Technical Difficulties

June 10

I was frantic from 2 P.M. yesterday until a few minutes ago. Something had happened to my new little laptop, and for the first time since I began working with it (in February) I couldn't get email or get on the Internet. Heaven forfend!

I called the tech service for Mac and had a good conversation for almost an hour, the upshot of which was that the problem was not with the hardware. I was instructed to call my Internet provider and tell them the situation and describe what the techie and I had tested. Of course the Internet provider's telephone availability was through a menu of recorded options. I never got to talk to anyone, but found that service was out in my area. I had to wait.

It was frustrating going online and finding no way to read email or check the blog or take my usual path through Google and the site meter to find out how my blog is doing. I took it as an opportunity not to overfocus on this minor aspect of my life, but like all addictions it is the most important minor aspect of my life at the moment. Pathetic, but true.

Couldn't get on.

Then I noticed one of the icons the techie had showed me was the "wrong" color. I clicked on it, it turned the right color, and displayed the message, "Turn Airport On." I checked that, it activated my Internet connection, and I was saved. End of the story is that, even without a new post on the blog, I have had the normal amount of hits. Not very many, but quite enough for me. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something fun for y'all to read. Thanks for hanging in there.

And for you first-timers, I usually write about what Fairhope means to me, what the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education means to me, what history means to everybody, and what it's like to carry the baggage of the 20th Century on into the 21st. I think that's about it.

Oh, and if you like Anderson Cooper, Upton Sinclair, Winifred Duncan, Craig Sheldon and people like that, you'll have a lot to read about. Welcome aboard.