BAD WEEK

October 15, 2009

You might THINK you are having a bad week – but bad is relative.

Pulling a trouser sock out of the gullet of a baby Beagle is icky – but at least I caught it. I heard her choking. I have tried to remove all lkoose t rouser socks from her reach, but the cat likes to grab them and hide them and then, surprise, there another one is.

Discovering that she can open closed mirror doors to your closet where others might be found (the cat hides them in there) makes things worse. She does this when I am in the shower. (Toddlers do this too.)

Finding that you can’t reach said beagle when she crawls under the queen-sized bed and gets in the center is frustrating and hilarious. She had captured my hair curlers. She also doesn;t quite fit under the bed, at least not standing up. So she wriggles.

Discovering that the sub termites are still alive in the ceiling after all the drilling and treatments (just done again) is frustrating.

Discovering that dry wood termites have arrived – well – I did suggest removing the end wall of the double roof and any other wood they were ensconced in and just replacing – because tenting is NOT an option. We will try treating them first------ ha ha. Take bets on pulling down that wall and rebuilding it. 1) I would insulate. 2) I would add a window.

Discovering that the high-blood pressure medication you refilled came in new and different pills---- making a run to the pharmacy to check (different manufacturer – who knew?) before hitting the post office and getting to work just adds to things.

Hitting the freeway one entrance below where the post office was for no particular reason and looking backward at a critical mess – fire trucks, chips, back-up, mess – and realizing your 6th sense was for once working helps offset this.

At work we have: end of PO (2) – requires new SOW and new POs (2); end of month reporting (% hours on different things), end of pay-period reporting (2 invoices, one timecard, two departments, two signatures, 2 PO numbers) (and we located one missing invoice that should have been already paid), and end of quarter reconciliation. The accounting people should be taken to the parking lot and whipped. A good database would considerably reduce the hysteria. Micromanagement needs to be made illegal.

I purchased for my own company – a Dell Inspiron with XP and a 24” monitor – because I do a lot with FrameMaker. I am upgrading from my now old (2002) Toshiba laptop which is a pretty damn good machine! I needed 4 GB RAM and I needed a 24” screen for page layout.

It came – and ignoring the fact that the UPS guy may still be running (protective little baby Beagle is LOUD) - everything is fine EXCEPT --- they forgot to install the DVD drive!!!! Or it looks that way.

Conferring with others at work – no – I am not crazy (my son implied I was blind) – my new Dell really did arrive with no visible or accessible DVD drive. Nothing under the My Computer – no button – lots of DVDs to load – no place to put them. (I had a choice of DVD or BlueRay – I chose DVD).

What’s the best way to get them to ship me the missing drive (the guys here at SanDisk will help me install it or my son will)
I DO NOT want to ship the system back-----besides – the beagle ate the boxes. (I think she’s part billy-goat!)
I haven’t called Dell yet – I am sort of in stunned disbelief
Is this common????
The shipping list? Oh Lord! I packed it in the tax drawer!
I tremble on trying to pry THAT open. Must be getting near tax time…….

OK - I DO have a DVD drive. No, I am NOT blind. Here's how it works.

First - plug in a CAT5 and get on-line and let the new PC complete (over 24 hours) initializing itself. This time, you will see the DVD icon. And a bunch of other things that were not visible until it had finished this process. (It repeats a lot of this should you try a cold boot.)

Second, it looks fake. It has no button for easy access. Pushing on it does nothing.

You open it by going to My Computer, right-clicking the DVD icon, scroll down, and then click on Eject. Honest to God.

Multiple mouse and clocks replacing one button - because --- wait for it -- it is a sleek "I want to be cute like Mac" design and a button would spoil the look. I had discovered the fake doors. I am still in stunned disbelief.

Maybe their designer needs to be the one taken to the parking lot and hammered!

My Dell System now has Norton up and running. I need to move it closer to the MAC -- a CAT 5 cable running across the floor in a house with cats and a puppy. Not good! Sometimes I am prophetic. Yep.