It's morning. I don't suppose you'd know that unless I told you. I'm
still in my flannel nightgown, and my hubby put his shirt on inside out
this morning. We are both stuffy nosed and bleary eyed, but once again
alive with two feet on the floor--although some of us are not as
coordinated as we could be. I just ran into the bedroom door jam trying
to bring in coffee. Hello. Can you say warm feeling?
Anyway,
as I drink my coffee and try to finish waking up, I listen to the rain
pitter-pat on the roof and windows. We've had a warming "trend" with the
weather and, you guessed it, lots of MUD. It's everywhere. The only
good thing about snow is that you can't see the dog poop on the ground.
Once the snow melts, it's poop and mud everywhere. It stinks and you
have to wait for a dry day to clean it all up with a rake before the
grass gets too tall. I won't bore you with the nasty pictures. I think
words are worth one picture--at least in this case.
Hubby
likes to teach himself how to do things. Right now, he's working on a
game--just a simple game, really, but he really likes to make changes to
these things to make the programming do something slightly different.
Then, when it doesn't work anymore, and he hasn't saved a single backup,
he frets.
And frets. And it's like his mind is consumed with thoughts ONLY for this piece of software.
Who
me? Jealous? I think not. I just have no appreciation for his fretting.
He tends to tell me all about why it's bothering him. Although, to be
honest, I don't understand a word he says when he's talking
programming--it's more like he's just sounding off and trying to sort it
out in his own head, which is too small, and therefore he has to sort
things out by talking so that his ears can hear it and he can then suss
it out by himself. It's a version of talking to yourself, I guess.
Surely, he's not talking to me. Except that he calls my name when he
does it.
But when he's fretting, he's not much fun. He
doesn't talk about anything OTHER than the software, unless it's
absolutely necessary, and he can be pretty ornery if he's cornered to
discuss something else that has relevance to his own life...like EATING.
Such is the practice in our home.
But things get done, and pretty soon he's humming along. As I pass by his computer desk, he asks--
"Hey, want to see what my program can do now?"
This has happened only 15 times in the last 5 days, 14 of them result in--
"Oh. It wasn't supposed to do that. I can fix that."
And
I walk away with a bemused grin on my face. This "learning" thing has
taken over, and I'm allowed to knit and crochet to my heart's content.
The latest? Something for my friend Mary, who has a niece in Georgia who is preggers--
I
shipped these out yesterday. They're adorable. I'll admit it. But they
go a lot faster with worsted weight yarn. These were made with baby yarn
called Jamie in coral, rather than pink. I must tell you that while the
end result is cuter than cute, making them is only possible with double
pointed needles, and the only problem for me with double pointed
needles is the points on each end of each of the 4 needles that hold the
stitches. These poke me in the hands...it's like trying to carefully
handle a baby porcupine. The result is worth it, but getting there can
be interesting to say the least. My husband comments:
"You're handling that dead baby octopus again, aren't you?"
Sigh.
A bird sings outdoors. I wonder for a minute if it's a redwing blackbird...but sadly, I know it's just a starling.
So.
The computer is working now, too. I just downloaded a copy of the
newest Microsoft Office, which will be good only until I retire or
otherwise leave my employment, which could happen any day, really--but
likely not until I've got my 30 years in. Everything depends on my
health these days, and it's altogether possible that something could
happen that would take me out of the picture. I try to keep on top of
things like that, but you're never prepared for disaster. So yes,
Microsoft Office 2013 is on my computer, and I'm just about to install
it on my husband's computer as well.
That will teach him. HA!
More coffee required.
Yesterday,
we all celebrated birthdays in his family--his mother, sister and
daughter all have birthdays around this time of year, and so we all go
out to supper. I was told we were going to Chinese, but at the last
moment, his sister changed her mind for Country Buffet. We were just in
time for the lunch buffet, where you can get the advantage of the lunch
price and stay for the dinner menu. It saves you $3 per person, and
since we had 10 people, there was quite a savings! I learned this from
my computer guru, Chris, who told me that he often goes here, so when I
learned that the family had changed plans, I wondered if I'd run into
him.
But I told myself the chances were slim at best.
The next thing I know, as I'm seated and starting to eat, here he comes
and seats himself in front of me. Never in a million years. I didn't see
it coming---er, HIM coming. Just suddenly he was there. I thought it
might be him, but I convinced myself that it would be weird if it was,
so I determined that it wasn't...until he sat right down in front of me.
Smiling.
I felt like a stalker, even though going
there hadn't been my decision--or even my offering. Surprised and
befuddled, he reminded me that I'd told him that I'd be in town--but I
never expected to run into him. I had no idea what to say, so I
introduced him to my in laws (he already knows my hubby). It was
strange, because I was with the family. It wouldn't have been any
trouble if it had been just Hubby and I. We talked about computers for a
little while, and then he returned to his family's table, which, by the
way, was directly in front of our table. So every time I looked up in
that direction, there he was, looking right back at me. It was
completely unnerving, as I immersed myself into family chatter.
Later,
my mother-in-law commented that the family had sat there the entire
time reading the Bible. Now, I know Chris to be something of an
Agnostic--rather than a believer, but he's a very tolerant person. He
spent hours and hours teaching me what I needed to know about computers.
Everything I know, I learned from him, pretty much by observing. So it
seemed a little strange that he would occupy his time that way--not that
I'm dwelling on it.
Well, it appears that hubby has
achieved part of his mission for the morning. I suppose I should get to
crocheting before he decides to make me his next mission.
