These are random musings of my life journey, the people, animals, places, and events which have woven, and continue to weave, a tapestry that is me. We all know there is no real destination, only the ongoing experiences which blend together, creating the trail. Each step gives a glimpse of what is to come, without allowing me to see the end result. It is exciting. I have a home base that is mine, that gives me a place to rest. This is it. This is where my heart is, no matter where I journey...................

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Crazy weekend

While my old and new laptops were trading information yesterday (13 hours they were tied up!!!) I jotted down some things to blog about when I had a chance. Now I can't find the little note! And, of course, I can't remember what they were! Go figure. But I have a couple things that weren't on the list.

First of all, there is a wildfire going on not far from here. Don't worry, I'm far enough away to be safe, as it is probably 10 crow-miles, with lots of mountains to cross and valleys to wind through. But the problem is that the fire is in the edge of Ruidoso, and specifically the area where my office is. There have been four homes burned and several barns. And the block where the office is located and about four square blocks around it are evacuated. I don't know if our offices will be there tomorrow. It is sad and a little scary.

One of the two buildings had an electrical fire in October and had to be restored. They moved back into it just the week before I started working there. It's nice, with all new furniture and fixtures. Now .... who knows if it will be there tomorrow or in the next couple days.

We have had horrible winds all day long. That is making everything more dangerous. I think they have died down a little now, and hopefully will stay calm to help the crews get the fire under control. As dry as it is, the winds just exacerbate the risk and the danger. Another reason to dislike wind, as I do.

On a nice note, I went to a lecture at the library Friday night. It was very interesting. The man who spoke is a neighbor of mine. Well, sorta. He lives probably about two miles away, but I know where he is because I can see his observatory from my deck. Yep, he is an astronomer. He had a series of truly amazing pictures of galaxies, stars, planets and nebulae. Some of the pictures were time-lapsed exposures over several hours in order to get the images, and they were breathtaking. He obviously has hundreds of thousands invested in the observatory and cameras. I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture and the slides. I need to watch the schedule of the lectures and go again when there is a good topic.

Yesterday afternoon my phone went dead. I had talked to my friend Caroline a while earlier, and she mused that we must have burned up the lines! I donno! Could be! I called it in from my cell, and .... be still my heart .... it will be fixed by tomorrow! Oh yeah, let's not rush into these things! Nuisance! My cell gets fair reception but not as well as I'd like to be able to rely on if there should be a crisis. Well, we do what we must, right?

This afternoon, during the worst part of the wind, my electricity went out for a few moments three or four times. Not terribly unusual when the winds are bad. There were some kinks to it today, however, as it made my DSL router go wonky for a while (I had to unplug it for a few minutes several times before it would function right), my sound system did the same thing (it also has to be unplugged for a couple minutes when that happens), and the DVR had to reboot every time. I turned off the computers, etc., just in case. That sounds to me as if there was a power surge, but I have a surge protector on the whole house and on all the equipment that was acting up. I was a bit miffed when I was without phone AND internet for about a half-hour! Once again, I donno. Weird day.

BTW, while I was transferring files between the computers, I was so glad that I would have everything on this laptop. When it was through, I was aggrivated to discover that the things I most wanted transferred (address book, calendar, music library and photo library) did not transfer I don't know why. I'm assuming it is a discrepancy between the newer operating system on this one and the next step down on the old one. I've never had that problem before. I've transferred files similarly before and never had this happen.

Since I had backed up everything on my external hard drive, I thought, I'd transfer them from there. Well!  When I plugged it in to the new laptop, there was nothing. Just nothing. So I plugged it into the old one. Nothing. It wasn't being recognized by either computer. I tried several cables, in case it was a bad one, but nothing helped. The damned thing is apparently dead. What a lousy time for this to happen. I've now ordered a new one. I just hope it does the job. I have pictures backed up on CDs, so it would be possible to upload them to the new puter, but I will have lost the date stamp and other information. And I can upload my music library, but that will take days, if not weeks. 

I've begun to reenter the address book, and frankly, it's a good thing. I'm finding about 1/4 of the cards need to be deleted, anyway. I would probably never have gotten around to it otherwise. But it's tedious. And I've manually restored most of the important things on my calendar. Arghhh.

Another good thing about the computer is that I downloaded Skype today, then my daughter did, and we had a nice chat, face to face! She discovered she didn't have a built in mic, so she had to run to the store and buy one. Isn't it a bit odd that they build in a video camera, but not a mic? Anyway, I'm looking forward to being able to see the faces of her and the kids more often. It will be fun.

Then I got a message from my stepdaughter after I posted about Skype on FB. She has it as well! Yay! So she and I chatted for a while, too! This is just so much fun! If you have kids away at college or on jobs out of town, if you have grandchildren who live away from you, get Skype! It is easy and fun! I was thinking that when my grandbabies were small, the kids did a good job of showing them picture of me often so they knew my face when we got together. How wonderful it would have been to have Skype back then! And if your puter doesn't have the camera and mic, no worry; a simple, inexpensive webcam will do the trick. My stepdaughter says she only paid about $25 for hers. Very affordable, and it worked great.

It has been an interesting weekend! but then, that's kinda the story of my life, isn't it?  [grin]

10 comments:

  1. Skype is a lifesaver for distant family. My mom and sister in law skype with the kids weekly. It's definitely kept my mom more involved in her granddaughters' lives in a very positive way. And when my sister in law had her daughter, we loved skyping and seeing those first smiles. It's really a great program - and free! - so I hope you continue to enjoy it.

    You're in my thoughts with the fires. I hope your office and all surrounding buildings and home are spared.

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  2. Kelly, I think there is little question that I will enjoy Skype! I'm just thrilled to feel closer to those grandchildren who are 600 to 1800 miles away! YAY!!

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  3. I like Skype also, but it seems my kids' lives are so busy that it seldom gets used. :(

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  4. Skpe is tremendous, though it can get difficult when multiple people want to chat with you and then the telephone goes. Yes, it has happened to me and I felt I was back at work in a busy office. Well done for getting your laptop information transferred - hope you enjoy driving the new one.

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  5. Judy, that's the trouble with families these days. We are all too busy to be family. I hope I can get my son and his family on it, but that's gonna be a harder task. We'll see what happens.

    Freda, I wondered how it would work on the group chat. I thought it might be a challenge. As for the computer, I'm enjoying it very much. I still don't know all the functions of the bells and whistles but I'm getting there!

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  6. I am glad that the fire is not close to your home. I thought of you when I saw the news story about the wildfires.
    Hope your work place survives!

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  7. At Christmas my daughter Aupair Skyped her family in Germany, and they had Christmas dinner "together." We set up a laptop in the living room and did a Skype connection with our son-in-laws parents in New Zealand. They were able to watch the grandsons opening the gifts they had sent.

    I do fine with just a telephone connection for most of my calls, but I could imagine showing a customer a sculpture that way someday.

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  8. Mary, I spoke to my boss a while ago, and everything is alright. I'll be at work tomorrow, thankfully.

    Merikay,cool uses of skype! That's the kind of connectedness I hope to have with family! And I think your right about showing the sculptures. Yesterday while I was talking with my stepdaughter, she got to meet three of the dogs! She hadn't met them so it was fun that they climbed onto my lap to say hello!

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  9. Sounded like a good weekend for a bottle or two of wine!
    I hope your workplace is alright Lyn.
    We've had a heck of a winter and 2011 is starting out pretty wild as well!
    I don't know if it's skpe that I have or not but my daughters and I all have cameras and mics built in so we can talk to each other. Funny thing is we still end up using the phone!
    I hope your week turns out alright with work. Love Di ♥

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  10. Di, the office is unscathed. I'll be going to work today.

    I have everything built in to my laptop, too, and I can talk to others with Macs or iPhones (maybe iPads, too) at no cost without skype. There are other services out there, as well. I know what you mean about still talking on the phone. My daughter and I talk on the phone, email, text, and now Skype! It would be easier to just live next door!, cause we are at it every single day! LOL!!

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If you have something to say about it, just stick out your thumb, and I'll slow down so you can hop aboard! But hang on, 'cause I'm movin' on down the road!!! No time to waste!!!