Although the NOAA website for Kalispell kept saying “Ice Fog”, it was sunny at my house. I wanted to return the Costco computer so decided on a lunch hour run to town for that errand and a walk.
NOAA was correct.
But the fog was lifting in a most beautiful way leaving a bit of itself behind on everything.
We walked in sunshine…
and the remnants of ice fog in the valley.
Karl continues to do well…more on that in another post, but a gluten free/corn free diet with some probiotics, digestive enzymes and immune strengthening supplements…along with the piroxicam – Mr. Karl’s latest ultrasound looked great! And even more important, his energy is good, he is happy, we play, we walk, we LIVE!
It has been six months of some up and down news and a lot of my focus on Karl. Now, let me assure you that Mr. Bob was not ignored. First, he would never allow that and second, I wouldn’t do that. But I do think that he did not feel the center of attention.
Enter his diabetes. Be careful what you wish for Bob!
The pet dispensary and my method of keeping track of who gets what when. And to the right, Bob’s instruments of torture… the glucometer and the insulin.
The drill:
insulin every 12 hours
spot check with the glucometer at the 6 hour point 3-4 days after a dosage change
a full glucose curve (glucometer check every 2 hours) 7 days after a dosage change
We are a test case for “owner” use of the glucometer.
Canines and felines have a vein that runs along the edge of the ear so that is lanced for the blood drop. This canine/feline glucometer is designed to work with a very small amount of blood and thankfully, it does.
Wakey-wakey Bob, time for a check.
“Owwww!!!!”
“You’re killing me here!!!”
He’s being overly dramatic…
“Note to self: a little less attention is not a bad thing”.
***The “pain” photos are actually Bob yawning. Although he growls to let me know he is not happy with the procedure, I cuddle him like giving a baby a bottle, coach him (and ME!) – with “let’s get it in one, Bob”…1 lance, and we just do it! The insulin shots are just under the skin and he doesn’t flinch or appear to feel the needle. He has figured out that when my phone alarm goes off it means I am going to mess with him…smart aleck!
See those ears swivelled back toward the house??? It is time for a walk.
My “old” computer is running fine after its hiccup. I had time to order exactly what I wanted so the Costco computer, unopened, will be returned. The “new” computer arrived late yesterday. As I worked today, I started the install process on the new computer. It is a lot of “Install”, Wait, Click Ok, Wait, Check which things where, Wait…emphasis on the wait. It is going slow as I get caught up in work and forget to look and see if it is ready for me to do something…but it is coming along.
And I was only a little late for Karl’s walk.
This morning, just before the sun cleared the mountains from Bigfork, MT.
Friday, late afternoon, I could type 2-4 characters….in any program… and then “not responding” appeared in the window header. I finally shut things down and went to bed. I woke Saturday and laid in bed wondering if I should try to turn the computer on or not. Based on Friday’s behavior and the prognosis from the laptop doctor, the hard drive was on its way out. IF, the computer would still boot and the hard drive was readable, although crippled, there was a good chance of getting a clone…thereby insuring that all could be moved to a new drive. I have my data. The issue is all of the software and in particular my working environment. Re-installing all is a 1 – 2 day event of mostly waiting for things to happen, doing a bit, waiting….
So, back to laying in bed and thinking. Should I turn the thing on or leave it off and hope there was enough life left for a clone. And if so, that meant an entire weekend without computer or internet. Somewhat inconceivable to me! My recipes, news, what if I needed to google something????
The plan: A trip to Costco to see if there was a computer that was reasonable…that could do in a pinch for working and/or for my computer withdrawal symptoms…
I went. And a bonus was that it was sunny! (those are the ski runs of Big Mountain, Whitefish)
And I found a computer. It is still in the box. I have 90 days to return it or take it out of the box. We wait.
But…I DID turn my computer on. And it is working, mostly ok. However, it has its moments, so we will be keeping its doctor appointment Monday morning.
Meanwhile, today, Sunday, it has been sunny off and on, but late this morning, on a run to Somers for a walk and a quick grocery run…
…light on the water…
…sun rays through a break in the clouds.
Time to relax…because sometimes….when preparation is made for the worst, it doesn’t happen – some corallary of Murphy’s Law.
If you’re Bob, what’s up is a bird.
Here at “we work at home”, what’s up is computer problems. Probably problem.
Suddenly, yesterday, everything slowed to a crawl. Cutting to the chase, the most likely suspect for a sudden slowdown is a hard drive problem.
All here is backed up and we limp along until first thing Monday morning when the laptop has an appointment with the local laptop doctor.
Meanwhile, all computer time, slow as it is, will be devoted to getting as much billable work done as possible seeing as how the tool for billable work will be unavailable for the better part of Monday…at least.
The public service announcement(s):
BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER – on a schedule!!! As in back up anything that would make you cry if you lost it forever. External hard drives are cheap – get one if you don’t have one. Actually get 2 and keep important stuff on them and keep 1 somewhere the other one isn’t….in case your house burns down, floats away, goes to Kansas in a tornado or some other catastrophic thing. And don’t think I don’t do what I say. One of my externals is in the motorhome, one is in the house. My work is backed up to a client server in California. Other items are on a server in Michigan.
The (s) is for me. I have always in the past kept my second oldest computer as a backup. This year, extenuating circumstances and all, I’ve been working with just 1 computer and no backup…
Back to our regularly scheduled programming…..sometime…next week probably. I’ll take photos. So far, nothing wrong with the camera…