As it becomes increasingly obvious that MountaiNet is not competent to maintain the Internet connection for which I've paid them, this web site's not going away, but it is considering its options while being updated only as the weather permits. And it's still January.
Fortunately, Internet access from any point inside the town limits is free and unlimited except by weather and your battery. This laptop has one fairly new battery. I am better adjusted to winter weather than most people. (Sitting in this parking lot in a jersey dress, shawl down around my waist, watching people walk past in boots and jackets and hats and so on...)
Well...on Friday I said it was warm enough for me to be comfortable outdoors, not warm enough for the laptop to be, and that wasn't specific enough to count as phenology. Then I walked on and got some more specific information. I was across the street from a bank with one of those neon-lighted time and temperature signs flashing that the temperature was 51 degrees Fahrenheit, and the first dandelions of the January thaw were blooming beside the road.
Now the January thaw is well and truly here; yesterday afternoon the temperature was over 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and today it soon will be. The laptop should work for as long as the battery does.
What about the Lege-watching for which some Tea Partiers may have been hoping? I'll get back to that when I have more Internet access; batteries allow barely time to check e-mail, read news headlines, and check in with a couple of e-friends.
What about the young man toward whose surgical expenses I pledged one-tenth of the arts grant I was awarded last fall? Believe it or not, because it's an out-of-state check and it goes to the business account, I'm still working on being able to cash the wretched thing. All I have to say at this point is that, if you want to help struggling small businesses, "creative" or otherwise, don't even think about sending checks. Banks are no longer required to cash checks from other banks so, by and large, checks are worthless unless you know for sure that the person you want to pay uses the same bank you do. Amazon giftcards would be much more efficient, even though I personally intended to use most of this money for things Amazon doesn't sell, like deserving entrepreneurs' surgical expenses.
Like this guy, about the age of my sisters, had to close his business because of the lockdowns and do odd jobs, and a couple of mean drunks claiming to be clients beat him up, and he was rolled into a hospital and released with a huge debt to pay. Come on, e-friends. If you're a fiscal conservative you will recognize this fellow as One Of Our Own. If you consider yourself liberal, you should do the liberal thing. It's January and we all have heating bills to pay, and after paying those we should think about the nice young man who is trying so hard to provide for his children.
Is it Petfinder time? It's not Friday, but I was online and didn't make time to put up a few dog pictures last week. I'm sorry. Web sites are not being very cooperative today. The little icon at the bottom of the screen shows that the free-for-all WiFi connection is live, but it's very slow and very weak. Flashy sites like Petfinder aren't working. Blogspot is faltering, and when you have problems using Blogspot with Chrome, your connection is bad.
Don't you hate when supposedly free WiFi networks waste your battery time trying to sell you plug-in cables? Shouldn't that be illegal?
Petfinder posts will return, and the "non-traditional" Eighties Sweater looks will be discussed, and the Works In Progress Album on the Ko-fi blog will be enhanced possibly with decent-looking pictures...one day soon. I'd like to say by the first of February. Life is uncertain.
No comments:
Post a Comment