Dead Zone

I live in a "Dead Zone".

I don't know why it is, but I can't get radio stations ... even local ones .. as clearly in my home as I can from my car after I've driven a few blocks.

When I decided to discontinue my telephone "land line" service and instead use a cell phone,  I couldn't use AOL Online as my IP; so I looked into the ability to use a 'wi-fi' connection.  No good; there are towers in my town, but their range extends to within 2 blocks of my home, but no closer; I couldn't use wi-fi connections.   I had to go to COMCAST CABLE to get a high-speed internet connection. 

And my Cell Phone is similarly problematic:  sometimes I hear from friends or family, and they say: "I tried to call you the other day, and you never picked up.  Are you mad at me or something?  Why are you avoiding my calls?"   I have to say ... "gee, the phone was turned on, the ringer was on HIGH, and I had it right in front of me on my desk.  It never rang, I have no record of your call.  I am not avoiding you!"

(Most of my friends have agreed to believe that I never got the call, if I agree to believe that they tried to call me.  That's what friends do.)

I go through washers and dryers every few years; they wear out faster than "Street Slick" tires on a Mopar Racing car.

I've installed LAN setups, twice,  to allow internet access from  my laptop computer via my my desktop.  They failed after a few months.  A few times I was able to re-activate them.  Eventually, they failed so frequently that I quit trying; now I have a 'gizmo' from Verizon which gives me (anywhere there's a cell tower) phone access to the Internet for my laptop ... which is quite expensive, but it works.  So far.

The Electrical Utility in my neighborhood has brown-outs "often" .. during the Winter (I don't know why in Winter, but there it is) it happens on almost a weekly basis.  During the rest of the year ... it still occurs about once a month.  The power company has replaced the local .. whatchamacallet, the power distribution thingie ... several times. It still happens. My computer dies even though I have an expensive UPS unit inline.  My VCR/DVD has to be reset, my clocks have to be reset  (which is why I have a LOT of battery powered clocks in my house).   I've only had total electrical failure a half-dozen times I've lived here.

When I replace a light bulb in my house, I always use a magic marker to record ON THE BULB when I last replaced it.  During the winter ... again ... I replace bulbs every two months "sometimes" because they blow out.  Not burn out .but blow out with a flash of white light when I turn them on.  I have very few bulbs which last more than a year; the exception is my porch light, which is a flourescent 'spriral' bulb.  I leave my porch light turned on 24/7/365 because it's cheaper than replacing it so often.  All the rest?  Sometimes, a light bulb lasts for six months.

I know I've talked about all this before, but not for a couple of years (I don't care to research the last time .. afraid it will kill my computer!) but sometimes I feel like "Joe Bftznicxkt" ... (sp) ... the little guy in the old Superman comic books who always has a dark cloud hanging over his head; if he didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have "no luck at all".

And lately (in the last 4 or 5 years), I have been suffering from insomnia and some kind of exzema or psoriasis on my hands ... not serious, either; just irritating.  I'm still working on that.

The latest thing?

I am writing this article in "normal" (12-point) type-font, but as I compose it looks like 16-point.  I have no idea what it's going to look like when I actually publish it, but my preview makes it look like bold type and a different font than I usually use.  Oh, yes, and my spell-checker?  It's high-lighting words that I know are spelled right; 4 of them in them in this paragraph alone.

So when I tell you that I live in a "Dark Zone"?  It's not really whining.  It's just a way of saying that ... if I someday just disappear?

Don't be surprised if you hear the faint notes from "The Twilight Zone" when you try to access this blog.