Memorial Day Thanks

Posted on May 26, 2014May 26, 2014 by Dusty Roads

As we enjoy the wonderful weather and a day off from work to barbecue and party, take a moment to give thanks to those brave men and women whose sacrifices make our life style possible.

Remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. They gave their lives that we might have ours. For them there is no tomorrow, no second chance at life or love, but thanks to them we have our life, our freedom and our chances to live.

Remember those who returned but suffered unspeakable injuries to body, soul or mind. Brave men and women traumatized by their injuries or the injuries to others that they witnessed or perhaps by the actions they had no choice but to take.

But these actions and sacrifices paid for our freedoms. They kept our shores safe. They stood up for our way of life.

As I think about Memorial Day and all that it stands for I am grateful to all who have done their duty to safeguard this great nation and our freedoms but I am sad too. I feel for the families left behind or the soldier who once able-bodied is now missing a limb or worse. My heart aches for those who returned so stressed and traumatized that although their body is sound, their emotions and feelings are forever scarred. This is the price we pay for our freedom. This is the price our soldiers paid for us.

On this Memorial Day honor them, thank them and pray for them. Keep safe those who even today are fighting for freedom in foreign lands. Pray that someday we will gain the wisdom to be able to put down our weapons and live in peace and respect throughout the world.

Always remember…

A Milestone

Posted on May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 by Dusty Roads

WOW! I finally did it! I published my 1000th post on aroundustyroads.com! I almost missed it too until a little notification from wordpress popped up to let me know.

The exact post was “Sky High in Gatlinburg”. That’s a real milestone.

Cheers!

Now I just have to do it all again. Thanks for coming along for the ride. 🙂

Some Thoughts on Spring

Posted on April 28, 2014April 28, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Southeastern Massachusetts is a not known for it’s spring. In fact we usually joke that we have only 3 seasons, winter, summer and fall. It’s not unusual to go from snowy days to 80 degrees. This year everyone is complaining about how cold and rainy it’s been. Why, northern New England and the mountains are even getting snow.

This is spring. If we didn’t have paved roads we’d be knee deep in mud. I remember “mud weeks” when I was a kid. The school bus made it through all kinds of snow drifts all winter but would get bogged down in the mud.

It has been un-seasonably cold but that doesn’t seem to stop the flowers from pushing through the cold ground. They seem to appear overnight.

I hope warm weather will arrive soon but I remember a major snow storm in May so I guess we aren’t out of the woods yet.

So all those folks who always say we don’t have spring…listen up… this is Spring. It’s often cold. It’s often rainy but mother nature still blooms.

Life’s Little Ups and Downs

Posted on April 27, 2014April 27, 2014 by Dusty Roads

What a week it’s been so far. Only one more day and I will get a break…sort of.

But really, Monday was marathon Monday and I spent the day at the T- Mobile cell phone store dealing with the first of the technology glitches. That out of the way I don’t even remember Tuesday.

Wednesday was the computer fiasco and I had to deal with that all week.

Friday I had my interview for the new position. My invitation (that’s what they call the appointment) was for 10-10:30. Well it started at 10:00 but I didn’t finish up until 1:30. Interviewed with 3 different people and sat with the person I’ll be replacing so he could give me an “overview”. (Assuming I get the job)

Saturday I was working 9-6 but I didn’t finish up until 9:30 pm. I finally told the last client that I’d have to get back to them in the morning. On an up note, the IT department called me back and finally had time to take over my computer “remotely”. Once they did that they saw what a mess they’d made. It took a good hour for them to go through everything remove junk, add correct stuff and run the security scans but in the end I was back in working order! Yay!

I had turned on the TV to see what horrible kitties Jackson Galaxy had to deal with in his show “My Cat From Hell”. It’s like the cat equivalent of the Dog Whisperer but I think dogs are much easier to understand than cats. Did you know cats can make 100 different sounds and dogs can only make 10.

Just like in the Dog Whisperer, most of the time the problem is in the owners not the animal. I enjoy both shows but as a Cat Momma I like Jackson’s show best.

Oh Oh, I’m writing this post at 10:30 pm and my phone just chirped. I picked up the email and it was from the client I put off until the morning. She told me to stop working and she’d talk to me in the morning. LOL

Rocky must agree with my client. He just hopped up on my desk and is refusing to sit quietly. Trying to proof my post around his head is a challenge. Now you know why he was named Editor in chief.

I guess I really don’t have anything to say tonight. Just rambling thoughts so I’ll spare you any more for now. Have a great day. 🙂

Love/Hate in the Technology World

Posted on April 25, 2014April 25, 2014 by Dusty Roads

My love/hate relationship with technology continues. How am I supposed to clear my head so I can write enjoyable and entertaining entries here when I spend all my time at war with the very tools that make this pastime possible?!

We recently added a new State to the areas we cover. Yay! Growth and expansion are good.

There are 2 of us covering this additional area and we have to toggle back and forth between screens on our computers. Yesterday mid- toggle my computer went into a serious data loop. It just kept searching and searching and searching. Nothing that I tried would interrupted it’s single-minded searching.

I rebooted . I used different browsers I toggled to other screens and back…nothing. Finally I reached out to IT support. Their solution was to remove the browsing history, remove the cache. I’d tried that but I only removed the recent history. Their solution was to remove ALL THE HISTORY. I know now that this was a very BAD IDEA but I followed their instructions. They are the experts, certainly not me.

It worked. The endless search was over but all of my bookmarks had disappeared, my home page was gone, all of the company apps were scattered instead of neatly linked…it is/was just awful!

I struggled all afternoon and managed to get some recovered so I could maneuver around again. Each app has to be accessed separately and I haven’t been able to get my home page back, however I did get my bookmarks back on my tool bar, a minor miracle. That’s when the email came in about the Heartbleed Virus.

You have probably heard about it. We, here at work, were supposed to be unaffected but now it seems that some of our “partners” may have been infected therefore everyone had to change all of their passwords. Detailed instructions were included in the email. So that was my next project.

I had to do a few extra steps since my computer was already in shambles but I got through it. The instructions said following them exactly would automatically update the password on the phone because it is synced with the email account. Don’t trust IT. They lied.

When I got up in the morning I picked up my phone to see what had come in overnight for work. Nothing? I crossed to the lap top and logged in. There were at least 20 new emails there but none of it made it to my phone, my new super duper extra smart $400 phone.

So over my bowl of cereal I attempted to figure out how to change the password on the phone to match the new password on my laptop. The new phones don’t come with a manual. No you have to go online and search. Wasn’t that what started this whole mess?

Well I found the instructions online and I changed the password in the phone. That seems to have done the trick as my emails are once again syncing to my phone. I only wasted 8 or so hours dealing with all this aggravation.

What would we do without this time-saving technology?