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.

Today I:

1. Got pooped on by a bird within 30 seconds of exiting my front door, on a day where I was happy with my outfit and thought I looked nice. Fortunately, I was in a thin but long-sleeved shirt, so I didn't get any on me.  I walked back into the house, went to the front entry closet, where my clothes are kept (left over from when I was living in the living room), and changed shirts, although things didn't match quite as well.  Everyone I've told the story to has told me that it's supposed to be lucky.  I'm not sure how.
2. On the other hand, I went to take my medicine at the beginning of work and realised that one of the pills looked off, and in fact looked a lot like something I took last night. I pulled out a magnifier I keep with me to look at the imprint, put it and the shape and colour into the drugs.com database, and it wound up being tizanidine.  They're pretty mild, really.  Each tablet is only 4 mg and you normally take three at night, but they can make me loopy.  So I'm glad I caught it.  I went through the other bins of the pill reminder box and there was one more.  I'm not sure if I consolidated some other medicine and accidentally put tizanidine into a similar bottle, then put them in the reminder box, or what.  I think that's what happened, anyway.  To be honest, I'm not sure what small white pill I accidentally substituted it for; I think it was my furosemide (Lasix, or diuretic).   Thankfully, tizanidine (also known as Flexeril) has a scored side where you can divide it into fourths, and that's what clued me in because I noticed it last night when I took them. I guess that was lucky.  Oh,  wait, we're back to the bird poop.
3. After work (which was steady) I went and picked YKWIA from our friend's house, took him home, let him rest for a bit, then went on a major grocery run on my own.  It took an hour and a half.  I got everything on the list except wine.  I got to the liquor store that's attached to Kroger just at 10.  I asked the security guard if they were closed, and he said they were.  I asked when they closed, and he says, 'They're closed now.' Well, gee.  I got that part.  So I ask, when do they normally close so I know next time.  Nine? Ten?  It was ten--so technically I came up at 9:59, but oh, well, we'll have to get wine to cook with tomorrow instead.  Most of it was fresh produce, dairy, beans, that sort of thing.  YKWIA pretty much never cooks out of a box--it's all real food.
4. I came home, he helped me bring things in, and he put them away and I did a few small things to help.  Now I'm going to go plotz on the bed.

PS I started the manual update to the April 2018 Windows Update before I left.  It's still in the downloading phase, at 18%.  This may be an all-night sort of thing.  Okay, again, time to just collapse on the bed, listen to music and pretend my back still likes me.  Oh, and maybe take a couple of those tizanidine pills. :)

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!

That's weird

Although I was initially creeped out by the Windows 'Hello' face-recognition software on my new laptop, I've gotten used to the much quicker sign in. So I was surprised that it wasn't coming up after the last update, meaning I had to not just turn it on, but actually set it back up again, including training it to recognise me with and without glasses. I found that a little odd. But at least it only took a few moments, and it still recognised my PIN and password.

We interrupt this silence

Let me just say that I haven't written today mainly because I'm miserable. I got my friend's crud, and after getting the package (just as I put my backpack on to leave to get my friend at 6:15 pm at the doctor's office, the guy showed up), I took my friend home, and I proceeded to set up a refurbished computer (that was the package) that was supposed to be a Windows 7 machine, but of course it updated immediately to Windows 10 (which my friend hates), thanks to Microsoft. :( He fell asleep. I was there till 11 pm and let myself out. I was feeling worse and worse. My chest was really tight when I went to bed. Today I woke up with full-fledged crud, took a friend to work, stopped by and got medicine that apparently you can only get into with scissors (it tells you on the directions to use them, even), and went to bed. Got up around 10:30, called my doctor's office, and they were booked till June but put me on a waiting list, and were able to see me at 2:45 after all. I was there till almost 5 getting two shots (an antibiotic and a steroid), prescriptions for oral ones, and having some blood drawn. Then I picked A up form work, we went by the credit union, the pharmacy, and Kroger's, I took him home, got home myself, started the Windows Creator Update on my machine (it took THREE HOURS on my laptop), and went back to sleep till 9 pm. I've been messing with Facebook a lot today, mainly complaining about small First World problems because I don't feel well. So now, the computer is finally working, I thought I'd write a short note, and then head back to bed. I just took the aforementioned medicine (Mucinex) about an hour ago, but the acetaminophen isn't touching my headache. My eyes are all runny, as is my nose, although it's better than it was without the meds. I'm coughing, sneezing, and just in general hurt and feel tired. I have two fans on me because I'm running a low-grade fever. The worst thing about today, though, is I'd really been looking forward to going to the Bluegrass Orchid Society's meeting, and I just couldn't do it, one, because I didn't want to spread germs and two, because I'm just that tired. Next month is their picnic--I'll check and see if it's open to guests. Oh, well. There will be other meetings.

Okay, I'm going to go on to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'd like to get some things done. Good night.