Yep, It's Wednesday!

Things have continued to cruise along.  Not too many hassles and most days the max temp is around the 30 degree mark.  It's not too hot (unless you get outside and do stuff like mow lawns or something).  We have noticed a slight morning chill in the air the last day or so.  I did wash the car yesterday afternoon and found an icy home brew and quick swim in the pool a great way to cool off.

But still there hasn't been any extreme heat to contend with.

Mostly we have been unwinding after the hectic day we had on Friday with the success for the Community Association and the helicopter operators.  You can check it all out here.  There is even an online video of a report on the Forum Meeting itself.

The Committee Member who does the Newsletter is away in Sydney so I took that role back on for the February issue.  It is like riding a bike, once you have done it a few times you never forget.  We usually just copy/paste from website items and modify them slightly so the fit or read properly.

I guess it took me an hour or so to put it all together.  I then upload it online and invite committee members to download it and check it for me.  Trish has a close look at it as well so any hassles, misspellings or bits which don't make sense get sorted.  Then it is emailed to one of the local MP's whose staff print off 1400 copies for us.

Jess, who lives over the road, has a 17.5" i7 Acer laptop.  It was top of the range a couple of years ago and remains a top notch performer even by today's standards.  Now she goes to uni she is after something a little easier to set up on her desk.  The 17'5" screen is great but it is just too big for her current needs.

She wants to sell it for $500.  That seems a fair bit to me despite the specs of what it has.  Laptops after a couple of years can be great or the screen can die, the keyboard stop functioning or other smaller hassles.  The battery is probably close to its use-by date as well.  When you can get a brand new i5 15" laptop for $650 if you hunt around or wait for specials, the $500 for this one is a on the high side of what it could sell for.

She asked me to tidy it up for her and her dad dropped it off yesterday.  Well it took almost 10 minutes to load after turning it on.  Then I started getting pop ups saying this and that were not compatible with Windows7.  It was almost unusable.

I was able to create a set of backup disks (4xDVD's) which I created just in case.  This took almost two hours.  It had an inbuilt "Return to Factory Condition" function as well.  So around 3 hours later it had been returned to just like it was the day she bought it.  It loads in a little over a minute and now seems to work fine.  I spent almost 5 hours on it in total to get it 'back'.

But for all that it remains a two year old laptop.  I would be interested in buying it but not for the $500 she is asking for it.  The Computer Club used to sell its laptops for $200 when they were being upgraded.  They weren't as powerful as this one is but that gives a clue on how much I would consider paying for it.  I will tell her I am possibly interested but not at that price.

Today I bottle washed getting ready for Friday's bottling!  Everything has almost dried out in the backyard from the bottle washing so it has to go away shortly ready for Friday.

The AFL Pre season starts on TV tonight so that suits me fine!  I don't think Trish is so keen as there is a new game every day/night for the next 18 nights!  But let the footy begin!