Q&A's

Those of you how read Linda's blog -Are We There Yet? - are familiar then with the segment she does now and again -usually on Fridays - "I've Got a Question -You've Got the Answer" and that's kind of what I'm gonna do here today.

Except my questions -well some of 'em are, maybe convoluted or confused but then again, that's me. By this time, anyone reading my blog knows I do sometimes think and write very convolutedly. (My spell checker says that isn't right, so maybe that is a word made up, just by me.)

Anyway, just wanted to forewarn you here that my questions may not be all that clearly explained because you see, I have as background noise -besides the voices I already hear in my mind -the musical "Annie" playing on the tv and a certain four-year-old who is not feeling good -fever, sore throat, cough plus, she's very upset because her Mommy isn't here. Actually, she's very put out that Mommy went someplace and horrors, didn't take sweet little Princess Maya -even though she's sick and all that stuff ya know.

So anyhoo -here goes.

A while back, I asked if when you viewed my blog, the sidebar in particular, if all the awards I have set up there show up for you or if there are some pictures coming up as missing. At that time, I was still on dial-up and everyone who responded said they could see all the icons for the awards fine and dandy and most everyone seemed to think it might be a problem I was experiencing with dial-up.

Well, I've had the high speed connection for a month now and although if I view my blog on Internet Explorer, all the icons show up, when I view it using Firefox, those icons are still missing. If I go into page layout and open the slot where the icons in question are set up, as soon as you open that segment, the box in the middle -the one that spins and turns as supposedly blogger is adding that icon to the screen, is spinning and turning -apparently on a constant basis!

Now another thing too -if I am reading someone's blog using Firefox, often if they have posted several pictures in a post, some of the pictures will not open for me -but, using Internet Explorer, they will show up.

I mentioned this to David McMahon at Authorblog the other day - because his blog, of all blogs with the plethora of photographs he generally posts, one doesn't want to miss viewing those, for sure - and he and Terry -of Terry's Playpen - both thought possibly that the cookies thingy on Firefox wasn't deleting cookies properly or something to that effect. Although I went in on IE and deleted cookies, also did a disc cleanup too -I can't figure out how to delete cookies on Firefox. Can anyone give me ultra simple, step by step, English only (no computerese terms, please) how to do that on Firefox?

Does this sound like it might be solely a Firefox issue as opposed to a Blogger issue? I figure I've ruled out dial-up, I think the fact that it functions properly on IE would also rule out Blogger as being the culprit too but maybe it is Blogger in conjunction WITH Firefox. I'm just curious if anyone else has issues like this and if so, what caused the problem and then, what did you do to fix it too?

This morning, one of Mandy's friend directed her to the YouTube place and to oodles and oodles of videos about autism - videos done by parents, videos put out by older kids and adults too who have autism and everything I think maybe betwixt and between pertaining to autism YouTube videos. I don't have the URL that got Mandy into that area but if you can find it -you all being better acquainted with the wheres and whats involved with searching YouTube -check it out -or rather check out lots of these videos. Some very informational stuff along with some that are just plain so cute, so neat to see how well other kids are doing with therapy and care, lots and lots of loving care and understanding, that if you aren't familiar or only vaguely so about how autism affects people, go, check these out.

Now, I'm going to tell you a little story about some convolution going on around here last evening. Possibly, convolution at its finest levels -or close anyway.

My SIL came home from work yesterday about 4:30 or so -was here for about ten minutes max and then, he left to go up to my son's house as he had promised Dan, "favorite son's" roommate, that he would come up and give him a hand tearing out a wall in the room behind the room the guys turned into their "bar" area. Ok, no problem. And away he went.

I'm betting he hadn't gone more than a half mile up the street from our house when the phone rang. It was SIL's Dad calling. He wanted to know if SIL was here. "No," I told him, "He's gone up to Clate's to help Dan." Pap said ok, and hung up the phone and I figure that's the end of that.

But wait -no, it isn't. Actually the confusion had just begun. About 10 minutes after SIL's dad's call, the phone rings again. I answer it and it is a male whose voice I don't recognize immediately and he's rattling on and on about how Clate had called him and said we were looking for SIL and that he (the caller that is) was over at Lowe's and what's the problem with the furnace?

And I'm sitting here listening to this and wondering who in bloody blue blazes this is, and what problem is there with the furnace? None that I'm aware of and not only that, who's looking for SIL because I KNOW where he is - he's up at my son's house helping his roommate fix a wall there or some such. Then this caller finally identifies himself - after he asks me "Is this Amanda?" and I say no, who is this? and he identifies himself as Dan, Clate's roommate. Then he says to me "Oh never mind. Clate called me and said something about that you were looking for SIL and the furnace being on the fritz but never mind, maybe I got the message confused." And he hung up, leaving me totally confused. (I know, I know - that's a fast trip to get me to confusion central but that is also beside the point.)

So I call Clate - who by the way, was in Kansas, waiting for a load to make a return trip back home sometime late last night. Of course, I get his answering thing on his cell phone, leave a message for him to call back. Which he does about ten minutes later. He asks if I was calling about having received a call from his roommate, Dan. Yes, as a matter of fact, I was. Well, here's the full story.

Seems after Pap called here looking for SIL and I had told him where he was, instead of going up to Clate's house to talk to him in person, SIL's sister called Clate - who you remember is in Kansas at the time -to ask him to call Dan and have Dan call SIL because SIL won't answer his cell phone. WHY you ask all this round-about methodology to track the SIL down? Because the furnace in the trailer where Pap and SIL's sister (and her two kids) live -well, the furnace wasn't working there! They wanted him to come look at the furnace and fix it. Which, once it all got sorted out, he did go look at the furnace, replaced a nozzle on it for them and then, finally got back home later last night. I asked him when he got home if he'd fixed it and he said yes and I asked him then if he was ever going to send Pap's landlady he rents this god-aweful trailer from a bill for all the work he has done over at that place - free, because it's for his dad and his sister but for which the landlady should have been responsible to take care of the repairs on the junk heap in the first place!!! Yes, I am a truly obnoxious old woman when I get my dander in a dither! You can't imagine the things SIL has done over there -stuff he has purchased (wood, parts for the sink, the furnace, the commode, whatever) and his labor which has been a LOT and I do mean A LOT too - all to fix things because the landlady won't shell out a penny to the upkeep of the place. Even the way she is renting it is illegal as it had belonged to her aunt who died and the property is still -about 8 years after the fact - still in the deceased aunt's name but the niece is renting it to Pap and his daughter and her kids for $350 a month. On top of which they of course have to pay ALL the utilities - water, sewage, electric, oil -plus, they also have to try to contend with the things falling apart in the place and get them repaired at no cost to the landlady! Talk about your slum landladies in an old coal mining village, huh?

But I did have fun teasing my son about them calling him to track down SIL who was at my son's house while my son was stuck in Kansas and I reminded him that I happen to have a magnet my grandson Alex got me for Christmas that has Dorothy and Toto's picture on it and says "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." on it! And I kept ragging Clate about his being in Kansas while all this junk was taking place where - why here, of course!

Ah, the drama - the drama of life in this fast lane I call home!