“What’s it doing?”

Last night (Thursday, January 15, 2009), since there was no union-meeting (see post above), we were able to do what we do most nights, which is drive our separate ‘pyooters until bedtime; 10:15 or so.
Me doing bookkeeping or possibly finishing a blog-post, processing e-mail, and lobbing steaming piles at Facebook and MyFamblee.com.
Linda pretty much the same, although she may also surf quilting and dog-training sites, or continue her ongoing computer Scrabble games with her brother’s fourth wife, the person who only seemed imaginary at first.
But we met her a while ago, and she’s really a very nice person, despite Linda’s mother’s stridently bewailing the relative surfeit of makeup.
Like my sister and Tom, this may be the last, and best, marriage partner. Like Elz, Linda’s brother has been married four times.
I sure hope Linda’s brother can accept that. He’s not getting any younger. —He’s older than us.
But ‘pyooter-driving ain’t what happened.
Linda is having a sore back, so was resting in our bedroom on our bed with our dog.
But her ‘pyooter, a Windoze PC, was still on.
Rather than roust her up just to shut it off, with great fear and trepidation I set about to shut it off myself.
Of course, it ain’t like my so-called “silly MAC.”
But I’ve certainly shut down enough PCs, like at the mighty Mezz, and libraries all over this nation.
I treaded gingerly into the room where her ‘pyooter is, and it was displaying the infamous Windoze XP sleep screen.
My MAC doesn’t do that, since it has a monitor with its own independent sleep. —Usually it sleeps (blank screen) before the MAC, although if not, I get the MAC’s “Lucy-in-the-Sky-With-Diamonds” sleep.
So I woke up her rig just like I wake up my MAC: hit an arrow-key.
Hmmmmmmnnnnnn.......
Not the Windoze interface I usually see. Apparently XP doesn’t have the left-bottom-corner start menu — why do they call it “start” if what you’re doing is stopping it?
All I get is a blank baby-blue screen with a tiny red “shut off Linda’s computer” button.
I hit that, and get another tiny red “shut off Linda’s computer” button.
I hit that, and get a warning screen about “other users are logged in to this here computer. Are you sure? Any work they were doing should be saved lest it be lost forever until the end of time.”
Linda waddles in.
“Well, I was just trying to shut it off,” I said; “but now I got that!”
“Just hit it,” she says. “I’m the onliest user.”
So I hit it, and get a totally blank baby-blue screen.
Minutes pass.
“NOW WHAT?” I ask. “My MAC never takes that long.”
“Well, it’s a Windows PC,” she says.
“What’s it doing?” I ask. “Calculating the value of Pi?”

RE: “No union-meeting.......” —For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY. While there I belonged to the local division (“Local 282”) of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union. Our local holds a regular business meeting the third Thursday of each month, but last night there was no meeting due to an election.

RE: “Steaming piles at Facebook and MyFamblee.com.....” —Our family has family web-sites on both Facebook and at MyFamily.com. Anything I post is considered to be a “steaming pile.”

“Linda” is my wife of 41 years.

RE: “The person who only seemed imaginary.....” —For years the existence of Linda’s brother’s fourth wife was debatable, since we never met her or spoke to her.

RE: “Stridently bewailing the relative surfeit of makeup.....” —Linda’s mother thinks any makeup at all is “silly;” and is happy to pass judgment, especially if it involves badmouthing Linda’s brother.

“Elz” is my sister Betty (Elizabeth). She’s second after me, 63 (I’m the oldest at 64). She lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and is married to a guy named Tom.

Our current dog is “Scarlett;” a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s three-plus, and is our sixth Irish-Setter.

“‘Pyooter” is computer. A “Windoze PC” is a Microsoft Windows “Personal-Computer” (“PC”), the usual standard personal computer most people use. RE: “Silly MAC......” —All my siblings use Windows PCs, but I use an Apple MacIntosh, so am therefore reprehensible and stupid. My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston refers to it as a “silly MAC.” The scuttlebutt among Apple MAC users is that “Windoze PCs” are inferior.

The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over three years ago. Best job I ever had. —Most libraries nationwide have Windows PCs with the “Internet-Explorer” Internet browser; so I can fiddle nationwide via the Internet; I don’t need my computer to do so.

“XP” is a recent iteration of the Microsoft Windows computer operating-system.

RE: “‘Lucy-in-the-Sky-With-Diamonds’ sleep......” —Is the computer-sleep display an Apple Macintosh with OS-X throws up. My monitor has a sleep independent of my computer, but all it is is the display going blank. (“OS-X” is the current Apple computer operating system.)