Outside, I ask the technician if there is another building on campus where I can connect by Ethernet cable to try the driver download again, and she suggests the library. The one problem is that I don't have the ethernet cable I always carry with me because I loaned it to my son 2 days ago. I figure I'll beg for one at the library's front desk, and they tell me that they cannot risk lending a cable to someone who is now a member of the W&M community because they would be liable if my laptop was damaged.
Wow.
They suggested I go back to the reference desk, because they might be able to help me. None of this makes sense, but I do it anyway, and the woman says she thinks she might have a cable in the back. She returns without a cable and suggests I go to the front desk. I explain that they sent me here, and she says, well, they are getting a phone call right now saying they can lend me a cable because it is an extraordinary circumstance. Indeed, I can see them waving the cable from across the library.
Borrowed cable in hand, I go find a port, connect, download the driver, and start to install when the alarm goes off in the library. Same problem, natural gas, which is now blowing all over this side of campus. Police and firemen herd everyone off campus and I am now on the opposite side of campus from where I want to be. I walk all the way around the perimeter to find that the conference center, upwind, is totally unaffected. I boot up my laptop, it now connects, which is why I can post this message.
