Category: Life with Pratts

Home, Cold Home

There’s still no electricity at home. The utility company says it should be back on by Wednesday night, but if it isn’t we’ll be looking for a hotel room. I’ve got the fireplace going in the evening, and I can run space heaters off the portable generator. I have a 5-gallon gas container, but I wish the generator’s tank were bigger. We have oil lamps, and they work great. I can see why sperm whales were hunted to near extinction before petroleum took over. My GE Superadio III, 17 years old, has been our primary source of entertainment.

Compliments of great guy Mark Sinnott, here’s a follow-up pic from the Albany Comic Con, with me on the right, with Denro and Joe Sinnott. Men with caps! As always, I make a point of not looking directly into a camera flash, which is painful for somebody who has lattice degeneration.

XPerienced system

It was ten years old today that Windows XP went on sale to the public. Prior to its release I’d been running XP at work for a year in beta form, and knowing it would be a winner I bought a Compaq Presario 5300 desktop computer for Carol on October 25, 2001, as an early birthday present. Three years later, it became Eric’s system when I bought Carol a Compaq Presario 2210 laptop computer. Like the desktop computer it has 512 MB memory and a 40 GB drive, except the desktop came with only 256 MB and 20 GB.

Over the years I’d purchased two Dell desktop systems, and both suffered major motherboard failures, which means I’ll never buy another Dell. Meanwhile, both of the Presarios continue to chug along. Carol is still using the laptop and has no complaints and the desktop, with a USB hard drive attached, is in the basement ripping CDs and running Logitech’s free music server software.

Logitech Squeezebox Server

Microsoft will continue supporting Windows XP through April 8, 2014. There are two Windows 7 64-bit systems in the house now, but I have never used Windows Vista at home. Having used Vista at work, I knew it was a clunker.

P.S. This is post number 2500.

Strong influence on the weak-minded?

A few days ago I was on my last disposable razor when the shaving cream ran out, so I went to Target, intending to buy the same combination of Gillette Foamy and Bic Comfort 3-blade razors that I’ve been using for over two years…

… but then I decided on Barbasol shaving cream and Gillette Custom Plus twin-blade disposals. I thought I had based my purchase solely on price, but today, while going through last week’s New Yorker, I spotted something in an article I’d already read. Hover over the picture to see what it was.

Coincidence, or the power of iconography?

Bamboo and Bambu

What’s this?? What’s this?? Baby Boomers and Seniors being lumped together, for the New England Boomers & Seniors Expo, as if these two very distinct groups are now one and the same?? So it’s come to this at last. Say it ain’t so, marketeers!

I had to go to the dentist Wednesday morning. The office is in a neighboring town. When they were done with me I recalled there’s a CVS somewhere around there, and while walking around looking for it I spotted a small True Value hardware store with bamboo rakes on display out front. Yay! I needed a new rake, and Home Depot and Lowes only carry plastic and metal, so I grabbed one and went inside.

Oh. My. God. The place is a hangout for old, retired guys, futzing around. Most of them look like they’re about 70. They’re the same age as the Beatles! How did they turn into their fathers?? Is this the future that’s fated for all of us Boomer men?? They should be getting stoned and hanging out at a record store, going through bins of used vinyl LPs!

Pulling on a Poulan

I’ve had a Weed Eater gasoline leaf blower for 10 or 12 years. The spark plug won’t come out anymore and the muffler is rattling around loose under the partially melted plastic body, but last fall it still started and ran. Knowing that its days are numbered, and with the New England autumn coming on fast, I’ve been looking for a replacement. Today I bought a Poulan Pro BVM210VS, on sale at Lowes for $90.

I got it home, installed the tube, put in some 2-stroke gas, and followed the starting instructions:

  1. Set the choke lever to “start”
  2. Press gas primer bulb 6 times
  3. Pull the cord five times
  4. Click the trigger to make choke switch over to “run”
  5. Pull the cord until it starts… or the cord comes out in your hand

Huh? That last part wasn’t in the instructions. I stared at the cord in my hand, no longer a part of the leaf blower. So I poured the gas back into the can and drove back to Lowes to return the Poulan Pro. When I got home again I saw that the old Weed Eater — also a Poulan product, by the way — still had some gas in it, and the thing started right up.