I usually spend the better part of the Fourth of July holiday doing some heavy-duty housework, the sort that would take the better part of a day. I got into that habit when I first started working. In years past, that was a good day to catch me defrosting the refrigerator. But since the one I have now is frost-free, I've had to come up with something else to qualify.

This year, it was vacuuming, of the sort where you move the furniture. And find lost objects and realize exactly how long your hair is.

After I got through with that, I decided I could play on the computer a bit. My playtime was a few minutes with online fireworks, courtesy of a friend sending that link.

Then I was reminded that technology is great till it doesn't work. I use MSN's instant message program to keep up with several friends. Only that wasn't possible today, because the service was down most of the day.

Every time I tried signing in, I got a message that told me that the service was down. The error message also pointed out that maybe I wasn't connected to the Internet. Umm, I was reading things online, so I don't think that was the problem. And after the service came back, tonight, I discovered it had lost all my friends' screen names. So I got to spend a few minutes reconstructing my list.

I've heard how David spent the holiday. Let's just say I had more fun. Now go send him some positive thoughts, please.