Just to keep today's post art-related, here I am at the London Contemporary Quilters' Coffee Morning, about to put my stamp on the cloth.  Hilary Gooding took this picture and sent me a copy. Thanks, Hilary!

So you see me smiling in this picture. What you do not see is a picture of me in tears today while I was on the phone with Verizon. Yep, again.

They are digging up and redoing the driveways in our development, and they're replacing the carpenter ant-ridden railroad ties that divide some driveways from their neighbor's front gardens.

They are working on the driveway next door that abuts my sorry patch of what passes for a garden. Here it is today, with the railroad ties dug up.

What you also do not see is the underground telephone wire that the backhoe driver told me he had cut accidentally. Swell. No phone or internet again!  He had already called Verizon before I got home around 1:00 and judging by the slow response last week, I was in tears of frustration.  Fortunately, the guy's wife works for Verizon wireless and she has a contact at the land line group, so the Verizon tech was here within 2 hours instead of 2 days like last time.  It's who you know, folks.

Here is the Verizon guy splicing my wire so it can work and it will stay above ground till they come and do a repair or replace the underground wire. 

Verizon has told me they will give me a large credit for both phone and DSL; I'll believe it when I see it.  But in the meantime, life is back to what passes for normal around here.