progress...or not

Well, I am still struggling with internet. We are going to try to move the satellite hub and the wireless router into the office and see if that makes any difference. If not, we are going to get a Ethernet cable and attach it directly to my computer and see if that will let me get fully online. Odds are we are going to switch internet providers. We haven’t been happy with HughesNet since the beginning of the year. We definitely are not getting the service that we pay for. We are going to more than likely switch to Wild Blue…or as it is called by my dad, Blue Fly LOL.

I woke at around 2 this morning. Thanks to my one cat. Grrr. So I came into the office and tried to get some writing done. So far I managed a page. I know what I want to say, but it is just not coming. So, I am going to try a different story for the time being. If that doesn’t work…well, my oldest brother and his family are going to be up here in about 3 and a half hours, so I will be distracted for the rest of the weekend.

Of course, it doesn’t really help that I have been in a cleaning mode. We went to Salt Lake Tuesday, and every day since then, I have been scrubbing the house. I had orders that I was not supposed to do anything today…we will see LOL.

What sucks, (and I cannot go into too much detail) is that the state is scrutinizing us right now, because someone (and we have an idea who) turned us in for elderly abuse on my grandma. Uh, excuse me? (Insert a butt load of disbelief here). The investigator flat out told my dad that if everybody took as well of care of the elderly like we (especially dad) takes care of grandma, then the elderly would be much happier. But, now, we are under the thumb of the state now. It is much more involved than what I have said, but like I said, I cannot go into detail…mostly because of the people involved. What I can say is that we all, especially my dad, are pretty stressed out…dad so much so, that his doctor told him that if he doesn’t calm down stress-wise, he is a ticking time-bomb for a heart attack. I wish he would let me do more…but that is a big reason for my cleaning spurt. Our house is never dirty, but it has been a while since it has had a good scrubbing, and I am burning off some of my frustration doing it.

One day at a time…one day at a time.

One thing that is frustrating is electronics…I have blogged about the computer, how I came about having to get a new computer and such…well, I found out that there is a tech support at Dell just for the XPS computers. Ummm If I had known that, I would have hesitated about getting it LOL. I know a bit about computers, I am by no means an expert, but I know a bit…all self taught. Crashing computers and bringing them back…most of the time LOL. But this XPS, is a whole new breed to me…gotta go re-teach myself again…though this time I will do it more with books than full-out experimentation. It cost me enough, I don’t want to accidently kill it LOL.

Also, I ended up having to buy a new phone. I still need to get the new number to most everybody, too much has been going on and not enough time…and still learning the sucker. Though it is not too bad, it is only a Samsung Rant…not a smart phone. I was considering getting a smart phone, but decided it would be too much. I wouldn’t use most of the features on it. One thing I wish this phone had that my old one had is a converter…it had a converter for distances, weights, everything except money…this new phone has a tip calculator though…*snort* like I will use that when I don’t go out to eat LOL.

But, I do need to call (or at least email) most of my contacts with the new number…hmmm, especially my publisher…and doctors…I tried to keep the same #, but we went in to the sprint store while we were in Salt Lake Tuesday, and I didn’t have any of the documents needed to transfer the #. So, I have a new #...already memorized, but still a pain to switch everything LOL.

Okay…guess it is time to quit rambling and see if I can get any work done on a different story. Sooner or later (hopefully sooner), I will have at least chapter 2 of Mu finished to upload…hopefully chapters 2 and 3…but, we will see. *sigh* I hate when I get behind like this. :(

I'm baaaaaack....mostly LOL

Well, I am mostly back up and running, I still have several things I need to update and download from the net...but I am back. Minus most of my files and some of my contacts, but I am back LOL. Talk about an adventure in gremlin land. Now, maybe, I can get back to writing...hopefully. My brother and his family are coming up tonight and going home monday, or is it tuesday? If I heard correctly, we are going to have a full house. Let's see...if I heard right, it will be Brad, Marline, Tyler, Bryant (their adopted brother...read roommate LOL), her mom and dad and two sisters. I think I will run away for the weekend ;-) naaaw. I like seeing them. don't get anything done, but I like seeing them. LOL. Things are going haywire in my extended family. I can't go into details, but my dad is so stressed that he is having a lot of chest pain. I am really worried about him.

Ok, so, Mu Mysteries...I am way behind on it, and the computer issues have compounded that. I will not give any estimated time on when chapter two will be posted, It might be that I will go ahead and get several chapters written, and post chapter's two and three at the same time. This was not my plan at all. but, sometimes unexpected things happen.

For now, I need to go work on updating and downloading and whatnot...also bills (ewww) and hopefully at least some writing tonight. So I will end this now. we will see what happens.

computer gremlin alert

ok. I am not back. I am stealing my mom's computer to write this. I said I would be back days ago...but, well...everything I touch seems to go bezerk.

Let me start from the time that the computer arrived...

So, I unpack it and get it hooked up. When I ordered it, I was not sure if it had a wireles network card or not. I knew it had a wired one, but wireless? I did not know. So I get it hooked up and can't see any evidence of it. That's ok, I thought to myself. I will just call Dell and order one. So I did. I called Dell and I talked to a rep and based on my computer configuration, we ordered a wireless card. So it comes. So I hook it up....it is freezing my computer up. I can't figure it out. My brother arrives. He tries to figure it out. Nothing. So I call Dell back last night. I was on the phone over 2 freakin hours with tech support. we cannot figure it out.

This is where it gets even worse. While on the phone with Dell, my monitor dies. ok. So, Now i have to spend more money and order a new monitor. this is while we are still trying ot figure out the card.

So I steal mom's monitor and hook it up to my computer. Well, we get the card to register, but then it gives me the mesage that there is not enough resources. what??? Ok, this is a brand new computer. nothing has been added to it yet other than the wireless card. I don't even have a printer hooked yet. Well, he runs some more diagnotics...nothing. so he has me reinstall windows...now here is where my own stupidity comes in. I did not think about the fact of reinstalling the OS will delete my files. *sigh* I did not think about the files until this morning. But back to being on the phone with Dell...Now the computer will not even detect the card let alone give us any error messages, or, god forbid, that it actually work. so he does some more looking and it turns out that while the card is usable on Vista...it is not compatible with my components. grrr. hense, why it pisses me off even more about the lost files.

So now I get to return this card and I have a new one coming to me...oh wait. no I don't. He gets the order put in for the monitor and the card...but I have to call Dell FInancial tomorrow to get the final authorization. Then I have to wait for it to ship and then wait for it to get here.

So, today I have been reinstalling the drivers and other files back onto the computer, while Bryan is on this computer, mom's computer, trying to see if he can recover the files from DOS...but nothing. nothing whatsoever.

The only good thing is...I still have my music, and I still have my stories. I keep my stories on a thumb drive, so it is still there and I still have my stories.

The other bad thing is, I am way behind on working on Mu Mysteries. I do not have the second chapter finished to upload yet...even if I had some way to upload it right now LOL.

To top off the badness that is my life right now....I was carrying in my monitor cleaner into the office. It falls, the plastic bottom of the bottle shatters off and spills the cleaner throughout the office. Onto the new bamboo floor.

Dad said to me "Do you ever think that you might just go back to bed and start the day over?"

My response was "No, I think I am going to run far far away and bury my head in the sand for eternity."

*sigh*

So, at the rate I am going, I might get back functioning with a new computer sometime this year **insert eye roll**

The thing is...

I can deal with the network card. I am not happy, but I can deal. I can steal mom and dad's computer's for the bare basics of doing things I need to do online.

I can deal with the monitor. I have a very old very small spare that I temporarily replaced the broken monitor with.

I can deal with the cleaner being spilled on the floor...got that all cleaned up

What I am not dealing with, is being so stupid as to delete all of my files from this computer before making a back-up of them somewhere else. What is ever more stupid...I have my website files saved. I have my photos saved. I have my fonts saved. I have (most) of my emails saved...but I neglected to put "my documents" onto a cd backup. that is what burns me even more. It has been years since I was this stupid about files.

I have no clue what I did these past few days to warrent this wonderful computer treatment...but I wish I could figure out how to make it stop :-