Yesterday was...a trip. At exactly 11:09, my DSL connection crashed (yes, again). I immediately signed back on to work via dial-up, while screaming at Earthlink on the phone. After a half-hour the technician determined it was...an outage. As usual, Earthlink didn't tell its support staff about it. It was AT&T's fault again—the outage just on area code 770. He told me the problem wouldn't be fixed until tomorrow. So I pegged away at work and about 3 p.m. checked Earthlink's outage site on my phone. They said it had been resolved at 1:23. So I tried to get back on the DSL only to discover that my computer was no longer talking to the network. I could connect to DSL directly through the modem, but not through the router.

James helped me test this later when he got home. I plugged into every open connection of the router, but it still kept telling me my cable was unplugged. I even plugged into the one James was using which worked perfectly. So the network card works with the modem, not with the router? Gee, thanks.

However, some time ago, James bought a wireless dongle from MicroCenter because it was on sale. He pulled this out now and installed it to my computer. After fiddling with it a while, it worked. So I'm connected to the network, and the internet...but I have a perfectly good wired connection and it won't work. ::grumble::

In the meantime, outside all hell was breaking loose. When I went into the kitchen for breakfast, I had stopped at the windows out to the deck, admiring the color outside. "I should take a picture," I muttered, then went on to get my breakfast so I could get to work.

I should have grabbed the camera then. By afternoon we had tornado sirens in stereo (Smyrna and Marietta), I turned the television on to find Chesley McNeil at WXIA describing hook clouds and tornado sightings (while people whined on Facebook that he was pre-empting Days of Our Lives), rain fell in torrents, and I had the dog on a leash, ready to grab Skye's cage and run downstairs, while the weather radio shrieked in the background. It got terribly dark at one point, as if all the Hounds of Hell were leaping over the horizon, with surprisingly little thunder and no hail to speak of.

By this morning the terrible, oppressive 70s of yesterday were but a memory, and it was cold, one that bit down to your toes. I loved it, but not the sight out on the deck: half the lovely leaves were gone. Autumn is ephermal enough!

However the cool was quite welcome, and the wireless worked fine for work. I am trying to juggle proposals for a conference that was given to us at the last minute. The big problem with it is that it's being held in Guam, so I can't talk to them during the day. I phoned two of the hotels late last evening to get the e-mail address of the events directors so I could discuss with them via e-mail; thank God for e-mail! Plus I got a neat item on Amazon Vine, and, had I reacted a tad quicker, I could have had Bluetooth headphones. Phooey.

Not to mention I had to toss on my jacket about 3:30 and rush to the library. For the third time in a row, they haven't called me when a reserved book has come in; I just happened to check the web site to see where I was in the queue. This was for Anne Perry's Execution Dock.

Oh, and I gave myself an early birthday gift: I joined Amazon Prime. Two-day shipping and video access! I used my Amazon credit card points to buy Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, and 320 watermelon-flavored Jolly Rancher candies (since you can't buy them separately in bags at the supermarket anymore). At two a day they should last a while.

Labels: computers, food, weather, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:35:00 PM

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