A busy and good day. I got up relatively late but got up and about soon, as had some paperwork to get on with... quite a lot, invoices to send, stuff to do with advertising, various stuff.
Whilst on the computer I downloaded a suggested AVG antivirus update, and after that my email wouldn't send, it wouldn't accept my Phone Co-op password and I was totally flummoxed. I rang them up. A couple of hours later, a Phone Co-op chap rang me back and through a little sequence of key strokes he instructed me to do at my end, he took control of my computer... it was most weird seeing the cursor moving around 'by itself', but he only took 2 minutes before he found a box had been ticked or unticked somehow and after that, it all worked. I wonder if it was anything to do with the AVG download? Seems unlikely.
After lunch I spent over an hour moving the remaining logpile from the side of the house and tidying the area, sweeping up lots of leaves from the Wisteria. I bagged up three sacks of dry logs to take to Ann C later this evening when I'm in her part of town because of the Transition meeting.
I popped down to Country Fresh and chatted to Shirley, bought spuds and broccoli and brought back several bags of compost heap filler.
When back, I boiled the potatoes and Gill made a nutloaf, and then when she went out, I finished the nutloaf and did roast potatoes and broccoli for tea, which was delicious.
Then at 7ish, I cycled over to South Bank to deliver logs to Ann and to attend the Transition meeting, which was good. Only 5 of us, but we got a lot done.
Gill told me a little story tonight, and this is an example of what we're up against. She was in the bread shop and overheard the following:
Customer: "Hello, you all right?"
Shop Person: "Yeah, good thanks. You all right?"
Customer: Yeah, been getting Christmas presents. I've just got nine. But I haven't got the big one yet. I was thinking of getting a 30 inch flatscreen telly for Kelly's room. But me Mam said not to as she was only 3 and it would be wasted on her.
Shop Person: (grunts)
Unbelievable, eh?
Showing posts with label computer breakage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computer breakage. Show all posts
Cuddly morning. Didn't get dressed til lunchtime.. the family had gone out to town by bus to get some clothes as the boys keep growing and not wearing them out but outgrowing them. They actually came back with a book, some material and stuff for a costume!
I got a phone call from Cycle Heaven saying Gill's bike wouldn't be ready til about 4pm, not 2 as was suggested yesterday, so I spent some time in the garden, tidying up frosted nasturtiums and picking off seeds and young flowerbuds for pickling. I've not pickled nasturtium buds yet, but since capers are flower buds, I'm trying nasturtium buds! The seeds are great, a lovely hot taste, good for pizzas and making bland grain dishes more interesting.
At 4 went to Cycle Heaven to pick up my bike with new, improved brakes (the disc-brake pads needed replacing) and Gill's which had been serviced. Also got two pairs of LED lights for the boys, as we're going out tonight.
So a bit of a rush to put the lights on their bikes, and a quick bowl of pumpkin soup which was very good, and left for St Nicks at about 5.20... picking up Maria's son on the way. The event was a York Rotters Pumpkin Evening, with a giant pumpkin competition and a pumpkin carving competition. I had purchased three pumpkins from Country Fresh (grown in Heslington!) and also took my biggest squash to enter into the competition. My little 2.5kg squash was dwarfed by Jo's big pumpkin, which itself was dwarfed by a giant 55kg monster grown by children at Bishopthorpe School... this of course won! The carving went well... loads of competitors / participants which meant loads of seeds for me to take back home to dry and prepare for my muesli. My eldest son won the third prize in the carving competition, which made him happy, and all three of them enjoyed themselves. Got home sometime after 7pm.
A very peaceful and happy evening...
Until, quite late, my laptop screen decied to give up completely, after several days of playing up and not behaving properly.
I got a phone call from Cycle Heaven saying Gill's bike wouldn't be ready til about 4pm, not 2 as was suggested yesterday, so I spent some time in the garden, tidying up frosted nasturtiums and picking off seeds and young flowerbuds for pickling. I've not pickled nasturtium buds yet, but since capers are flower buds, I'm trying nasturtium buds! The seeds are great, a lovely hot taste, good for pizzas and making bland grain dishes more interesting.
At 4 went to Cycle Heaven to pick up my bike with new, improved brakes (the disc-brake pads needed replacing) and Gill's which had been serviced. Also got two pairs of LED lights for the boys, as we're going out tonight.
So a bit of a rush to put the lights on their bikes, and a quick bowl of pumpkin soup which was very good, and left for St Nicks at about 5.20... picking up Maria's son on the way. The event was a York Rotters Pumpkin Evening, with a giant pumpkin competition and a pumpkin carving competition. I had purchased three pumpkins from Country Fresh (grown in Heslington!) and also took my biggest squash to enter into the competition. My little 2.5kg squash was dwarfed by Jo's big pumpkin, which itself was dwarfed by a giant 55kg monster grown by children at Bishopthorpe School... this of course won! The carving went well... loads of competitors / participants which meant loads of seeds for me to take back home to dry and prepare for my muesli. My eldest son won the third prize in the carving competition, which made him happy, and all three of them enjoyed themselves. Got home sometime after 7pm.
A very peaceful and happy evening...
Until, quite late, my laptop screen decied to give up completely, after several days of playing up and not behaving properly.
A relaxing day in some ways... firstly took my laptop around to Ben who has purchased a new screen and has offered to take the old one out and fit the new one. I paid him the £105 the new screen cost to buy and send, he wants Yorkys for the time it takes to do the work.
Then got my logsplitter out and split a large load of logs which I cut yesterday. Our youngest wanted to visit a friend so we rang up and he was with his grandparents, as parents away, and they were taking him to Eden Camp, and offered to take our boy too. Just before I left to take him to his friend's house, I got a phone call from Candy, who had asked a while ago if I could bring my chainsaw to do some of her logs, as her household has now got a woodstove... a Clearview of course, as they ARE the best! So I took the chainsaw and biodegradable oil with me, dropped off our little boy with his friend and went on to Fulford to do Candy's sawing, which took just half an hour. Good chats about carbon footprinting, which is what Candy does for a living, for businesses, I think. Eugene came back and he too was pleased with the chopped logs.
Back via the University waste logpile, loaded up an enormous one, and cut and split that when I got back. Visited Richard and bought veg, got compostables. Turned a sit and wait compost pile, using a builder's bag I found in a skip. Lots of small 'volunteer' potatoes in the pile, which I had for tea with some broad beans thrown out as the pods were discoloured!
Picked up our youngest.
In the evening, Ben came round with more-or-less mended computer... he put in a new hard drive as the old one was very slow and not working at all well, partly due to the knackered screen and my not being able to read instructions on it, and shutting down the computer whilst something was running, probably. However, still not able to send emails from Outlook Express, just able to receive... Frustrating. But the new shiny screen is lovely, despite a pixel not working.
Then got my logsplitter out and split a large load of logs which I cut yesterday. Our youngest wanted to visit a friend so we rang up and he was with his grandparents, as parents away, and they were taking him to Eden Camp, and offered to take our boy too. Just before I left to take him to his friend's house, I got a phone call from Candy, who had asked a while ago if I could bring my chainsaw to do some of her logs, as her household has now got a woodstove... a Clearview of course, as they ARE the best! So I took the chainsaw and biodegradable oil with me, dropped off our little boy with his friend and went on to Fulford to do Candy's sawing, which took just half an hour. Good chats about carbon footprinting, which is what Candy does for a living, for businesses, I think. Eugene came back and he too was pleased with the chopped logs.
Back via the University waste logpile, loaded up an enormous one, and cut and split that when I got back. Visited Richard and bought veg, got compostables. Turned a sit and wait compost pile, using a builder's bag I found in a skip. Lots of small 'volunteer' potatoes in the pile, which I had for tea with some broad beans thrown out as the pods were discoloured!
Picked up our youngest.
In the evening, Ben came round with more-or-less mended computer... he put in a new hard drive as the old one was very slow and not working at all well, partly due to the knackered screen and my not being able to read instructions on it, and shutting down the computer whilst something was running, probably. However, still not able to send emails from Outlook Express, just able to receive... Frustrating. But the new shiny screen is lovely, despite a pixel not working.
Gill took the kids into school, I got up as I had a tooth-cleaning appointment at 10, so went for that and to the Co-op Bank to put in York Green Festival cheques, and found out that they are going to have a stall at the Festival, which is excellent news.
Home in time to say goodbye to Linda who is off visiting friends and relatives.
Had a muck about on the internet, using the 'next blog' tool on the top of this blog... and came accross this one http://uaooo.blogspot.com/ which has some really good artwork, street art and other visual stuff. Foreign language, but pictures in international language....
I picked up the children as Gill was in town and when I came back she was in, and preparing potatoes for tea. I did a bit of washing up and helping, and we ate together. I had picked our first cucumber of the year and it was delicious and crunchy.
Sometime after tea I put my laptop on abd Gill suggested I try out the new Futon which she's put together, and is now a sofa not a bed. I did... and tried to use my laptop whilst on it but it fell off and the screen broke (internally) and is completely unusable. I took it to Ben on the way down to the York Humanists meeting which was on 'peak oil' and he said he might be able to source me a second-hand screen to fit the still working computery bit.
The peak oil meeting was good, met my Green friend Andy and old friends Mick and Jane (not that they're old... just that I've known them a long time...) and a friend from long ago called Anne. I liked the way that the subject was presented, and the talk covered several related subjects including peak minerals, peak soil, peak water, peak food, even peak population! Fascinating. It's good to experience someone else's take on a subject you know fairly well yourself, as they always have a slightly different focus or angle, and phrase things differently, and this is good to help you see things from a different perspective.
Home in time to say goodbye to Linda who is off visiting friends and relatives.
Had a muck about on the internet, using the 'next blog' tool on the top of this blog... and came accross this one http://uaooo.blogspot.com/ which has some really good artwork, street art and other visual stuff. Foreign language, but pictures in international language....
I picked up the children as Gill was in town and when I came back she was in, and preparing potatoes for tea. I did a bit of washing up and helping, and we ate together. I had picked our first cucumber of the year and it was delicious and crunchy.
Sometime after tea I put my laptop on abd Gill suggested I try out the new Futon which she's put together, and is now a sofa not a bed. I did... and tried to use my laptop whilst on it but it fell off and the screen broke (internally) and is completely unusable. I took it to Ben on the way down to the York Humanists meeting which was on 'peak oil' and he said he might be able to source me a second-hand screen to fit the still working computery bit.
The peak oil meeting was good, met my Green friend Andy and old friends Mick and Jane (not that they're old... just that I've known them a long time...) and a friend from long ago called Anne. I liked the way that the subject was presented, and the talk covered several related subjects including peak minerals, peak soil, peak water, peak food, even peak population! Fascinating. It's good to experience someone else's take on a subject you know fairly well yourself, as they always have a slightly different focus or angle, and phrase things differently, and this is good to help you see things from a different perspective.
