I just got off the phone with tech support at Skytech Gaming. I ended up downloading an app to my phone that gave me a code that allowed him to see through my phone’s camera. As we were talking, the computer restarted it’s loop again, and I told him what had been going on.
As we went through the prompts, he said he was looking for logging into the internet, and that was the one thing that has never been part of the loop.
Long story short, by the end of the call, he very apologetically told me that we will have to reinstall Windows. Something went wrong in the start up and this installation got corrupted.
Which means we either hook up to another computer or get a recovery thumb drive.
*sigh*
One of the things that came with the paperwork in the box was a quality control check certificate.
The date on that is August 2, 2023. So as of then, the computer was fine.
What a pain. At least it’s a relatively easy fix, though. I’m just not sure if I want to hook up to another computer, or just get a recovery thumb drive. I like the idea of having the thumb drive. Smaller and more convenient. I’m going to have several hours after dropping the cats off at the vet tomorrow morning, so I could probably find one.
We shall see.
Not at all the sort of problem I would have anticipated!
Having said that, I can add that customer service was good and very prompt. There wasn’t much he could do over the phone, but he could at least give me a solution. With that, at least, I am happy.
I love technology, but my goodness, it doesn’t take much to mess it up!
Yyo. I’m still blogging with my phone. Please forgive any typos I miss!
With the constant restarting, followed by the screen saying to check our Wi-Fi, and no way to bypass it, we tried something different.
My husband had suggested setting the computer up in the living room, where the Orbi signal boosting device is located.
There was no way I was going to haul everything over to do that.
So,,my husband brought the device to my room, instead.
The risk of that is twofold. One, the log walls of my room could affect its ability to improve signal to other parts of the house and two, my room is not a cat free zone. The risk of the device being pulled down, knocked over, etc. was much higher. We ended up setting it on the top of my wall shelf, so it’s now just the power cord that needs to be watched out for.
Did it work?
Well… sort of?
We dud a hard shut down to set things up. When I turned it on again, it went back to where it left off – this machine behaves as if it was in sleep mode, rather than powered down – when through the first part of the loop, got to the “Just a moment…” screen…
…and stayed there.
I left it and went to bed. Of course, I couldn’t sleep, so I checked it frequently. No change.
I finally fell asleep, and when I got uo this morning, there was still no change!
I went to do my morning rounds, and when I got back, there was finally a change.
It was off.
I turned it back on, and it went straight to the “Just a moment…” screen.
Then it restarted.
Since then, it has restarted itself and gone through the loop 5 or 6 times in the last hour.
I dud call the customer support number, but they aren’t open in California, yet. I left a message, asking for a call back. With the time zones, they won’t be open for almost another hour from the time I’m writing this.
What I hope is happening is that the computer is finding updates, downloading them, installing them, then restarting. After restarting, it finds another update, and goes through the process again.
The problem is that “Why did my PC restart?” screen. That screen is always part of the loop, which tells me there is a Wi-Fi problem.
Also, there is no other information. No download status bars. No installation status bars. Just “checking for updates” followed by “just a moment…” and then the restart.
I would expect it would take a while to find , download and install updates. I have NEVER had it take this long. We’re at almost 20 hours of this, at the time I’m writing this post.
It’s gotten to the point that I am considering setting up my old computer in the l8ving room and using the TV as a monitor. We have spare keyboards, though not ergonomic ones, and I’m using the new mouse on the new computer, so the old mouse is available. I just don’t know if we have a spare HDMI cable to attach the TV as a monitor. My husband might have one.
Oh, look at that.
The computer is restarting itself again.
*sigh*
Meanwhile…
Temperatures have been dropping since yesterday after, and a light snow started. My highway conditions group has been very busy. Everything is incredibly slippery, with several reports of vehicles in ditches, and at least one very major accident. People were reporting the need to drive at very low speeds, and advising others to stay at home, if at all possible. The high winds were causing many problems, too.
This morning, the snow had stopped where we are, and there was only a light layer on top of the frozen slush. I’m very glad we don’t need to go anywhere today. I hear the sand crews are out, so when it’s time to go to the vet with 5 cats tomorrow things should be safer. I still plan to leave very early, and expect to be taking it slow.
I counted about 30 or 31 cats outside, this morning. Nineteen, just in the sunroom.
Driver, here, is still not using that front leg. It doesn’t stop him from jumping up to the cat house roof, though! I am really unhappy that we can’t take him to the vet.
After he ate and seemed to want attention, I picked him up and cuddled him fir a bit. He was nervous, so I took him into the shelter of the sunroom and gently put him down.
Which, for some reason, caused all the other cats to explode in all directions, which also caused Driver to panic and bolt out of the sunroom, then squeeze his fluffy bulk under the kibble house.
I have no idea what trigged all that!
The ground under the kibble house is coveted by a sheet of rigid insulation, with another under the floor panels above, so that’s a good spot for cats to be. He was still under there, when I finished my rounds.
Tonight, we will grab that fluffy tortie and bring her inside for her overnight fast. Hopefully, in the morning, Sad Face will be around, and we’ll be able to get him in the big carrier. The carrier is already in the sum room, so the cats are used to it. If we can’t get Sad Face, there are many friendly males we can bring in, instead.
I have a sinking feeling, though, that if we bring that fluffy tortie in, we won’t be able to let her outside again. She will need more recovery time than a male, and with the sunroom bring used as winter shelter, it’s not available as an isolation ward.
Unless the Cat Lady is able to take her. The rescue is paying for three of the five cats. She thought the tortie might be easier to adopt, but I don’t know if she got any responses, or was even able to share the picture. I’ll have to ask her about that, today.
We shall see. It would be good if all three littles went off for adoption, rather than coming back here!
Okay, so my new computer is still in the endless check update/just a moment…/restart/check your Wi-Fi loop.
Yes, we even have the machine hardwired to the network now, and it’s still in the loop.
I went to the website and registered my system, which gives me an extra year on the warranty. Then I went looking through their troubleshooting and support sections.
When I went to the support section, I got this pop-up.
Well now. It looks like the company with the terrible rating is NOT the company this system is from.
Also, the office the customer service number goes to is in California.
Depending on how things go, I think I’ll be calling them during office hours, tomorrow.
My husband has suggested I serve my computer up on his desk in the living room. That’s his leatherworking station. It’s covered with stuff I’d have to clear off, first. Then I’d have to dismantle my entire computer system and carry it over, hopefully without letting cats through, then setting it up again – with no way of knowing if it would make any difference until I restart the computer again.
Well, I have my new computer. It’s all hooked up, set up and I’m going through the first start up process.
Which has been going on for about 2 hours, now.
I seem to be stuck in to very slow loop.
It’s gone through the process of selecting language, country, keyboard, and time zone. At the beginning, I also had to log into our wifi.
I think that’s where I made my mistake.
The default option was our Netgear system, which boosts our wifi through the house. In my corner where I have set up my office, the log walls interfere with the signal, so I also have a wifi booster. Plus, my old computer had wifi antenna that my husband installed for me.
This computer came with wifi antenna, so that’s taken care of.
Anyhow, once the basics are set up, the system then goes to “checking for updates”, followed by a display of “just a moment…”
All of which takes several minutes. Especially the “Just a moment…” screen.
Then it restarts itself.
After the restart, it goes back to selecting country, language, etc., then I get this.
Well, obviously, the PC is plugged in, or this wouldn’t be showing at all.
The following options then all say to select “next”. I font get any instructions to connect to wifi, as it says in number 2. So it acts as if I’m at number 3.
If I hit “next”, though, it goes to “checking for updates”, and the loop continues.
Yes, I even tried a hard shut down. When I r4started, it went straight to the “choose your country” screen, and is now back at the “checking for updates” screen again.
We may have to dig up a cable to hook up to the router physically, because it seems to not be able to hook up to the wifi.
With my old computer, for some reason, it would no longer allow me to save the password to connect to the Omnii netgear booster. I would just connect automatically to our Starlink router directly. If the signal got too weak, I could log into the booster, but if I lost signal there for some reason, it want back to the default and logged me in. It couldn’t log me into the booster, because the password had to be manually input.
With the new computer, I never had a chance to put in the password for both. Just for the booster.
Which is not part of the loop I’m stuck in.
Oh, look. It’s restarting again.
My husband is now looking for the cable. Hopefully, it’s long enough to reach across the house.
Okay, I’ve got a couple hours before I can pick up my new computer, but I couldn’t help but make one more post.
We have sproooots!
They are just barely visible, like tiny white worms! 😆
The yellow onions and the shallots, which are both in the large aquarium greenhouse, are emerging. The red onions are in the small aquarium greenhouse, which is slightly cooler, so that may be why nothing is sprouting there quite yet.
While I am using my phone to make this post, because I can’t do anything with photos on my desktop, this might be the last post where this is an issue.
My new computer is ready to be picked up at the post office.
Unfortunately, I can’t get there before it closes over the lunch period. It reopens at 2, so I’ll head our then. After that, we’ll see how long it takes to set it up and see how it works. It will take a long time to set up or transfer my data over, but I should at least be able to go online and write posts.
I really hope this turns out to be a good machine.
In other things, cat related.
I’ve been chatting with the Cat Lady. They now have several cats from us, living with them permanently. They have pretty much all had weird health issues. Thankfully, Cabbages is now hale and hearty. Leo – a kitten we never named and never expected to survive – had lung issues but is now officially declared healed.
Then there is Muffin, a muted calico that was supposed to be adopted out, but bonded instantly with her husband. For some reason, she hates the Cat Lady, but gets along with everyone else. She also goes to job sites and coffee runs with her husband!
Well, one day, while the family was out of country, her mother, who was taking care of the cats while they were gone, found her with a bloody mouth. After an emergency weekend trip to the dentist, she had some teeth removed.
Since then, they got a diagnosis of stomatitis. She’s going to need all her teeth removed. !!!
Telling my daughters about this, they told me of a cat they follow online (Yes, a cat; not the owner!) that had all her teeth removed a couple of years ago. Apparently, cats can handle being gummies just fine. So hopefully, things will work out for Muffin.
I shared this with the Cat Lady, along with mentioning how we feel so bad that she has all these cats from us that turned out to have major health problems. She told me it was okay. Other cats they’ve found themselves with have been much more difficult. And she wasn’t talking about the one that was do physically abused, he can no longer eat without help, and had to have a leg and tail amputated.
Which is rather alarming!
Then she got back to me later, after talking to someone with 41 cats, wants to adopt some out and get some of them fixed.
Just some?
The Cat Lady says she is getting so tired of dealing with the public, she just wants to focus on us and our cats.
What does that say about the other situations she deals with, when ours is the least problematic??
Speaking of which…
We have a problem with Driver.
A couple of days ago, he seemed to be limping on a back leg. I wanted to keep an eye on him, but yesterday, I never saw him walking. While feeding them, he was in the cat bed under the platform in the sun room, and didn’t get up. When I came back after finishing my rounds, he was gone. Checking through the bathroom window during the night, though, I spotted him on the top shelf by the window. I figured if he could get up there, he was doing alright, or at least improving.
This morning, however, he was walking around on 3 legs, holding a front paw off the ground.
About the only positive thing I can say is that the leg isn’t dangling. With Ginger and with Toni, when I saw how their legs were dangling and flopping around, I knew right away, amputation would be the most likely recommended course of action. With Driver, however, he’s holding the leg up, but there is nothing swinging around or flopping. As I had not noticed him favoring his front leg before, this may even be a new injury he somehow got last night.
The last I saw him, he was disappearing under the storage house. I wasn’t even allowed to get close to him, never mind pet him, which is now unusual for him.
The problem is, we can’t even take him to a vet. With the spay day coming up this weekend, plus expenses like the new computer, expecting new glasses for my husband, etc, we just don’t have any more budget left for vet bills. I’ve told the Cat Lady about it, but not with any expectation that they should take in the expenses.
We have had cats show up favoring paws or legs before, that healed on their own. We will watch closely. Hopefully, it’s not anything serious, but at the moment, I can’t get close enough to check.
After getting my routine stuff done this morning, I got sucked into the vortex of cats on my bed. I didn’t need to go under the covers. They plastered themselves on and around me, and kept me warm!
I fell asleep, but not for any excessive length of time, yet after I got up, it seemed like time just skipped an hour here, another hour there. Very odd.
I’m still fighting with my computer. It takes at least two tries to get it to boot up. I can’t do anything productive on it, but I can go online and browse or watch some videos. I can even play my Alien Crossfire, a game old enough that it doesn’t tax my system. At least until the mouse suddenly isn’t recognized anymore.
Hoping the new machine arrives early!
My husband asked me to go into town for something, so I took advantage of the trip to refill out big water jugs. It was still daylight when i went into the grocery store. It was full dark when I came out!
And raining.
It’s been a while since I drove in the dark, and I didn’t get very far, before I pulled into a gas station to clean my headlights!
The highways are fine to drive on, but the gravel roads are a mess. The shaded parts are still covered in ice and snow, so they are slippery, but that’s about it. The sections of bare gravel are horrible. The freeze/thaw cycle is tearing them apart, and it’s like driving on a washboard. The parts that are not as filled with potholes are no better. I could feel my back end trying to fishtail in the mud, more than on the wet ice!
We have one more day where the highs are expected to be above freezing, then we are supposed to get hit with another Colorado Low. The rain we’re getting now is expected to turn to sleet and snow for a couple of days. Saturday, which is when I’m taking the cats in to the spay clinic, is supposed to be clear again. Here’s hoping!
I’ll still take this over the -20C to -30C of past winters, any day!
Now to wrap my brain around the fact that it’s 7:30pm right now, instead of the 5:30pm it feels like, for some reason.
When it comes to deciding what seeds to start indoors, and when, your frost dates are more important than your zone. Gardening in Canada talks about what to start now, whatever zone you are in.
We’ve got our onions,shallots, eggplants and hot peppers started (even though the hot peppers are supposed to be a short season variety). Next up, I have herbs to start.
We don’t have luffa seeds to try this year; I will buy more to try again next year. I’m debating whether I want to try any gourds this year. I’m not sure how many beds we will have access to this year. I think I should skip them this year and focus more of the edibles than things I am growing for crafting purposes.
What about you? If you have a garden, what are you trying – or skipping – this year?
My daughters requested a trip to the city for some of their own shopping. My younger daughter found a yarn shop in the city and ordered yarn for a sweater she wants to knit for herself. The yarn was ready for pick up today, so today it was! From there, they had a shopping list for the international grocery store.
There was one surreal thing that happened during the drive in I still shake my head over.
Part of the route to the city is a divided highway, with a shallow ditch in between. The highway is two lanes in each direction, and the ditch in between is roughly as wide as another two lanes. Every few miles, there are cross roads and the occasional access lane for vehicles to turn around.
We were coming up to one of these cross roads when I saw what I at first thought was a large black dog running on the cross road towards our side of the highway. Then it rolled across both lanes and I realized it was a tire! Thankfully, there were no cars in that section of the highway at the time, and the tire rolled harmlessly into the ditch on the far side.
According to my daughter, who could look more closely as we passed it, it was smoking!
Of course, we were looking for where the tire came from. We could see a semi pulled over onto the shoulder in the opposite side of the highway. As we drove by, we could see it was resting on the rim on the front driver’s side tire!
Thankfully, the driver never lost control of his vehicle, and there were no other vehicles near it when it’s tire somehow blew itself off the rim and launched itself across a total of 4 lanes and a ditch!
That could have been so much worse!
It still feels so weird, remembering seeing a tire crossing the highway on its own!
Once in the city, my daughter and I hit a drive through for breakfast, then ate in the parking lot. Neither of us wanted to people while we were eating. 😆
Then, it was off to the downtown area and the yarn shop.
Finding the yarn shop was not too difficult.
Getting to it and parking was another story!
This area of the city is old residential, with many very narrow streets, all of which were in terrible condition. They were all 2 way streets, but most had parking on one side, leaving barely more than a car’s width to drive through.
Then we found ourselves coming up to repair crews, with three huge trucks, and no way to turn around or go around. Thankfully, one of the trucks was able to move, we squeezed through and made what should have been our last turn.
I ended up having to drive past the yarn shop, taking the next turn and drop my daughter off in the street! I was then able to drive around the block and come back to the store from the other direction and even *gasp* find a parking spot.
It was worth it, though. We haven’t been to a proper yarn shop since we moved to the farm. I haven’t even been to a Michael’s in years.
It was absolute heaven! So many gorgeous yarns! It took some major self control not to throw the budget out the window and go nuts. Not so much with the yarns that cost over $40 a hank, but there were those clearance bins…
*melt*
I know we could buy all sorts of yarn online, but nothing can beat being in the store and able to handle the yarns and see those glorious shades in person!
My daughter got her yarn and some knitting needles in the sizes she needed, and we finally tore ourselves away.
From there, we went to the international grocery store. My daughter had her and her sister’s list, but when we walked in, I saw they were having a case lot sale.
I got my own cart!
This is what I ended up getting.
The dim sum tray was a treat for supper. Delicious!
Some of the items, such as the Kraft Dinner, were both part of the case lot sale and featured items on their app that I could load onto my loyalty card.
What I like about their receipt is that they list the regular price, then the amount discounted is right under the item. Not all places do that.
So while the total was $140.18 before taxes, that was after $55.77 was taken off for the sales.
I actually didn’t realize until I was looking at the receipt at home, that my 2L of milk was only 99 cents! I had not seen any signs for the milk being on sale. I even grabbed from the back of the display, for one with a later “best before” date.
While I use the app on my phone to scan my loyalty card, my physical card being worn out years ago, my daughter has a spare physical card. I had enough points that she could get some of her stuff for free.
So that was a fortunate unplanned shopping trip. Normally, we miss these big sales, simply because we make as few trips into the city as we can get away with!
When we do go in, though, we try to make as much use of the trip as possible, so we made one more stop at Walmart to get more wet cat food. We are trying to increase how much wet cat food vs dry kibble we give the inside cats. Leyendecker should really be getting wet cat good only, since he has blocked twice now. The wet cat food is more expensive, but not as expensive as vet bills!
Speaking of cats…
I counted 31 this morning, but I did not see Sad Face.
You’d think they would stay out of the moat, but nope. They will cross through the water, rather than go around through the snow! They also seem to prefer drinking from puddles of melted snow over the water bowls. The water bowls have been very full still, when I come out in the mornings.
We are supposed to get colder, soon. The driveway is going to be insane, once all this water freezes!
Ah, well. At least we aren’t snowed in, like the East coast is right now. My friend in Halifax posted photos. They’ve managed to dig a path to the road, and have hopefully dug out their van by now. Her husband was in one of the pictures, standing in the narrow path to the road, with walls of snow reaching well above his head!
This morning, I headed out to drive my mother to her doctor’s appointment. It really sucks to not be able to use her car right now, because it’s a real struggle for her to get into the truck, even with the foot stool. She finds it easier to get out, and refuses the foot stool completely, preferring to use her walker for support.
I’m certainly glad my shoulder is all healed up, because I had to help boost her up into the truck! Something I could not have managed, just a few days ago.
Once in the truck, though, she was happy as a clam! She commented on how nice it looks inside, and how smooth the ride is, compared to her car. I think she finds the seat more comfortable too.
At the doctor, she got the referral she was there for. The doctor was supposed to give her a physical exam, but my mother couldn’t even get up the step to go onto the examination table, so that was skipped. My mother will get either a call or letter about an appointment in the city to see a specialist, and the wait should not be long.
After that, she was up to stopping for lunch before heading home. I didn’t stay long after dropping her off; mass on TV was about to start, and she watches every day. Plus, I wanted to stop at the grocery to pick up an ingredient we were missing for my daughter, who wants to use the last of our winter squash to make a pie, and my husband sent me a message saying we had parcels to pick up at the post office.
Along with the parcels, my seed order from T&T Seeds was in.
It took several tries to get a photo without a cat photo bombing me!! 😄
The potatoes will be shipped in the spring, but they included a pamphlet on how to handle their various types of perishables with the seeds.
Based on what the package says, with our June 2 average last frost date, the tomatoes can be started indoors in the first half of April, and the winter squash can be started indoors at the beginning of May. Both say 80 days, though, and our growing season from last frost in the spring, to first frost in September, is 100 days. Technically, we could direct sow both of them! I don’t think I’d want to take that chance, though.
I must say, it’s very hard not to buy more seeds right now! The McKenzie Seed displays are out, and they are everywhere. Even some gas stations have them! As soon as I walk in somewhere – like the grocery store, today – and see the displays, I just zoom right in and start looking. We have so many different seeds, and for many we also have several varieties, so there’s really not been anything in the displays that I would get, that we don’t already have. About the only thing I really find myself looking for is sugar snap peas. We have lots of seeds for shelling peas. The first year we grew peas, we grew both types, but that was the drought/heat wave year, and the snap peas barely survived.
With everything melting outside right now, and the rest of the winter expected to be mild in our area, who knows. We might be able to get things started earlier than usual! At the very least, we should be able to get to work on the building more trellis tunnel beds and reworking others. early. There are seeds that can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked, even if there are frosts later on, so I’d quite like to have some of those started, nice and early! Things like the peas, which I want to plant in the bed the popcorn was planted in, last year, to get some nitrogen back into that soil, spinach and onions.
I so looking forward to getting outside and back to work again!
The Re-Farmer 