Oh, my goodness it got cold at the weekend. Friday morning, we had sleet and snippets of snow and although it’s been mainly sunny since there’s been a bitterly biting north wind. Still, temperatures have remained above freezing and for that, I suppose, we should be grateful.
It’s been another quiet week (apart from a bit of “excitement” on Wednesday) although we did have an outing last Saturday evening – we went to dinner with some friends from the gym whom we’ve not seen for more months than we would like. It’s coming up for two years since we froze and then eventually relinquished our memberships at the gym. We bought our all-singing, all-dancing exercise bike on the strength of not paying gym memberships but we have missed the comradery of straining and sweating with friends. So, this was a nice opportunity to catch up, share our views of the astonishing corruption of our current Prime Minister and the Conservative government in general and place our bets on how long it will be before enough Conservative MPs discover that they do, in fact, have a miniscule amount of integrity. We’re still waiting.
Wednesday’s excitement we could have probably done without but I suppose if it didn’t happen then it would have occurred somewhere down the line. Penelope’s computer, which she rarely switches off, was operating in a decidedly “Go Slow” mode. So, of course, I initiated the standard Microsoft fix – I switched it off and switched it back on. To be greeted by the heart-warming message “Hard Disc Failure” – press any key to continue. Yeah, good luck with that.
I tapped it, I whacked it, I shook it, all to no avail. This was a decidedly dead hard disk. Then, I had a moment of sheer and utter panic. I knew I’d been backing up her computer but I could not locate anywhere the local hard disk which is what I had assumed I had been using. Quelle merde! Thankfully, I ultimately remembered that I had been backing it up over the network on to a drive in my study. Whew!
More good news – I had a “spare” hard disk in my collection of redundant electrical and technological paraphernalia. So, I took her computer apart, fitted the spare hard disk and, hey presto, all will be good. Not.
After trundling through the setup process I had a “new” installation of Windows 7 and when it came to re-installing just about everything she uses (especially Microsoft Office) I was consistently presented with “Invalid Registration key” or “That authorisation key has already been used.” Yes, that’s right! I’ve used it before and want to use it again! Of course neither Microsoft nor the reseller from whom I had purchased the Office licence all those years ago was able to help. Quelle merde encore!
I did entertain the possibility of presenting her with one of the many Open Office alternatives but once I installed that and opened one of her most recent and important documents the formatting was all over the place. No chance.
So, I had an eight-year old computer running Windows 7 (with no potential to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11), with a twelve-year old hard disk and no decent software. Oh well, Dell has a special on at the moment so Penelope is now the proud owner of a new Windows 11 computer with Office bundled. Halleluiah.
The other great excitement of the week was the arrival of the van from TWAM which came on Tuesday to collect Ms Playchute’s industrial sewing machines as well as the huge quantity of other bits and pieces kindly donated by our neighbours. In the end there were ten sewing machines of varying vintages and bags, boxes and chests full of usable tools. The two gentlemen who came to collect the offerings were delighted and the sewing machines and tools will be put to good use in East Africa. The pictures below don’t really do justice to the impressive quantity of stuff they took away.
I cycled through the 75% completed mark on my virtual Route 66 expedition this week and things are beginning to get exciting – I am “cycling” through areas I have visited before – in real life! This week I cycled through the Painted Desert and visited the charming metropolis of Winslow, Arizona where once upon a time many years ago I stood on the corner on a visit with my folks and sister Susie. Carrying on, just yesterday I finished the section from Winslow to Winona making the slight detour to have a look into the Meteor Crater. Looking forward to Flagstaff, which has many “happy” memories, just up the road.
On a visit in 2004 my folks took us on an outing to the newly renovated and re-opened La Posada Hotel which was luxurious and fascinating. The hotel was originally built in 1929/30 by Fred Harvey who “civilized the west” by introducing linen, silverware, china, crystal, and impeccable service to railroad travel. In the 1920s, Harvey decided to build a major hotel in the center of northern Arizona. “La Posada”—the Resting Place—was to be the finest in the Southwest. Construction costs alone exceeded $1 million in 1929. Total budget with grounds and furnishings was rumored at $2 million (about $40 million in today’s dollars). They chose Winslow, then the Arizona headquarters for the Santa Fe Railway. Winslow was ideally situated for a resort hotel since everything to see and do in northern Arizona is a comfortable day’s drive.
The hotel closed in 1957 and was threatened with demolition on several occasions until it was eventually bought and renovated by Allan Affeldt in the late 1990s/early 2000s. When we visited in 2004 it had not long been reopened and it was (and, I’m sure still is) magnificent.
How about this for the You Could Not Make It Up moment this week?
You will all, no doubt, be aware that this year the Queen will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee – 70 years on the throne.
Not surprisingly, souvenir manufacturers have been working overtime to produce trinkets and memorabilia to celebrate the occasion. Sadly, it looks like one entrepreneur has had his/her fingers burned.
More than 10,000 pieces of the jubilee memorabilia were produced in China and sent to be sold in the UK, said the clearance firm – except for the slight problem of a misprint, which says “the Platinum Jubbly of Queen Elizabeth II”.
So, as well as having the Queen’s portrait seemingly drawn by a blind six year old, they unfortunately misspelled “Jubilee.” Inspite of the misprint, I suspect they could end up being very popular.
Chinese New Year on Tuesday – the year of the Tiger. Ava was anxious that Julieta held off her arrival until the new year so that she could be born in the year of the Tiger. Tigers are, allegedly, brave, competitive, unpredictable, and confident. They are charming and well liked, although they sometimes possess a stubborn personality too. Good job Julieta – you can come any time now.
We had the following photo from Lucy early in the week – Annabelle won a trophy at her dance class for her “Commercial Street” dance, whatever the heck that is!
My goodness we have such talented grandchildren – I wonder where they get it all from?
And finally, I ran across this from the Far Side on Facebook recently. One of my favourites – it explains a lot.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg