Bill Gates is NOT my friend.

I can't believe I didn't tell you all (all one of you that I know about) about the friend I ran into yesterday morning as I left the house at 5:50 a.m. He was black with a white stripe down his back and he was digging in the garbage* right where I was about to throw my bag of garbage. Thankfully (for me and my favorite new Chico's top) I noticed him before I threw a bag of garbage on top of my cute little malodorous friend. We both stopped dead and looked at each other. I freaked out (inside), threw the garbage off to the side of Mr. Black with White Stripe, and then moved swiftly away so as not to threaten him. I have no idea what he did because I wasn't sure if eye contact is a threatening act to a skunk. Nothing quite like an encounter with a skunk prior to 6:00 a.m. to wake your ass right up!

I knew we had skunks in the neighborhood, as I have smelled them a number of times. And it usually smells like the damn thing went off right in my bedroom. It really is a most incredibly horrible stench. And I had seen one last summer, also early in the morning as I was walking down the street, there was one in the garbage pile just down the street. I saw him before I got too close and I backed up and decided that discretion is the better part of valor and I walked in the street.

*Garbage Pick-Up Day is Friday, but for some reason this was the second time this summer that the garbage pick-up men didn't bother with our street, so we went four days looking like white trash which pisses me off. They're lucky it was gone yesterday morning or I was going to call the City and start pitching a fit. And the people in my buildings are so frickin' lazy!!! For a long time, they knew the garbage got picked up but they were too stupid to figure out exactly what day, so they would just put their garbage at the curb whatever day they felt like it. Since I don't want people thinking that white trash live in my buildings (which they do, but not all of us, thank you very much), I made up signs that read: Garbage Pick-Up Day is FRIDAY MORNING, please do not put your garbage out before 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. I gave them to Chris (our Schneider) and he posted them. You'd think that would be pretty explicit and understandable, wouldn't you? Now, if you saw those signs posted at your building, when would you put your garbage out? After 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, you say? Ah, but that's because you're incredibly clever!!! Thursday morning when I leave for work there is inevitably someone who has already put their garbage out! ARGH!!! If you're leaving before 6:00 a.m. on Thursday then you probably leave early enough on Friday to get your garbage out before they pick up around 9:30 a.m. And if you're going away or something, then don't be a complete lame-ass fuck-up, take your garbage over to the Dumpster. Yes, we even have a Dumpster, but they'd have to take more than ten steps to get to it. I'm telling you, LAZY!!!!

* * * * * * * * *

I thought that I'd get on-line last night from home, something I rarely do, as I'm super busy with all my knitting and beading. I've even made myself a rule, no reading at home! No time for reading until after Christmas. Anyway, I had sent out an e-mail to a few people yesterday asking if they were up for going to a Tigers game before the season ends and sent a list of the home games left. I wanted to check if I had any responses, but I couldn't get my computer to connect to the Internet. So, I called Comcast and spent an hour on the phone with a very nice young man who determined that it wasn't Comcast's problem but probably my operating system. Yay. I call Microsoft who wants to help me if I give them my credit card number. Um, I don't think so. Bill Gates already has more money than God and I really hate contributing to his wallet. Their automated voicemail system kindly gave me the number of my computer company (HP), so I called them and after sitting on hold for a while and going through my paperwork, I figure out that my computer is long out of warranty, so I hang up and call my friend Rick who is a computer whiz. My operating system is Windows ME which makes all computer savvy people gasp in dismay. *sigh* Does NOT make a girl with a computer problem feel good, let me tell you. So, Rick has me do the same things as the Comcast guy but he says I'm missing my DNS server information and to call Comcast back, so I do, and the guy tells me I don't need DNS server information, for some reason or other. And he concludes that it's the operating system, after another half hour on the phone. I have the disks that they gave me which supposedly have all the information on them which originally came on my computer. Comcast Guy #2 said to make sure I save my Ethernet information when I'm saving my files, etc., but wasn't really able to tell me where to find that to save it. *double sigh* I then call my friend Julie to get her help as she's a computer whiz and lives in the area. Rick lives in Massachusetts, so his helping abilities are somewhat limited. Well, by this time my cell phone is saying, "Um, girl, you've been on the phone for something like 3 straight hours, so in the middle of this phone call, I'm just going to die on you." And it did. Sometimes I really hate technology!!!! So, now I not only need to figure out what's wrong with my computer because I'm not paying Comcast for cable connectivity if I can't access the Internet, I need to get to Verizon and pick up some sort of power cord that I can use at home on my cell phone and not drain my battery, which will make three different power cord thingies I have for my cell phone. It's better accessorised than I am!

And to complain about Bill Gates a touch longer! I hate that Word changes the spelling of some words automatically. I don't care if it's a typo, change away! But if I want to spell certain words with the English spelling, I should have that ability without having to go back and change the z back to the s that I prefer!