It stormed yesterday afternoon and last night, we got some snow. It is snowing out there this morning, and the snow squall warnings are still in effect. We are staying at home today, cozy and warm in front of a roaring fire.
The weather has turned mild, our cold snap is over for now. This has been a very rainy winter so far. The effects on us are many.
On the positive side, Attila does not have to shovel rain. Another advantage is that we burn less wood to keep warm, again making Attila’s life easier.
On the negative side, driving has been frightening, the road is often ice covered, snow packed, slippery and visibility can be poor. I drive a distance to get to work, on a winding road through rock cuts and swamps. The road is not “divided”, which means that when it is ice or snow covered the line dividing the lanes disappears. What that means is that drivers have difficulty discerning the lane they should be driving in. I find that fairly often, an oncoming vehicle thinks that driving down the middle of the highway is the solution to this issue, forcing me off the road and onto the soft shoulders. It is slow going, and very stressful. You never know what is around the next rock cut.
This week I decided to update my operating system. The new system, Lion, is very nice and the whole process was painless.
However I did make one very big mistake. I have encrypted directories using PGP Desktop 9, the program will not open in Lion. My crucial files have become inaccessible. The company who created PGP Desktop 9 sold to Symantec and Symantec’s Web site and information on upgrades is nightmarish. I have yet to figure out how to get my files out of those encrypted volumes!! They are a .pgd format. I will have to continue working on this, as those are crucial files. I may just have to purchase an older computer to install PGP Desktop 9, open the encrypted volumes and copy the files to open directories for backup. I need either a Mac computer running OS 10.4 Tiger, or the universal install disks to install OS 10.4 Tiger on my laptop.
This is the second issue I’ve had with software companies selling their software to other software developers and leaving their original customers in the lurch. The other was YUM, which is recipe software. That nightmare that I have resolved, thanks to many suggestions from other people. I have successfully transferred my recipes to MacGourmet, and created a web site with all the recipes on it so that I have an alternate format saved.
Updating the operating system on the computer is like breaking in a new pair of walking shoes. Attila adds, “Wooden shoes!” to that statement. He has to listen to me chatter away at my machinery as I wander through the ether making adjustments and repairs.
The hamster walking continues. Last week was a bust, no walking. Yesterday working at the part-time job provided three hours of non-stop movement. Today found me pacing in counted circles to complete a half mile hike.
The end of January is drawing near! Eight more weeks till “spring” and then a few more weeks of winter weather and we will be through it. The arrival of spring in this part of the world is not synonymous with melting snow and gentle breezes. We have to wait until April before the big thaw arrives.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
SNOW SQUALL WARNING IN EFFECT
-4 °C
Condition: Sunny
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Visibility: 15 km
Temperature: -3.8°C
Dewpoint: -5.5°C
Humidity: 88 %
Wind: SW 11 km/h
Wind Chill: -8
Quote
“The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That’s one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population — the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it’s the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it’s the fools that form the overwhelming majority.”
An Enemy of the People
Henrik Ibsen