There have been some largish life events, so I thought everyone might like an update.
First, I moved to Denver. Lauren got a job and her own apartment so she’s graciously taken me in. So that’s where I’ve been lately. We didn’t have internet for a while, and even still my computer is broken from the move. However, Lauren’s new computer, which she built herself, has been running swimmingly all day. So I write from it. For those of you concerned, I am consciously trying not to co-opt her new machine into my own, despite her generosity. I know it’s hers and I’m not going to take it over even if she lets me.
It’ll be a lot easier to do that if I can fix my machine. It boots up fine but after about five minutes the screen goes blank except for vertical lines. The color varies, sometimes black, sometimes brown, sometimes grey. Afterwards the fans run as if the machine is running normally, but I cannot even get the numLock light to go off on the keyboard. It has been suggested that it could be a problem with RAM, which I’m rooting for as an alternative to the video card. I haven’t done much work on it, yet, however, since first we had no internet and I had other pressing issues to tend to, and later Lauren’s computer build was in progress. Checking the RAM should be simple, but my graphics card is pressed right up next to the ram slots, so I cannot remove any w/o removing my GPU, so the process will be time consuming. If anyone has any ideas for fixes or diagnostic tests or whatever, please let me know.
While I’ve been here not on the internet I’ve been helping? get things set up. When I arrived there were numerous problems with the apartment that turned out all the be linked to an electrical issue. Only half the power the apartment was supposed to get was coming to us, so lots of stuff worked poorly or not at all. But they fixed that.
Then the internet was supposed to be flipped on, but it didn’t work and some guy from the ISP had to come fix something that was mislabeled, probably about 1 foot from where the electrical problem had been. After that was repaired I had to talk to customer service for around 45 minutes to actually get the modem/router thing to work, but we got it in the end and we haven’t had any internet related issues since.
The third thing to break was our water heater, which burst and started dripping water down right beside Lauren and I and all her shiny new computer parts. I suspect the heater would have burst a long time ago, but who knows how long it hadn’t been actually heating water because of the electrical issues. Lauren and I were right there luckily and got towels and bowls, and when it became clear it wasn’t slowing down I managed to pull a lever thing that seemed to stop the flow. A maintenance guy came and replaced it (with my help lifting) soon after, and everything’s been good on that front as well.
So the joke is that there’s not much left that can break before we’re fully refurnished. I just hope the toilet and other plumbing holds together.
Lauren and I also went to the Ren Faire w/ her sister, brolaw, and brolaw’s bro. Those are words, right? Shut up red squiggly lines. It was pretty nice, although, we left a bit earlier than we might have otherwise, due to incredible rain. I don’t think it rains like that in Kennewick. See video put together by brolaw, Kevin. Oh, also, constumes furnished by brolaw’s bro, Austin, so credit and thanks to him.
Next week is the long planned vacation to Grand Lake, similar to last year. So I will hopefully be away from the internet most of that week as well. If I’m online during day light it means the weather is not cooperating, and at night it probably means the fire ban is still in effect and I can’t make s’mores. 🙁 Will be way fun, though, rain or shine, fire or no. Mother is going to come down for part of the week this time so I probably won’t have to post as many pics to make her jealous.
Oh, also, toast/bread with peanut butter and banana, a long known deliciousness, is good with walnuts added. Just sprinkle them on there, press them into the gaps between the banana. We had leftover walnuts after making cookies and that’s how I’ve been getting rid of them. I recommend it.
Get on G+ if you want shorter, more frequent updates from me. Otherwise, I’ll try to update this a bit more than I have been of late. Peace.