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The day of my last blog entry, my Internet connection died. After dealing with my ISP telephone tech support for literally a couple of hours, we determined that my modem had died. It was still under warranty, so they sent me a new one. I installed it, and nothing happened. Another hour or so with tech support, and we guessed that the NIC card had died. I took my little electronic baby to the shop, and they ended up having to reinstall my operating system. Tonight, after an amazingly short call to tech support, I'm back online! Hallelujah!

Besides missing blogging, email and all that fun stuff, lacking cable and only picking up one local channel, the Internet is how I stay current with the news. It is relatively amazing how less stressed one feels when you don't know what's happening in the outside world. I'm not convinced blissful ignorance is worth it, and my news obsessed friend who's been keeping me current is a died in the wool Republican. I've hated not being able to keep up my side (which is, of course, the side of truth, justice and the American way) of our decades old political debate.

The womanchild and I are making some very tentative headway into re-establishing our formerly close relationship. She actually asked to see and talk to me yesterday, even though she told me she didn't know why she was talking to me. It's a start, and that's all I can ask for. She's having a hard time right now dealing with her freshman year in college, boyfriend trouble, and mom trouble on top of dealing with her own grief (though she's assured me that she's dealing with losing her father and with me). She turns 18 in just a couple of days, and I can't make everything all right anymore, even though I wish I could. We're still awkwardly hurting each other, and keeping faith that we can work through this is well ... ongoing is the best word.

Besides that, the last couple of weeks have held no greater catastrophe other than one of the cats having a wicked combination of flatulence and diarrhea. Cleaning up A Lot of poop has been an easier challenge in comparison to some of the others I've managed lately. There's no car in the picture yet, and the cooler temperatures and lower humidity have made my walks much more enjoyable.

I also had my follow up visit with the neurologist, and the best explanation for my spate of migraines, dizzy spells and numbness is still stress. Now he wants to do an EMG and a CAT scan, and I'm unconvinced of the necessity. I've certainly had a hearty helping of stress inducers in my life, and I'm just beginning to feel able to manage them.

To sum up, my current status is alive, on line and hanging in there. I may be white knuckled, but my grip is still holding.