Hoping for a Better Day

After a day of frustrations yesterday, I’m here again in MLWR (My Little Writing Room) hoping for a better day today. Anna, the squawky parrot, is behaving this morning. She’s contently listening to Felix Mendelssohn and I’m enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

I’m not enjoying the on-going internet issues — which seems to have nothing to do with Fidelity Communications and everything to do with Windows 8.1.  I’ve been doing a bit of research, finding a few geeky solutions to the problem, so maybe soon I’ll be able to correct the situation. Right now, I’m a bit too stressed out to try messing around with the registry, thank you very much.

I know I’m stressed because so far this morning I’ve eaten a spicy hot burrito and a plate of nachos and jalapenos, covered with Mrs. Renfro’s Mango Habanera Salsa.

For the last twenty minutes, I’ve also been trying to upload a picture of Mrs. Renfro’s Mango Habanera Salsa, but WordPress keeps telling me my connection is “lost” so every upload fails.  There…I finally managed to get a picture by using a URL.

My point was that yes, I’m stressed out, and I can tell because when I’m stressed out, I grab the hot stuff.

I’ve now reached the point where I’m munching sliced jalapenos straight from the jar, so that gives you an idea of how high my stress level is at the moment. Trying to get this post finished — something that should be lots of fun — has become an endurance exercise. I’ve come very close to giving it up several times.

So at this point, my hopes for a better day have been dashed, and I’m sorry for being whiny and fussy. I feel a bit like Anna the parrot. I really want to sit down and just have a good cry. Of course, that’s not going to solve anything.

At the beginning of the year, I made an agreement with myself. I would not over-do, would not take on more things than I could handle, and I would not let stress get me down. Although I can manage my schedule and avoid problems, I don’t know how to deal with “internet stress” — problems caused by poor connections, lost connections, Windows 8.1, or whatever.

There’s a helplessness that sometimes strikes when I’m dealing with online problems. I don’t know how to determine the problem, so I don’t know how to fix it.  The frustrations are compounded by the fact that so much of my business routine involves the internet. Writing blog posts, maintaining a Facebook page, keeping in touch with readers, and even submitting new stories to my publishing all require that precious internet connection.

And I see that although my connection icon assures me I’m connected to the internet and have “excellent” signal strength, Word Press is again telling me it’s saving a draft of this post because my connection has been lost.

Is it Windows 8.1 causing the problem?

Fidelity  Communications, our ISP?

Word Press?

Or is it just bad luck? I don’t know. I only know that I’m frustrated beyond words. If you don’t see me online for a few days, you’ll know where I am…in the kitchen piling more jalapenos on my nachos.

Thanks so much for visiting and listening to me rant and rave.

WHAT’S YOUR “GO-TO” COMFORT FOOD?