This week in the news ( not much really )

Sun nite

Well one would think that after this past week of messing with this computer that I would have learned just a little more about loading this software. But no, I'm still a dunderhead. We stopped at Fry's on the way back to camp to actually purchase a copy of Windows. Evidently the copy of 7 that I had was not genuine and after 10-12 hours it was giving me fits. I was in such a hurry to get it loaded that I forgot to engage the part of my brain that says " Might wanna do a backup." So this portion of the show is brought to you by Wordpad.

Tomorrow is a lab day so it starts early and runs through mid afternoon, if I'm lucky. Hopefully I'll be up early enough to get something for breakfast before we go. We always have some of those crackers with either cheese or peanut butter on them. Those are our emergency food that we carry almost everywhere. But with the dry mouth that I'm experiencing now I would need a quart of fluid to wash it down.

And now a word about living in a travel trailer. Our good friends lent us this trailer so that we could be within 14 miles of the hospital instead of 75. Now you might think that after living in a truck for all of these years that a travel trailer would be an upgrade and in most circumstances you would be right. There's an on board bathroom, several beds to choose from, a kitchen, and a couch. And if you are a normal sized person you would be right. But don't forget I am 6'9" which is the ceiling height in this trailer and while the lights in here have not really taken a beating then certainly my head has. In the truck the ceiling height is over 8' and the only time I hit my head on anything is if I left a door open on a storage compartment. And while we're talking about my head, while I was on my 48 hour pass I built some steps and a landing to take the place of the fold out steps that come with the trailer. Teresa wanted steps with a handrail so I built them to go just below the door. Very nice if you are somewhere close to normal size but I have learned that now I have to duck even more than before to be able to keep my scalp intact. It seems that the door sill around these things is made of very sharp metal and the actual height of the door is around 6 foot. So if I duck for a normal door I'm still way too tall for this one. And thankfully there is a public restroom that rivals a lot of nickel a gallon over wholesale truck stops, because the bathroom in here is designed for someone around 5'6” and 100 lbs. If I were ever to get set down in there I would need a trapeze to get out.

I mentioned beds. There is only one bed that will fit two people comfortably. It is what a mattress manufacturer might call a short queen. Which means that either my feet would hang off almost a foot or I have to sleep in a fetal position. But after a quick study of the situation I put a 4 x 4 foot piece of plywood under the mattress and extended the sleep area by a little over a foot. I then added enough blankets on top of that to bring it to the level of the mattress. Now I can stretch out full length. The only drawback is that instead of walking around the bed to get in I must crawl over it.  When the cat will let me. Thanks Shadow, really appreciate you taking up my footspace once again. She can't do that at home because sometime in the night I'll stretch out and send her onto the floor.

Late Mon. Nite

Today was what I call a pincushion day. Got to the lab a little after 8:00. The seating which holds around 150 was already almost full. I took my number which was 576. They were serving number 480. Hmmm. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. I was done with labs around 9:00 and went on to radiation. Finished up there and went back to chemo to wait for labs to come back. 11:20 and the chemo PA said I was going to have to stick around for them to top me off with saline. So I was stuck twice today, both times relatively painless, but after they disconnected the saline line I was a bit surprised after about 20 minutes to find my wrap ( they put one on every time they stick you ) damp and red. It was a combination of saline and blood and the first time I've ever have had that happen. I've since developed an ugly bruise.  Now it's not that I'm getting needle shy, it's just that they're having a harder time hitting a vein and so, more misses. I've always said that I would be the worlds worst junkie because I absolutely can not stand shots or needles in any form. However I realize they're quite necessary for my continued success in staying above ground.

Tue.

Well after another 6 hours or so I once again have a working laptop and I even found most of my old programs. I spent a couple of hours on the wifi letting this thing do updates ( well over 200 ) until the low battery indicator said I was out of juice. Then came back to the trailer to recharge and finish letting the updates install. That was around 6:00. At about 1:00 AM it had finally finished. I enjoy working on computers but I must admit installing software is not something I'm very fond of. Especially 3^rd party stuff that is really handy but you have to be extremely careful or it will install some toolbar or PC cleaner or some other garbageware that not only do I have no use for but it's a damned nuisance. Yes I understand it's the price of free, but I would just as soon pay a nominal price for the same software and be free of this headache. Please notice that I said nominal. If Macs were a little cheaper ( the reason they cost more is the support is great ) I probably would go with one because their software upgrades are around       $ 40 instead of the over $ 100 that Microsoft seems to think that theirs is worth. Not to mention that every new OS that Microsoft puts out doesn't seem to work with previous versions of other software that they have. Office? Nope sorry you're going to have to lay out another $ 100 for that. So now I've gone with Open Office from openoffice.org. All of the programs in this office suite are totally compatible with Office, Word, Works, etc. And it's FREE. It has nearly every feature that the others have although I'm not really a power user so I'm not the one to vet this type of stuff. After all I could do this stuff on Wordpad or Notepad. In case you haven't guessed I've been busy on this machine pretty much all day. Some of the time I was even writing. And yes I will very soon have a backup for this. My only problems with backups are that A: you have to have a minimum of 3 copies to be sure you have it and B: you have to keep all of your backups relatively current and C: to get a true backup of your drive you need a program that is just geeky enough that it usually takes a couple of very frustrating hours trying to decipher just what you are trying to do. Now some people would say I have some geeky tendencies since I still have all of those machines in storage somewhere and I still work at DOS level on even this one even though DOS has been greatly changed since they supposedly discontinued it after Win 98. But there is a huge difference between my level of geek and being able to figure out what the programmer had in mind. Which is a bit like me trying to figure out what one of these college edjumacated brainiac traffic engineers were thinking when I come upon some of these highway intersections ( Atlanta ) or something as simple as a parking lot that has incoming traffic headed into parking that is going the wrong way. Aaauuggghhhh.  Sombody give me a stick to beat something with. But I digress. The latest software no longer comes with manuals ( yes I read directions when I have them ) and if it has one at all it will be on the internet. Hmmm. Question: what if I don't have access to the internet ? Their answer: go find someplace where you do and print it out. I see, so I now have to run to Kinko's or some such and print out a manual AND pay for it. Well gee, where do I go to sign up for more of this lunacy ?

Well I'm gonna see if I can get this posted for a midweek. 

Wed nite

Just tried to post and it seems to have forgotten who I am. My fall back is the home machine which is what I used to put up the last one.

Thur. Aft.

You may wonder what it is I do all day. I write, as long as as I can think of something to write about, play a lot of solitaire, and when the weather allows I get outside and drink in some vitamin D from the sun. I also work on computers that I have taken in to rework to give to charities and such. For the most part all I have to do is reload the original software and make sure that it all works as expected. Sometimes it requires that I do research on certain pieces of software to find out if it's good, bad, or indifferent such as if the file is required, it's malware, or it was just an installation file and can be deleted. The main thing I watch for is to make sure that all of the donors files are completely removed. I have found all manner of files that people had no idea were on there. Usually it's just pictures and such but I have found password files and other sensitive files. When I'm sure I'm done then I'll run a file on the unused portion of the hard drive that writes 0's and 1's on it a number of times to be sure there is nothing left that could be used to fuel the resident evil that lives in the cloud. Today I have been working on a machine that my brother gave me. I've been using it for almost two weeks and was about to come to the conclusion that the only thing really wrong with it was that it was running Vista. When I booted it this afternoon it came up with an error that said logon failed. Which was strange because it had no logon. After you booted it and it was ready to go to work you were looking at the desktop. So I fired it up in safe mode, got some files off of it and then flipped the software switch that sent it back to the day it was born. Now I'll leave it running all night long and check it in the morning to see what's up. I'll take it home tomorrow and bring the other one out Sunday. I have more utilities at home that will finish looking at the hard drive to make sure it doesn't have any problems. Then I have the fun part of finding a worthy organization. And for good or bad there are plenty of worthies.

We had to go to an RV sales and service place today simply because it was the closest place to fill a propane tank. When we finished that we looked around at some of the used units and of course we found one we thought was a great deal and when we get back to work I will be hard pressed to not buy one like we saw, 34' and 8' ceilings in most of it. It started with 2 large slide outs. Wrap around couch (that makes a bed ) 2 recliners, a dining table with chairs, a kitchen that you wouldn't have to turn sideways to pass each other in, an audio/video console, and when you went into the master it had a full queen bed, a standard shower, and a separate potty room with a wood door and not a plastic sliding accordion for a door. And I'm sure Teresa will say “ We don't go camping ! “ to which I will reply “ Well, we may have to start “. Goofing around we found another one on the internet about 60 miles from here that's 2' longer and has a washer/dryer for an extra $ 500. The one here was $ 11,000. It looks like RV prices are falling in line with used truck prices.  Oh well, a boy can dream. I'm afraid I would be one of those people that if I were to win the lottery I would be saying you won't see my big self around here any more. I would definitely get  an RV of some form or fashion and cruise the country and when I finished that I would go to Europe. You might think with me driving all over North America I would be happy with that. One problem is you drive to and from but rarely do you stay and visit. Another is you have to play the lottery to win and I can find way more productive ways to spend my money. Like on tools. ( Sounds of cave man grunts a la Tim Allen )

  Hey Dana, put a hold on that thing for me.

Sending this to the web, I'll see you on the cloud.

P.S. If any body wants an opinion or just a topic covered drop me a line. Opinions are like noses and elbows, everybody has one or two. I might even write about it. And a hint. I tend to update the latest blog for several hours after they're posted