Saturday, December 12, 2009

Hard drives, India and A Christmas Story

A few months ago I wrote about never planning too far in advance of an approaching blog deadline. Why didn't I listen to my advice? This week has reminded me that the computer is in control. In fact, some nice guy in India was really in control as he had to gently inform me that my hard drive had blown up....for lack of a better term. There went my photos (yes, I need to back up my stuff...please no notes about that as I'm eating dog scraps as an appropriate mea culpa gesture.) This is why there was no posting on Tuesday. I'm sure your day was destroyed when you realised there would be no news from Casey, Telluride dog




So now I'm typing on a computer the size of a piece of cheese. Tough with claws. My new hard drive has arrived faster than even that techie in India predicted....24 hours after a service call Dell delivered my new hard drive BUT curly haired has to get home to install it.Owner is good with cookie baking and has many wonderful qualities but computer wizard is not on that list.



David droped us a line from Shanghai. He must be trying to screw up the minds of his little Chinese students. To introduce them to Christmas he showed them the movie A Christmas Story...you know, the homely little kid who wants the Red Ryder Beebee Gun, the dog eating the turkey, kid stuck to a frozen pole by his tongue, and the giant bunny suit given as a present by grandma. These are all big moments in the movie, but honestly....where did your mind jump as soon as you read the title of the film and saw to whom it was being shown. COME ON.... I know where mine went. It went straight to the  politically incorrect scene  in the Chinese restaurant and the waiters singing Deck the Hars with Bars of Harrie...right....what did those little Shanghainese make of all that, I ask you? David plans to straighten them all out with some good old fashioned gingerbread house making. For $80.00 shipping, you too can send two $6.00 gingerbread houses, two extra bags of candy, a box of Quaker oatmeal, and a couple tubes of toothpaste to China. It's Christmas....what were we supposed to do?



As for me, I can't take this tiny keyboard any longer. Due to technical difficulties at the moment, you won't get my incredible report on The Blizzard of Was for a few days. By then the storm will long be forgotten. Hopefully my frozen paw syndrome will have disappeared. This is a huge issue for me at the moment. I can barely make it outside to attend to business before my back left foot is hovering at stomach level and I'm hobbling on three legs. The vet said booties are really not necessary but I'm beginning to wonder. First it is the cold snap that punishes my feet and then it is warmed up slightly mushy snow sticking to my pads...Suffering and chowbradors do not go hand in hand. If I get booties I want the ones with treads on the bottom so I don't slide around on the ice like a lunatic. The good ones are apparently called Muttluks....gotta love a good spoof of a name, don't you?



Preparing for Christmas means different things to different people. Curly haired is being really kind and driving back to Colorado from Texas with our new vehicle. This is selflessness which is the true meaning of Christmas. It means buying gifts for someone less fortunate with the Angelbaskets project. It means fostering a dog....but we haven't figured out who is coming here or when, but I can share a water bowl for a couple weeks. For Benj it means handing in a completely bound Senior Thesis on Lobstermen and the Economy. For Jon it means taking a break from work and job hunting and sitting down to watch tons of mindless tv and loving every second of it. Kim takes a break from her patients and bakes tortieres and makes perogis so that two family traditions are followed, even when family isn't around to eat all that food.  David apparently gets his Christmas kicks messing with Chinese understanding of the West.Lights are strung, carols are sung and friends from Phoenix are anxiously awaited -- as they get to try out our mountain for the first time. Did I mention cookies...owner has got to stop making cookies. She has gotten ridiculous about baking. Tonight she made eight gingerbread cakes. Now she needs to make butterscotch sauce so she can give these things away as gifts. The house does smell lovely though.



So good bye for now. Talk to you soon. I have some great photos of the after effects of our recent storm when we got at least a solid foot of snow, and it seemed like a lot more than that. Certainly we had a ton of shovelling to do after the plough went by. Where's a man with a snowblower when you need one? Here's to Ranjit (I think) in India who painstakingly led us through hard drive testing. Heres to the guy's who shovelled out our driveway three times in two days. ...but he doesn't like to interfere with  snowplough snowbanks! Here's a warning to the bad dog owner who allows her vicious dog to run toward me leashless and snarling with fangs out.....get a bloody leash for that monster or it will be ugly! Here's to everyone with warm smiles on the coldest days of the year! You are appreciated, espsecially when you comment on how lovely my coat looks against the white snow. Yes, I am vain. So what? See ya later.

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