Time to do a little housekeeping here on the Cutoff.. As you might remember, my cell phone died just as I was called up to Minnesota on Labor Day, when our little Ezra was born. I won’t bore you with a tale retold, especially one about a cell phone – well, Smart Phone, a Droid, which is really much smarter than I am! You can read it by clicking above.
Just as I was getting into the groove of a phone with email capacity and all the other bells and whistles and applications and such, my email provider dumped me, mid-sentence , and passed me off to someone else, like a blind date at the prom with a better prospect. Let me just say that it wasn’t a pretty picture. I moaned and groaned, couldn’t attach documents or pictures; because there were no preferences. Nothing. Oh, it was just a mess.
So, I decided to change my email provider. It was really rather easy, especially for someone as technically challenged as moi. A click here, another there, a bit of password and username gymnastics, secret questions and there I was, a gal with a plan.
HOWEVER . . .
I couldn’t comment on most other blogs, even those of you on WordPress. Oh me. Oh my. Henny Penny’s sky was truly falling.
I may wail and rant and complain, but, I don’t give up very easily if there is something I really want to do. So, I changed my email address on WordPress, and found that I could once again email with my lifeonthecutoff moniker and the silhouette showed up, but, I noticed a problem with those of you on other blog engines (is that the right phrase?), not to mention I wasn’t getting notices from those of you I have subscribed to.
All that to say, if you haven’t heard from me, it is likely because I’m not yet connected, or, if a strange mix of Penny and Cutoff and ampersands, and various punctuation symbols have you wondering where Penny from the Cutoff is, I’m still here, my friends. I have a regular post brewing right now. Although I was out-of-town for a week, I’m still reading you, catching up, and floating about the blogosphere.
I won’t even mention the computer being down at the library and the librarians all in a flurry trying to remember how to hand process books. Then, there was Walgreens, where I just needed a few sundry items. Their computer was down as well, just as I was checking out. What almost sent me over the rim of reason, all on this very same day, was pushing a shopping cart at the grocer’s that actually had a flat tire. All the thin rubbery stuff hanging off, as if to say, what do expect, Henny Penny, the sky is falling!
Off I go to do some more housekeeping. Hope you are all well.
I hope you find all of your contacts. That can be very frustrating. Welcome home. I am expecting some cute pictures from your trip.
LikeLike
I’m sure I will, Janet. This computer “stuff” all takes up time, doesn’t it? I did go to the library yesterday, the one where the computer was down. They are up and running. Good sign.
LikeLike
How frustrating indeed, Penny. It’s like you had a little gremlin playing with all the circuitry! It seems that you must be “back together” now, and let’s hope you don’t have any more trouble. It’s hard enough to keep up with everyone even when it all is working smoothly, so I can only imagine how frustrated you’ve been. And you may say you don’t do well with all the technological functioning, but it sounds to me like you problem-solve very well! 🙂
LikeLike
Ah, those gremlins have been messing around my neighborhood a lot lately, Debra. Still a few glitches, but, they will work themselves out. I’m starting to exhale.
LikeLike
These things are maddening, aren’t they, Penny? I’m sorry you’re plagued with this.
From my end, I noticed your comments going to spam, and could not figure out why. I always approved them, but I thought it was odd. Now, I understand why that happened.
LikeLike
Been a bit of a pickle, Andra, and yes, these things are maddening. I thought I might be relegated to spam. I’ll be catching up with your posts I’ve missed while away when I’m through here. I had to reenter with my new email address to get your post notifications, so, things should even out soon.
LikeLike
Oh dear. I feel your pain. In the past few months I have had to buy a new computer (with windows 7 and windows live mail both of which I hate) and a new phone that does more things and has more apps than I am capable of understanding or even want to understand.
It has taken me months to be able to sit at my computer and not be tempted to throw it through the window. And my phone still randomly dials people. Technology can be so annoying.
I remember not long ago going into a restaurant and being told they couldn’t serve me because their computers were down. They couldn’t communicate with the kitchen or ring up orders for payment. How pitiful is that? I guess it never occurred to them to write down an order with a pen and paper and carry it to the chef…
On a more pleasant note, I love Pig Pen.
LikeLike
Those make for a lot of computer adjustments in a short time, Belle. I feel the same way about my new phone and find I am checking it much too often for email messages. I haven’t even gotten into the apps. The computer I use will need to be updated eventually and I dread the change. Technology can be annoying, I agree, yet, where would we be without it these days?
Wow. That cannot be good for the restaurant. That’s poor management. Pitiful for certain.
Me too.
LikeLike
Oh, what a tale of woe, Penny. 😦 Glad things appear to be settling down again, including for the librarians…
If it’s any help, when you commented on two of my posts recently, in comments 2 minutes apart, the first showed Penny O’Neill, but the second came through as lifeonthecutoff again, as did your comment on my latest post today! 🙂
LikeLike
All in a day; in a few hours. The librarians were in a brief tizzy, then, beings librarians, as you well know, they got out their pencils and paper and checked us all out.
Thanks for letting me know, Perpetua. Besides wanting to comment, I was curious to see which one would work. I’m glad to know that lifeonthecutoff is showing again. Such things we spend our time on. Now, I see I few typos above in my post I need to go and correct. I can blame much on technology, but these are purely mine.
Safe travel, Perpetua.
LikeLike
Penny! You have a great tolerance for computer problems. I would be (and have been at times) weeping and gnashing my teeth. It’s funny about every computer everywhere you go lately breaking down. (I read a British detective series called “Peculiar Crimes Unit” where the one detective ruins every cell phone and computer he gets his hands on apparently just by being near them; I sometimes think I’m related to him. I hope you’re not!)
LikeLike
Oh, Sallie, there were all sorts of sounds coming from me, none ladylike at all. It does seem like everywhere I go, read, they are breaking done. I didn’t even mention Tom’s trails with his phone while all was going on with me. That sounds like an interesting series. I’ll look into it soon. Thanks, Sallie.
LikeLike
Penny, you have my full sympathies, having gone through something like this recently. Ingenuity and persistence have brought you through.
LikeLike
We are determined, aren’t we Juliet? When I think of all you were dealing with while on deadline for your book, phew!
LikeLike
Dear Penny, I’m sitting here with a grin on my face because you’ve so captured the bubble bursting on the computerized world in which we live. And I so enjoyed this phrase of yours: “The rim of reason.” Ah yes, I’ve fallen over the edge often! Peace.
LikeLike
I think most of have as well, Dee. I’m glad you enjoyed that phrase. I have truly never, ever seen a flat tire on a shopping cart until that day. Peels of fruit, wrappers, cardboard, but, never a flat tire. Sigh. Let’s hope that bubble stays in tact for all of us for a long while. Peace to you as well.
LikeLike
I can’t tell you how much your experience with hotmail, and then WordPress, scares me – I have a hard enough time dealing with the technical stuff when it is working properly!
LikeLike
I think part of the problem is the I’m operating on an older computer that couldn’t support hotmail. You should be fine, Janet. I’m using gmail now, like it, but just “gotta” say, I really liked using hotmail. I’m still working through a few “kinks”, sigh.
LikeLike
Amazing how we have come to depend on these computers, Penny! I do not know what I would do if mine – or my WordPress account- started misbehaving….
LikeLike