Tweaking

Tweaking a blog set-up when one has virtually no computer skills is a tiresome process.

The cats have given up after trying since supper-time to capture my attention.

In the time spent I might have nearly finished a quilt--or sorted the closets--or done a huge baking.

I have to recreate the list of blogs which inspire me--somehow that disappeared, not to be retrieved.

But enough!  J. reports that it is now minus 2 degrees F.  The house is chilly around the edges. I think that a mug of hot milk, with lacings of honey and a pinch of ginger, might be a good inducement to sleep.

It seems that long winter's nights have been with us for many weeks.

I hope you'll enjoy the photos on the sidebar of the creatures who live with us.

Teasel [a.k.a. "Mamma's Darling"] is so beautiful and photogenic I could do a whole album just of her.

Renovating the Blog

Two hours of playing with templates, trying to "click and drag" bits and pieces of the blog.

Other people do this all the time.

I apparently don't have the skills that "other people" possess!

Please bear with me while I muddle through.

At least the whole blog didn't disappear--it just re-arranged when I wasn't looking.

A Long Day

Laptop on the cluttered table

I didn't sleep well last night for a variety of reasons. Husband loomed over me as I struggled to collect my wits at 7 a.m. and inquired if I was about to get up and turn on the computer for him so that he could watch the live-streamed auction where he had consigned some equipment. I briefly considered hitting him with something, but stumbled into the shower instead.

While the cats sat on the edge of the bed looking encouragingly at me, I decided that the time had come for us to be a two PC household. I turned on the computer, but the speakers weren't working. Husband and son-in-law scrambled about tracing wires and jacks, then repaired up the drive to view the proceedings on son-in-law's PC. I dragged a chair out to the east side of the house into the morning sunshine, sipped my coffee and formulated a PLAN! I was somewhat thwarted when the local Radio Shack didn't have the type of laptop which I wanted. The RS in the next town had three of that model and would be happy to hold one for me. [The Native Americans on the neighboring reservation received bonus checks of some sort this week and have been mobbing the electronics stores!] I didn't spare the tires and was back home with the Toshiba laptop in an hour.

To shorten this story to the essentials: wireless internet wouldn't work with the laptop. Our tech support man arrived and announced that the various cables and plugs had been messed up when I had to call the internet provider two weeks ago and followed their suggestions for restoring internet. The connection has wavered in and out all day. The two month old router seems to be impaired...probably causing the earlier difficulties

The accomlishments of the day are slight and the energy expended seems too much. The men have run back and forth on errands and service calls; I dashed to the quilt shop for long enough to finish an order of placemats; Raisin the cat ate half my lunch-time hamburger when I was in here looking for a spare USB cord; we've had an evening of high winds and rumbling thunder.

After much trial and error I did get an e-mail account set up for husband, managed to link the two accounts so that I can switch between his account and mine on either PC.

Stay tuned for a more interesting post tomorrow--the one that was meant for today!

As Samuel Pepys was fond of closing his diary--"And so to bed." Tomorrow might be better!

The Battle with "IT."

Eggnog eyeing the PC with suspicion.

Years ago a teacher friend was creating a reading list for her students and asked if I had ever read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. The book has as its basis the classic battle of good vs evil---with fascinating sci/fi elements which send the main characters hurtling to other worlds. The climax of their adventures occurs when the "heroine" Meg Murray must face down a huge disembodied and all-controlling brain referred to as "IT."
Today is one of those times when I suspect that such a malevolent entity is taking control of my computer. An e-mailed link to this blog is apt to land my unsuspecting friends on a different site.  The blog links which I carefully typed into an "add a gadget" feature disappeared--somewhere--and I had to use a different approach. Searching the blogger "helps" lands me in the jargon of html's, widgets, and other bewildering instructions. At the end of each article is a query as to whether this article was helpful. I want to register a resounding "NO"--but I don't think IT is around to hear me!
Arguably, a person with greater technical skills wouldn't have these issues or could quickly sort them. While admitting my lack of expertise, I still like the idea of a scapegoat--the one who tells me "the printer is out of paper"--when I can see the neat white stack fitted into the tray; the one who whisks away four typewritten pages before I can command "Save." Surely there is a resident goblin with a "you can't get there from here" kind of roadblock.
It may take awhile, the final product may not be especially sophisticated, but the cats and I are committed to getting the better of "IT."