Oh frabjous day, callooh, callay. My computer works again.
The fence outside my computer window
Here’s the story of what happened to it. About a week ago when I was working on my blog the virus protection screen came up suddenly and said the computer had been infected with a virus. The virus protector had cleaned up the virus, but the connection with the internet had been turned off, and to fix it I should ….. and there followed directions that might as well have been in Urdu. So I did what I always do when I have problems with the computer; I turned it off. Big mistake. After that there was no way to get through to the internet.
Well, I made a plan. I have recently become a great grandmother. My great grandson, Julian Henry was born in Seattle on the 10th of September. His father, my grandson, works for Microsoft. My daughter, the happy new grandmother, had flown in from England to help with the new baby and I was to drive to Seattle in a few days to view the latest progeny and to fetch my daughter for a visit to me. She felt that by that time her son and daughter-in-law would be tired of a third person in their small apartment. I would take my computer with me and get my clever grandson to fix it.
But crisis intervened. Many of my blog readers who have children and will be surprised to hear that the crisis was this: the baby sleeps all the time. These are new parents. They are worried because the pediatrician and a lactation adviser, who weigh the baby before and after feeding, say the baby may not be get enough nourishment, even though the baby is gaining weight. I feel sure that everything will be fine, but my daughter felt that with so many professional advisers she was superfluous. So she left and went to party quietly with her two sisters on Whidbey Island. We are all going for a baby viewing on Saturday, but my computer remained unfixed.
Jerry and I went to The Artisan Wine Gallery last Saturday afternoon. There, tasting wine, were just the people I wanted to see: the computer experts who had helped Wine Gallery host, Rich, set up his blog. When I described my problem they shook their heads sympathetically. Oh dear, they said. Bad problem. Sorry you’re having this problem. If only you had a Mac. Probably the only thing you can do is wipe out your entire operating system and reinstall. Oh dear.
Sipping wine and sampling some very fine home-made dark chocolate (with ginger cream filling) candies helped dull the pain of this dire diagnosis. Besides, we were to go out to dinner at my cousin’s house that night for freshly caught crab, a real treat. But when we got home we found that the dinner had been postponed until Sunday because my cousin’s wife had a migraine. What to do about dinner? Off to the Beach Store Cafe for a pizza.
The Beach Store Cafe
At the Beach Store Cafe we saw Mike, the father of the jumper (see a previous post, Riding the passenger ferry). He was alone, so we invited him to sit with us. I told him how sorry I was about his problems with his son. He thanked me, and said, “There’s my other son, making pizza. I come here to visit him some evenings. He’s doing very well, studying at the Technical College.” After a bit Brady, the pizza cook, came over to greet his father and chat. I asked him what he was studying. “Computer science,” he said. I asked if he could fix my computer. “Sure,” he said, with the confidence of youth, “I’ll be over tomorrow after church.”
Brady, a tall, husky, good looking lad, arrived promptly the next day with the lovely petite blond Ashley in tow. Ashley is the daughter of Marilyn, (active in the island church), and Ernie, (one of the ferry captains.) Ashley is a waitress at the Beach Store Cafe. She sat in the kitchen and chatted with me while Brady went to work on my computer. Jerry watched what Brady was doing. Time passed, and I began running out of small talk with 19 year old Ashley. “Let’s of check on the computer,” I said.
Brady, sitting at the computer and Jerry, hovering over him, both looked discouraged. Then Brady began examining in the virus protection software. I said, “What are all those little red x’s marking?”
Brady said, “Oh, those are all the things that are turned off,” and then, suddenly, he said, “Okay, it’s fixed.” The virus protector had turned off the connection to the internet. We asked Brady what we owed him and he said nothing. He said he was sorry it took so long, he was unfamiliar with the software.
So it’s fixed, I can use my own computer again. And I am now using Firefox and not Internet Explorer. I hear there are fewer viruses on Firefox.
Sunday evening I ate too much crab and drank too much wine with Jerry and my cousin and some new friends who recently moved to the island. But we had a good time. One new friend has had experience with fitness training, and I urged her to start a weight training group here. We have a very good yoga teacher on the island, but I have become convinced that strength training is important for old ladies. A strength training group would be a great addition to island services.
Beautiful photo! I love the Mac and PC commercials (where PC is in a suit and MAC a sweater). Even though I have a PC, probably because I do, they make me laugh. I’m glad your virus problems got fixed. I use Firefox too. Congratulations on your great-grandson! I am awed. I’m an old mom and although I hope to be a grandmother in good due time when my children are not just legally but also actually adults, I don’t think it’s biologically possible for me ever to be a great-gm.
I want to visit you…how’s that for a direct response to your general invitation to fellow bloggers…now that would be something new and different to put into the Adventure Journal for this coming year…But seriously…I visit my daughter in Ladner, periodically…and we will even be in seattle briefly for a granddaughter’s rock climbing competition mid-November…I love to research areas and explore small samples at a time, to get the feel and flavour of a place…maybe someday?
What a saga! But it’s encouraging that, within this increasingly automated world, we have to step back into the dimension of real people and artifacts and cups of tea whenever there’s a major IT breakdown.
Hopefully all will go smoothly from hereon. But just to make sure, listen to those voices saying, “Buy a Mac”!
What a great post, your island sounds wonderful. And your family. Hope great-grandbaby fools them all and is just an expert sleeper. Stupid virus software, turning everything off like that, it could at least warn you… For your own safety I have turned off your access to the internet. Go get an expert to turn it back on. And get Firefox! And don’t listen to those Mac commercials, PCs are great! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Lovely photo too
Congratulations on the safe arrival of your great grandson, Julian Henry. Enjoy the experience.
Glad your PC problems are over. I love the flowers by the fence.
What travails with the computer you had! Glad to hear it’s all cleared up — but if you ever have the opportunity to get a new computer, I recommend, with the others, a Mac (I use both and consider them both to be simple tools and so I speak only as one who thinks about the best tool for the job at hand, rather than shill for one or the other).
And yes, congratulations on becoming a great-grandmother!
glad you are back in the fold. whatever would we do without internet access, we might have to make do with fussing over grand and great-grandchildren. Hm, just occasionally, maybe.
Or do weight-training?, No, not even occasionally. Lifting myself over stiles when out walking in the fields is about my limit!
Oh, I forgot, I’m with Dick, buy a mac next time. Lovely toys!
What a computer adventure! You are lucky to have the resources to help you. I head up the Computer Department where I work and I can tell you some of the recent virus attacks have been bad. Oh and the crab sounds yummy!
anne, you do have a full and eventful life! great grandmotherhood sounds awesome. how sad i am for young mothers who get so very much advice these days. in contrast, i hardly had a soul to ask…finding middles are hard in america.
your computer woes have a familiar ring. switched from pc to mac last year and not so sure it was for the best. love iphoto and the desktop’s appearance but am i better off?
Oh hurrah, hurrah, and welcome back. We missed you.
Oh good going Anne both on the computer and the ggson, Julian. How wonderful you get to witness the generational transitions, my dear!
XO
WWW
Computers can make you tear your hair out when things go wrong. I’m glad you found expert help. I could use some because months ago after I had to re-install everything something happened to my download speed and it takes forever to buffer a video now.
I have a great-great grandson that I have never seen. In fact, I have never seen the mother except in photos. She is the daughter of my step-grandson. Boy, does that make me feel old.
Congratulations on becoming a great grandmother. Enjoy baby Julian Henry.
I can’t believe you are a great grandmother. I’ll be about 100 by the time that happens to me!
welcome back to cyberspace…I like pcs warts and all, maybe because they are the devil I know
A great grandma, you?? Wow and congratulations. Glad the computer woes got resolved too, what a clever young man. I’ll add our voice for Macs as well. Husband uses both, a PC at work and Macs at home and knows well the difference. As always, I enjoy your stories of island life.
it’s part of our digital identities–frustrations with technology. i’m glad you are back in space.
The problem with Macs that I had is that they don’t seem to last well in the humid climate where I live. That’s why we went over to PCs.
I just wanted to say Hello. Read your comment on Island Roar about marrying the Uncle and then the internet luvah! Three cheers to you!
Jill
I love your blog and must have made a comment before because I see all the spaces above with my name and URL are filled in but now I’m very confused and boy do I ever have trouble with viruses and malware and junk but writing on my blog is such a wonderful outlet and saved my life this passed summer. I hope I live long enough to at least write a short story if not a novel. All names will be changed to protect the guilty parties.