As our regular readers are aware, we were caught up in a cycle of server agonies that not only affected our ability to receive and send email, but caused Online Journal to be inaccessible at times.

This nightmare began on March 11 and became progressively worse as our techs struggled to keep us online. While I suspected the server was dying, they insisted the problems were being caused by script foul-ups and misconfigurations.

We all know computers -- and servers are computers -- can do inexplicable things at times. We even make jokes about gremlins. But as time passed and the situation grew worse, I was ready to reach for a tinfoil hat and who could blame me with Karl Rove projecting his hate onto us as one of the mobilizers of "hate and anger?" I could picture his pudgy fingers doing things to disrupt us. The techs assured me no one from the feds had planted a back door on our server. But if they had been delivered one of those infamous National Security Letters, how could they admit to it?

In the past few days, as the situation grew grimmer, I even considered that there was a mole among our techs, undoing the fixes nearly as fast as they were made.

Tuesday we hit bottom when they could barely keep the server up. Finally, the techs threw up their hands and admitted that my initial suspicion that the server was dying was correct. Early yesterday morning, we went to the expense of replacing it. That seems to have ended the problems -- "seems" being the operative word as I shall be keeping my fingers crossed for awhile.

To say that these past three and a half months have been frustrating and draining, would be an understatement.