Run For Cover

The week is not yet over and I am ready to...well, I won't go into what I am ready to do.

Let me set this up for you.  Last Sunday was one of the best days of my life because my driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., won the Daytona 500.  For me and the rest of Junior Nation that was huge.  More than anyone can imagine even if they are not a fan of his.

So, I was walking on air.  Elated to the max.  And then Monday morning came and lowered the boom.

We did not get a newspaper.  Now, I know a lot of you out there will say, big deal, it's just a newspaper.  I have grown up with a paper and in my later years I appreciate a good, hot cup of coffee and the morning newspaper.  And when that doesn't happen, this woman is mighty pissed.

With all my ranting and raving, my husband started making phone calls.  We knew our regular motor carrier stopped delivering about a week ago and we stupidly thought a new carrier would take over and the transition would be smooth.  Yeah...right.  Try and hunt down an apparition.  Because that is what our local newspaper has become since they were bought out awhile ago by another huge newspaper located in Chicago. It is the only newspaper in Lehigh County and surrounding counties as well.  Needless to say, my husband got nowhere.  Oh, but we did get a paper delivered later in the day.

Come Tuesday and again no newspaper.  More phone calls.  It was delivered later in the day as well.  The same thing happened on Wednesday.  Finally, on Thursday (today) we didn't have to call.  Fingers crossed that the problem has been resolved.

During all that I also had a sick cat.  With all the upchucking that was going on for a week or two, I thought all four were responsible.  It turned out that only one was, but she was so good at hiding the fact she wasn't feeling well that it took witnessing it actually happening to realize which one it was.  By then, she was also squirting liquid out the other end.  In the litter box, thank goodness.  That went on all day Tuesday and she slept most of the day between potty breaks.  I didn't let her out of my sight that day.  I told my husband if she wasn't better in the morning we would call the vet.  There was no need to do that because she was back to her normal self the following morning.  And by now you would never know she had ever been sick.  But that is what I was dealing with while the newspaper dilemma was going on.

Wednesday morning, making sure Dakota was OK, I wanted to check my Email before we went grocery shopping.  To my surprise I could not access my account.  When we came back from shopping that was where I headed.  Still no access.  I fired up my laptop and started researching why I was not getting mail.  Believe me, I tried everything I could think of and then some and worked into the wee hours of the morning.  So that when I awoke this morning (Thursday) the first thing on my mind was my mail.  When I got all my morning chores done I worked on more things I had thought of with a clearer mind.

Nothing I did worked, so I caved and got in touch with my server.  Well, they saw some pretty mysterious stuff going on with my account, like Emails flying out left and right supposedly being sent by me.  So they shut down my account.  And didn't tell me.  Just the Email account as I still had access to the Internet.  After I got in touch with them, they called me back and told me my address and password were compromised.  Holy sh*t!  I panicked.  But with their help my password was changed and all is well with the world again.

And just to cap off all this craziness, when I went outside to take care of the cats this morning I discovered that the large heated water bowl we recently bought apparently gave up the ghost because there was a huge chunk of ice in it.  I could have cried.  Actually, I think I did a little bit.  The temperature tonight is going down close to zero or less and the wind chill will be somewhere in the vicinity of minus 25.  Of all the times for something like that to happen.  Life is not being very fair right now.

So, yes, I am ready to run for cover...