Connection

I am online via a cable modem. We pay what seems to me to be an exorbitant fee each month for cable TV, DVR, and this Internet access. The online mail program that comes with RoadRunner is the crappiest thing I have ever seen. There is no address book and when I asked about it, they suggested I use a free mail program like Yahoo!

RoadRunner and Time Warner are part of the great AOL system. AOL has one of the easiest to use – read “made for newbies” – mail programs around. You would think, but you would be wrong, that AOL could whisper into RoadRunner’s little ear how to attach an address book to a mail program.

Aside from that – South Carolina is apparently not the Silicon Valley of the east coast. We have one RoadRunner access point in the state. If you look very carefully on the website when you happen to have access, you can find hidden telephone numbers. That way, when the system goes out and if you have prepared well, you can call it and get a recorded message that tells you that they know all about the outage and are working on it. It is a toll free number. I have it on speed dial.

We have been having a fair bit of wind and inches of rain in this part of the country. My Internet went out, but the television still worked. I am part of the editing staff of a thrice-weekly ezine. My portion was due, it was ready, I couldn’t mail it. I had no Internet. I had no Internet for hours already, I called the helpful number, and was helpfully informed that it was being worked on. So I called Ohio, asked my sister to mail the editor in chief and tell him that I was useless.

The next morning I was thrilled, and I do mean thrilled, to have my access to the world wide web back. I use my computer frequently. I do real research on the web as well as mess around killing time. I don’t watch television, I play online.

For the last three weeks, my Internet has been an occasional, iffy thing. It comes and goes. I can load several web pages without incident and then it goes away. Then, just as mysteriously, it comes back in a minute or two or five or ten. The inconsistency is a pain when I’m checking email or surfing Fark or Zipped. But when I am researching for my writing, when I’m in the middle of an article and all of a sudden, I’m offline without a paddle, it is more than annoying. I’m not sure what to do here. I don’t know what other options I can come up with. I need high speed access because I’m spoiled and dialup would kill me. But I can’t be happy with this intermittent access.

Eat Dessert First

I often have a bad day. It may start out okay and then disintegrate or else it begins horribly and continues on without improvement. Sometimes it is something small that sets me off. Sometimes it is a major issue that makes a bad day last for weeks.

If life were always pleasant, then we wouldn’t enjoy the wonderful days nearly so much. If every day was a good day, then we wouldn’t even notice it. But since some days are not so good, the good days are sweeter.

I have been trying to find some good in each day. Some days it is much easier. Like Sunday. I have been looking for cherries in the grocery store each time I go. And I have the unparalleled pleasure of going two to three times per week. Since moving south, I have missed blueberries one season and barely noticed that corn was out before it was almost gone. The growing seasons are different.

So I have been hunting cherries. And they were not in the stores on Thursday, I looked. No cherries. But on Sunday, there were cherries. First store I was at they were $6 a pound. I didn’t want cherries that badly. I knew I was going to another store later and figured they sure couldn’t be more expensive. And lo and behold, at the next store they were $3 a pound. I bought two bags.

I had already bought a watermelon at the first store. Cantaloupes were really cheap at the second store. I bought it all. But I am never really sure how to check a melon to find out if I am buying something edible or not. I just pick one up and hope. I was really lucky. Both melons were sweet and juicy and wonderful.

I was enjoying the fruits of my labor. I love puns, too. When my day went horribly wrong. A neighbor was camping with his teenage sons. He also had another neighbor’s son with him. He was usually an early riser. The kids couldn’t wake him in the morning. He suffered an apparent heart attack. I feel terrible for him, for his sons, for the neighbor kid. He was healthy, worked out, took care of himself. It is sad to know that we truly just never know.

Instead of looking for the things that make my day bad. Instead of counting my irritations, I think I will make more of an effort to count my blessings. I know that my life is good. I have a wonderful family. I have my health. I have my freedom.

I have cherries, they came in on Sunday.

The Absolute Gall

I have before me a letter from Reader’s Digest telling me that I owe them money and it is now past due.

I have subscribed to this magazine in the past. I did not renew my subscription. I did not renew my subscription because I no longer wanted to receive the magazine. My subscription ran out last fall and the folks at Reader’s Digest are very, very distressed.

They have sent me offers at least twice a month. I can get this magazine delivered to my home for this or that low price. I can get the magazine not only delivered to my home, but get a guest subscription for any friend of mine. I have not succumbed to the pressure to renew.

Then this galling letter which states:

To Patti,
RE: MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION RENEWAL AMOUNT OVERDUE: $22.98

URGENT NOTIFICATION OF OVERDUE ACCOUNT

Our records show your account now overdue.

Urgent, please pay without further delay.

To pay today, please send payment immediately with your bill in the reply envelope provided.

Yours sincerely,
Michael J. Leist

I am unsure how one can have an overdue bill when one never had a bill to start with. I did not renew my subscription as Reader’s Digest well knows because they stopped sending me the magazine. This is some horrid scam to get me to renew because they think they can get my money by sending me a bill rather than all the other renewal notices they have issued.

I do not want to renew. And now I know to never subscribe in the first place. I hope that anyone reading this will now know that Reader’s Digest has perpetrated this dunning scam. I understand that the print industry is in trouble because they haven’t figured out a way to make the Internet pay.

I used to intermittently subscribe to this magazine. Now I know that I will never do so again. I should also look at other publications that are related to it so I know what else I have to beware of. This is untenable.

PS I just called the magazine and they automatically renew for you and send you bills unless ... I guess you have to call their special 800 number to get rid of them. They will erase my "bill" and unrenew my not renewed subscription. How very helpful.

I am Old - and Conservative

I am old and conservative. I’m good with that. I really don’t mind. I know I’m old because my kid is feeling old. But that’s a different problem.

Today, Ann Coulter’s book Godless hit the markets. The first chapter was published at www.townhall.com. I read it. I agreed with it. It printed out on 14 pages. I totally enjoyed reading it. I want to buy the whole book.

She points out the idiocy of the theocracy of liberals. Liberalism is the state religion. The only other religion we are allowed to study is Islam.

I don’t know when I lost my country. I know that we keep trying. I am on a mailing list that has been discussing gay marriage and the horrific “suffering” foisted on gays by us horrible conservatives who won’t let them into a marriage. The horrid conservatives keep reiterating that we don’t give a flying rat’s ass if gays wish to have a union that is sanctioned with all the legal hoopla of tax breaks and insurance coverage. But, we point out, marriage consists of one husband and one wife.

Some liberal pointed out that she knows a couple who designate who is the husband and who is the wife in the same sex marriage. That’s pretty much like deciding that because I want to, I am now going to call a cow a horse. If there are children involved in this couple’s union, can you imagine the confusion about having one woman be your mother/the wife and the other woman being your father/the husband? Just too bizarre.

Back to Ms. Coulter. She speaks about the liberal agenda with the sanctity of life. Pointing out that humans are nothing special, we are just another animal. And that for goodness sake, protect any and all other plants and animals at the cost of foolish humans. Especially if those humans are not yet born. Those humans count for absolutely nothing. I wonder if my impending grandchild knows he/she is absolutely nothing to some people. Because we don’t think that he or she is anything but prized.

Then there is the whole sex is for fun. Don’t worry about diseases. They will teach you about disease prevention. Because teens will have sex. And they mean WILL have sex. Abstinence is to be loathed and fun is the order of the day. And the night.

We have become so enchanted with seeking some place where no one feels bad about doing anything wrong. There should be no guilt. In order to find this place, we have decided that there is no right and wrong. There is only right. And you need never feel guilt because whatever you do, it is okay. Unless, of course, you wish to pray. Or save a fetus because you believe it is a baby. Or be a consumer. Or eat meat. Then you should, by something that might or might not be God, feel guilty.