A PERFECT VIEW ON OLD CAPE COD

Part of the specialness of a vacation are the views. The scenery.

Look through your window and see the wonders of whatever place you are at, whether it's a magnificent view of the beach, or a glowing cityscape.

Welcome to our world. The quaint, beautiful world of beaches and villages, fishing boats and ponds.

WHAT REMAINS OF SANITY MUST BE PRESERVED

When people of good will work together and you still can't fix a simple problem, the best response is probably heavy drinking. When the victim doesn't drink, the problems takes on a more philosophical coloration. It gets a bit strange, even surreal.

This entire disaster is most likely rooted in a router that needs to be rebooted by a woman protected from everything by a determined ignorance I cannot breach. If she had a symbol, it would be the three monkeys, paws over eyes, ears, and mouth. Skip the mouth. She talks, but does not hear or see.

Her name is Front Desk.

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IT BEGINS WITH ME (10-13-2013)

I cannot publish or save a post since this morning. It was fine yesterday. Other people's WordPress blogs also display in plain text with missing graphics. I have cleaned out cookies and cache. I've signed in. I get messages that I'm unable to connect, but I can connect to Google, Facebook, Gmail, Blogger ... but I can't get my own blog to open properly. I can respond to some comments on other blogs, but not in the normal format. All formatting is gone.

Please help. I don't know what to do. I have gotten emails that my site looks normal to others, but not to me. Nor do their sites look normal. I have no idea what to do, but I can't edit, save, publish or even view my site. Can get to dashboard, but not the blog. Have cleared cookies and cache, but no improvement. All since this morning. Was OK yesterday.

The blog I need help with is teepee12.com.

IT CONTINUES WITH A SENSIBLE RESPONSE FROM WORDPRESS (10-14-2013)

Hi there,

I want to assure you that there aren't any issues with your blog itself. It sounds like there may be a problem with your connection to WordPress.com. This is most often caused by either security/firewall software on your computer or your ISP blocking the connection to WordPress.com.

Please make sure that any firewall software on your computer has the addresses wordpress.com and wp.com white-listed. You can also contact your ISP and request that these addresses be white-listed on their end, as well.

If you have any questions or further trouble with this, please let me know!

MY RESPONSE TO EVER INCREASING INSANITY (ROUND 2) (10-14-2013)

I tried accessing WordPress with all virus protection off and the firewall down. No change. Things keep getting worse. It must be the ISP since my husband's laptop has identical problems. We aren't at home. The "resort" at which we are staying has ComCast and they want a zillion forms filled out and Front Desk is clueless about what they want from her. Frankly, so am I. This should be simple, but apparently not if you are either Front Desk or ComCast. It's not worth making myself crazy trying to fix this when we will be home 10/19. Where hopefully everything will be normal. 

Since you assure me everything is really okay, at least I know I can take care of it then. It's very frustrating. The fix is so simple, but there's nothing more I can do, or nothing I can think of. If you think of anything, let me know.

Why would Comcast DO this? I don't understand. But there are many things I do not understand.

IN DEFENSE OF MY REMAINING SANITY (GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS) (10-15-2013)

This does sound to me like an ISP issue at your resort. Since you'll be home again at the end of the week, it sounds like a good idea to unplug and ignore it, for your own sanity. :)

If you do want to work on it, and you aren't able to get Comcast to white-list wordpress.com and wp.com, you might want to ask the resort if they will reset their modem and router. Sometimes resetting those will help resolve connection issues like this.

Good luck, and enjoy the rest of your time away from home! Let me know if I can do anything more to help.

THE NON-RESOLUTION (10-15-2013)

Ironically, when I first got here, my computer told me the router needs rebooting. Front Desk did NOT know what a router is. She didn't know where the router might be. I said "Surely someone knows ... you MUST have one."

She said "There's a guy who takes care of this, but he's only here ... (long pause) ..."

"Call him. Ask him where the router is. All you have to do is unplug the modem and router, count to 20, then plug them back in. It's simple."

"I can't do that."

And there it has lain, like a dead fish rotting on the wharf. I would not be surprised if the entire problem is that the router needs rebooting. A problem is only simple to those who wish to understand.

My sanity is seriously in jeopardy. This is supposed to be my VACATION. I am not vacating. I am stewing, brooding, simmering and occasionally, crying. I wish I were a drinker. I would start chugging tequila now and not stop until coma sets in. Alas, I don't drink. Bummer.

Or, in other words, ARRGH!

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER FIFTY DOLLARS

We have a timeshare. How we got boonswaggled into buying a timeshare I don't want to delve into. It will just give me heartburn and make me feel like an idiot. Suffice to say that however good it sounds, with rare exceptions, they are lying. They are making promises they won't and can't keep and you are going to wind up with a mortgage on nothing. Air. And you will pay a fortune for that empty promise.

Years later, we are still paying for that mistake. One of the things we usually do to try and not feel quite so ripped off, is go on an annual vacation. That way, at least we've gotten something -- not much, but something -- for our money.

This year, at Hotel Hell, it's hard to feel the money has been well spent. And yesterday, we got a call from the resort in Maine where we are technically owners to say they aren't getting the money we send every month to cover the annual maintenance fees.

But ... that money comes out of our account automatically every month. I know, I can see it on our bank statements, online, on paper. Anyway you look at it, the money gets taken out of the account by someone (everyone says "someone else" is doing it -- don't you love that?). So where, exactly, is it going? In all honesty, I'm less concerned with the mechanics than the bottom line.

We don't have spare money, so if that monthly payment is not getting to the Mountainview in Maine, then who is getting it?

Another mystery amongst the many mysteries which make my life so rich with meaning.

To brighten your day, today's pictures of Hyannis harbor are brought to you by Garry Armstrong, photographer deluxe. Whose pictures of the harbor turned out to be far more interesting that mine. Drat!

ON A DAY LIKE TODAY ...

I have a modestly successful blog on WordPress. Serendipity. You can visit it. It's pretty good. Sadly, I can't visit it because I'm on Cape Cod at a nasty little resort called Cape Winds where their ISP, Comcast, has locked me out. Not only locked me out of my own site, but all WordPress sites. My husband too.

Front Office, a pleasant woman who seems proud of her lack of understanding of just about everything, but especially her lack of knowledge about anything technical, is not able to help because I cannot explain the problem. She doesn't know what a router is. After I assured her she really did have one, she said she would have no idea where such a thing is kept. When I said it needed a reboot,A she said that was the job of "the fellow who takes care of those things, but he's not here." She wasn't sure when he would be here.

I said "Call him. Ask where the router is. It's not hard. All you have to do is unplug it, count to 10 slowly, plug it back in."

"No, I can't do that. I wouldn't know how," she assured me fervently.

She had much the same response when I explained that both toilets were clogged and wouldn't flush. I didn't think you could classify toilets under the definition of "technical" or "geeky" but her response was "Hm. Curious."

Curious? The toilet doesn't flush. I can think of a lot of ways to describe it, but "curious" would not be any of them. Fortunately, the maintenance guy didn't think it was curious. He thought the toilet needed replacing and when it clogged up again today, he replaced it with a new toilet that flushes so efficiently I'm afraid it may suck me down into its depths. "GLUG" it says and whoosh, whatever had been there is gone, and I mean completely vanished without a trace.

This vacation has been kind of horrible. More like a week of punishment than a vacation. From the bed we can't sleep in because it's so hard and lumpy it's painful, to the aforementioned toilets, to the huge closet with no hangers, to the ancient, crusty-with-dirt creaking futon in the so-called living room -- but we are sleeping on because it's not as bad as the bed. To this unit's location on the second floor when I'd asked (and really need) handicapped access. To the light bulbs that only work sometimes and all the electrical outlets that do not provide electricity. To the weird sinks in the bathrooms which are 6 inches higher than normal bathroom vanities, so the shelf is near my shoulders. To the general lack of amenities, the overall feeling of drab dilapidation, grit and grime.

There's a bright side. The weather has been exceptional. The photo ops el primo. Today I found -- and bought -- not one but two pair of extremely comfortable shoes which I badly needed. Moreover, the Red Sox won last night, as did the Patriots. The TV works most of the time. Best of all, this awful vacation is going to make terrific humorous anecdotes for years to come.

You can't lose them all.