Tuesday 19th
A day of surprises
The trouble with working from home is, you never know what interruptions you’ll get.
Today I was out early with the hounds, up over towards Belstone, and we had a pleasant wander – but I knew that I had a lot to do today. So we cut the walk and came back home.
I sat at the computer and started it up. Every evening I tend to turn it off fully, because I believe (hope) that the thing will get a chance to reset itself. When you reboot a computer (not the old salesman’s method with a size 11 boot, but turn it off and on), the system should clean up any useless nonsense and become a functioning system once more. Yes. It should.
Today, I turned on the machine, and it went into a sulk. This was at 10.10. I tried to get to emails, and the multi-coloured wheel of death appeared. Then it stopped, and I could get into emails … for about three minutes. I was hunting on the web for a specific response to a question, and the spinning wheel came back for a second, then the screen froze.
Sigh. Turn it off and turn it on again. Same thing happened. So by 11.15, I had managed precisely no work, and the damn computer was dying again. Just then, the postman called with a box.
This was much more interesting. A friend in America had seen some of my reviews, and, knowing I loved stationery of all sorts, had gathered together a huge quantity of gorgeous notepads and cahiers of various types. A truly wonderful package to open – especially when I came across a trio of fountain pens, a Pineider travelling inkwell, travelling wallets and – well too much to detail here. Let’s just say, it’s given me several review videos in planning!
But then I had an email (on my phone – the iMac was still sulking). I have applied for financial assistance from the government to improve my hearing aids. And yes, they would support me to the tune of 6/7ths of my costs (because apparently I’m not supposed to be working on the seventh day, so I have to pay for that part of my hearing … logical, except self-employed people do tend to work every day. Anyway, no matter). The trouble was, when I started looking through the items they had listed for the £3,700 they were looking to provide me with.
There were three microphones. And a receiver, and a transmitter that sent the received signal to my aid. Why three mics? I don’t know. There was a docking station and cable – but they came with the mics. There was a spare thing which … well, I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t provided by the NHS Audiology department.
So I had to go to call a lovely lady called “Courtney”, who led me through what she and the audiologists thought I would need, and we came to a much more sensible £950, of which I would have to find about £130. Much more manageable for my income than the £550 that I was originally quoted!
So, not a good start to the day, but it improved dramatically, and at least now I have two hours clear to write, and can look forward to a new hearing aid device that will help me hear people in crowded environments, in meetings, and allow me to have good connection to my phone.
It could get interesting!
writerlywitterings 
It sounds as if you need something like Dr. Cleaner Pro at best and/or CleanMyMac X. You mention the ‘multi-coloured wheel of death’ appearing which is a sign that things are grabbing unnecessary memory and keeping you from your work. It is frustrating I know and that is why I regularly clean and optimize to get rid of pile of unnecessary junk. Cheers!
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Yes, I try to as well. But I think Apple is sending too many updates that are causing contentions in their software just now. I hope they get to fix things because at this rate I won’t be able to afford to remain an Apple user.
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I am intrigued by the tractor’s exhaust stack, at least I assume that is what it is/ Never saw one like that on a tractor here in the US. (Possibly I”m just unaware of some of the older tractors’ appearances, but having grown up in Indiana where you see a lot of old tractors sitting around in the country alongside farmers’ fields or barns, I would have thought I would have noticed one like that.)
I hope you find a solution for your Mac issues. That is truly frustrating and annoying.
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I have to admit, I don’t know anything about tractors. This one has been rusting away on that lane for over twenty years, and it’s a sad sight. But I do wonder whether the strange smoke stack is because this is a diesel tractor (it says Diesel on the front), and I doubt you’d see any diesel machines in Indiana or elsewhere in the US?
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