So yesterday was actually pretty productive

and I'm on track for today as well. Yesterday I:

1. Went to two pharmacies and got medication for my roommate and myself.
2. Got some groceries while I was at the second to try to combine runs.
3. 'Read' for two chapters (but it was an audiobook, so I listened for about an hour, really), The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, about the 1918 flu pandemic.
4. Listened to music and perused Facebook, which probably shouldn't count as productivity, but I was up and that's what matters.
5. Organized about 60 Kindle books into categories so it isn't a terrible mess.
6. Composed a complete yet eloquent rant on Facebook concerning those who were outside of our Capitol building while the governor was announcing deaths in a huddled mass shouting for him to reopen the state and end the COVID-19 restrictions.
7. Re-watched and sang to 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog', which made me feel quite a bit better after that. :)

Today I woke up at 7 am because I'd set my alarm to early as I had not done my normal task of washing the percolator and its basket so my roommate could make coffee this morning. I wanted to make sure I was up before him, as when he gets up to make coffee he is usually so out of it and if the pot and basket are clean, he is too out of it to do himself. It's one of those little things I do for him each night, I just forgot to yesterday.  For those who don't understand, you try using a percolator rather than a Keurig and see how you do when you're half-awake.

So after I got that taken care of (three hours before he woke up!) I:

1. Called T-mobile to finally get my hotspot fixed, as  I knew I'd need it where I am now, away from the Wi-Fi, and it hasn't worked in months.  Apparently, there was no problem with my plan, the data, the laptop, or actual connexion.  It was connecting, just not giving me Internet.  So we went through various settings and two operators, each of whom had to call me back periodically, and I had to factory reset my phone, but it is now working.  If it hadn't, I still have my phone under insurance and they were willing to replace it. I feel good about my service; they were very helpful.  Now I just need to restore some of the stuff that was backed up and re-download some applications and I'll be good to go.  My music and everything was all on an SD card, so I didn't actually 'lose' anything.
2. I've taken my car to the shop to get the front brakes fixed.  They've needed it for a while.  My mechanic, Kenny @ Mitch's Auto, runs a small shop and I know their business has really been impacted by all this.  So I thought I'd get them fixed while I was off rather than taking it to a chain.  They've always been really great about fixing my car and not overcharging or anything like that.  I'd highly recommend them.  They're on Industry Road near the Circle in Lexington.

Other plans today: 

• I have to go back to our small independent pharmacy as my roommate was asleep when I picked up what was ready yesterday, but he had a few other things he needed.  But that's just a drive-through sort of thing.
• I'm going to take some things to my storage unit.  I have my winter clothes packed up (in one, not two totes this year), and I have a few other things that are sitting in my room right now otherwise.
• Reading some more. I'll listen to more of the Barry book, maybe while I'm waiting for the car to be finished.
• Re-install things on my phone.
• Do some more reading as far as my Kindle goes now that it's ready to go.
• Straighten up my room a little.
• Launder my masks and the clothes I have on right now and from yesterday that I went out in.
• Take some pots and put them in the shed until I'm ready to use them so they don't wind up being blown around like the other day when a couple were in the yard

I wish I was in a good place for gardening.  The soil in the yard at roommate's house really needs to be worked and amended.  I thought about getting a hanging plant yesterday when I got groceries from Kroger, but it's cool right now and we've been under frost warnings.  I'll look next time I make a trip out to the store.  But container gardening is about our only hope right now, as neither of us has much to spare in terms of getting what's needed to improve the soil.  I do have a big tub at the storage unit that might work for a tomato plant later once the frost is not an option.  I just need to drill a few holes in it, although a co-worker has my drill at the moment.

Okay, I think I'll go ahead and post this and switch over to working on the phone.  Have a great day.

After the fiasco last October

when I lost all my documents doing a Windows update, I was somewhat trepidatious about doing the May 2019 update.  But, one thing I changed in the intervening months was that I had put all my documents on an SD card in my laptop, with Dropbox as a backup (the latter had been the case for the documents I lost, and with the exception of a couple of weeks' worth, I saved most of the rest.  Backups are important, people.)  Anyway, I had heard that the update wouldn't install with a USB drive or SD drive because of an issue with remapping the drives, but that if you disconnected the USB or ejected the SD, it should work fine.  Since ejecting the card had been the plan all along, I did so, downloaded the update in about two minutes, and had the whole thing updated within five.  It was the easiest Windows update that I've ever done, and it seems to be working correctly.

I did it this morning because I'd woken up at five and was just awake, and couldn't go back to sleep.  So  I got up, took a shower, got ready, and did the update.  I left the house at about 6:20 am, stopped by Kroger for caffeine, and went into work, getting there about 7 am.  So I  have until 8:30 am to just chill and do what I'd like.  I've gotten my personal e-mail squared away.  I'll check social media and the news.  I'm on my hotspot on my phone rather than the hospital's WiFi because I promised a long time ago not to use the hospital's equipment to blog at all after someone had a conniption over something I'd written during a break at work.  So, it's my equipment, my connexion.

Okay, let's go see what's going on in the world.  I did see on my phone that Teresa May, the prime minister of Britain, has resigned.  I don't care for her policies, or for the idea of Brexit.  Not that it matters, I suppose, given that I'm not British and they don't care about my opinion.  But she certainly was very polarising.

Microsoft is thwarting me

So a week or so ago my computer received the Fall Creators' Update, and it broke the ability of my computer to dismiss the lock screen after facial recognition or PIN entry. In other words, it recognises my face, or PIN, but has to have the PIN put in again before it will unlock. My settings are set to 'dismiss lock screen' in the settings for facial recognition. Unfortunately, in this case, I know the solution (after doing a little digging), but my computer is incapable of doing what is needed. That's because you have to edit the group policy on the computer so that it doesn't have the spoofing enabled (and in fact, it must be turned off), but unfortunately, I have Windows Home on my laptop and it doesn't have the group policy editor activated like in Windows Pro and Server. I've found a couple of sites that purport to be able to activate it, giving instructions and even .bat files, but they don't work on my 64-bit machine, even with the 'fix' for 64-bit machines. I worked for two days to get the stupid thing to work, and now have given up, hoping that Microsoft will fix the glitch at some point. On the other hand, I've lived with other Microsoft 'glitches' for years (don't even get me started on one at work that I've dealt with). So, I'm not holding my breath. It's just so annoying because supposedly I have the 'fix'; I just can't do it with my machine. The one thing I haven't tried is running the group policy editor on my other machine on a network, in the hopes of editing the group policy of the offending one, because my desktop was upgraded to Windows Pro at some point, and so all subsequent updates have been for Windows Pro, so it should have the group policy editor. Or I could upgrade to Pro on the laptop, but I really don't want to spend that much (roughly $100) to fix a problem generated by Microsoft's issue, and only that problem, as most of the other advantages of Windows Pro are not particularly useful to me on my laptop.

But if you are having trouble getting the lock screen to dismiss after facial recognition or PIN, and have Windows Pro, you can do a quick search to find out how to run the group policy editor and what to change. I hope this helps someone. Or if you have Home, maybe the 'fix' (easily searchable for both the code and handy-dandy .bat fixes) can help you. But it didn't help me. :( In the meantime, I've still got it set to facial recognition because I'd rather have to put the PIN in after that than put the PIN in twice. I assume it will do this if you put the %^W** password in, too, forcing you to put it in twice, or the PIN, but I haven't verified that. Good luck.

UPDATE: I was able to fix this by rolling back my driver to the one on the manufacturer's website. So apparently it was a driver issue, after all. Here is the site that contained steps for working on this issue: How to Fix Lock Screen Asks for Password Twice in Windows 10. Yay!

Today I:

1. Worked in scheduling, the library, and the revenue cycle aspects of my job.
2. Picked up a friend from an appointment after work.
3. Took another friend to an appointment.
4. Read three chapters of Hollow City while waiting at the appointment.
5. Got some gas.
6. Took my friend home.
7. Checked out Facebook and blogged.
8. Turned out all the lights except for the hallway and fish tanks, lit two lavender candles and some incense, and enjoyed the resulting scents and relaxing waterfall of the large tank.
9. Tried to get the wind-up clock that my dad brought from Japan on the way back from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War to stay going. I can't quite seem to get it level, even when using a level, and it will run for about 10 minutes and then stop. Yet again, this has happened, although I thought I'd actually gotten it for a few minutes.
10. Updated some things on the computer.
11. Set my Dropbox settings so it doesn't automatically connect. Often when I'm at my friends' house, I turn off the Wi-Fi because they don't have it there, and I don't want my battery on the laptop going down. But then Dropbox tries to connect when I turn the computer back on at home, and it takes what seems like forever (but seriously, at least a half an hour) to get the connexion menu to come up so I can even connect, and I think it's because Dropbox is stuck in a connexion loop, as the computer isn't connected, but it's trying to. When I changed the settings I suddenly had control over my computer again. It was a little sluggish, so something else is happening too. This doesn't happen on the desktop--Windows 10 actually sped it up, but it's connected at all times. The laptop is a different story entirely. I must figure out what settings or programs are interfering with things. I can right click to get the menu on the start button, but not left click it, for example, while it's bogged down doing something. And I checked, it wasn't automatically going into update mode or anything. Maybe it's the AVG anti-virus program, but it doesn't seem to be updating or scanning when this happens, although, of course, it's running in the background. Any ideas?
12. Was going to go ahead and work on the notes for awhile, but decided I've already spent too much time just fiddling with the computer, and my wrists are hurting already. I think I'll get the recording over to the laptop from the voice recorder, at least, but the rest of it will have to wait till Friday (as tomorrow I'm over at YKWIA's watching 'Heroes Reborn' with him, after a trip to the pharmacy for a medicine we couldn't get the other day because A was so busy he forgot to go to his appointment and get his prescription, which he got today instead. We just couldn't go to the pharmacy today because YKWIA had an appointment, and I couldn't do both and get it all accomplished by the time the pharmacy closed and still get him to his appointment. So, tomorrow it is.

I think I'm going to blow out the candles and head back to the bedroom, maybe listen to some music. I'm also going to run the dishwasher. I'd like to watch something on Netflix, but I don't think I'd make it a full hour if I tried, much less two. I'm going to try to go to work early tomorrow and make up a half-hour that I'm short on. Normally I'm in scheduling Monday through Wednesday, but our clinic numbers are high tomorrow so it's Tuesday through Thursday this week. I've spent all of today thinking it was Tuesday as a result. :)

Success!!!

Everything's set up on the laptop and running. I'm just downloading some things to do with the display drivers and installing them now. So I guess it's time to go ahead and get ready for work. Yay!

15%

That's what the large dial on the notebook says right now. It's in the final stages of the installation,  but this one is much slower than the desktop.  I put the slower download to being on WiFi,  but the whole thing has been slower.   I started around 9:30 pm,  and it's 2:30 am now, whereas the other took maybe 2-3 hours altogether.

Fortunately nothing has required my response since about an hour ago, so I can sleep and check in later to make sure it all went okay. I'll give it another couple of hours.  It's kind of like when I make bread in the machine,  in that I can sleep while waiting,  although this doesn't have a set timed end. So I'll have some broken sleep tonight,  obviously.  I could just let it go and check in the morning at this point,  but I am too much of a geek to do so.  :)

I'll post an update.  In the mean time,  good night.

Wish me luck

I'm going to try to upgrade the laptop next. It's a lower-grade computer, but then I'll be getting the Windows 10 Home, and not the Pro, so it should be okay. :) I'm downloading the files now.

Getting ready for the game

and by that I mean the Call of Cthulhu game, not the Superbowl. The house in clean, the snacks have been bought (what a lot of people at Kroger, between the football bowl and the fact that we have a significant snowfall in the forecast tonight!) We are expecting about 3-6" in our area. I'm a little nervous about it, as I'm over at my friends' house for my game and it's supposed to start snowing in about two hours or so, a little after Brenda gets here and we start. Yes, I'm a little bit of a weenie when it comes to driving in snow, but then I'm out of practice. But we'll keep an eye on things, and if it does get bad, I have an air mattress, pump, and backup CPAP in the trunk of the car and could spend the night. The snow is supposed to last till about the morning commute, so it should be interesting. All this one day after 68 degree temperatures and sun. Of course, the good news is the ground is warmer, so even if we get some freezing rain, it shouldn't be too bad.

My hand still hurts a bit. I think I sprained it. That, along with my arm, is putting a damper on my day. I'll have physical therapy again on Tuesday. It is helping overall, I think, but there are some days that I still have issues. I hope this resolves soon.

Okay, I'm typing this on my laptop using my phone as a hotspot, since my friend doesn't have wi-fi. I've got a 2.5 GB limit per month on the hotspot as part of an otherwise unlimited phone data plan. I'm going to check on the news and weather and then sign off. Hope your day is going well.

Doing some general computer maintenance

I got the laptop back today from the couple who borrowed it a few months ago, so now I'm downloading various updates, making sure it's got some protection on it, setting it back up on my wi-fi network, etc. It's taken a couple of hours but I'm almost finished.

Today I ran some errands with a friend after work, hitting Lowe's, Fayette Mall, Meijer, Kroger, and Subway all in the Nicholasville Road area during rush hour, but cleverly avoiding most of the traffic. I discovered that A startles very easy at the least little thing (loud noise in the next car, or a car he perceives as too close), making these horrible, panicked gasping noises that then startle me. He doesn't drive, and he's just not used to traffic, mainly riding on the bus. I showed him the new bus stop at Fayette Mall, which is in a stupid place, out on the service road in the back over by Dick's Sporting Goods. It has been at the entrance to Macy's for awhile, and before that at the main mall entrance. Apparently the move was requested by the mall and Macy's. So they've put it in a place without any shelter from the elements and heavy traffic. Heaven help you if you're in a wheelchair, or have small children with you, or the like. Mark my words, someone's going to get hurt due to this.

Tomorrow I get dressed up all fancy and go to my friends' vow renewal on their tenth wedding anniversary. I had to go to Lane Bryant today and get the last piece of my outfit, some Spanx hose. I'll try to get Brandon to take a picture of me in my finery after the event and post it here. I don't get to dress up much. I've sort of vacillated back and forth about how I feel about the event, given all the fuss, stress, and money for just a few hours of fun, but I know it's very important to them, and after all, it is their day. I definitely want to be there. Plus I get to meet their friends and family.

I forgot that typing on the laptop takes some getting used to. I use four different kinds of keyboards on a daily basis: my ergonomic keyboard on my desktop, the Swype keyboard on my phone and tablet, a regular keyboard at my work desktop, and then the laptop. There seems to be a bit of a lag on the laptop right now and I'm finding that between that and the placement of the letters being somewhat more compact that I'm backspacing almost as much as I'm typing.

I think I'll check on the computer's progress with its various tasks and then turn in for the night. Here's hoping we don't have any truly horrible storms. There's still the possibility of a derecho event, especially a bit north of us. It's possible we'll get storms tonight and tomorrow morning. It's supposed to clear up after that, which would be great for the vow renewal. Good night.

Oh, those wily folks at Google

Google hides mathematical puzzle in Cr-48 video, rewards its solver with a laptop

I love toasting marshmallows over a flaming laptop (except for the poisonous gases). They were very creative in destroying them, but personally I'd start whacking the men in haz mat suits after awhile. Congratulations to Sylvain Zimmer and his buddies, who figured it all out. Now that's true geekiness in motion.

The formula is found at 2:26 in the following video: