What Happens When The Internet Goes Down?

Last Friday, I was getting ready to press send to publish my reworked book to Smashwords: THE LEOPARD, THE LION, AND THE WOLF coming August 31st -- and my internet went down. I know I'm fortunate because it's been so long I can't remember when it faltered last. This time it threw me off because there wasn't any bad weather in the area to attribute it to, and really...just 10 seconds more and I wouldn't have had to start the process from scratch when it did come back.

After my frustration, a friend of mine suffered downtime on her internet yesterday. Separate company. Separate state. Her carrier was down nationwide. My phone carrier was sporadic last week. So what's going on out there in the invisible band widths that I don't understand? I mean I don't now how it works in the first place so anything that happens is a mystery to me. I do know there are still reasons I keep everything backed up on a local hard drive and don't leave everything in the cloud. It's a great invention if you have access but when it's not...you get the idea.

What secret solutions do you have for backing up? Still using printing everything out? LOL

In any case, the experience made me think about how tied I am to the internet. My friends and family stay in  touch daily with social networking. My business of writing ebooks is  dependent totally on me and my readers having access. My friend is taking online courses and has deadlines to download her work. Our bank accounts, medical records, everything is dependent on lines of communication I don't understand ... and can I trust something that so completely has me at it's mercy?

Staying off the internet does make my work day more efficient, though. I've learned to limit  my personal time on Facebook, etc. and focus most of that time on promotions etc. Then I'm off the web and in the real world. Writing and editing and praying when I press send that mysterious THING known as the internet will suck my ideas in and deliver it to where it was supposed to go. In any case, I'm keeping a few good paper books on hand at all times in case I'm desperate for a fix and the electricity goes off.