Thermal events and such

Are you familiar with the old press any key to continue messages? (see image on the left) They used to frustrate people to no end because there was no “any key” on the keyboard. Then the Northgate computer company had to come out with the “Any Key” keyboard. The worst invention in the world!—in my humble opinion. If you press the any key it started a process or redefining your keyboard and remapping the keys. So if you press the “any key” and then type “quit” you wold change the “q” key to type the letter “u”; and the “i” key to type the letter “t”. You can imagine the chaos this would cause….and I was a desktop technician during this time and had to deal with it. How did I get onto that? Ahh yes, the whole point of this blog entry was about my fight with MY computer yesterday morning.

I got up early and thought that I would do full system maintenance on my computer. It was starting to act kind really funky and the day had not even started yet. Well, the maintenance went well, but then it was time to restart the compter. I’ve been leaving it on because half the time it would restart but never boot up. I get a blank monitor (and, by the way, the monitor works fine) and absolutley no video feed; and the other half of the time my computer experiences a “Thermal Event.”

In short, it gets too hot. Sometimes it gets too hot in the middle of what I’m doing, so, I keep things backed up often! Other times, like this morning, it decided it was too hot when I shut the computer down, but did not decide to tell me about it until I restared. I guess it was being kind.

Its kind of on its next to last leg, and I’m planning on replacing it, and surely I could make the decision to just go ahead and do so, hopefuily before its too late, but I’m waiting for the moon and stars to come into the right alignment, and all of the other factors to get in line as well. You know the drill, there is always something else…..until one day…..poof! . The real question is: when all of those things come into alignment, will the best deals still be available? I saw a nice deal (and I’m not telling where until I buy the computer and I know they won’t run out) that is one of those just too good to believe offers. But there is a good possibility that I will miss out on that one and wind up spending more to get a comparable machine.

I can hear myself talking when folks tell me about how bad off their computers were and how long they’ve known about it. Then when its just about to take its last breath, the call (you guessed it) me. “Oh well, should have replaced it when you could have.” I tell people. But do I listen to that myself? In the mean time I leave my computer running so that I don’t have to deal with what happens in trying to turn it on. The 50% of the time that the computer comes on and does not boot or have video (I kid you not) if I slap it on the side and then shut it down then it will boot. Sometimes it will take 3 to 4 slaps and reboots, but eventually it comes back on. Without the slap, though nothing happens. So I just let the thing go into sleep mode and keep it running all the time—Not my preference, because it is still using electricity, but for now it will have to work. I feel like the computer hits me back when it comes up with one of its thermal events. Then, it is nice enough to give me all of the options of the things I can do and the keys I can press. Woo Hoo! One of these days its going to go into its thermal event phase and actually melt down! Hopefully that will be long after its third stage existence. Third stage existence is being relegated to a server for backups and file storage only. That way I can get all of the usage out my computers that I possibly can.

Then comes the day when I move it to fourth stage existence. That is usually giving it away to someone else who has very light computer use, knowing that even with that drastic change, the computer will still…..shall we say……die. Until then, its the survival of the fittest (which works for me fighting computers, but has no place in creation.) So, in your prayer time please pray for my computer 🙂 If you don’t have a prayer life, well here is a perfect opportunity to start one.

In the Dumps

Have you ever had one of those “down in the dumps” days where it just seems like most things have NOT gone the way that you want it too for too many days in a row and you just don’t care to talk about it. Or you have too many things in your life that you have absolutely no control over and consequently they control you. And you look around you and it seems like everybody else has it all together (although you know, that in reality, they don’t either) and you just don’t care be around people. Well I’m having one of those days today. Trying to concentrate on the positive because concentrating on the negative can put you into a tailspin that you’re never likely to get out of. But I can take solace in one thing, and that is that although things may not be going my way, God is in control and he has a master plan that no one can thwart. Therefore, things are ALWAYS going his way. But being the mortal being that I am, I lack God’s patience. Sure there a lot of things that can wait, but it also seems like I’ve just been waiting long enough—-Ahhh, so you know what I’m talking about. OK, its not just me. Well, it was just a thought and one of many blog entries that I have been planning to make so stay tuned. 🙂

Mr. Mom

My wife has been sick with flu like symptoms and perhaps something worse for the past week. It has gotten progressively worse as the days passed. Friday was just about ‘all she wrote.’ I wound up sending her to bed early and ordering Pizza. Saturday, when I got home from Men’s prayer I sent her to bed because she was looking even worse. it also meant that she could not attend a baby shower that she had been planning on going to. I knew we were in trouble when she did not resist too much. She changed into her nightgown right away (another “bad” sign). All of Saturday she was in the bed. She did not make it to church on Sunday. We did some major rearranging and other folks pitched in and our Sunday routine was not interrupted, just slightly modified….but things were looking grim for Monday.

She hinted toward the fact that I should probably stay at home on Monday–hmmmmm, she will usually do everything possible to make sure that I get to work. This was not good. I stayed home Monday and tried to keep the house in order….Cleaned the kitchen who knows how many times; got up early and got the kids breakfast (just cold cereal, but still an ordeal), read lots of books (to my youngest), played lots of games, Washed, dried and folded four loads of laundry (well, the washer and the dryer should get credit for doing their part, but I did have to get the detergent and softener in and empty the lint filter! Some things they just could not do). Then it was time for dinner. Dinner? Oh no! Why didn’t I think of that earlier? Didn’t take a thing out of the freezer to defrost but I still had options. I decided on Grilled Cheese and Chicken Noodle soup. My wife gave me a half hour break by watching a 1/2 hour video with the kids while I tended to the laundry and fixed dinner. The Grilled Cheese was a hit, but the Chicken Noodle soup went over like a 10 ton lead balloon. One of my favorites, but obviously not everyone else’s. I know they’re big on tomato soup and I usually don’t say anything when its served, but it never has been on my top 10 list of soups—and that list has never been full! Bed time for the kids was a welcome time of the evening.

My wife though is not your typical patient. Most people when they are sick really don’t care to be around people and just want to crawl into a hole and get better. I am one of those people, my wife is not and I have never been able to adjust to that. When she’s sick, she still wants to be around people. So…when she’s sick and I become (for lack of a better term) Mr. Mom, I think:

1) Keep the kids settled and quiet,

2)Keep the kids fed and happy,

3) Keep the kids from disturbing mom

4) Check on Mom periodically and make sure she’s OK,

5) When everyone is is in bed…breathe you’ll get some time back to yourself and get your sanity back.

Sometimes, if she is able, she tries to stay around the people while she’s sick or will want to try and do something after they had gone to bed. So, I have to readjust again because the time that I planned in my head winds up being hopelessly altered. But allowing for the fact that God is in control, I quickly change my plan to his—always a smart move, but it took me a long time to learn it.

Back to our chronology.

Monday night things were looking grim too. I made the decision to stay home on Tuesday so that she could go to the Dr. Even if she didn’t have to go to the Dr., It still would have been a wise move to stay home on Tuesday. Tuesday was going to be different! I think on Monday I was to hyper and trying to manage too much. But it was going to be a challenged because I was already weary!

Tuesday morning. Hey this is going to be a piece of cake, I thought. I popped right up out of bed and went into the bathroom for my shower—which I missed yesterday and by now I was feeling really grimy! Not again. Ahhhhh, that felt good. I started the day by making egg sandwiches for breakfast. Always a big hit in my house—–except for today of course. Strike one. I decided I’d get the schoolwork done early after jobs/chores were done. That part worked out well. My wife had her appointment made and all was going well. Lunch was interesting. I was getting tired and needed something hot to drink. So I decided on Hot Chocolate. Well EVERYBODY wanted hot chocolate. It became our lunch time appetizer. 🙂 Lunch was easy and we sailed right on through, but at some point the house got demolished! When did that happen. And wouldn’t you know, nobody did it!

They couldn’t blame it on the dog. She and I had our own “little thing” going on today. The dog honored me this morning with a huge we wet spot on the area rug in the (currently) spare bedroom. She was sentenced to a life outside for an hour or two, to see if she could figure out where she was supposed to go to the bathroom, and then spent a couple of hours inside, but locked up because I was still mad!. After a couple of hours, it was back to a life outside where she stayed once again so that she could figure out where she was supposed to go to the bathroom. Just before nap time I let her in so that she could once again socialize and be with the family. For some reason she steered clear of me!

Well they got the house straightened out and I didn’t lift a finger to help. My supervisory skill were excellent though! My wife arrived home from the Dr. Turns out that my wife is suffering from a sinus infection. That on top of her allergies and then some cold symptoms just makes everything a mess. The Dr. did prescribe an antibiotic. Hopefully the medication will help and I will be back to work (or is that vacation) on Wednesday. I had to come up with another creative meal so I looked in the drawer of the microwave cart (where we keep all of our menus and food coupons among the foils, bags and wraps) and located a menu for one of the local Chinese restaurants. I let my kids each pick a main dish (well not the 4 year old) and I picked one. The we had the big “problem” of trying to figure out what to have for our free dish! We opted for Shrimp Lo Mein. Only to find out that it had to be Chicken or pork Lo mein. so we went with the chicken. About 40 minutes later the delivery person came driving up over my driveway and onto my grass (I kid you not!) to deliver our food. God must have been working on me, becasue I was the determined that the only tip he was going to get was “don’t park on the customer’s lawn.” I gave him a few bucks, but not too many mind you. Turns out we had enough food for a small army. There’ll be leftovers for a few days.

Well, we made it to bed time again (Phew!) and this time my wife went to bed shortly after the kids. It looks like I’ll be home again tomorrow, just to make sure she doesn’t over do it (My wife? never!) while the medicine kicks in. It looks like I’ll be back to work on Thursday and life will be back to abnormal again. I must say though–in case it did not come through—I DO appreciate my wife and all that she does! I think I can handle this Mr. Mom stuff a couple times a year if I have to. 🙂

Back on the Net!

Our internet connection went out sometime on Saturday and we had to wait until today (today is Tuesday) before they could send a repairman (well I say repair man, but in this day and age that is no longer necessarily a man! The repair lady came). She seemed to be appalled because we only had internet service and we did not actually have any cable TV channels…..Well, if there was more good than there was bad on them, I supposed that could be an option….but that is a topic for another blog post.

My wife was starting to suffer “Lack of Connection Anxiety” (LCA) so it is a good thing that they came so that she could get to her e-mail and be connected the world again. After all, as she likes to remind me, I am the one who has gotten her into this technology age (and rightly so, I might add) so now she is partially dependent on it. But she did not go stir crazy, and, amazingly enough, I did not miss it as much as people might think. There were a few things that I would have liked to do that I would have normally used the computer for, but they waited. Imagine that! Anyway, we’re back on the net! 🙂

Still Going down

Well, the going is slower but the direction is correct. And according the scale that I have at home……fouled up though it may be, I appear to be right on target now. I’m not sure that we have the weight discrepancy between scales straightened out, but I am going down and not up! Praise the Lord. So, now by the new reckoning, I have lost 16 pounds in the last three months. With my goal being 5 pounds….or more….a month, that puts me right on track. Praise the Lord! My ultimate goal is 175, but that may take until June!