Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Bad day at Black Rock

Yesterday was indeed a bad day at Black Rock, mostly because of computer glitches. I decided, after long procrastination, to tackle some insurance matters, but my scanner wouldn't send me an email--said it had no connection. Call Staples where I bought it and was told to call Hewlett Packard, which I did--I thought. Turns out I let some outfit called Dial-a-Tech take over my computer and tell me it's a mess, thoroughly corrupted with viruses, etc. and for only $369 they would fix it and give me virus protection for two years. Scariest thing to me was that the tech asked if I did online banking, and I said yes. In retrospect I am banging myself in the head and saying, "Dumb, dumb, and dumber."  I thanked the tech, who I think was in India, and told him I'd call back. Called my son-in-law, the computer consultant, who told me it was horribly wrong and who I'd gotten. All that time I thought I was letting HP take over my computer and that's why I answered the question about online banking. Said son-in-law was so focused on how they got control of my computer and what they did that he never addressed the scanner problem. I changed bank info as best I could, and then I called an official HP tech--who was in India, and I couldn't understand a word she said. She promised to talk more clearly and louder, but I said it was no use In desperation I went into the official HP site and figured out how to scan from there--more trouble than the printer, but it works and this morning I got the insurance business submitted.
But the thought that someone could hack my bank accounts made me so frantic that I was not patient with Jacob and his homework...and he had lots of it. We did the math (a breeze for him), the spelling (a breeze for me), the reading (a pain for him), and then began research on his project on anteaters. We looked at and he took notes on the National Zoo site and we both learned a lot about anteaters--which was not my primary interest at the time. And he wanted instant attention, when I was focused on son-in-law's emails and what to do to protect my bank account.
I fixed grilled cheese for supper, only to be met with "I don't like your grilled cheese. Can I have something else?" I said no, try it. He took a bite and said, "Not too bad actually." But then he didn't eat it or the apple slices because one slice had the husk of a seed still on it--how careless of me! I wouldn't let him get anything else to eat and about eight when he said he was hungry, I offered him the dinner still on the table and he ate half. Mean Juju!
Today was a much better day, though I sort of lazed through the rainy, drizzly hours. Got some work done but not a lot, and ended the day at supper with neighbors at the Grill. It's truly a neighborhood meeting place--ran into a good friend, and then another neighbor joined us and we had a truly interesting discussion. Stayed an hour and a half which I never do.
Ready for bed. The change in time leaves me sleepy in the morning and sleepy at night A no-win situation.

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