The Joys [or Not] of Being a Self-Employed Genealogist

​A few months ago my website hosting company started sending me early and frequent email notifications about the due date of my annual hosting fee.  When I made the payment (of just over €33) there was some glitch.  I was assured by one of the staff that, even if the glitch wasn’t sorted, I had a month’s grace before anything drastic might happen to my site.  No email notifications requesting overdue payment were received so I just forgot about the glitch.
 
Then a week ago my email stopped sending or receiving.  I thought this was related to an old email problem, so I muddled along with an alternative email account till I could find a free day when I could hand over my laptop to my local IT expert.  In the meantime, I discovered that my website was off-line.  So I started communications with the hosting company.  They acknowledged that the annual payment had been made back in July and they said they would look into the problem.
 
My IT expert needed further details (beyond my understanding) from the hosting company, so I made several calls to them and it was only on the third call that the penny dropped in my slow brain: the email and website were disabled a week before due to the hosting company’s glitch.  As a result of my fourth phone call of the day, my website and email were restored at 5pm.  Another day passed by before I got my laptop back, with the email problem eliminated, but with side effects.  Tomorrow is another day of uncertainty, thanks to my hosting company’s internal glitch.