It's been one of those months again! When things start moving here, they make a speeding bullet look like it's in neutral, and time just gets away from me! I got a new 'super' computer because the game I play would not under any circumstances download a patch to the old one.
It took over two days to finish on the new one. Of course the game was still more glitchy than playable, but that's another whole story. My beloved geek came over to activate the new Windows and couldn't, so he put the ol;d computer back in place and took the new one to sort it's sorry butt. He's putting in a new and better CPU to compensate me for time lost! I was quite miserable at the thought of being without my game for several days, then made the discovery of the century. This computer came back on line with a Windows update notification to download service pack 3. I started jumping up and down in my chair because I remembered seeing someplace that the new patch requires SP 3 on XP machines. I installed and started the patch. It worked. Nowhere on any of the forums or tech pages did I see that as possible solution to the problem, and not one of the myriad tech types I talked with ever thought to ask if it was installed! Well, it is now, and I managed to get into my game. There are still some horrendous glitches, not the least of which is a very low frames per second rate of 4-9 and record breaking high latency rates of over 10000. That's right 10 thousand. But I could get on to play for a while before getting disconnected.
The other and even bigger distraction was getting all the places I owe small fortunes to thanks to Shmaryah to agree to a final settlement amount. I sicced Homeless on them, which meant I was getting calls from him all the time. Be that as it may, he did a great job and the big debts have been cut pretty much in half. That bit of business should be cleared up for once and for all this week. Then, I'll have my life and bank account back! I will admit that those are not the best excuses for not posting, but they are the reasons. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
One night last week, one of my high school pals threw out a question that started a fairly large group of os on a lovely stroll down Memory Lane, reminiscing about all the old places we remembered in town that are no more, and a few that still are. It was a wonderful way to spend an evening and it sure did make me miss them all and mostly my childhood. I've said it before and I'll say it again; my class at Brunswick High School was special. There was something about the town and the schools that made us into a great bunch of kids who still feel strong tugs on our heart strings when the past comes up. Very few of us had a mean bone in our bodies. In fact I can't think of anyone who did. (except maybe me), but I developed that here, not there.
I think part of it might have been because we were a Navy town and new kids were always showing up and others leaving. We locals just seemed to accept the new kids as if they had always been there. In fact, quite a few of them who left before graduation, still consider Brunswick their home town and BHS as their high school. Today I'm not even completely sure who the Navy kids were. They were/are all classmates to me, as well as to most of us.
Every time I get all nostalgic I have to remind myself that I can't go back. Oh, I can go back to Brunswick, all right, but not to my wonderful childhood. I take great comfort in being able to be in touch with so many of those great kids. They might all be as old and gray as I am, but, in my memory, we are still in our teens! Forever Young, to quote a song that has been co opted by Israeli advertising copy writers!
My pal from the Jerusalem on scooters jaunt was in a horrendous accident last Wednesday. A car ran into him at an intersection and sent him and his scooter flying. He came out of alive (thank G-d) and with a broken vertebra or two and a semi smashed pelvic bone. There's not a lot the docs can do for him as the breaks are not in easily accessible places for them to pin and plate (or so they say), so he's stuck in hospital on pain killers that don't help much. They are talking about months. Poor guy can't move a finger without pain. It looks like I'll be going up there to visit him frequently. The hardest part of my numerous stays in hospital was having so few visitors, but I learned early on that it was best to avoid that hospital and get to better ones that were farther and farther away each time I got a DVT!
I won't be going up today because I have sort an issue with my hated new mobile phone. I HATE IT. It never works when I need it to and the blue tooth 'ear' refuses to hold a charge, and the phone doesn't either. With my beloved Motorola Razor I could go a week between charges on both the phone and ear. I don't use it that often, but when I do, I need it to work. Have I mentioned that I hate the new one? Well, I do. And the idiot techies say they can't put my number back in my Razor because it uses a different system to the hated new one. I don't believe that for one minute and Homeless will sort that one day soon. One project at a time is almost more than I can handle with him! I guess I'd better get up there and sort the ear. All it needs is a new battery.
