Well,
    Strange but true on news not long ago.  The anchor person asked the scientist about what was going on with the near record and record dome of heat over the middle of the country that had drifted east over the east coastal areas.  Scientist described how a dome of high pressure built in and then all the fossil fuel emissions pumped into it making it something that could hardly be affected or moved by normal weather.  He described how the cold fronts from Canada were only bouncing off the dome of thick, humid air filled with the smoke of millions of auto exhausts and hundreds of oil and coal fired power plants; bouncing off with little effect save along the edges.

    After he was done the news guy asked him: "well what can be done?"  The scientist looked at him like he was an idiot and said: "stop driving internal combustion powered automobiles."  The news guy just looked at him like "what else?"  but the answer had been given twice, once by the clues given in the orig. explanation, again point blank.  So the dome has retreated back into the midwest and the East into more normal temps; however, Texas and nearby areas have been baking under 100 plus temps for over a month now, and without any rain.  Cattle are being sold to slaughter due to lack of food and water for them by the ranchers.  Any guess what will happen to price of beef come fall?  Ag crops in affected areas as well?  The fields have long ago turned dirt brown after the crops died from lack of water and excessive heat.

   Meantime Europe has been in unusual cold?  If you saw the recent Grand Prix race in Germany?  People had on their coats and jackets due to temps below 55F.  The colder than normal summer pattern has been ongoing for awhile now.  And in south america, Chile had 6 ft of snow.  If this is an indicator of the coming winter here, like last year, a colder than normal winter in the southern hemisphere was followed by the same here in the northern hemisphere.  Guess we will see.

Well,
    Have been fighting the battle of  trying to keep connected for over a week now.  Seems the phone company and Basic just want to point finger at each other?  The local phone co. has said since the beginning that they believe the problem is with my modem itself, though is one of the "new" and pretty small ones not much  bigger than a cigarette pack.  Basic ISP our course says the problem is with the quality of the phone line.  I had about a week of trouble when I first got the dsl out here a couple months ago, and since then has worked fine ... until the week before last that is.

    What to do now?  I do not know.  Have had no luck resolving and can't see paying for service that does not work.  I was happy when the phone lines got upgraded a couple months back and could finally support DSL.  Before that I was among the 40 million or so Americans who live in places without viable access to high speed internet.  I do not count the satellite providers, because they are so expensive, as well as they charge you extra for your data amounts and limit without "excess" charges is some idiotic amount like 8 megs a day? 

   So, the phone co. has been out here twice in past week.  Both times saying the line was fine.  I have called in to Basic ISP cust service numerous times.  Each time I have to disconnect the computer because there is no phone in that room.  So it must be moved to another room where I have to hook it up and then call in.  After a couple fruitless hours of trying to get the service working, it must then be shut down, disconnected, and moved back to the bedroom where it is supposed to be at.  It is the same phone line (splitter) so that is not the issue as the phone co. already checked it.  But all I get is a "red" lite for internet on my modem.

   Anyways the last time I was on with Basic Cust Svc., they said leave the 'puter where it was at and they would check with  phone co. and call me back.  They never called back, and because i left 'puter in the dining room, the cat chewed thru the power cord to the modem.  That is why the computer is in the bedroom (cat free zone pretty much).  So what to do now?  I have no clue.  Every time the phone co. come out they want to sell you their internet.  It is cheaper than Basic at $15 a month but you must sign a 2 yr contract.  I did not like the sound of that coz you have to pay it even if you quit (15/mo for each month of 2 yr contract) no matter what...like a cell contract?

anyone have any suggestions?

too bad the dial up is only good for checking the e-mail.  is too slow to do any real work on web or even for listening to music...

chris (disgruntled Basic customer)