Due diligence: Posting Thursday, July 18

What's worse than another hot day? How about losing the landline (not such a big deal when one isn't expecting visitors or deliveries) AND the internet just before noon. Arrgghh. So aggravating to be semi-isolated. Obviously, not completely, as I can still use my Sillyphone ... though the screen size is for dolls not blind people. ::sighs:: And I'd never figured out how to post to DW, let alone cross-post to LJ. ::sighs some more::

At least I was able to keep myself somewhat entertained. I've got ebooks I bought mega years ago, so that was one resource. Though I can't figure out how to unPDF them because the print is too small for me to read now. And I finally watched the 1997 documentary "Sick", about Bob Flanagan, ( cut for description of unorthodox sexual practices )

The heat got to me by the middle of the day. Unable to stand the weight of the heavy, thick braid against my neck, I took my haircutting scissors and chopped the braid off. As a visit to the salon is not in this month's budget, I'll have to live with the ragged look for a while; though at least the humidity puts in loads of curls, thereby disguising the hack job. Washing my hair was so simple. Yay. Well, until the onset of winter and lifeless locks.

I exchanged texts with Church-John about the shockingly ungrammatical clues in my crossword app. Gee, so now "the" and "an" are prepositions????? What's even worse is that the app was originally created for a UK clientele. Well, it appears that language skills are deteriorating on both sides of the pond. ::releases a long-suffering sigh::

I've just sprayed Evian over my face (having replaced the nozzle) and I'm going to crawl onto my bed. Sleep, please claim me now.

Due diligence: Posting Friday, July 19

Up at 7 (because of the stupid heat) and started off my internet-less day ::wails:: by watching “Milk” (released in 2008) before breakfast. I think of the parallels between Harvey's life and Brent's – as gay activists - and feel so blessed and grateful that, though Brent received death threats over the decades (needing to wear a bullet-proof vest on Pride Day), he was never stopped by anything lethal.

After that, I drank my ice-cold coffee (every little bit helps) and then placed my meal order. They changed the menu, discontinuing some of my faves (wah, no more French onion soup), but adding lots more entrées. So I was brave (why do I keep typing “grave”?) and ordered 7 brand new dishes. I guess I'll be experimenting.

Then I had a nostalgic fix, watching ALL of Clay Aiken's performances from AI2. I'm glad he had a successful music career (as well as the UN/UNICEF? role) and hope he's having a good life with his son.

I got to the point where I couldn't watch anything, so I pulled up my WIP and actually started writing. The story is still in its early stages – no kidding – but even a little improvement is better than nothing.

Finally, finally, FINALLY, the telephone guy showed up AFTER I'd called the building managers and gotten into a really strange conversation where the woman was telling me that THEY didn't have their landline but that the phone repair people weren't going to show up until Saturday. The phone guy determined that the problem wasn't in the unit, so went hunting for the super. When he returned, he confirmed it was a building-wide outage. That, apparently, the building was doing a scheduled renovation/change of the phone system. Uh ... can I shriek now? So, the building does something like this without any notice? Talk about irresponsible. And what about people who don't have cellphones and don't realize they've been cut off? Seriously, this is NOT how one runs anything.

Anyway, now that he'd come and gone, I was able to finally get in the shower. It was so hot (though I can't tell without my Yahoo Weather) that I was just guzzling ice water. And I inadvertently found two more canisters (one purse-sized, one medium) of Evian ... while looking for curling hair gel. Oh, well, at least I found ... something.

In the early evening, it was thundering (yaaaaaay) and it rained a bit, so there was a cool breeze outside. Please let it last through the entire weekend. I'm having some of the truffles from church-John as a dessert, chased down with red wine. I read somewhere that this is a good combination. We'll see.

Once I'd cooled off (not much), I continued with my nostalgic trip. I watched Atom Egoyan's 1984 film, “Next of Kin”. A bare 70 minutes long, I first saw it at the Toronto Film Festival where I met the writer/director (we continued our banter for many years). It's a sweetly subversive film about Peter, an aimless 23-year old who spends his life pretending, while living at home. By chance, he learns of an Armenian family who grieves the son they had to give up at birth. So he decides to pretend to be that son. He finds a purpose in belonging to that family and reconciling a belligerent daughter and an obstinate father. Plus ... oh ... all that Armenian food on display. Yum – I wish!

Later, still on the lookout for diversions (and feeling hot – again), I watched a couple of recommended vids on my YouTube app. I'd never heard of Course of the Force until this summer. I saw an interview with Molly Quinn (of Castle) dressed in her version of Mara Jade and then one with Chris Colfer (everyone knows him, right?) who was wearing an I ♥ Wookie tee, along with a pendant of Chewie (from the 1970s) and cool bonus Chewie backpack!

Ack. Now I'm really hot (and the monitor isn't helping), but I really want to watch something else. Perhaps a couple episodes of S4 Glee? Could be. And then I hope some decent sleep again.

Due diligence: Posting Saturday, July 20

Up after 8. I'm still amazed at how well I'm sleeping. After brekkie, I decided to watch a 90-minute MacGyver TV movie, "Lost Treasure of Atlantis", from 1994. I'd seen it before years ago, so could barely remember anything. But what I hadn't noticed until this time was the writer's name. John Sheppard. Yup. Identical spelling. So I'm wondering whether RDA appreciated him SO much he used his name for his headliner character in SGA. Whatever the reason, I was tickled pink.

Internet/phone still not restored by noon, so I'm going to wash some dishes. ::sighs::

Still no connection, so I've watched another two epis of S4 Glee of which I feel little. After my shower, still another two epis. It feels weird watching all of these Finn-centric epis after Cory's death.

Eeeeeek! I ended up watching a total of eight Glee epis all day long. Please, universe, give me back the internet!!!!!

Due diligence: Posting Sunday, July 21

Oh, joy. An almost tolerable night. At least it was fun to put the humidity to good use on my hair, with a bonus spritz of Evian. I watched an epi of Glee (yup, still going strong) while eating brekkie. Well, without my customary diversions, I just had to do ... something.

I wore my black on black on black ensemble, paired with my crystal chandelier earrings and my designer crystal & black round ball necklace. Yay. Add to that my perky hairdo and I was feeling mighty fine. When I got to church, I got oodles of compliments on the hair. It's been a while and it felt good.

Brent was away on vacay so the daughter of one of our ministers spoke. She's an old hand at this, but she was at her most vulnerable today, talking about how she had all these unanswered questions about God (which is common considering how all over the place we are theologically at MCCs) and actually envied people from more fundamentalist backgrounds. I was on duty and it felt really good. I had some really special moments, including one young woman coming for anointing and gently rubbing MY arms as if to comfort me while I was giving her my blessing!

I had loads of time to spare before my pickup time, so sat outside and chatted with people I knew and complete strangers. It felt good. Hey, this was a feel-good day. ::giggles::

When I got home, of course I was disheartened by the lack (still) of internot (YES, deliberate misspelling!). I fumbled around on my phone and added the LJ app; but, then, managed to log on to DW and made a MIA post so people wouldn't be worried I'd gone into outer space suddenly. It felt good to post, but the method is horribly awkward. I'm hoping there might be a way for me to speak and have my words transcribed. Well, looky here, how necessity (uh ... desperation?) is the mother of invention. Or at least weird blonde distraction.

As should come as no surprise, I've watched nearly all of S4 of Glee by tonight. It's really ironic and tragic that so much of Cory's S4 role was as a party dude. Considering his difficulties with substance abuse, how horrible to be even playing a guy who lived to party. It's really sad.

I'm just waiting for my phone to recharge and then I'm going to try to read (catching up) via my LJ app. And then beddies.

Due diligence: Posting Monday, July 22

A brand-new week but with stupid headaches carried forward. Ugh. I woke up shortly after 7, the sun much too strong as it streamed in. I finished watching all of S4 Glee and am now faced with ... I don't know what I have a hankering for ... unless it's MY internot restored immediately!

Apparently there had been a kerfuffle at the super's door yesterday while I was at church. There were a few tenants paying a friendly visit. But I don't know whether he gave them any conciliatory news.

In more saved TV show watching, I rewatched an S4 N.C.I.S., mostly for Abby's reactions. And then spent the rest of the evening watching the Family Guy specials recreating the original “Star Wars” trilogy. I also tried using my Sillyphone a lot, but am just about ready to recharge it for the third time today. And let's just say the jump in usage was pretty drastic over the last couple of days. ::sighs:: OTOH, hello little prince. And that leaves me with boring old bed.

Due diligence: Posting Tuesday, July 23

My post 7 a.m. natural waking pattern continues. However, so does the electronic mess, including a temperamental (probably overworked) poor Liblikas. Yesterday, the DVD drive wasn't working properly, with audio only when I tried to play a movie. This morning, I managed to get the movie to play ... until my screen froze seven minutes in. As I couldn't even extract the DVD, I had to do a hard boot. Poor Liblikas. Sorry, baby. And now I'm afraid to insert another DVD. ::sighs::

I had a mini panic attack because I couldn't find my latest meds. Ack! So I removed my keyboard from the drawer and found my two missing special hairclips (which I no longer need now that I chopped off my hair); then I found my missing monocular. Uh ... just WHAT was it doing sitting behind my monitor? ::groans:: I removed my keyboard again as well as the old one underneath it, and found my box of meds. Whew! Now all I'm still missing is the battery compartment door to my mouse – and a book borrowed from a church friend. After that mini freak-out, I decided to watch another movie, keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, good, I was able to watch the “Glee 3D Movie” though I found the bass to be quite overpowering. Now what? Well, I can do my eyedrops and drink my ice-cold coffee.

Oh, yaaaaaaaay. The phone repair guy came up before 2. Supposedly the building-wide problem had JUST been fixed. Let me growl at them a bit more. So the phone was hooked up and I waited to receive the confirmation call. Now I just have to wait for all the cords and splitters to be put together and then I will have my lovely internet back.

So, I got my internet back but it was a realllllly slow thing. I still can't raise LJ, so I'm wondering if it's active at all. Even the phone APP is only showing entries as of July 21. I'm so confused.

Instead I spent more time working on my McShep fic. I finally put a lot of meat and muscle onto those bones and reorganized the flow. Though I really hated being disconnected, at least I managed to put the time away from all of you to good use. But, hey, I'd rather have BOTH.

All caught up. Oh my poor eyes.

Well, it took the rest of the afternoon and evening to go through FB ... and I don't even have a gajillion FB friends. But I guess I have enough, especially those who are heavily invested in social causes.

The day started off so weirdly. Because the temp dropped drastically in the night (and I didn't have adequate bed coverings), I woke up in the middle of a very unpleasant nightmare (yes, duh, of course nightmares are unpleasant). My hands were being attacked by vicious rats (ugh), covered in punctures. And then there was something about some weird flying thing that I'd managed to stab. Yuck. So I was relieved to get out of bed and warm up with brekkie. Also, NO iced coffee today. Nuh-huh.

I was dismayed to find out the phone line wasn't connected, so I rushed downstairs just before 10 to await my meal delivery. I was lucky that I only had to wait about 12 minutes. After that, I trudged back upstairs and investigated the contents of the new menu. My first experiment will be tomorrow morning.

Now that I'm all tired out from reading and posting a few comments, I'm hitting the bed. And pulling up the comforter. And that's a wrap from me. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find out why I can't even get LJ. I believe there was something about suppressing Russian IPs ... but, hey, I'm in Canada. If someone knows something, please share.