So today, the icing on the cake was delivered: at noon, our internet access went down. I remembered that someone from our ISP had called to talk to me an hour before, so I thought it was a problem on their end. After I checked my voicemail, I found out we simply hadn't paid them in weeks, and that the phone call was a warning that they were going to cut off service at noon.

Yeah, a Morton salt-style disaster.

A couple faxes later and the connection was turned on within seconds, almost as if they had one person sitting in a big switch closet just unplugging connections on a lark. Bizarre.

The house is cold, but I refuse to turn the heat back on. It's almost April and it's a matter of principle. Plus, it keeps me awake enough to pen some more lines, code a bit (for some people I've been neglecting) and even shoot out some e-mails. I don't mind the cold: I mind the dank wetness far more.