The Visible Woman...January 15, 2001

One meets it with...meetings. I've got a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday. I had a meeting with another vendor that I popped into. That pretty much took my day. Many people don't accomplish anything between meetings. And it's no wonder.

Mom said that when she sat down at the computer after it had 'gone all black' that it just came back on. She is using an assortment of tables until her computer table comes. The TV tray with the mouse probably gets jostled when she sits down, I explained. She'd written a message but she was off-line so it saved it. We got that off and took care of one she had misdirected by somehow changing the address. I try to teach her to double click the contacts and not mess with the address or try to type it.

She wants to know how to write letters and print them. She's tried to print an e-mail but has moved off the default printer onto one of the ones it automatically installed on my network. I delete all those printers from the machine. When we try to reconnect, it asks for the password and doesn't allow 'save password.' The password is grayed in the dialing properties. This happens on Win95 but this was working differently here. Hmmm. I do what always feels right: I boot it! And guess what? It starts letting me autodial again. Which means she just has to go on-line and it connects then disconnects after she has wandered off for a while.

I have some nachos with the parents. Mom can't eat jalapenos but piles them on for Dad and I. That's my vitamin C for the day. Dad can't eat all his so I eat even more.

At home, FFP and our bookkeeper are watching the Monday night line-up. (They like 'Boston Public' and Ali.) They've drained almost all of a tasty bottle of Rubicon. ('94). I finish it and have another glass of some Aussie Malbec/Merlot I've saved in the frig with VacuVin. I watch the Ken Burn's 'Jazz' series.

That's how my days slip away. That's the reason I don't make any progress on the fire hazard pile of junk in my office.