Getting Back On Track

I’m still trying to catch up on my regular routine after spending five days in Pennsylvania visiting my Mom and friends last week. Today I had a delightful lunch with my former classmate and friend, Judy. We dined at Café Azafran in Lewes. Café Azafran is one of the restaurants that I recommend to hotel guests but haven’t had a chance to eat at myself. Today I corrected that. We both had a tasty Mediterranean vegetable dish of eggplant (I love eggplant) and tomatoes with a tangy sauce. Delicious! Good company, good food in an interesting restaurant in downtown Lewes on a sunny winter’s day. It doesn’t get much better.

Before I left for lunch, I got a call from my co-worker at the Inn. She’s not feeling well and she asked if I could fill in for her tomorrow. I checked my calendar and saw that I was open. I'll go in tomorrow at 7:00 to cover her shift. That was part of the bargain when I applied for my job at the Inn. I told them I would almost always be available to fill in on short notice. I enjoy working but I don’t want to work full-time. I feel like I’m being smothered when I’m working full-time. However, I don’t mind working part-time and even on holidays and weekends and filling in when needed. I will probably always work. At one time I thought I would retire but I tried that for about three months and it just didn’t work for me. I couldn’t see the rest of my life stretched out checking my e-mails in the morning, lunch, nap in the afternoon, checking e-mails again, dinner, then going to bed at night and doing it all over again the next day. My personality is such that I need the discipline of going to work. I've had a job since I was 10 years old (paper boy.) I just can't stop working.

Working balances out my life. Of course I can use the extra money now that I have a mortgage until I’m 95 years old. I need the work environment and all its challenges to keep my mind sharp and my curiosity intact. Sometimes I get frustrated at work but that is all part of the challenge of living. I don’t propose my routine or what works for me for everyone else. This is what works for me.

I had some great news today. While I was scanning old photos that I borrowed from relatives during my recent visit to Pennsylvania, I found my Palm Pilot! I was sick about losing it especially since they don’t make them anymore.

My situation with the Palm Pilot is another example of a product that works perfectly fine for me that is discontinued. Now I have to figure out how to add the Palm software to my new computer with the Vista operating system. Oh yeah, I’m not done with the “wonderful” Vista operating system. I use my Palm Pilot to keep track of all of my contacts as well as my many passwords. I don’t know how else to keep track of all of this information. I’m glad I wasn’t able to buy another Palm Pilot. Maybe it’s good they discontinued making them. I think now you have to buy a Trio Phone or something like that. I don’t need all of that. All I need is a simple place to keep my addresses and passwords. I am so glad I found my Palm!

Riding over to Judy’s place at Cape Shores brought back fond memories of when I stayed at her place (while she and her husband Jack were wintering at their Florida condo), back in the winter of 2006 when my new house was undergoing construction. Jack and Judy’s home is right on the bay. Looking out their living room window all you see is the water of Delaware Bay. I asked Jack if he ever got tired of that scene. He said “Never!” I never would either. However, I am just as pleased with the sunny view out of my sun room windows of my acre of open lawn which borders on a corn field. The traffic that is visible on Route 1 provides a soothing backdrop for that view. I equate the effect of the moving traffic in the far distance with watching fish in an aquarium. I find it very comforting.

I have a new activity, Facebook. I’m glad some of my forward looking friends persisted in encouraging me to join Facebook. I’ve been encouraging some of my other friends, who aren’t members, to join. But some of them are concerned about their privacy. I can understand that concern. However, my view is that I’m not going to hide under a rock for fear someone will know something about me. I figure everything there is to know about me is already out there on the Internets. I have nothing to hide. To me, Facebook is just a cooler way to stay in touch with friends and relatives. I don’t feel threatened by it. There are more serious threats in this world, the main one being the serious credit crunch in this country which is threatening to ruin our economy. Now that’s something to worry about.

Ted Haggard

Remember the old TV show “That Was the Week That Was?” That’s what this past week felt like. I feel like I’ve been through the wringer. Of course I continue to still have technical problems with my computers and accessories. I won’t even go into all of that. The one thing I will say is that I will NEVER buy another Dell computer for a Microsoft operation system, I don’t care what kind of fancy name they give to it. The last time I got a new Dell it had the Windows ME (Millennium) operating system. I eventually gave that computer away because I couldn’t turn it off and Dell lied about their premium support. I gave the computer to my friend Bob who had to install Windows 95 to get it to operate. I read this morning where Microsoft is going to try and peddle a new operating system called Windows 7. Oh yeah. Hold your breath when I buy that system.

We had the whole range of weather this week. Monday and Tuesday, snow, rain and ice. Pretty. I stayed out of that mess until the rain melted the snow on Wednesday at which time I made a run for the grocery store in the fog. I was out just long enough to cover the sides of my red car with road salt. Yesterday I made another run to Milton to get a laser wash to get rid of the salt. I now have my shiny red car again, albeit with 110,000 miles on it. I felt so good yesterday I took the Grand Tour through the hinterlands. I drove through Milton to Rt. 5, then down Rt. 9, to Rt. 24, then onto Rt. 1 Rehoboth Beach. It was good to get out of the house and drive around the flatlands down here to clear my head.

Yesterday I went to work. The economy is affecting everything, including the number of guests at the hotel where I work in Lewes. We’re offering generous discounts to lure the guests in but there aren’t too many takers. We have some long term guests in the hotel and a few passers through but none of the usual guests who come into town to enjoy the fine restaurants and take advantage of the outlet shopping on Rt. 1 in Rehoboth Beach. Those days are gone, for now anyway. I'm hoping they come back this spring and summer. We're all hoping.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I saw a good movie from Netflix this week. It was called “Big Eden.” It was about a gay guy and his unrequited love interest but more than that. It was about family, all kinds. What really made this film interesting was the total lack of homophobia in the small town to which he returned. Perhaps that’s why they titled it “Big Eden.” It might just have been a fairytale (no pun intended.)

Bill still isn’t talking. Of course this is very stressful to me as well as it is to him. The heaviness hangs over the house. Not much “family” here this week. However, this too will pass.

Last night on “Larry King Live”, I watched Ted Haggard try to explain away his fall from grace from his church. Mr. Haggard seems like a fine man but he should come to terms with reality. He’s still justifying his actions as a test from God. Perhaps. He says his wife has accepted him as has his children. I say whatever works for you Ted, go for it. One thing he doesn’t have to do is apologize for having normal, natural feelings for members of his own sex. As long as he denies these natural feelings, he will be in misery. I could see the sadness in his eyes as he was listening to clips that Larry King was playing from his accusers. How sad. I’m sure that Mr. Haggard loves his wife and five children but he will always be conflicted his whole life with his sexual conflict. That’s what I liked about the movie “Big Eden.” The townsfolk were not conflicted or repelled by the main characters’ homosexuality. They took it as normal, which it is. To all the arguments about homosexuality; is it normal or is it against God’s will my answer has always been, “God made me this way and God doesn’t make mistakes.” Amen.

AOL Installed!

After my angst, AOL 9.1 is finally installed on my new Dell computer. What was the problem? You might have guessed it. It was the Vista operating system that was incompatible with AOL 9.0.

While waiting for Tom (PC Guy) this morning, I search the Internet to see if anyone else was having the same problems. It didn’t take me too long to find out that I wasn’t the only one by a long shot. Back at the beginning of the year there were quite a few postings to a Microsoft forum about other users who could not install AOL 9.0 or AOL 9.1, or even AOL 9.1 VR (Vista Ready) on their computers that had a Vista operating system.

I printed out the postings from that forum and gave it to Tom when he came in this morning. Tom had asked me to call AOL for support but I didn’t because I knew that would be an exercise in futility. Many people on the forum reported that they called the AOL Help line. That’s an oxymoron, AOL Help. Of course AOL was of no help. I even called Smart Computing for help. I’m a long time subscriber so I thought for the first time I would take advantage of their much advertised tech help line for subscribers. That was a waste of time. The guy on the other end of the line blew me off.

The postings on the forum dropped off after March of 2008 so I came to the conclusion that AOL finally figured out how to make their version 9.01 compatible with Vista. Tom and I downloaded the latest version. Right away we noticed that this was going to be a SLOW DOWNLOAD. It was. It took about 2 hours to download. Tom couldn’t wait. He has a life.

Tom fixed my HP Photosmart All-in-One printer problems (I couldn’t’ use the scanner) by uninstalling and reinstalling the software. It now works, for the time being at least. This is about the fourth time this software has been uninstalled and reinstalled.

Tom left the premises. I continued to monitor the SLOW AOL download. If this was downloading to Windows XP, it would only take minutes. But no, this is downloading to an upgraded version of Windows. What has this upgrade done for me? If anyone knows, let me know.

When the download was almost done, I got an error message. My heart dropped. But, there was hope. A button appeared that said “continue?” I said ‘YES!”. It picked up where it left off. This happened three more times. Man oh man. What is it with the upgrades? Don’t they test these things before they put them on the market? Of course they don’t. This is the new business ethic, throw it out on the market and let them work out the kinks. Thank you Mr. Softee.

The download finally completed and the Welcome screen of AOL appeared on my widescreen Dell computer. Nirvana! I love the user interface and icons on AOL. I have one friend who constantly criticizes me for staying with AOL. I know AOL has problems and has no support for its users but it does have the most user friendly Internet portal. It is the one I prefer.

My joy was short lived. I got an error message. Ugh! I turned of the computer, hoping it only needs a reboot. I wait a minute and, with bated breath, I turn the Dell back on. AOL came up! My computer didn’t blow up! It works! Hosanna!

How long this will last, I don’t’ know but I was had AOL up for three hours, catching up. Right now I’m on my old Gateway computer. I have AOL version 9.0 (which I reinstalled myself without any problems.) After dinner, I’ll turn on my Dell. Oh I hope I don’t have any more problems.

What did I learn from this whole episode? I should have listened to those who said Vista sucks. I’ve also learned that the Help lines also suck. What works now is going to forums on the Internet for others who have the same problem. This is the only place where you will find anyone who has the knowledge and can help. There are good people on those forums who are unselfish and willingly help those of use who aren’t techies.

This is something I discovered last week where I work. My boss had just completed two days removing Malware from the office network computers. After finishing he found he couldn’t get the printer to work. He posted the problem in the Google browser and discovered others who had the same problem. Within minutes he received an e-mail from a person in Russia who had the answer. The Russian user sent him an e-mail with instructions how to solve the problem. My boss keyed in the instructions. Immediately the printer began printing.

This episode opened my eyes. Don’t depend on AOL, Dell, Microsoft or Hewlett Packard. They’re too busy laying employees off and outsourcing work to India where they speak heavily accented English. The Help lines will never be effective because there is no money in it for the companies involved. The AOL’s, Dell’s, Microsoft’s, and Hewlett-Packard’s of this world don’t care about their consumer. They only care about making the sale. Their priority is how many stock options and bonuses they can give their executives. Perhaps the greatest failure perpetuated on the American public in recent years is this “upgrade” Vista. Someone please tell me how my life is better because I have Vista on my new computer. Please.

I say put a pie in the face of all those who are responsible for this travesty. Think different. I next time I get a Mac.