Cooling Off

Today is the last day of March and it is cooling off. Most mornings lately have been showery with sunny days following. The wet mornings mean I am unable to ride.

Trish got to the Chiropractor yesterday and reported that she still doesn't know about her sore knee. She is now putting cold packs on it to get some swelling down.

I have been planted in front of the TV watching the cricket live from New Zealand. It begins about 8 am our time and finishes mid afternoon.

I reformatted the 'old' laptop and cut it right back so it just has the minimum requirements with cut down versions of Office etc. It still takes a while to start up as it only has 500MB of Ram which is the bare minimum to run XP.

I got a good deal on pen drive from the local Australia Post Shop. It is 4GB but has a retractable connection on it. I have lost several pen drive tops recently and this causes the things to 'die' pretty quickly. So to get a 4GB pen drive with a retractable connection for under $13 is a good buy.

A Lull Between Footy Matches

It is late afternoon Saturday. Because we don't have daylight saving here where we live and most of the rest of the country does have it, there can be times when we have an 'extra' hour. Today is one of those times. The footy season is underway again and instead of the usual 2pm bounce down time, here it is 1pm. So I have some time to update the blog page before tonight's matches get underway.

Trish remains a little the worse for wear. Her right knee is rather sore and she has a slight cold, enough for you to know it is there. I went and did some shopping yesterday for some bits and pieces. I bought a cordless phone for the wall phone point. The wall phone is a corded phone and ties you down a bit at times. These things are so cheap nowadays so we grabbed one just for convenience's sake.

I am heavily involved with the Community Association newsletter, I write it and then have it printed off. We do 1250 A3 sheets so it is a big job. I distributed a heap of them to other committee members yesterday as they need to be folded. We are way ahead of schedule in their delivery so we have heaps of time to get it all organized. they need to be delivered the week after Easter.

I did a 15k bike ride yesterday morning. I don't ride Saturdays as I need to get to the Computer Club. The picture above left shows one of the paths I ride along. this path is right near our home.

The days have been high 20's but it was down to 18 overnight when the pool cools off a bit, but with nice sunny days I still get a swim in late afternoons. It does heat up to 27 degrees though today it felt a little cooler than 27 when I had a swim! This photo was snapped Friday afternoon.

Trish Isn't Moving So Well

As Trish was leaving the plane yesterday she was walking across the tarmac and her knee went "click". She was in some discomfort from it all but thought it might have been just a 'one off'. However it has happened several more times though today they pain hasn't been as severe as yesterday. Hopefully she will be OK in a day or so, she just needs some rest.

She also had a bit of a sore throat which has developed in to a cold. She is on cold tablets too! It is not uncommon for either of us to have a cold when we return from being down south. Actually it is more the norm for one or both of us to have colds upon our return from Melbourne.

These photos show the other two grandchildren, Andrew and Emily enjoying ice creams while out with "Nanna".

Today was mainly spent grocery shopping this morning and then this afternoon I went round to a Computer Club member's home and we did a lot of movie swapping. I was able to give him 130 movies to add to his collection.

I managed a 12.5k bike ride this morning followed by a swim to cool off. The day was a 28 degree day with a cool overnight of around 20 degrees. The pool still manages to be around 26 or 27 degrees so swimming is still quite comfortable for us.

Shhhhhh!

I have to type quietly, Trish is grabbing 40 winks in the lounge room.

I have had recent advice from Microsoft saying not installing 'the' update shouldn't cause any problems to my newly reformatted PC as from what they could see from my computer records (which I emailed them) it has both SP 1 and SP2 updates installed and that should have fixed it.

I was advised to right click on the 'update' and select "hide this update" and it would disappear which it has.

Gave the floors a good clean yesterday (steam clean) and sprayed anti-cockroach stuff around the walls. It smells for a while but it was all clear come 4 pm. That was yesterday and it was even warm enough to grab a quick swim in the pool.

Trish was pretty tired from her two weeks in Melbourne when I collected her from the Maroochydore Airport this morning at about 10 am. We went out for lunch and she is grabbing a nap right now. A good night's sleep in her own bed and she will be 100% tomorrow! Here is a photo of Charli and James trying out their new winter coats. Now they wouldn't tire out a Nanna would they?

It is great to have a sunny day today with the temp getting to 29. I was able to get in a 12k bike ride this morning as well. Things are so much brighter when the sun shines.

Overcast Sunday

It has been a busy Sunday so far. It was a little damp this morning so instead of riding for 15 k's I decided to bottle the brew which was ready. It takes about an hour to do from beginning to cleaning up. But I now have another 32 bottles of "Black" safely bottled away and finishing the brew process. It is ready to drink in 2 more weeks but I like to leave it for 4 weeks. This gives even more flavor and better head.

Another 3 mls in the rain gauge this morning from a few lazy showers on Saturday. Nothing too heavy and just enough to be annoying for everyone. Max temps are around 27 or 28 degrees. I usually pull the doona up during the night as it is a little cooler.

My computer is running beautifully, just by not connecting an external DVD burner! It is amazing really. I am getting a continual reminder to update one Microsoft update of 611kb. The computer downloads it and goes to install it but then I get the message, "Installation failed". Microsoft is trying to solve this minor problem.

I spent some time this morning cleaning under the back veranda area. I have given it a good clean as well as giving the BBQ a tidy up. It was very greasy and badly needed some attention. It all looks so much better now.

Neighbours across the road have their PC in for a reformat. I gave them a lend of our very old laptop so they could still access the internet. Bill brought it back to me today and said he had bought a laptop from one of the kid's friends for $50 so mine wasn't needed any more. It had Windows 2000 on it and couldn't access the internet. An hour and a half later it now has Windows Pro XP, Office 2003 and Nero. Not only that, it now gets on the internet without any worries. It didn't take me long did it?

Yesterday was again busy at the Computer Club. However I was home mid morning to watch all the cricket which is on TV. I am enjoying it very muc in between reformatting computers and doing some cleaning up!

Cyclone To Cross The Coast On Sunday

At last we have had a day with no rain. For the second day in a row I got a 15k bike ride in this morning. There is a cyclone expected to cross the coast at least 1000k's north of us early on Sunday so our weather has been a bit breezy. This photo was taken this morning and it was interesting to see several boats tied up sheltering in Pumicestone Passage. You may have to click on the photo for a bigger view to see the boats sheltering from the windy weather. The wind is from the east so it was a stiff ride one way and nice and easy the other.

The Cyclone is expected to cross the coast somewhere between Mackay and Cardwell. If you live in Melbourne that is a bit like saying it will cross the coast somewhere between Newcastle and Tweed Heads. The cyclone will have minimal effect on us, just some windy weather and extremely high surf. Waves up to 4 metres are expected here on the Sunshine Coast.

It was a pleasant surprise to see a lovely blue sky over the roofs of houses on our estate. Our back yard got to low 30's but it wasn't a hot day. Humidity was around 50% for much of the day. I got another load of washing done and dried as well. The clothes basket is now empty!

The computer continues to operate perfectly. It is great not to worry if the monitor is going to come on or not. I had a bit of trouble with 'portable' copies of Office 2007 so I have installed a full version instead and it seems to be operating OK. I have one small 600kb update which doesn't want to install but that doesn't worry me too much. All other updates have worked perfectly.

Australia plays it first Cricket Test match against New Zealand today and the Victorians are playing Queensland in the Sheffield Shield final as well. Both games are on TV so I am in cricket watching heaven!

PC Back Home

I have my PC back again but it appears the graphics card was not the problem.

The computer shop guys started, shutdown, restarted, and shutdown the computer numerous time while in for repair over the two days. During this time the thing never missed a beat. As far as they were concerned the operating system and the computer are working perfectly.

They asked me about any USB equipment I might have connected to it. Now where do I start with USB equipment? I have 3 external hard disk drives, a webcam, wireless keyboard and mouse, printer, TV tuner, external DVD burner and a USB hub.

I said it couldn't be any of them because when I reinstalled Vista I had to disconnect everything before beginning the install and I got a blank monitor while installing some drivers after a shutdown. However I had to have the keyboard and mouse connected but I did forget about the external DVD burner and the webcam now that I think about it. And only 5 minutes after reinstalling Vista I had my first "blank monitor' at startup.

The guys at the shop believe there is some kind of conflict between the PC and one of the USB devices, most likely the external DVD burner or possibly the USB hub! Both are pictured above left.

It is all back together again now (except for the DVD burner and the USB hub) and all appears to be working fine. When a computer first starts up it checks all its 'peripherals'. If any of them are not working fully properly there may be a problem during startup!

You learn something new everyday!

Today's Summary

Late yesterday morning the main PC found its way to the Computer Shop. One of the young techs had a quick look and listened to my story. He immediately guessed it wasn't a software issue at all but most likely a problem with the graphics card. He would carry out a series of tests to confirm it was the problem and fix it. I should get it back after a couple of days, hopefully Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile Trish's laptop has been repositioned as you can see from this photo.

I received a comment a day or so ago from Lou Ann in Texas saying she wished there was someone who could help her with her computer, she had lost her home page to MSN! Most likely this occurred during an Internet Explorer update. I sent her an email explaining how to fix it and today I received a reply saying all was fine again with her yahoo Home page!

This morning was a bottle washing day. The photo shows bottles about to be washed while the other tub has bottles ready for a rinse. Today was again showery so getting the bottles dry was a problem till we had blue skies most of the afternoon and a lovely 28 degrees. I spent a fair bit of the time watching Victoria play Queensland in the domestic cricket 5 day final.

The people over the road had a problem with their PC but I was only able to partially fix it. They have just spent a bit on upgrading it and I was loathe to do any more to it. I think it should go back to the shop for them to look at it.

Keep your eye on the trips in the very foot of the right hand column of this blog to see dates for our travels and for when we have visitors. We have just booked to travel to Melbourne for three weeks late August and return early September.

A "BIG" Shower Of Rain

The shower of rain yesterday afternoon went for ages, so much so I tipped 31 mls out of the rain gauge today. Our rainfall figures for this year are spectacular.

So far we have had almost 800mls of rain, that is about 32 inches. This is about 200 mls more than 'average'. This month we have had just under 400mls (16") about double the normal rainfall for March!

The PC goes in to the computer shop today to see if they can find the monitor not always coming on problem. Then there is heaps of cricket on TV for the next week, firstly Victoria Vs Queensland in the Sheffield Shield Final and on Friday we have the First Test live from New Zealand.

I have some movie swapping to do this afternoon. I am going to visit a couple of people from Computer Club and sort a few things out for them.

PC Back And Running!

I now reckon it takes me a day and a half to reformat my PC with Vista Home Premium and have my PC almost back to how it was prior to the reformat. This post is coming from the reformatted main PC! Next time it may be a little quicker to do as I have now copies of Vista service Packs 1 and 2 on DVD ready to install.

My problem with the PC not always finding the monitor continue despite reformatting the hard drive which leads me to think it is a hardware problem rather than a software problem. But I am back again on the air. The PC will go back to the Computer Shop Tuesday afternoon to check for hardware issues.

I can't tell you how important it is to have a good backup of all your stuff. I have several backup external hard disk drives and they make getting everything back to normal quite straight forward. There are two drives to the left of the phone and a third drive just in front of the right hand side of the monitor. I use the drives to backup any downloaded software (far left), my personal documents, photos, music etc to the middle drive and my Movies to the black drive on the right.

The weather continues to be overcast and showery with temps nowadays 28 at the most. Today I tipped 1 ml out of the gauge and I see there is another 5 ml in it now. This a shot (left) of one of those quick short showers which passed over in about 15 minutes today! The doona cover is back on the bed and in use overnight, last night it got down to about 18 degrees.

Meanwhile Trish is enjoying exceptional weather in Melbourne.

Time To Bite The Bullet

This post is coming via the laptop. The main computer is currently being reformatted and not all that successfully I am afraid. I was sick of the computer 'losing' its connection to the monitor via DVI connection so I decided it was time to reformat. It would also close for no reason getting a "Black Screen" saying the computer was closing down to protect it from damage!

Despite the reformat, these problems exist so I reckon it is most likely a hardware problem.

I am trying a bit of 'trial and error' right now to see if I can get it to update with Vista Service Packs 1 and 2 without closing down on me.

The rain has stopped for today with another 11 mls in the rain gauge overnight.

Windows can take a bit of time to install so I managed to get a brew on this morning between visits to the PC. I use 'filtered water' as this picture shows.

The Service Pack 1 update seems to be going on OK at this stage. Keep your eye on the "for sale" ads in your newspaper, there may be a cheap PC going for sale soon!

I hope you enjoyed the joke below, I got a laugh out of it.

Yet Another Good Laugh

An elderly man on a Moped, looking about 100 years old, pulls up next to a doctor at a street light.

The old man looks over at the sleek shiny car and asks, ' What kind of car ya got there, sonny?'

The doctor replies, 'A Ferrari GTO. It cost half a million dollars!'

'That's a lot of money,' says the old man. Why does it cost so much?'

'Because this car can do up to 320 miles an hour!' states the doctor proudly.

The Moped driver asks, 'Mind if I take a look inside?' 'No problem,' replies the doctor.

So the old man pokes his head in the window and looks around. Then, sitting back on his Moped, the old man says, 'That's a pretty nice car, all right.. but I'll stick with my Moped!'

Just then the light changes, so the doctor decides to show the old man just what his car can do. He floors it, and within 30 seconds the speedometer reads 160 mph.

Suddenly, he notices a dot in his rear view mirror. It seems to be getting closer!

He slows down to see what it could be and suddenly WHOOOOSSSHHH !

Something whips by him going much faster! 'What on earth could be going faster than my Ferrari?' the doctor asks himself.

He presses harder on the accelerator and takes the Ferrari up to 250 mph.

Then, up ahead of him, he sees that it's the old man on the Moped!

Amazed that the Moped could pass his Ferrari, he gives it more gas and passes the Moped at 275 mph, and he's feeling pretty good until he looks in his mirror and sees the old man gaining on him AGAIN!

Astounded by the speed of this old guy, he floors the gas pedal and takes the Ferrari all the way up to 320 mph.

Not ten seconds later, he sees the moped bearing down on him again! The Ferrari is flat out, and there's nothing he can do!

Suddenly, the Moped plows into the back of his Ferrari, demolishing the rear end.

The doctor stops and jumps out and, unbelievably, the old man is still alive.

He runs up to the banged-up old guy and says, 'I'm a doctor.... Is there anything I can do for you?'

The old man whispers, 'Unhook my braces from your side view mirror!'

It's Blowing A Gale Outside

Our weather current forecast is for strong winds and showers with today getting to 26 degrees. It is blowing a gale outside right now though the picture to the left doesn't show it as well as I hoped. And "occasional showers" meant I tipped another 44mls out of the rain gauge this morning which is well over 1.5 inches of rain.

Right now the sun is shining and the thermometre in the backyard says it is 28 degrees out there! Trish is in Melbourne right now while I am still at home on the Sunshine Coast.

The main computer still causes some heart tremors, most times it operates perfectly while other times it freezes on startup. This usually means press and hold the main power button for a power down stop. This can also lead to the monitor not loading upon restart. It means disconnecting everything then putting it all back together and restarting. Then everything usually works perfectly. I think I am in for a re format of the hard drive again. This may occur next week though right now it is running beautifully.

I am off to do a little movie swapping this morning with a mate from the Computer Club.

On The Air Again

We had an electricity supply sub-station replaced near us today. This meant we were without power. It went off just after 9 am and was due back on about 3 pm. Power returned just after 1 pm. The next 15 minutes was spent resetting clocks on the microwave oven and the phones, and the oven and the bedside clocks. I am sure I will find a couple more things which require resetting over the next day or so.

Another 29mls of rain overnight followed up by 8 more today.

The sun is out right now as I type and there is a stiff breeze blowing. It is much cooler too, about 28 or so in the backyard right now.

Without any power earlier today I did a little shopping, refilled a couple of printer cartridges, got some more home brew mix and other such necessities.

I have just about had enough of my Internet Service Provider (ISP) so I have spent a fair bit of time re organizing email addresses for 'important' account contacts. I am swapping them to Yahoo addresses, then if I change ISP again I don't need to go back and redo all my account email addresses. I should have set it up like this in the first place I guess. I reckon I can get another 15 GB download and pay $10 less per month if I swap to "Internode". It is certainly dearer on the internet here than what Lou Ann pays in Texas. From memory she pays US$20 per month for unlimited 1500 speed connection. I am sure she will let me know her costs!

I have to give my current ISP (Netspace) 30 days notice that I am leaving so any change is still some time away!

Dry At Last

The last couple have days have been free of any rain. Temps are beginning to cool off a little (most of the day around high 20's) and sunrise is now 5:45 local time, an hour later than in mid summer. The pool is around 26 degrees.

Life has been quiet though with Trish getting ready to fly to Melbourne for a fortnight tomorrow.

After the prolonged hot dry weather over summer the front lawn virtually disappeared. The ground was rock hard and the dead grass just crumbled beneath your feet. There were heaps of patches where there was just no grass at all. The recent rain has turned the lawn green again and many of the bare patches are starting to be grown over again. I 'fed' the lawn yesterday so I expect it will be growing like crazy in a week or so.

Our front lawn is a little steep so I need to feed it at the best time. If you get heavy rain just after feeding, all the nutrients get washed down the steep slope and into the gutter. The ground is soft now so hopefully the food will seep into the soil!

Squally showers are due to return tomorrow afternoon! But there is cricket from New Zealand on again today.

Melbourne Gets A Queensland Storm

We had a call from Kate late yesterday saying Melbourne had been hit by a huge storm. Some areas received an inch of rain in 30 minutes as well as hailstones the size of golf balls. Kate and family were visiting friends in the hills to the east of Melbourne when the storm and golf ball sized hail hit. Every panel of their car has been damaged from the hail, some dents so deep the paint has chipped! They are off to the Insurance Company tomorrow.

Meanwhile we only got 7mls of rain here yesterday totalling 274mls (a whisker under 11") since last Sunday. Washing had been piling up and with Trish heading to Melbourne on Wednesday it needed 'doing'. We have a cheap 'in an emergency' clothes dryer and it had a bit of a workout! The patio looked like this yesterday.

The airers are outside again today (Sunday) but all is pretty well dry now. It looks like most stuff is clean and dry now.

At last this morning I was able to get out for a bike ride. I did about 12k's, my first ride in about a week. A new shopping complex is being built on the estate and work has recently started. The first job is to dig out the underground carpark area. Not sure if it is a proposed carpark or a pool after I took this shot this morning!

Even though it is a bit overcast, the temp is still just under 30 degrees right now. The humidity is up, as you would expect after 11 inches of rain, and is around the low 70's. The pool temp has dropped to about 26 degrees which is still quite warm after the weather we have had.

Trish and I watched the movie Crazy Hearts last night. Jeff Bridges has received a Best Actor Nomination for the Oscars for his role in the film. Not too bad a movie at all, we both enjoyed it.

More Rain

The total rainfall for this week now sits at 265mls or about 10.5 inches. You can check out the figures HERE. The rain has fallen over a long period of time so we haven't had any flash flooding or anything around where we live. The scary bit is the rain is predicted to increase tomorrow and Sunday, with more heavy rain expected. The good side is that Brisbane's water supply, which was down to about 18% a year or so ago, is now sitting at about 84%.

Today is a bit overcast but it is 28 degrees outside in our wind protected backyard right now. It is a little breezy with wind from the north east blowing right down the passage way of our house keeping things cool.

I had a couple of visitors who sat on the fence less than 2 metres away from me last night when I was getting the BBQ ready to cook lamb chops for tea. I stepped away and one swooped down to have a go at the meat. He flew away but his mate waited and watched. He eventually got a small piece after it had been cooked!

Lou, these birds are called magpies and are found all across Australia. You probably have them where you are too.

Almost 9" Of Rain

The total in today's rain gauge brings the total for this month to 217mls which is from when the rain began on Sunday night till about 8 am this morning. 225mls = 9". So the total is almost 9" of rain. Today we have seen a few patches of blue sky but there is mostly cloud hanging about. Showers are forecast for today and more rain is forecast for the weekend. We have had a couple of heavy showers since the gauge was emptied earlier.

It was so cool yesterday we closed up all the windows and doors of the house when we watched TV. It was only about 22 degrees (mid 70's Lou) outside.

This means over 9" 0f water has gone out of the pool as it overflows. This takes some of the salt with it. After 9" of rain, the pool chlorinator is saying the pools needs more salt in it. I bought a couple of bags of salt this morning but I will wait till the we get a fine day before adding a bag to the pool. At this stage the next fine day is due on Monday!

With this bad weather it means it is stay inside time mostly. However there is cricket from New Zealand on TV from about 11 am this morning. I managed to get another bottling done, this time with the help of the young boy next door. I am not sure what he enjoyed more, helping me do the bottling or the mini Snickers chocolate bar I gave him when it was all over. The picture left is of the hydrometer reading I took this morning to confirm the beer is ready to be bottled. When I first made the brew the hydrometer reading would be about 20mls below the green band. When the hydrometer reading is in the green band, it is ready for bottling! You may need to click on the photo for a larger clearer view, then click on "Back" to return to this page.

This brew is a Cooper's Lager spiced up with half a lemon!

We Have Heaps Of Rain!

It has been raining steadily for over a day now. It is raining continually with a bit of wind about but not too much. So far we have received in excess of 6 inches (150mls) but being steady rain it is able to get away OK. The pool water level isn't rushing over the top or anything. The pool has an inbuilt overflow pipe (about 1.5 cms diameter) and it is coping quite well.

You would expect to see scenes like this (above left) on any road near a creek so it really isn't anything unusual after 6" of rain. Just a good time to enjoy the cool weather and sit back and enjoy a movie or two on TV!

I just took this screenshot off the Weather Bureau radar which shows graphically the downpour we are experiencing right now.

Not a good time to be driving on the roads though. I see where all the Sunshine Coast's dams are now full as you can see in the pic below.

Overcast and Steamy

Sporting results over the weekend made it a disaster for me. My footy team was beaten in a pre-season practice match, my State cricket team (Victoria) was well beaten in yesterday's final and Australia was defeated by New Zealand in an incredible T20 match.

The showers commenced about 9pm last night and we have had some heavy showers since then. The rainfall total is heading towards 25mls (an inch in the old scale) and the forecast is predicting the showers to change to 'heavy rain' overnight tonight. Right now at 9 am it is 24 degrees but the humidity is 95%. Fans do a marvellous job of cooling in this sort of weather..... fortunately!

Needless to say it was too wet to ride this morning. Yesterday I noticed a couple of signs of canvas showing through on my rear tyre so this morning I swapped over a good tyre from Trish's old bike on to my rear wheel. Now all is fine again. It is messy greasy work messing around with bikes, especially anything to do with the rear wheel. The patio area looked like a bike repair shop this morning.

This afternoon Tony and I are meeting with the local Councillor to discuss residents' issues effecting our estate. She was given our list of queries about 4 weeks ago so I guess she has had time to find out all the answers for us! The tonight at 7pm we have a Community Association Meeting to give reports on what each group has been up to and plan for the future.

Yesterday I did a bit more work on the Bellvista Community Association website bringing it all up to date. I usually take my camera each morning on my daily ride and look for a photo or two to update the website. It needs to be updated regularly to keep people coming back to it, especially the pages labelled News & Events and Photo Gallery. You can find the BeCA website HERE.