Dearest Readers,
Mr. Fuzzy takes this moment to apologize for the total lack of his posting for the past several weeks. In early December, ye old HP laptop's WIFI card became erratic and required a set-up each time the computer was powered up. After about ten days of this inconvenience, the WIFI card ceased to function under any amount of coercion. Alright, Mr. Fuzzy says to himself, the computer can be hard-wired to the router; being tethered to the router was a severe limitation but worth bearing for communications from the Greater World. Then the connection had to be re-set each time the computer powered up. Astute readers will notice a pattern, perhaps, and sure enough, even that finally failed to rouse the internet connection. Drat. All else in the computer would appear to be copacetic but the most important function is the connection; without it, work neither arrives nor departs - or warm correspondence from you, fond reader.
This problem was not new, alas, for this model of HP had been recalled by the factory for the failure of said WIFI card. It is worth noting that Mrs. Fuzzy spent six or seven hours (in one day, bless her saintly heart) on the telephone with HP technical assistance in the subcontinent of India. She received a most thoroughly disgusting run-around and in retrospect, we now know the HP already had thousands of these units fail and yet they had us removing batteries, etc., via phone instruction from a barely-native English speaker. Several days later, the recall announcement arrived.
HP was rapid, they did pay transport to and fro and the problem was fixed - temporarily. Alas, as they warned it might be, ALL information on the hard drive was removed; totally blank Twenty-seven CDs worth of back up needed to be reloaded (it required five hours to download and more to reload; some programs now had kinks that before functioned without the slightest flaw). There is little doubt that the new problem is identical to the old problem, however, it was not deemed worth two days of our time (on the phone to technical assistance and backing up the hard drive) even IF they would repair it. Moreover, given the age of the laptop, tech assistance is no longer free; for the cost of six hours of "assistance" a new computer might be had.
So, with these time and monetary costs in mind, the Fuzzies ventured into The Big City and a Best Buy to apprehend a new Toshiba "Satellite" laptop that cost less than half of the HP and runs virtual rings around it. Long may it live!
It has taken a disproportionate amount of time to reload the old programs and fire up the internet connection. A more youthful and more intelligent lad might not have required half the time Mr. Fuzzy needed. Now, at least, Mr. Fuzzy is once more connected to the world once again and longs for news of our correspondents.
During this period of enforced seclusion, Mr. F has continued to make photographs of all events worth noting (and others not worth noting) on Stratheden Farm and its environs. Forthcoming: detailed verbal and visual narratives of the winter storms which have ravaged the Old Dominion in the last three weeks, the tales of struggle, labors, dangers, and at last, salvation, albeit most transient.
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