the "D" word

Now, I am not one who is given to swearing. Rather, I strongly feel that it takes a much higher level of intelligence to use appropriately descriptive words to voice frustration instead of just spitting out some apparently naughty word that may or may not fit the occasion.

Having said this, I want to introduce you to the new "D" word in my vocabulary, a word that comes to my mind as being most vile and descriptive of bad feelings. That word is... "dial-up".

Living just 8 miles from town, you would think that technology would have reached us by now. But, in fact, we don't even have access to cable TV, which has been around for a few decades now. I have been questioned enough by well-meaning people, that I routinely check to see what is available at my address in the way of internet service. To date, I can either go with my phone line, or I can pay an outlandish monthly sum for satellite. Neither option is appealing, so we stick with what our budget can handle. Dial up.

So, as technology advances, and high speed internet connections become the normal in our country, web sites are apparently upgrading, adding all kinds of great features which, in turn, make them almost impossible to open. And lately, it has become painfully more noticeable. Dial up!

I, therefore, have been on a mission for the past week or so to do whatever I can to speed up this "ancient" 4 year old computer of ours by dumping any excess programs, running a defrag program, and making sure that our anti-virus program is up to date. All to no avail, so far as speeding things up. And I have been muttering my new bad word over and over in my head until it no longer sounds like a word at all.

Finally, as a last resort, last evening I committed our phone line to a lengthy 4 hour download process in order to get our Internet Explorer completely up to speed (sorry anyone who may have been trying to call lately!). It seems to have improved our speed quite nicely- to a bearable rate, anyway- it would still seem painfully slow to all of you in the land of DSL. So I can once again sign on to my blogger account and navigate with success through the necessary sites for me to feel connected to the real world.

For all of you who have forgotten so soon what it was like to be confined to a phone line for your internet connection, please let this be a reminder to you, and QUIT SENDING ME RIDICULOUSLY LARGE EMAILS! Or you might have to read through another tirade about the lack of high speed technology in the boondocks.