Ahhhhhh

Ever since midmorning yesterday, every attempt to dial in to my ISP has gotten me the message

Error: 650

The computer you're dialing in to does not respond to a network request.
Check your server type setting in the properties of the connection.
If this problem persists, check with your network administrator.

And when I tried this morning (gah, I hate insomnia), I got the same response! But now I'm here! I'm really here! ::kisses the virtual ground::

Ahem. As for the rest of my life: Most of the phone calls I've been making (all of the housing-related ones) have ended with "We can't give you that kind of help, but here are two more phone numbers of people who might help you," which phone numbers get me more of the same. Maybe it'll get to the point where I can create my own shelter out of the scraps of paper listing all the phone numbers I've been given.

Also, my health still stinks. I suppose I should be grateful that I don't seem to have anything directly life-threatening, but when my condition saps my energy and keeps me from doing the things I need to do in order to live, it's life-threatening in its own way.

But now that I'm back online I can look up even more phone numbers all by myself!

You know, this really does get tiresome after a while.

But again on the plus side

The ISP didn't block my way this morning! I'm here!

Also, yesterday's weather featured some beautifully dramatic clouds blowing in the breeze. Had the wrong timing for seeing the sunset--buying glamorous things like toilet paper keeps one indoors at the most inconvenient times. Today should be partly cloudy, highs in the low 80s, decent walking weather for late summer.

Still have plenty of food. Not always food one wants to eat (canned beets? canned beets?!), yet it is food all the same. There are frozen raspberries here.

Last night's new episode of The Apprentice was good entertainment, even though TV would be better off if there were more good shows with plots and fewer reality shows.

Last night's internet uselessness gave me a good excuse to call grrwoo, though of course he was much less interested in the phone after a week of having no other way to communicate. (Here's hoping all you Floridian friends are spared Ivan.)

As of yesterday, butterflies still decorate the world, or at least they were fluttering around in this part of it.

Just heard geese flying overhead.

For now, my CD collection is still accessible, as is a small fraction of my book collection.

I'm online!

(no subject)

Whee! Even after hanging up from the morning round of phone calls (mostly to voice mail, though I managed to make one appointment with a real person), I could get back online with no trouble! ::kisses virtual ground again::

But people are probably straggling back to their offices after lunch now, so it's probably time to get offline again. Now, should I make more phone calls or should I go camp out at social services and demand to find out if I have a caseworker and what they can do for me if such a person exists? Which activity would increase my day's frustration quotient most efficiently?

Normally I refuse to pay a math tax unless the estimated annuity value is more than $250 million, but I'm really really tempted to buy a lottery ticket now that other options seem more and more fruitless. Yes, I know what the odds are, which is why I generally refuse to buy the stupid tickets.

On happier topics, linguistics geeks who haven't already seen it should go play The 34 Languages of McDonald's.

Also, I really meant to link to the NSA Coloring Book before now. Go CryptoCat! As yasminke pointed out, you can follow links to other kids pages at the CIA and FBI.