Internet Issues

If anyone had ever asked, I’d have denied it-and I’d have sincerely believed it as the words exited my mouth. But over the past eighty-five hours I know that to deny it now would be a lie.
I am addicted to the internet.

I am an internet addict. A junkie who hasn’t had a ‘fix’ since my combination modem/ router kicked the bucket Friday night at eleven.

It was clear when I glanced up and saw all three green lights gone that this was more than just one of those momentary lapses in service. The kind that lasts about two minutes, when the middle light starts flashing yellow for reasons known only to itself.

The tech support guy suggested I try plugging the router in some other outlets around the house to see if the outlet it had been plugged in to since we moved in January had suddenly gone bad.

Yeah, right.

It’s been plugged in to the same power strip the computer, monitor, speakers and both of my printers are plugged in to-and those things were still working. So what were the odds that just one little area in that whole long power strip just stopped working? Pretty slim odds, in my opinion.

But, having been in the middle of a ‘job,’ and it being late Friday night, I gave it a shot. Only to find, sadly, that I was right. The power strip was working just fine. Only the modem/router wasn’t. It had given up the ghost and there was no coaxing it back, beyond an extremely brief flash of lights when an electrician friend suggested I push the reset button with an ink pen (something the tech support guy failed to mention, hmm).

So...

I telephone my internet provider first thing Saturday morning to find they want eighty bucks for a new router that would take several days to get here.

Not good. I needed to finish the job by Sunday at midnight so thanks but no thanks. I need to find one today. And I’m hoping for far less money, too, since payday is more than a week away!
Another yeah, right. Try a hundred dollars at a well known computer store. Forget it. I’ll be kissing every cent (and then some!) from the thing I was working on goodbye. I’ll just wait for the second deadline-the middle of next month and turn in both months worth of work then.

Unfortunately I didn’t come to this conclusion until after the sales office closed for the day, not to reopen until Monday morning.

Over the course of the weekend I talked again with my electrician friend, as well as someone who builds and repairs computers. The router should have lasted about ten years, not four. So when I got through to the sales department yesterday morning, I mentioned that information and asked for a discount. The woman put me on hold for a minute and came back with a very surprising offer.

They would waive the $80.00 if I was willing to pay $13.00 shipping.

Hmm... Eighty dollars, thirteen dollars. Eighty dollars or thirteen dollars... Actually it would have been eighty dollars plus the shipping. So the choice boiled down to ninety-three dollars or thirteen.

Tough choice.

Not!

For that kind of deal-and I really was just hoping that they’d knock the price down by half!-I opted for the overnight delivery.

Except overnight delivery is kind of misleading. I ordered the router well before seven-thirty yesterday morning. It is now twelve-forty-nine in the afternoon on Tuesday and it still hasn’t arrived. But it’s coming via UPS and I know they have routes to follow.

Knowing that doesn’t help my impatience because, as I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, I’ve discovered that I am addicted to the internet. It’s kind of like the night before Christmas, waiting for dawn and the time to tear in to all the presents.

Only I just want to tear in to my email! I want to Google recipes for smoked sausage since I screwed up and thawed some out yesterday. I want to visit IMDB and find out when Minnie Pearl died (don’t ask...I don’t know why...).

And I want to finish September’s job so I can get started on October’s.

Mainly, though, I really want to check my email. I’m almost scared at the thought. It’s hard to believe but a good portion of the population doesn’t know what ‘inline text is.’ Nope. They send everything as an attachment.

And you know what that means?

That after three and a half days (is that all it’s been??!!), it could take two weeks for all my emails to download...

Sigh.

A Miracle Medicine

I'm baaaaacccckkkkkk...... From a short vacation. And now it's back to business!

For anyone who has read any of my posts, you might have figured out that I'm kind of in to alternatives to 'modern' medicines. And I really am. If I can find something that doesn't need a prescription or over the counter drugs, and it works, I'm all for it.

But sometimes that isn't the case.

Saturday I got my four month old grandson for a few days. He won't go back home until Thursday, as a matter of fact. I love the kid to pieces, but I'm not that all that thrilled with watching a baby. I loved everything about babies when my own kids were infants, but I don't love it all now. Well, I have to admit that anything to do with the nose and diaper end of them never thrilled me.

But they thrill me a lot less now. Because I've developed a weak stomach over the years.

Tonight I wound up at the emergency room with Alex, who apparently had a bad reaction to his rice cereal, added to his formul to help reduce a reflux issue. Anyway, he had a serious gas thing going on, screaming for a couple of hours. And I got to deal with the nose thing, as well as getting thrown up on.

Yay.

After the doctor made sure there was nothing serious wrong, a nurse came in with Tylenol and a little brown bottle of something for the gas.

She took a very tiny dropper out of the brown bottle and put four whole drops in his mouth. I'm thinking dang! Four drops? You've got to be kidding me! How about half the bottle! This kid is in pain and he needs something that's going to actually work!

But, lo and behold, it did. In less than five minutes, Alex was sound asleep. And an hour later, he's still sleeping very peacefully. From exhaustion, I'm sure. You can't cry like that for as long as he did and not be a tad on the tired side!

So I have to say that there are some times when medicine is very appropriate. In fact, enough so that I'm headed to the store first thing in the morning to get a bottle of the stuff. I'm not taking a chance on this happening again before he goes home Thursday and not be prepared.

I'm also rather partial to another over the counter thing...and that's Advil. I try not to take it very often but just popped four. After two hours of having a baby flopped over my forearm-which was the only position remotely close to comfortable to him (and even more so when I was standing up!), my back, shoulders and arms need some quick relief, too!

And now you know, if you have a baby with gas (and I think they said colic, but don't quote me on that), there is something out there that works fast and works well. I don't know the name of it-the nurse didn't either (it's a different brand than the one she used), but your pharmacist will be able to tell you.

And now, given that it's almost two in the morning, I'm off to bed. So Alex can wake us up bright and early for a bottle.

Yawn.

I'm learning to ChaCha!

But not the dance. Nope. I'm now, as of about 30 hours ago, an official ChaCha expediter. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? I don't know about that, but it's a fun way to kill a few hours-and earn a little extra spending money. "Little" being the important word here.

You'll never get rich doing this, that's for sure. But with gas at nearly $4.00 a gallon and the cost of heating your home expected to shoot up around 20% this winter (where I live anyway), every little bit helps! (and YAY! to winter being on its way-beats the snot right out of summer!)

Basically this is just kind of fun for me. All I do is re-word questions, categorize them and send them to 'guides,' who have to provide the answers for the people paying for answers.

I have to say, given the content of some of the questions, I'm really glad I'm an expediter!

Anyway, short post tonight because, having been learning the ropes all day, my fingers are tired, my body is tired and my mind needs some sleep!

I'll post more tomorrow...sweet dreams

Just a quick post tonight

Winter lover that I am, I don't feel my best in 90+ degree weather. Which is exactly what we had today. At eleven a.m. it was 86...and I refused to look again until just a minute ago. Eighty-eight degrees.

Yuck.

It could be worse, though. I heard on the radio that this is only the third time this summer we've seen temps over ninety. Thank God! The disk jockey failed to mention how many mid- to high eighties we've had. Or the miserable humidity that's been around most of the season.

But this is September. And tomorrow's forecast is a high of eighty and Thursday gets even better.

Seventy-two degrees for the high!!!

I'm thinking we could see some nights dipping in to the forties! Which is so much better than the sixties. Even the fifties. No, I don't want to actually see my breath when I'm breathing, but I want it to be almost visible.

Anyway, I've spent the day parked in front of a fan, 'You-tubing' it in an effort to not sweat. Listening to Andy Gibb, The Village People, Heart, and the like.

Andy Gibb was such a waste of a beautiful, talented man...

Okay.

So I read at www.earthclinic.com, my favorite website for natural alternatives to just about everything, about baking soda as a facial scrub/exfoliant and decided to give it a try.

Fortunately there were warnings that the first few times might result with a burning sensation on your skin. And they were right. I do feel a burning sensation, similar to a mild sunburn. Or at least what I remember a sunburn as feeling like. I've been a shade seeker for years and, that being the case I sure hope I don't look like I have one now.

I've been kind of afraid to look in the mirror.

But I'll give it a fair shot because the reports on the benefits are too good to pass up. Especially at my age. I've yet to see any wrinkles on my face and I want to avoid them for as many years as humanly possible!

Some of the things people are raving about is that it helps to firm and soften skin, combat wrinkles, make your pores smaller, makes your skin look younger (yay!), evens out skin tone, and eliminates the need for makeup for some women.

Well, I don't have large pores or wrinkles, I look about ten years younger than I am and I haven't worn makeup in years so...

So why am I doing it? Because I'd like to continue to look ten years younger than I am for many years to come! At least!

If anyone is interested in checking this out for themselves, go to the website listed above and type "Fountain of Youth" in the search area.

The website is mostly things people write to the moderators about what works and what doesn't. The reason I like Earth Clinic so much is because they don't sell anything. They just share what's shared with them so that people like you and I can reap the benefits.

As far as skin care goes, there are a number of things people are doing. Including using apple cider vinegar as toner two or three times a week. I'll have to think about that. I was especially unimpressed when one woman warned to avoid getting the vinegar too high on your forehead because when you sweat, you've got that salad dressing effect going on.

Eww.

Okay. I'm done for the night I think. I just want to kick back, drink some more ice water and wait for the temperatures to drop. Only sixty-two tonight but it beats the snot right out of ninety-two!

I'll keep you posted about how the baking soda is working out for me. If I get carded for buying matches to light candles with next month, I'll be sure to let you know!