Adventures With Dear Miss Mermaid Child Of The Planet: Failed to Acquire a Connection

Greetings!

Little Harley is looking much healthier now! Of course photographing a brownish puppy on a brown rug, doesn't contrast well, but it was one of the RARE times he was still long enough for me to snap a picture. Usually when I get the camera out, he thinks that means he should leap up and dance until I put the camera away.

"You have failed to acquire a network connection..."

I haven't failed to acquire a network connection, AT&T has failed. Why are they blaming me?

That was the message on my laptop screen. I don't know why they call them laptops. I must be one of the rare people that can NOT work on a laptop computer on my laptop. Notebook seems even sillier, it's not a notebook, it's a computer. My computer is my electronic assistant.

Lawdy mercy, I need all the assistance I can get. My head is in and out, I thought this brain injury would heal rather quickly. Instead I am treated to all sorts of madness and confusion at times.

Small wonder I stay lost, get lost and generally wander aimlessly at times, settling for whatever pops up.

One of the farm cats that I am cat-sitting decided to come visit in the motorhome. This drove Harley, the puppy, nuts, as he was tethered, so when he dashed inside, dragging his noisy tether (it has a new metal swivel added to it and that makes it noisy when he drags it in the motorhome, to wrap around the chair pedestal, then the table leg and tangle up as much as he can in under 10 seconds), I unhooked him so he could inspect the cat. The cat is wholly unafraid of him. He outweighs him by 7-8 pounds and has studied him in the yard all last week.

They finally bumped noses and sniffed each other. Harley calmed right down. Now he is begging me for a REAL cat, not just the stuffed one he plays with and often takes his naps with. I'd love to have a cat but I can't. I am eating beans from the crockpot to get by until more books sell, more subscriptions come in.

Cats don't like beans.

I am trying to figure out how to do a book tour on deficit funding. Might as well say no funding. But I keep plunking away, chipping away, trying to figure it all out.

Finally got my internet working occasionally in the farm field. It is super slow. It's an AT&T USB wireless that is supposed to work over the cell phone towers. It works randomly and not very often. Typically I have to get up at 4am to use it for about an hour before it craps out completely. It is slower than dial-up.

I have had chronic problems from AT&T, their stuff works really well in the big cities, but lousy anywhere else it seems. Where ever I am, they tell me I am on the edge of their towers. How can I always be on the edge? I have a huge dislike for many big corporations. So much has changed in America since I left. It seems the small businesses are stomped right out into the minority and big corporations dominate almost everywhere.

Several times the AT&T personnel have told me to go to McDonalds or Starbucks, if I want internet. Well duh... does AT&T own McDonalds and Starbucks now? Why are their employees pushing me to go there? I don't like the McDonald's food, it's full of sugars and chemicals and super high in fat. I can make my own coffee at home, so going to Starbucks to pay for designer coffee is not in my budget. Besides, neither place is going to welcome me in my sarong and flip plops with a puppy in tow. They especially wouldn't like it either, when I show up with my tall glass of Green Iced Tea.

I am appalled at how American freedoms have seriously eroded. I am shocked that folks are expected to submit to urine tests and blood tests to get a minimum wage job. Whatever happened to personal freedom and control over one's own body? Seems the government wants to know what's in your body. Are they looking in your closets next?

Apparently, if they even THINK you MIGHT be a terrorist, you have NO freedoms at all and they can seize your assets and lock you up indefinitely. Sounds like a great way to get rid of anybody they don't like, just write them up as a suspected terrorist and POOF, you vanish off the face of the earth into oblivion.

I saw a documentary where suspected terrorists are moved around with their eyes covered and their ears soundproofed. They are deprived of sight and sound.Ya think that could make you crazy? You bet!

I see a friend being literally killed by the new medical system. He has great insurance, but non-doctors in ivory towers, (corporate execs for the insurance company) dictate what medical care he gets and doesn't get. his own doctor doesn't decide, the insurance company execs decide for him. One thing is for sure, they keep him on mountains, and I mean mountains, because I saw them first hand, of drugs. I don't think they won't to cure him. I think they just want to spend the max on his insurance and use him as a human testing subject while they push all sorts of dangerous drugs on him. I've watched his health seriously decline. It seems they aren't interested in getting him well at all, but rather making him an "approved" drug addict.

But heaven forbid, if he smoked or ingested some of God's little green herb, AKA, marijuana, to relieve his pain, to calm his stomach, to enhance his mood, he would lose his job, his insurance and if busted, possibly all his meager assets. All this hoopla over an herb that grows in the ground, that is unadulterated.

Here we were parked in Delaware State Park in Ohio. We had so much shade, I couldn't tell what the sun was doing. I had to back in and set up three times. The first time the clerk told me to go pick out a camping spot. I gave her my charge card, so I thought she charged my camping fee. I also bought some milk. She asked me if I had been there before and I said "No". She didn't volunteer any information, so I thought it was just a poll she was doing. Once I was settled, I called her up with the site number. She told me to come back to the office for the paperwork. So I had to unhook the electric, put things away and drive back to the office, as it was 2-3 miles away. Got the paperworks and went back and set up again. Now I couldn't find the water connection and I had no water in my tanks. So I called the office. She told me I had to come BACK to the office and get water from the only spigot there. So I busted up camp, left to go get water, came back, backed in, set up the electric, put out the steps, began making dinner. The phone rang. I had to come back to the office. She had forgetten to return my credit card. Poor Little Harley, was enjoying his outdoor time, and didn't understand why I kept loading him back up for these trips to the office.

I thought in my two decade absence, America would have MORE freedoms, not less.

I'm not a big city person. I put up with them, as a necessary evil, but anytime I can be close to nature and far away from the concrete, asphalt and steel, I am happiest. But I become easily irritated when I go to buy a simple cheap item, and the cashier starts demanding my phone number, my email, my address. I tell them I don't have a phone or email or an address and this upsets them terribly. My every move is being documented in America by computers. I hate it. The information gathered isn't used to help me, but used against me it seems.

Even at the pet store, I was buying a cheap little toy for Harley and the clerk demanded all my personal details. I said "My gosh, I just want to buy a cheap little pet toy not take out a mortgage!" I shoved the toy back at her, and started to walk away. She relented and sold me the toy without my personal information.

My USA Social Security card clearly states, "Not to be used as Identification". Then WHY does everyone demand to know my social security number?

This country gone crazy. It's not set up for mermaids, for a child of the planet. I don't fit in.

I refuse to bend to the mold that is set before me. Conform, conform, conform. The politicians want us all to conform to one generic being, so they can control us all, while heavily lining their pockets with kickbacks and bribes. Have you EVER met a poor politician? No, of course not and you never will. Most every politician seems to accumulate great wealth while politicking. Well, so much for my take on things. I may hear a lot of grief about my views!

It stormed last night. The lightning frightens me, I've been hit 3 times and that's enough for a lifetime. So, I am pretty jumpy around lightning storms now, they no longer thrill me.

I once saw a guy on the Johnny Carson Late Show that had been hit by lightning 7 times. He had a burned out hat and some shoes with holes blown in them. He has lost all his toenails and fingernails in one of his seven hits. He was a jolly fellow, figuring he had a special purpose on earth.

Recently someone told me that I was super special, which caused me to blush repeatedly. He said I was meant to do something VERY special and great in my life, and that's why I had so many near misses with death. I was being saved to do this big great thing. I felt so humbled. What could I do, that would be so great?

About those lightning hits...

The first lightning hit, knocked me out and damaged my ear. I was no longer able to SCUBA dive after that. A real shame. Those underwater adventures were fun. Years later, the hearing came back to almost normal.

The second lightning hit blew my little toenails completely off. I had to wear Band-Aids on them for weeks, while new nails grew in. My littlest toes grow two nails, side by side now, but if I let one nail grow super long, it crowds out the other one.

Being a mermaid is best of all. Then you don't have feet, toes and toenails, just a long floppy tail to deal with and it makes for much faster swimming.

The third hit didn't do any body damage,just made me half crazy *giggle*. My long hair stood up on end as did the little blond baby hairs on my arms. I was staying in a cabin in the mountains near the South Carolina and North Carolina border. Hurricane Danny had managed to come inland and dump flooding rains on me in the mountains. I had a phone installed and the lightning knocked it out while raising up all my hair! The repairman had to string up all new lines for nearly a mile and replace the pole.

It was ironic, as it was the year before or after Hurricane Luis and Marilyn kicked in a double punch. I wanted a few months without hurricanes. Ha! Hurricane Danny seemingly followed me north and inland. I remember the new "river" running by the front steps of the cabin.

Last night, before the thunder and lightning started, I gave little Harley, the puppy dog a nice warm bath. He was really good about it, but I can tell, he is eager for bath time to be over. It's the toweling dry he just LOVES.

I wrapped him a big towel and fluffed him up, then put him on his tether outside. He shook himself repeatedly until all his fur was standing out at odd angles. Then he rolled in the grass over and over. next he dragged himself on his belly with his back legs flopped behind him, turtle style. He looked ridiculous, but moved so fast the only pictures I got were just blurs of fur.

He looks so much healthier now. He has gained a tiny bit of weight and grown twice the fur. I just checked the calendar and realize Harley and I have been together exactly 8 weeks. Two months.

We sure have put some miles under our paws. Now we are chilling out on a farm.

Where to next? I have no idea. Let me pull out the new Atlas and figure out where the heck I am first. I hope I get lost and end up in Coolville again. I loved that place.

I think my old computer ate two weeks worth of traveling pictures, a real shame too. *sigh*

I was taking pictures of everywhere I parked overnight for future reference. I also took loads of scenery and architecture.

Oh well. Sail La V! *tee hee hee*

Ahoy! Help support a crazy writer in her writing endeavors.

Subscribe to Dear Miss Mermaid for only 3 cents per day!