December 13, 2023 (Wednesday)
The feature photo was taken 15 years ago on Goen Road in New Ipswich, NH. The power outages were extensive throughout the town. This was one of our topics at the Senior Lunch at the Congregational Church. Thankfully the weather today was not as distructive.
Senior Lunch
We covered a variety of topics at the Senior Lunch. The 2008 ice storm was the main topic. It was quite an ordeal and the consensus opinion was that the younger generation wouldn’t be up to the challenges and inconveniences. I hope that premise doesn’t get tested, I’m counting on the younger generation to provide care-taking duties as I fall deeper into decrepitude.
Technology
My wife asked me for some help on her laptop and it only took a moment to realize that something was seriously wrong. The screen prompt offered a helpful message informing me that it was going to attempt to recover from the aborted boot up. That was not to be. I suspected the disk had finally died. The system is four years old which probably makes it middle-age in technology years. Christmas came early because I want to make sure that my wife can solve WORDLE and video chat with the West Coast family. A trip to Best Buy in Nashua and we are back in business.
New Computer Setup
Daily Picture Theme – #Key
The daily picture theme for today was #Key. I had several photos of padlocks but no keys. However I remembered a visit to the French Cable Museum in Orleans, MA. They had telegraph equipment from the transatlantic cable including a telegraph KEY, here is a photo.
A few years ago I purchased a new Lenovo Yoga Laptop. I was in a position to not be stingy and spent a fair amount on some bells and whistles.
To this day I really regret my purchase. I paid extra for a touch screen. I NEVER use it except by accident and then something I don’t want to happen usually does as I used it not by design but by accident. I also got a keyboard that has a number pad off to the right. Another horrible mistake. Never use it. And what’s worse my work laptop is a regular Lenovo without it. At least 90% of the time I put my hands onto the laptop I am a row off in hand placement due to the number pad. I’ve typed more gibberish until I look and realize my hands and fingers are a row off. Another huge mistake was selecting a silver colored keyboard. Never again. Depending on the light unless my keyboard lights are on I can’t see the letters and numbers on the keys. Black and white with declining vision is the way to go. Lastly the Yoga has a large touch pad. I don’t know if it’s the touch pad or if there is a secret hidden key combo but I’m a dinosaur using AOL for my e-mail. There is no auto save as you are typing in AOL. Because of that damn touch pad I have had two paragraphs of typing disappear in a flash. Happens way too often. I suppose there is a way to turn that touch pad off (as I’m a mouse guy) but I’ve yet to do it and I pay for it. Due to those issues this is the worst computer I’ve ever used or owned. Hope you didn’t make some of the same mistakes in buying one for your wife.
Of course I made the same mistake, touch screen, silver keys which light up, big touch pad. However the old computer had the same. My wife seems to be doing fine playing her game. She did connect a mouse. If the machine were mine, I had connect a keyboard with black keys and white printed letters.
All of the above sounds familiar. Also having the shift key near the enter button means I frequently ‘enter’ when I only want to ‘shift’.