Searching on the Internets I found that the sudden disappearance of G-mail accounts is not unheard of. I also found that it is very difficult to get a vanished account restored by Google's totally automated system. I think that address might be gone forever. I tried creating a new one, but the installation stalled at 10%, and never got any farther. Still, when I go to any Google page that displays a G-mail address it displays the new one, even though that account is not fully installed and thus can't be used. The whole situation is very puzzling. But then everything to do with Internets and computers is puzzling to me. Milton might justify the ways of God to men, but so far I've found nobody who can explain the ways of Google to me. I think Google might simply be batshit crazy.
The reason I noticed that the account was gone from the Opera client was because I have occasion to actually send an e-mail message, and it is because I couldn't get the Opera client to send anything from the crappy Yahoo account at&t provides me with that I got the G-mail account in the first place. I was going to use it for outgoing mail, but rarely got around to sending anything. Now I suppose I'll have to make Thudderbird my default e-mail client, even though it takes up so much RAM that it crowds every browser that has to share the computer with it. The thing I liked about Opera having a built-in e-mail client was that I didn't have to have another application running in order to get my mail. The computer doesn't like to have both a browser and an e-mail client open at once. I've got both open right now and the computer is slow as can be.
I have no idea what will become of the stillborn G-mail account I created this afternoon. Maybe if I try to access it with Chrome it will fix itself and finish installing. Google is definitely saying it exists, but at this point I'm disinclined to believe anything Google says. Google is kind of a dick.
But if I'm ever going to send the e-mail I need to send I guess it's Thudderbird for now. If I make it my default client I know I'll be able to send stuff out from my at&t address, because Yahoo doesn't get the fantods from Thudderbird the way it does from Opera. Then it won't matter if I no longer have G-mail. I do feel as though I'm going backwards, though. For along time the Internets just seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, and now it seems that I'm able to use less and less of it. Videos stall on YouTube, I've got no G-mail, and Internet Archive pages almost never open for me anymore. Teh Internets hatez on me.
Oh well. My cats still love me. Too bad they don't run Google. They'd probably improve it.