It's been a relaxing weekend so far

Yesterday YKWIA and I did our own things, for the most part. He watched 'The Flash' and 'Arrow' on Netflix, and then listened to BBC radio plays with Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. He also took care of the empty boxed we'd saved from the move he needed for something and did some other things about the house. I got some medicine at the pharmacy, did a grocery run, did most of the laundry and some dishes, re-potted two African violets, gardened some outside, and then relaxed, listened to music, and did some reading. I am re-reading Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson on the Kindle. I haven't read the third (and last) trilogy, so I thought I'd re-read the first two trilogies and then go forward with those. I'd already finished the game notes Friday night, so I had plenty of time on Saturday to do whatever I liked.

Today I got up early, took a shower (something I never got around to yesterday, which is rare), washed my bedding and then made the bed. I also took my medicine, ate, etc. I was cleaning the cat box when YKWIA got up (he'd gone to bed later than I did). He fed the animals and let the dogs out (we agreed that if I do it in the morning, it'll set a precedent where they'll bark, etc., and since I get up around 5:30 or 6 am on weekdays, that's too early for that. So far it's worked well. I find they'll come out, hopeful, but if I just ignore or maybe just pet them, they'll go back to bed. Well, the cat will stay and get loved on and follow me about, but he's mostly quieter and doesn't keep begging for food much.

We did get some very bad news last night. An acquaintance I hadn't seen in about 20 years tracked me down via Messenger and let me know that a mutual friend (the owner of the comic shop I'd worked for) now has stage IV colon and liver cancer. We'd fallen out of touch over the years. I told YKWIA (he'd known him better and for far longer) and got the address of someone who can let me know if we can help him in any way or see him, as this person is not on Facebook.

Brenda called today to cancel the game due to either a stomach bug or bad barbeque from yesterday. So we're not playing, and I have pretty much the rest of my day to do anything I want. She knows the person with cancer as well, so YKWIA told her what was going on and she was going to tell her husband, who also knows him. A little later, YKWIA called me into the other room. His Internet and phone were both out. I put the modem through a cycle, and it worked for a moment, then lost the connexion again. I called Spectrum and apparently, there is an outage in our area. Fortunately I can get on through the hotspot on my phone, but it's not good for videos, etc., due to a monthly cap of 5 GB.

There are only a couple of things I have to do today. One is to go get pen needles from the Kroger pharmacy, as I forgot to ask at mine yesterday, where I have the prescription. I also told YKWIA I would wash his popcorn bowl (and by that, I mean the top of a plastic cake safe, so it's pretty big). I'll do the few dishes that are left after I put away the ones I did yesterday.

I have to admit, I feel more relaxed here. I always used to feel rushed on the weekends, and when I was home, with all the stuff I hoarded, my apartment seemed oppressive. My room is cosy. My friend and I are getting along well, giving each other space, and have had no major problems as of yet. It's actually been pretty companionable. I really do feel like I'm home now.

Okay, I should go and do something. I think I'll do a little reading. I'm going to go to Kroger after the church rush. Hope you are having a pleasant weekend.

Okay, I am posting from the laptop

So the Internet connexion issue is resolved, everything is up-to-date, etc., and it's working via Wi-Fi, too. I think I will try to go back to bed. Good night.

PS It is funny to have a laptop above your desktop keyboard. I was often reaching for the wrong keyboard or mouse while updating. I would have kept it on the dining room table, but I needed that Ethernet connexion. :) Anyway, good night! I was only up for an hour in the middle of the night. Now it's time to go back and try to get three hours' sleep. Somehow, I think I'm going to hit snooze a lot.

Oh, and important tip: when you type in those commands to reset the Internet connexion, you must restart the computer before it works. Just thought I'd add that, in case you didn't go to the article I linked to.

So I spent a good portion of last night

Trying to get a certain update to Windows 10 (it's actually called a new version of Windows 10) to install on the laptop, which is also why I never got around to blogging last night. I discovered it hadn't installed yet on the desktop, either, but when I told it to try, it did download and install it. This came out in November, towards the early to middle part of the month. I tried several things on the forum to try to get it onto the laptop--it wouldn't even download it so I could try all those fixes I found, like changing things in the registry by creating batch files full of commands, etc. You can learn more about this update at:

Mysterious Windows 10 version 1511 patch KB 3122947 fails to install

Then I thought, you know, the desktop worked. Now, granted, my desktop is marginally better in terms of memory and processing speed, but what I decided was the main factor is it's on Ethernet rather than Wi-Fi. It takes awhile to download the file--it appears to download quickly, but then starts a slower download afterwards. Maybe it's just too much for the Wi-Fi connexion, and if I remember when I downloaded Windows 10 via Wi-Fi it took what seemed like forever.

So I have an extra Ethernet cable that I can run from my modem/router to the laptop, plugged it up, plugged the laptop to charge as well, and went to bed. Then I got up to go to the bathroom around 3 am and discovered it was downloading, but then this morning when I checked it had apparently paused when the computer went to sleep. I changed the setting for that, so it won't sleep if plugged in to the outlet. Then I left it. So when I got home tonight I checked and at first it said it was 62% downloaded, but when the screen refreshed, it said to restart the computer, so it had downloaded completely. It is now at 16% set up. Will see if it works. :) But even so, it is taking awhile.

Oh, and on the desktop, after I did the update, it changed some settings, so it turned Cortana (which I find to be utterly useless and slow) back on, changed Edge back to my default browser rather than Chrome, and did something that made me unable to connect to the Internet, although I was connected. So I went to the Windows 10 Fix Network Connexion page from Microsoft and went to the command prompt (which is now attached to my taskbar on both computers, as I'm tired of searching for it each time), running it as the administrator, and typing the following at the command prompts:

• Type netsh winsock reset and press Enter.
• Type netsh int ip reset and press Enter.
• Type ipconfig /release and press Enter.
• Type ipconfig /renew and press Enter.
• Type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.

This resets the TCP/IP stack, releases the IP address, renews the IP address, and flushes and resets the DNS client resolver cache, which solved that problem. :)

Okay, we're at 20% now. I think I'll go eat a sandwich and do some things around the house.

My laptop has given me fits today

It was connecting to the Wi-Fi and Ethernet networks, but not to the actual Internet. Apparently, my DNS settings had to be reset. The fix is here. On Windows 10, though, it's best to just search for the Command Prompt application from the search box, then right click on the icon to Run as Administrator--otherwise it won't work.

I got the same feedback as the one person who said it did not work for him--some of the reset failed. But, it still worked. All I was trying to do was move files from one computer to another, either through the network, through Dropbox, or through Gmail, and none of it worked. At first I thought it was my Wi-Fi at home, but it also wouldn't connect when I was using my phone as a hotspot at an appointment I'd taken a friend to.

Also, the troubleshooting for connexion problems kept saying there were no issues, and I was apparently connected, and in fact my anti-virus and Windows Update were downloading updates. Crazy. I even turned off my firewall briefly to see if that was the problem, and had already taken Google Chrome out of the allowed programs and added it back in. Then I stumbled on the fix above. Hope that helps someone.

I've tried both wired and wireless connexions and they're now working fine. Yay!

Never fails...

Come home to find the Internet connexion is down.
1. Cycle (restart) modem.
2. Cycle (restart) both routers.
3. Restart computer.
4. Wait. Nothing.
5. Call Time Warner Cable...instantly the connexion pops back on as soon as I reach a real person, after a suitable time making it through the menu and on hold. Hmmmm....