Sept. 19, 2005 - 21:43 MDT

Nuthin'

Completely unaware last night that all of a sudden I would be deprived of the ability to communicate via the internet. Just trying to send a picture by e-mail to family and my Internet Explorer Outlook Express program ground to a screeching halt and refused to let me do anything at all.

I tried the control-alt-delete bit without success and even pushed the on-off button on the tower and the damned thing wouldn't shut down.

Finally I turned off my monitor and went to bed.

There I was bound and gagged, incommunicado.

This morning I struggled through a cup of Mocha with the usual lacing of a handful of pills and my morning banana. Finally approaching consciousness I called our son and asked him about my problem. He started walking me through the drill when I told him that control-alt-delete didn't have any effect. He recommended I call Steve the computer guru, a friend of our son Rob, who helped me get started with the Dell. So I called, left a message on his answering machine, knowing that it would be sometime after his work he would get back with me.

So today I spent my time in "durance vile," incommunicado as it were. Gritting my teeth and muttering obscenities.

It surprised even me the amount of housework I did and helped do today. Heather and I processed the grapes we picked the other day, so tonight there are several containers of grape juice in our fridge which will be made into jelly soon. Other odd jobs which had been pending "until I got a round tuit" the search was successful and the round one was found so I dood it.

It was after his supper that my friend the guru called, asked a few questions and then said, "Okay, I know you tried to shut the computer down, but this time push the on off button and hold it 'til the light goes off."

VOILA it shut down, and when requested the computer came on and was working like a charm. Said guru made the remark that that was not a normal procedure and if I had trouble again to call him and he would come over and fix things up.

That was just a little while ago that he called, and I sit here happy as a jaybird (whatever kind of happy that is) with the corners of a grin meeting at the back of my head, wondering what to say at this late date.

The books I have demonstrate to me that I do NOT speak Computer. Also they are much like trying to reach a live corporate body via telephone anymore, even if I found an appropriate word in the index, when I turned to the page and took a very good look, the information looked for was just not there. A lot of interesting stuff was there of course, and references to chapter so-and-so and page number yadda yadda. Flip-flopping through the pages make my eyes glaze with little else of profit.

I guess someday that I will have enough time on-stage to be able to understand that esoteric stuff, but that ain't now.

A very frustrating day with a happy ending, it has been, but like Porgy, "I got plenty of NUTHIN' . . . . . . . .

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