March 17, 2022

 Happy St. Patty's Day!

03-17-22

 It’s been an interesting few days. In an interesting few months. In an interesting few years.

Outside of all the bull###t going on with COVID still around, and the Russia – Ukraine mess (that has the potential to turn into WW3), it’s been kind of a stressful situation here over the last few days.

Most of yesterday, and a bit of today, it’s been a battle with computer issues. First (yesterday), I got a message on my older Photoshop machine that “You’ve not logged into Creative Cloud for a long time. Your subscription will be deleted in 7 days.” WTF?? I paid my subscription in December as I always do!

So, I got on the Adobe support ‘chat’ app. I’m usually not terribly impressed with it, but this time, the rep was really good. After trying several things, he was able (with my permission) to connect remotely and get everything working again. It turned out to be some obscure Windows file that apparently hadn’t updated (this is a Win 7 machine), and was needed.

A bit about this particular machine. It’s Win-7, and is running two older versions of Photoshop – CC2019 and CC2020. Why? Because 2019 still has the 3D features Adobe dumped in later versions. I don’t use it all the time, but it’s quick, simple, and useful for several things. This machine also has my 22 inch Cintiq attached.

As a side note, I tried moving the Cintiq to another machine a couple years ago, and had to use an adapter for the video. When I plugged everything in, it blew the Cintiq! $800.00 repair charge. Not doing that again.

Anyway, that issue was resolved.

Then today, my old Velocity laptop decided it was a good day to die. I have my pass-through scanner attached to it for scanning various things like receipts, documents, and so on. It’s a lot faster than scanning multiple sheets one at a time, and it will output as PDF. Now I don’t have that any longer.

Then I made the mistake of trying to see if the USB mouse I had on that laptop would work with my main Photoshop machine. It did – or at least I thought it did. But suddenly, my Cintiq wouldn’t recognize the stylus pressure or brush sizes. I disconnected the mouse, and went back to the wired mouse – but still no response from the Cintiq. Damn! It took shutting everything down, and doing a re-start to get everything working again.

WHAT have I done to upset the universe???

As of right now, everything seems to be working properly. I’m going to try that pass-through scanner on another machine, probably this weekend.

In other news….

I mentioned in one of my other blogs about my next-door neighbor, and her junkyard. I also mentioned she had someone coming by daily to feed every damned stray cat in the area. Seems that was not the case… She had not asked him to feed them.

I had a nice visit with my neighbor from across the street, Dennis. He’s kind of my “intel” source for what’s going on in the “hood.” Apparently that guy was just randomly going onto people’s property – without permission – and setting up cat-feeding stations. That’s called “trespassing” where I come from. And he’s been told rather sternly by Linda next door, Dennis, and a couple others to stay the **** off private property. I know he thinks he’s doing a good thing, by feeding all the feral cats, but it doesn’t give him the right to trespass.

And we don’t need all those damn cats all over the neighborhood, multiplying like rats – and howling and fighting right outside our bedroom window. Every night.

He stopped by next door again today, to ask if he could mow Linda’s yard for her – but thankfully she declined. Jo overheard her telling him that she got a letter from the city regarding her junkyard. So maybe they are doing something. And if she needs help cleaning that mess up, I’ll certainly be willing to help.

So….. That’s been the last few days here in the wonderful world of Rod.

Now, if I can just get ONE day to catch my breath, and relax (whatever that is), I’ll be happy. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

Rod out…