This morning was foggy and frosty.  Fog had mostly cleared when I captured this image.

The effect was most evident on the asparagus fronds.

Ten years ago today, I posted my first tidbit on Secondary Rds.  That first year was fun and exciting.  I posted every day and sometimes more than once a day.

Lately that has changed.  It has been about a month and a half since my last post.  I’ve thought about posts, but they haven’t made it to publication.

About the time of my last post, Sylvia’s computer began to have problems–serious problems.  I checked for the last full backup of her system.  The program had stopped working over a year earlier.  (Note to self: check backup status at least once a month.)

The rescue effort started as I began to save data onto a thumb drive.  I got it all except her email addresses.  The last time I powered up her machine, it took two and a half days to boot.

We talked about alternatives and decided to put her on the Linux machine that I was not using.  I installed the data from her Win 7 computer on the Linux box.  Configured everything for her.  It worked well for a while.  Then Sylvia said, “How can I print?”

So I went to install a printer.  The system asked for a password.  I tried the words I had written on the sleeve of the installation disk.  They didn’t work.  Now what?

Next try.  I had a Win 10 computer hooked up to my amateur radio equipment.  I pulled that out and started to transfer data files.  That computer died in short order.

Fortunately, I had ordered a new hard drive.  I installed that in the Linux box.  After downloading the latest version of Manjaro xfce Linux, I installed that operating system on the new hard drive.  Once again, things did not work right.  Aarrgh!

Crushed, I spent some time pouting and feeling sorry for myself.  Then I took my XP laptop out of storage, hoping that it would be my rescue.  It was another miscue.

Inspiration struck.  Sylvia had been using Win 7 on her [now dead] computer.  I had an installation disk for that same version of Win 7.  Using the code from her old computer, I installed it on the new hard drive in the Linux box.  Joy!

The process took about six weeks, but Sylvia is back in business.  However, she is still reconstituting her email address book.

Another week went into fixing the Win 10 computer.  I only had to re-seat the four memory cards.  I’ve removed Win 10 and am now using Manjaro Linux on that machine.

Sylvia’s old computer and my old laptop, both without hard drives,went to recycling.

What’s Next?

Then our daughter-in-law’s father passed away.  It was not unexpected, but it still was painful.

Returning home from visitation, Sylvia stopped by the grocery store.  While I waited for her I watched a sparrow land on a beautiful red Cadillac.  What happened next had the makings of a blog post, but sorrow overcame.

More

Then our church’s new website went live.  Others had done that, but then it became my turn.  Because we are moving to a new domain name, my task was to setup two mailing lists and some email addresses.  Sounds easy, but it is not.

Most folks and ISPs have spam filters set very tight.  Each person on the list must be contacted directly.  They have to add an email address to their address book or contacts list.  Then I can get an invitation through to them to join the new list.  That is still ongoing.

Future Plans

No big plans here.  We are taking it one day at a time.