The Problem, the Solution

Okay, I think I'm finally back with everything working.  Several events and what I took to be a few day's hiatus from the blog turned into about a month.  Maybe not a bad idea to take a vacation.

What happened was this:  we have a lot of computers around, probably nine of them in Point Roberts.  But that is not just because we like them but because Ed is a computer guy.  He has computers that are named 'cardboard' because they are a lot of different parts that sit together in a cardboard box and function as a server for some purpose.  I have no idea why we either have or need a server, but apparently we do.  It's okay to have a lot of computers; I usually only work on 3 of them, including my I-Pad.  But one day in September, one of them I work on stopped working.  We had recently moved it down from the coast in order to upgrade the one I was using in the quilt workshop.  It had all my current files on it.  So when it refused to boot despite all Ed's coaxing, he transferred its files onto an external drive via our main computer.

And then the main computer refused to boot.  So he went back to the computer that had been replaced at the quilt workshop, but it had had its network card replaced in the exchange, so it was back to looking at the main computer.  Many tricks, all unsuccessful.  Finally, he replaced the battery in the C-Mos, and it booted up successfully.  But then, in about 24 hours, it quit again and refused to boot.  There was concern about highly problematic viruses, but given that this computer, although a PC, was running Windows 2000 made that seem a little less likely.  Nevertheless, an upgrade to XP.  No significant result.

Now a decision to upgrade the whole system to a better monitor, a better graphics card.  About this time, I made the decision to bail out on PC's after all these years.  I ordered an I-Mac.  Time is passing during all this ordering and upgrading.  I have the I-Pad, but it's hard to write much on if you don't have a keyboard and dock.  I don't.

The I-Mac comes.  I set it up all by myself.  This is a big deal because over the past 2 decades, Ed has taken over all computer maintenance and I don't suppose I've ever even installed a program.  I just use it.  The happiest news I have read in some time was the section of the tiny manual that came with the I-Mac that says something like 'Except for memory chips, nothing in this computer can be serviced or dealt with by you.  Don't even think about it.'  I am smiling.

  I am also figuring out how to use the Mac with help of my son, particularly.  It's all foreign stuff to me: the language, the syntax, the 'intuitiveness.'  My intuitions have all been shaped by PC's.  'So, how do I learn this?'  is the beginning of every email I write to the son.  He answers, usually, 'It's in the dock.'  I write another email, 'What is the dock?  Where would I find it?  Is it a program?  A place?  A manual?'  He replies; rinse and repeat.

Then, just when I'm beginning to feel I can get back to blogging, we went up to the Coast to the house for sale where DCC Cable Company had disconnected our internet connection because we had asked them last month to disconnect our TV connection and we hadn't been back at that house since we had requested that.  We called the cable people Friday afternoon and their friendly phone person in Ontario or somewhere explained that nobody could do anything about our situation before Monday.  Maybe DCC Cable Company ought to think about having an ER room with at least Saturday hours of availability?

Monday, Andrew arrived and apologized for having cut it all off.  'It shouldn't have happened,' he said.  Right, but that's what happens in life.  But rapid correction could have happened if DCC Cable cared the least about its customers, which it doesn't, of course.

Anyway, anyway, now we're back in Point Roberts.  The I-Mac is working; I am feeling I can use it; Ed has spread the entrails of the 'main' computer out on the slate kitchen counter and is now inserting a new motherboard (which arrived during our absence).  If this doesn't work, he says, perhaps a new power source since the new graphics card and monitor require more power.  He is not abandoning his commitment to PC's, I take it.

And what has been happening in Point Roberts while I have been engaged in my own problems?  Well, fall has come.  And thus everything has changed.