Hanging Fire

Had my sandwich, had my dunk salad (half an apple, handful of baby carrots and five cherry tomatoes cut in half), had my ‘zert — cherry vanilla Haagen-Dazs (!), sitting here piddling at the computer, listening to somebody else’s Steely Dan playlist with four windows open on one claustrophobic monitor screen (YouTube on Firefox playing Steely Dan, a folder of writing and the piece I’m working on, and Chrome with this window open). I’m still straddling computers (the new one’s still on the table with the other of my two monitors). I have moved some stuff but there’s humpty eleven things still to move, including all my fonts. A Steely Dan song “Glamour Profession” which I hadn’t heard before, was playing just now, and I swear I distinctly heard the name Rudy Charisma in the lyrics. But, when I looked them up, nope! Still, it’s a great name, and I know whom I’m going to tease by calling them that . . .

Five down, one to go. June 23. The last round — for a while anyway. Another 3-1/2 years would be fine by me.

This time through I gained 6 pounds between Wednesday and Friday, all of it from the IV fluids. I’ve got one more fluid bolus tomorrow, and about two weeks to get rid of all of it before the “one more time.”

All I want to do is lie in the bed with my feet up reading or watching YouTube videos or sleeping. Friday evening, I finally crashed from all the prednisone at about 10 pm and slept until 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon (occasionally surfacing briefly to offload, before submerging back into the depths). And dreaming at about 90 miles an hour. (I’d push myself awake through the cobwebs of some of the strangest dreams and waddle off to the en suite wondering, where did that come from?) I get so much fluid so fast that I’m in borderline fluid overload for days until my poor kidneys can catch up. The slightest exertion makes me puff and blow like a steam locomotive (I think I can–I think I can–I think I can –), not because I’m breathless — my oxygen saturation is over 95% most of the time — but because fluid is backing up into my lungs. It’s like being in congestive heart failure but there’s nothing wrong with my heart. It was worse this time than last time. I couldn’t walk 30 yards without having to stop and get my breath. One more time. I can make it one more time.

Needless to say, walking to and from the car and back to the apartment just wears me out because I have no energy. My table is still sitting in the box. The plants are un-repotted. I’ve got a sink full of dirty dishes I need to wash, and a load of laundry to do, but I’m not doing any of it right this now. I have a bad case of mañana. I don’t even have the energy to care.

I’ve switched over to listening to somebody’s YouTube playlist of Fleetwood Mac now. Instead of setting up the new computer on the dining table, what I should have done was moved my tissue dispenser, put the tower there, and just switched the one monitor over. I’d still have to juggle mice and keyboards, but I could do everything from my desk. I may still move it over, because I really need to get switched over. Google has now started not letting Windows Live Mail sign into my personal email address either. And I keep getting this “Please sign in” popup like every 15 minutes. You put in the right password and it just blows you off, tells you it’s the wrong password and wants you to sign in again and it’s driving me crazy.

For those who have just tuned in, a word of explanation about the playa lakes we have in our parks here in town. We only average about 16 inches of rain here, but we get it in big gobs. A thunderstorm will roll through and drop up to an inch in about thirty minutes. It’s gotta go somewhere. The city has put in storm drains and run pipe to discharge this runoff into the playa lakes dotted about the city. They’ve set up pumps at the lakes so they can adjust the water levels in the lakes and spread the load as the town is big enough that one part can get more rain than another. Because we get so much so fast, intersections and underpasses can become impassible because of the storm runoff in as little as fifteen minutes (except the stupid pickups that have the ground clearance to just roar on through and drown out people’s car engines with their waves). (Like bratty four-year-old boys stomping in puddles to splash everybody.) You can’t swim in the lakes; they’re too full of algae and probably contain broken glass. They’re mostly for the local and migratory waterfowl and the Canada geese, and the city keeps ducks and some “regular” geese out on them during the summer. They’re nice to look at, too.

You can see the difference a couple of good rains has made, Before (L) and After (R)

In the knitting news, there is knitting news, but not much.

I finally finished the baby blanket. It still needs to be blocked. I haven’t started on the dress yet. The yarn is all caked up, I’ve got the needles out, I have the ‘structions printed out all in a plastic baggie ready to go, but I’m still waiting for a few more brain cells to report for duty. The three currently on shift are pooped.

Dive! Dive!

It’s 5:00 a.m. Wednesday and I haven’t slept since 9 o’clock yesterday morning. Yesterday, I saw my oncologist at 11:00 a.m. Since my hepatitis panel was negative and all my other labs were good, we’re going for the Rituxan. I went to the infusion area and got an IV rig put in the port on my chest and got a dose of decadron, a steroid, and gulped down 100 mg of prednisone (the “P” in COP) at one go, which is a whopping dose, BTW, and I have been strung out since it kicked in at about 2 o’clock, like my brain is doing 100 mph and my body is barreling along at 2 mph. (One of my little spelling quirks, like leaving the “W” out of “sword,” is consistently trying to spell “barreling” with one “R” and two “L’s,” which is why God, in Her infinite wisdom and mercy, gave us spellcheckers.) I also received cytophosphamide, the “C” in COP, followed by Oncovin (the “O” in COP). As she was setting up the IV, the nurse remarked that she had to be extra careful administering it because, and I quote: Oncovin . . . is a vesicant. Even when carefully and correctly administered by trained personnel, this drug may cause a feeling of burning and pain. There is a risk that this medication may leak out of the vein at the injection site, resulting in tissue damage that can be severe. (Vesicants are also called “blister agents.” They cause blisters on contact with the skin. The mustard gas used in WWI was a vesicant.) Yep. That is why they surgically implanted a catheter and port into my upper chest which feeds into the largest vein (superior vena cava) in the upper body, so that stuff hits the catheter first, before it can be diluted with blood.

One other thing prednisone does is boost the appetite. I had two roast beef sandwiches, a serving of rice with cheese and broccoli and about a cup of fried okra, a small bowl of the nut mix (almonds, cashews and pecans with coconut shavings, honey and yogurt covered raisins mixed in.) when I got home from JACC at 4:30. I’ve also had two 8 oz glasses of Tazo chai that I brewed a pitcher of Monday and put in the refrigerator after it had cooled and after I had dumped 8 oz of vanilla almond milk in.

I’m glad I pigged out yesterday afternoon. I’m afraid that the major epithelial sluff I had during chemo in 2018 (all my skin peeled, including the lining of my eye sockets, the inside of my ears, and my entire digestive system from the inside of my mouth to the opening at the other end) was caused, not by the bendamustine (that was probably what caused the two different kinds of rashes I also got) but by the dose of Rituxan I got at the same time. Here in a while, I have to go take my shower because I have to be back at JACC at 9:00 o’clock to get Rituxan (the infusion will take about 3 hours) and my shot of Udenyca. Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to it.

At 8 o’clock yesterday evening, my phone pinged and it was a severe sand storm warning predicting high winds and near zero visibility — a haboob, as it were. At 10 o’clock, it was raining cats, dogs, mice and bunglebees, with lightening and window-rattling thunder. Of course, in my youth, I didn’t have to walk five miles to and from school in the snow uphill both ways. We don’t have hills here. I had to walk home in haboobs, into a 30 mph head wind. Both ways. But in the late 1960’s, the farmers learned to “sand fight,” using techinques to combat wind erosion, and the dust content of our sand storms lessened significantly. But we haven’t had a lot of rain this spring, and the dirt content has picked up.

The water level in the playa lake across from JACC is only at the white box behind the tree in the left-hand picture, which is about 30 yards back from the edge of the lake bed. This is one of the biggest playa lakes in the city and it is two-thirds empty. That’s how much rain we’ve had.

I turn Guido the Italian stone pine’s pot every couple of days to try to get him to grow straight. However, . . .

I think Guido the Italian Stone Pine is not getting enough light.

Yesterday, while I was at JACC getting my infusions, the front desk at Carillon called to ask me if I would trade covered parking spaces with the lady in space E-5. There are 8 covered parking spaces under that cover, and I’m in space E-8, which is the furthest parking space from the door. This lady had just gotten a handicapped (wheelchair) van and needed the space next to her to be empty so the van ramp could go down. I was very OK with that. (It puts me 3 spaces closer to the door!) When I came back from JACC, I saw she had backed into the parking space, so evidently, her van ramp comes out on the driver’s side. (Bet her nice new silver van has a backup camera too. The Greyola doesn’t.) Every parking space has to deal with a pair of the poles that hold up the cover. I’ve gone from having to miss the cover pole on the driver’s side to missing it on the passenger side. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Well, gotta go get my shower and get dressed. Wish me luck, girlfriend.

All Right, Then

Thank goodness I shopped for glass by phone this morning. About half the stores I called only did auto glass. Michael’s framer guy called in sick today. Home Depot’s glass guy didn’t come to work either. Lowe’s didn’t have a piece of glass longer than 36 inches (I needed one 38-1/2 inches), but the Lowe’s guy referred me to Abercrombie Hardware, who had a piece of glass long enough, would cut it while I waited, and only charged me $12. Great, except it’s WAY the heck out on the northeast corner of town at 3rd Street and Buddy Holly Avenue. (I had to go under Marsha Sharp* AND a railroad track to get to it.) (Yeah, Holly was born here. The parents of a dear family friend used to live across the street from them, and I’ve met Peggy Sue.)

As I was girdling my loins preparatory to setting out on my pointy rounds, the accountant doing mom’s taxes called to tell me that I had gotten our social security statements mixed up and sent him mine instead of mom’s. While we talked, he cautioned me to be prepared for how much tax she owed because she had sold some stock. Capital gains tax hit her a hard wallop. (That loud howl you heard this morning was her bank account taking a direct hit . . .) So, in addition to the other errands I had planned, I had to take mom’s social security statement out to the accountant WAY out on the southwest edge of town at 122nd Street and Slide Road. (On a historical note, Slide Road is so named because it’s the road to Slide. I’ve been to Slide. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there’s not a lot of there, there.) And because of the figure the accountant gave me, I added going to the bank to the agenda as I needed to transfer funds from the back pocket to the front pocket so the accountant could file her taxes electronically and I could pay Uncle Sam and the accountant with a debit card once her taxes are done.

Already on the agenda was another sack of things to donate to Goodwill, (further culls from the last two boxes), and getting printer ink cartridges. I left the house at about 1:30 pm and actually got all the things done that I needed to do, including picking up a soft drink at Whataburger on my way back up Quaker going to the bank from the accountant, and picking up a chicken strip box at Whataburger on my way back up Quaker again from completing the last item on the agenda, getting a set of printer ink cartridges. After zigging and zagging all over town, I got home at a little after 4:30. Not too shabby.

The piece of glass I had cut was 38-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches and thin enough to bow slightly when I was cleaning it. It was an awkward shape and once I got it safely back home, I got my rubber gloves and a Phillips screw driver, and put it in place immediately.

(I always put on my rubber washing-dishes gloves to handle pieces of glass like that and the glass in picture frames. Not only does it protect my hands from being cut, but the rubber helps me hold onto the glass more securely.)

I’ve had my supper and gotten things all put away in the china cabinet. I’m as moved in as I can get until the maintenance guy comes to fix the blind and put that one bin up on the top shelf of the closet.

I’ve always loved blue and white together and I’ve wanted a set of “Blue Willow” dishes since a child.

This set was made by Churchill China of England. I bought these in the 1980’s when I worked for Texas Instrumets. Since I intended them to be my “forever dishes,” I got 12 of everything (except serving pieces) to allow for breakage over the years. So far, I’ve been lucky.

In the knitting news, I’m still working out the increases on the hexagon blanket and as yet have nothing to show for it. I’ve also started a 9-bladed pinwheel “beanie/skullcap” for my impending baldness using an “oddball” skein of Malabrigo Sock in the colorway “Tealfeather” that was left over from the Sweet Irene shawl. (I had four skeins; the shawl took three and a smidge.) The hat is extrapolated from the pattern for the 9-Bladed Pinwheel shawl. I’m using US 1 (2.25 mm) needles, a set of DPNs to start it and a 16-inch circular needle. I may write up the pattern, but then again . . .

• Used to be the Brownfield Highway. Renamed in honor of Marsha Sharp for reasons.

To Do: 2. Get Rear In Gear

And hit the ground running. Monday I see the oncologist, but that appointment is not til 1 o’clock. I’ve got to take mom’s mail over for her. In addition to everything else I’ve got to keep up with, I’ve got to get her taxes done. (Mine are plain vanilla basic with a squirt of stock dividends. Takes me maybe half an hour to do mine.) Mom has assets, plus proceeds from the sale of a house, plus some tax thing we get from Carillon that’s the same difference as buying a dwelling. All her statements and info come to me (her POA), and I’ve got to track how much I’ve got of the statements, 1099’s, etc., I need vs what I’ve got and when I get it all, schlep it over to the accountant. While I’m going through chemo. Yep. Thank goodness her accountant sent a checklist. He also moved from about five blocks away to 126th street, which is WAY the heck over on the complete other side of town (we technically live on 17th street. I’ll need to pack a lunch for the trip.)

The estate sale people finally came and got the stuff they’re selling for me. The lady I’m selling the bed to still has one more payment to make and they need to come get the bed. Like yesterday. There’s no room for it in the new apartment and I think they’ve already gotten this apartment leased, so it needs to be taken to its new home tout de suite

So, Monday, take mom’s mail over, snatch some lunch, see the oncologist, and stop at the grocery store on the way back for almond milk and butter. Tuesday is general rounding up the turtles day. I’m going to do another wardrobe cull. Wednesday, I see the cardiologist. I need to do a Walmart run afterward for shelf liner, toilet paper, and other such essentials, and drop off the stuff I’m donating to Goodwill. I’m also supposed to be getting the key to a move-in-ready apartment. That’s when the schlepping starts. Pictures, start coming down and I start taking whatnots and objets d’art over. Thursday the packers come and pack dishes and the contents of my china cabinet. I can line shelves and drawers that afternoon. Friday the movers come. They’ll put my clothes in those closet boxes and the books in these stacks of drawers on wheels. Those are the major time and energy eaters to unpack and put away. I’ve already plotted out where 98% of my furniture goes. (The one thing I haven’t figured out where to put yet is my yarn stash.) That gives me the rest of Friday, Saturday and Sunday to unpack everything and put it away because chemo starts bright and early on Monday the 31st for three consecutive days. I will have to get with the movers about when they’re coming to pick up boxes and those stacks of drawers on rollers. of which there’ll probably be at least six. I know where I can stash the empty packing boxes. It’s those drawers on roller thingies once they’re emptied. Hopefully I can get them emptied and picked up by Monday afternoon.

I think tonight I might make a bowl of tuna salad. I’ve already “started” an onion that I “pulsed” some of in my little chopper thingie along with two of the three generous pieces of pork loin roast from lunch and mayo. I spread the result on crackers and cut up an apple for a “side” and had that for “tea” at mid afternoon. I also have some rice and navy beans left over from lunch, and I’ll add part of the onion I “started” to the navy beans in the time honored fashion. (Maybe I can score some cornbread at lunch tomorrow to have with the navy beans for supper.) I’ll pick up some naan when I make my Walmart run. When you cut a piece of naan in two and toast it in the toaster cut side down, it opens up nicely and I can have some pocket tuna salad sandwiches.

In the meantime, I’ve just been taking it easy, resting up, sitting quietly and knitting or reading, self isolating as much as I can what with Omicron, as well as all the lovely antibiotic-resistant bugs to be found among the elderly.

Lately, I’ve taken to watching French videos about Versailles and the various chateaux associated with the Bourbons. In French. I had three years of high-school French entirely too long ago, so most of it goes right over my head, but I like the sound of the language, and 80% of learning a language is training the ear and acquiring vocabulary. And the funny thing is, the longer I listen to them, the more I’ve started catching. I kind of got onto this kick because M. Habit, whose YouTube and Instagram channels I follow, after having lived in Chicago all his life, upped stakes and moved to Paris. His channels reflect this. I’ve traveled in France on two occasions, and have been to Paris briefly. France is one of those places, like Britain, where you can hardly turn around without tripping over something historic, ancient. Eh, bien. Tuna salad.

ACK! Math!

A friend wants to participate in this baby blanket KAL (Knit-A-Long) which (assuming you use the same kind of yarn and needles they use, and your number of stitches and rows per inch is the same as theirs) will result in a baby blanket that measures 36 x 52 inches. Only she doesn’t want to end up with a baby blanket. She wants to end up with a much narrower rectangular shawl. She knows I write knitting patterns so she sends me what she’s got so far of the KAL pattern and wants me to cut the width down.

My first break is that even though the blanket uses a whole bunch of different stitch patterns, all the stitch patterns have a 12-stitch repeat.  For a finished width of 36 inches (36.36 inches, actually), the cast on is 200 stitches, but 20 stitches of that is border (10 stitches on each side), which leaves 180 stitches (15 repeats) that I can play with.

My next break is the way the pattern is written. You’re supposed to put markers 10 stitches in from each side (for your borders) and then after you slip the first marker, you repeat from * to the next marker, so the number of stitches you have on a row is immaterial so long as the number of stitches between the two markers is evenly divisible by 12 (12-stitch pattern repeat). So I don’t have to rewrite the pattern; she can knit it as written.

The tricky bit is coming up with the number of stitches to get the desired width in inches.  Assuming you can get gauge (22 sts = 4 inches), you divide the total number of stitches you are to cast on by 22 and multiply the result by 4 to get total width in inches. Show your work:  

(number of stitches to cast on) = (20 stitches for the border) + (number of pattern repeats x 12 sts per repeat) = (number of stitches cast on divided by 22 sts x 4) = total width in inches.  

• 200 sts = 20 sts (borders) + 180 sts (15 x 12-st repeat) = 36 inches wide.
• 164 sts = 20 sts (borders) + 144 sts (12 x 12-st repeat) = 29.8 inches wide.
• 140 sts = 20 sts (borders) + 120 sts (10 x 12-st repeat) = 25.45 inches wide.
• 116 sts = 20 sts (borders) + 96 sts (8 x 12-st repeat) = 21. 9 inches wide.

Hows that for 9 o’clock in the morning?  

But wait! When I was talking to my friend last night, we got to talking about knitting and math, and I was talking about the Savannah Squares shawl and figuring out how big to make it. It’s a square shawl meant to be folded on the diagonal and worn bib stile around the neck. I’ve already determined that I need a diagonal length of 52 inches (130 cm) for it to hang like it’s supposed to.

Since it’s being knitted “in the round” (i.e., outward from a center point), what I’ve been doing is measuring from the center point of the square out to one corner and doubling that measurement.

But then I realized: The corners of a square are 90 degree angles by definition. Folding the square in half on the diagonal to get a triangular shape makes that triangular shape an equilateral right (45, 45, 90) triangle. So if I want to know how long the sides of the square have to be to get a diagonal of 52 inches — wait for it — I take the pythagorean theorem(!), make C=52, and solve for A and B where A=B! And guess what? There’s an app for that . . . (It’s 36.25 inches/92 cm, BTW)

I also realized I’m going to Need More Yarn. . . . so after my MRI tomorrow, I’ll have to beetle over to Michael’s because they carry the Red Heart Unforgettable yarn, and hope they have 2 skeins of that colorway like their website sez they do.

Little Wisdoms

Thought I’d share:

Changing sheets: Don’t bother trying to figure out which is the short or long edge of a fitted sheet before you put it on. Just grab a corner, check to see the sheet is right side out, and put it on. You have a 50% chance of it being the right corner. If you don’t get it right on the first try, you have a 100% chance of getting it right on the second try.

Do the bed by halves longways. Get the fitted sheet all the way on, then put half the top sheet on, and half the blanket/quilt on while you’re standing on one side of the bed. (This means you have to notice and remember how much the top sheet and blanket need to hang off the side of the mattress when they are centered on the bed!) Then go round to the other side and fix the top sheet and blanket/quilt on that side. The fewer times you have to walk around the bed, the better. Wait to tuck your top sheet in until you have your blanket/quilt on. Then you can tuck both in at the same time and you only have to lift each corner of the mattress once.

Emptying the trash: I used to keep all the boxes of different size trash bags together in a drawer. Then, when I’d go to empty the trash, I’d have to mentally go through the house and pull out a fresh bag for each of the various trash cans and waste baskets and carry them all around in my hand as I worked my way around, juggling the full bags and the fresh bags as I went. (I’d invariably forget to get the right number or size bags and have to go get them!) Nope! Discard the boxes and put the roll of bags in the bottom of the empty can they fit. If you have several waste baskets/trash cans the same size, get a roll of bags for each one. That way, you pull out the full bag, and there’s the roll of fresh bags right there. Pull off a fresh one, put it on, and you’re done. Also, put as many bags of trash inside other bags of trash as you can. Fewer bags to schlep around.

Dish washing: If you wash your dishes by hand, get one of those decorative soap/lotion pump bottles and put your dish washing liquid in it. That way, you don’t have to be bending down and getting your dish soap in and out from under the sink each time you wash dishes. You can leave it sitting out by the sink in your nice decorative pump bottle. One good “pump” of dish washing liquid is usually plenty to do a sink full of dishes. You’ll find you don’t use as much dish soap, which saves you money. Then, instead of buying a whole new bottle of dish soap each time you run out, you can buy the large economy “refiller” size of dish soap and refill your little pump bottle when you need to (which also saves you money and puts less plastic in the landfill!).

Clothes washing: When you’re starting a load of laundry in the washer and are getting out your laundry washing products, etc., get a dryer sheet out at the same time and toss it in the empty dryer. This saves you a step when you take the clothes out of the washer to put them in the dryer. (Better yet, get one of those “dryer balls” and just leave it in the dryer all the time. Then you won’t have to buy — and throw away — dryer sheets!)

Floors: There’s a reason those floor cleaning mops with pads and the special squirty stuff attached and those dusting wand gizmos are so cheap. The company makes their money on the bottles of special squirty stuff and single-use pad thingies you are constantly buying and throwing out. You can buy floor sweeper/moppers with cloth pads and microfiber dusting mitts, both of which you can wash in the washing machine and reuse. The mops and pads are a bit pricey, I’ll grant you, but then you can use the handle part for years and years, and those pads work great wet or dry on the LVF plank flooring that’s all the rage these days. Any cleaning accessory — cloth, mitt, pad — that you can wash and reuse will pay for itself in the money you save not having to constantly be buying single use/throw away supplies. And a trigger spray bottle of Pine-Sol or Windex works just as well as their special squirty stuff.

Bath Linens: When you buy a new set of towels, buy extra washcloths and hand towels — If you buy two bath towels, buy three wash cloths and hand towels. (The wash cloths and hand towels are what wear out first.) Leave the extra washcloth folded on the counter beside the bathroom sink to wipe down any water splashes on the counter, especially if you have hard water where you live.

Don’t use fabric softener when you wash your toweling. Fabric softener has silicon oil in it as an antistatic agent that gunks up the fabric and lessens the toweling’s absorbency. To keep your towels, hand towels, kitchen towels and washcloths soft and fluffy, add a half cup of distilled vinegar to the wash instead of fabric softener. Don’t use dryer sheets with your toweling for the same reason. Your towels will dry you (and themselves) much faster.

When you wash your bath mats, don’t dry them in the drier. Over time, the dryer heat will ruin the non-skid backing. After you wash them, throw them right-side-up over the top of the shower stall or over the shower curtain rod and let them dry in the air. Then, your bath mats will last as long as the towels you matched them to so carefully!

Remember: Styrofoam is forever. It and most other plastics takes centuries to biodegrade, if at all. The world of plastic waste and trash you are creating now is the world your children and grandchildren will have to live in.

Reuse, repurpose, recycle.

Turkey and Other Cold Cuts

(Did I mention I hate the new WordPress block(head) editor? If it’s supposed to make using WordPress easier, it’s a spectacular failure. It’s harder to do everything than it used to be.)

It has been a rough week. Tuesday morning I was watching YouTube and knitting, and about 11 o’clock, my internet went down. The thing is, when my internet goes down, so does my VOIP land line, and my cable TV. After multiple calls to Suddenlink on my cellphone, I was told there was an outage in my area, and that it should be back up by morning. Come morning, no internet. We tried this and we rebooted that and we poked things with paperclips, and no joy. A technician was scheduled. He would be out Thursday morning. In the meantime, my only connection with the outside world was my cell phone, I had been without internet for going on 24 hours. I could not stream music, watch TV or connect to any of the usual suspects on the internet. If I had not already dowloaded a book to my Kindle, I couldn’t get to it to read it.

The Suddenlink technician was scheduled to come between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., which meant I had to get up at 7:30 to give me time to shower and otherwise accoutre myself like a respectable human bean. He called at 10:45 to say he was on his way. (From Midland, as it happens, which is 120 miles south of us.)(He’s trying to find an apartment in town. I don’t blame him. Heck of a commute.) We went through the spiel. He connected his little gizmo, and the line was deader than the proverbial door nail. There had, in truth, been an outage in my area, but it was fixed now so something else was going on. He went out to the alley to check the “war” and, lo, and behold, the “war” had been pulled completely loose from the pole. Some tall truck had evidently driven down the alley and snagged it. He not only reconnected it but replaced the “tap” which had been gnawed by squirrels, and was probably to blame for the intermittent loss of connection that has been driving me crazy for months. He also moved the tap higher up the pole which took up some of the slack in the line to the house.

Just like you don’t realize how much you depend on electricity, you don’t realize how much you depend on internet until you don’t have it. I’d think, well, I could do this — but no I couldn’t. No internet access. I’m telling you. I was about to the point of hunting out that CD player I’ve stuck up in the closet somewhere and playing one of the CD’s I have stockpiled. Unfortunately, I cannot afford a cell phone plan with unlimited data, or I could have streamed music over my phone. (I wonder if I ought to look into getting one of those solar phone charger gizmos?)