FINALLY! I Can Post Again!

Goodness!  I was beginning to wonder if I was EVER going to get to write another blogpost.  I am busy with Jerry's Mom, of course, but I have my evenings free.  I am still at her former home with my ancient laptop computer.  You know how computers are -- if they are a year old -- they are practically antiques.  This one is well over 10 years old, and it wasn't too fast when it was new. 

I guess it was about 10 years ago when I was really into embroidery.  I got a notice via email or something that there was going to be some great Embroidery Seminar in Dallas, TX.  My embroidery software was pretty new, and I wasn't that familiar with it, and I noticed that a lady from Bernina -- Marlis Bennett (?) -- was going to be there teaching the new Bernina embroidery software.  You had to take a laptop computer with your software installed on it.  Jerry had just gotten me this laptop, and I asked him if I could use it for that class.  He assured me that I could.  He also agreed to come with me because he -- as usual -- had not done his Pharmacy Continuing Education for that year, and it was late in the Fall.  The deal was he would sit in the hotel room and do his CE while I was attending classes downstairs.  Seemed like a PERFECT plan.

We get to Dallas -- get our room -- and the next morning, I head down to the Bernina class with my laptop.  I was so confident and excited that I would actually have a NEW laptop computer.  I am the kind of person that likes to be at the very front of any class, but for some reason I ended up in the very back of this one.  The teacher instructed us all to boot up our computers.  Ahhhhhhhh, yes.  I knew how to do that.  She told us to put in our dongles (security key) and start up the Artista software.  Smiling happily, I did that.  Then she asked us to click on some command so we could learn all the things we could do with the alphabet.  I clicked on the command, but my computer seemed to go into shock by the command, and it just froze.  EVERYBODY in the whole class was on the screen they were supposed to be on BUT ME.  I was saying I wasn't ready, so every lady had her head turned around in my direction thinking, "Who let the dunce in the back in???"  FINALLY, my screen came up.  Thank goodness, I thought, now the teacher can get on with the lesson.  But NOOOOOOOOOO!  There was ANOTHER command, and ANOTHER command, and every time I pushed a key, my computer took five minutes to operate it. 

After about 15 minutes of me dying of humiliation in the very back row because all the ladies in front of me had there heads turned around backwards and were staring at me, the teacher came back to my computer, and she SHUT IT DOWN.  She told me I should just watch and listen.  I was SO EMBARRASSED!  It was a good thing Jerry was way up on another floor, or I would have strangled him with the computer cord!!!

And I told you all of that so I could tell you that the computer I am typing on right this second is that SAME computer.  Yep!  When I knew I had to come here to Jerry's Mom's house for an undetermined amount of years, it was decided I could bring my laptop computer here as it would be my sole source of entertainment.  Remember, this is a vacant house.  No TV or radio.  The **** thing hasn't worked worth a hoot the whole time I've been here, but this week, it decided to join Jerry's Mom in the Advanced Dementia realm!  I figured it must be the internet service in this town, so I called them.  They kept me on the phone for over an hour having me do a bunch of speed tests, and then they said they would send a Technician the next day.

The next day was Tuesday.  I got a call about 9 AM from a guy who said he was from Pioneer, and he was coming to check my service problem.  Okay.  He didn't sound too bright on the phone, but you can't really tell, I suppose, on the phone.  But a few minutes later, I noticed a bright red Pioneer truck parked in my NEIGHBOR'S driveway.  I knew they weren't even at home.  I walked out in my driveway and stared across the street at his truck.  In a few minutes he stepped out of the truck and started walking toward their back fence.  When he came back around to his truck, I was waving at him, and he noticed me.  I asked if he was looking for me.  He asked if I was Mrs. Bernard.  Close enough.  I told him I was.  He then got in his truck and came over to my house.  Too bad I didn't tell him I was Mrs. Smith and send him away!

He was as big as a telephone pole.  His hands were HUGE.  No fat -- just huge.  He didn't "walk", he "lumbered" kind of stooped over, I suspect from running into everyone's door openings.  He had huge feet with huge MUDDY boots.  The mud was dry, so every step he took knocked off a few nice chunks onto my kitchen floor.  If I had been where I can use my photo software, I would have taken pics.  He came in my kitchen and sat in a chair.  He put his very dusty laptop -- he drives around in a lot of dusty places -- next to mine on the kitchen table.  Then he just sat there, and sat there, and sat there .....  I was sitting or standing close by the whole time, but the guy didn't talk or move or do anything.  He kept pushing buttons on his computer, but I couldn't figure out how that would help mine.  Anyway, after an hour, the guy got up and announced, "Well, I guess this is as good as it will be.  Do you want me to have them put you on a lower speed?"  HUH???????????????????????????

I didn't know what he did -- if anything -- but I sure was glad he left!  What a numbskull!  Later that day, I called the service number and spoke to the lady I had talked to the night before.  I told her they had sent a moron to my house to fix my service, and he didn't know WHAT he was doing.  I explained that he never talked to me or told me what he was doing, and he left mud on my kitchen floor.  I asked her if she would please send someone else to my house that had experience and knew what they were doing.  She was not happy with me, but she agreed to send someone else.

The next day, a bright red Pioneer truck pulled up in MY driveway, and a fairly intelligent guy named Johnny came into my house.  Turned out Johnny was the other guy's boss.  He explained that they had a really hard time getting service techs here.  I told him what the guy did and how he never told me anything.  He said he would try to train him better.  Johnny explained fully what the situation was.  Of course, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN.  The internet service is as fast as lightning.  He proved it by hooking his laptop up to it.  The problem was THIS computer I am typing on.  It had a major infection or something.  Anyway, Jerry has spent most of yesterday and several hours this morning completely erasing everything on it, and putting the operating system back in it.  I am using it now, and it is working WONDERFULLY!!!  No Photo Shop and no Bernina Software, and it probably can't ever handle that software.  At least, I can type my blogpost!

Gotta run.  Back to Countrywood.  We are moving Mom completely out of her room and way down the hall into the Memory Unit.  More on that later when Jerry isn't standing here waiting for me.

Pardon boo boos!  I'll proof it later.

Hugs, Joy