New computer, movie night, working, fishing

With the online teaching I have been doing and the need for a solid computer, I was issued a new laptop at work yesterday. My old laptop would flash a blank screen at me at odd times. Not an issue I wanted to manifest during a class – especially an online class.  Migrating to a new laptop came with all the electronic issues associated with reloading my desktop, resetting passwords, reestablishing shortcuts and creating new links to familiar items. It will take me most of the day today to get everything to look familiar and still be functional. I just hope I do not have to have immediate access to something I have forgotten to load onto the new desktop. It is too easy to overlook files and programs that are infrequently used. On the bright side, this is an outstanding laptop.

Added to the new laptop is the introduction of a new teaching station. It is a cart/podium outfitted with a docking station, two monitors and a high-tech webcam. It can be set up in any area available at the office. That changes daily as we get more and more employees settled back into the office. I am expected to use the new set up tomorrow for a four-hour class so as I work on getting my desktop rebuilt, I will also be training with the new teaching station to make sure I am proficient when I have to use it tomorrow morning. It is a bit overwhelming.

Victoria invited Krystal and the boys over last night to watch Doolittle. She came home and was a whirlwind of activity as she began to heat the pizza bites, chicken tenders and fries for the crew as well as vacuum the rug in the living room and set up what amounted to theatre seating. The dogs were sequestered to her room for the evening because Savanna is not enamored with animals larger than she is in close proximity. Krystal and the kids arrived about the time I was heading outside. I did not have an agenda for the night but there were a lot of little things I needed to get done. Like moving the tomato plants into the evening shade, dig around the little pecan trees growing in the back yard and hoe a bit in the garden to allow water to get to the roots of the plants.

I do not know if the movie was a good one. I was working outside the entire time. After the little items were done, I started to work on the steps to the little coop. I was not happy with the way I originally set them up, plus, I had run out of screws to secure everything properly. I bought screws yesterday to finish what I had started. As I worked on the third step – getting it cut and fit properly – I realized what was bothering me about the second step and took the time to extend it to make it more functional. I was pleased with the final results but just that small area of focus had taken me all evening to complete. Once I had watered the plants, I went inside. It was very near dark by that time. I did not realize it was 8:30.

While I was out working, the Miller family had driven over to the lake to test some new rods and reels they had bought. Since I had a few minutes before dark I drove over to check on them to make sure they were alright. Bro Steve was very flustered by the time I got there.  He had bought spinning reels for all the kids. I have always defaulted to spin casting reels (the closed reels with the button) for younger fishermen. Last night, Bro Steve had found out why. The open-faced reels are a huge problem for inexperienced users. The line on those reels gets twisted and knotted up very easily. To exacerbate the problem, they did not have heavy enough lures for the heavier rod and reel combos they had bought for the older kids. Bro Steve had spent the last two hours cutting away knotted lines and undoing tangles. He was frazzled when I showed up.

I took a few minutes to work with what they had as far as lures were concerned and got the heavier rods set up properly with heavy lures. Those reels did much better after that little upgrade. They had caught only one fish in the entire evening. I added a second catch to the tally. None were taken home. Someday soon we will catch them again. After a few minutes of successful tangle-free fishing, the kids reluctantly packed up everything as dad fished uninterrupted for a few minutes. The kids were begging to come back tomorrow. Dad not so much.

It was well after dark when I finally got to sit down for a couple minutes.