(I tried to explain where I've been a couple of weeks ago, but Posy seems to have a shotgun out for anyone using an Internet Cafe...)
Let's see now... The Story So Far:
Obnoxious Cat gets tapped by the Lady when his family win Lotto big-time. His family decide to buy a dream retirement place just out of town, and offer to sell said Cat the old family home for a song. (Who's kidding who? - they gave me the money to buy it in the first place...)
So, come mid-December, I say goodbye to my town apartment with the hot-and-cold running drunks across the street, the nightly LOUD karaoke singers singing the same set of songs each night, and the gentle profanity echoing in the alleyways at 3:30 each morning at closing time. (By the way, that's the last time I move next door to Parliament House...)
Moving into my own home has unforeseen issues, like NO FURNITURE. So I go slightly mental and go on a spree which melts two ATM cards and has my bank manager gibbering with fear every time I come into the bank. This is so monumentally comprehensive, it takes until the end of January to do... and I'm still not quite there yet.
Now, many moons ago, in a fit of whimsy, I told my self that if I ever had the money, I'd retire (From what? Sitting on my [EXPLETIVE DELETED] all day long?) and set up a little render farm and play with CGI 'til the end of my days. Which I have done. All that is required now is to get the machines all set up, networked, installed, patched and tested. Hmmmm.... might need the Internet for that.
ROUND ONE: So, cue the last week of January. I contact my friendly neighborhood monopolistic telecommunications company (try saying that through gritted teeth...) and ask for a phone service to be installed. After a week, nothing's working, so I call them only to be told they needed extra information from me, which they failed to tell me at the time. I fax them the info, and wait.
ROUND TWO: More time crawls by with all the speed of a brick in epoxy, and I call the telco again. This time, they tell me I don't have enough ID. Even though I used to have an account with them a few years back. This [EXPLETIVE DELETED] me right off, because I explicitly requested that they keep me informed of any hitches. This goes back and forth until I finally give up and get my little sis to get the thing done in her name.
ROUND THREE: As soon as the line is up and running, I call our ISP and ask them to re-activate our account at our new address. They say it could take up to ten working days, but check after five. A week later... nothing. So I call them to request a progress report, only for the [MULTIPLE EXPLETIVES DELETED, INCLUDING A REAL DOOZY] to tell me that since they couldn't find our suburb in their computer database, they didn't bother to set the account up. Again, after the last time this lot had fouled up, I had explicitly asked them to contact me if there was an issue.
That was a week ago. I checked the net each day since then, and apparently today things are now working...!
So, I'm back. Finally.
In all seriousness, it's been so hectic here setting things up, I've had no time to do anything with my PCs. I'm only just getting around to installing all the various flavors of Poser I've bought onto the machines... and then there is the networking and the back-up regime and the phase of the moon and the sacrificing of small chocolate-covered donuts at 3 a.m. to be getting on with... sheesh.
Miss me?