Add Computer Repairman To The List!

It was my worst fear come true! Before breakfast this morning I wandered into the "Office", turned all the power on, pressed the "Power" button on the front of the computer, the red light came on and whirled away for 5 seconds and then ..... NOTHING! I tried several more times, all with the same result! I had refrained from buying a new PC after the 3 year warranty period finished on this old one because it was running so well! My ghosts were now coming back to haunt me.

I jumped on the laptop and checked out the prices of 'new' towers at a couple of the larger retailers around here and got the best deal I could see.

Saturday is Computer Club day so I went along but this time I was going to be asking a few questions. One of the repair guys there said to take the cover off the side of the computer, take out the two 1GB ram cards and give the contacts a good clean by using a 'white lead pencil rubber'. Put them back in and see how you go.

The Ram cards are the 2 vertical long green colored things you can see in the photo. They have a white clip on either end to lock them tightly into place. In the photo one of the top white clips isn't fully in place. It took a couple of attempts and I eventually did it and got both cards going again. I was relieved (but a little disappointed) the PC fired up and was working fine again.

The first thing I did was a full back up onto my external drives! Because I had been a bit busy (and lazy), I hadn't backed up since before we went to Melbourne mid December last year.

Now Trish repairs cars and I can repair both dishwashers and computers! I was very proud of myself. Ordinarily it would be a trip to the PC Repair shop, a $100 bill and I would be computer-less for several days.

However I think the writing is on the wall for this PC. My PC works quite hard and is used almost everyday and for much of the day. I will begin to see what is available and look to update it.

Most likely the computer problems were exacerbated by the current humid weather. Some moisture may have got into the connections to cause the contacts to fail. Right now it is raining again and we have been told that some areas north of Brisbane may expect falls up to 200mls.

Wet Again!

The Thursday weather forecast was for heavy showers during the afternoon. It was very muggy up till then with the occasional shower coming through. We received about 30mls between 2 pm and 3 pm Thursday afternoon. I tipped a total of 56mls out this morning and again showers are scudding across the sky this morning with more heavy rain predicted for this afternoon.

Caloundra usually experiences an average of 1574mls of rainfall per year. The average rainfall for December is usually 144mls. My figures show for 2010 we experienced 2552mls with 673mls falling in December. So for 2010 we were about 1000mls above the annual average while December was almost 5 times the usual amount of rain.

Rain is predicted here for the next 5 days and nights!

The pool has a small overflow pipe which drains water off to the storm water after heavy rain. However the overflow pipe is small and it seems to take an eternity to get rid of excessive water from the pool. I have set a siphon up as well as you can see in the photo. If you click on the photo for a larger view you can see the small overflow pipe in the skimmer box as well as the siphon into the pool.

If the pool were to overflow you can see another drain beside the skimmer box which directs unwanted water into the house storm water system.

Needless to say that since the rain has arrived my bike hasn't been used for the last two days.

Thank heavens the cricket is over! Great to hear commentators now calling for the Selector's heads. I have been advocating this for months. The selectors persevered with Marcus North who should have been dropped 12 months ago. They could have selected a young batsmen in North's place to give valuable experience. It is possible Australia's next Cricket Test team could have several debutants.

On The Road Again

I am pleased to be back on my bike again since our return home from Melbourne. I have had two good rides of over 13k's each day now but I am on my way by 6:30 and back home by 7:15 am. The weather has been quite warm and humid after all the rain. The pool is lovely and warm so a swim is always pleasurable. I have my camera with me whenever I ride so I have been able to add a couple of 'posts' to the Community Association website too. After all the rain and with public holidays the grass around our estate is going wild.

The photo above left shows the view this morning looking over Caloundra from Pumicestone Passage. A little heavy cloud cleared to a mainly sunny day. However we return to wet and stormy conditions overnight and into tomorrow.

In round figures Caloundra usually gets 65" of rain per annum. 2010 saw us have over 100" of rain with almost 27" falling in December. December's average usually is about 6". So it has been very wet indeed. The floods are about 500k's from where we live so they are of no danger to us. However everything smells of mildew. We have spent a little time wiping all our leather goods clean. I gave a couple of items outside a quick pressure spray earlier today to remove some mildew.

Our bags from Melbourne have now been unpacked and most of the washing has been done, is now dry and has been packed away. My computer has been upgraded with all the stuff from our time away. Emails have been answered and virus definitions updated and a couple of programs have been updated.

On top of all this Trish decided to change the furniture around in the lounge room. This required moving the entertainment unit along about 18". It took a bit of time but we manged to move it. I had been promising a couple of other tidying up things so I did these too. The photo shows the new setup.

I bought a 'wireless dongle' for the new media player when in Melbourne. I connected it yesterday and now I am able to stream video directly from my computer to the media player and onto the TV. It is quite impressive!

There is plenty of cricket and tennis on TV at this time of year so we haven't been watching movies as yet. However we may have a look at one tonight.

Be It Ever So Humble ...

We have arrived home. There sure isn't any place like home. Though we had a great time and stayed in several places it was great to at last sleep in our own bed again. After a 900+km drive from Newcastle to home our own bed was a welcome sight.

We visited the elderly aunt in Canberra for a couple of hours Sunday morning before again setting off for another 400+k drive to friends at Newcastle. The hospitality upon our arrival there was wonderful and we chatted, ate and drank late into the evening.

Sunday morning saw us head to a large new shopping complex in Newcastle for an explore. Trish and I enjoyed some Malaysian food from a food court there for our lunch. The afternoon was spent quietly transferring movie files from one hard drive to another and telling each other tales from our respective trips to Europe.

We had dinner with friends of Janet and Michael's at the local "Sporties" club. From there it was to an apartment for some more computer talk and further file transfers. We fell into bed about midnight.

The next morning we were on our way back to Caloundra at about 8 am. Being a Public Holiday we expected and got some heavy traffic, especially at the towns of Kempsey and Macksville. This added about 30 minutes to our 9.5 hour drive.

We rolled into Caloundra at about 6:30 NSW Time, 5:30 local time! We did some unpacking but not much! I did give the pool a clean as it was quite warm and I thought a quick swim before bed would be a good idea. It was a sensational idea, the pool temp was about 29 degrees and a wonderful way to finish a long day.

From Yass, NSW

There is free internet access at the motel in Yass that we are staying in so I get a chance to do some more internet stuff.

We left Kate and family in Melbourne about 9 am yesterday (Fri). The forecast was for a stinker of a day, strong winds and up to 40+ degrees. We felt the earlier we got on the road to find our way home to Caloundra the better. Our first stop is Canberra where I will catch up with an elderly aunt. Yass is 50k's from Canberra so a good spot to stop for the night. It was about 650k's to here so a comfortable drive. Best of all there were very few locusts about to splatter and block up my car radiator.

The outside car thermometer showed the hottest we travelled through was 38 degrees (100+). It was 34 or so here when we arrived in Yass.

We had a reasonable meal at the local "Soldier's Club" and Trish had a win on the pokies. Then back to the motel where we watched some stuff of my hard drive via the media player I had brought with me. We were asleep well before midnight so missed seeing in the New Year. We did enjoy some drinks though!

It is now after 7 am New Year's Day and we have an hour or so until we expect to be on the road again for the 40 minute drive into Canberra. Another hot day with Canberra expecting 37 degrees today. After the visit it will be about 4 hours then to friends in Newcastle. We expect to be there later this afternoon and they are expecting 34 or so! It is hard to realise that when I was at the MCG earlier this week the temperature was a mere 12 degrees!

We haven't heard from Kim since her arrival in India. Trish is a little concerned but internet and phone not the best services there.

And it seems the rain has stopped at home too though other parts of Queensland had been hit by floods. We expect to be home late on Monday after spending two nights with Janet and Mick.

Happy New Year everybody!