Household Chores, Offshored Idiots, and Pain

A very busy and stressful time recently.

I'm sore. Probably because of the scrubbing given to the kitchen, dining room and back entry floors yesterday (which hubby refers to as our "front door"). I was taught that proper scrubbing could only be accomplished with a sponge, and bucket of disinfectant and hot water, while on one's hands and knees. All other cleaning of a non-carpeted floor was always referred to as "damp mopping" and was considered a quick cleanup. Last evening was rough. Today is rougher as my muscles join in the rampaging choir with my aching joints.

Creating more oil paintings was put on hold while I spent a week in Louisville with daughter's clan. The week before that was spent ensuring that middle grandson could spend at least one more week per year being the "only child" while staying with us. He's going to Washington D.C. with his school group this week. I'm sure that will be more fun than anything we could have come up with here, although we did do a few art projects.

Not much could be more stressful than attempting to get compromised credit and debit cards straightened out, or fixing a software error, while speaking with "Haysoos in Hindu". Every American company that offshores customer service should be taxed TRIPLE with huge fees levied for each person employed in the offshored office. Speaking understandable ENGLISH should also be a requirement. After going through their scripts of possible fixes for the offending issue, the bottom seems to read, "I'm sorry but it is your problem and not one we can fix here". The writers of said scripts should be sent to winter camps in Siberia - or hell-hot Atlanta in August - until they learn to fix the problems the companies they represent have created.

Enough ranting for the moment. I'm off to a hot soak in the tub to ease my aches and pains.

Follow me on Twitter for more rants. Or niceties. Depends on the day. www.twitter.com/lindajhutchinso

Frustrations, muscle spasms, and need to sleep a lot

This has been a horrendously difficult day, both physically and mentally. I've been on the verge of tears since this morning. And once again, it can all be traced back to my webhost. Add the pain from recent spine surgery and the picture becomes clearer.

I've wanted to switch to another host - one which would provide some semblance of customer service - for some time. I've not taken the chance that Tripod/Lycos (my nemesis) would register my domain name properly since they do so little properly that I've been registering it myself with NameCheap for years. Well, this year, Tripod caught that and decided to boot my site. They gave me two days notice.

Except that they will not release the authorization code or unlock the DNS code to do so. They will also not respond to emails, as usual. They do not provide telephone support.

So, my website is down. My email is down. And I have no hope that either will be back up anytime soon.

Several of my friends with more website building experience than I have have explained how simple it should be and that there should only be an hour or two of interruption. That I should just be able to dump Tripod and move to GoDaddy and be back up and running quickly. They've never dealt with Tripod/Lycos.

So, today, none of my meds are helping with muscle spasms or pain because I'm so stressed out. I want to sleep but can't. I want to take a shower and wash my hair, but can't because I can't raise my arms up over my head.

I'm going to write today off as a feel-sorry-for-myself day and move on.

Since Tripod is only open for business about 30 hours a week, my site may be back up and running sometime after Christmas, or New Years, or Easter.

In the meantime, if you'd like to contact me (DON'T SPAM ME OR I'LL SEND LUCIFER HIMSELF AFTER YOU! I'm in no mood to be messed with!), you'll need to use hutchlj@yahoo.com.

After almost 5 years of putting up with Tripod's crap because it was such a hassle to move my site, I truly, truly, understand why some go postal.

And hubby will have to drive me to have X-rays of my neck on Saturday so I can take them to my neurologist next week. Hubby will have to take time off work to drive me there, too. I haven't felt this trapped since I was 8 - the old tractor or my horse always got me where I needed to go.

To top it off, our Louisville family is falling by onesies and twosies with the flu, so dear hubby and I will probably be BBQing steak for our Christmas supper. Hope son can be home. He's always got a few friends who'd like a good meal.

Tomorrow has to be better.