It's actually nearing 1:00 a.m. But at least we're on vacation and can sleep in if we feel like it tomorrow. Hahaha. And I certainly DID sleep in this morning! The sound of the garage door woke me, actually. Marilyn was heading for the Roosevelt High School track to walk/run. She did two miles (amazing, huh?). While she was gone I cleaned the cat water and did the cat boxes. Then she got home and washed her hair (showered). And I took the new Mac computer Mark gave her recently and made room for it on the coffee table down in the family room -- which is right in front of her couch. It's crammed full of things, but I cleared a bunch off and set it up on the left side facing the couch. It's HUGE. I mean, it's like a big screen TV! You'd think it wouldn't be that big a deal for us to set it up, right? Well... Look, this is our first-ever Mac. Thankfully we've had Apple devices, so there's plenty of frames of reference going on. And I'm not bad with computers, period (as we know). But it's the little things that make us nuts. Like: there's no backspace key on Mac computers. WTF??? There's the Delete key. Weird. And the Command key (which appears in two spots) doesn't read 'Command' -- you're just supposed to know it's the Command key. I've always loved how Apple plays these little superiority games with people. 'This is how we do it. You should automatically know how it's done, and we're not going to make it easier for you to figure it out. And if you can't figure it out without help, then you are an idiot.' Okay, Apple, I guess I'm an idiot, because I don't automatically understand your crap. I'm glad I can reason it all out over time. But, boy, how you love to waste my time! I may hate Microsoft, too, but they don't seem to waste quite as much of my time as Apple does. The arrogance is high for both, but Apple wins. And I've NEVER liked anything that makes anyone feel stupid. That's not how I operate! I'm always out to make people feel smarter and more confident. I know lots of other IT people who feel the same! We're still reasoning out things right now. And when it asked for iCloud confirmation on the Mac it wanted info from one of our older iPads (that we rarely use) -- rather than our current ones (which we use every day). But NOT our oldest iPad. Go freaking figure that one! Hey, exactly how many times do we need to enter our Apple ID information before you figure out it's us and let us be good to go? I think this over and over again crap is ridiculous, Apple. Why do you make it all so damn hard??? And you wonder why people like PCs??? There's a damn good reason. I certainly wouldn't want to be dealing with Macs in the office, that's for sure! I've got enough issues with PCs. We had a nice day. It's beautiful weather and we took a ride to Sauvie Island and had hamburgers there. Then we went to Hayden Island planning to go to Old Navy -- the store there is gone, though. We looked around Ross but didn't buy anything. We wanted new America tees for the Fourth. I have a bunch more photos to share! PHOTO SHARE![click on any photo to see the larger version] Again, random order, just selecting them from a gallery here... Red Robin - June 29, 2017 Marilyn has good snacks!  Me, too!  I LOVE the burger with the fried egg (minus lettuce and bacon)  Marilyn thought her onion ring looked like a peace symbol!  I really ate up a lot of my burger (and only took home this much!) Sunday Parkways - June 25, 2017 Marilyn walked all over in the horrible heat (checking out various booths and things)  I watched her from a distance, not up to the terrible heat... Rockaway Beach Pirate Festival - June 24 Fun times!  I got a good laugh!  With our friend, Gary! (Matching shirts!)  Mugs from our friend Jan! (We're going to keep them at the beach house.) Miscellaneous (Yard and Colin) Colin stole this Santa Hat off Marilyn's dresser! Then tore it in two!  He likes the top of the hat best! He stretched it out...  Colin often knocks books from the bookcase in Marilyn's bedroom. He ALWAYS gets 'Good Cats' every single time! He won't let us forget!  Colin's fave spot, above Marilyn's head. (On the couch in the family room.)  My rose by the garage looks so great this year!  A large pile of branches I trimmed. (In the back yard.)  There's our Whirly Vane! We really love it! More photos again soon! Sweet dreams!  - Feeling:happy
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It was 80 here in Portland today! Good grief. Talk about extremes. We always seem to go from cold and nasty to sunny and HOT -- not warm. I had the air conditioning on much of the day as it gets quite warm upstairs because of the huge windows in our living room. Heck, it's warm everywhere upstairs, really. Marilyn had a difficult time waking me for my appointment this morning! I just haven't been sleeping well because of my flare-up in both hips. It makes it impossible to get comfortable and stay that way. So I end up tossing from side to side... But she managed (she's a marvel!) -- and took me in plenty of time for my labs. I like the woman who works there. She's great at taking blood. But I knew I was so dehydrated that she'd have a time getting a vein, which was true. I'd told her to use the back of my hand and she did (the right hand). When I think what a baby I was for the early part of my life! And not I'm just 'stick me, whatever' when it happens. And I managed enough pee to finish up the labs (thankfully I hadn't allowed myself to do a drop after getting up). Marilyn dropped me home and headed on to work. I settled in after putting on a pot of coffee and went straight to work on several projects. I actually got a TON done today. I set up to train Grace (current Queen Grace, who is an intern this year) next week. Later in the day I set up a phone for both her and Annie, too. I worked on more website stuff, including the Treasure Hunt page. I just was sitting here with my eyes closed, drifting off!!! I think I need to head to bed. (It's nearly 2:00 a.m.)Quick review of the day: I did the Volunteer page, which only took less than five minutes, believe it or not! Marilyn sent me the blurb for adding a request for mini-float decorators this year. I swapped out my left monitor (monitor trouble AGAIN???), because the screen was 'jittery' (not a good description, but what the hell). It seemed okay at first, then the new monitor was jittery, too! I called Donn, and it could be the video card. But I'm over it. I just need to push through regardless! (At least I saved the old monitor, which is clearly fine! I was going to toss it.) Marilyn had her final appearance with the Living History program tonight. It was a Rosarian dinner, and this was a chance to show them the performance, considering they've been paying to sponsor this program for years now! Marilyn said it went really well. So obviously she had a long day and night! June took me to the Dollar Tree and Freddies, where I did a little shopping. So nice of her! And while working on the garbage and recycling, I spoke with Estelle across the street (she came over). She's 67 and just retired on Monday. She said she's had three naps in three days! Hahaha. I did go out in the sunshine for a bit today (in the back yard). Boy, was it hot! I was quite sweaty. Somehow I got well over my 4,000 steps (nearly 5,000, actually). Marilyn said it was 'doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing.' Hahaha. I had no clue I had walked that much. At one point I went in to my bedroom and laid on top of the bed for several minutes. I have a magnetic mattress on that bed, so sometimes I think lying on it helps my hips (and other body pains). Maybe, mayber not, I guess. Too tired to think straight. I did quite a bit more than I'm recording, but what the hell. I'll try and be better about blogging tomorrow night! Sweet dreams. - Feeling:accomplished
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I'm worn out tonight. But I DID get more than 6,000 steps (I don't have my phone here, so I can't check the exact amount) today. I'm glad about that! (Walking around Costco with Sue, walking around Freddies later and pacing around the house while on the phone -- then walking again at Costco with Marilyn.) Sister Sue and I went to Costco today. She picked up a few things, and I got my large list that included paper plates, laundry detergent, a huge box of bird seed and several other items. Lifting everything into the house was really exhausting. (That box of bird seed is heavy.) Then we headed to Freddies so I could pick up kitty litter and cat box liners for tomorrow (when I do the garbage). It was a very pretty and very WARM day (I ended up taking off my leather jacket and leaving it in the car). After I got home I put out a bunch of seed for the crows. They were happy campers! Hector came today to do the yard (and especially to get up all the leaves). It looked WONDERFUL when he was done. He and I talked and hugged. He was very upbeat and optimistic about things, in spite of how the election went. I'm glad, because so many people seem really upset and/or fearful. We had TWO protest marches in downtown Portland today. One early on, the other late in the day. (Marilyn just missed being trapped behind this on her way home from work tonight.) They were chanting "Not my President" over and over. Marilyn is very supportive of their right to protest -- but we were part of the 'protest generation,' after all. (smile) Sue and I ate lunch at Costco. Always good food! (grin) In spite of eating breakfast AND lunch, I had another low blood sugar (!!!) today. That's TWO DAYS IN A ROW. (sigh) I guess I'm taking too much insulin. I need to adjust (again). I guess I'll figure it out sooner or later. (This morning I took 22 units...) Can I say again that I HATE how it feels to have a low? It's really an awful feeling. I don't know if I mentioned that I phoned Hector yesterday and told him we wouldn't be hiring him for the work on the house (fence and deck). He took it very well. And I asked him about doing the leaves, which is why he came today. Recently Marilyn and I raked the sidewalk twice, so it really did need doing. About the OIL: They're delivering it tomorrow (Thursday). If we bought 200 gallons, we got it for $233 for 100 gallons, or $466 total. Last year the cost of 200 gallons was $410 -- so the increase this year is $56. But in 2014, 200 gallons was $616! And in 2013 it was $662. So obviously I'm HAPPY about the cost for 2016! This will take care of this winter and into next the end of next year (we always order around this time -- or a bit later). Last year I talked for around 45 minutes to the oil delivery man. I really like the company we use and the people who work there. I got up this morning just as Marilyn was heading off to work (before 7:00 a.m.). She had a VERY LONG DAY today. And it was stressful. She was dealing with a lot of people at work who were very distressed by the results of the election. Some of them hadn't slept at all or had barely slept last night. And the meeting in the morning was with the brand new executive group... When she got home, we turned right around and went back to Costco. I'd picked up a throw as a 'sample' to see if we wanted more. (We gave a bunch of them as gifts last year.) We thought the new throw was even nicer than the ones from last year! We also want to take several to the beach house. Anyway, we got almost a dozen of them. We also got our dinner there -- pizza. (We ate part of it there and part here at home.) The funny part was trying to figure out WHERE THE HELL we were going to store all of those blankets in the house!!! I finally made room in my bedroom and have them in a HUGE STACK in one corner. (It's out of the way, so the cats shouldn't be able to bother it.) As for these throws, imagine the softest blanket you can. In pretty designs. Plus BIG/long! So you can really cover up well with it. Seriously, during the time we've both been sick, we sleep with just one of these throws over us and are totally comfy. Tonight I finally did my pills again. It takes me close to half an hour, for the record. When I headed down stairs for the midnight magic hour of our game SimCity BuildIt, Marilyn was sound asleep on the sofa. So I did the search for both of us (which I've done before). As soon as I'd finished up, I came up to the office to blog. Marilyn and I have an important funeral to attend on Saturday. And there's a bazaar in the evening we'd like to attend Friday. Plus we're wondering if we could get away to go to the Pioneer bazaar during the day on Friday. Otherwise we'd have to go to that first thing in the morning on Saturday. Our cousin Linda made a point of contacting us (via both Facebook and by sending me an email). She's anxious to see us -- and we'd like to see her, too, as it's been ages! It's just a matter of figuring out how we can schedule it. Well, I'm VERY TIRED, so I'm heading to bed. I feel like I'm forgetting something here, but I'm too tired to figure it out, I guess. I'm surprised by how many people say they're going to 'move to Canada' because of the outcome of the election. First off, I don't believe them. But secondly, WHY? We're not talking about Vietnam here, where people went to Canada to avoid being drafted and possibly KILLED during that war. We're talking about living in a wonderful nation and just giving up and going to another country. Really? Marilyn and I keep listing off other 'difficult' presidents that we've seen come and go. No president is in office forever. I guess if someone really wants to move away, then they SHOULD. Enough said about that subject. Sleep well, friends. And remember that together we can face anything. Sweet dreams! - Feeling:good
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I slept in VERY late again today. But Marilyn finally managed to drag me out of bed so we could go and get our manicures and pedicures (finally). When we first got there they weren't going to take us. Then they wanted to do our pedicures, but NOT our manicures -- and we made it clear the manicures were far more important to us. Then suddenly they decided to do both without waiting. I'm still not sure WHY. (They were supposedly expecting a large group, but that never seemed to happen, so who knows?) Both Marilyn and I found it very painful today. And the woman working on Marilyn spoke almost no English and was very hard to understand. And she kept making mistakes! At one point she totally FORGOT to use paraffin on Marilyn's feet. Then she told Marilyn she was going to have to PAY for the paraffin, even though she wasn't doing it! WTF????? Marilyn made it pretty damn clear at that point that she was NOT going to pay for something she didn't get. So even though the woman had started to paint her toenails, she did the paraffin at that point -- it totally made no sense. As Marilyn said afterward, if today had been the first time we'd gone there, we'd never go back again. Fortunately that's not the case. What happens is they have a turnover of employees. The experienced women leave (I'm not sure why), and new women start working there. They'll be straight from Vietnam, so they need to learn the language and to learn the work from scratch. Eventually they'll have it all down. But it's a mess while they're learning. It's a good thing we're understanding about it, because while they're transitioning, we have to suffer through actual PAIN. These two women beat the crap out of our cuticles, and were rough on the nails. They didn't produce as perfect a result as we usually get. But we were okay with it. Don't get me wrong. Usually we get very good service. There's no perfect place to go (we've been having this work done for decades, and this is the best place we've found). It's costly, so we budget carefully for it and do not go too often. But we both feel it's important to have it done, in spite of the pain, discomfort and expense... But, NO, it's NOT 'relaxing.' There's nothing at all relaxing about it. It's necessary, like going to the dentist. Anyway, that's why we have such a hard time convincing ourselves to go and get it done. Hahaha. Tonight is nice! Marilyn is playing Zuma beside me while I blog. We haven't done this in a long time. We're also watching "Gaslight" -- a classic movie that we both love! After getting our nails done we came straight home. Marilyn was very hungry, of course. Anyway, we ate leftover chili -- it was DELICIOUS. I avoided it yesterday, but just couldn't today. It smelled and looked just as wonderful as it tasted! (I'm sensitive to beans, so I have to watch how often I eat them...) We watched some TV and played our game (SimCity BuildIt), then we both had naps. We knew we needed to go shopping this evening, so we wanted to rest first. Marilyn woke me up in time to head to Freddies to shop. We were surprised by the items that they didn't have available that were on our list! They were out of our brand of hot dogs, totally out of any brand of candy corn, didn't have Chelada (Bud Light beer and Clamoto)... Anyway, we still needed several things after we'd finished up at Freddies. After Freddies we headed over to Safeway to pick up the things we'd been unable to purchase. We did GREAT there, getting everything we'd been missing. Halloween has been a traditional holiday in our family since long before either Marilyn or I were born (sister Sue, too). Our Grandma May really loved Halloween, and it was always our Dad's favorite holiday. So we always made a big deal of the day -- long, long before it became fashionable to do so. Now the whole country is wild for Halloween, but that certainly wasn't true when we were younger... As you've already seen in my blog, we always decorate for Halloween. But we also have food traditions, as well. We always eat hot dogs. Mom used to make coney sauce, and Marilyn makes chili that tastes very like it. We also get potato chips and candy corn. We usually have a big bag of Tootsie Roll candies (the variety stuff). We've been getting Baby Ruth and Butterfinger bars forever -- but they didn't have ANY Butterfingers at Freddies (and I forgot to look at Safeway). Marilyn wasn't feeling well by the time we got to Safeway, poor thing. But she managed to both shop there and help me unpack at home... We settled in down in the family room and started watching "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" again. Marilyn taped it when it was on TCM today. Yes, we watched it on Svengoolie last night, but that was with commercials (and so on), so it was nice to just watch the entire movie all the way through. And we had our magic midnight hour for our game (it happens every night between 12:00 and 1:00). If you've never played the game, you wouldn't understand WHY it's so important to play at that time. But you get a TON of items given to you that you really need! Last night I played for both of us, going back and forth between the iPads, because it's so wasteful NOT to do it. (I don't think we've missed a single night since we started playing this game.) Tomorrow is Marilyn's appointment with the specialist first thing in the morning. Then we'll come home and get ready for the Halloween party at the office. We're going to wear our Rosie the Riveter outfits. I'm going to bake scones to take (if there's time). And maybe make a dip, too. I also have hard-boiled eggs, so I could make deviled eggs -- but they really wouldn't go with what we're having for lunch. So I might wait on that... It's been raining today. But we were lucky -- it wasn't raining while we were shopping! Nor was it raining when we went out for our manicures. But we still got wet, as we have to wear open-toe shoes for getting our pedicures. I forgot to mention that we went to Target after our manicures/pedicures, to get a NEW Fitbit for Marilyn. Her Fitbit died recently and needed replacing. Then we went to Ross so I could get my perfume (I was out). Marilyn got a jacket she's been needing (to replace the one she's worn for years). And I found another pair of pants and decided to get them. I'm still shocked when I try on 18 and it's too big. The new pants are 16. I can't get over being this smaller size, I guess... And I removed Marilyn's old Fitbit from her account, then added the new one. So she's all set again! It was much easier than I'd expected. But I have to admit I'd been hoping it would be smooth sailing to do it. Speaking of, I got more than 4,000 steps today! I'm pleased about that. And that was our Sunday. I think I've remembered everything. Hahaha. I had WONDERFUL dreams this morning, and when I had my nap, too. Always a good thing. And may I wish all my friends WONDERFUL dreams, as well! And I hope those of you who celebrate will have a delightful Halloween! (I hope we get a bunch of Trick or Treaters!!!) - Feeling:happy
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Trying to get back into the swing of things -- SLOWLY but SURELY. Hahaha. The goal is to get back to my (so-called) normal life again. I decided to do some cleaning in the garage this morning. I wanted to do it early enough that the garage wouldn't be ridiculously hot, considering we're in a heat wave here. Hahaha. And I wasn't doing a lot, but I had a goal in mind. We have two 'shelf units' that somebody made out of old kitchen cabinets before we ever moved in. I took the doors off right after we moved in, so all you see is two open shelves, one on either side of the garage door. I completely emptied both, swept and wiped them out and then put things away again. (I also threw out an entire bag of stuff and boxed up other stuff for the Goodwill. Then I moved all the containers of stuff on top of the two surfaces just outside the door into the house. I put everything out on the floor and went through it and organized it. (Well, first round. I need to do another more precise round.) The goal here was to make some space on top where there was nothing. The other day I put my Starbucks coffee on the very corner -- the only empty space. I knew I shouldn't do it, as it's not really safe there. Marilyn bumped it with her purse entering the house -- but it was actually MY fault it was spilled. And with milk inside, you have to worry about getting odor! So I did clean it up immediately -- and decided I wanted to make space to sit down a drink (or whatever) without worrying about it in the future. Task accomplished!!! I also bagged up all of Marilyn's cans and bottles to go to BottleDrop. They're out in the garage and ready to go! We've got some boxes for the Goodwill, too. And we've had shredding boxes out there for ages. Marilyn said we're going to finally get that done, too. The garage is NEVER going to be perfect. I don't even care if it is. Marilyn gave me my MAIN guideline when we moved into the house: The garage is the house for the CAR. There must always be room to comfortably park the car and get in and out of it. I've always stuck by that, too. But we store a TON of stuff out there! Our Christmas tree. Cleaning products. Brown paper sacks. Bottled water for us and the cats. Kitty litter for cleaning their boxes. Tools. Our ladder. And on and on. And I know where almost everything is, by the way. It's not that hard for me to find whatever we need... What else did I do today? I washed my hair (why is that such a big deal?) -- hahaha. It's not as bad as coloring my hair, but there are days I really have to rag myself to get in and do it. And I loaded the dishwasher and did dishes and picked up in the kitchen. I also gathered ALL the garbage and recycling in the house and took it out! It was pretty hot by then, so I was sweating up a storm by the time I got done. And while I was outside I put out food for the critters (my crows and the other birds and animals that come around). And LOTS OF WATER! When it's this hot they really suffer if we don't water them. I also did my pills (that's an annoying task that takes ages, setting up all my damn pills!). Yeah, I did a few work-related tasks, too. No big deal... When Marilyn came home we drove out and got takeout so we wouldn't have to cook. That was very nice of her! When we got back home there were around 14 plus crows in the yard, eating and drinking! My friend June reminded me about the hummingbirds, so tomorrow I'm going to finally clean their feeder and fill it again. I've been very bad about that lately... Oh! That reminds me! I also watered my house plants today. Anyway, it felt good to DO some things again! I was really feeling happy and productive. Tonight Marilyn and I got " God's Not Dead 2," from On Demand. She's wanted to see it since her birthday back in April, so I'm glad we finally did. (I made homemade popcorn as a treat.) It got bad reviews, but we both REALLY, REALLY liked it. In fact, it made both of us emotional to watch. We're huge Jesse Metcalfe fans, and I thought Melissa Joan Hart was wonderful in the lead role. By the way, Pat Boone was wonderful in his role -- and his singing voice is still good, too! If you're not a Christian, I can't say if you'd like this faith-based movie. But we did... Marilyn and I were just talking (she was playing Zuma while I blogged) and agreeing that we're going to miss the Olympics when they're over. We have them on all the time, even when we're not paying close attention. (I had them on all day long today.) It's really delightful to see all those people from all those various sports and all those countries. Anyway, we both love it. I need to phone June and Jim about maybe going to dinner this weekend. I'm DYING to have Chinese food again, and Marilyn suggested we four go... Keeping my spirits up -- I felt much better today about things. Marilyn is always so good at talking me through this stuff. I was a bit down yesterday, but was very happy today. Life goes on, no matter what. And I like to remain a happy person. Life is so much better that way... (grin) Off to bed soon! Tomorrow is supposed to be EXTREMELY hot. I think I'll be pretty careful about anything I do... Sleep well and be happy, friends!  - Feeling:happy
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The first day of June, 2016. Wow, time flies when you're having fun... It's currently around 2:30 a.m. and I had a very HARD TIME waking up to take my nighttime medicine and blog tonight. I was nodding off in Marilyn's office today at one point. And it's not like I didn't actually sleep pretty well last night. I started today with a lovely soak in Marilyn's bathtub in epsom salts. She had taken a bath and saved me her water, to which I added more hot water and more salts. It was lovely, but made me far too warm for preparing for work! I was pouring sweat after. Neither Marilyn nor I like bathing or showering in the morning -- we prefer to do that at night. Speaking of being too warm, when I got up just now the house was really warm. Too warm. It was hot and muggy all day long (a 'white' day -- very overcast). So I turned on the air to give us a blast of cool air. I just looked outside and it's POURING DOWN RAIN. Nooooooooooo!!! That's such a pain in the ass. Going back to YESTERDAY, I can't believe I didn't discuss one of the main IT tasks I had to face! (I may need to go back and EDIT that day to add this!) I get a call from Christine that folders are missing. Then she tells me they aren't really missing -- but they've been moved from one spot to another (actually from one YEAR to another YEAR). I tell her not to touch ANYTHING, but to wait for me to move them back where they belong. Then I get a call from Calisa about the same thing a few minutes later, and I give her the same message. (I was at home as Marilyn had judging -- waiting for her to finish up and come and get me. She'd planned to stay home for a bit and relax, but had to change her plans so I could get right in there to resolve this issue...) I'm sure this sounds much EASIER to fix than it is. Just move things back, right? W R O N G. First, the folders never want to move after they've been switched around! Not everything gets switched. Sometimes only PART of the contents of a folder will get shifted -- and the other portion will still be where it was. So you'll have a folder with a bunch of files in one spot that you need to NOT OVERWRITE with the SAME named folder someplace else with DIFFERENT files. It's a big mess! You don't want to lose anything during moving... And the folder PERMISSIONS change, too -- and you can't always get them to move. And I want to do some renaming and add the YEAR to the folder name. But that wouldn't work, either. Awful. I had to go from desk to desk to get people OUT OF THOSE FOLDERS, because as long as they were being 'touched' I couldn't fully access them. That didn't work, so I finally had to get each person to do a restart (reboot) in order to make it 'clean' for me to access what I needed to. Such a big mess. I finally got everything back where it belonged, with all the contents there (I think!!!). But it took ages to do. And, no, this is NOT the first time this has happened -- but it hasn't happened in a few years, thankfully. I really hate it when it does. The main thing: This is about User error, not equipment error, or software (application) error. Somebody clicked and dragged this stuff. That's why we have a NO CLICK AND DRAG policy in our office, by the way (which should be true for ALL offices, in my book). People really should NEVER click and drag. I always say RIGHT-CLICK IS YOUR FRIEND (for all the good it does me). Do you know how difficult it is to change the way people move things on a computer? Do you know how ridiculously STUBBORN people are about even trying to change? Unfortunately, I do!!!!!!! And then there are the people who clearly state during training (or other times) that they REFUSE to follow the policies we have in place (such as our no-click-and-drag one -- and others). You can only imagine how I love having someone tell me they just aren't going to do what they've been asked to do. Period. End of story. In the meantime, there are lots of people who weren't trained by ME and don't even know what the policies ARE. You can't follow rules you don't even know about, after all. As for today, we went for Starbucks in the morning (my treat), and Marilyn joined us late. This was Emma's trip there (even though it's far from her first day), as today was her official day to be trained (finally). We went directly into her training when we got back. She was only in today for that purpose, then was supposed to have the rest of the day off, as the park was dark today (meaning CityFair was closed today). I told her we'd do a quick (down and dirty) version of training, and re-train after parade day. She probably won't be on her computer all that much, really, until after Grand Floral Parade. She'll mostly be working onsite. And we did get her set up for email on her phone... Marilyn wasn't feeling well today and realized she had a kidney infection (it's happened before). So she phoned and got a doctor's appointment and managed to drop everything at one point to go in TODAY. She was tested and given medication, so she went to pick that up -- plus Henry's drops -- on her way back to work. She took one pill earlier, but I don't know about her second pill (damn it!!!). It was due at midnight. She's on two pills a day for three days -- and I know they can turn infections around very quickly, thank God! She's suffering (backache and just really under the weather) -- and needs to be better fast. Eventually Marilyn and I went for lunch to the Turkey Place. I got some of their AMAZING chicken soup for lunch and just loved it! It was very thick. They offered to make it thinner, but I love thick soup, so I was good. We actually ate it there and didn't take it back to work to eat. He's nice to get away and have a calm lunch whenever possible. I did a bunch of WEBSITE work today. Far more than I normally do after festival has actually started! And I fixed Tanya's phone for email, too. Tonight Katie gave me the equestrian entries for GFP so I can work on those tomorrow. I'll be staying HOME and concentrating on the Grand Floral script, in other words. Marilyn has the final Living History performance (with Adeena and Angel, Mayor Harry and Queen Thelma -- meaning David and Candee). Then they're having some kind of special lunch at Angel's house after that. She also has more judging... I think she's only in the office early in the morning, then out the rest of the day. The park (CityFair) opens again tomorrow. Rain is a pain. Rich and I worked today on the Press Release/News Item for this weekend, covering Thursday through Sunday. There's a TON going on! Plus we're expecting HEAT for Saturday that could go up to 100' (no!!!!!), so it's all about heat abatement (how to stay cool at CityFair, how to stay cool for the Starlight Run and the Starlight Parade). Terrible heat hurts us almost as back as rain does -- people just won't come out. (sigh) We got home around 7:00-ish and got Arby's again on the way home for dinner. (Lovely not to need to cook!) We're both 'in love' with the crispy chicken sandwich right now. We watched some TV, then it was 'nap' time. We had been watching the news on KPTV channel 12, because they were supposed to be doing a story with Barry (our longtime radio guy). But it never aired! We don't know why... There was a lot of texting going on with our niece Candy and nephew Larry about tickets for upcoming concerts. I'll have to make sure they both know exactly what I've got tomorrow, so Candy can come and pick up tickets. (Free tickets are one of our Staff benefits -- either to use ourselves or give away.) Well, it's now 3:00 a.m., so I'm heading back to bed. Sleep is pretty important right now! Can't think what I'm forgetting (like yesterday!!!). There's so much packed into every single day right now. Emma was a delight to train, no surprise. She's such a special girl (our 2014 Queen) and so very smart! Steven is loving working with her! She's just a dear girl. She sits right beside Adeena. I always enjoy days when Adeena is there! She and I love to chat -- and we went out and had Starbucks (again for me!) in the afternoon. She bought (she's always SO GENEROUS), by the way. Quitting now! Sleep well, everyone. - Feeling:tired
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An early day, as Marilyn needed to go to her clinic BEFORE work to provide labs (blood and urine). We actually made good time heading out! Then straight to work -- we wanted to get there by close to 8:30 to give Marilyn time to get Starbucks before her 9:00 meeting. I spoke with Donn first thing. He had to get a new cast this morning! But he postponed his dental work and was at the office close to 9:00 today. I waited for Kate (the new hire) -- then we all went to Starbucks (a large group that included Kate and Katie, Steven, Marissa, Ariel -- I can't recall who else!). Marilyn and Rich met us as they were coming back -- and Marilyn gave me her VISA to pay for everybody! Isn't that nice??? When I got back Donn was in Sheila's office with Tanya's computer. I shooed him over to work on Kate's computer -- beginning her Profile. Then I put Kate on Ashely's computer (Ashley was out today -- she's working part time right now), where she could review the How To website at bigriverranch.org. I went up to my desk to print out the Training sheet I use (it's a check list of everything I want to cover with each person). Once Donn had done Outlook and a few other things, he moved to other work (there was a LOT for him to do today!!!), and I started training Kate. I was very impressed with her. The interesting thing? She loves the festival -- and she actually came to US for work! Marilyn really liked her, so here we are! I was impressed by how she followed the training. She seems very sharp to me. I was very glad Donn had come in early today, so I gave him a twenty and told him I was buying him lunch. I felt that was the least I could do. (I'm glad I had the cash!) My day was crazy-busy! During training, I got a text message from Kris, asking if I could have lunch with him. So once I was done I phoned him and set it up for around 1:00. I had already prepared the princess announcement for today in advance (yesterday), so I was ready to go except to wait for the headshot. Katrina said goodbye as they were heading out to Roosevelt. Marissa had already asked if Marilyn and I intended to go, as we normally hate to miss that one. But I had such a busy schedule I had to say no. Christine asked me early on if I could help her with Jeff's Powerpoint for Monday. She needed to add video. It always has to be gacked from YouTube, then converted to a .wmv format to work. Steven had mentioned problems with his cell phone and receiving the Exchange. So I was messing with that when Kris came. He tried the settings, too -- and to install the certificate (which is appears to need). We didn't get very far, but Kris said he'd get on that... It was 2:00 by the time he and I went to lunch! We went to the Turkey Place and he kindly bought lunch (I'd planned to buy!). Kris had to dash after lunch. It turns out he's had some changes in this new year. He's changed jobs and he's moved in with Val (in his house). He's pleased about both things, and I'm very happy for him! He's going to try and see about the certificate on the Server -- and gave me hints for setting people up with Remoting again (we'll see how that goes!). After lunch I took a walk with Marilyn -- and Jeff joined us! This was my second walk with Marilyn (we'd taken a short walk earlier on). The three of us had a good time chatting while we walked... Next up was the princess announcement. Rich did his part and Christine and I were doing our parts at almost the same time! I do Facebook first -- then Instagram, linking to Twitter. It went quite smoothly today. I take the photo and resize on my iPad, then send it do my desktop, where I do Facebook. I do Instagram on my iPad after that... Then Rich and I met at my desk and started working on HOW you add a new multi-day event, then split it off. I've got it down, now! I really need to get all the steps written out though (maybe tomorrow, I hope!). Christine had sent me the link to the video and phoned to see if it worked. I asked her to wait, I wanted to finish up with Rich. We got a two-day event entered and split off -- and with our new method, made the second day link the first -- so we only need to edit the one day if there are changes. (I think he understood the process.) Now we'll need to review and try another, but he wasn't ready for any other events today. And we'll need to show how this is done for Christine, too. After that I was working on the Rose Cup website (which still needs more work). I'll finish that up tomorrow, too. Rich and I agreed to talk on the phone (if I stay home in my office to work), or meet again if I come in tomorrow. I think I'm staying home, actually. I'd like to really focus on some things that require I not be interrupted! Oh! I gave Katie one of my small crystals today. And my crystal pyramid necklace, which she immediately put on. It looked so pretty on her! She such a gem! I just love her. And she's a wonderful assistant for Marilyn. We got away fairly early for us -- and went directly to Emanuel hospital to see sister Sue. She was doing quite well when we were there. She's being moved to another facility tomorrow! The first step, hopefully (if all goes well), toward getting her back home again. We went to Arby's for fish sandwiches (the flat bread ones) on the way home. And the zero calorie Peach Tea that we like. Marilyn was starved! She had a bar to eat yesterday at lunch. By the time we got home, she had to fast for this morning! Then she had a bar for her lunch again today, poor hungry thing! So she was really, really starved by dinnertime. Then she took a bath to get ready to go out to Donald, Oregon, to have her massage with Amanda. She's really been needing one. There's no place for me to go during that, so I stayed home. I needed to start the garbage and recycling anyway (real garbage week). I was working on it when I saw we had messages on our answering machine -- two from June and one from Jim! It was past 9:00 when I phoned their house. Jim told me he'd barbecued a roast and wanted to give us some!!! How sweet! He said they wanted us to have it for the basket of goodies I'd sent over to June yesterday. It was no big deal. I just sent her some cans of soup, some fruit and some tea. I'm really worried about her! Jim said she was bad again today. I told him I figured she'd be bad for at least a week. My poor sweet girl... I went over and he gave me the meat. I think that was so very nice! He said it would make nice sandwiches for us. Then I came home and did more garbage and recycling. But I stopped because I was SO TIRED! I decided to get a nap and then finish up. I was out like a light. I guess Marilyn came home at some point, but I never heard her! She's snoozing on the couch right now... I need to finish up and head to bed. She has a VERY EARLY meeting (GFP Creative Team) in the morning at 7:00!!! So I don't want to keep her awake if I can help it. The EXCITING news for today??? I got over 10,000 steps with all my walking!!! I'm so pleased! It's been months and months since I last had 10,000 steps. Well, off to do the work (cat boxes and so on), then head to bed. Damn! I was supposed to set up my pills again today. I'll need to at least do the ones for tonight so I can take them!!! It was a crazy-busy day. And I imagine tomorrow will be, too. I'm certainly looking forward to the weekend, that's for sure... Good night, dear friends! - Feeling:busy
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First, a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:
"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."He was an amazing man. Thinking about him makes me want to re-read his book. And I could hardly pick which of his incredible quotes to share! He said so many important things during his life. Well, Marilyn and I went to her dental appointment in the afternoon (she was getting her teeth cleaned). The good news is that he was pleased with her healing from her dental surgery. Crazy moment while there? I had another low blood sugar incident! Weird. I have no idea how low, as I didn't have a meter with me. But I got through it okay, anyway. We stopped for Taco Time food on the way home! (woo hoo) Then late tonight we went to Freddies to do our huge list of grocery shopping -- FINALLY!!! It was a pile of food. So many cans the bags were all super heavy! Plus paper products and water and on and on. Here's a humorous note! We get the toilet paper home and find a bunch of it in Marilyn's linen cabinet in the laundry room! I feel so stupid that I didn't see it down on the bottom shelf! Well, we're good for toilet paper for some time to come. The nice thing is that it's something you're always going to use up -- and it doesn't every spoil. Hahaha. Today we decided that Sue should have my OLD iPad -- which used to be Marilyn's OLD iPad (the one the festival gave her back in 2011). It was just sitting around and not being used. In fact, it was completely dead from just sitting and not being charged. You know what? It's a TON of work to set an iPad up for someone else! Sue needed a new iTunes account -- and that was a total bitch. I couldn't find the RIGHT download for our old Win XP computers. It has this automatic thing that supposedly tells you which download to use, but it was WRONG three times! I finally found it manually and got it to work... And I needed to try and take a bunch of junk off that she wouldn't use or need. Plus add her email and so on. I think it's pretty much good to go now. The advantage of this iPad over her Samsung tablet??? Marilyn and I just don't know enough about the Samsung to be any help to Sue on how to use it. Not so for the iPad, though! We both know a lot about iPads, so we should be able to help get her using it. And it's compatible with our tablets, as we both have iPads! And why have it just sitting there not being used??? I'd like her to take my old Kindle, too. Yeah, it's really old and not that great, but it still WORKS. And I think she'd enjoy it if she gave it a try. Well, the cool thing is that she can always use the Kindle App for the iPad! I hadn't thought of that until right now! (woo hoo) We need to head to bed (it's late), so that's it for today. We're watching the Australian Open tennis, but it's disappointing, so far. Rafa went out today! (sigh) Can you believe that Glenn Frey died at 67??? Marilyn and I love his music -- and just thought he was so cool! I'll never forget him appearing on "Miami Vice" back in the 80's. What a loss. That's FOUR in 2016 so far!!! Shocking. Glenn will certainly be missed. I could list his songs, but I'm sure many of you already know his work. He had that Miami Vice sound, that's for sure! (Gosh, we loved that series!!!) Just feeling SAD about his passing... Good night, all! - Feeling:good
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Marilyn and I just got home from going to the show -- so it's actually past midnight. Just so you know! (It's actually past 1:00 a.m. right now.) As for today, this was yet another quiet day of sleeping late and lying around. However, I did take the time to research the things I needed to know in order to help my friend and neighbor June. She got the new AMAZING new iPhone recently -- and when they set it up at the Verizon store, she didn't have the password with her. So the phone was set up with a different password than her iPad. That doesn't make sense, as you want your devices to be on the SAME ACCOUNT (for both the App store and and iTunes store), so you can share downloads. (No, that doesn't always work, but it frequently will.) And her husband Jim got her the Fitbit ONE for Christmas -- and it needed to be set up. This is NOT the same one that Marilyn and I have (or that Adeena, Jeff, Rich and Arthur have) -- so I was concerned that it might be different setting it up. Anyway, I did some research, then I phoned there. I spoke to Jim, and he was taking June to see the doctor at that point. Both Marilyn and I were GLAD, because we're very worried about the swelling in her legs and feet. We were seeing it as a possible sign of heart failure (we've been around that quite a bit). But this appears to be directly tied to June's issues with her kidneys. Anyway, she was worked in and saw a doctor who ran some tests. She's supposed to find out results soon. He also gave her a steroid shot for the pain she's been having in her knee. (Been there.) Hopefully that will help her. It's hard to move around when you're in a ton of pain! When June got home I went over there and we managed to take care of both things -- the password/account and setting up her Fitbit. That Fitbit ONE seems pretty cool, really. It doesn't need to have batteries put in, as it has a rechargeable battery (you use a cable to connect it to a USB port). Also, it seemed to charge pretty quickly. One of the reasons June and Jim hadn't had any luck setting it up was that it was dead and needed charging. I downloaded the App on her iPhone, then after charging it part way, we went through all the steps to get it working. It has some settings I'm not familiar with (it's fancier than mine!), but I think we did okay. She can certainly use it any time now. (She already has it on a chain to wear around her neck.) June's other issue was on her computer. She wanted me to see the popup -- which was iTunes wanted to 'update.' Hell, iTunes ALWAYS seems to want to update!!! So annoying. Considering I don't see her actually using iTunes, there's really no reason for her to bother updating. Anyway, I want her to leave that to either Donn or me, just to be safe... Speaking of Donn, he's in China now. He won't be back until the end of January. I'm already missing him. Marilyn invited sister Sue to go to the show with us, but she said she wasn't feeling well. (We get it, as we haven't been feeling that great, either.) We were going to see "The Danish Girl," with Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander (and tonight was Tuesday night, which is the cheap night). The movie was AMAZING. Beautifully filmed, it transported viewers into the time period. It appears to be controversial, dealing with the subject of sex reassignment surgery. It's the story of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener (who are historical figures), but it's based on a fictional novelization of their lives (a best seller from 2000). Marilyn and I both LOVED it -- and were really moved by the story and the way it was filmed. We highly recommend it. It's getting mixed reviews, which shows us that you just can't go by reviews much of the time. I wouldn't be surprised if both the leads were nominated for acting awards for this one. We're planning to go to the office in the morning, as we didn't end up going there tonight. Or maybe Marilyn will go in and I'll stay home and get things ready for our trip to the beach. We're either leaving tomorrow for the beach house, or going early on Thursday. It was REALLY, REALLY COLD while we were out going to the show tonight! The car temperature read 31' at one point -- and we could see ice glittering on the streets! (We also felt an icy spot, but luckily got home okay.) The weather at the beach is warmer, thankfully. I need to get our recycling ready and out (June and Jim are going to make sure it gets down on the curb), and gather some garbage. I should do laundry! I've fallen behind while GOOFING OFF during our vacation. Happily I found a clean tee to wear to bed (over-sized tee shirts are my jammie tops) and clean shorts (which I wear as jammie bottoms). But I have a few that need washing... (Including both my long pants, which are nice when it's this COLD at night!) Speaking of cold, the house dropped down to 62' last night -- that's the coldest it's been in the house this winter to date. I could also stand to do a load of dishes and clean up the kitchen (again). Anyway, time for bed!  - Feeling:good
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Okay, I'm going to share about my MANY ISSUES with the new iPad here, even though I'm sure that will be both boring and annoying. But I figure someday I'll want to remember the details... Before I do, however, I must mention: Marilyn was interviewed on radio and TV about the whole 'missing iPad' situation from last night! (She looked really GOOD on TV!) People were all over her Facebook post about it, and it just went wild from there! So last night I'm spending ages trying to do this: Take my old iPad 2, back it up at iTunes and restore everything to the new iPad Air 2. In theory this is simple. In fact, not so much! First, I have to (finally) update the ios on my iPad 2 (which I just resisted doing, as the last update caused so damn many issues!). Then I also have to update the ios on the new iPad (which has been sitting on a shelf for who knows how long). It took ALL NIGHT LONG to download the update. Then hours this morning to finish the installation. Oh brother. I also updated iTunes, as in all my research I'd read that it would help the whole procedure... Then guess what happened? Suddenly iTunes no longer reads the two updated devices!!! All that I can see out of all our MANY Apple devices is the one iPad that hasn't been updated. ONE! Where are the five iPods, two iPhones and four iPads??? I call for assistance and am told the iTunes I'm using won't read the current ios on a computer running WinXP. So, what the hell??? Am I supposed to go out and buy a new computer now? I made quite a stink, considering we have hundreds of dollars of purchases over the years from the iTunes store (music, music videos, television shows and movies). Eventually poor Emma who I was speaking with tells me to use a computer with Win 7 (happily I have an old laptop that has it). She understands my upset, as she, too, is a PC and Apple user. She says once I put iTunes there and add our account info, it should take very little time to do the back up and restore -- and she was correct! Restoring to the new iPad carried over all my photos -- but I needed to download all my Apps again! And some of those contained the information that had been there (BLESS YOU ADOBE PHOTOSHOP!), and some didn't (you let me down Leonardo!). I was SO GLAD 1Writer had the tons of documents (including RPs and fanfics) I'd saved there! I was able to save my game (Escape Rosecliff Island) -- but not my game scores. But I'm so glad to have the game that I don't care! (You can't buy it anymore.) You can probably tell that I spent hours and hours messing with the setup of my new iPad. Marilyn went to work VERY EARLY today. She had her first GFP meeting this morning (for 2016). And she had meetings all day long. She took a minute to go buy a couple of hard boiled eggs, then another minute to eat them -- and that's the only break and only food she had all day until dinner! THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY GREETINGS, EVERYBODY! I got ecards, cards in the mail, emails, text messages, posts to my Facebook page (around 100 -- um, make that nearly 200!), private messages at Facebook and phone calls. And a couple of people even sang to me! Everyone was very kind. The original plan for dinner was to try and invite June and Jim to join sister Sue, Marilyn, Adeena and me. It ended up being Sue, Marilyn and me (Marilyn kindly paid). Poor June was down sick (I didn't even get to talk to her). She went to the doctor this week and it didn't go well. (I worry about both June and Jim.) Anyway, the waitress at the restaurant was downright RUDE. I would think she could have tried to be pleasant, knowing it was my birthday dinner. But she gave us bad service and a lot of attitude. Anyway, the food was good -- and Marilyn and I each had a margarita. (smile) AND I wore my new scarf from Charold and Rich. It's so soft and warm! Jeff called this evening (just before we left for dinner) to talk to me and wish me a Happy Birthday. Very nice! And I got this message from former Portland mayor, Sam Adams: I hope it is a great one for you: Happy Birthday, Charlie! (Hi to your Festival team, too.) My friend Shari wrote: Happy birthday to the best friend I've ever had, except for Marilyn. (Isn't that sweet?) Both Rich and Christine from the office called to sing to me! Isn't that cute? And my cousin Linda phoned, too. My friend Mark went back and forth and back and forth with me via text all day long. He's such a sweetheart! We're going to try and see each other next week. Many, many kind words were said to me all during the day. I'm very blessed by wonderful people who care about me. That's my birthday for this year. We're off to WORK tomorrow. And we have a memorial to attend, as well. (I don't think we'll have time for any bazaars...) I have a bunch of stuff to do and I know Marilyn is swamped, as always. I'm looking forward to catching up! I'm still smiling over all the attention Marilyn got about the duct taped chunk of metal that replaced the iPad! I need to share the photo. It's just crazy. (For those of you at Facebook, you can check it out there.) OH!!!!!!!!!! So when Marilyn and I are in the office, we discover an update for iTunes! It covers ios 9 (!!!) and works with WinXP!!!!!!! No, I can't make this stuff up! I plug in my new iPad and it reads it with no trouble! What do you know! I'm sure glad about that! Time for bed!  - Feeling:thankful
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Wow! It was a long and tiring day -- and BOTH Marilyn and I fell asleep after dinner, so this time she didn't get her 5,000 steps done before midnight, poor thing. Ironically, I actually got 5,011 steps...
And it's nearly 3:00 a.m. and I'll have to back date again -- because I have a few things I really need to share.
This was the day I went in on Monday for two reasons -- aside from work, that is.
Marilyn and I set up last week to drive and meet up with Shirley and her husband as they were driving through this area heading back home to Snohomish, Washington. They make Marilyn's beloved Candied Jalapenos, which I've mentioned before (HERE and HERE).
So Shirley called this morning to let us know approximately when they'd arrive. We were to meet them at the French Prairie Rest Stop. So when it was getting near the time (noon-ish), we headed out. She called us while we were on our way to change plans. They had a FLAT, so we had to meet them at Les Schwab Tires in Wilsonville, instead!
There rig is HUGE!!! A giant RV, plus they pull a big trailer behind with their products. It must be a bear to drive!
Anyway, we got our our goodies and some photos. It was the first time we meet Shirley's husband. I can't share his name, because we have never been able to understand what is being said, no matter how many times we ask them!
The second thing I needed to do, was set up Arthur's Fitbit for him. He's had it a couple of weeks, and has never got it working. So I did that in the afternoon, when he came in. Arthur has really been working on fitness and losing weight -- he's lost 26 pounds, and looks great!
As for work, we got a bunch of website stuff down. I met with Christine and showed her how to do the Home page banner code. And tomorrow is the first Princess announcement, and I'm letting her do the entry work for all of those. She's very excited.
I met with Ariel about the website today, too. By then we'd made an important decision: We're having everyone Publish their own work going forward!
I'm really pleased by this change, and I think it makes a lot of sense. I guess we'll see!
And guess what? Driving home from work, we realize that WE have a flat tire! So we'll have to have someone come out first thing in the morning. What a pain. At least we made it home okay. (We're parked outside the garage, which we never do, so it will be easy to get to.) Talk about ironic!
Fitbit Update: Marilyn made 4,300 steps. This is only the second time she didn't make her goal. No worries -- I'm sure she'll do great again tomorrow. I made 5,011 steps (as mentioned above), WITHOUT the treadmill. It's interesting how many steps you can get in just walking around. That staircase at work sure helps!
I'll probably go to work tomorrow.
Better get to bed now! - Feeling:tired
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It's a long story. For several weeks I've had issues with the light switch in my bathroom. (sigh) Scary, in some ways! I saw sparks fly from the old switch on occasion (!!!), so it really DID need to be fixed! Anyway, Marilyn finally got on me to get it taken care of. We'd discussed it more than once, so it was bad that I hadn't done anything...
I could have gone to an electrician, but instead I went to our amazing neighbor (and friend) Jim (June's hubby). In fact, I actually went over (yesterday) to June and Jim's house to ask if he thought he could help me out.
An aside: For their wedding anniversary, June and Jim got a new beautiful rug for their living room. It's LOVELY!!! I had to take off my shoes and walk on it, because it was SO SOFT and thick. Wonderful! June showed it to me while I was at her house.
Jim was working on another task, but he came over not long after to look at the bad switch. Then he went after supplied and finally he worked on it. And it's now fixed and works great!!! So, what does this have to do with us losing our internet connection???
Well, naturally we needed to shut off the power to the bathroom while Jim worked. I went to the switch book (electrical box) that's located downstairs in Marilyn's walk-in closet. I figured it would be clearly marked and no problem to shut off the correct one. Right. I was so wrong! You'd think one of them would have been marked 'bathroom' or 'upstairs bath' or something. No way. So I shut off several until we located the right one. And that means I shut off stuff that shouldn't have been shut off -- like the power to our home office and to the room where our SECURITY ALARM SYSTEM is plugged in (sigh).
After Jim finished up I turned everything back on. Then I messed with the ADT alarm. We've been through that before, I'm afraid! We had an unplanned power outage when the power company was working on something -- and it ended up giving us a false alarm that we had to PAY FOR (not a good thing). So I did get on the phone with them to make sure all was well (after messing around with the physical alarm).
Then Marilyn and I notice almost immediately that we're not able to get connected with our iPads (sigh). So I go up to the office to check on things. Our computers have restarted and seem to be fine. But they aren't connected to the internet, either. The first thing I do is recycle power to our router, which appears to be working fine -- but we're still not connected. Then I go to the modem from CenturyLink and discover we're only showing the power light -- and it's red (not a good thing). Recycling and resetting it do no good -- it's clearly shot. But I do phone CenturyLink right away, just to make sure... That was the first of five calls that took many hours yesterday.
Eventually I find out I can buy a new modem at Best Buy -- which seems like a good thing, as I want to go there to buy a couple of other things, anyway. I take the brand (Actiontek) and model number and phone the Best Buy we like to go to -- they don't have the model in stock. I start phoning a bunch of Best Buy stores -- no go with ANY of them! I phone CenturyLink again, sure that another store had been mentioned (that I hadn't written down in my copious notes) and finally find out that Walmart sells the modem. I start calling (and calling and calling) various Walmarts -- they have other models, but not the original one. My CenturyLink support person is on the line with me (I'm talking to her on the house phone and calling stores on my cell phone) the entire time. By now she's given me TWO options for models I could use. Nobody seems to have these!
Finally I get off with her and just keep calling stores. I reach one of the Walmarts where we shop all the time: I get a guy in electronics who clearly is saavy -- and he tells me the model I'm asking for isn't current. But he has the current model there in stock!
I phone CenturyLink back to confirm this model number will work -- I'm told yes. So now Marilyn and I drive to the St. Helens Walmart to buy the modem. The first guy we talk to tries to talk us OUT of getting the model we've come for -- saying it's cheaper to get another modem plus a router (like we've always had before). Another guy interrupts -- he's the guy I originally talked to and he says to go with the modem we talked about on the phone. We want the modem with the built-in wifi (!!!) and don't care that it costs twice as much as the other ones. After all, we've always had to constantly recycle the power to our router, so omitting the router sounds good to us.
Back home I start the process to install the new modem. Here's the deal -- I don't know about anybody else, but our office is TIGHT. We've got two computers in there, a piece of furniture holding our printer, file cabinets all over, a big dresser full of supplies and photos, a desk and more. And cords everywhere!!! It's NOT easy to move the furniture to get behind it to where things are plugged in and connected -- and that's an understatement! I got bunged up moving stuff and crawling all over the floor and behind things. At one point I was stuck between two pieces of furniture!!!
Anyway, I get things hooked up and then start the process. I've been telling each support person that I have experience with IT, so one of these people has given me the steps to do this. Yeah, instructions come with the modem, but I get to skip stuff (thankfully!) by having my notes from her.
But it's NOT working. So I call CenturyLink again (and again and again). I finally get someone and keep him and he helps me out for an hour an a half. No go. Marilyn and I are facing the three-day weekend with no internet! Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It turns out they can send out a tech to the house on Saturday, so we set up an appointment. If the problem is outside the house, no charge -- inside the house, it's $85. We really don't care at this point, we just want INTERNET!!! And we're feeling pretty happy that they have Saturday appointments.
Robin was our tech today -- and she was here for an hour an a half. Anyway, we've now got a working modem (!!!). So the last step is the setup I tried to start last night. Funny thing? I'd been worried that I didn't have the correct password. (I keep records carefully and forever, just so you know. I've got our paperwork from when we FIRST got our account...) The password just doesn't seem to be working, so I phone CenturyLink again. This is another long conversation, but we finally get things reset and my password works again and the modem gets set up...
Then we need to set up the wifi on the modem -- and happily this goes well. Now we have a pre-assigned name for our wifi (we don't get to select one) -- but I did set up a password. This is WONDERFUL, because we haven't had a locked wifi before this. (Very long, long story. Short version, even when we paid quite a bit, the tech couldn't get a password to work with our router, so we gave up on it. We just lived with an open wifi -- and we could tell that some neighbors were 'borrowing' our wifi on a regular basis.)
So about 24 hours later, we were BACK online. (woo hoo)
The new modem WORKS GREAT. I can't even begin to say how well!!! Much better than before.
I was setting up just before Angel arrived. We had a date to go out with Angel to belatedly celebrate his July birthday. So we went out to the Burrito House (one of our fave places to eat) and had dinner with ice cream. They brought the sombrero and sang to him -- it was perfect! Great fun!
I also spent a lot of the day reading on my Kindle paperwhite -- always great!
That's my HAPPY Saturday. Still 'testing' the new modem to see how much BETTER our internet connection is -- and it's quite an improvement! Loving it... - Feeling:ecstatic
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