Yesterday I woke up to no phone and no TV. I felt like I was on Little House on the Prairie. O the humanity!

On Christmas, my mother's friend Joan called to say Merry Christmas and so on, and after that, the phone was dead. I'd think that it was her fault, except that there was a gigantic rainstorm going on at the time that might have had a little something to do with it.

As an aside, on the TV they kept talking about how it was the first rainy Christmas in twenty years here in the southland. We Angelinos think that a sunny Christmas is our birthright, so the rain was the top story.

Anyway, I called the phone company and the poor woman who had to work on Christmas day said that someone would come out to fix it yesterday before 8p. Yes, that was not between something and 8p, just sometime before 8p, that was most exact she could be in predicting his arrival.

So we sat around all day, sadly waiting for the phone repairman, unable to leave the house, and more importantly, unable to check our email. Now would have been a swell time for my new email-checking phone to be working, but alas, it is not and I am very sad.

Anyway, around 6.30p I called the phone company to ask if they would be getting there at 7.59p, and the guy told me that they found out that it was a neighbourhood problem, all of the phones are out, so they are working on it night and day and they guaranteed that it would be fixed no later than 30 December. Argh!

No email until 30 December? Even if my cell phone does in fact switch over to the new plan so that I can check my email, it will still be very difficult to survive. I think I'm having a hard time with the love of my life acting like an ass (no call, no email, he's probably having another nervous breakdown), that's nothing compared to the agony of having no web access.

I went to Kinko's and checked my email last night. There wasn't anything interesting. This is not, however, the point. Also, I caught up on my entries at last but cannot upload them, as they are trapped in my computer! What am I, Job?

There was no TV because the cable guys were here giving us new cable--I mean literally, the cables were being replaced. They were 40 years old, after all, so it was understandable that they were getting a little bit fuzzy.

They had to go into the closet under the stairs in order to run the new cable, which meant that we had to clean out the closet under the stairs, an interesting experience. I was being ruthless, telling Mom to throw everything out, and she was finding that almost everything was vital to her existence and must be kept. I certainly know where my packrat tendencies come from.

We found a will that my father didn't fill out in 1962. Mom said that he only finally made a will in 1996 when he was going to be roto-rootered and as he was being wheeled into the operating room, he was filling it out and the orderlies were witnessing it. It took him 34 years to make a will. I certainly know where my procrastination tendencies come from.

We found some old address books, which were cool, back from when everyone have letters in their phone numbers. Mom found the Brooklyn address of her first great love, Arthur Ziegler, Ziggy, who was in the American Army in Belgium and who unexpectedly died. His last words to her the last time they saw each other was "I will never be parted from you again." A couple days later, he was dead. I certainly know where my romantic heart comes from now, too.

Most peculiar thing seen last night on the Kennedy Centre Honors? Florence Henderson, who, when exhorted to shake her moneymaker during the James Brown tribute, proceeded to shake her moneymaker with great enthusiasm.

Mrs. Brady got soul!

Today's horoscope:
Someone that you haven't seen in a while remarks on your changes. If the words feel uncomfortable, at least you welcome the perspective. Events are likely to remain unsettled until early in the New Year.

One year ago today:
Richard thought that the funniest thing was the camouflage underwear, for when you are playing hard-to-get, "I'm somewhere on the bed, but you can't see me!"

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Last Updated Fri 26 December 22:36:09 2003