And Several Days Later --

I don't know what's going on with my computer -- or the internet at the ranch! I have NOT been able to connect there at all!

I had spent most of the day Thursday in Moses Lake with my dear friend Phyllis while Vic and Pam went to Wenatchee. It was a blessing to be able just to spend time with her. She slept most of the morning, so I was able to connect with Vic's wireless network; get my Norton virus software downloaded; get all the upgrades for both Microsoft and HP. It seemed like everything was going well...

Got home and attempted to access the internet and nada! I couldn't even get the computer to recognise the aircard...

We went to CleElum Saturday morning for the Memorial Service for our friend Dr. John Anderson at the Middle School Gym. The gym was full and it was a pretty amazing tribute. We heard a lot of stories about his Norwegian sense of humor and about all that he had done for rural health. It was good to see my former AHEC colleagues who were there. The community had a dessert reception following the program. There were three tables stretched the length of their school cafeteria loaded with cookies, cakes and other sweet things!

After the service, we went into Ellensburg to the AT&T store. They suggested that I delete the aircard software from the computer and then let the aircard reinstall it. I did, it reloaded just fine and voila! the computer could again see the aircard.

Got back to the ranch, had three bars, connected just fine, but then again it would not connect to the internet!

We flew to Columbus, Ohio today for the biennial Mennonite Church USA convention. We are at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and when we checked in I did get the password for their wifi system hoping that I could get it to work at least. I plugged in the computer, tried the aircard and it worked perfectly! I just don't understand what is going on!

A New Computer

Well, we did it! Took the computer back to Costco. The fellow from the Returns Desk had the computer sales guy come up and talk to me. After I told him my tale of woe and of all the hours spent with Microsoft and Dell technical service, he looked at me and agreed I had a lemon! He immediately slapped a "NOT FOR RESALE" sticker on the computer! Then went with us to see what they had in stock. I finally ended up with another HP computer (which is what I had before the "new" Dell).

There's too much installing of stuff to do, so this is just going to be a short note.

Wish me luck!