Good gosh is it good to be back on our little island again. Four days out there in “the real world” is almost more than I can stand, apparently. Add in four airplane rides and a funeral for my grandmother, and I think you can see where I’m coming from.
Now not only is my notebook computer out of commission, but ever since I tuned my cell phone off while boarding the Delta airlines flight out of Atlanta the phone has refused to operate again. I guess that it’s bounced off the ground one too many times.
If stuff keeps breaking at the current pace I’ll be wearing animal skins for clothes and talking on two Dixie cups connected together by string…
Hello?
I spent three nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Charleston, WV because they only charged 10,000 Priority Club points per night. For some reason the hotel nearest Grandma’s funeral refused to accept points for motel space, but since the offending property was located out in the middle of nowhere in north eastern Kentucky and the one I stayed in was in walking distance of virtually the entire city of Charleston—at least I wasn’t ENTIRELY bored to DEATH.
The first thing I did, upon realizing that my cell phone was dead, was manage to spend almost $20 on four phone calls amounting to a total of 3 minutes. They charged $4.95 for the first minute and an additional DOLLAR for each additional minute of long distance.
Don’t get me wrong here, I expected to pay a "slight" premium because I first suffered this injustice twenty years ago while staying in hotels on business. It didn’t take me long back then to learn to dial 10288 and use AT&T rather than paying “Jaunita and Julio’s Deluxe Extra Special Ripoff Long Distance Service." In those days I guess they could somewhat justify charging people a Kings Ransom because there was no long distance competition and no VoIP phone service and people were still paying AT&T 30 cents a minute or so on their home telephone to call across state lines.
With rates running $0.03 a minute today (not to mention unlimited cell phone long distance and VoIP service) I guess that I thought that the hotels had given up ripping off their guests with ridiculous rates like I was charged.
Live and learn…
I almost wanted to wring the clerk’s neck when I was informed that the hotel, in their infinite wisdom, didn’t have a business center with the obligatory internet computer terminal. He then cheerfully informed me that they did have high speed internet in all of the rooms. I guess that I could have connected my razor or the blow dryer to the CAT5 cable in order to see if I could contact Google, because after two days without internet and E-mail I was almost willing to try anything.
While I was searching for extra pillows in the dresser, I noticed a computer keyboard laying in one the drawers. My heart leapt in anticipation, then it sunk back into the depths of depression when I learned that “high speed” internet access on their “On Command” TV system would cost $9.95 per day.
Screw that…I walked about eight blocks down the street to Kinkos and checked E-mail Saturday night, and I used my sister’s notebook PC Sunday afternoon after she arrived in town to satisfy my computer addiction on a limited basis. Just a taste…(said with my hands shaking, I can quit at any time…really, I can…)
I resisted the urge to throw any more money at the front desk until I woke up Monday night about 2:00 AM and, in a moment of insane weakness, I changed channels and hit the “select” button authorizing the hotel to
Within ten minutes I ABSOLUTELY HATED MYSELF for my OWN STUPIDITY.
Not only was the system incredibly slow and the display on the TV ridiculously grainy, but I could not access any secure websites like my credit report, my credit cards, and most importantly—I couldn’t post anything here on blogger.
I did manage to access my Yahoo account and clear out a few dozen spams and read a couple of E-mails, but that was about it.
Needless to say that I was pissed.
What a total and complete sham the so called “service” turned out to be. I can’t see anyone but a complete internet idiot that would find the level of performance acceptable, and even then an idiot or otherwise inexperienced user couldn’t have done anything with the clunky wireless keyboard except curse while they attempted to control the cursor without the use of a mouse or touchpad.
I finally gave up after about an hour of use and just slept with the keyboard beside me in the bed like a security blanket. At least it was good for something.
So any way, here I am, sitting comfortably on my ass on my sofa with Pat’s machine in my lap.
Total Paradise.
I’ve still got a lot of reading to do to catch up with the news and the antics of my blogger friends, so stay tuned for a couple of good rants tonight when I get time to put what’s on my mind down
Until then…
Regard’s Y’all
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