a breakup and some leaves

This started out as a post to fill the gap between times I had something to say, but it turned into a battle of wills between me and our ISP. I won. They lost our account. We haven't been able to upload photos for a long time, because--well, we don't know why. Downloading stuff wasn't so bad on a good day. On a bad day, we either had no Internet, or it came off and on intermittently. This was a problem for daltonboy, who needs to be able to upload photos to his Web site for his multitude of clients--preferably without throwing the computer across the room as part of the process.

Apparently our old ISP didn't care, because every time I called them (daily for a while) they asked, "Did you try turning your router off and turning it back on again?" That was the extent of their helpful advice, although they did encourage us to call them every time we had a problem, so that they could send someone out to check our box or whatever. Those phone conversations usually went like this:

Me: My Internet is really slow right now. You told me to call when it did this, so that you could come out and check.

Them: It's slow right now?

Me: Yes. Wait. It's fast again. It was slow for about fifteen minutes up until I dialed the phone.

Them: Did you try turning off your router and then turning it back on again?

Me: Yes. Well, not this time. I have tried it before with no results.

Them: But you say it's not slow right now?

Me: Well, it was slow three minutes ago. Wait. Now it's slow again. I'm not getting anything.

Them: Hmm. Could you try turning your router off and turning it back on again?

Me: Sure. I can try. Wait. Now it's fast again.

Them: Well, if you can give us a call when it's giving you problems, we can send someone out to take a look.

Me: Well, it's always giving me problems.

Them: Well, if it's not slow right now, we won't really be able to determine anything.

I told them I was getting ready to switch to a provider who could provide me with actual, reliable Internet service, but I wanted them to have a chance to fix things before I went off in a huff. They seemed to care about that in a lethargic, que sera, sera kind of way (see above). So I went off in a huff. And now we have Comcast, which is slower than what we had before, but at least I can get on the computer and upload my dang photos whenever I feel like it. And now you get to see them, in all their glory. Please take a long, thorough look. It took me a week and about fifteen hours of blood, sweat, and tears to get them on here for you to see.

Bags of leaves collected earlier this fall.

Leaves raked today (or . . . last week. You can't tell, but this pile is about two and a half feet high--it filled ten giant leaf bags).

Sampling of leaves yet to be raked. (Subsequently mostly blown into the neighbor's yard by a giant wind storm--yay!)

Leaves remaining on tree. (Still there. Mocking.)

Sometimes I want to forget about my carbon footprint and use a leaf blower.