F 1 D 0 -- 2001 12 06 at 04 00 I forgot the dog outside. It has been a long time since I've had to care for a pet. Shania is a white American Eskimo. She's been a very needy dog since her owners have moved away. They insist that she'll get picked up and taken to her new place Friday or Saturday. But Shania doesn't really understand all of that. She feels like her folks have left her behind. So when I come home, she's so excited to see me, she won't settle down. Very happy little white dog. Then she follows me around everywhere. She really dislikes the IAMS - the veterinary dog food. It is supposed to be very good for her. Well, a serving of 8-10 ounces of dry food lasts this dog all week. It truly hates this stuff. I've taken up making the dog a couple of chicken wieners at night. Warming them up is no big deal, and she thinks I'm the greatest. I can tell from the knowing look in her eyes. Well, after all of this, she wanted me to let her out. Not a problem. Then Law and Order came on A&E. I was watching, and only realized when someone came home that I'd forgotten Shania outside, and she was running around the street, asking to get run over. Gawd. All my fault. I've not been chatting much on Talk City, but I dropped in there tonight. Someone I used to chat with has been unhappy. Her sister fell into a coma on November 14th, and continues in that condition. What do you say? What kind of words do I offer this one? Everything I try to rehearse sounds hollow and empty. I suggest that she should try to do something active again. She is, or at least, used to be an aerobic instructor. So she should try to be active, before all of the stress takes its toll, and she becomes ill. Too late, sez she. Already suffering from stress. Hardly eating, not doing well at work, all of her holiday time used up on this. I went to Oak Ridges today. I was helping an interesting couple with their computer problems. Mrs George had purchased a new HP scanner, and wanted my help installing the software. That was all so straight forward. Too bad it was not satisfactory. First the time involved. This is a Pentium II, with 16m ram, so it should be fast enough, right? Well, no. It was extra slow doing the graphical software loads. Scanning was even worse. "I want the scans to look good printed", she tells me. I learned something. I found out that a postcard, scanned at 600 dots per inch uses up 41 megabytes. I found also that since this computer only has 16m of ram, that such a decision brings the computer onto its knees, begging me for mercy. Oh, it worked. But not well. When you look at a postcard picture, what do you see? A picture. When a scanner looks at a postcard picture, what does IT see? It sees a zillion individual little dots, and makes sure it reproduces each and every one. And when printed, it recovers the dots, the lines, and all of the mathematical after effects. Not a moire pattern, but it is still so curious. Eventually, we decided that this scanner was going to get returned to the store. I proceeded downstairs to help Mr George. All he thought he wanted from me was to show how to clean up all of the files that windows saves, like it or not. I felt we should to the anti virus thing first. Just as well. Lots of virus trouble. The magistrate virus was all over. As it is running, I can see the computer taking all of its time in a directory called CONTENT.IE5 - ah, the hidden place where Internet Explorer keeps each advertisement it has looked at. We take the computer to MSDOS mode, and DELTREE CONTENT.IE5 After that, I recreate it with MD CONTENT.IE5 in case the computer isn't smart enough to put it back itself. But something else was damaged along the way. It would not boot up, and froze. In due course, I turned off the power. This computer is a Compaq Presario laptop. When we turned it on, the computer INSISTED on reloading the Operating System. I got no opportunities to coax it otherwise. Just watched it stomp all over any documents, and re-install windows in 6 minutes. Fast enough, but it took out all of the personal files. After four reboots, it finally came back as a windows station. All memories of a previous life had been removed. But it worked. If you don't like the idea about the system just deciding it needs to be fixed, you should find a way to turn off automatic Quick Recover. Mr George gave me a ride to Sheppard and Yonge. Something in me wanted to walk. I did. I got as far as Bayview, less a block. I should have walked much more, as it is so temperate tonight. It is perfect outside. Fall, or even spring like. But the winds were awful a while ago- like the heavy winds in the Wizard of Oz's start. Intense bursts of Real Power Wind. I did some cooking when I finally got home. I made a pot of Kasha and Rice. I roasted a picnic shoulder. I figured out how to help a lamb stew. I've not tried the pork yet. I did like the lamb. I enhanced the lack of real meat with TVP, textured vegetable protein. I was so eager to consume the Kasha that I fried my tongue. Now I have cat's tongue. That's all I know.