Stupid Windows Updates

One of the things I don't like about my laptop is that Windows updates are done automatically and I can't tell them "No/Later", etc.  But that might not be the laptop, it is probably the Windows browser that came with it.  I've been having an issue signing in for about a month now, it finally just quit letting me do anything at all.  Bill said he'd look at it when he got a chance, he's been pretty busy and just tonight got a chance to see what he could do.  I had found some information and he found some more.

 

Turns out that I'm not alone.  It also turns out that Windows did one of it's automatic updates and screwed up a boatload of computers and access to blogger.  It's fixed now, and hopefully will stay that way.

 

As Bill says, other people making decisions for me...

 

It's been pretty frustrating.

 

OK, on to other things.  Since January 7, the last time I blogged, lots of stuff has happened.

 

We've had cold weather.  We had a couple of really cold days.  I was supposed to go back to work after vacation on the 6th.  We had record cold the night of the 5th, and there was already ice in areas.  On the 6th, I stepped out on the front porch to check for ice on the street and on the cars.  There was a touch of ice but not bad.  What was bad was that my lungs shut down.  As in, I took a breath and literally could not take another one.  Because of the cold.  I have cold-induced asthma, but it's never been that bad.  I was able to breathe as soon as I came inside, but I fought asthma all day long.  I didn't go in that day, it was just too difficult to breathe and it also hurt to breathe.  Otter had to work that day, she went in at noon and Bill took her since there was a slight amount of ice on the roads.  By the time she got off, which was 5:00 I think, I was feeling better so I went to get her.  It was still cold, but at least I could breathe!

 

The newest rain barrel froze over.  It was solid.  The first one freezes, but it has an "escape" hatch for overflow that the new one doesn't have.  The new one was mis-shapen slightly which is how we realized that it was solid.  The bottom of it was pooched out a bit and it was leaning backwards.  It does not seem to have ruptured, but it isn't sitting quite straight anymore.  Bill thinks the stand has settled slightly.  He's going to see about leveling it up.  But at least the rain barrel seems to be ok.

 

We're dealing with more mice.  A couple of weeks back, Otter thought she heard one in her room but never could find it or even definite signs that there was one.  Yesterday she heard something moving around under her bed, like paper being twisted up.  So, she found the spare traps in the garage and got one loaded with peanut butter.  She put it under her bed.  Yesterday evening, we were sitting on the couch and Otter suddenly flew past us with a trap in her hand - and a dead mouse attached to the trap.  This one was an adult female.  Since then, she has replaced the trap and also put another one underneath the chest of drawers.  No mousies trapped, but both traps have been emptied of bait.  We've also had to rebait the traps in our bathroom twice, they keep getting emptied.  Mice tend to be social animals, where there is one there are usually more.  Especially females, they group together much more than the males do but a female often means that a male is part of the "group" and that means more mousies in the future.  We are up to 5 that we've trapped, possibly 6 but I can't remember if there was a 6th one or not.

 

Bill and I decided to try a booth at a local antique/craft market.  We checked out a few places, then went with the one that we usually shop at.  It's been around for years, it was sold to a new owner several months ago and it seems to be going strong.  We started our booth last week.  Mostly pachinko machines, but Otter and I also have several things in it.  It's a 3-month contract, after 3 months it goes to month-to-month.  We don't really expect it to be successful, the machines we have in the booth are restored and they are not exactly cheap but they are not the priciest we've seen/had/sold/bought before.  But it was worth a try, and the booth rent is fairly cheap so if it doesn't work we won't be out a whole lot.  We had been planning on taking it effective 2/1/14 but there was a good one (on a strong wall and in a good spot) available so we decided not to wait.  The only problem with not waiting is that I didn't have much crochet ready because my plan was to spend a lot of time in January building up stock.

 

Speaking of Bill, specifically his car - the low fuel light has been coming on for a very long time when it actually had fuel.  Even when it was just filled up.  Bill's been watching the odometer and he knew when he needed to fill up.  Otter drives his car when she needs a vehicle, so Bill decided it was time to fix the fuel sensor.  This is one of those things that Bill can do himself, the part was $39.00 but he needed to get the fuel tank empty or close to empty.  Today's plan was that he was going to drive the Impala and park it in the driveway until he has time in a couple of days.  Otter was off work today, but she was feeling housebound and wanted to run errands with me after work.  I came home and got her, we got the first errand done (post office) and Bill calls me because he guessed wrong and ran out of gas.  He was less than a mile from the house and we were pretty close, so we came home and got one of the gas cans Bill keeps with the lawn mower.  We had to go back the opposite way, again less than half a mile, and fill the can up then take it back to Bill.  We waited until he got the Impala started, just to be sure that the problem was that he was out of gas and not something else.  He got home and the car is parked until he can work on it which will probably be Thursday.  Otter works tomorrow but I'll take her this time.  She'll have to get there early, but I will drop her off at the McDonald's across the street from her store and she'll just have breakfast there.

 

I guess that is it for now.  I'm just glad that I can blog again!  Froggy probably is, too.