#74 The indignities of Windows 10
November 30th, 2017
There are ordinary days when one feels under siege.
The Hallowe’en decorations are down, except at Stephen’s place where the plastic skulls still adorn his fence, and the Xmas decorations are going up. The TV is promising great new Xmas specials and Xmas variety shows. I’d rather they wait until closer to Xmas but nobody is paying any attention at all to what I want.
Right now, Draconis Regina, the dragon who lives where I once had a healthy spine, is in a terrible mood. I understand dragons lay eggs, which might mean they can’t get pre-menstrual tension but I wonder if they can get pre-ovum tension because she’s very bitchy and totally unpredictable. I try to be nice to her, even spoil her, but some days there’s just no satisfying her.
And there’s the goddam rain.
We expect rain in Tahsis. We accept rain in Tahsis. Sometimes, we even brag about rain in Tahsis… But even for Tahsis this is starting to seem like just a bit “much”. Right now, the sky sits on the very tippytop of the trees and, not even noon, it’s dark enough outside for a person to be forgiven for thinking it’s evening. Yesterday my neighbour, Juanita, took my pug MerryMary for a walk. It wasn’t raining when they left my place. In no time flat they were back, drenched, and it took two towels to dry the dogs.
But those indignities, I can manage.
It’s goddam Window 10 that is driving me around the bend. I’m waiting for the “technician” to come from the internet provider to, hopefully, fix whatever has glitched in my e-mail. As you know, I can be more than a tad obsessive, and hang onto an idea or an opinion long after more rational people have proven me wrong. I know that. I’ll wear it. Even so, I really do think one of the major mistakes of my computer life was agreeing to install Windows 10.
Seems to me it’s been nothing but b.s. ever since. Two weeks ago, all of a sudden, pop, and I had no internet at all. So, I phoned and some guy said oh, really? Let me check… (they tell you they have the equipment to notify them immediately should there be a glitch of some kind, but…). Then he said Hmmm, let me try something… (what?). Moments later, presto-change-oh, I had internet.
However, since that time, my e-mail has been so slow it has become almost boring. Not the content of the e-mails, they seem to be the same quality as before, it’s the wait for MY e-mails to head out into the world. A person could grow old and too feeble to type in the time it takes for an e-mail to get sent. So, I contacted the internet provider and… I am assured a technician will arrive today (or tomorrow) and figure out what’s wrong. And hopefully fix it.
In preparation for his visit I am trying to clear off the top of my desk. That might take more time and energy than I have. My desk is heaped. Not all of what is on my desk is vital to the preservation of civilization as we know it, but some might be.
I know, and you know I’m going to be told, I need a new router or something. Probably it will be “or something” and it will cost. Of course, it will cost! And I wonder how much that technician visit will cost me. He might tell me my email has nothing to do with Windows 10. Well, okay. But I want to go back to the days before I had Windows 10.
Like I say, nobody is paying any attention to what I want.
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Anne Cameron grows pussywillows on the western edge of Vancouver Island. She received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia in 2010. Her 23 books include Daughters of Copper Woman, the bestselling work of fiction ever written about B.C. and published from within B.C. She has banished herself to Tahsis, a small town not far from Friendly Cove where the shenanigans called British Columbia all began.
I can so totally relate!
Windows 10 lulled me with lovely behaviour for the first four months, then started its inimical campaign of disruption with a requirement for an “online repair” that involved replacing the entire operating system.
Since then, things started to slowly go downhill, much like the gentle skipping of surface stones down a talus slope, until the avalanche hit this past weekend.
Microsoft, you need to do something different with your “answer tech” service, as its only answer seems to be to wait 24 – 48 hours for someone else who will then be available (but unable) to fix the issue. That’s not an answer, that’s a brush-off!
Thank you! I am dreading the day when I have to get windows 10, really I’m holding out for what ever comes after it, it can’t be worse….can it?
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one with the key to civilization somewhere in the strata on my desk.
On the dragon front, I don’t suppose you’ve tried jumjills….
Hope the sun appears for you guys. Here we have a week of hoar frost. I had to explain “hoar” to my city niece.