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A Wise Poor Workman Blames His Tools
Jul. 8th, 2015 10:18 pmAnd the OTHER reason I have not posted daily on this tour -- tools! I have a newish laptop, a Toshiba something-or-other, and I love it, except for the touchpad software, which never worked right and now doesn't work at ALL -- I am using a little bluetooth mouse instead. And then, on this trip, the WiFi started cracking up big time. The machine had always had a tendancy to knock me off the connection, but that was easily remedied by disconnecting and reconnecting... but starting in Northern Ireland, I'd get connected in a "LIMITED" way, which meant no connection at all, and there was no way to progress past that. If you selected the "CAN I HELP YOU WITH YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION PROBLEM?" thing, it would say "SORRY YOU ARE NOT CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET AND I CANNOT HELP YOU." Gotta love Windows 8.
Finally my withered brain kicks in -- get on the net with the PHONE, and ask -- sure enough "TOSHIBA LAPTOP WIFI CONNECTION PROBLEM" gets lots of Google hits, including a simple two-part suggestion that I follow. Change one setting, run one netsh command, reboot & hurrah! We're up and running reliably for the first time in a week.
Great week, too. A weekend of hanging with Steve & Steve in Ravenstone, England included a trip to Leicester Cathedral to see the tomb of Richard III, England's most unfairly maligned king. Not the most maligned but with the others it's pretty fair. Very handsome, and the museum was cool too. Also Steve (the one who drives a Kia Soul) made what was easily the best meal of my trip, chicken stuffed with sausage and wrapped in bacon, then drenched in a rhubarb sauce with mixed vegetables. "'Twere nothing, just something I whipped up," he says, but he beats the fancy restaurants and the castle banquets and the awful pizza I had in Amsterdam.
Pizza being the ONLY bad thing I had in Amsterdam, which is an amazing, wonderful, dazzling city, and it smells of pot. REALLY. Of course, I was primed to love it, coming in after a 4-hour layover in Brussels, where every Brussellian I dealt with seemed to despair of the future of the human species, and responded with poor customer service. Like a city run by US Air. Stick to Amsterdam.
Right now I'm in Cologne, another fine city, dominated by the magnificent cathedral on the Rhine -- here to meet & have dinner with a young friend. I've known her since she was four years old, and here she is getting her masters degree! I don't feel aged at all, no.
Tomorrow, off to Munich, to see THAT PICTURE. If I succeed in my quest, I will definitely post an image here. I'm no good at photos, but I'll make myself good just for this one thing, dammit!
Finally my withered brain kicks in -- get on the net with the PHONE, and ask -- sure enough "TOSHIBA LAPTOP WIFI CONNECTION PROBLEM" gets lots of Google hits, including a simple two-part suggestion that I follow. Change one setting, run one netsh command, reboot & hurrah! We're up and running reliably for the first time in a week.
Great week, too. A weekend of hanging with Steve & Steve in Ravenstone, England included a trip to Leicester Cathedral to see the tomb of Richard III, England's most unfairly maligned king. Not the most maligned but with the others it's pretty fair. Very handsome, and the museum was cool too. Also Steve (the one who drives a Kia Soul) made what was easily the best meal of my trip, chicken stuffed with sausage and wrapped in bacon, then drenched in a rhubarb sauce with mixed vegetables. "'Twere nothing, just something I whipped up," he says, but he beats the fancy restaurants and the castle banquets and the awful pizza I had in Amsterdam.
Pizza being the ONLY bad thing I had in Amsterdam, which is an amazing, wonderful, dazzling city, and it smells of pot. REALLY. Of course, I was primed to love it, coming in after a 4-hour layover in Brussels, where every Brussellian I dealt with seemed to despair of the future of the human species, and responded with poor customer service. Like a city run by US Air. Stick to Amsterdam.
Right now I'm in Cologne, another fine city, dominated by the magnificent cathedral on the Rhine -- here to meet & have dinner with a young friend. I've known her since she was four years old, and here she is getting her masters degree! I don't feel aged at all, no.
Tomorrow, off to Munich, to see THAT PICTURE. If I succeed in my quest, I will definitely post an image here. I'm no good at photos, but I'll make myself good just for this one thing, dammit!
