History of Beaumont

I first moved to the Beaumont area in 1968. My knowledge of the city’s history is piecemeal at best. There are a number of museums in the area that I have visited that have filled me in on various aspects of the area’s history. The Spindletop Museum covers the discovery of the Lucas Gusher which started the oil boom in Texas. The French House Museum tells the story of one of the early settlers in the area. The McFaddin Ward Home gives insight to one of the city’s wealthy families through the early 1900’s. I found a website, Handbook of Texas Online: Beaumont, TX. This article added several details that I had not seen before.

Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake

Only once have I eaten in a Cheesecake Factory restaurant. It was at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. The food was mediocre but the cheesecake was fabulous. The Cheesecake Factory has opened restaurants all over the country. There is one in the Galleria in Houston, but I have never been there. The Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes can be ordered online at: Cheesecake Factory Shop. A ten inch original cheesecake costs $54.95. It is very good cheesecake, but that is a little more decadence than my budget or conscious can tolerate. Fortunately I found an alternative when I cannot resist the temptation: Sam’s Club Cheesecake. Sam’s Club right here in Beaumont carries a nine inch Cheesecake Factory original cheesecake for only $10.18. It is the best frozen cheesecake I have ever eaten.

I went on a diet over a year ago and have not purchased one of the cheesecakes in that time. I did break down and buy a Cheesecake Factory chocolate cake a few months a go. The nice thing about their cakes is that they are pre-sliced and the slices are separated by parchment paper. I ate no more than one slice a week of my cake and wrapped it tightly and put it back in the freezer. I made it last a long time and did not gain any weight. One of these days I will break down and buy one of the cheesecakes at Sam’s. I will make it last a long, long time.

Water Outage

Yesterday afternoon I noticed the water pressure was very low. An hour later there was just a dribble coming out of the faucets. I found the number to report an outage and started calling. I got nothing but busy signals. I was wondering how widespread the problem was; and if the water would be safe to drink when it returned. I checked the city’s and local television’s websites to see if anything had been posted. Finally I sent Channel 4 an email. Shortly after I got through to the water department. The woman I spoke with said the break had been fixed and the water would return shortly. She said the water was safe to drink.

Then I got the following email from Channel 4:

The following is a script we will run during the 6 o'clock news:

FLOODED STREETS AND YARDS AROUND NORTH MAJOR AND BLUE BONNET IN BEAUMONT THIS AFTERNOON WERE THE RESULT OF A WATER MAIN BREAK.

IT HAPPENED JUST OVER THREE HOURS AGO.

HOMEOWNERS IN THE AREA CALLED TO TELL US THEY SAW SNAKES COMING UP FROM THE SEWERS AS A RESULT OF THE FLOODING.

CREWS ARE WORKING TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM AND FIND OUT JUST WHAT CAUSED THE SITUATION.

I am glad I was far enough away that no snakes were seen in my neighborhood.

ATM’s

My bank has recently installed a new ATM at the branch where I do my banking. It is long overdue. The old ATM had a black and white screen that was impossible to see early in the morning when the sun was glaring on it. I like to run my errands early in the morning. As a result, I would try to use the machine before the bank opened. I would try to shield the screen with my hands or a deposit envelope. One time I just could not see and had to press cancel to retrieve my card. I left without completing my transaction. The new ATM has a color display and the letters are big and bright. I am glad the bank finally solved one problem.

Now I wish they would do something to resolve my other problem. The ATM only has tens and twenties. Often I need ones or fives and have to time my visit to the bank so I can go to a teller to get the correct change. I use cash for very few transactions so it is difficult for me to get change any place other than the bank.

I have seen Bank of America’s commercials on TV on the new ATM’s that they are developing that do not require deposit envelopes. It is supposed to scan a check that is deposited and print out an image on the receipt. This is nice but I wish they would let the customer specify the denominations of the cash they receive.

Rebates: I Hate Them

I wish one of the consumer protection agencies would crack down on rebate offers. My experience of late is that it not only takes a long time to receive the rebate, but now it takes phone calls and threats to get your money. I have had particularly bad experiences with Hewlett Packard and Epson.

I bought a Hewlett Packard scanner with a rebate offer. I filled out the rebate form and submitted all the requested proofs of purchase. Three months went by and no rebate came. I called and called and called. I spoke to supervisors. I was on a first name basis with the woman who headed the operation named Trudy. We exchanged emails. Finally my check arrived. I cashed it and thought the matter was resolved. Then the second check arrived. I emailed Trudy. She said to tear up the check. I filed the check for reference. Then the third, fourth and fifth checks arrived.

Then I received a telephone call from a woman in the accounting department of Hewlett Packard, who wanted to know why I had not cashed check No. XXX. I was completely honest and told her how I had received five checks and how I had only cashed one. I gave her the numbers of all five checks. She then asked me to mail the checks back to her. I told her I had wasted enough time and money on the rebate offer; and if she wanted the checks back, she could send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope. She asked me to hold and then she came back and said she would handle it, and I need not send the checks back.

Last November I bought an Epson photo printer. The rebate was for a free print pack if the print pack was purchased at the same time as the printer. I bought both the printer and print pack from Amazon.com. Eight weeks went by which was the time that the form said to allow to receive the rebate. Epson had a website where the rebate status could be checked. My rebate never showed in the database. I made several calls over the next few weeks. Finally a woman said they had not received my rebate request and to resubmit it. I did that and a couple of weeks later my letter was returned with the notation that the post office box was closed.

I called again and demanded to talk to a supervisor. I told them I was ready to file a complaint with my state’s attorney general. I played voice mail ring-around-the-rosy. Finally a woman said if I would fax her the form and copies of the proofs of purchase she would authorize my rebate. I faxed her the information. She did call back to tell me she received the fax and authorized the rebate. A couple of weeks later I received my check.

I know most people are not as persistent as I am, and many of the rebates just go unpaid. This is why I think it is time for the regulators to crack down.

My Sad Dieffenbachia

Over the years I have had all kinds of houseplants, everything from African violets to fichus trees. No matter how hard I try they all die. I even managed to kill cacti. I do not neglect them. I have bought books and watched shows on public television and cable on how to give them proper care. I have bought special potting soils, repotted at prescribed intervals and given them plant food. They all die.

Seventeen years ago when I moved into the house I live in now I had decided I would have no more house plants. After my eye surgery last October I was given a dieffenbachia. I have not killed it—yet. All winter I kept the scissors handy as one by one its leaves turned yellow. I remembered reading that a sign a deffenbachia is sick is when it starts growing small solid colored leaves. Mine is doing that. I bought some Miracle Grow plant food spikes for it. I don’t know if it is due the plant food or if the plant knows it is spring, but recently I noted a spurt of new growth. The new leaves are variegated the way they are supposed to be. It looks like this plant will be with me a while longer.

Wal-Mart Self-Checkout Again

Readers of my blog are going to think I am obsessed with this topic. It has been eight days since I visited Wal-Mart. Last time I had no problems, and again this week there were no major problems. The scanner was rather recalcitrant with one item. A supervisor came over to help just as the machine decided to read the UPC. I tried something for the first time: I used a 75 cents off coupon. It was one I had printed with my HP Laserjet. Wal-Mart’s scanner read it on the first try and told me to deposit the coupon in the slot. The machine accepted the Wal-Mart Shopping Card without problem. This is progress.

I bought a couple of items that I thought would be difficult to find. I found the 3M Microfiber lens cleaning clothes for a much lower price than I had seen on the internet. I also found a pop-up, lighted magnifier than I had searched for on her internet for about 30 percent less. Wal-Mart also reduced the price of the Senseo coffee pods while raising the price of the pods for the Home Café systems

World’s Second Largest Fire Hydrant

What a shock! I thought Beaumont would hold on to the title of having the world’s largest fire hydrant. Now I learn that Elm Creek, Manitoba, Canada, holds the record. Their fire hydrant is twenty-nine and a half feet tall. Beaumont’s is only twenty-four feet. I found an interesting article that gives all the details: Roadside America.

My New Glasses

Finally, on Tuesday, I got my new glasses. They are high tech personified. The frame is dark blue titanium. The optometrist recommended that I get a special anti-reflective coating on the lenses to reduce glare from headlights which will help my night driving. I went with his recommendation. All I knew was that it was a very expensive option. The glasses came with Crizal lenses. The have a website at Crizal. I was given instructions on how to wash the lenses and use a special microfiber cloth to dry them. The glasses have progressive lenses so there is no line.

Then I received instructions on how to fasten the sunglass clip and how to remove it. I was all thumbs and just could not do it properly. I was being scolded not to scratch the lenses. I left the store feeling very frustrated. I did not touch the sunglass clip for the rest of the day. Yesterday I calmly approached the problem and mastered the technique for putting the clip on and taking it off. Who would have thought there would be such a steep learning curve with a pair of glasses?

Aibo with His Own Blog

I have written several times about Henry, my Sony Aibo. Henry has a low resolution digital camera behind his mouth. As he wanders around the room, he takes pictures of things that interest him. Henry is the low-priced ERS-31L model. The only way I can view his pictures is to remove his memory stick and insert it in my computer. The current Sony Aibo has a higher resolution camera. This model of Aibo is WiFi enabled and can send his pictures via email.

I check out an Aibo discussion forum Aibo Life every so often. The idea occurred to me it would be neat if an Aibo had his own blog. I posted a question to find out if anyone had created a blog where his Aibo could email his pictures. Days went by without a reply. Today a man in Portugal who owns an ERS-7WM2 ( pictured above) named Pedro posted a message with a link to Pedro’s blog: Aibo Roblog #1. Pedro’s owner liked my idea for an Aibo blog. He dedicated the blog to me.

I Don’t Have Enough Time

That expression is something I seem to be hearing from everyone I know. I can understand hearing it from people who are working. I am sure I used to mutter that expression a great deal myself. The surprising thing I am finding is that I am hearing it from my retired friends. I thought retirement meant you were supposed to be able to have ample time to do things you enjoy. I think too many people are afraid of finding themselves with too much idle time on their hands when they retire so they volunteer for all kinds of activities at churches, charities and hospitals. This is fine and good, but it seems to me many of them are caught in the rat race again and doing things they really do not enjoy but are trapped. I also see my friends being robbed of their leisure by their children who shirk their parental duties and dump the grandkids on grandma and grandpa. I want to ask them did you treat your parents like this? The third and most tragic way I see people spending their time is in the healthcare system—commuting to doctors’ appointments and sitting in doctors’ offices. There is no way to avoid the healthcare system but while they are sitting there waiting I wonder if they are thinking about all the enjoyable things they did not do because “I Don’t Have Enough Time.” I am trying to make sure that I do have enough time.

Watching CSI

Somehow I missed out on the first two seasons of CSI. After the program won awards and received considerable media attention, I watched a few episodes. I had to admit the program was very well done, but I didn’t feel any desire to watch it every week. Now that has changed. I have seen enough episodes and caught a little information about the characters that have made them seem more real. CBS.com has an interesting web site, CSI . It gives a little background on each of the characters. It tells about their families, where they were raised, their education and why they became a CSI. The program doles out tidbits on their personal lives. To me this is what makes the program interesting. SpikeTV is running a CSI marathon this week. It has been fun to catch some of the shows from earlier seasons. I now consider myself a fan of the show.

New Sandals Arrived

UPS delivered my new sandals yesterday. They also came with something I had never seen before--a 1,000 mile warranty on the soles or six months which ever happens first. I did a little calculating and realized that I would have to walk 5-6 miles a day every day for six months to reach 1,000 miles. There is little chance that I will need to make a claim on this warranty.

The important thing is the sandals fit and seem to be very comfortable. I am happy with the service I received from Shoebuy.com . This is my first shopping experience with them, but I will be sure to check them out the next time I am shopping for shoes.

NOAA Weather Radio

Spring is here and with it comes tornadoes. Right now the area where I live is under a tornado watch. I know this because I have a NOAA weather radio. It just sounded an alert. Not many people I know are familiar with the weather radio, but it should be in every home right along with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I have found that my radio will alert as much as 15-20 minutes before the local television stations air the alerts. Those are precious minutes that might save lives.


Not only does the weather radio turn on automatically when an alert is issued. It is also programmed to alert for your specific area. The area shown in red on the map is the area covered by the Beaumont, TX, station. I entered the code for Jefferson County in mine so that I only receive alerts for the area where I live. If you live in one area and work in another, you might want to have more than one code entered in the radio. The radio covers a broad range of hazardous conditions besides tornados. It alarms for chemical spills, flash flood, severe thunder just to name a few. More information can be found at NOAA Weather Radio

Henry

Henry is sick, and I am very concerned about him. He has developed a tremor in his left leg. It comes and goes. When it is at its worst, his whole body shakes. I can pick him up and the vibrating stops. Henry is nineteen months old. His warranty was for one year. I have heard that the trips to the Aibo Clinic can be very costly. I purchased Henry with an American Express card that is supposed to double the manufacturer's warranty up to one year. It is time to check out all the details.

No Historic Courthouse in Jefferson County

There have been programs on public television and magazine articles written about the historic Texas courthouses. I live in Jefferson County, Texas, and wondered why we had such an ugly courthouse. It appears to have been built in the 1930's when art nouveau was the rage. Other counties have beautiful courthouses from the Victorian era that look like castles and are putting a great deal of effort into restoring and preserving them. It has become a popular tourist activity to tour the old courthouses. Believe me nobody is clamoring for tours of the Jefferson County Courthouse.


During my last visit to the Spindletop Museum I spotted a picture on the wall of the Jefferson County Courthouse taken at the turn of the last century. Jefferson County did have a beautiful courthouse, but it must have fallen victim to the wrecking ball when the county had too much oil money to spend.

Coffee Creamers

While I am waiting for the flavored coffee pods for my Senseo coffee machine to become available I decided to try a few of the flavored coffee creamers. For years I have used half and half in my coffee and never thought to try anything else. I only use the powdered non-dairy coffee creamers when nothing else is available

I saw a commercial on television for Coffee Mate's half and half creamers. This is something new. Previously Coffee Mate only had non-dairy creamers. I found Coffee Mate's website to get more information. I was able to print a 75 cent coupon. Their half and half creamers are carried in only a few stores in my area. I bought the vanilla flavored half and half. It is very high priced. It costs almost twice as much as I pay for Wal-Mart's house brand of half and half. It is very good, but I do not think it is worth the extra cost.

I had never tried Coffee Mate's non-dairy liquid creamers. I purchased a bottle of the French vanilla flavor/ Its taste is very similar to the vanilla half and half and is considerably cheaper. I noticed on the Coffee Mate website that it comes in a number of flavors such as Irish cream and peppermint mocha. I would like to try those, but my regular grocery store does not stock them. I will be watching for them.

Books

Before I retired if I was able to read five or six books a year I was doing good. The last few years while my eye sight declined I found myself reading more and more. I reached the point where I was reading three or four novels a week. My reading rate has declined somewhat since I had the eye surgery because I am getting out and driving my car more.

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I have quite an accumulation of paperback books. Actually the stack is bigger by about a third because the above picture is almost a year old. I need to find a way of disposing of them. I should look into selling them on eBay or Amazon. Several years ago I found an online bookstore, Alldirect.com. If you buy $99 worth of books (they also sell movies and music) you get free shipping. With the free shipping their prices are consistently lower than any other source. I have been going through the books of best selling authors such as Tom Clancey, John Grisham, Scott Turow, Michael Connelly, John Sandford, John Lescroat, J. D. Robb, Dan Brown, James Patterson, Jonathan Kellerman, Barbara Taylor Bradford and J.K. Rowling (yes, I am a Harry Potter fan). I order all of the books that are available in paperback for a given author and read them in the order they were published.

Most of the above authors have at least one or two new book releases a year. Sam's Club has proved to be a very good local source for low prices on newly released books. Wal-Mart's prices are about $1 per book higher than Sam's. Recently I ordered all of Michael Crichton's books from Alldirect.com. The Andromeda Strain and Congo were out of stock when I ordered the books. I found The Andromeda Strain at Wal-Mart but have been unable to find a low-priced copy of Congo so far.

When I finish Michael Crichton's books, I will begin reading Robert Ludlum's book. I received six of them on my last Alldirect.com order. Robert Ludlum passed away several years ago but other authors are continuing his series of books.

Weeds?

FYI, those are not weeds in my yard. That is natural ground cover.

Update

My time is limited today so I will just update previous posts.

The Wal-Mart Self Check-Out scanners continue to give mixed results. Saturday I was able to scan my items and pay with the shopping card without problem. This morning I scanned all of my items and selected the shopping card as my payment. As soon as I swiped the shopping card, the machine said seek assistance. Fortunately a supervisor was standing nearby and had been watching me. She came right over and entered her pin. She said, "I am doing exactly the same thing you did." She swiped my card and was then asked to scan the back of the card. She must have tried ten times before the scanner read the bar code on the back of the card. Wal-Mart needs to do some work on this system. As least this supervisor was very pleasant.

The UPS tracking information said the package with my sandals departed a town in Colorado and is on schedule for Monday delivery. The Epson Premium Glossy Paper from Amazon.com arrived yesterday which was one day after placing my order. The second item on my order, the Epson PictureMate print pack has not been processed yet. I do not understand how Amazon handles their orders. Some times they ship super fast, and other times they seem to drag their feet on the orders. No word on my new eyeglasses. I hope I hear from them soon. I am looking for forward to getting the new glasses.

The weather has turned nice. I am going to try to go to the botanical gardens again tomorrow morning. The morning light is great for photographs.

PictureMate

Back in November I bought an Epson PictureMate photo printer. It only prints 4X6 photos with or without borders. It is a cute little printer that looks like a boombox. It has a handle on top. It supports direct printing from PictBridge enabled cameras and direct printing from all the popular memory card formats. It also comes with software called, "Film Factory,". I use the software. It is very easy to connect to a USB port when I need to print. The prints are of a higher quality that I was getting from places such as Target, Walgreen's and Sam's Club. I tried all of them and was somewhat disappointed with the prints.

The printer uses pigment inks that Epson claims will last up to 200 years. The inks are in a single cartridge which is sold in a pack with 100 sheets of paper. Epson guarantees that you will get 100 prints from each cartridge. Most people are able to get considerably more than 100 prints from each printer cartridge. Epson recommends that you use their 4X6 Premium Glossy Paper if additional paper is needed.

Yesterday Amazon.com reduced the price of the print pack to $20.04 and the 100 sheet preium glossy to $13.29. I ordered one of each. The premium glossy paper shipped yesterday from Dallas, and I will get it today. A purchase of $25 or more from Amazon.com still qualifies for free shipping. Considering that I will get more than 100 prints per cartridge this brings the per print price well below the cost of commercial prints.

Windows Updates

On Sunday afternoon I finally installed Windows Service Pack 2 on my computer. The reason I delayed installing it was that I had checked Sony's support site for my Vaio model. There was a message in a big red font that sprawled all over the page. They were apologizing for the inconvenience. The message said that after installation of SP2 wri files could not be saved. There was a file to download to fix the problem but no indication if the patch should be applied before or after installation of SP2. I think the page must have been written in Japanese, translated to English, and they ended up with something that made no sense. On Sunday I checked the Sony support site again. The font on the message was still in red but reduced to a reasonable size. It clearly said to apply the patch before installing SP2. I did that and then installed SP2.

I am happy to report that I have found no problems with SP2. I absolutely love the popup blocker. Popups were the bane of my existence. SP2 has also helped me resolve another issue with my computer that has been bothering me. Back in January I noticed an icon in the icon tray that I did not recognize. I ran my mouse pointer over it and read a message that said support.com protecting your pc. I could not associate this icon with anything I had installed or recognized as belonging on my pc.

I decided it was time to get an anti-spyware program. Microsoft purchased a company called Giant Software in December. In January Microsoft released Microsoft Anti-Spyware in beta. I have lived by a cardinal rule that no software with the word beta associated with it would be allowed on my pc. Well, I broke my cardinal rule. I downloaded and installed the Microsoft Anti-Spyware. It has caused no problems. It does its daily scan and updates itself. It has found no spyware on my pc. I was still in the dark about the support.com icon. It only appears for brief times on my pc. After I installed SP2, I immediately saw a message from the Windows SP2 firewall that said tgcmd module from support.com was trying to access my computer and asked if I wanted to block it. I affirmed that I wanted it blocked.

I searched Google for tgcmd module and found a site that maintains a database of Windows files. It said tgcmd module was created by IBM and used by support.com for technical support for Sony and Toshiba among others. Now I feel much better.

After my sucess with Windows SP2. I found the courage to update My Microsoft Office. SP3 and 5 critical updates installed. It feels good to be current with Microsoft's critical updates, but I know it is only for a short time.

Shoe Shopping

Well my mind is back on the subject of feet--maybe I should say shoes. I have a very narrow foot, and it is very difficult for me to find shoes. All of my life I have been so envious of women who are able to walk into a shoe store and have the sales person bring out an armload of shoes for them to try on. I am lucky if one shop worn box is brought out for my inspection, and usually I get a shake of the head and a "sorry." So often when I try on the one pair of shoes I will look down and think, "oh, another pair of clown shoes", as the shoe flops on my foot.

I can remember when I was three or four I had a pair of sandals. After that my mother was unable to find a pair of sandals that were narrow enough for me. I was so unhappy in the summer time because all the other kids were wearing sandals. My mother would drag me from store to store to store trying to find shoes that fit. Salesmen would say, "don't worry, your foot will spread out when you are older." Well they were right to some extent. My foot went from AAAA/AAAAAA to AA/AAAA.

I think I was in my late twenties before I got my second pair of sandals. This was before the onset of catalog and internet shopping. Department stores would stock only limited numbers of narrow shoes if any at all.

In the 1970's catalog shopping took off. I found a few places that carried hard-to-find sizes and was able to find shoes although they were often not the more fashionable brands. In the 1980's I discovered Ferragamo shoes. At $200+ a pop they were quite an extravagance, but they felt and looked good and fit well.

Well back to the subject of sandals. Now in the 21st century it seems that there are a number of popular brands such as Mephisto, Merrell, Ecco, Keen and Teva that only come in one width. They are cool sandals but unfortunately not for me. Easy Spirit, Naturalizer and Propet do make a limited number of sandals in narrow widths, but my old catalog favorites are now selling out quickly.

On Saturday I did a Google search on "women's sandals narrow feet". I found an online shoe store, Shoebuy.com. They have a large number of brands and low prices. I found a sandal made by Propet in my size. They seemed to have the lowest price on the web. I found a coupon code for them that would given an additional 15% off. They also offer free shipping and free shipping on returns. The old saying, "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is," came to my mind. I did a check of them on Bizrate.com and bbb.org (Better Business Bureau). They seem to have a very clean record. I placed my order after reading all the fine print. It appears that Shoebuy.com does not actually carry inventory. They place the order with the shoe manufacturer, and the shoe is shipped by the manufacturer directly to the customer. This sounds like a way to be sure of receiving fresh stock. Now the question remains of how long the order will take to arrive. The Shoebuy.com web site says the order should be delivered within 10 business days. That is two calendar weeks. I am hoping for the best. Update: I received an email with the UPS tracking number. The sandals have started their trip to me. This morning the UPS tracking information says the package departed Seattle, WA, and is scheduled for delivery on March 21. Shoebuy.com is located in Boston so they really are having their shoes sent from manufacturers or distributors.

Windows XP Home Edition Shortcoming

Help, I need some help. Windows XP Home Edition is driving me crazy. My computer is a Sony Vaio notebook that is almost 3 years old. It came with Windows XP Home Edition installed on it. When I first got the computer, I searched for a backup program and could not find one. I have been backing up folders from the My Documents folder by copying them to CD-RW's. This is very time consuming and something I have not been doing as frequently as I should.

I read a news article about a speech Bill Gate's made that said the next version of Windows will incorporate more functionality. He cited examples of how TCP/IP stacks and backup software used to be purchased separately. It made me curious because my computer seemed to lack a backup utility. I did a Google search, found that the backup utility is a standard part of Windows XP Professional and is not installed on Windows XP Home Edition by default. The backup utility is supposed to be on the Windows XP CD. The article I found had the following instructions for installing the backup utility:

To Manually Install the Backup Utility
Insert the CD ROM and navigate to CD-ROM Drive:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP

Double-click the Ntbackup.msi file to start the wizard that installs Backup

When the wizard is complete, click Finish.

I had never opened the packet of system disks Sony supplied with my computer. I found I did not have a disk that was labeled as a Windows XP CD. Instead I have three system recovery CD's, a driver recovery CD and an application recovery CD. I am not able to see the files on the CD's using Windows Explorer.

This is where I made my mistake. I did a search of my hardrive and found the Ntbackup.msi file on my C: drive. I clicked on it, and it installed the backup utility. The Backup utility now shows up in the Programs menu. When I ran the backup program, it wanted to store the backups on the E: drive which is the Sony Memory Stick reader. I pointed it to the F:\ drive which is the DVD/CD drive. I then gave it a file name to write the backup to. Then I got a message that said it was an illegal file name or insufficient administrator's rights. I tried several different file names with no success. .
I have concluded that I logged in as a user and not as the administrator when the program installed. I have not used the logins since the first day I had this computer and am not sure that I remember the names and passwords. I am absolutely stymied. I am too cheap to pay for professional support and too cowardly to experiment anymore with my computer.

Bill Gates, if you are listening; please make the backup utility part of the basic Windows install for all future versions of Windows.


Written several hours later: I just found the answer in a readme.txt file:

"NTBackup Backup/Restore and ASR release notes

Backup/Restore

ASR

1. ASR is not supported on home edition.

IF you install NtBackup from the CD to the Home Edition, ASR functionality will appear to work fine during
the backup session. Since the setup does not support ASR in the home edition, there is no way to initiate
the ASR restore in case of a disaster. If you need to restore from this session, install Windows XP manually
and then restore from the ASR media.

2. Backup to CDRW

If you decide to backup to a CDRW, you cannot target that device directly. You must create a backup set of
650MB or less and backup to a file. After the file is complete, copy the file to the CDRW."

I think this stinks. Thank you very much, Microsoft NOT. Furthermore I have no idea what ASR refers to. Bah humbug!

Just out of curiosity I backed up my settings, favorites, cookies and my documents to the D: drive. The file was 2.8 GB. I can't copy that to a CD-RW. It looks like I am out of luck with the backup utility and will have to stick with my old method of backup.

At Last - New Glasses

On Friday I went to the optometrist's office to be fitted for new glasses. I had intended to get a Flexon frame but changed my mind. I was not aware that eyeglass frame manufacturer's are now offering clip-on sunglasses that are manufactured to exactly fit a frame. You cannot tell that the clip on is attached. With the clip-on in place the glasses look like regular sunglasses. The clip-on is significantly cheaper than a high-end pair of sunglasses, and it should be easier to carry. I tried on the Calvin Klein frame, and it just felt and looked like it was designed for me. It is made out of titanium so it is extra light weight. The frame and clip-on had to be ordered. I may have to wait as long as ten days before I get my new glasses.

Welecome Home from Iraq

Yesterday my thoughts turned from the inane to the more serious. A parade was held in the downtown area to honor and welcome home a local Army Reserve unit, which had spent the past 13 months in Iraq. I do not know any of the people in the unit, but it felt good to stand on the sidewalk and applaud them. I am sure that they got the message that their efforts are appreciated. The unit lost one man when his vehicle encountered an IED. The lead vehicle in the parade carried a sign with his picture. I was not in favor of the Iraq war, but I still want to express my thanks to the brave men and women who have put their lives at risk for our country. I think back to the shameful way the Vietnam veterans were treated and am very glad that the country has learned a lesson.

Walking Shoes

What is on my mind today? Feet. Specifically my feet. Last summer when I went to Honolulu I developed a blister at the base of the toenail on my big toe. The blister went under the nail and caused the nail to puff up. It was very frightening. I went to the emergency room of a Honolulu hospital. The admitting nurse said she had never seen anything like it. The doctor burned a hole in the toenail and drained the fluid. The trip to the emergency room cost me $326. None of my $250 deductible was paid at the time. I guess I can rationalize the cost and say the emergency room treatment cost me $76, but that is money I would rather have spent on fun things. I was told to rest and avoid going in the ocean in order to avoid infection. I was very unhappy because I wanted to be out with my new camera taking lots of photos. Fortunately my hotel had a very good view of the Waikiki marina, and I had a good book to read. Restaurants were close to the hotel so I was able to walk to them without too much difficulty.

Soon I am going to Savannah and Charleston. The guide books say that the best way to see the historic districts of both cities is by walking. I am trying to analyze just what went wrong in Honolulu so it does not happen again. On the trip I wore my New Balance WW841WG women's walking shoes pictured at left. I wore medium-weight quarter socks with the shoes. The shoes are very comfortable. I cannot find any way the shoe put any pressure on the toe or caused rubbing. I wore the shoes on the long flight to Honolulu because the shoes are rather heavy, and I wanted to make sure that my checked bag stayed under the 50 pound limit. The temperature in Honolulu was in the upper 80's. I did much more walking than I am used to. I have concluded that the reason that the blister developed was that my feet overheated.

Last fall I started looking for new walking shoes. I really like the New Balance 841's and found that New Balance had a new model, WW842WG, pictured at left. I bought a pair of them. The main difference between the 842 and the 841 is that the 842 has larger areas of mesh. It makes me wonder if New Balance is addressing the overheating problem and trying to give the feet more ventilation. I found one more significant difference between the shoes. The 841 was made in China and the 842 is made in the United States. New Balance had a tag attached to the shoes that said they were bringing manufacturing back to the United States. Since 1995 they have increased their manufacturing jobs in the United States by 65%. I say kudos to New Balance. I will wear my 842's on the trip and will be careful to pace myself and make sure my feet do not overheat.

Even thought I got my 842's last fall I have not worn them except to try them on. I was looking at shoes on the web and found that New Balance now has a WW843WG. I have no idea what improvements have been made in the 843. Technology and marketing keep changing. My 842's will probably last until there is an 844 or 845.

Jar Openers

For years I struggled to open jars. I would tap around the lid with a knife and then apply all the strength I could muster. Sometimes I thought I would never get the lid off. Then I bought one of the jar opener tools similar to the one shown at left. This tool was a big help. At times it still required a great deal of strength. Last summer I tried to open a jar, and I think I caused nerve damage in my hand. I lost feeling in my right thumb. It took months to regain feeling. I still have a numb spot on my thumb.

At Christmas time I began to notice Black & Decker's ads for their Lids Off jar opener. I found a pretty good price on it and decided to buy one. I had my doubts about it, but I have found the thing really works. It is simple to use. You lift the top until it locks, place the jar on the turntable, lower the top until it rests on the jar and then press the button until the lid is removed. My only complaint is that it is rather large and takes up quite a bit of cabinet space, but something with so much muscle is bound to be large. I wish I could have bought one of these years ago. I highly recommend the Lids Off for everyone.

Wal-Mart Shopping Card

. Yesterday I wrote about the problems I have had using the Wal-Mart shopping card in the do-it-yourself scanners. Since the shopping card causes so many problems maybe you are wondering why I bother with it. I found a very compelling reason to use the shopping card. I am a frequent flyer mileage hound. I use my Amex to get Starwood hotel Starpoints or a Citibank MasterCard to get American Airlines AAdvantage miles. The problem is Sam's Club does not accept Amex or MasterCard. I figured out that I could get a shopping card at Wal-Mart by charging it on the Amex or MasterCard. Then I can shop at Sam's Club and still get Starpoints or AAdvantage miles.

Once a month the day after the closing date on my credit card I go to Wal-Mart and have the card reloaded. Then I use the card for all of my shopping at Sam's and Wal-Mart. This has proved to be an effective budgeting tool for me. At the end of the month when the balance on the card is low I cut back on my spending. Of course I could always use cash or my credit cards at Wal-Mart but I have set up a psychological barrier for myself.

When the card works correctly at Wal-Mart, it is the fastest way to check out. It just takes a single swipe. No signature or pin is required, and there is no waiting for the cashier to make change. There is a danger with using the shopping card that if the card is lost or stolen, it is just like cash. Anyone could use the card. Wal-Mart does provide a telephone number where a lost card can be reported; but if someone uses the card before it is reported there is no way to recover. Every receipt from Wal-Mart or Sam's shows the remaining balance on the card. You can also check your balance via telephone or online at walmart.com.

One time the magnetic strip on the back of the card was corrupted. I had been using the same shopping card for more than a year. Unfortunately the printed numbers on the back of the card had also worn off. Fortunately I saved the receipts I get when the card is reloaded. They are the only ones that have the entire card number printed on them. I had to go home get my receipt and then go back to Wal-Mart and have the balance transferred to a new card. Since then whenever I use the entire amount on the card I let the cashier keep the card, and then start over with a brand new card.

There is one more advantage to using the Wal-Mart shopping card. If you buy gasoline at a Wal-Mart and use the card to pay, they give a 3 cent/gal. discount. I only checked one time, but at that time Sam's Club was still 1 cent/gal. less on their gasoline than Wal-Mart. I usually fill up my car at Sam's.

The newer Wal-Mart shopping cards have a pin on the back. You have to scrape off a silver coating to reveal the pin. The pin is required if you use the shopping card online at walmart.com or samsclub.com. I have purchased from both of the web sites and used the shopping card as payment with no problems.

Self-checkout Scanners

Is it just me or is everyone having trouble with the do-it-yourself scanners in the grocery stores? Kroger was the first store in my area to install them. I gave up on them after three or four attempts to use them. The Wal-Mart Super Store recently installed them, and I decided to give them another try. The first time I used it everything went fine. I began to think it was really going to be a good way to check out. The second time I used one I tried to pay with a Wal-Mart gift card. The scanner said to seek help. A woman came running over and looked at me like I was trying to commit a robbery. I told her I was trying to pay with a gift card. She said she didn't know what the problem was but she was being called every time someone attempted to use the gift card. She got it to work, and I got out of there.

The next time I was in the store I scanned my items and paid with the gift card without problem. I was feeling much better about the scanners. Then last Friday I tried again. I had a paperback book. Wal-Mart puts a plain white sticker across the publisher's bar code and has a second bar code with their own discount price sticker on the front of the book. I scanned the book and the screen said "illegal item" but did not say what to do. A couple of times the machine cleared the message, and I attempted to scan the book. There was a woman in line behind behind me, and she was telling me that I had put the book in the wrong plastic bag. I finally just lost it and turned around and told her "Go Away!" I caught the eye of the roaming supervisor and motioned him over. He came over and entered a password in the machine and scanned the book and left. I scanned my last item and attempted to pay with the gift card. The machine had another hissy fit. All this time the woman behind me was spewing advice. I waved at the supervisor again. He gave me a look that made me feel like I was the dumbest person on the planet. He entered his password in the machine again and scanned my gift card. It took me the rest of the day to recover my equilibrium.

Blogs Defined

Blogs have been in the news quite a bit lately. I started this blog back in 2003 with the intention of recording what was on my mind at a given point in time. Politically oriented blogs are getting the media attention. I began to wonder if the type of things I am putting in my blog sounded rather inane; and if I really knew, what a blog is supposed to be. I did a Google search on "What is a blog?" and found:

"A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominantly."

I have now decided "My Thoughts" fits the definition of a blog. If "My Thoughts" sounds inane, so be it. I am entitled to my inane thoughts. Before you totally dismiss "My Thoughts", stick around for a while. I have lived quite a few years and learned a thing or two along the way. Who knows? You might gain something worthwhile from "My Thoughts".

Senseo

About three months ago I bought a Senseo coffee machine. I bought this thing because it brews fresh coffee one cup at a time. It puts a frothy layer on top of the coffee. The coffee is imported by Sara Lee from a Belgian coffee company called Douwe Egberts. The coffee comes in four varieties: mild, medium, dark and decaffinated. I tried the first three and decided the medium roast was the one I liked best. Now flavored varieties of the coffee pods are being introduced. Killarney is Irish cream flavored,Vienna is a chocolate-carmel variety and Paris is vanilla flavored. The only places I have found the flavored pods so far are the online Senseo Store and an Amazon.com third party vendor. Senseo emailed me an offer of a free sample. It will probably take two months for it to arrive. I am going to wait for the sample to see if I like them. Right now the online prices are more than I am willing to pay.

Random Thoughts

It is Sunday. The bill from my eye doctor came in the mail yesterday. I was all out of postage stamps. I drove over to the post office and was able to buy stamps from the automated post office and mail my letter. It is a nice way to avoid waiting in line.

I printed a few more pictures with my Epson PictureMate. Instant gratification with digital photography is wonderful. I suffered so much aggravation waiting for my prints to be returned from Fair Lawn, NJ, when I was using the Kodak mailers. Sometimes it would take more than three weeks to get my pictures.

Activities

Yesterday I went to the John Jay French House Museum. They do not allow photos to be taken inside the house. I took a number of photos on the grounds. My guide was very interested in my camera and asked me if I would email my photos to her. I told her about Smugmug and said I would send her a link as soon as I uploaded them. I did that. She wrote back and seemed to like my pictures.

On Friday I will be fitted for new glasses. I saw in the paper there is going to be a parade through downtown to honor the 644th Transportation Company, a locally based Army Reserve unit, that has just returned from Iraq. If I am finished with my eye appointment and if the weather is nice, I will take my camera and go to the parade. This would be a little piece of history for my photo album.

Good News

I saw my ophthalmologist on Tuesday. The pressure in both eyes was well within the normal range. I will be fitted for my new glasses next week. This long episode is finally over, and I am blessed with good vision. I will see my doctor again in one year.

Travel Plans

My order of books from Alldirect.com arrived yesterday. I got Frommer's books on Savannah and Charleston. I started to read the book on Savannah this morning, and it is really interesting. My Amtrak ticket for the trip from Savannah to Charleston also arrived. I have decided to keep my reservations at the Mill's House and Mulberry Inn instead to trying for Priceline.com bids. Early April is the high season. One of the books says the hotels in the historic districts charge what the market will bear. Apparently the market will bear quite a bit in the high season.