Thursday, August 31, 2006

Digital-Smigital

Happy that my computer has been just humming along, I decided it was time to learn all about how to operate the new camera I absolutely had to have, two months ago. It’s been sitting on my coffee table staring at me, daring me to try my hand at taking digital photos. This is a must for any ebayer.

My ‘old’ digital has been working for only five years. But it uses floppys and my new PC doesn’t. I keep thinking about the cameras of the past that I used for ten or twenty years and were still in fine working condition when I gave them away.

I took a few photos I needed for my pages in the 2007 IWWG Travel Journal that’s being put together via Marilyn Day to celebrate thirty years the Guild has been guiding women writers. Taking the photos was easy. I plugged the camera into my PC that sent a message to my printer. Terrible, unrecognizable black and white photos came out of my printer. Several times. I then scanned the photos that I wanted. Nothing happened there. Blank sheets came out.

My neighbor Lora printed out the color photos for me with her printer.

But that only solved the present problem. I investigated further and found out, via my PC, that my printer and scanner were not compatible with my new computer! This called for another trip to Raleigh to buy a new printer. What good is a writer without a printer?

This time I got lucky. I bought a new printer/scanner combination for less than a hundred dollars. $99 to be exact. I was ecstatic! Of course, then I had to buy a cable $35, back-up ink jets, $31 and of course the two-year service contract for $20. Seems that nothing is simple these days. Enjoy.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

PC Indigestion

A short time ago we had a thunder and lightening storm here in Macon. We were taught to enjoy these summer storms and watched them from our dry, big front porch. The storms still fascinate me, though I unplug my telephone line and computer at the first sign of severe thunder.

So I couldn’t imagine what happened when I couldn’t get online Friday night or Saturday morning. Panic set in by Saturday night. Sunday was a day crossed between moping, raging and beating myself up mentally for not knowing more about the mechanisms of computers.

The telephone line buzzed so loudly that the operator couldn’t hear my complaints on Monday. When I called her on my reliable cell phone, she told me it was a computer problem. I called AOL, who said it was a software problem. I called Gateway who said it was ISP problem. I called Micro-soft who said I needed a new modem.

On Tuesday I bought a new modem, still no online service. On Wednesday,I received news that they now knew the telephone was an outside problem with the lines. they gave me promises to fix it,

On Thursday, in a panic that my children never saw, even in the worst of their growing up, I unplugged all those wires from the back of my computer. Wrapping my arms around it, clutching it tighter than the last bag of eggs, milk and bread before a snowstorm, I gently set it on the front seat of my car. Next I hooked up the seat belt-around the computer-almost forgetting to secure it around me.

I drove to Norlina Computers. Alan plugged it in to his get-up. He was online in seconds!

Not a thing wrong with my Big Information Machine at all!

I drove home unsure of the mood I should be in. I was happy that it wasn’t a technical problem, but I was annoyed that my telephone still wasn’t fixed. Still, there was that promise that it would be……….. Enjoy.

CAP Puppy Wash

Recently I experienced my first CAP puppy wash. I was a little apprehensive because two cats reign supreme in my house. Plus I haven’t had any real contact with dogs since my kids grew up a long time ago. Seventeen pups were listed to be washed, towel dried, nails trimmed and smelling ready to meet their new families. The puppies were tagged to go.

Since I was the new volunteer not knowing just what to do, I picked up the pups one at a time from the incoming pen, held them, petted them and generally calmed them before placing them into the bath. Two people that knew what they were doing took over.
I think that each pup was happy to have personal touch and soothing since most of these were abused or abandoned animals. Sometimes both. If holding these pups reassured them that someone cared, it put me back in touch with how loving a puppy can be. My heart went out to a particular few that looked into my eyes with expressions that made me want to take them home with me. Alas, they were spoken for.

I graduated from holding to towel drying. Ah. There’s something special about towel drying a dog, like towel drying a young child after a bath. An invisible bond forms that lingers in my thoughts after the dogs have been loaded up into the van, ready to leave North Carolina and I’m home playing with my cats. But I’m thinking of those pups tugging at my heart.