In the Grey, Good News

So it's fall, and the grocery store is kind of emptied out and the weekend walkers are spare on the side streets, but enough to keep the Sheriff's three large black dogs barking on a regular basis.  A fellow resident, at the end of his first summer here, once told me how astonished he was when the tourists all cleared out, and how quiet it seemed.  Pleasantly so and then some, he thought.  I would imagine we could stop worrying about all those traffic dangers for awhile at least.  Although I believe the Sheriff is still making his laying-in-wait sorties, out to get the people doing 35 in a 30 mph zone.

And the rain has returned, along with the grey skies.  That 10-12 week summer we get here with all that sun inevitably makes me forget that it rains here.  Perhaps that is because I spent my life in either a high or a low desert: that is, I basically assume that there won't be rain because there never was.  Left in the sun, I expect it to continue to be sunny.  But it is not.  There have been many days of heavy rain and the back yard has reverted to its vaguely marshland feel.  The thousands of plums that fell from the tree and never made it into anyone's mouth (not for lack of my trying to accomplish that feat) have dissolved into the grounds and into the wet ground and it is purple and slippery with plums when I walk between houses.

I'll get used to the rain again; at least I have every year in the last couple of decades.  And I'll also remember that I'm used to the threats of big developments in Point Roberts that never quite make it to fruition.  The Point Roberts Lily Point Beach Club has now sunk bank into the dream world from which it came. After a springtime of agitation about what could be done to stop it from happening, life stopped it.  It turned out that the people who were making all those plans last spring actually weren't paying the mortgage on the property and the bank decided to foreclose and sell it at auction.  Which it did, and at the auction the winning bidder was an art gallery owner in Vancouver who already owns a place in the near vicinity of the property.

He says he might build a house on the property some time, but has no immediate plans to do so, and that he bought it to keep it from turning into a development.  That is, to conserve it, in the best sense of conservatism.  So that is a bright light shining here in the fall.  If we can just remember that, the next time somebody decides to announce they want to put a racetrack on Tyee, or a Wikkininish-type resort on the beach, or five radio towers on Tyee.  Probably not going to happen.

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.

Sterling Reverts to Sterling Status, We Guess

This past week, it was officially announced that Sterling Savings Bank was no longer on the 'bad bank' or 'troubled bank' list.  That list is now about 880 banks spread throughout the U.S.  The FDIC removes a bank from the troubled bank list when the bank is taken over by the FDIC (or sold to some other bank), or when the FDIC concludes that the bank has managed to alter its financial position sufficiently to return to serving the public, or whatever it is that banks advertise themselves as doing.  In this case, Sterling got a lot of new money from private investors.  And thus is its position improved.  It's still a penny stock, though, selling under a dollar.

No end to problems with computers

So, we have come up to the sunshine coast this weekend to visit our house for sale that has not yet sold. For unknown reasons, the internet service is not functioning. Thus, resuming blogging is a little difficult. As i write this, i am sitting in the dusk on my absent neighbor's porch, sponging off their wifi network. But it's too dark and cold to do much of this.

I hope they are not away for a long time; alternatively, i hope the internet connection comes back up, but the cable company offers help, well, maybe moday, if we are lucky.

The Hiatus

The great computer snafu has gone on for some time.  Now I have a new computer.  And more of that later.  But the blog hiatus will continue a little longer.  I expect to be back blogging by October 1st.  Except for the computer problem, however, we are all well.

Just for the Squirrels

This past week, the rain started falling and along with it the walnuts began dropping to the ground.  First day, one fat, round, green walnut; second day, two.  Then up to four.  And then none, because there were no more walnuts on the tree.  And that is not because the walnut tree is not a great bearer of fruits, because it is.  It is because the squirrels (or the squirrel, because this past year I have seen only one black one and one grey one and I think only one of them is a walnut squirrel) know that, on the day there are four walnuts on the ground, on the following day, all the walnuts on the tree are ripe.  And in the night, they come and get them all and put them in a bag of some sort, i suppose, and take them off to bury them all over the yard.  I hate that I never get to see them at this work.  But it has been the case for the past five years that the walnuts all disappear one night.

This morning, I was working in the yard a bit and decided to move some wood chips that I had been keeping in a nice pile.  I took a bucket and trowel over, and on my second trowel full of chips uncovered a beautiful walnut, nicely sequestered for a time when food was needed.  Covered it back up and went on my way.

I'm happy to leave the walnuts to the squirrels because my New Mexico daughter sends me boxes of pecans each year from her pecan tree.  But even if she didn't, I'd probably leave them to the squirrels because they know how to get them out of their green shells without permanently dyeing themselves.  Or maybe they don't, but they just don't care if their hand-like appendages turn deep brown.

The Technology Tyranny

I'm currently having some significant computer problems and, although I love my I-Pad, I don't love composing longer than about twenty word messages on it's keyboard. So, blogging will be light until I get the computer stuff better resolved.