At Last, Some Wet Weather!

January is usually one of the wettest times of the year around here.  But it has been very dry since the middle of 2012.  Today there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon as wet weather has set in.  So far we have had around 25mls or an 'inch' in the old scale.  But we need heaps more.  There is hardly a blade of grass on the front lawn.  The last time it was mown was before we went to Melbourne for Christmas.

So today's steady soaking rain is very welcome indeed.

I was just about to jump on my bike for my morning bike ride when the first drizzle began.  Right now there is steady rain still falling.

I helped a guy buy a laptop recently.  He got one with an i5 processor, plenty of ram, 750GB hard drive and a 1GB video card.  It had an RRP of around $800 and he got it for $660. It was a Windows 8 machine as well.  Along with it he bought himself a wireless modem router.

He asked me to set his laptop and his wireless network up for him.  Windows 8 doesn't have a "Start" button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen which is where people have always accessed all things for their computer!  So the first thing I installed was a Start Button for Windows 8!  From there on things were easy.  Today I popped around to his place with his setup laptop and together we setup his Local Area Wireless Network.  Now he has a wireless network to which is connected his old and new laptops as well as an old PC he has.  He can also use his mobile smart phone now as well to access information, updates etc from his network. Finally his wireless printer can now be accessed all over his home.

The guy is also the plumber who works for St Andrew's Care which provides free services to us pensioners!  I had told him we were probably after a new mixer tap for our kitchen.  To show his thanks for my help with the laptop he bought me a new mixer tap.  I now have only to ring St Andrew's Care and he will fit it for me at no cost to us.

Yesterday two other guys from the Computer Club popped over to get some movies and see how I was able to obtain movies.  It was lots of fun.  One of the guys had a new Windows 7 laptop.  I was able to help him out with software for it as well.  One of them brought me a can of home brew mix while the other makes his own spirits.  He is going to get me a bottle of his bourbon.

Brian over the road just bought a new 2TB hard disk drive and I piled all my movies etc onto that for him.  This morning I popped over to his place and set it up for him.  Now I can easily update his movies etc onto the new hard drive and then transfer them wirelessly to his hard drive attached to his media player.

Last night we journeyed with friends to the Curry Bowl Restaurant for a night out.  The food was a big hit with everybody.  We got home around 10:30pm after some extra drinks at Ian's place.  It was a stinker yesterday so Trish and I spent the best part of half an hour relaxing in the pool prior to heading off to bed.

Along with today's rain has come much cooler temperatures.  It is a pleasant change after so much relentless hot weather.  The decision to take the gazebo down late yesterday afternoon was the right thing to do.  More wet weather is expected over the next three or four days.  And the ground certainly needs plenty of rain!