Recently in Frustration Category

At least that's what it feels like anyway. We talk to each other on the phone every night - "Whaddya do today?", "I love you", "I miss you", "See you on Friday" -- and we see each other a lot on the weekends.

Since May, Steve has been out of town with work every single week except two. :yell: So for almost five months - we've seen each other on weekends - and maximum one day during the week. He travels all over the U.S. to the hospitals HCA owns - some they already own, some they are getting ready to take over - and "assimilates" them into the massive HCA network (computer network, that is). Resistance is Futile is his teams motto, I think.

I've turned off my newsreader this week. I was talking to a fellow blogger last week - and we agreed that it seems like every body can't stop talking about Katrina and who's to blame for the aftermath. People are either ranting about it - or linking to everyone elses rants. Other than my entry about HCA's evacuation efforts (which was a POSITIVE post), and displaying a Red Cross Donation link, I haven't felt the need to blog on the situation. What could I possibly say that would do anything for those people? But some people just can't seem to keep away from their keyboards.

Enough already. Instead of spending an hour writing a blog entry about how Bush, Brown, FEMA, black people, white people, etc are to blame for the suffering in the gulf -- get up and actually do something for the people. Drop off clothes and toiletries at the local collection point - donate some money. Clean out all the extra stuff from your house -- everyone's got stuff they can give. Blogging about it, rehashing every single thing that has happened, casting blame this way and that ... that does absolutely NOTHING for those people.

Construction has been horrendous on I-40 in Nashville for several years now -- around the I-40/Briley Parkway area. From all appearances it looked like we were going to get 2 extra lanes on each side. Within the past week or so they've finished and opened up the east-bound side. One lane. Basically 4 years of construction and all we get is one new lane? They've added new exit/on ramps at the White Bridge Rd/Charlotte Pike/Briley Parkway intersections ... but it's just moved traffic around a little bit. I haven't noticed any ease in congestion.

One extra lane. Unbelievable! And it's still not even a HOV lane. We have no HOV lanes in West Nashville!! What's the deal? I know some of our south and east Nashville friends say the HOV lanes aren't enforced ... but at least they have them.

Why do all restroom vending machines carry feminine hygiene products from the 1950's? Are most women always prepared, and therefore never use the machines, and therefore the stock hasn't needed to be replenished in 50 years? On Tuesday we had a day-early surprise on our vacation and my supplies were in our checked luggage. So, I popped 25 cents into the handy restroom vending machine, and to my surprise a huge cardboard box with a product that surely would have mopped up my kitchen floor popped out. I might as well have picked up a bath towel in the gift shop!!

Between 8:15 PM and 5:24 AM this morning, I received 784 attempted spam comments.

SEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR.

Again, are they stupid or something??? They're never going to show up on this site - all they're doing is just encouraging me to contact their hosting provider and report them for spam activity.

Idiots.

The happy couple is on their way home from work, slowly but surely making their way through rush-hour traffic. A few miles down the road, traffic starts crawling. Before long, they are moving at a maximum speed of 5 miles an hour. They can see up ahead - on a high section of the interstate - the traffic moving freely there. What's up? There must be a wreck ... or construction. Something must have happened to hold up traffic.

About 15 minutes pass ... and you realize what has ground the flow of traffic to a halt. No wreck. No new construction. An empty pickup truck is sitting off the side of the road. It's not in the way. Just sitting there. Getting lots of attention from ... STUPID DRIVERS!!!

HELLO PEOPLE? Why are we slowing down to look at an empty truck. DO YOU NOT realize that your slowing down for just a few seconds means that every car behind you has to slow down. What's the big attraction? :banghead: This happens all the time. Everywhere. Traffic is slow - and it's usually something stupid that people are slowing down to look at. Why do we feel the need to slow down and look at cars on the side of the road? Why do we feel we need to slow down and look at the state trooper who has pulled someone over? Just drive, already. There's enough slow traffic already with the constant construction ... we don't need idiots slowing down to look at every dorito wrapper on the side of the highway. :yell:

See here for some driving thoughts from Christie ...

:shocking: This will shock you: :wide-eyed:

We're on dial-up internet access. And it's not even GOOD dial-up. We're doing good to get upwards of 30KBS. Yes, that's right. 30KBS. :headache:

WHY are we not using DSL or cable?

So it's come to this. Comment spamming is no longer a problem for MT 3.0 users (with comment moderation and typekey access). So they finally are spamming via trackback (who knows why it took them this long to figure that out ...)

Arghhh ... I got my first trackback spams today. :yell: 143 of them. GRRRRRRR. Really gross stuff too. Not stuff for viagra or enlarging body parts. Nothing that tame. Nasty, icky, I wouldn't want my dog to read what was on those things. It's just a matter of a few clicks to delete them all - but I don't want them there in the first place. (Blacklist for MT 3.0 needs to be released! Please!!!)

I wish the trackbacks were set up like the comments - where they were at least held for approval (that way they never show up on the site).

I'm adding all the first two subsets of the IP addresses to my IP-Deny manager on my webserver ... but that isn't a real solution because these people are spoofing ip addresses anyway. Banning one IP just means they'll use another one. But banning the first two subsets does seem to slow them down a bit.

What is the point, people? Do they think we're going to leave those yucky links on our site? Do they think anyone who reads our blogs are going to click on those links and therefore bring them in some income? Move along, people. Get. A. Life.

Saturday night, we were driving on the interstate and came up behind a weaving tractor trailer. He was all over the road - we pulled back and cringed every time he swerved and almost hit other vehicles. After about 5 minutes of this, we called the police so that hopefully someone could come out and pull this guy over before he killed someone. We got them on the phone, told them we had a possibly drunk and/or asleep tractor trailer driver on the road. However, evidently while I was on the phone with them, we crossed the county line, because when the officer asked where we were on the interstate, he quickly responded that it wasn't his jurisdiction. Then he gave me a 7 digit phone number to call and then hung up on me.

I'm sorry ... but that just flew all over me. It's not like we were in a different state or something - we were in the next county. Would it have been that hard for him to (a) transfer me to that number or even better (b) call that number himself and avoid the introductions and technical stuff that you always have to give out when calling the police. But no. He gives me a phone number to call and hangs up on me. Thankfully Steve was with me, and could write down the number to call. If I'd been by myself - there's no way I could have written down or remembered the number to call. And anyway - isn't this what I'm paying taxes for? It's good to know our police department is so concerned about drunk/hazardous driving! Grrrrrrrrrr.

I have to send it back. :crying:

Can you believe it? Two weeks ago, they said it was their mistake, keep it. Today I get a letter from them requesting that I return it. I guess my sales rep's decision was overturned. I've already installed all my programs and gotten it all set up. I've been working on it for two weeks. Blah. Oh well ... it wasn't ever really mine in the first place, right ?? :weep: