An update… of sorts…
I’ve debated with myself, for a few days,
about continuing with this blog. I’ve also debated with myself as to
whether I should explain why, fearful that my ‘trials and tribulations’
of the past 30 days might seem to be taken as fiction. But, here I am,
typing away straight on to Blogger (and not to my usual place, a journal
app). So, here goes…
After my last post I made a ‘comment’ about
problems with my computer and how I was going to wait until after
Thanksgiving to have it looked at. I took it in the Monday after and,
because the owner had been away for two weeks he was ‘backed up’. I
wanted him to look at it as I’ve come to trust him. It was Friday before
he called to say he couldn’t get it to replicate my problem. He thought
the source of it was my app. I gave him the access to it but he still
couldn’t get it to screw up. That didn’t make me very happy. When I went
to pick it up that Saturday he told me he wouldn’t charge me for
looking at it (I told you were were friends) and that he’d brought the
operating system up to date. OK… I have to tell you that I’m not too
keen on system updates and don’t keep up with them because I’d been
‘burned’ in the past, not knowing what was involved and how the changes
affected the things that I do, regularly, with my computer. I asked what
was entailed and he couldn’t give me a concise answer which, again,
didn’t make me all that happy. Back at home I quickly found out that I
definitely wasn’t happy.
The main change was in the use of “the
cloud”. I’ll be perfectly honest here… I haven’t got a clue as to what
it really is or any idea how it works and how to use it. What I do know
(NOW) is that my pictures and documents have been swept up to “the
cloud”… and that, as far as my pictures are concerned is a disaster. I
maintained two accounts and ID’s on my computer. One was completely
family oriented and the other was what I called Business/Personal. All
the pictures I’ve posted at Blogger came from the files in that account.
But, what I found out when I tried to access them is that they have
been melded into one account for photos. Between the two accounts there
are 17,000+ pictures. I’d made folders up and titled them in both
accounts to readily identify them by categories. What I got back, on top
of the melding of the two accounts, was Apple’s Artificial Intelligence
putting the pictures into Apple’s own groupings.
I went back to
the guy at the Mac shop and the best I could get out of him was an
apology… no clue as how to restore them back into the two accounts that
they’d been in. No such luck. So what I’ve got is my family pictures
mixed in with all my ‘personal’ ones which means I can’t let anybody see
the family pictures any more. I was so pissed off I said some things I
shouldn’t have and I know I can’t go back there for anything, ever
again.
As I said I was pissed and had no desire to get back to
posting here at Blogger until I calmed down a bit. While I was going
through this ordeal at the computer shop one of my down the hall
neighbors was taken to the hospital. He’s a Meals on Wheels driver and
I’ve filled in for him a time or two so it wasn’t a surprise when his
wife asked me to do it again. The very next day, when I went to get my
van, I couldn’t get in. When I pushed the button on the fob absolutely
nothing happened. I thought the battery in the fob was bad so returned
to my apartment and got the spare. Same thing. Long story short… I had
to have it towed to the dealer. The result was I needed a new battery,
or so they said. The one in the van was only 3 years old but there is no
parts store locally that carries the brand so I had to go with it. They
said the big ‘draw’ on the battery had been a malfunction of the
radio/CD player. To replace it would cost $1,000 so I said I’d go
without it. By the time I got home I was out over $400 including the
towing.
Thursday, the same thing. No response from the fob. Had
to get the van towed to the dealer again. This time they did a complete
diagnostic analysis and found that one of the main control boards was
malfunctioning. Replacement, $1,400, parts and labor (and also add the
$85 towing fee). No choice if I wanted to get the van back. But, they
didn’t have that particular board on hand so I had to leave it until
Monday. At least I got a free loaner. Monday morning, I got the call
that everything checked out and thought I was home free… NOT IN THIS
MONTH!!!!
Without the van for those days I called in to Meals on
Wheels so I didn’t have to worry about that. Walking down the hall
toward my apartment I saw a bunch of EMT’s… again. But this time it was
my across the hall neighbor. Elle and I’d been looking in on her for
over a year and when she checked on her that morning found her
unresponsive in her reclining chair. Long story short… they got her to
the hospital where they put her in intensive care. Over time we’d become
friends with her unmarried daughter who lives a fair distance away. We
called and the safest and quickest way to get here was the train. I
ended up picking her up and getting her to the hospital where she stayed
for the night. By morning, the woman was stable so I went back to get
the daughter to bring her back to the apartment for her to get freshened
up a bit and to try and get some of her mother’s things together. By
the time she was ready to go back a call came from the hospital that her
mother had passed.
By Friday, with my help, the daughter had
most of the details worked out for the funeral. However, by then I found
myself with a ‘doozy’ of a cold. Elle and I were supposed to take a few
of her friends to a Christmas play at a local venue. One of those women
is a real PITA (pain in the ass) and what little enjoyment I got from
the performance was gone by the time we got back here. Christmas spirit?
Bah, Humbug! So, yesterday, Elle was all about making her favorite
Christmas cookies. With my cold I had little in the way of taste in my
mouth but, even acknowledging that, I knew after eating but a couple of
them that something was drastically wrong. Elle, eventually, agreed and
four dozen cookies ended up in the garbage.
She’s known as the
“game lady” within the complex and hosted a game night for the
residents, mostly women last evening. She’s also big into Christmas and
has all kinds of clothes and wearable ornaments to wear during the
season. One of those ornaments is a cheap ring made out of tiny bells.
For some stupid reason she decided to wear it over her diamond
engagement ring and when, after cleaning up the game room, went to use
the ladies room. When she went to wash her hands she pulled off the bell
ring… and unknowingly the diamond ring. So to add to all the other
monetary disasters is the loss of the ring. For that it’s not the
monetary loss but rather it’s sentimental, something that I picked out
and gave to her back in 1957. It hurts!
So, that’s been my month…
so far. I’ll make up my mind about continuing after the first of the
year. I just can’t get into it right now. So, for those who’ve stayed
with me this far I’m wishing you and yours a peaceful holiday and, for
the New Year, a healthy one for everyone.
Panty Maven
