It’s Been A While

I haven't posted anything for months. Since March this year, actually. I don't suppose much has happened to warrant a new post in that time. This doesn't mean to say I lead a rather boring life though. A lot of things have happened this year.

Around May/June time, I was contacted on Facebook by an old friend. Maybe "old" is not the right word to use, as I'm sure she wouldn't like to be called old. Let's just say it was a friend who I used to hang out with in the late 1970's (the olden days). You can imagine the shock and total surprise that came from receiving this message out of the blue.

Anyway, Lorraine (my "old" friend), wanted to check I was the same person from all those years ago. She was also in touch with another friend of ours from back then, called Lyn. I gave my phone number to Lorraine and she called me that night. We talked for hours. Next day, Lorraine and Lyn came to my flat, and my social life picked up once again.

We started going out every Monday, usually for a bite to eat. Sometimes we'd just stay in and chat or pop over to Lyn's. It's great being back in touch again after all these years.

Through Facebook, we've managed to find a few more friends from back in the day. We've added them as friends on there, and already held a couple of reunions in Cramlington. They went down very well, and our next one is coming up later this month, which is also a night out for Lorraine's birthday. I'm looking forward to it.

My dog, Charlie, is starting to act and look old now. I'm not sure how old he is exactly, as he was a rescue dog when I got him 10 years ago, from the Dog and Cat Shelter on Claremont Road. The vet at the time thought he might have been around 2 years old when I got him, which would make him around 12 years old now. He's starting to have problems with stairs, not so much going down them (he can still run down), but it's the climbing up that's the problem. I know where he's coming from as I have the same problem from time to time. He's also slow to lie down and get back up again. Night times are also a problem. I find it hard to sleep because he gets so restless. he'll lie down, then a couple of minutes later he gets back up and wanders round the room, then lies down again, and so it goes on for a while until he finally lies down for the rest of the night.

Saturday was bad. Stephen was going over home, and I said I'd take Charlie for a little walk, and would leave the flat when he did. Charlie has always got excited when he sees his lead. He barks and jumps around, pulling at my coat etc. Stephen gets a bit embarrassed by this, so usually, I leave the flat and Stephen gives me a minute or so to get down the street before he leaves the flat himself.

I gave Stephen my front door key and asked him to lock up for me. He locked the door and put the key in his pocket. We walked down to the corner shop, then up the next street, where Stephen turned off in the opposite direction to me, and I headed home.

I'd just turned the corner of my own street, when I realised I didn't have my key to get back in. Panicking, I started to walk fast to try and catch up with Stephen,who by now was a fair distance away. I tried running, but it was very hard to do so having Charlie on the lead. I had to sort of walk fast and try to run at the same time, dragging poor Charlie behind me. I caught sight of Stephen, and started to yell out his name. He couldn't hear me of course, so I kept running/walking fast. Luckily, Stephen had realised he still had my front door key and stopped. He turned around to see me and Charlie looking worn out. I got the key back, and turned to come home. Poor Charlie was exhausted after this running, so we almost crawled back up the street. It took ages to get home, and I felt awful at having put my poor Charlie through that marathon thing.

I only take Charlie out for shortish walks these days, because he can't do the long ones anymore without getting tired out. I think his back legs are becoming weaker. I give him a Cod Liver Oil capsule every day, mixed in his food. I'm not sure what else I can or should do.

Before I close, I feel I should mention my computer. It's dead! :( I'm typing this on Stephen's computer, and I'll just have to use this one whenever I can, until I get my own fixed next week or whenever I can afford to do so.

It started out when I was burning some data onto a DVD. I noticed it was taking ages and I couldn't select a fast write speed. Then I remembered something about modes which can be set up for them. Ideally, the drive should have been set to Ultra DMA, but it wasn't. It was set to PIO. There was no way I could change it back to the DMA one. After searching online for an answer, I found a post on a forum that said to simply change the setting in the BIOS. Easy enough, or so I thought. I've changed BIOS settings so many times before, it no longer bothers me. So, I restarted my computer, pressed Del during boot up and entered the BIOS. I found the place I needed to be and change the setting in there to force Ultra DMA. I then saved the settings and quit, restarting the computer. The bloody thing wouldn't boot up anymore. It mentioned something about a floppy drive. I've never had a floppy drive in this computer. I came back onto Stephen's computer to google the problem, and found a few posts on various forums. The solution that came up more than most was to change the CMOS battery. I had a spare motherboard which hadn't been used at all, so I took the battery out of that one and put it into my computer. I started the computer up again, and same problem. I went back into the BIOS and tried to reset everything back to default. That didn't work. I moved the clear CMOS jumper, left it for a few minutes, moved it back to where it should be, took the battery back out and left it for a few minutes. Still nothing...

It was at this point I thought the motherboard or the BIOS was buggered, so I decided to strip the whole thing and rebuild it using the new motherboard. This doesn't phase me either, as I've built a few computers in my time, and took a few courses in servicing and building computers. It should have been really easy to do. It was when I came to take out the processor that the main problem really started. I unclipped the heatsink, and tried to lift it off the processor. It wouldn't budge. I wiggled it a bit and it came away, together with the processor still stuck to the bottom of it. It was glued on with that grey paste. I slid the processor off from the bottom of the heatsink, and it flew across the room and landed in a bucket. I went to get it and found a few of the pins had bent. I tried to straighten them out as best I could, and started to assemble my computer. I came to switch it on. It sounded ok, I got the usual one beep at POST and it went through the motions, but the screen was black and wouldn't switch on. I think this was caused by the bent pins, and maybe the fact that one had snapped off (I found this out later on).

So, I need a new processor. Not only that, I'll also have to buy a new motherboard and RAM, as you can no longer buy those processors. It's not all that old (AMD Socket 754)...maybe 3 years if that? So basically, I'll have to build a new computer. BUGGER!!!

I'll post back to let you know how it goes...