Read at your own risk; Marianne's madder than a hatter.

DISCLAIMER: I think the spyware gods got into my computer and saw the venom I was typing cuz once I finished my blog and went outside for the fourth time to wipe off the satellite dish, the Internet miraculously started working again.

Still, I haven't changed my mind that they need to "build a better satellite." Of course, I haven't tried to post this yet. So, Lord willing, it will make it to your eyes at a reasonable time.

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Well, I’m sitting here spitting out expletives. When the s-bombs started flying through the house, Bill left for work quickly cuz he knew it was gonna get bad.

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Who knows when I’ll be able to post this morning’s submission to the blog. S-L-O-P (note the four-letter word starting with an “S” and you know what I’m really thinking on this morning when Ann Gehring had to send me a note and rub it in that she and Rick are headed off for Hawaii today) is falling from the sky, and, for the second time in 24-hours my Internet service does not work.

Weather plays no part in this, mind you. At least, that’s what I’ve been told during the dozen or so conversations I’ve had with the local provider since signing up for satellite Internet.

Still, as an eternal skeptic who doesn’t believe every Pinocchio who comes along, I’ve wiped off the satellite dish twice, with no results. My Internet was working 15 minutes ago, and, Lord knows, when it will again.

Yesterday afternoon, when it was off for two hours, I was told it was off at their office too, and, once more, received some careful glossing over of the weather factor. Yesterday’s story was that the head company does upgrades without telling the subsidiaries until about 20 hours later.

My question is why the upgrades always seem to happen when it’s raining or snowing, never on dry days. My further question is how many upgrades will be occurring during this snow/wet weather pattern. Where do they do these upgrades, and could these upgrades ever make a better satellite Internet.

I can’t believe that the television satellites work much better than the Internet satellites. Yes, an occasional wipe-off when the rain or snow is coming down heavily, and, yes, they admit that weather plays a factor with your television dish. When we signed up for satellite Internet, however, there was no disclaimer warning us to expect this when wet weather occurs.

Of course, when you sell equipment like this in North Idaho, where wet weather does occur with regularity, I’m sure it’s a lot different from other areas, so you keep your mouth shut about such possibilities. After all, when you sign folks, who’ve slogged along on dial-up forever and who think anything is an improvement over dial-up, you can neglect to throw in a few facts.

Those saps like us are so happy to see something happen faster than a snail’s pace they’ll be quiet for some time, at least until it rains or snows.

At this point, I would rank satellite Internet efficiency right up there with hearing aides and weed eaters.

What WAS I going to put on my blog that I can’t post today?

Oh yeah, I was in the midst of downloading a photo from Annie’s Flicker account to use as a teaser at the top. She had a great day again yesterday on her Ireland travels, and, again, she snapped some awesome photos. Again, her blog is www.rainiergirl.blogspot.com, and do check her Flicker link for ALL the photos.

I was probably going to talk about our tax meeting this afternoon with Bev, the accountant. I have reached a first this year----no interrogations from Bill on the day OF taking the stuff down there to drop on Bev’s desk.

I think I’ve finally figured out a system, and, of course, I’ve thought of every question he’s posed to me in the past and have tried to answer it with a neatly typed form, showing a great portion of our spending and earning for 2008.

We’re supposed to confirm with Bev that we’ll be there this afternoon at 4:45, and I plan to do that, with a little contingency request. Get us out of the office by 5:15 so we can get home, put the horses in the barn, grab a bite and sit down to watch the last regular season game for our ZAGS. They’ll be having their senior night tonight, and we don’t want to miss that.

I had a nice talk with Willie yesterday. He called just as I was buying stamps at the Kootenai Post Office. So, I said I’d call him back when I got to the car. Well, as I did, another pickup pulled up, and out stepped Julie and Amos Walkington. Seems Julie’s car wouldn’t start.

So, the situation presented a nice opportunity for Julie to talk for a quick minute to her classmate, Willie. They got their "howyadoin’s" over with, and then Mom and son proceeded to visit. We visited and visited, so much so that by the time I finally pulled away, Amos had tried several methods to start the car, Julie and he had left, Amos had come back, left, and come back again.

Finally, I said good bye to Willie, opened the window and assured Amos that I did not live there. I don’t know if they ever got that car started cuz he was still trying to figure it out when I drove off.

Well, I guess that’s enough for now. It may be tomorrow before I get to post this, and by then, it will be old news----just like the story they keep telling me about the weather and satellite Internet service.

Happy Tuesday from the grouch who’s finally lost her uncharacteristic patience for winter and stuff that does not work.