..was a day in PC hell.

I picked up my brand-spanking, swanky, sleek new PC and from the time I got stumped at step No. 2 (out of a grand total of 4 steps) in putting together my new flat-screen monitor, I knew I was in trouble.

I'm no computer idiot (despite the password our I.T. dept. gave me...verrrry funnny, guys) and I had no trouble hooking up my previous PCs and surfing the 'net an hour later. Not so with this one -- mostly because I think I am the last idiot on earth who still subscribes to (and, yes, pays for) AOL (and it's dial-up, at that). Up until last week, I was even paying top dollar for it -- $24 a month. I realized however, that they had lower levels and I called & had it changed to $12 a month.

The reason I hang onto AOL is because I share it with my parents and getting them online themselves would be waaaaayyyyy more work than just forking over the $12 a month. And...frankly, I don't use the internet at home all that much, so dial up didn't bother me.

Now, however, I cannot...for the life of me...get onto AOL without first subscribing to one of the providers that Microsoft wants me to subscribe to (NetZero, Juno, etc.) or biting the bullet and just ordering high-speed internet from Time-Warner or Verizon.

I tried getting one of those free AOL discs that you used to find everywhere...now...they are nowhere to be found. I called AOL...they couldn't help me get on without sending me a disc and that's going to take 15 days. Excuse me? FIFTEEN days. Hello? I'm a sap still paying for your service...better hang onto me -- I'd overnight that sucker if I were you. But, of course, the guy I was talking to barely spoke English so there was no point trying to explain customer service policies.

I decided I'd had enough of AOL and I called Time Warner (Verizon doesn't serve my area) and ordered high speed access.

The funny part...they can't come to install it for 15 days.

:-)