Passing of the Keys

A few years ago our quilting group at church was a thriving circle of women who met every Wednesday under the watchful eye of Charlotte. Charlotte suffered from arthritis and osteoperosis. It became increasingly more difficult for her to get to the church to sew. As the groups activities dwindled, I took it upon myself to wonder if I couldn't use the area they met in (on off hours) to invite the downtown ladies in to use the sewing machines.

I called Charlotte, leaving messages on her answering machine, and got the answer through her husband that it would be fine with her. I called again and asked if I could get the keys to open the cabinets where the sewing machines are stored (again on the answering machine). Her husband brought the keys to church and I had copies made.

The group hasn't met for a year now. But my little group of downtown ladies meets every Tuesday. We are forming quite a fellowship.

Charlotte died last Monday. At her funeral her dear husband gave me her keys to the sewing room.

Found Money

You know those shows that tell about the state holding unclaimed money. They direct you to a website where you enter your name (or anyone's name) to see if you are on their list. Well, I did. First mine - nothing. No surprise there. Then I entered Jerry's name. Two hits. I printed off the directions on how to get the money (one was for between $25 & $50 the other was for over $50). Jerry complied with the required paper work - proof of where he lived in high school was one - and laughingly told me that I could keep anything that came of this exercise.
In the mail yesterday came a check for over $2,000.00. I squealed. He looked dumbfounded. He said I could pay for the trip to Phoenix. I agreed. After all, it really was his money.

Computers

When I whined enough to get my laptop outfitted for wireless, the process "fried" the desktops' Ethernet card (or so we thought). So we limped along using my laptop as the house work horse until it started behaving oddly. Time to call in the Geeks on Wheels. Our Geek came in, plugged in the Ethernet cord and my desk top responded by hopping onto the internet (it wouldn't do that for me).
Next move, download the iTunes program - done in a thrice and try to load my new 30G iPod with the music disks that clutter my shelf. Over one hour per disk. Hmm. That doesn't seem right. Play the iPod. 6 seconds of this song, 10 seconds of that. Definitely not right. (And my sound card is malfunctioning).
Call the Geeks again. They said it was probably something to do with the CD reader disk drive, thingy. No problem, just pop it out and put in another one. They would come out on Tuesday.
Enter Jerry. "NO WAY! If this thing has been giving you this much trouble (I just haven't been able to load a program on it for a year, not that much trouble), we'll just have to buy a new computer."
Looked on Dell's sight. Much confusion. I was used to seeing/hearing about gigabytes. Now they have T-bites (I translate that to Tril-a-bites cause it's trillions instead of billions - but then why do they say giga, it should be billa. But I digress.) and flat screens (I don't need a new monitor) and why does one cost this and the other cost that? What's the difference? Called Brian to have him help me sort it out. Told him what I was looking for. He said he would research and get back to me.
He got back to me all right. "Your new computer will be delivered on Friday". He just up and bought me a new computer. I'm stunned, joyful, pleased, awed, teary eyed. It's great when your kids do nice things for you. I didn't mean for him to purchase it for me, only research. Guess he feels it an honor that I would ask and since he can afford this small luxury, he just did it.
Thanks, Brian.
Now I will be able to load the program disk for the new camera and sort through that program. I'll get the iTunes thing going and not have to listen solely to podcasts. And hopefully, not have to buy another computer for several more years.