Friday Forum - July 6

Talk about the week from hell. I suppose I should feel lucky. I have had power since Sunday night. The two down days were among the hottest of the year, and my house was intolerable. I tried to sleep Saturday night in the basement, but Charlie was having none of that. He started howling - something was wrong - and wouldn't stop. I picked up the lounge chair cushion I had used for a bed and took it to the living room, still cooler than the upstairs. He was none too happy about that, refused to stay by my side, but stopped howling. I slept there until about midnight, after which I went to my bedroom. Was it hot!

I don't feel that lucky. Connecting to the Internet has been a challenge. I still have no high-speed Internet, and Verizon cannot even give me an estimated restore time. They are working on it - only in the wee hours of the morning, it appears. Although I had no MiFi (wireless) signal for days, I have a weak one now. I'm using it to write this feature. It returned yesterday. Cell service was also interrupted. Last weekend, I could text, but not call anyone. Even mid-week, my cell phone didn't work in Arlington (I went over to the hospital for an epidural for my back). I'm starting lose hope that anyone at Verizon cares.

In case you didn't hear, the whole 911 service in our area went kaput. Back-up systems failed. Verizon can't explain. Regulators are furious, as are customers who needed help.

I believe the problem is that utility companies have eliminated the cushions they used to have - cushions that provided for emergencies. In their eagerness to be "competitive," they lost track of reliability. We are now paying for it, every time there is an emergency.

Yesterday, I witnessed a prime example of bureaucratic bumbling. A wonderful crew of 5-6 bucket trucks arrived at my street, filled with linemen and tree guys from North Carolina. After awhile, I noticed they were just hanging out. I learned that they were sitting there waiting for Dominion Virginia Power to give them a task order and that they were not permitted to go looking for damage and fix it. Turns out those wonderful men waited over five hours for a job. Meanwhile, there is a street a half mile from here that is still closed, with trees and wires down across the road. I was appalled at the power company's inept management. Help was here, but the help couldn't do anything!

All of my photo software is on my desktop, not the laptop I am using now. I am very limited in what I can publish - and getting more and more depressed about it. It's hard for me to keep any wireless Internet connection up, so I can't respond quickly to comments. I hope you'll understand.

I could tell you so much more. The storm was scary! The winds came up as fast as a tornado. It was probably the worst weather I've ever experienced. There was so much widespread damage, it's hard to estimate. Old, majestic trees were toppled in seconds. The property damage won't be calculated entirely for months, I'm sure. Worse, people died - crushed in their beds by trees or electrocuted when they stepped outside in the dark.

Anyhow, enough storm talk for now. It's time for the Friday Forum! I can't go off and copy the regular post, but you know the "drill." Tell us about your beauty treasures or ask questions. I, for one, need to live this week's "beauty" through others.

I did manage to post a giveaway contest yesterday. The deadline is Sunday night. Just scroll down. The contest for a beautiful Tarte Lip Gloss set is immediately below this feature.

I hope to have better news for you soon!

Update 2:33 pm: I just came home from a shopping trip to find my DSL service back.  You can't imagine my glee! This morning, I complained through our Fairfax County supervisor's office, and now I have high-speed Internet. Wondering if I should have followed that path earlier...

Photo courtesy of my9tv