Computer Woes Continue

I think this computer is beyond salvaging. I’ve been trying to remember how long I’ve had it and since the WORD and Excel programs are marked 2003, I’m guessing at least five years. I think that’s about the lifespan of a computer even with updates, etc.

BTW, the new modem hasn’t solved the problem. The computer will start but it still can’t find the modem. I also can’t find my WORD or Excel files. Thursday morning I managed to make copies on my printer of some material I needed for my tutoring sessions. That afternoon the printer would no longer work.

In this season of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for friends who help with computer issues. I’m thankful my local library has computers I can use for free (that’s where I’m writing this).

So I think I’m off to buy a new computer. My wallet groans.

Computer Woes

Tuesday my computer would not boot up. Instead of getting the desktop with icons, etc., on it, all I got was a black screen with a blinking cursor. I tried several things and ended up doing a Systems Restore which effectively re-installed all the programs. I lost all my Favorites. When I was finally able to log in, the computer said it couldn’t find the modem. So that night I took the computer to Best Buy where I purchased a modem and they installed it for me.

Once back home, I tried to fire up the computer so I could read email and blogs. To my dismay, all the icons are tiny and the print is very small. I know there’s a way to change this so both the type and the icons are larger. But I can’t find the spot where I do that. Does anyone know? Can you help me?

Thoughts on a Dreary Day

Yesterday was dreary … full of rain and clouds and darkness. It seemed to be made for reading or knitting, not accomplishing items on a to-do list. So, that’s pretty much what I did. I read and knit but made a little progress on the to-do list as well.

It was also a good day to look forward to Thanksgiving, especially since I’m hosting the family dinner. What will I serve? Will I buy a frozen or a fresh turkey? Still haven’t answered that question. A fresh one would avoid the whole thawing issue but a frozen one would be less expensive. Decisions, decisions.

The menu is another issue. Due to some health issues of other family members, I must modify our traditional menu … not much but a little.

And, of course, there’s the whole cleaning house issue to address. Can’t have many of these lazy days between now and Thanksgiving. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day and I can keep chipping away at the to-do list.

Skipping Thanksgiving

Each week I tutor two students in reading, one-on-one with each student  for one hour. This year I’m working with two boys, one a second grader and one a first grader.

The first thing we do is write a story in his story journal. The subject of the story is up to the student. If he’s stuck for an idea, I might offer up some topics but he gets to pick one.

The second grader wrote about Halloween in the previous story. This week he wanted to write about Christmas. I said, “What about Thanksgiving?” He skipped right over Thanksgiving and hit on Christmas. His concentration was mostly on presents.

I don’t want to skip Thanksgiving. I’ve noticed several bloggers are posting Thankful Thursdays in November. I’m enjoying those posts. It’s always good to stop and appreciate what you have and give thanks for those people, places and things in our life which give it meaning.  Let’s don’t skip Thanksgiving.

Memories

This week has brought some memories to mind that I hadn’t thought of for a long time.

Yesterday was Veterans Day. The memory that provoked was of my first trip to Australia. A friend took me to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. In the Gardens was a memorial built in honor of the soldiers who fought in World War I. It was constructed in such a way that at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month, the sun would fall on the stone commemorating those fallen warriers who had fought in the “war to end all wars.” Sadly that hasn’t been true but the sacrifice of those soldiers is still worth remembering. The same is true of all soldiers who have fought in all the other wars since that one.

The celebrations recognizing the fall of the Berlin Wall brought back memories of a trip I made in 1990. I was with friends on a bus tour to Russia. To get there, we drove across Holland, Germany, and Poland. In Berlin, we were given the customary two-hour (or so) tour of the city before hitting the road for the next stop. On that tour we visited the Brandenberg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. We saw a section of the Wall which was still standing. I have a small chip from the wall. I thought about how the news used to contain stories of people who had braved the no man’s land to escape into West Berlin. I thought about how that city was divided into four sections.

All these memories make me thankful for the country where I live. People have given their lives not only so they could be free but so I could be free. They paid a high price for things I too often take for granted. May I never forget the freedoms or the people who paid for them.

Good Customer Service

Sunday I stopped at the Borders store on my way home from church. I had $5 in Borders Bucks and a coupon for 50% off a second item. I had seen an item that I thought might be a good Christmas present for my niece and I knew I could always find a book.

Then I had a flash of inspiration. Kate Jacobs will be in town tonight for a book signing which is being co-sponsored by the Knitters’ Guild and a local yarn shop. I could get a copy of her book. The book signing is going to be held at the local library where the Knitters’ Guild meets. You can’t exchange money at the library so I’m not sure exactly how they will facilitate sales of her book. I don’t have to worry about that since I now have a copy. I just have to remember to take it with me!

As I was looking for the book, a clerk who usually works in the cafe when our knitting group meets there came up to me, called me by name and asked if she could help. She located the books I was interested in. One of the managers also got involved in setting up a display of the Kate Jacobs book and we briefly talked about the book signing.

As it happened, when I got to the register to pay, this manager was on duty there. I don’t know what happened but somehow the sale didn’t ring up correctly and he had to void it and do it over. When he finally completed the transaction, he apologized for the inconvenience and offered me a free cup of coffee to make up for it. We walked to the cafe where he told the clerk I was to have any coffee I wanted on the house. Wasn’t that nice of him? I ended up selecting a Sugar and Spice latte which was delicious.

I don’t know what part the fact that I’m at Borders every week for the knitting group played in what happened Sunday. But I do know that was good — I would almost say exceptional — customer service.

Quick Trip to England and France

Last night I made a quick trip to England and France through the film shown at the monthly travelogue at a local university. It centered on the English Channel which in French is called Le Manche which translates as “the sleeve.” Not sure why the French call it that.

The lecturer alternated between the southern coast of England and the northern coast of France.  Part of the film was shot in Poole, the town in Dorset where one of my penpals lives so it was interesting to see scenes that she sees.  

There were some shots of the various beaches in France which played such an important part of World War II.  British school classes travel to those towns in France to visit museums and learn about the various invasions all the way back to the Normans which launched from there.  I noticed that all the students wore the same color baseball cap and thought what a useful way to keep track of them.  To my way of thinking, the caps would be better than a class teeshirt.  The program ended with the Channel Islands which are closer to the coast of France but are, indeed, British islands.  

All in all, it was a very interesting evening, showing a part of both countries which isn’t usually covered in a travel lecture program.

Old-Time Radio Shows

The Senior Seminar this week was about Old-Time Radio Shows. The lecturer was the same man who has done the programs on ragtime and jazz. He must have an enormous collection of CDs and DVDs of these musical programs and now the radio shows. He’s always well prepared. It amuses me, though, to watch him as he plays a CD or DVD. He twists the button of his shirt, the one right on top of his tummy. I doubt he even knows he’s doing it.

He played excerpts from three shows for us. One was “The Shadow” which I’ve heard of but had never heard. The other two shows were totally unknown to me. As I watched the other seminar participants who were smiling and nodding as they listened, I came to the conclusion I’m too young to know these programs. The lecturer said most of them were on the air in 1938 which was before I was even a gleam in my father’s eye. No wonder I didn’t know them.

One of our local radio stations plays some of the old-time shows on Saturday or Sunday night after midnight. I occasionally hear a bit of it if I’m up especially late. I like those old shows.

Do you ever listen to old-time radio shows? Do you prefer comedies or mysteries? How old does a show have to be to be considered “old time radio?”

A Splashing Good Time At Symphony

Saturday night I attended the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert. The program had a Chinese flavor to it in preparation for the orchestra playing at a Chinese festival in New York this week.

The second number was “Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra” by Tan Dun. Watching the stagehands set up for this was very entertaining. First they put down some mats on the floor. The first set of mats were placed next to the conductor, the usual spot for a guest soloist. There were also mats placed at either side of the stage. Pedestals were placed on the mats which were topped with large clear glass bowls. The bowls were the size of a large punch bowl. Various other things were placed nearby to the bowls which were filled with water. Plexiglass shields were erected between the percussionists and the other instruments in the orchestra.   Audience members in the front row were protected by rain ponchos.  Microphones were set up over the bowls of water.

The soloist was Colin Currie. He was assisted by the principal percussionist and the associate principal percussionist from the orchestra. The man sitting  behind me and I were joking about these preparations. I wondered if the players practiced at home in the dish pan.

When the concerto started, Mr. Currie came down the aisle playing something that looked sort of like a brass box topped by “ribs” which came almost to a point. He would slide a bow across the ribs and then swirl the instrument in the air. Once on the stage, the orchestra accompanied the three percussionists who paddled in the bowls, or stirred them, or struck metal plates and dipped them in the bowls. They had clear cups or glasses which they used to strike the surface of the water. Water was flying out of the bowls.  Mr. Currie put a set of what appeared to be hollow wooden bowls upside down in his two basins and struck them for a part of the piece. At the conclusion, he removed those and sank a large collander in one basin. Then he pulled it up and the water draining through it was like a waterfall.

It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen or heard.

Waterlogged Mini Vacation

We have had the wettest October since they began keeping records over 100 years ago. There are flood warnings out now. The ground is so saturated there’s no place for the rain to go but into the rivers.

Last night a friend and I went to a program on Thai Classical Music and Dance at Jefferson College in Hillsboro. If left to myself, I would have cancelled. It was pouring rain. I had to stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription on my way to meet her. I was at the stoplight to cross the highway when there was a big flash of lightening. The stoplights went out. Fortunately, they came back on … blinking … in a minute or two. But this was during the rush hour so picking your way across the highway with only a blinking stoplight was not fun. When I got in the store, I learned their computers had all gone down when that lightening had hit but they had come back up in about five minutes. While I was getting my medicine, the rain got even heavier. It was as thought someone had turned a bucket upside down over our heads.   I was wet through my raincoat just getting from the store to my car in the parking lot.

I finally got to the meeting spot and my friend was still of a mind to go. She offered to drive the 25 miles or so we had to travel so I said okay. She’s a good driver normally but she made me nervous because she was driving so fast in such heavy rain (and fog) when you couldn’t really see the lane markings that well. Plus she didn’t keep her wipers on. She’d turn them off and the windshield would get all covered with water, making it difficult to see, and then she’d turn them back on. I managed not to say anything but I wasn’t very comfortable.

The program was interesting but was definitely not my cup of tea. All the music sounded pretty much the same and didn’t seem to have much of a melody to it. The dancers were good. Their costumes were very colorful. For the first couple of dances, the women had all extremely long gold fingernails. Later they danced without them. With them, it looked like they were bending their fingers back double. This group was from a university in Bangkok and were doing a cultural exchange type of trip. The narrator gave us some background of what we were hearing and seeing but she had an accent and was difficult to understand so I’m sure I missed a lot of it. Of course, she did far better speaking English than I ever would speaking Thai!