Last night I just could NOT get an internet connection that lasted more than three seconds. I tried the laptop and it wouldn't connect either.

This morning the little icon wouldn't even show up for that three seconds, but for some reason the laptop connection is excellent. Only problem is that I keep reaching for the mouse, which I have not yet connected.

The tree man is supposedly coming today, but it's 9:30 and as yet there's no sign of him. The weather map shows a lot of rain which will probably come to the area so maybe that's what's keeping him away. When I finish messing around on the computer I'll give him a call, and point out that I won't be at home the rest of the week, at least until Saturday.

Tomorrow is the Gulf States Women's History Conference, aka the day long lunch in Gulfport, which is about 50 miles away for each of us. That means I'll be working Thursday and Friday.

Yesterday evening was the traffic from hell. There was a nasty accident on the High Rise, and it was closed for several hours. It took me an hour and a quarter to go a mile. Problem is that two lanes of traffic on I-610 merge with the three lanes on I-10. Normally this is a routine slowdown, but when three lanes, plus two lanes, have to go more than a mile (on just three lanes) to get to the exit ramp, which has two lanes, it's called Utter Gridlock.

Once I got off the interstate and over the Industrial Canal I took a left (Downman Rd, for those who know the area) to get to the next interstate on-ramp (Morrison). This took me through a really devasted area. There is almost no life along Downman Rd.--stores mostly closed, all but one apartment complex uninhabited, and I didn't see any of the small houses showing signs of repair. I suspect that they were under so much water, and for such a long period, that they are not repairable.

The only way I knew which street was my turn (no street signs, of course) was that the UPS truck next to me was signalling a left. And the UPS place is on the other end of Morrison. So, once I turned I realized that the problem was that the canal dividing the street was so overgrow it looked like solid ground. And I got soon back on the interstate, which had almost no traffic.

I think that not very many people recently escaped from the gridlock thought about this particular route, but kept going on highway 90 till they came to the junction with an interstate spur. The spur road was disgorging a lot more cars than usual to I-10 further east.

Overall time to get home was more than two hours. For 35 miles. On the plus side, I got my nails all filed down and read two short mysteries from the current emergency book.