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. 🙂

There’s Something Funny Going On

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

It’s been awhile since I paid a visit to the odd and strange going’s on in the news. I confess, I had a long, tough day and my mind would not function hence my desperate search for something to write about.

So a check to my favorite “odd” site did not disappoint. The first story that caught my eye is about a bicycle theft. This just proves that thieves are not smart.

Thief steals pricey electric bike, then accidentally calls owner for help on how to recharge it.

Would you like to know the “rest of the story”? The owner ultimately got the bike back. For more details click here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/thief-steals-pricey-electric-bike–then-accidentally-calls-owner-for-help-on-how-to-recharge-it-212029453.html

Remember I said before a trip I always start to hear about the place I’m going. Well May is right around the corner and I’ll be heading to Tennessee . So here’s another Tennessee Headline for you : Tennessee man breaks into civil rights museum, then falls asleep.I wonder if that Tennessee moonshine or the “sippin’ whiskey” had anything to do with it. The museum is in Memphis and I don’t expect to be in that area of Tennessee.

Let’s see what else I can find…. This one is right up my alley..cat that is.

Indiana cat missing 5 years reunited with owner

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A cat that went missing five years ago has been reunited with its owner in Indiana thanks to an implanted microchip.

WOWO-AM and WANE-TV report the 10-year-old cat named Charlie showed up at Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control on Monday. Workers there scanned the cat and discovered Charlie had a microchip that identified Virginia Fryback of Fort Wayne as his owner.

Fryback says Charlie disappeared from her home five years ago and she thought she’d never see him again. She thanks the veterinarian who convinced her to get a microchip when Charlie was a kitten

The last headline is for all the hungry people …

Extra crispy: French fry truck burns in Maine

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — Bring on the ketchup: A tractor-trailer carrying 40,000 pounds of french fries caught fire in a Wal-Mart parking lot in the Maine city of Waterville.

At least with Walmart right there ketchup would be in good supply.

Well my friends, it isn’t a pretty post but it keeps my “string” unbroken. I hope you got a chuckle out of some of these stories.

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?

Earth Day

Posted on April 24, 2014April 24, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Oh My. I missed Earth Day! How could that happen? I am a true “tree hugger”. I mourn the loss of wild spaces and gardens that are cleared for “expansion”. I support the wolves in Yellowstone. As much as possible I prefer to leave the land as it is.

I own a piece of property in the Adirondack Park in NY. My mother still lives there. A few years ago a family of beavers moved in and built a dam on a stream. This activity was all on my land. My mother, who is clearly from a different generation, spent hours and days waging war against these beavers. I, on the other hand, wanted her to leave them alone. Let their dam create a pond. It’s the natural progression. Eventually the pond will fill in and become a meadow which will then begin to turn into forest. Let nature take it’s course.

Earth Day
Saving the World for the future

Now here’s a controversial thought. Even in my circle of close friends it’s a taboo subject because half believe and half don’t and everyone wants to stick up for their belief. That’s Global Warming. Is it or isn’t it? I think at this point there is ample evidence that there is. True the earth cycles through warming and ice ages and has done that forever but temps are rising faster than ever before in the history of the world. The glaciers are melting and polar bears are being threatened by the shrinking ice sheet. Storms intensify and winters become more severe while summers are hotter and drought is common. Yes, all that is happening now.

Poor mother earth. 🙁 We have not taken very good care of you. Earth Day is needed and I missed it.

Photo of the Week ~ 16

Posted on April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 by Dusty Roads

There were some close counts this week. Some of the photos were pretty colorful and that seems to make them popular. The number one photo for this week was also, in my opinion, the most colorful. With 35 combined points the week 16 photo of the week is Easter Peeps Cake.