More Computer Stuff

It continues busy at the Thomas household.

Saturday's Computer Club was busy for me. One older member had done a System Restore all the way back for a month! She had almost 400MB of updates to do to get everything up to date again. Fortunately members have free internet access at the club so she was able to update it all. I also updated her firewall and now everything seems OK again.

I helped another chap with his Blog Page and advised him on 'easy' ways to get to his blog's "Dashboard" (where you plan what you will do that day on your Blog). Later he sent me a nice email saying all was working well.

Then another older lady wanted to insert a Wordfind into the monthly newsletter she wrote. Eventually we did a screenshot of the wordfind and inserted it via word as if inserting a picture into a piece. It turns out the Newsletter is for one of Trish's Stitchery Groups!

Yesterday in the morning a helped a guy to burn CD's and DVD's. Then Trish and I went to the doctors to update our prescriptions and to have our annual flu jabs. After lunch we headed to a local Shopping Centre. I was after a sleeveless light colored jacket, just ideal for where we live.

Trish is off on a sewing Bus trip today to Toowoomba while I headed back to sort out that Network I tried to set up from last week. Upon arrival we started up both computers. I said to her not to be surprised if the network is up and running. As soon as we started them up, the computers 'saw' each other. Then it was just a case of quickly setting up folder sharing and it was all done.

She is now pleased to be able to easily swap photos and files between their two computers.


With the scare I got the other week from the power surge I spotted a surge protected power board for sale on the internet. It also has individual switches for each outlet as well as a couple of well spaced outlets to take 'power adapters'. I was able to install it just behind the printer and monitor where I have good access to the switches. Each switch has its own red indicator light so I reckon it will look like a decorated Christmas tree each night when we turn the lights out! We won't need a 'night light' in the Computer Room any more.

This afternoon the sun has struggled to show its face. It is cool, about 22 degrees after 15 overnight. It is supposed to be about 26 on the weekend.

This Brought A Smile To My Face

Now Edith is over 90 years of age and is a member of the Sunshine Coast Computer Club. She just bought herself a new computer! She also sends me emails and I just had to share this one with everyone:

Two guys, one old timer and one young, are pushing their carts around Bunnings when they collide.

The old timer says to the young guy, 'Sorry about that. I'm looking for my wife, and I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was going.

'The young guy says, 'That's OK. It's a coincidence. I'm looking for my wife, too. I can't find her and I'm getting a little desperate.'

The old guy says, 'Well, maybe we can help each other. What does your wife look like?'

The young guy says, 'Well, she is 24 yrs old, tall, with blonde hair, big blue eyes, long legs, big boobs, and she's wearing tight white shorts, a halter top and no bra. 'What does your wife look like?'

The old timer says...... 'Doesn't matter --- let's look for yours.'

Most Old timers are helpful like that!

(Lou Ann, Bunnings is a huge DIY store we have here in Australia)

Before I Head Off To Computer Club

It is early. My cup of coffee is steaming in front of me as I type. It is a cloudless blue sky but there is a chill in the air. It is around 14 degrees outside.

Our afternoon and evening assisting Peter set up his computer for downloading movies along with a few other things was busy. Trish enjoys the company of Peter's friend Cheryl so they headed to the shops. Peter cooked a great red curry and another satay dish. It was terrific. The company was wonderful, the meal tasty and we achieved much of what we had set out to do. The threatening showers developed into an overnight downpour. We arrived back home around midnight.

The guys I ride with decided it was too wet so we all stayed home Thursday morning.

The overnight rain had produced 37 mls of rain and gave the garden a very good watering. A friend has just installed a pool so I trotted around to her place on Thursday to help her drain some of the excess rain water from her pool. We also ran through another couple of pool procedures.

I am looking at changing the method I use to sanitize my beer bottles prior to washing so later on Thursday morning I headed into Bunnings (a large DIY shop Lou Ann) and purchased a funnel and a watering can. I will sanitize my bottles by soaking them in a weak mixture of water and bleach for 20 minutes. Later that afternoon I rode the bike around to a mate's place (Tony) and had a talk about home brewing and then we enjoyed a couple of quiet beers. Tony is recommencing making home brew again so we talked through the methods each of us use.

Friday was sunny again so we managed a quick 10k bike ride. We arranged to meet later so I could show Tony (seen here in the yellow top) how to add pics and text to the BeCA online web site. Then I headed around to another Computer Club member's home to help her set up a home network. They are usually straight forward to setup but I just couldn't get this one to work. She needs to restart her modem/router each day to get internet connection so there is a possible hardware problem there.

The guys I ride with (Tony and Paul) arrived for the quick PC tutorial on web sites about 3 pm and afterwards we knocked off a few home brews. The pic above shows the three of us relaxing poolside.

Today (Saturday) I have Computer Club and then I will become a couch potato again and watch the footy on TV. Trish's team which beat mine to win the premiership last year suffered an embrrassing loss to a lowly ranked Essendon last night.

Wednesday Again

It has been a while since I last entered something on my blog page.

The weekend saw me to the Computer Club again where I was pleased to be able to help some people out again. The rest of the weekend was spent as a couch potato watching the Aussie Rules footy on TV.

Monday was bottle washing day followed by a visit to a friend named Betty who we have met while riding. Betty has just had a pool put in and had a few problems with the installer. The pool 'handover' was brief so Betty wasn't sure how to run her salt chlorinator. It is the same make as the chlorinator we have on our pool but it is the latest model. We were able to work it all out though.

Trish did her volunteer morning at the Tourist Info Centre Tuesday morning while I was busy investigating movie downloads on the internet.

The computer is working pretty well at the moment with only one 'restart' required the last 3 or 4 days. Trish is sewing this morning and then later today we are invited to a friend's place for tea. I will spend a bit of time with him getting him to be able to download movies, setting up the appropriate software, registering at the better download sites and finally setting up his Rapidshare Account. That Peter enjoys a few beers and red wine is a further benefit. He is also a keen cook and is doing the cooking for the meal.

The photos above were taken the other morning and are of the Bellvista Lake, the centre piece of the estate, and a nesting black swan which has made its home at Lake Bellvistsa.

Today I bottled a brew and here is another box ready for the 4 week wait until it is OK to drink. Our weather has been overcast and showery with max temps about 24. Being cloudy, it is not cold overnight with temps around 15 or so. We have had a few mls of rain each night, enough to keep the garden watered and enough to prevent us from riding the last two days. Right now mid morning it is a cool 17 degrees with showers threatening!

I had an email from our grandson Andrew yesterday with a movie attached. It is a quick clip of him playing Aussie Rules footy which he just loves. I have uploaded the clip to Youtube and the link is to the right no. 9 in Rogue's Gallery - Movies of the Grand Kids! He is the little guy wearing no. 6. Or just click here.

Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly is an Australian musician who is very well known here. He has had numerous hit songs and is a very popular performer. Last night Paul Kelly performed here in Caloundra and Trish and I went along to a packed "Caloundra Event Centre' to listen in. It was a night not to be missed.

Paul Kelly was preceded on stage by an American Blues singer named Charlie Parr. Throughout the 40 minute session he sang about 10 songs and to the uninitiated you may well have thought many of the songs were the same. But could this guy play the guitar? It was worth watching just to see how he made that guitar dance.

After an intermission of about 20 minutes, Paul Kelly and his group came on stage. A very pleasant surprise was that the single female backing singer was Vikka Bull. She sang at least half a dozen songs and man, can she belt out a song! She is a terrific singer. I found I need not have worn my hearing aid to the concert last night and I would not have missed a thing!

But Paul Kelly was certainly the highlight of the night. We both enjoyed some of his slower less rocky songs such as "To Her Door". The night was great. The group came back on for two encores and finished at about 11 pm.

This same concert gets down to Melbourne (Paul Kelly's home town) about May 22nd.

A cool overcast day today, especially this afternoon with temp about 21 or so. Winter is on its way! It was sunny this morning when we had a 14k bike ride.