Saturday, March 8, 2008
Where Have All he Comments Gone??
It was brought to my attention by a lovely new friend that there was no place to make comments on my two blogs from yesterday! I have no idea what happened but I think I may have fixed it! So, if anyone wants to comment on either of those blogs, then please comment on this one...if I have fixed!!
Friday, March 7, 2008
The "Joys" of Electronic Equipment!
I am certainly quite old enough to remember party lines and rotary phones, typing on typewriters and using carbon paper, playing 45's on my record player! However, today I find it difficult to imagine how we ever lived without cell phones, computers and Ipods!
In January of this year I got a little inkling of what it would be like without some of the things we simply take for granted now when 3 unhappy things happened to me quite rapidly!
#1 - My laptop computer was stolen from my office at the church I serve at. There was no break-in, nothing else was touched...just my laptop, power cord and mouse. It was a Dell laptop purchased in 2004 when I started seminary on my way to become an ordained deacon. It served me well all those years! After ordination I brought it to the church office and was on the network so I could do my church work. I had been using it for over a year in that capacity when it suddenly disappeared. I was quite sad!
#2 - My Ipod died. I loved my Ipod. I had little speakers at the office, at the church and in various places at home so I could listen to my music. It soothed me on airplanes (I hate to fly) and was my constant companion. But it just died...no farewells...it was just "gone."
#3 - Our home desk top computer "kind of" crashed. It told me in ugly little boxes that I had many "fatal errors" and that turning it off would be a fatal error of the most permanent kind! I knew that it was getting close to calling it a day. It had been built for us by a friend with only a 20G hard drive. I had installed another 120G hard drive but it was still getting slower and faltering every day. And then it fell into that "fatal error" stage. I also had a 300G SimpleDrive on which I had backed up everything on both hard drives so I knew all my "info" was safe. Not so with my laptop which had all the papers I had written for 3 years on it and NO backup!
So, we were computerless. Not a good thing for my husband who does his bowling secretarial duties on the computer and does our income tax also! Not a good thing for me who spends her whole life at home either at the computer or in the quilt room!
There are stores! Many stores that are only too happy to sell computers and Ipods! I shopped around, comparing prices and learned some terrifying...all new computers have Windows Vista!! Everyone I knew said "stay away from Windows Vista"...but that's all you can buy! So, I bought a new Toshiba laptop complete with all the new "bells and whistles" (none of which I knew how to use!). It has a 17 inch screen, etc. etc. etc!
Then I got an HP TouchSmart Desktop. This one has a 19 inch screen and everything is one piece. It also came with all the "bells and whistles" (I still don't know how to use them.) However, you can touch the screen instead of using the mouse...that is very kewl!
It only took me 3 weeks to figure out how to put everything together so that everything would work together. I actually set up a network which included a new HP Printer. Now I can sit on the back porch with my laptop, get on line and print things out! Wow!
I still can't completely figure out Windows Vista but I do have a couple of "dummy" books and hope to crack the code sometime soon. I also hope to figure out Microsoft Office 2007 which is SO different from 2003 which I am used to!
And the Ipod? Well, I purchased a Classic but it took several new software packages and many calls to iTunes to figure that whole thing out. My music was on my old iPod but I couldn't see it...but I could play it. Getting it off your iPod onto your computer and then on to a new iPod can be done...but trust me, it sure isn't easy!
What an exciting and education time these past couple of months have been!
In January of this year I got a little inkling of what it would be like without some of the things we simply take for granted now when 3 unhappy things happened to me quite rapidly!
#1 - My laptop computer was stolen from my office at the church I serve at. There was no break-in, nothing else was touched...just my laptop, power cord and mouse. It was a Dell laptop purchased in 2004 when I started seminary on my way to become an ordained deacon. It served me well all those years! After ordination I brought it to the church office and was on the network so I could do my church work. I had been using it for over a year in that capacity when it suddenly disappeared. I was quite sad!
#2 - My Ipod died. I loved my Ipod. I had little speakers at the office, at the church and in various places at home so I could listen to my music. It soothed me on airplanes (I hate to fly) and was my constant companion. But it just died...no farewells...it was just "gone."
#3 - Our home desk top computer "kind of" crashed. It told me in ugly little boxes that I had many "fatal errors" and that turning it off would be a fatal error of the most permanent kind! I knew that it was getting close to calling it a day. It had been built for us by a friend with only a 20G hard drive. I had installed another 120G hard drive but it was still getting slower and faltering every day. And then it fell into that "fatal error" stage. I also had a 300G SimpleDrive on which I had backed up everything on both hard drives so I knew all my "info" was safe. Not so with my laptop which had all the papers I had written for 3 years on it and NO backup!
So, we were computerless. Not a good thing for my husband who does his bowling secretarial duties on the computer and does our income tax also! Not a good thing for me who spends her whole life at home either at the computer or in the quilt room!
There are stores! Many stores that are only too happy to sell computers and Ipods! I shopped around, comparing prices and learned some terrifying...all new computers have Windows Vista!! Everyone I knew said "stay away from Windows Vista"...but that's all you can buy! So, I bought a new Toshiba laptop complete with all the new "bells and whistles" (none of which I knew how to use!). It has a 17 inch screen, etc. etc. etc!
Then I got an HP TouchSmart Desktop. This one has a 19 inch screen and everything is one piece. It also came with all the "bells and whistles" (I still don't know how to use them.) However, you can touch the screen instead of using the mouse...that is very kewl!
It only took me 3 weeks to figure out how to put everything together so that everything would work together. I actually set up a network which included a new HP Printer. Now I can sit on the back porch with my laptop, get on line and print things out! Wow!
I still can't completely figure out Windows Vista but I do have a couple of "dummy" books and hope to crack the code sometime soon. I also hope to figure out Microsoft Office 2007 which is SO different from 2003 which I am used to!
And the Ipod? Well, I purchased a Classic but it took several new software packages and many calls to iTunes to figure that whole thing out. My music was on my old iPod but I couldn't see it...but I could play it. Getting it off your iPod onto your computer and then on to a new iPod can be done...but trust me, it sure isn't easy!
What an exciting and education time these past couple of months have been!
Somebody Read My Blog!!
Wow! I received an email today with a copy of an email where someone I don't even know said that they read my October 31st blog! I was SO excited! Of course, that was the last blog I had written...but someone outside my personal and geographical range actually had read it...recently!
I haven't written in over 4 months because I have been in some kind of a "desert" in my life and really haven't felt that I had much to say that would interest anyone...not even me! However, I have been rejuvenated by the thought that someone read my blog!
There have, of course, been some good things happen in the desert! The very best one came at the beginning of December. A friend called me and said that she had the perfect dog for me! Now, I have not actually been looking for a dog...perfect or otherwise. I am still feeling the pain of little Mousie's death last April and my dear Christy is still with me. Today she is 16 1/2 years old! She only weighs about half her previous weight but she walks, eats, loves her treats and still tolerates me petting her for about 1 minute! She is completely deaf and blind and lives in her own little world...but she is not in pain and she still seems to enjoy the life that she has. She has been with me through so much that I am sticking with her until she lets me know it is no longer necessary.
So, even a perfect dog would not fit into my life at this time. All my attention needs to go to Christy. Therefore, I told my friend "thank you" but for now I would have to pass. And, there is also the fact that my dear Bob truly dislikes dogs (at least in our house) so any decision about "another dog" would have to be with him. However, my friend was quite insistent that I take the phone number and make the call. So I did.
One thing led to another and before I knew it Bob and I had an appointment to see the man and his dog after Church on Sunday. All the way there Bob gave me 100 good reasons why this was really stupid. We arrived at the appointed place at the appointed time. To save you from having to read any more "specifics" let me just say that Bob and I left with Barclee...an adorable Bichon Frise!
The rest, as they say, is history. Barclee squirmed in our hearts and our lives without any trouble. She is absolutely respectful of Christy...perhaps even a little afraid of her! Bob is crazy about her and I adore her. She was certainly our most wonderful Christmas present.
A few facts...Barclee turned 5 years old on March 1, 2008. She belonged to a woman named Margaret from the time she was 6 weeks old until she came to our house. She NEVER went outside. She was paper trained because Margaret was too old to take her for walks. She never was allowed in the backyard because Margaret was afraid she would get fleas. She is snow white and looks like a lamb. She weighs about 12 lbs. Sadly, Margaret fell in her home on Thanksgiving,breaking several small bones in her back. She is now residing in a nursing facility as at the age of 93 they were unable to do any surgery. Her 72 year old son was then faced with finding Barclee a new home so he told a friend who told my friend who told me....We keep Margaret in our prayers. She has long forgotten that she had a dog named Barclee.
Barclee's life is quite different now. She gets walked about 5 times a day and is very good about doing her "business" outside! She LOVES to be outside and although the weather hasn't been great here, we do let her run around in the back yard every now and then. She loves to play and has more toys than some kids! Bob only had one decree...NO SLEEPING ON THE BED! That is what he told her the first night and she ran and slept in the living room on the couch. The next night when he came into the bedroom she took one look at him and ran into the living room. He felt so bad that he invited her back into the bedroom...on the bed. Guess where she has been sleeping every since????
Now this is where I always get discouraged...trying to put pictures in my blog. However, I am going to close this blog entry with, I hope, some pictures of Barclee...and then I think I will start work on my next blog!!
I haven't written in over 4 months because I have been in some kind of a "desert" in my life and really haven't felt that I had much to say that would interest anyone...not even me! However, I have been rejuvenated by the thought that someone read my blog!
There have, of course, been some good things happen in the desert! The very best one came at the beginning of December. A friend called me and said that she had the perfect dog for me! Now, I have not actually been looking for a dog...perfect or otherwise. I am still feeling the pain of little Mousie's death last April and my dear Christy is still with me. Today she is 16 1/2 years old! She only weighs about half her previous weight but she walks, eats, loves her treats and still tolerates me petting her for about 1 minute! She is completely deaf and blind and lives in her own little world...but she is not in pain and she still seems to enjoy the life that she has. She has been with me through so much that I am sticking with her until she lets me know it is no longer necessary.
So, even a perfect dog would not fit into my life at this time. All my attention needs to go to Christy. Therefore, I told my friend "thank you" but for now I would have to pass. And, there is also the fact that my dear Bob truly dislikes dogs (at least in our house) so any decision about "another dog" would have to be with him. However, my friend was quite insistent that I take the phone number and make the call. So I did.
One thing led to another and before I knew it Bob and I had an appointment to see the man and his dog after Church on Sunday. All the way there Bob gave me 100 good reasons why this was really stupid. We arrived at the appointed place at the appointed time. To save you from having to read any more "specifics" let me just say that Bob and I left with Barclee...an adorable Bichon Frise!
The rest, as they say, is history. Barclee squirmed in our hearts and our lives without any trouble. She is absolutely respectful of Christy...perhaps even a little afraid of her! Bob is crazy about her and I adore her. She was certainly our most wonderful Christmas present.
A few facts...Barclee turned 5 years old on March 1, 2008. She belonged to a woman named Margaret from the time she was 6 weeks old until she came to our house. She NEVER went outside. She was paper trained because Margaret was too old to take her for walks. She never was allowed in the backyard because Margaret was afraid she would get fleas. She is snow white and looks like a lamb. She weighs about 12 lbs. Sadly, Margaret fell in her home on Thanksgiving,breaking several small bones in her back. She is now residing in a nursing facility as at the age of 93 they were unable to do any surgery. Her 72 year old son was then faced with finding Barclee a new home so he told a friend who told my friend who told me....We keep Margaret in our prayers. She has long forgotten that she had a dog named Barclee.
Barclee's life is quite different now. She gets walked about 5 times a day and is very good about doing her "business" outside! She LOVES to be outside and although the weather hasn't been great here, we do let her run around in the back yard every now and then. She loves to play and has more toys than some kids! Bob only had one decree...NO SLEEPING ON THE BED! That is what he told her the first night and she ran and slept in the living room on the couch. The next night when he came into the bedroom she took one look at him and ran into the living room. He felt so bad that he invited her back into the bedroom...on the bed. Guess where she has been sleeping every since????
Now this is where I always get discouraged...trying to put pictures in my blog. However, I am going to close this blog entry with, I hope, some pictures of Barclee...and then I think I will start work on my next blog!!
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