the Outer Limits

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Outer Limits.

Were I more conspiracy-minded, I might assume an intergalactic visitor, a fixture of an old television series of my childhood, was infiltrating my computer. Technical woes with WordPress cannot be blamed on the stuff of science fiction nor a political conspiracy. As a onetime engineer, it is more likely a software engineer’s coding mistake that has put me in a bind. At present, my paid-for domain, dogtown.blog, has been disabled by the webhost, which also is WordPress. What began more than a week ago with WordPress billing me for the dogtown annual subscription, resulted in a second billing notification on WordPress the following day. It could have been resolved had I been more conspiracy-minded, or the customer support desk been more readily reached. Anyone trying to reach a human being in the era of COVID remote working, probably has had similar apathy. But I pressed ahead on the third day, to request a refund via the same website. It should have not changed the earlier payment for the 2020 -2021 Premium subscription. What complicates the system is that I have TWO domains and TWO different blogs hosted by WordPress. One is dedicated to all dog-owners, grandparents, and positivity. The second is more focused on veterans, servicemember-related stories, advice and support. The second one comes up for renewal in a couple months. Adding insult to injury, WordPress billing offers to renew my dogtown.blog and activate Premium content -which I have had for more than 3 years, for an additional payment!

The holiday weekend in the United States has few laboring at WP customer billing support. I am in a generous mood the more I am blogging. There’s more pressing problems in the world. It is 112 F (44 C) at noon at home in eastern San Diego, California today. Two thousand acres, about twenty minutes east of me, are burning and folks are evacuating while homes are burning.

Those are problems that cannot be easily fixed with email, chat, or a phone call.