Number one most effective advice in warding off minor depression: act as if you're not depressed. It really helps.
Got more done today, but not as much as yesterday. Mostly phone stuff: ordering new faucet parts from Price Pfister, and trying to get the new wireless adapter working on the laptop.
Now, that was a frustrating situation, because the old adapter works just fine, and the new adapter is ostensibly identical to the old one. Except it's not, because there's newer software. So, figuring that at least the hardware was the same, I tried to run it with the old software, but that was a non-starter, literally: Windows did not recognize what kind of USB device it was, because it didn't connect that the old drivers were for the new adapter. So, having already spent tedious hours trying to make this thing work, I finally called Linksys and spent almost an hour with the tech support guy, bouncing back and forth between machines that work and machines that don't, rebooting dozens of times, only to be told, finally, that sorry, the new adapters only work with Windows 98 Second Edition, not plain ol' Windows 98. Which is really, really annoying, because the old adapaters worked just find with Win98, and why did they have to screw that up, huh?
So for now, the laptop will just be offline. The kids can deal with it. I'm not all that interested in spending great heaps (or even small heaps) of money to upgrade the OSs on those machines. You can get a decent little pc for a couple hundred bucks these days, much faster that those old dinosaurs. Maybe that's what we'll do for Christmas, get some new puters for the kids!
This evening I went to the orientation for DS2's preschool. This is my fifth year having a kid in this school, I really didn't need this orientation, but the paperwork said, quite emphatically, that ALL 3-year-old's parents must attend, so I went. In this area, at least, I am compliant. The school looks great, they did a lot of work over the summer, refinishing all the floors etc etc. But the biggest change is that they replaced the old chainlink fence around the schoolyard with a really gorgeous cinderblock-footed iron fence. It's not ornate wrought iron, it's just simple bars, but it really looks modern and clean and safe! Very cool. The new fence, combined with last year's upgraded parking lot, have really added a lot to the school. It looks terrific but it's also easier to navigate and it's safer. Very cool.
It was nice to see so many familiar faces, all of the teachers greeted me, and several asked after DD. I made sure to tell her about that when I got home, and it made her smile. I like that feeling of belonging. It's cool. We've been here long enough that we've got roots down in several places. I really like walking in somewhere and being recognized, even if folks don't necessarily know my name, like at the stores and shops we visit regularly. It's just a friendly comfortable feeling.
I am surprised how much better I feel this evening. I'm trying to figure out if it is because I went up to the school and saw people -- even though it wasn't an extremely social evening, most of it was listening to the director's presentation -- or just getting out of the house for a couple of hours by myself. It may be a combination of the two. Regardless, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth... it's feels good to feel good for a change. (Maybe it was that 3/4s of a bag of SnapPea Crisps I snarfed down when I got home? Nah...)
No comments:
Post a Comment