*cringe* Has it been THAT long?

Once again, I'm hopping in for a bit, but this time I hope to be able to say I'll be back to blogging a little more frequently. Yeah, I know I've said that before...

Last time I posted here, it was three-quarters of the way through October. I was carving pumpkins, getting ready to enjoy Samhain. What happened?

Well.....as many of you have heard my griping about this, my internet provider happened...or in this case, didn't.

My old IP, Avalon Networks sold out to another business called Light Edge Solutions. I can't blame Dr. Dave and his crew for taking advantage of what I'd assume was a darned fine offer, but since I'd been with Avalon almost since the beginning, it was hard to see it go.

But, it didn't go except in name, right? That would be a good theory, if only it would have worked that way. Many people I knew were Avalon customers and seldom did I ever hear horrible complaints about the company. The staff was excellent and caring, and even returned phone calls promptly, even when I would call to ask something totally idiotic. So, in short, many of us decided to stay with the new company for a bit to see what it was about.

My first inkling of bad stuff came a few days after Avalon announced the new company would be switching things over from Avalon. I began getting emails from people I didn't know, telling me to take them off their list. I ignored this, thinking it was another case of worms crawling around in other folks' address books. When I finally checked it out, I found that the new company had sold out all the Avalon subscribers addresses to some half-assed goofy website, whose moderators undoubtedly couldn't slap their asses with both hands. I demanded to be removed from the list as well. They complied.

Then I was gone for several days during LammasFest and returned home to over 1500 emails - in FOUR days!!! Holy SHITE! And, what were these emails?

Spam. Viagra ads, Porn sites, penny stock offers, home refinancing, etc. Same stuff we all get in minor quanities, but this was completely out of line. I set filter after filter. They were full in no time. It was out of control.

I've been known to visit a few naughty places in cyberland, true, and I figure the viagra ads come along to most everyone. But, penny stocks? 100 of 'em a day? C'mon...how ridiculous is that? And absolutely everyone who was with Avalon was getting all this crap. Light Edge...you've screwed over your customer base by selling our names to line your pockets. Bad, Light Edge....BAD.

But, I'm a patient person, not to mention a busy person, so I decided to wait it out a little longer to see if things would improve.

Okay, I'm an idiot. Suddenly, I'm realizing that not only am I getting boatloads of spam every day, I'm also not able to download links. I'm also not getting list mail, emails, and to top things off, the dial up connection is running somewhere between 38-44 instead of its usual 52. No wonder I can't pick up links and such!

So, enough is enough. My computer isn't running fast enough to keep up with what I'd call normal, routine stuff.

Questions were asked, decisions were made, math was done to compare. By switching to my phone company's high speed internet, I spend the same amount as I was with a second phone line and the monthly IP fee.

So, it's done. It's been installed for about ten hours now, and I'm still absolutely astounded at the fast downloads. I'm feeling a weird sense of deja vu...it's almost like the days when we only had 14.4's and switched to 28.8's and were flabbergasted at how fast that was!

So, I'm hoping you'll see more of me again. I've missed all my friends who are vital to my life.

I'll leave it at that for now, and begin looking at everyone's blogs, try to catch up. I'm not very good at sprawling in an easy chair watching the tube to fill empty hours.

Except for Miami Ink. I want another tattoo, darn 'em all.