Midnight Creeper

The last few nights I’ve been creeping around after midnight, surfing the Internet between midnight and 6:00 a.m., during the “free,” bandwidth period. Actually, I’m not surfing, really. I’m very focused, updating the blogs, and uploading new pages for my current Web client.

Our satellite Internet provider monitors bandwidth usage, limiting clients to 2 gigabytes in a rolling week. Exceeding the limit drops one back to dial up speeds until the threshold drops below 1.5 gigabytes. We soared past the limit a few days ago, and by the looks of things, we just dropped today. Hopefully, that means I’ll be able to sleep through the night again.

It’s been annoying, but in a way, this couldn’t have happened at a better time.

With the recent cold weather, we’ve been staying close to the fire when possible. The outdoor chores get done, but not to the extent that they normally would. The snap endured long enough that sitting at the table, working on the computer became a habit for me. Besides the Web work, there’s plenty to do on line to promote my new book; Aly continues her search for college scholarships; Michelle consults online resources while preparing this year’s garden. On top of all that, there are news sites, blogs we follow, friends to email. Before long, a day can slip away without leaving the chair, except to get an occasional hot drink.

In the last few days the wind has abated somewhat (although more gales loom in the near future) and the temperatures have soared to around 30°. It may be otherwise inconvenient, but a self-imposed Internet ban during daylight hours has helped me get out and about, rather than sucked into another day of the Web. Limiting my access to the unmonitored period after midnight has its positive side. Even so, I’m looking forward to getting back to sleep . . . .