"Not really."
"We lost all internet, Comcast and AT&T, including the VPN that connects us from the new studio here to the transmitter."
"Thanks."
I was at the Dynasty Banquet Hall in north Hammond and had just moderated a panel in front of 325 people. Women in Business. Here's who was on the panel.
Barb Greene, president of Franciscan Healthcare Munster
Carla Morgan, attorney for the City of East Chicago
Kathleen O'Leary, president of NIPSCO
Denise Dillard, Methodist Hospitals
Dr. Mary Tilak, internist
It turned out to be good discussion. Work-life balance, changing attitudes toward women at work, women role models, women support networks, etc. I made a few silly jokes, but on the whole I remembered my wife's admonition on the way out the door - If you gotta think twice about saying it, don't say it.
So I checked my natural inclination to smart aleck, and believe me, there were plenty of opportunities, including a quip about hot flashes that would have brought down the house (at least among the males present).
So after the luncheon we're all hanging around the accompanying Business Expo in the main hall at Dynasty and Debbie calls me. I run over to the new studio and it turns out construction crews cut both of our internet lines. How, I have no freaking idea.
So we scrambled to reset all the equipment to broadcast from the old studio for the afternoon show, which happened to be a live remote from the Business Expo. And yesterday morning I had to do the show from the old studio, which we're in the process of redoing so it was at best a huge inconvenience and kind of embarrassing when guests came in.
In the end, it's Halloween, which is often a tough day for me and my brothers and sisters. My mom died 26 years ago today at right about this time of the morning - 4am. It was a sad moment at the hospital on the campus of the University of Chicago. I remember driving home down the expressway and looking over at the sun coming up over smokestacks and crains, rail yards and telephone poles. My mom had suffered for half a dozen years, so it was relief and grief in one quiet sunrise ride through the heart of industry.
Anyways, that was a long time ago. Happy Halloween. Time to do a radio show... at the new freakin studio, hopefully.