LONG TIME NO SEE

Hey! I'm back up and rockin'. I had to have a new video card, a new power unit, and a little bit of finagleling to some software but I am back in business. I had one hell of a time gettin things to run right. Neither my mailer nor my browser could access the internet. I was not expecting a flawless renewal of my internet activities but this time it was a bitch. Couldn't get my machine to boot up or nothin'. It tried but it wouldn't go through the steps to giving me a screen. Then the Handmaiden remembered that the guy at the computer hospital had given her a new power cord just in case mine was on the blink. Swapped out the power cords and we were making some advancements.

Then I couldn't get on line. Went crazy trying to figure out how to get back there. Finally did some swapping out of some lines and got ME back in good shape, but the wireless router would not work because I had to go around it for ME to get DSL. But the router being out of the equation meant the Handmaiden could not go online for ANYTHING. And she is the one who popped for the $6o router to begin with. "But Honey! The router ain't getting any power! Unless I go around it neither one of us will have internet." And then I am looking into a pair of very sad Irish eyes, and wondering how they would taste fried with my eggs in the morning. Then she came out with a golden nugget that one of those little transfomer blocks plugged in under my desk was very wobbly and maybe the connection down there was bad. "Thank you, Darling." Back to the drawing board.

So it was up to me to untangle the rats nest of wires on my desk and run one of them back to the wobbly transformer. Sho 'nuff, the damn thing was loose and I got the transformer freed up and isolated from the other wires. Then I plugged it into my Octopus and plugged it into the router and lo and behold the router once again had power. Then I simply re-hooked the DSL box into the back of the router and plugged the router back into the socket on my machine. I was so cool I was just enthralled with myself. I asked the Handmaiden to see if she had an internet connection with her lap top and she did. The Mighty Michael, Techno-Wizard, had triumphed again.

Then "I" didn't have any internet. Kiss my glutamus maximus. All that technical triumph and my own connection was now failing. I went out on the porch to smoke a cigarette and the Handmaiden was out there doing the same. I told her that "MY" connecton was no longer any good. I failed to see any remorse in her eyes at that comment. I went on and explained that sometimes things just didn't do well if they had been disconnected from their computer and things had been changed. I said that sometimes those Mozzilas had to kiss and make up before you could get a decent response from your machine. And all mny security programs were probably screwing me around.

Back in to the desk and checking things out. The router and the DSL box were both with power and should be putting me on line. Then I got to wondering if maybe my security programs WERE keeping me from getting on the web. So I shut off my firewall and tried to check my email. TOUCHDOWN! Worked like a champ. Turned my firewall back on and checked again and NO PROBLEM. Once that mailer of mine had broken through, the firewall recognized it and things were back to normal. Same with my browser. Worked like it was supposed to. Then I put the browser to the ultimate test and played a song on YouTube. And the video played just like it should, except I had no audio. But a switcheroo of a couple of plugs in the back of my machine fixed that immediately.

I am now restored to electronic life and am staying alive. You stay alive also.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net