First Flight! (or, Jr. g33k takes her first job)

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Well, sorta…

Yesterday, I got a call from a client of ours who is very sweet although not exactly tech savvy. Her computer was being flooded with pop-ups saying that her virus protection was dead. I tried to walk her through the process on the phone, but soon realized that she couldn’t cope. So, I explained what was going on to Dan. While I was talking to him and wondering how he was going to have time to go do this, I realized that the client had Vista. A platform that neither of us are very familiar with in any way. So, while he tried to get to a stopping point, I decided that I could go and do this job. All it was was a software clean up and install. So, I told the client I’d be right down. I think I actually surprised Dan. :>

So, I hopped in Little Red Truck and headed off to her shop. She has an antique mall type place. I found out that she hadn’t done any updates and that her MacAfee’s had gone dead. It took me forever to find where to uninstall programs. Not to mention I got sick and tired of Vista’s “Nanny mentality” real fast. grrr……. Cleared up the files, downloaded programs and started to run them. Couldn’t get things to do what I wanted, because Adobe 7.5 wasn’t interacting well with Vista. Had to dump that and start again. By this time, I am getting good with Vista… sigh.

While the programs were running, I went to see if Daniel’s flowers were ready. They weren’t, so I have to pick them up later this morning. Wheee… Prom! Talked to John on the phone for a minute. He was laughing about me having “fun” with Vista. I went back and did some more work. Gave her Firefox, Thunderbird, AVG and Adobe 8. I got everything working except her email. I lhad AVG running it’s stuff and by this point, Dan had shown up to see what was taking so long. rolls eyes He was teasing me of course. However, I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we left AVG doing it’s thing and went to eat dinner.

While we were eating dinner, I found out that John had called looking for me and Dan had taken the opportunity to tell John how proud he was of me. That I had gone from computer illiterate to jr. g33k with enough confidence to go out and help some one else. 🙂 I was embarrassed and happy all at the same time.

We went back this morning and between Dan and myself, we got her email up and running as well as finished all the updates, virus clean-ups etc. Wheeeee! We picked up Daniel’s flowers and dumped the deposit in the bank.

The rest of this afternoon has been spent adding Digg, Technorati and del.iciou.us accounts. Fun…… I hope. Oh, and Prom to photograph tonight.

And how fast does that Nissan go?

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    Well, pretty damned fast. I think I saw 96mph at one point yesterday. Dan and I did a run to Denver for computer parts. We have been having issues with our systems for the hotel and Aguilar. Finally find out in a telephone conversation that the software is specific to a certain type of hardware! Aieeee-ya! I wasn’t sure which one was going to leap down the phone line first, Dan or Karen. However, I have to admit that this week has been a “comedy of errors” as we are all a little stressed, tired and in general just worn out from going too hard for too long. We all need some downtime, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon. :<

However, Once we realized that we needed different computer parts, we talked to the software guys who also sell the hardware. Downside is that it would take until Tuesday or Wednesday for the stuff to get here. As it is, we have been losing income for a month trying to get this stuff working. So, the idea of waiting was not what we wanted. Karen discovered that there is a company in Denver who also carried the parts we needed. They’d be open until 6pm, and they had the parts in stock. So, we told them to put them on hold and we would be there. Dan and I jumped into the Nissan and headed north at breakneck speeds. It was 2:39 when we left. We got to the business at 5:15pm! Talk about flying! We had just come over 160 miles in less than 3 hours. I am surprized that the Nissan hadn’t melted.

The rep had all of our stuff in a box, and then gave us a tour of the warehouse. Lovely!!! I know it sounds daft to think of computer parts as cool, neat, or lovely, but it was. All these antennas, routers, wire, cable, Rohn towers just waiting to be used! It was almost as much fun as heading to Home Depot or Lowes. Yes, I’m weird, but I like the DIY shops!

We left at 6pm, and then headed across Denver to a mongolian bbq place we found down on Wazee street in LoDo. (lower downtown Denver) Heavenly food! We loved watching the guys cook on the big grill. One of them was a real ham, playing with the food and the “swords” they use to turn the food. A lot of the staff is gay, which is fine by me. However, this one guy, a customer, just ‘swished’ in with his big oversized drink in one hand, wrist at the flop, ascot scarf and cordury coat just as we were about to leave. I had to bite my cheek not to giggle. He was just sooo over the top! Dan and I giggled all the way out the door. Of course, Dan forgot where we parked. I hadn’t. We joked about not needing GPS when I was around. I can’t help it I have a good memory for places. Especially ones I walk to! We drove home uneventfully and arrived at about midnight! Had a cup of tea and then dumped my head on the pillow!

Today, we have components to build, systems to augment and then test the systems. Later tonight, we plan to sit back with a movie and relax!!! Better do it now, because tomorrow we go finish the wiring at Town Hall in Aguilar.