LIFE IS GOOD

My life is good.

My computer is new.

It's not fixed, as an A.I. ode that was sent to me tried to say.

It's new, as in a different machine, brain, box.

I appreciate the effort but 12 seconds is not enough for truth with A.I., apparently.

But the "brain" is better and today I figured out that I needed a new driver to get my audio working and I got it and it did.

So I went searching for something to show you and this happened . . .

I hope your Monday is as good as mine has been.

Rock on!

RESTORATION

 They said it couldn't be done.

Or maybe that was me that said that.

My big ol' computer apparently had contracted a terminal illness last week.

In spite of many turnings off the power and back on and trying to reload, it kept telling me it had lost a kernel (whatever that means) and it was just not going any further.

I told all of you Oddball followers . . . no, no, I'm not calling YOU oddballs, I'm just abbreviating followers of Oddball Observations.

Any way, I told you the blog was going to have to go on hiatus until I figured out what to do.

But 24 hours later I was back.

Sorta.

I had dug out an old laptop and managed to get it working.

But, as I said then and have said many times before and perhaps I should stop saying it, I hate laptops!

The little screen, the little keyboard, the damnably maddening touchpad.

But it rescued me.

Sorta.

But then like a message from above, or somewhere, came word from old friends that they had a couple of newish computers because they had upgraded at their business and I could obtain one at a bargain basement price.

Not only that but My Favorite Computer Geek would try to get my pictures and docs from my old beast and transfer them into the new computer.

Well, he succeeded, dear friends, and once again I am back with my big (16 inch or somesuch) screen and a computer that could have fit in My Old Beast's body 5 or 6 times, I think.

And it's faster.

Much, much faster.

And late today I found all of my old pictures and documents!

I am one happy camper.

So without further ado, I will show you a photo taken yesterday by Crosstown Lori, who just happens to be the wife of My Favorite Computer Geek, who will now be known as Ruthless Rick.

And just to show you the full picture . . here he is with your contented customer.

There are many things one can aspire to in life but tops on the list is a category I have been blessed with: Good Friends.

Thanks, Rick!

COOKIES

 Just to let you know that I am not suffering too much in my Days of Computer Dismay, let me show you what the real kitchen master produced yesterday.

Those are a batch of her very special Bacon Fat Gingersnaps.

The recipe (click here) came from Julia Moskin at the New York Times who wrote that she got it from a fashion critic at the newspaper, Cathy Horyn.

And Ms. Horyn based it on Swedish ginger cookies from her hometown of Coshocton, Ohio.

And in true Master Chef tradition, my partner amended the recipe to toss in sliced candied ginger and to roll the cookie balls in "Sugar in the Raw" (Turbinado cane sugar).

The finished product is, I can say with absolute honesty, addictive.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Call it hilarity.

Or jocularity.

Or mild amusement.

It's what I need after a week like this one, what with computer problems and weed chopping-digging-poisoning.

If your week has been anything like mine, you're ready for some laughs too.

So let's see what we can find.

Okay, friends and neighbors, that's the best I can do.

I hope you got some laughs (and some groans) from them.

And I hope you won't give a thought to my computer guru as he struggles to extract my files from the now-defunct computer.

I hope instead that you all have an absolutely stupendously wonderful weekend.

And never forget to KEEP LAUGHING!!!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . warning: groan ahead . . .)

WELL THAT WAS SHORT

 I'm talking about my hiatus of blog posting.

I have a damaged, somehow, desktop PC sitting next to me, useless for now.

But I revived a laptop from a closet and got it running.

It's fairly old; I think the battery is dead; so I can only run it plugged in.

Did I ever tell you how much I hate laptops?

But I have managed to plug my keyboard into it and after some finagling around I got my wireless mouse to work with it so it's just about like having a PC again.

The only problem is all that stuff I had on the PC is just sitting there, inaccessible for the time being and maybe forever.

So we struggle along, trying to pretend nothing is wrong.

But there is one, or actually three, other problems with this day.

Special thanks to Comical Carol for sending me that just this morning as I was gnashing my teeth and fouling the air with various epithets.

I'll try to be a better boy.

TROUBLE IN RIVER CITY

I have serious computer problems which force me to put Oddball Observations on hiatus until I get them fixed, one way or another.

With apologies, see ya later.

MONDAY MARIGOLD