Thought I'd Never Reach This Point!!!

Boy oh boy! You take a break for one little day from blogging -or rather from reading the blogs you normally explore on a daily basis -and end up with the computer fritzing out on you after a day of non-reading and then, 22 hours without a computer till it is checked over and discovered to be free of problems which then, because you have to share said computer with at least two other internet addicts, you end up on a Monday morning with close to 200 posts showing up on your reader and well, that figure seemed a bit overwhelming to me for quite a while today!

For a time, it seemed I couldn't get the count under 185 posts waiting to be read because bloggers apparently were anxious to post their thoughts or reports of their fantastic weekend or memories from their past all at the same time so as soon as I would read a post, another would be put up or even more, so there appeared to be no getting this number whittled down to a nice be zero there!

But finally, I did it! It took me from 9 a.m. today until a little past 3 p.m. this afternoon but finally, my counter registered at no more posts waiting for me to read. Hallelujah!

Now, why did I decide to take a break in the first place from reading posts on my reader late Friday night and on Saturday? Well, because I decided to start off on a new craft project, that's why! I had completed the bulk of the embroidery in two Christmas ornaments out of a set of six on Friday night and decided I didn't want to embroider anything for a day or two -or four, or so and so, I picked up some yarn I just got recently and started working on making another sweater for Maya. And so far, things with that have progressed nicely as I have the back completed and am now working on the sleeves -doing them side-by-side so that way, as I complete a row on one sleeve, I also then complete the same row on the other sleeve and that way, no question about them both being the same length, width, etc. Supposedly, it will work that way. It has in the past so why not now.

But Saturday night something happened that put a jinx on me and my reader and posts waiting to be read.

About 8 p.m. Saturday night, the lights here flickered and power went off, very briefly -like for 2-3 seconds -came back on and then this happened again not just one more time but twice!

After about a half-hour of waiting and watching to see if the power was going to stay on or go off again, we figured it must be over and done with -whatever caused those short outages -so time to pick up where one had left off and return to the computer screen. That would have been Mandy doing that because through all of the outages thing, I was busy knitting away.

Well, when she went to go back to the computer, there was nothing displaying on the monitor whatsoever - just this ugly, ugly black screen.

It was then that I realized something else was strange too with the computer.

You know how when the power goes out and if your computer is on, it automatically shuts down the computer and you have to manually turn it back on as it doesn't automatically come back on when the power is restored -whether it be for a couple seconds or a couple of hours -the computer shuts off completely and when that happens, the blue light in the middle of the tower (or wherever your button is to turn your unit off and on) goes out and doesn't light up again until you re-fire the old computer. Right? Well, not in this case as the blue light on my computer never went off! Go figure that one out now!

So, when that happened, I phoned our friend, Bobby, who generally takes care of any computer related problems I experience here and told him what happened and what was happening now -or rather, what was not happening -with respect to my computer.

He told me he would be over on Sunday to check the whole thing out!

So yesterday, around 1 p.m. Bobby showed up and took my computer back to his house so he could check it out there. He was figuring it might be something as simple (his words) as the power supply (whatever that means) or, if I was really unlucky, it could also mean that something had happened to muck up the motherboard. Well, I really didn't want it to be either of those things but given a choice, I would rather -obviously -prefer that it just be the power thingy.

About 3-4 hours later, Bobby called and told me he had hooked the computer up at his place and it had fired up properly, immediately! So he did follow through and checked things out but since nothing could be found that was malfunctioning, he decided apparently something on the back of the computer hadn't been connected up tightly there.

And so, my computer was returned to me, reconnected and all that by about 6 p.m. last night.

And then, the other two internet addicts came forth and took over the operation of said machine and I didn't get to take control of the thing till about 8 this morning!

But all that reading -well it was a small price to pay considering that there was nothing to pay to get the olde computer fixed ya know!

Now, that brings me to something else too.

While doing my reading this a.m. I finally remembered to do something I've said I was gonna do but kept forgetting about doing that until oh, 2 or 3 in the morning -an hour that isn't exactly conducive to contacting other folks by phone ya know.

I've been telling myself for the past several weeks now that I was going to make a call during regular business hours to the place in the D.C. Area where I used to work and to talk to a lady who still works there and who just so happens to also be best of friends with my former best friend from my working days there.

Now, my friend from there -my bestest friend -retired last fall and moved back to her hometown in West Virginia. I have her snail mail address because at Christmas she wrote a little note in her card that she was back in WVA now, living with her Mom -actually, that she was taking care of her Mom now because she's 92 years old and really can't be left alone and to her own devices anymore.

However, in that note, she didn't give me her Mom's phone number and also, didn't give me an e-mail address either but the e-mail thing didn't surprise me as she had a computer a few years back while living/working in the D.C. area but she had also stopped using the internet and gone without e-mail then. So I figured she probably was maintaining that stance then once back home too.

But today, I called the good old former workplace, got in touch with the other mutual friend -which was terrific I might add -seeing as I hadn't talked to her in a good many years now -and came away from that phone call with two e-mail addresses -0ne for the friend now living in WVA and the other, for the friend who I spoke to today on the phone and I also got the phone number then too for the friend in WVA so I can call her now and chit-chat with her to my heart's content!

Ah yes, now having switched my phone service about two years ago over to a plan in which I can make unlimited long distance calls -all over the states - at no extra charge to my phone bill and considering when she and I would make those rare phone calls in the past, that they would generally run on for at least two, sometime three hours at a clip, there will actually be some real savings to me for having taken this phone plan out, won't there?

I can't say it enough how happy I was to have had the opportunity to reach the other friend still working at the old worksite there! She's a terrific lady and back in my younger years, when we all worked together -and enjoyed a lot of our off-work time together too -her and her husband, our mutual friend and her cousin, me, my Mom and older daughter and a few other former co-workers -it was like old times to talk to her again today! Just great! And thanks Emmawill for not having changed in your disposition over all these 36 years since I left the D.C. area and moved back to the state of PA -with its lousy jobs atmosphere, low pay and many expenses just as high here as in the D.C. area.

But, as my son likes to remind me -he's still glad that he opted to stay with me as opposed to going to live with his dad years back and is grateful that we lived here too, albeit in, as he puts it, "A life of poverty and dysfunction."

And, truth be told -most of the time -I'm glad too that I left the rat race of the D.C. area to come back to the quiet of my hometown and the semi-calm atmosphere of living in the old family homestead too!

Yeah, I'm glad I reached this point - of clearing my Reader out today in a six-hour readathon; of talking to a very good old friend and getting two e-mail addresses and a phone number plus a teensy bit of the news from the old headquarters where I worked years back; and for admitting too that I am damned grateful to be back in my home town, back in the old house -warts and all that come with living in and old house in need of repairs on what sometimes seems to be a never-ending stream of breakdowns!

And I'm even grateful right now to have such great little grandkids who do such wonderful things all the time, even though I did just catch Maya trying to spread Secret Deodorant on the kitten's fur. I don't really understand what that was all about and I don't think I'll even bother to ask her what that gesture was all about either.

Might ruin the good mood I'm in today that way, ya know!