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2001:
Don't Look Back
IN MY OPINION
Books Read in 2007 My Favorite Video Blogs Missbehavens (for others, see Links page)
Introducing "The Book" Cat vs. Cow Penguins Chasing a Butterfly Kitten on the Keys Guinness Hands Video New on My
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TECHNOLOGICAL QUAGMIRE 17 February 2007 I was thinking that my life today would make a wonderful Dilbert cartoon. After I finished writing my entry for yesterday, Joe and Alice came home. Joe mentioned that his computer has high speed internet access and that I was welcome to use it. Problem is that his computer is in another part of town. Joe and Alice were married in October, but they both own houses. The plan was to move into Joe's house and rent Alice's, but they discovered Joe's house had mold in the walls, so they are redoing his house and living in hers. Right now all that is in his house is a computer with high speed internet access and assorted pieces of furniture piled with stuff. Walt had to take his mother to the dentist today, so I decided I'd have him drop me here at Joe's and I could get my journal entry posted and spend time on the Internet. Sounded like a great plan. I went to sleep a happy camper. I decided that I would try to connect to AOL on the new laptop at Joe's and if I couldn't, I'd see if CompUSA in Santa Barbara would help me, though I bought the machine in Vacaville. I also called the iPod store and they said they might be able to re-set the iPod. That's when I discovered that I'd left the cord to my cell phone at home. Walt dropped me off at Joe's on his way to his mother's. I tried connecting to AOL again, with the same results. I called CompUSA and the guy told me that they had no way to test dial-up connections (huh?), so I will have to wait until I get home, and possibly leave the computer at CompUSA while I go to my mother's. I had no problem starting Joe's desktop computer, plugging in the USB card reader so I could read what I wrote on the laptop and add it to my journal, and I could upload the Photo of the Day. Things were looking very good. I decided to download MailWasher, the program that makes deleting spam before it comes to your computer SO much easier, while I'm here so I can check my normal e-mail. It all installed just fine (poor Joe--he made the mistake of letting me mess with his computer!), but when I went to check my DCN mail, I couldn't remember my password. No problem. Having anticipated this many months ago, I e-mailed the password to one of my on-line e-mail accounts. I just went there and found the file. BUT, the file is a password protected one and when I e-mailed it to myself, I forgot to remove the password protection, so it's there, but it can't be opened! But there's a work-around to everything. I just downloaded all my e-mail into Yahoo and then spent the next hour deleting spam. Not ideal, but I DID get the two personal e-mails that I would otherwise have missed. So, to review, I have a computer that won't connect to the internet, an iPod that won't work at all, a video camera that won't connect to any computer, a mail screening program that won't recognize my password, a file which has the password in it that I can't get to because it's password protected!, and a cell phone that I can't re-charge. Didn't they promise that technology was going to make our lives easier? Of course, another problem with being at Joe's house is that it is not inhabited right now so there is nothing to eat. There are those who would rightly point out that having to miss a meal or two is not the worst thing that could happen to me, but by 1 p.m., I was rummaging around the refrigerator searching for anything edible and wondering if I could have a bowl of Jerk Chicken Paste with barbeque sauce topped by some stale croutons.
Things were better after Walt finally got here. We stopped at a Mac store where the guy showed me how to re-set my iPod (Mary: You press the center dot and the "menu" button together and hold for 10 seconds), so that was working again. Then we went back to the house and finished off my leftover dinner from the previous night, and then we went to Radio Shack, where I got a power cord for my cell phone. Things were looking up. Next we were off to the assisted living facility where Walt's mother lives. She was just being dressed by her caretakers and when she was ready to go, we went over to the dining room, where we were met by Tom, Alice Nan, Joe, and, later, Laurel. Dinner service was very slow, which was OK because we were there to visit, and the dining room was better for that crowd of 7 than Walt's mother's tiny apartment. I was the only one at the table to order chicken terriyake and I was terribly disappointed in it. It was a very dry piece of grilled chicken breast with a piece of pineapple one it. I choked it down because the peas and wild rice that came with it were, to me, inedible (tho others liked them). Later, after Laurel came and ordered the same thing, I found out it was supposed to have a terriyake sauce on it, which they had left off of my order! So I was quite ready for dessert when the waiter asked if we were ready, because I was starving. The menu had said it was some sort of cobbler with ice cream and it sounded like it might be both delicious and filling. But he didn't bring it and didn't bring it and I was getting quite angry about it all. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye there was this huge ball of fire coming at me.
Not only candles but presents too.
 Tom and Laurel have given me iTunes gift cards, so I expect to be having a good time shopping on iTunes when I have the time to do it! The evening ended back at Alice's apartment. She was really exhausted. It had been a long day for a 92 year old, what with her dental appointment and then all the excitement of so many family being there. But it had been really a lovely day, despite the technological quagmire which started it all! |
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
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This is entry #2515
It was a birthday cake which they had
picked up for me. And yes, in this photo it looks like it must have all 64 candles on it,
but it didn't. I was really touched, and wasn't even embarrassed at being the center of
attention with everybody singing "Happy Birthday" to me, because it was so late almost
everyone had already left the dining room. (I managed to blow all the candles out in one
blow, I'll have you know.) 
