I'd say it was a long day, but since it didn't start for me until nearly noon, it was just a short, busy, semi-stressful day. Not that I'm complaining. Not about that, anyway.

What I'm complaining about is that a whole day's worth of email seems to have been swallowed by a Dreamhost server. That's the only explanation I can think of for not getting a single message — not even spam! — between about seven this morning and about seven tonight. So that's really a half a day's worth, but the busiest half of the day, which counts double.

And obviously I don't mean I was up at seven o'clock this morning checking email. What I mean is that the messages I got when I first logged on today were from seven and earlier. After that, nothing. I wouldn't have noticed except that Mom told me she'd sent me a message early today, and I'm still waiting for it tonight.

Because I've never figured out how to download messages directly from the Dreamhost server to Eudora, I have all my mail sent to the SBC Yahoo mail server, and down to my machine from there. It's a roundabout way of doing things, and it probably costs me a little in timeliness, but at least I know I'm getting all my mail that way. Or did, until today.

So I went first to SBC Yahoo and found no messages there. I went to Dreamhost to check the status and see if there was an announcement that might put my mind at ease. It would be good to know either that I wasn't the only one with the problem, or that someone else was aware of it. Someone who could do something about it.

After I came up dry at SBC Yahoo and Dreamhost, I logged onto the Squirrel Mail site, where I'm supposed to be able to access my mail from anywhere. It's not something I usually bother to do, but it's nice to have it available. There were no new messages there, either, which brought me right back to Dreamhost. All my mail was tied up there, and nothing was escaping.

While I was at the webmail site, I deleted most of the more than five thousand messages that had been on their server since September. Everything I've ever been sent, including all those special notes from people who want to improve me in ways I never realized I was lacking, was saved there, but now it's gone. That's how I spent my afternoon, because I didn't have any new mail to read. There was no real reason for me to do this, except that once I got started I couldn't stop myself.

Some messages started trickling in early this evening, but something tells me there might be some out there that I'll never get. If you sent me anything today, I might not be able to respond for a day or two, if ever. I'm working on getting it all sorted out, but there's never going to be any absolute assurance that everything is working perfectly. That's just the way it is.

The other stress of the day was the weather. I'd committed myself to getting some documents in the mail today, and so I had to go out in the driving rain. Trust me when I say I wasn't the only one, and there were plenty of drivers out there who didn't even seem to realize it was raining. That made things a little treacherous, but I fulfilled my obligation and found my way home in one piece, if a little worse for the soaking. At least my hair doesn't take long to dry, as short as it is now. I think I'll stay home until the sun comes out. See you in May.