The wondrous conveniences of technology and the constant, aberrant irritations that often attend their use. Finally it seems that Hydro One has solved the problem of the destroyed lines in our area, occasioned by the misfortune of one driver in mortal distress hitting a hydro installation. No more blackouts, thank heavens.

And my computer is now purring away obediently, no longer declining me the opportunity to make use of its multitude of connections. So, for the time being, that's behind us.

On the other hand, when our granddaughter made her daily call to us from Toronto on the first day of her university classes, we were cut off no fewer than four times. Each time in mid-sentence the line suddenly went dead. Each time she redialled and we reconnected, only to have the line go blank again. Finally, we concluded our conversation via email. At least her first day went well, and she has a good impression of the professor teaching her course; now if all the rest follow suit that'll be useful.

This morning there was a call from "Visa" with the usual call-centre background sounds as a dead giveaway that this was a crank call. The caller, identifying himself by faux Western name belying his identifying accent, asked my husband to confirm his identity, only to come up against a blank wall himself of an enquiry on my husband's part demanding to know where the call was coming from.

With the explanation that someone had sourced our account and was using it illicitly, my husband concluded the conversation and then called Visa. He was cautioned that the call received was not from Visa and urged to remain vigilant about his account, which hadn't in fact, been used by us since February. Human ingenuity related to scamming the unaware knows no bounds.