Well,I survived Independence Day! Lots of fun,actually,and fireworks could be seen quite impressively from my apartment! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Strangely,though,I was having HUGE difficulties all day long in being able to boot my computer,having been kicked off the Internet the previous day! despite the hassles involved,I did learn,in perfect "Afterschool Special" style,how much having regular access to the Internet had changed my life over the past year! It got so ridiculous that I was looking at TV and realized that I had no way to find out what was on because I usually looked that up on Yahoo! or GIST!
July 5th,very early,I apparently did SOMETHING right and everything was back in working order.I created a backup disc and swore never to turn off the computer again(a promise which has been broken a couple of times already,I'll admit).Then on Saturday,all of a sudden I could not do ANYTHING online without some sort of error message or failed connection,and by that evening I had decided to make the switch to Bell South!
My computer seemed to be working overtime anytime I tried to get online anyway,as I STILL,a month later,was getting a pop-up upon accessing or leaving AOL,letting me know that my billing info needed to be updated! Whereas in the beginning these pop-ups had been semi-polite,now they were angry-looking(I swear it's true!)and no longer asked me to update my address or phone number,but cut right to the chase and demanded my credit card number or access to a checking account! Needless to say,the option that I had set up with AOL,which had been paid promptly every month,which was to pay through Bell South,was NOT one of my option choices according to the pop-ups!
Maybe I'm paranoid,but I had a feeling that my Internet problems and AOL were somehow related...Since I switched I have had an easier time doing everything online! Yahoo! provides most of what I look for in email,MyYahoo!,Photos,Greetings,etc.,and to be honest,had done so the whole time I'd been using AOL! In fact,all I ever had used AOL for was email and accessing the Internet.
So life post-AOL is good.Coincidentally,this weekend I lost a rotten tooth,and realized that,though the loss took some getting used to,I was better off without both the rotten tooth and the rotten Internet provider!