesn’t work I will just switch all the connections. I have never been good at this, peeling the insulation of naked wires and not breaking them while connecting them back. So after few breaks of wires, and little jabbing of wires in my finger my connection is ready and yes the phone is working.

Now the part which I don’t understand is how to connect this to my computer, as I see no loose ends and there is one wire left which would not fit in anywhere.

Who cares I did a good job. The phone is still working and in an entirely different room, by an entirely different window.