Office needs, Bro Walker

Mama and I went to town yesterday afternoon so that I could go the office and meet our IT guy so he could look at my computer. It is flashing off and on at odd intervals. During those episodes, if I can catch it during one of the “on” cycles and restart it, it has come back to life and functioned properly for a time. With what I am doing in the online presentations that are either four or eight hours in length, I need to make sure my computer is capable of making it through the entire class. Especially since the participants are paying customers. I also needed to see where I was going to be allowed to present the class since my usual perch was taken. As it turned out. The IT guy was not able to meet me, but I was able to find a spot for the class tomorrow. I am not thrilled about the room I will be in, but I will make the most of it. It is only for the eight hours. As our schedule fills up with these online classes, we will have to designate a spot where we can maintain a setup for the presentations. Where they have me tomorrow will work with a few modifications, but I do not know if that will be the answer.

I have to go back to the office this morning to meet with our tech guy. It is a bit like taking your car to the mechanic because of an intermittent issue. That issue never manifests itself while the mechanic is available. I do not know if this is an exercise in futility, but I will give our guy a chance to see if there is anything obvious. In preparation for a complete failure, I copied by desktop – where most of my files are now housed as I work remotely – to a portable hard drive. I can make up for most of the loss if my computer crashes, but it never works seems to replicate the files completely. Something always seems to get lost. This time, I will see if we can preempt this crash.

Last night for our final service of this week, Bro Walker brought out Champ and Dixie. Champ is a 19-year-old registered American Miniature Horse that has traveled with the Walkers for ten years now. Both the animals are trained to do certain tricks that help the Walkers preach. For kids, it is especially effective, but the effect is almost as profound on the adults in the crowds. I did not video the sermonette or the actions of the animals. It was difficult to see all the action from where we were sitting, but the dialogue that went along with the antics moved seamlessly between hilarious and serious as the Bible lesson/sermon unfolded. I can see why the Walker’s have been so successful in their ministries, seeing over ten thousand persons saved through their ministry. We thoroughly enjoy them every time they are with us. This week was encouraging, uplifting, refreshing. Mama and I never regret any extra time spent at the church and the time with the Walker’s was exceptional.

This evening, I have a very long list of things to get done. Most important will be watering the garden. We have gone from being so soaked that we were constantly in the mud to being on the verge of dusty dry once again. I have not had the time to water the garden in the last few evening, but I have managed to keep the plants near the house well-watered. Tonight, I will get to rectify that neglect. Hopefully, I am not too late. I will also take down the piece of metal I installed in the small coop to keep the young chickens from getting under the coop building. When we first put them in the area, they nestled down for the night under the building. It took all three of us to get all of them out and onto the roosts, so I blocked access to that area until they had adapted to the building and the roosts. It has been a week now since they were introduced to their new home. I think they are ready.

Tomorrow, I will be teaching all day.  It will be our first 8-hour online class. I was able to get the room set up for tomorrow as I waited on the repairs to be done to my laptop. I needed to have Mikel, our IT guy, set up a network switch so Red (who will be in the class with me) can connect to the internet via a DSL cable. There is no wireless access in that particular room.

Now I feel a little better about the presentation.