An update... of sorts...

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