Written Offline Sunday 8 May

 Yesterday, Saturday, I lost my internet connection. All indicators were fine. My phone hotspot was on, my computer admitted to being connected, but every site I tried to load resulted in a “Took too long to load” message. I waited until this morning to call Parzi, who assured me that in this “dead zone” I live in, this sort of occurrence was bound to happen. I should wait, and try later. Which I did. I am dead in the water, and finally I have resorted to Word to pull together a blog entry. I expect, if there is no change in my out-of-the-internet status, I will find a café or some other option for uploading this piece.

This abrupt absence of connection to the world beyond my simple life in Nicaragua has upended my state of mind. I cannot tolerate being unconnected! I am mildly embarrassed and seriously disturbed by my sense of desperation. I am, as fellow broadcasters can relate, a news junkie. I NEED news. I need politics, I need to know what happens in the Middle East, Australia, Europe, the U.S., Haiti, and Argentina. And Brazil. And the whole damned world. I need to know if anyone has thought to send me an email. I need to know if anything I care about has changed. I am an addict to knowledge that is current and reliable. The latter is often not immediately evident, but I can usually do some checking. Usually. But not now. Oh, help!

Here, Susie was sick last night and all day. She has finally accepted some food. Brynn is a jealous little bitch, resenting every time I forced water down Susie’s dehydrated gullet. My vet has warned me that living next to a bosque - a wooded area – is problematic for dogs. The rainy season brings toads, which can cause intoxication and death if eaten (see last year’s entry about Lukie), and snakes – the poisonous varieties- are a threat. Oh, great…

My Social Security payment went down, about $125 per month. I discovered that I was enrolled in Medicare Part B. How did that happen? Medicare has almost nothing to offer me here in another country, although in Nicaragua, the costs are so much less than in the U.S., it would behoove Medicare to cover my potential costs here. I contacted Social Security to un-enroll myself, and was informed that I needed to complete a form they would be glad to post to me. I explained that I hoped it could be done before the month or two it would take to receive their mail. Thus, I have made an appointment at the U.S. Embassy to “be counseled” regarding my desire to not be enrolled in Part B. My appointment is tomorrow.

Will I find a way to post this admittedly cranky contribution? 

P.S. No, but I was able to post from my computer today, Wednesday. I'm BACK!