Bye Bye Windows 10

Yesterday morning, just after I had paid all my bills (thank goodness) Windows 10 deleted itself along with all its works.  I still had Google Chrome but not Outlook Explorer and I still had Gmail so I was not totally cut off but obviously Microsoft hates me for complaining about its mail service.

I phoned Techie who came around yesterday afternoon and removed the body to perform a brain transplant.  He mentioned that he had another client who had also lost Windows 10 the same way and there was no way of restoring his computer either.  I just received a phone call from Techie and he is unable to bring up anything on my computer but will take off anything he can access, reload Windows 10 and load my stuff back.  So fingers crossed that he can actually get to it.

At the moment am using my Surface Pro with the small keyboard and having great difficulty, particularly with the caps lock when I type "a". I have this baby set up to beep if I hit the caps lock but it is irritating nevertheless.

Hopefully I will have the big one back tomorrow but considering Techie's problem with it I am not expecting too much too quickly.  At least I can load apps onto this one and play the Solitaire Challenge and do the rounds of the places I visit.  I may have lost all my files and saved stuff which would be a shame but maybe it was due for a clean-up  -  and I still have my old, corrupted Windows 7 computer which will have a great number of the lost files still on it.

Renamed

Both cats are currently on a diet.  Parsifal is not actually overweight  -  I can feel his ribs  -  but Poppy is decidedly plump, despite having no teeth and being fed mostly on crunchies.  So when their bowl is empty I do not rush to fill it because I cannot diet Poppy without also withholding food from Parsifal.  I suspect that he gets his share of what is put out for them but Poppy the Chronometer Kitten tends to fast forward to feed times and nag.

Every evening, after I change into my yoga clothes I give them almost half shares in a sachet of soft food  -  usually salmon with either snapper or mackerel  -  and they love this.  Keeping an eagle eye out to make sure that Parsifal doesn't chase Poppy away from hers (he already has the lion's share) I watch in amazement at how fast the stuff disappears and at meal times they are no longer Poppy and Parsifal but Dyson and Hoover.

I still have no Live Mail.  It has been two months and I am starting to get totally fed up with Microsoft and all its works.  I have Outlook, which has morphed yet again but when I went to check if I had it on my Surface Pro 3 I found that I have Word and Excel but no Outlook.  Since they come as a package with a couple of other things (which seem to be there) I am wondering what has happened to Outlook.  I suspect a dastardly plot to force me into buying Microsoft's new subscription version of Office so I am waiting for the storm which is expected tonight, when I will be turning off my modem, to see if I can re-download Office 2016 onto my Surface.  I am not holding my breath and may have to seek help from Techie who may have to be consulted anyway about my missing Live Mail and the fact that I no longer seem to be able to upload new data to my web page.

I am getting very disenchanted with computers; they are giving me a headache. 

It is all down to that dratted Mercury

Dadhichi says, in his preamble to this month's astrology predictions:-

"What is going on?  Do things seem a little out of control lately or has something you expected happened OR is your life simply stagnant?  Relax, it's only Mercury going retrograde.  Don't freak out, it's just teaching us patience and the lesson of revision, understanding and more meaningful communication!  Savour the opportunity to reflect and it might even reveal a whole new perspective."

That is as may be but things haven't improved since my last post.  Yesterday my internet provider had a 'bug' and caused chaos among its clients who could not even phone to complain  -  their phone was out as well.

I still cannot get my mail from Outlook.com as it "hasn't synced yet" and there are now over 6200 complaints on the Outlook Outage page.  Office Outlook wasn't working either and when it came back online it was different with all its folders hidden behind a tiny arrow.  I suspect that Microsoft spent the day having its wicked way with it and, bad as it was before, it is now worse.  Gmail here I come!

My niece has an ectopic pregnancy which hasn't responded to chemotherapy so she will have to have surgery  -  and she can only communicate with her husband via Facebook at the moment  -  he has opted out.  And I have a migraine ...

It almost makes me believe in astrology.

But the good news is ... the parcel which I have been tracking and which has been classified as 'undeliverable', 'returned' and 'lost in transit' has just arrived after the courier had the good sense to phone me for directions to my apartment.  Yeah  -  three knitting books with Noro patterns; real eye-candy.  Noro designs hand-painted yarn and the patterns created for it are ideal for the random colour which occurs when hand painted yarn is handspun and knitted up.  I have almost finished my second Noro sweater and am about to launch into my third.

All my planets are retrograde

Dadhichi whom in a moment of lightheadedness I subscribed to for online astrological information tells me that a lot of planets are retrograde at the moment and that, therefore, I should expect some setbacks and difficulties ... so  -

I refuse to obsess any more that Microsoft has stuffed up my email
I refuse to obsess that spies have taken over VisAbility and we now have to sign in and out at COTA
I refuse to obsess that  we have to wear ID at COTA
I refuse to obsess that I have to actually circumnavigate the building to go to the loo at COTA
I refuse to obsess that my computer, since its last upgrade, is running slower than a snail
I refuse to obsess about the parcel from Amazon which has gone missing
I refuse to obsess about one of my medications being unavailable at the moment
I refuse to obsess about the sore tooth which my dentist is refusing to do anything about

The planets can't stay retrograde forever and my parcel of Noro knitting books may still turn up or Amazon may replace them.

I have two very nice clients at COTA at the moment and they bring in their own computers so I don't have to worry about whether or not the COTA computers are working so I am not obsessing about them at the moment.  My little hotspot works well and has been a real boon as more and more people bring in their own laptops.  I prefer to work that way because that is what they go home to so we can set things up the way they want and need   -  insofar as Microsoft allows in these turbulent times.

The email system is supposed to be up and running by the end of June but thousands of people have lost everything.  It may all sync back but I am not holding my breath and at least I have other mail systems and found my contacts list so it is not really a disaster  -  more an irritation.

On a more cheerful note, I have nearly finished the second sleeve of the sweater I am knitting and will now have time, hopefully, to get back to my spinning.