Weekend Coffee Share

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some timely catching up with friends (old and new)!

If we were having coffee, I’d ask you what the schools are doing in your town vis-a-vis reopening. Every school seems to have a different approach even in areas with the same CCP Virus statistics. Then they form a plan and change it. Some people think the schools require special ventilation even if they have windows that open, i.e. the system used throughout the world and advocated by healthcare professionals. Now some schools and offices don’t have windows that open, which is a shame.

I’d tell you that work is proceeding along. It’s hard to get people who don’t want to do the census to do it, but there you are. Many think that although the Census did get a two month extension it’s not enough time to complete it. They seem to not know that we’ve already got higher response rates in much of the country compared to 2010. If people have seen thousands of ads and received mailings that they throw out, another month isn’t going to help.

Easy Living 1937

I would recommend you see Easy Living with Jean Arthur from 1937. It’s a fun screwball comedy and I’ll soon post a review.

I’m learning a lot about Albany Park, the Chicago neighborhood where I’m working almost every day. It’s a neighborhood with lots of diversity. I’ve come across a lot of people from Korea, Syria, Latin America and Mexico.

I’d tell you that we had a fun barbecue last night to honor my niece’s departure for her sophomore year of college. She leaves this morning for University of South Carolina. I hope she gets a full semester there. She’ll have 5 of 7 classes online. This year she’s in an apartment so if they do close down, she can stay down there.

Last week we had roofers installing a new roof. Every home in this subdivision has to get one. Ugh. It’s been quite a controversy for 3 years as many people don’t need new roofs but everyone’s got to have the same look. The workers from Apex roofing were terrific, but it’s a hell of a lot of noise from early morning till about 6pm. I am working in the field much of the day, but not all day. I tried to escape the noise, but there’s no seating in the library, the nearest Starbucks only has outdoor seating and across the parking lot is a fitness center that’s moved outside and the exercise music and coach’s yelling are not the same as the usual café music so that wasn’t a good spot to work. I wound up taking my conference call in my car in another parking lot.

 

 

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Bad Part of the Day

After a wonderful day, I was about to start doing some school work and checking my emails, when I felt a drop on my head. How strange as I’m indoors.

I looked up and saw:

 Oh, no.

I call our liaison. No answer. I text. No answer. I turn off and unplug all the electronics nearby. I call again. I go to one of my neighbors as I’m getting antsy waiting and need to tell someone.

Thirty minutes later, I get a text saying someone else will come over.

Ten minutes later help arrives. We all go upstairs to the empty apartment. There doesn’t seem to be any problem. We call my neighbor across the wall, but he’s out. The Foreign Affairs helper goes to get the key for the empty apartment next to the one above me. There she discovers his radiator has burst. She turns off the water somehow.

Meanwhile my neighbor returns and finds all sorts of belongings are soaked. He’s got more water damage than I do.

Well, it was an exciting end to an otherwise good day.

By the way, that’s the fifth water problem we’ve had this year.

Quelle horreur! More Computer Problems

Something dreadful happened on Thursday morning. I was starting a lesson for my online Internet Writing Class when Safari froze. That happens. I tried to force quit the program and couldn’t. I turned off the computer and tried to reboot. Quelle horreur! I don’t see my usual screen.

Rather I got a clicking noise and see a folder with a question mark on it. I tried again and got the same result.

A search on Yahoo! led me to some bulletin boards which suggest that probably my hard drive’s dead. Yikes!

Apple Store Trip #1

I made an appointment at the Apple Store and feared the worst. I don’t want to buy a new computer yet. This one’s isn’t even 4 years old. Yes, there are enticing new computers out there, but I think a computer should last 5 or 6 years. Besides I think I’ve had enough computer woes for at least a year.

I go to the Apple Store and they’re busy. They are efficient and there’s the usual fun buzz of the Apple store with its cool products and geeky, hippy-ish staff.

They check me in, I wait awhile. A clerk checks on me and assures me I’m next. Then he asks me what’s wrong. I explain and he agrees it’s probably my hard drive. He suggests some third party who can retrieve the data–for say $500. I stagger out of the store, my head swirling. Are the missing files worth that? What have I lost altogether?

Then he says I can replace the hard drive. I am tempted to just start over. Bite the bullet and buy myself a new computer for my birthday and Christmas. Still a little voice in my head says, “It’s only been 4 years–not quite.”

On Facebook, I saw someone added that she had the same problem and it wasn’t the hard drive. She had to get a new logic board. Hmm. Hope?

So yesterday I called Apple. After getting transferred around, I got a helpful techie. He says he had the same problem. Whether that’s true or not, that’s a great thing to hear a customer service person say. He had me start up my computer to check on one possible problem. We learned nothing from that so he apologized as he suggested I go back to Apple’s store and have someone diagnose the problem so that I could see what my options are.

He set up an appointment for this morning.

Apple Store Trip #2

Back I went hopeful. I waited awhile and then spoke with a genius bar guy. He connected my computer to a diagnostic hard drive and we soon saw that yes, my hard drive is gone.

I’m thinking I will just replace it and get a new computer in a couple years. I’m rather proud of my ability to resist that temptation to just buy a new one. Shocked really. I usually don’t have great sales resistance in this realm.