Ok, I'm back.
First, thanks to everyone for their very kind words! I'm ok, but circumstances, as they sometimes do, conspired to kick me off the internet and keep me from solving the issue for a week.
The first thing to know is that for the past month I've been working a new job in Redding, about three hours from home. I've been able to bring my laptop along and connect easily to the hotel's wifi, so there was no break in blogging.
However, last weekend, just a few hours before I was due to hit the open road north, the computer seized up. Apple offers online service help, but nothing they suggested seemed to work. The last thing that happened was complete OS reload, but that was still going on when I had to leave. Wouldn't have mattered, as it turned out it didn't fix the issue.
So, I thought I'd bring one of the older laptops along, but it turned out it was indeed so old, the software wasn't recognized by the hotel's wifi and I was out of luck and out of touch for a week.
The crashed computer had all my passwords on it, and for the life of me, I couldn't get even my email to load on my cellphone. Every possible password I could dredge up out of my throbbing brain didn't work. Finally, I got my email password changed, using my el - cheapo cell phone, and it will load now, but the frustrating struggle it took all week.
What a cluster.
I'm using Mrs. CW's desk top now, and tomorrow I'm getting a new laptop as I'm done with being out of contact. That machine, I hope, will connect effortlessly with the hotel wifi, as it should.
Anyway, it rained like the dickens up in Redding, and Mount Shasta looks like it already has a huge snow pack going. The taller mountains around town have snow now as well.
Funny story, where I work is on a bluff that overlooks a broad sweep of the Sacramento River as it flows through town, and Wednesday, one of the ladies working there suddenly let out a shriek, pointed down at the water and announced that she saw a dead body floating downstream.
Naturally, all work stopped, and a crowd gathered, and indeed there was someone floating with the current face down. Just as phones were being dialed to call the authorities, the "dead" body stood up, and it turned out it was some kind of Fish and Game guy with a snorkel doing we don't know what - surveying the fish I guess. He ultimately swam over to a small boat and climbed in and off he went.
The "dead body" jokes were still going strong when I left for home this evening.
It's good to know that all is well. My Mac desktop lost a graphics board when I was moving homes and I've been on notebooks since then. I think that I'll just pull the drive on the old machine and get a new one once my life is settled. (still 'homeless' waiting for the completion of the new place, so I hopped a jet to Hawaii)
ReplyDeletePardon me when I say, "when it rains it pours."
ReplyDeleteGood to have you back in action, CW!
ReplyDeleteI'll bet that guy's name was Bob.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back from your adoring fans of testosterone fueled junkies!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you back!! Without the Daily Timewaster, my morning coffee time hasn't been quite up to snuff all week.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all you do, and best of success with your new job! (and with the computer issues.)
Dave.
Good to have you back. I was going through serious withdrawal.
ReplyDeleteGet Last Pass as a password manager. It's a very secure and convenient tool. I am only a satisfied user and have no connection to the company.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to see you're back and ok. Didn't know what to think...good thing Mrs. CW added a note.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you are doing well. I was getting worried.
ReplyDeleteLOL, bet I'm related by marriage to that snorkeling DFW guy...
Glad you are back on the "tubes". Until Mrs. C.W. posted I was worried that something had happened to you. Gave a few prayers that all was well.
ReplyDeleteSo Glad you are back!! We check your site everyday..for many many years now.
ReplyDeleteWe are in Charleston SC and have shared your site with a lot of our friends.
If you are ever out on the East Coast we are taking you out to dinner..you can't refuse wouldn't be prudent!!
I may take you up on that generous offer. The LT is in your part of the world right now, and Mrs. CW and I anticipate a trip to visit next Fall. Email me your contact info and we'll see about getting together then.
DeleteWhat kind of world do we now live in when youu can't even trust a dead body to be truly dead. WTH!
ReplyDeleteSo glad to have you back!
ReplyDeleteI hope you've learned your lesson, and keep a backup of your passwords- I use RoboForm, it remembers all my passwords & anything else I want to make a note of, and it automatically fills in forms that require name & password. All encrypted of course! Hope the new computer works out for you too.
Happy to hear it was only an electronics problem. Yours is one of my first interweb sites I visit daily. Regards.
ReplyDeleteHere’s a follow-up to “dead body” experience from the Sacramento River. I was a fisheries biologist who worked for the US Forest Service research branch in Boise, Idaho. Snorkeling is a common method of quantifying fish populations. It’s particularly effective in the winter when the water is low and clear. You can spot the fish and count them well. And, of course, you need a very good, well insulated wet suit.
ReplyDeleteHere’s a related story you might enjoy. My colleague at the USFS in Boise, Craig, did his Master’s thesis at Idaho State U and his research was up in Island Park, ID, near Yellowstone. Craig’s research was to assess winter kill of trout during extremely cold temperatures. Like the researcher you observed, Craig would dawn a wetsuit and swim the mountain streams in the dead of winter, but Craig’s major professor required his students to do their snorkeling and fish counts at night and with flashlights.
One particularly cold night in the remote Idaho mountains, Craig finished his fish counts about 3:00 a.m. It was 10 degrees outside with a chill factor below zero. Craig was walking back to his car about ¼ mile upstream, going across a snow-covered meadow. It was so brutally cold he kept his wetsuit, mask, and swim fins on just to stay as warm as he could. The nearby highway was deserted until a lone trucker drove by and slowed way down. Craig waved at the trucker, who immediately hit the gas pedal for all it was worth and gunned his truck out of there. No doubt the trucker thought he saw Bigfoot! Craig fears he scared the wits out of the poor guy. :-)
So clearly, fisheries biologists who do snorkeling are the source of all kinds of confusion!