respublica

In Need of help on computer issue

When we returned from a weekend down on the Huzzah, my laptop would not start up. It had been turned off before we left, but when back home nothing happened. I was in a panic but too tired to try and figure out what the issue was. Yesterday I tried unplugging, that did nothing. I honestly did not know if the battery was dead or even how I'd deal with that.

This morning I went to Google and asked the question, "Why is my laptop not turning on"? Many answers, most with battery issues. I was ready to take the laptop to a computer store of some such to see if the battery needed changing or was it something else. Finally I sat down, picked up the laptop and turned it upside down, sideways, etc.Dusted it off and set it down. For some reason it powered up. 

It's a mystery which will probably return until I get professional help and I cannot do without this laptop. I need it to do a lot of things Dale needs done professionally as well as my own things. It's a scary thing when something I depend on day by day goes blank,.

Updates and more updates

Speaking as someone who has owned an iPhone and iPad for years, I am thoroughly miffed at the constant demands for updating apps and even the entire device. What this too often does is make a mess of things. Update and then fill in the user name and password. again and again for each thing. I'm not one who uses the same password for each program or app which means having to find my list of these things and hope I haven't changed anything and forgot to write it down.

Yesterday a game I've played for two years which helps me settle my brain down or relax when I've been doing too much physical work on the house or in the yard, now demands I update to the newest version-16 something. My iPad can't do this until I update it to 16. My iPad is too old and can't do it. So what this means is, forget this Word Search game or buy a new iPad. We recently got new iPhones so I am not in the mood or position to buy a new iPad. I just hate all this.

But Apple isn't the only tech device which wants updating. My laptop is the same way and all of this is getting on my nerves. This seems so wrong in many ways by these tech companies.

This struck me funny today

What the grocery store shopping cart says about you

I rather liked this no hold bars description of what grocery shoppers do or don't do with their carts. As someone who goes to Schnucks almost every day for one reason or other, I've seen a lot of lazy people leaving their carts in any old spot or putting a large cart in the small cart corral or vice versa. This kind of drives me nuts. How hard is it to do it the right way? This description is titled, "The Shopping Cart Theory" or, "The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing."

Click to enlarge

Yes We Have No Raccoons Today

Our raccoon guy came yesterday and took away two of these animals who got themselves into the cage traps and he replaced the cages with two more. This morning we had none! No raccoons or even a ground hog. Oh happy day.

However, Dale did mention that the past several years the raccoons were more likely to have shown up in July. I just hope not.

Raccoon update

Yesterday our longtime animal remover, John, came and put a few cages around the house and our neighbor's house. And just like that this morning we found raccoons in two of them. The worst one was the raccoon who had been taking up residence in the ceiling of the garage. Not a ceiling, really just an area in the beams which had sheets of ply wood up there.

That garage raccoon went into the cage which was placed right inside the door and he is really really mad. He growls loudly whenever one of us goes near and raises those long arms with the long sharp finger nails. The second raccoon was in a cage up against our front porch. This one seems smaller and has not interacted like the other one.

I'm tired of this happening every single year around this time.

Well, guess who's back

Every single year around this time we get raccoons in our yard. We really believed we would be free of them this year, but no. This morning we were standing our our deck looking down at the garden when all of a sudden a big raccoon ambled down our driveway and into the garage. Once in the garage we heard him making his way into the rafters. The past few years we had a critter control guy come out and trap them. The last two years he took away 6 or 7 until we had to stop. It got too expensive. But this is really ridiculous that we get these cute, but very mean, animals every year.

The picture is not the one from today, but last year. Today's is much bigger.

A Tedious Gardening hack

Ok, gardening news advice has now shifted from how best to plant to how best to protect the vegetables and fruits which have begun to form. This is one of the more absurd things I've come across. We are advised to bag each formed vegetable or fruit with a mesh drawstring bag to keep insects and critters from getting at them. I don't know who this person is who suggested this, but he or she must have a lot of time on their hands and a lot of mesh bags. Or, really good knees to stay bent over for the time it would take to do this.

We have a strawberry patch in our yard and I cannot conceive of doing this for each berry. Or tomato or anything else.

 

One big gripe on this Spring

It has been too windy. I mean, not just light breezes but hard wind. This makes it miserable to be outside or even sitting on the porch or deck. We're getting blown to bits and it isn't doing the new plantings any good.

And worse, the wind is sending dust everywhere. The inside of our house has to be dusted and vacuumed almost every day, sometimes every couple of hours. I can't remember a year when the wind was so consistent.

Big time planting season

We are pretty much finished with our planting, but it seems as though many people around here are just getting started. I drove by Creekside Nursery in Collinsville yesterday around 12:30 and the parking lot was totally filled and cars were lined up on the road on both sides big time trying to  get in. I was glad I hadn't planned on going there.

This planting is a good thing, lots of work though.

We have just couple more things which need to go into the ground and that is today's job. I'm pleased to see the radishes are showing red, it won't be long before we can pull some of them. We have quite a few strawberries forming thankfully. You never know with them.

In any event, today's job is to go after the weeds which have the nerve to insert themselves into the good things.