It's Hot, Hot, Hot!

It is hot (in case you didn't catch that, it's HOT!). We finally broke down and turned on the A/C. Mike asked me yesterday how folks managed before air conditioning. My answer was, "I suppose since it wasn't an option they had to manage as best they could, and they were probably a bit more acclimated to the natural temperature than we are."

Actually, I'm guessing there were lots of factors determining how people who lived before electricity stayed cool in hot weather:

1. Housing was built differently
2. People were used to the outside temperature
3. People weren't in and out of A/C and outside air
   
4. People wore layers of clothes that helped to keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer
5. There weren't any air conditioning units and other mechanical equipment heating up the atmosphere (this doesn't mean I agree with global warming)
6. There was less asphalt and concrete to reflect heat
   
7. The overall pace of life was slower

I don't know if any of these things are valid. I came up with them on the spur of the moment. So, if anyone has anything to add or if anyone disagrees let me know. Be sure to use the "comment" link so others can see your comments as well.

And now, as a treat, I will share a couple of pictures I took of Bee at the softball field.

Activities I'll be doing today: Trying to stay cool! Paying bills (YUCK!), and grilling some yummy burgers with potato salad and a very nice wine for supper.

We'll be drinking:

• Castle Rock 2006 Mendocino County Pinot Noir which I think is an excellent wine for hearty foods – like burgers for example. It's a dry red from Sonoma, CA. ($14.95)
  
• Bolla Chianti 2006 from Italy. This one really should age a bit before drinking, but I'm going to open it (decanting it, of course) tonight anyway. Also, it's a new one so I'll let you know how I like it. ($8.95)
  
• And, finally, Forest Glen 2005 White Merlot from California which I LOVE! This wine is an off-dry fruity red that is one of my favorites. ($9.95)
  

Now, I have to tell you I've only just got interested in wine. I'm reading Wine for Dummies and it's quite interesting. I don't know how much of an expert I will eventually be, but wouldn't it be grand to be a Master of Wine?! Hm... wonder how much that pays. LOL!

Enjoy your weekend everybody!

You Know Kansas Means "Big Wind", right?

We had a dust devil in our front yard the other day. I could only see it because Josh had pulled several flowers apart and scattered them in the grass and the dust devil picked them up and whirled them around. I wish I had had my camera to capture it, but it was very quickly gone.

In Kansas the wind never stops. I can remember only a handful of days out of all the many years I've lived here in which the wind was barely a breeze. Most of the time it blows 10 - 20 mph. A lot of the time it blows a lot stronger than that. And with that much wind day in and day out, it tends to dry out the ground and surely you know what THAT means... it means we have to deal with a lot of blowing dirt.

Yes, I've just about given up on dusting. We live directly behind a parking lot and next to an alley. We have the windows open to cut down on A/C use. You can imagine just how dusty our horizontal surfaces get.

It bothers me most on the dining table and the dishes in the drying rack. (We don't have a dishwasher.) The kitchen sink is under two windows facing our backyard and, beyond, the parking lot. So, a lot of dust blows into our kitchen. It's just far too hot to shut those windows.

Well, dust aside, Bee has two games tonight. Her last three games were rained out. They called them early this year. Last year we were still out watching them play with lightning and thunder raging in the sky above us. (Metal bats and lightning... bad idea.)

She was very disappointed about the cancellations, but nothing we can do about the weather. They made up one game, but I don't think there's time left to make up the other two.

Josh's Blastball games are over. His coach made cookies for their last game (chocolate crinkles) and all the kids were thrilled! He starts swimming lessons next week.

Chris has been running every morning early. He likes to run through the neighborhood instead of on the track because he says it keeps his mind off the fact that he's running. LOL! Other than that, he's been a hermit this summer.

We're going fishing this weekend and hopefully we'll catch some fish this time! Maybe we can even use the tent! I'll have to go buy a new coffee pot to use over the fire. My old one disappeared.

Wish us luck this weekend!

Activities I'll be doing today: Keeping house, grocery shopping. (My two favorite activities, NOT!)

I'm Back!

Turns out it was the hard drive that was the problem. I had a local computer repair shop look into the problem for me, though if I knew then what I know now...

It's always interesting to see the inner workings of a so-called professional establishment. I brought the computer up to the shop, after calling to make sure I could be present for the repair, and stayed to watch the shenanigans.

First of all, they are a PC shop, so you can imagine the reaction I got when I brought my mac in. They began by using Google, but since they didn't know anything about macs, they couldn't ferret out much of an answer.

The next thing to come was calling in the clown... ah, I mean expert. The "expert" they brought in was the local undertaker, who so very luckily for us was just across the alley at the funeral home! (I actually went to school with him.) He began by using apple's online tech support. (We'll cover apple's extensive idiosyncrasies on another post.) But after running around in circles there, again Googled an answer.

Finding answers to his questions, the next part of the adventure took place. He determined that the hard drive was bad, so needed to take it out to replace it with a new one.

The hunt was on for a screwdriver!

Now, you would think, being a computer repair shop, there would be an abundance of tools needed for repairing computers. (Hence the name "computer repair shop.") Alas! Though they searched high and low for nigh unto half an hour, no adequate screwdriver could be found. 

Enter the owner... who had a multi tool on his belt.

So, I've been at this computer repair shop for over an hour and we finally get to the actual "repair." Or not.

In his infinite wisdom, the undertaker decides to make absolutely sure the original hard drive is the culprit and so uses a gadget to hook it up to his mac (yes, he has a mac) and try to reformat it that way. The attempt fails.

Then he takes another used hard drive, mounts it in my mac and starts up the computer, ostensibly to make absolutely sure it's the hard drive and not something else that's the problem. (Really, I appreciate this thoroughness, but they ARE charging me $50 an hour.)

At this point, I have been hanging around the circus... ah, I mean computer repair shop for almost two hours. I've got things to do. So, I leave... apprehensively.

I get a call about another hour later. He's absolutely sure now that it's a failed hard drive. The replacement is a bit bigger (from 80 GB to 120 GB) and costs right at $99. Of course, I tell them, put the new one in. After all, the computer won't function without a working hard drive. 

It takes all of about 2 minutes to mount the new hard drive and about 45 minutes to format it. They tell me they don't charge for the working time of the format and OS installation. Gee, thanks, since that's all automatic and you can start it and walk away, I would expect that to be the case.

They ended up charging me for the hard drive and two hours of work. $213.

Now, I was pretty sure, almost positively sure the hard drive was bad. And, as I said at the beginning of this post, if I knew then what I know now... I could've saved myself $100.

Let this be a lesson to all.

Crap and Double Crap

Sorry, folks, but I won't be able to keep up with my blog for awhile. My beautiful Mac crashed yesterday (I think it's a hardware problem) and I will probably be sending it off for repair in the next few days. I'm looking at $300 for the repair and another $197 for an upgrade to Leopard if I choose to do that. (Don't know if I will.)

It'll be the end of the month before I get the computer back, so I won't have Internet access at home until then. I'll be able to check my email periodically, so keep talkin' to me!

Oh, and if anyone is feeling generous and wants to give me money for the repair just 'cause they want to, I won't turn you down! Just click the "Donate" button on the bottom of the right hand side of the page!

Our Fabulous Fishing Weekend

This is terrible, I know! I haven't left a post in THREE DAYS! lol Well, I've been working on putting together a short video of our fishing trip. I've got to work with imovie more so I can get faster at it. (It actually crashed on me once and I had to start all over.)

We had a great time! I got sunburned pretty badly; on my shins of all places. All in all, it was well worth the effort to go. Next time I'll remember to put sunscreen on me as well as the kids!

I hope you enjoy the short movie. It's my first effort, so don't expect a Hollywood production, LOL. Next post will include some video of Josh and Bee's first ball games, so tune in next time. lol