Monday, July 05, 2010
I've not been keeping up with the blog--basically, the time has come when I have to make a decision about the dial-up.
So what have I been up to? Well, I've got the garden that is doing well despite the dry weather. Been taking some huge mutant straight neck squash from one of my plants. Unfortunately, I planted it too close to the giant pumpkins, so the seed will not breed true. You would not believe the size of these things--over a foot long and still green, tender and delicious just like a small baby squash. Beautiful new Yukon Gold potatoes. Corn is high and tasseling. But the varmints are eating my green tomatoes. I think it's the damn crows. It escapes me exactly why we aren't supposed to kill them. Is there anything good about a crow? But I've got bird netting that I will put up to stop that nonsense. My blackberries are bearing something incredible and I've been trying to keep ahead of them--arms scratched and bleeding. Vicious, hard-won fruit are blackberries, but I love the dark, sweet taste of them.
I've been busy. Lupus is kicking my but these days, but I refuse to let it get the best of me. I just wish walking weren't such an effort--I long to have quick light feet with no pain.
I've got a few stories to plug. Will do that in their own posts. I've been concentrating more on print journals. It's not that I think print is better than online, but I do like to keep a balance between them. Working on my Appalachian collection and getting queries out. Okay, been sort of lazy about that.
But life is overall very good, except for the health thing and the dial-up thing
It looks like I'm going to have to figure out a way to afford satellite if I want to continue to do things online. I've been saying for a while now that AT & T (aka The Evil Empire) would eventually shut us rural beings out completely and I think that time is now. It takes fifteen minutes to load my email. Further, they charge me an outrageous amount of money to make long distance phone calls. I made one long distance phone call in the past three months--to my sister--and they charged me almost fifty dollars. In this day and age of unlimited long distance, it's outrageous. I hate them. I can't afford on a fixed income to keep in touch with family and friends and I hate it that people think I'm ignoring them. I'm not. I just don't have the money to pay AT & T. If the government thinks AT &T will release their stranglehold on rural phone lines--we seem to be something of a cash cow to them--well, they are adorable.
So. If you've tried to reach me via Facebook--I cannot reply to email there. I try to reply from other places I still can use like Zoetrope, so check your mailbox and you might have a reply there from me. 24K dial-up no longer works on FB. And I have to shut down my computer every time I go there.
Hope everyone had a great Fourth. We shot fireworks off the bluff!
But I remember, almost a decade ago I lived in Rural Wyoming for a while, and not even AT & T wanted to provide rural phone service there. There were towns that has never HAD phone service! The only company that would touch the rural phone market in Wyoming (lessthan a hindred thouseand people in the whole state) was New West or some name like that, and their idea was to charge you more than it cost to do anything at all. So, new service connected? More than a grand. What to make a phone call from a pay phone? that will be $5.
It was BEYOND INFURIATING!
So, wait, I guess I have SOME idea of what you are facing. AM I right to think that the only way to correct this is federal legislation, along the lines of the rural electrification of the thirties? Where the profits from the cities OFFSET the expenses of the rural areas?
I'm writing a bit more these days - another Maggie & Della story and a dystopian fantasy as well.
Enjoy the garden. Mine's being trampled by house painters!
Hugs, Margy
I live across the mountain from you.I have Hughes Net for satellite and it is pretty good. I also have had Starband, and although I left them, they were not so bad either. Of course, It comes with a price. I think the entry level is somewhere around $60 a mo. Our long distance is $89 a mo., all inclusive from ATT. I do not know if some of these new internet phones would work well with the satellite service, but that is a thought. If your sister has internet you could always talk over the computer with Windows Live messenger, or probably a hundred other programs. Also, I do not know who your doctor is, but I have a Rheumatologist in Knoxville who is associated with the University. His name is Dr. Thomas Namey and he is the best I have ever gone to. He was the one that figured out I had Ankylosing Spondylitis after all these years. He believes in inexpensive medicines and as I said, he is terriffic. Don't know if I helped, but I understand your situation as I am in Del Rio.
Dianne