It's a gray rainy day here in Seattle, the perfect weather for an elegy.

I found out several months ago that Drizzle, my local ISP with the kick-ass customer service, had been sold to another company. For weeks there was no discernible difference, and when the first change finally happened, it was a good one -- they increased storage space.

The next change was not so good, but I understood it -- they took away quarterly and semi-annual pricing, and left only monthly and annual. I liked semi-annual: cheaper rate, but not such a hit to the credit card statement.

But I'm lazy, so I didn't immediately jump ship at a minor inconvenience. Of course, now that my e-mail's down -- along with webmail and my shell account -- I think it's time to bail out.

I went poking around and found this exercise in nostalgia, a list of local ISPs in Seattle from 1999. It looks like there are still a couple of good choices among the survivors.

Anybody have recommendations or warnings?