On the move again

I cannot explain how February went by me so quickly until I look at my calendar, which is crammed with all sorts of activities and appointments, even discounting the enormous time spent troubleshooting a variety of other problems.

One of these was, unfortunately, the loss of Internet access provided to me by the local cable company. This happened just before a long holiday weekend, thus I did not get serviced until almost a week later. Some TV cable channels were also suffering from intermittent freezing spells, which drove me nuts when I tried to watch some of my favorite programs. My apartment thus fell under a “non-communicative” state for a while, until new wiring was rerun and completely tested.

The Internet connection was reestablished by the replacement of modem and power supply that failed, but, interestingly, some freezing still occurs with certain cable channels. These are the ones that use satellite transmission, which during this time of the year is affected by interferences from solar rays, I am told. It was strange to miss both types of connections so much, especially my high speed connection on which I rely so much daily for all sorts of transactions and research.

Meantime, I also had to run several errands for a sick friend, while undergoing all my annual medical checkups and physical therapy for my right knee, affected by osteo-arthritis and tears in my meniscus. Following an MRI test the orthopedic doctor suggested an arthroscopic intervention, which I have decided to postpone because it should be followed by several weeks of rehab, while, instead I need to travel again. Thanks to the great help of my therapist, I feel that I can face traveling, and so, this week, I have booked my next trip to Albania, with a possible extension into Montenegro.

It’s raining very hard in NY as I am writing and there is also a very dense, and unusual fog today. Lately the weather has been generally sunny, but we have experienced very strong wind and cool temperatures. I expect to find a bit more warmer conditions in Albania. Tonight I just have to turn the clock forward one hour since we are switching to DST much earlier this year.

So, friends, keep tuned for further news from Tirana, as soon as I can re-establish high speed connection after arriving there in another week (and, hopefully, not have to do more troubleshooting!). For now: bye bye, arrivederci, te fala!