Boot disk, Windows 8.1 and flooded

28 January

Guess what … the 26th was our 35^th wedding anniversary. Not only did I forget it but so did Jan. It wasn’t until she had a text come in wishing happy anniversary that she even remembered. It’s a sign of just how much we have on here right now.

Now then, my desktop … In yesterday’s post my Which? magazine arrived and there’s a piece in it about sorting out computer problems. It says that the F8 option won’t work with Windows 8.1. The only option is to find another machine running the 8.1 OS, and creating a boot disk. That should work. Later I shall try Jan’s lappy to see if that one is 8.1, if not, well, then I’m back to where I started. Good fun these computers eh? Apparently Windows 10 is just around the corner and the hope is that it will be better than 8, which me ages to find my way around. Going back to the traditional desktop scheme would be a good start for me.

The police chopper was flying around the Weddington Road area yesterday. In the two and half years we’ve been here, it’s the first time that has happened. In Bed’th and later in Bracebridge Street, it was up at least a week. One time in Bed’th I was in the kitchen and watched a guy walk past holding a rifle. Of course, I didn’t know if it was an air rifle or something more powerful; so I called the cops and they showed up pretty quickly and went off searching for him. They didn’t find him but they did call me back to a more detailed description of him and his gun. Even so, they didn’t find him.

Guns are evil things! Every so often we see on the news about gun crime in various parts of the country. Self-defence is not a reason for owning, and even worse, carrying a gun. I fact, I see no valid reason as to why anyone would need one in an urban area. Farmers have a reason for owning one, what with foxes and dogs chasing livestock about.

This morning we did our occasional weighing session yesterday. I am now I’m down to 17st 7lbs, a drop of 2lbs. I’m pleased with that cos I had thought that I was increasing my weight again. Anyway … we stand the scales on the tiles in the kitchen; I kicked off my slippers and felt damp on the living room carpet. It was certainly wet. I looked to see if we had a leak coming down from the flat up stairs, nope, nowt there. So next was to look how far along it spread. From the kitchen door to the end of the radiator is about 8ft, and from the wall into the room it has spread around 3ft at its widest. We then saw there are two brown marks on the walls from the radiator to the skirting board. Jan was on the phone to the repairs people and now one of has to stay in for when they decide that they have sat on their backsides for long enough.

Not so long ago I was told that these flats were built around 50 years ago. The upper story has a tile cladding on them. Those tiles have asbestos in them, which means that the council workers are not allowed to touch them, a special team has to come in and remove them and then put them back up when whatever work needed doing, was done. The cost must be huge when it happens. So the council has decided that the tiles are to come off some time this year. This morning I saw a bloke walking about measuring up and I was wondering if he is something to do the tiling work. If he is, then he’s about the 5^th guy I seen doing the same thing.

Back to my PC then … I did make the boot disc and I tried it on this machine; eight time I tried it and it hasn’t worked. At that point I left it as it was and it did finally start up, but I have no idea how long it took to do so. I tried doing a system restore but it only allowed me one restore date, yesterday, so let it go. That didn’t complete before it finished either. At least it’s now working fine so I shall not be closing it down again in a hurry.

Right now, at 8.45 we are sat waiting for a heating engineer to come and change our living room radiator. He called yesterday and found a leak and said a new radiator was needed. After getting up early to move stuff about so he can get to it properly, we sit and wait for him to turn up. We have spread towels across the floor in an attempt to mop up some of the water. The concern now is the carpet will be badly stained by it. An insurance claim may be just around the corner methinks.   

I’ve just had a look and found a few photos on here. Here’s one I got in the hot house at Leamington Spa … 

A sloth, taking his time eating and moving around.

Today’s funny is from the sage …

Bob walked into a bar around 9:58 PM. He sat down next to a blonde at the bar and stared up at the TV. The 10 PM news was coming on. The news crew was covering the story of a man on the ledge of a large building preparing to jump.
The blonde looked at Bob and said, "Do you think he'll jump?"
Bob said, "You know, I bet he'll jump."

The blonde replied, "Well, I bet he won't."
Bob placed a £20 bill on the bar and said, "You're on!"
Just as the blonde placed her money on the bar, the guy on the ledge did a swan dive off the building, falling to his death.
The blonde was very upset, but willingly handed her £20 to Bob. "Fair's fair. Here's your money."
Bob replied, "I can't take your money. I saw this earlier on the 5 PM news, so I knew he would jump."
The blonde replied, "I did, too, but I didn't think he'd do it again."