I only had one day off--Easter Sunday. Sunday morning I got home after work to discover that my internet access was gone (just in case anyone wondered where I'd been). My husband told me that it was still available around 2.00 am when he'd gone to bed, but when he got up around 6.00 it was not there.
We decided that we'd go for a long bike ride, and figured that the access would return by the time we got home.
We went off for the ride, planning on doing a loop through the paved path, then going for a ride around the local water reservoir on the mountain bikes. We started off the paved path, and came across a work crew, consisting of three vehicles, park off to the side of the path. Hmmm. This did not look at all good. A twenty foot long trench had been dug, with a lot of cable wire down in the bottom. Hmmm.
We continued on, did our loop, and went through the doubletrack around the reservoir. When we got home, we discovered there was still no DSL. Hmmm. Later in the evening, there was still no access. Hmmm. I got up the next morning. Still no access. Hmmm. This was taking much longer than it should! I decided I'd go off for another ride. I went along the same path, and discovered a solitary workman sitting in the midst of vast quantities of cable. I asked him "So, is this why my DSL is out?" "Yep, someone came along yesterday, dug this trench and tried to steal the copper wire".
Yes, that's correct, someone tried to steal the copper wire that was attached to my phone line. That poor workman was going through each line in a bundle of about 3000 wires, working to connect each wire up correctly. At any rate, service was eventually restored sometime later that evening.
Now, I know everyone is asking--why would anyone steal copper wire? Copper is selling for around $3.00 USD per pound, and the amount that the thief or thieves was trying to steal weighed about 300 pounds--in other words, it was worth about $900 USD--the equivalent of around 454 GBP.
Now I've gone back to work. But I will be going down to California this Thursday, and ride in a charity ride. It's also a chance for my husband to see his mum, and it's also our wedding anniversary on the 18th, so we figured on just doing everything at one time

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Kingfisher