Finding “Our Man” and Weather-Related Woes

 It’s been several days since I wrote a blog—and it’s not been because there wasn’t a tale or two to tell. The problem has been the internet, or lack thereof.  In defense to Eircom, or the Irish version of Verizon, my sister’s family house is very rural.  I would say it’s in the middle of nowhere but that would be unfair to the beautiful sea views just a few miles away. The problem has been, as my sister has pointed out several hundred times since arriving on Friday, that she has been paying 92 Euros each month for high-speed internet that never seems to work. My sister’s Irish friend immediately told her, “You have to call “your man.”  Over the years, I have learned some “Irish -speak,” and now recognize that “your man” means any person you need to fix something. In this case, my sister needed to call Eircom. She spoke to a lovely woman immediately after arriving early Friday afternoon, (God forbid there is a period of time when we can’t text) who said that someone would be out in a day or two to fix the problem.  My sister’s mistake was not asking when the “day” count began. It’s Monday night and we have not seen hide nor hair of an Eircom truck.  In fact, we have asked several Irish friends whether or not Eircom worked on the weekends—and of course, the answer was either, “No,” or “God no.”  I never thought I would say this but Verizon is looking better and better.  

My sister and I are having a wonderful time together but we have learned on this visit that January and Mondays are not a time to be on the Emerald Isle. First, I have never used my weather App as much as I have since arriving because it has been raining nearly nonstop and whenever there is an hour or two when mere gale-force winds are our only weather problem, we are out trying to do something.  

Truth be told, we were warned.  We were asked by one of my sister’s Irish friends, “Why would you come to Ireland in January?  We are all trying to leave!” And by the looks of the number of closed stores in the area, I think most of the Irish have left for either southern Portugal or the Canary Islands! 

This morning-Monday-we resorted to looking through a pile of old pamphlets (So old that few had yet to have websites) collected over the years by my sister’s mother-in-law of local tourist sites or places of interest.  We resorted to this old-fashioned form of research, because of our internet woes.  Sadly, none of the pamphlets included, “10 best things to see in Northwest Ireland.” We decided to take a 30 minute ride to see a castle in Manorhamilton, which included a Heritage Center.  I can only say that the idea really sounded good on paper…or in a pamphlet.  

We drove to the town with the wipers at top speed and our seat warmers on near scorching.  When we got there, by the looks of the weeds around the Heritage Center, we may have been the first visitors in quite some time.  Even if we were able to visit the castle ruins, the pouring rain and our difficulty in opening our car doors due to the wind, became all too much.  We would have gone into the “Castle Pub,” just across the road, for a hot tea, a bowl of soup or a glass of wine, but it too was closed.  After all, it was Monday. How far are the Canary Islands from here?