Octopus Overlords

I was cleaning out the hutch cabinets above my desk and came across the original "Road Runner Ready Kit" box I got when I first got cable internet access at home. It still has all the documentation in it, including the 55 page User Guide, the 200+ page "Road Runner Guide to Cyberspace" and the handy Desktop Reference laminated card, with information for Internet Explorer and Outlook, dated 2000.

My wife was leery of spending money on cable internet when we had perfectly good dial-up modems but she finally relented and we signed up. The oldest dated signature in the box was a receipt from early 2001, so I guess that was when we got it.

Here's the included mouse pad, which I had never gotten out of the box till today .

Thats an awesome mouse pad man. Too cool!

We were also worried about going to cable. I had lost my CNC online about 1995 and was using a great provider in Chattanooga called CDC. To get it me and Donna had to drive to their office and sign up with a check. They gave me a key chain. Donna had it last year I remember seeing it. Anyways they never failed me and to unsub to them we had to go all the way back to them and do it. To say we were worried is downsizing it all lol. Plus I actually had to keep dialup a little bit after getting cable internet because it was one way cable modems then. SO I got cable DOWN but used my dial up modem for UP stream data. So I had 2 ISPs for about 6 months before they got two way cable internet here. I still have that first 1 way laying around here some place.

I've still got my first gray 'bubbles' mousepad from the 90s. I'll never use it, but I won't toss it, either.