BACKING UP YOUR DATA IS IMPORTANT

 

Husband is currently working on installing new backup software on his computer and having problems. Which leads me to ask – do you back up your computer? Often?

We are not comfortable backing up our software or keeping any data, etc in “the Cloud”. We back up on additional drives which are in our house. Leaving aside that we don't feel comfortable keeping personal information on what is basically someone else's hard drive, by keeping the backups here – we can access it even if we do not Internet access for some reason – or for a limited amount time, we can access it on our laptop computers if we do not have same. (When a big storm is coming and we may lose our electricity we plug in all of our laptops - even the old Win XP ones - so we have them to use during a black out.

We keep our data on USB flash drives – the little stick drives not on our computers – makes it easier to switch between computers or when, in normal times, we travel we can bring the data with us. In my case I have one for most data. Another one for the one accounting business client I still have (when I go to her to do her books I can bring just her data), I have one for my photos, another down here in the kitchen which I use for personal browsing at night on my laptop. And so on. I probably have about 10 different of these stick drives with my data on them – and they are not large memory drives.

This past year I added a drive with scans of almost all of the instruction and warranty books we have – much easier to find the instructions when we need them – yes, we do have to have a computer turned on – or turn one on – but before I had to go through paper folders in the bottom drawer (of two) in one of our file cabinets and since I was bending over and looking down, my eyeglasses would swing forward away from my eyes and possibly fall off. The (hanging) folders were so full that they could barely move in the file drawer. Do we need a computer which is on to look at the papers – yes, but chances are pretty good that one or the other of us (or both) have a computer on – and if not, it takes less time to turn one on and have it boot than sit and go through all the folders looking for something.

In addition to instructions and warranties the drawer had files for travel items – maps, handouts we had picked up on where to go “next time”, places we had liked and wanted to return to, tour books on different areas, etc. I got rid of all of the out of date brochures, tour books, etc. also. We kept a handful of local maps to places we go to often (you know, the ones they hand out free to the tourists of tourist locations), and of some places we have been to in the past (such as nice, inexpensive restaurant in one of the places we visit less often). Down from 3 overstuffed hanging folders to one fairly empty one. I did not copy larger, books of instructions and have kept them in the drawer. I also copied those instructions for our RV to a separate stick drive so we can bring it with us on trips. I have since copied the main warranty/instructions stick drive to a folder on our home net so husband does not even have to look for my stick drive if he needs info.

I now have 5 fairly empty hanging folders in the drawer. One holds instruction books which are tomes and too big to scan (plus they have actual book binding which would break). The other 4 holds those small warranty papers which one needs for a couple of years or so – you know, they come with a fancy pen, or they are on the back of the package. These 4 folders are marked with a year – currently 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. I drop these small papers/packaging into the year they will expire. Something with a 6 mo warranty that was bought now would go into the 2023 folder, something with a 2 year warranty I would put into the 2024 folder. Chances are none of them have a warranty beyond 3 years. At the end of the years I will look through each folder and toss the warranties past their life. When I am done with the 2022 folder it will become the 2026 folder and so on. I am also dropping all of the paperwork for new items which I am concerned we may decide to return into the folder for the following year so we have the original paperwork also.

Now, backing up – the original theme of this piece. I have 2 of these stick drives, marked A and B. At the end of a work session I back up my main data stick drive – plus any of the other data stick drives I have used – onto either the A or B stick drives alternating each day. At the end of the week I do the same with two different stick drives (called 1 and 2) so I have a backup from the past week and the week before. I also have 2 external hard drives. Around the 15^th of the month I back up all the data stick drives to the two external hard drives, alternating by month between the two. I also run a back up of each of my two main computers (desktop and laptop) and make a restore point on each.

When my husband was still working full time, once a month I would give him a back up all of data for him to keep in his desk at work and he would bring home the backup from the month before. When he quit his job I did the same with our bank box until the pandemic started. This way if something happened to our house – there would be a set of data away from home (off site).

All without needing to store any data on “someone's else's hard drive”.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Do you back up your computer data and computer itself? One never knows what happen and putting information back together may impossible.

STILL SCANNING INSTRUCTIONS - AND - ABOUT TO START TAKING DOWN INDOOR CHRISTMAS

 Sorry to miss posting last week (again) somehow I “lost” Wednesday.

Been doing more instruction manual scanning. In addition since the last time I bought new USB flash stick drives was 2019 I need to buy new ones for at least some purposes as they do become less reliable if overwritten again and again. My husband should enjoy this – he will get to wander around in the chain computer store (which is technically up the street from us – albeit at least a mile away and in another community) when we go to buy them. The ones I need are not expensive especially since we buy the store's house brand of them. I will then copy the info on my older ones to the newer ones and have the older ones to use for “junk” storage.

It is now time for us to start taking down our indoor Christmas decorations. Tree will have ornaments removed and stored in their boxes, the lights removed, and then the tree will be disassembled and it all will be stored away in various places in the basement. The other decorations generally “visit” us a bit longer – but not much. Have you started (or maybe even finished) storing away your Christmas decorations? At least one house locally still has its outside lights on.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Please keep yourselves safe from Covid as it makes its comeback.

 or

Have to go finish the dishes now.

COVID 19 #30 - USING YOUR TIME STUCK AT HOME TO WORK ON ORGANIZING

 Welcome to 2022.  

2020 and 2021 have not been easy years for any of us.  We all hoped that by now life would be back to close to normal, if not fully normal.  But we seem to be mostly starting over – again.  

So how have you been using your time at home?  Have you been working on decluttering and organizing your home – or your life or you have been sitting and watching things on your TV?  

I have been trying to catch up on decluttering.  I am close to finishing a project to scan instruction  manuals, warranty papers, travel information, etc. onto flash stick drives to use in my computer.  (We keep all data on same not on our hard drives.)  I back up daily and weekly onto other flash stick drives and monthly onto an external hard drive – just in case. I did go through the travel brochures, old travel ticket stubs, and maps when I started this project.  I kept very few - I consulted with my husband about many of these items.  I scanned items (not maps – except some of those handout maps from various communities we visit often) we decided to keep onto the flash drive I take with us when traveling (can be used in our laptops while traveling).  In a number of cases we checked to see if the attraction that the brochure was for still existed – a very nice restaurant in a community towards the western side of Virginia that we had been to a couple of times – decades ago – still exists, menu is different (it was in the brochure) and the prices are higher – so it was scanned and kept as we hope to head in that direction again. Three hanging folders emptied and the papers recycled.

I have been working on instruction manuals/papers and warranties more recently.  I had one overstuffed hanging folder just for same for our RV.  I have scanned this onto a special stick flash drive so they can be taken with us when we travel – something we could not do with the large number of manuals and warranty papers themselves (it is a VERY small RV.)  I am almost finished with this project.  I will then go back to see what else I can scan and toss or just toss from the drawer.  

In addition to getting rid of all of these physical papers it is now much easier to actually find the item needed.  Before I would I open the filing drawer – bottom of two – and have to lean down to see in the drawer – when I do this my eyeglasses swing forward (and sometimes fall off) so I have to grab them and hold them where they help me see what is the file drawer.  Now I just put the flash drive in a computer – if none are running, turn on the computer and I can quickly find the needed information – and if the print is too small (especially for husband if he is the one looking) I can make it larger and easier to read.  

Of course some instruction manuals are just TOO BIG for this and are being kept in the drawer they were in.  

You do have a scanner for your computer – don't you?  One of the best things to help organize papers.  I wrote about same way back in October 2016  to see the article -

 http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/10/scanners-and-printers-and-how-to-use.html

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

What projects have you been working on while home?  Have you been using your time wisely or just wasting it?

DO YOU BACK UP?

You know “the curse” I have been talking about?  Well it hit again.  Due to all of the craziness and lack of time in general plus time lost to the craziness and need to do things over and over, I had not backed up my main computer or my work laptop (the old one, not this new one which is still being slowly fed software) for the last quarter of 2018 - which I would normally have done around January 15 - nor did I do a monthly backup for December either.  So last Friday I decided to do both.  I backed up one computer to the quarterly hard drive and the other to the monthly hard drive at the same time.  All went well.  I also backed up my calendar, client who I have a separate flash drive for, and my data to each.  All went fine.  Saturday we were home as there was to be rain so I backed up each of the computers etc to the opposite drive.  Still all okay. 

I then went to back up for the week.  I have a flash drive which holds 6 weeks of data, client, ad calendar files.  I update the oldest one each week.  This week if the data drive went bad and both of the regular “every session alternately” backups went bad I will have data from a week ago to work with.  I back up with a software program that updates the files already in the file I am updating to.  It finished running while we were out having dinner on Saturday.

When we got home the backup file did not show everything as finished.  There were problems with several older tax client files - this is pdf copies of the returns, info used from the clients and my work papers.  When I opened those files - it was all gibberish.  Husband looked at them and told me that the drive had gone bad and the files were corrupted. 

I did not panic - I have backups and they must be right as the backup program had not had a problem when making them.  The back up from Saturday afternoon had the same corrupted files. I should say that, luckily, I had not gotten around to do any actual work on the computer for a couple of days - checked email, updated calendar, started one letter.  I tried the backup from Friday and it was fine - whew!! 

Husband tried to format the bad drive and it could not be done.  So he broke it with a hammer to dust and threw out the dust.  (Security is important when financial records are involved.)  I had a new, larger flash drive and copied the backup from the day before to that drive.  Husband suggested I use all new drives and change them annually from now on.  I also have an archive drive - I will soon copy my 2018 files into my archive and remove them from the data drive I use to keep it more compact.  Robert suggested that I get a new archive drive also.  When I update the archive drive I also make 2 DVDs of it - one goes into my regular disk box and one goes into my “grab and go” accordion folder.  This holds copies of our house and car titles, stock certificates, last month’s reconciled bank statements, wedding licenses (we actually have 3 - one government, one from each of our religions), medical insurance and the like.  In case of an emergency we can grab this folder and have copies of our important papers to take with us - including DVDs of the archive and of my monthly backup to take offsite. 

So I planned to go on Monday to a MicroCenter - a location of the chain and buy 3 new flash drives - one each for the session backups and a larger one for the archive.  However, while at Costco on Sunday, husband noticed that my laptop dropped $50 in price since we bought it, so Monday we forgot about buying the new drives and went to back to Costco as they will refund the difference with the receipt.  (This is a actually a very good idea.  I could have returned the laptop and bought it again to take advantage of the price drop, and they would be stuck with a used laptop, this way I keep my laptop, am happy to get the lower price, and they don’t have to deal with a used laptop - and extra credit card fees for a return and another purchase.)

So yesterday, Tuesday, we bought the new drives.  I made two new regular backups yesterday of data, client, and calendar files.  I still have to check the hard drive backups and make a weekly backup for last week - though at this point, I will probably not bother and just do this week’s weekly backup on Friday.  I also still have to copy the archive to the new drive.

I feel as if I am not getting anything done. I generally can tell how much I have been getting done by the number of papers I have to file at the end of a week, the number of items I have to mail out, and how deep the dust is in the house (okay, there is always too much dust in the house).

 I have not finished client’s tax return yet - due March 15 - and need to have it finished and go to her with it before then.  I have not heard from my other clients yet - they tend to contact me in March.  I am still trying to get missing papers for our personal returns - one corrected IRA 1099 has not come yet - called yesterday about it - to be sent to us.  I also have not received a corrected summary statement - but that is for something later this year.  I did not get a dividend 1099 either, called up and I am not sure one was sent as the first thing the computer talked about was how much our dividends were and that we don’t need a 1099, but if we want one, they can send “a replacement”.  So hopefully that will come soon.  I know the amounts for all of these and can do the return without them, but need the paperwork for the same thing later in the year.  We have two business returns to do for ourselves. One is due March 15 also and has no income - it is inactive, but we don’t want to close it down.  So yesterday, just to get something done I did the inactive company’s tax returns.  Well, something is done at least. 

And - husband is thinking about going to a woodworking show out of state this weekend - which means Friday as we have the annual party for our reenactment unit on Sunday so we cannot go then and we cannot get up early enough to do that on Sunday and go to the woodworking show on Saturday.  We will see.  This was a nice show, but the venue it was in was closed and it moved to one that is not at all convenient to deal with.  (A quilt show at the same old venue moved elsewhere and was awful and is no more.)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
BACK UP!  No, not away from the computer.  Make sure that you are doing backups of at least important data and things like your important photos.  We don’t use “the cloud” for anything including backup as another name for the cloud is “someone else’s hard drive, which is more attractive to hack than yours as they will get so much more” and most of the cloud drives have been hacked.  An external hard drive is fairly reasonable to get and one can back up to it on a weekly or monthly basis if they don’t need to back up as often I do.  (Remember a lot of this is work stuff I am backing up.)  An external drive would also let you take the drive with you in an emergency. 

BACK TO HOUSEWORK - PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE TRIP

After 2 weeks husband has decided that the tail end of cold is too much to deal with and I am back to cooking and cleaning on my own as of yesterday.  So tonight I am catching up on 3 weeks of laundry backed up.  I washed the clothing, he put in the dryer and then in the laundry basket.  He then pulled out his clothing and put it away and left mine for me.

 I think the final blow was yesterday was “change the bed linens day”.  Last week we only changed the pillow cases.  Last night I figured I would change the sheets, I would change my pillow cases, he would change his, and I would change the sheets and remake the bed - other than him dealing with his pillowcases.  So yesterday morning, I pulled off my pillowcases, folded the blanket and pulled the top sheet off the bed.  I would normally have pulled off his bottom pillowcase in the morning. I pull the top pillowcase and the bottom sheet off when we are going to bed at night and remake the bed then.  (I used to pull everything off in the morning, but a couple of times he was dizzy and ill during the day and I had to quickly put his side of the bed back, so this is our compromise - he can lie down as the bottom sheet and his top pillowcase are there and then pull the top sheet - lying on the bed - on top of him if he does not feel well. ) So last night I put the last (of 3) set of clean sheets on the bed and put the blanket on.  I went to pull 2 pillowcases for my pillow and he would do his pillowcases afterwards .... but there were only 2 clean pillowcases!  We each took one. 

I went down tonight to start the first load of laundry and did so.  I was also going to run our “Packtite”, a device intended to heat suitcases and their contents when one returns home from a trip so that if one has picked up bed bugs they will be killed by the heat.  We set it up with a laundry basket with holes in it and I heat anything coming into the house we are concerned about.  Normally I run it when it when I do the laundry as it is near the washer and dryer in the basement and the timing for a load of laundry to wash or dry and to check the temperature on the thermometer in the Packtite is about the same. There is a small number of things to heat.  I noticed that the thermometer reading for the Packtite was the same as last time I used it .  (We have an indoor/outdoor reading thermometer and the dohickey for the outside is in the Packtite so I can see the temperature and make sure it is high enough, long enough, but does not go to high.)  No new reading - or a blank reading - for the dohickey means that it needs new batteries.   I walked up 2 flights of stairs to the office to get new batteries and then back down the same 2 flights.  It still did not work.  I texted husband to help me.  (Yes, we are lazy enough to text each other in the house - much better than running up and down the stairs to tell each other something, especially in summer when doors are closed to keep air conditioning in the room and the ac units are running and making noise.)  We spent over half an hour playing with it, but the dohickey still does not work.  My solution?  We have the same setup on a thermometer in the kitchen to read the temperature in the refrigerator, I brought that set up downstairs and took the working main thermometer from the basement and stuck it in the refrigerator and read it by opening the door.  Tomorrow I will switch the setups back - and we will look for a new thermometer for the basement.  (I pause here to run down and switch laundry loads.)

Okay, I am back.  Over last weekend I reset the number of days for my Quickbooks to remind me of memorized transactions (mostly bills to pay, some direct deposits to come in) to cover everything through the end of the month (normally it is set for one week).  I wrote checks for all the bills and calculated how much we needed to transfer from savings (which is a holding account for money for bills) to pay all the bills to the end of the month.  I transferred the money yesterday and today mailed out the bill payments. Well, everything but the cable/Internet bill which will not come until the last minute at the end of the month - and the money for it plus a bit more is now is now in the checking account.  Why did I pay it all at once?  Husband REALLY wants to go on a trip of more than a day or two.  He keeps checking the upcoming weather in the several places we might go and it continues to follow the pattern of a day with no rain - maybe two days if lucky -and then two or three days of pouring rain and thunderstorms.  (Although the weather is not as bad as it is in some parts of the country - I hope none of you are in the areas of the wildfires or the flooding.) When we prepare for a trip we pay any bills that need to be paid while we will be away and need to transfer money for same and then mail the payments.  This way we do not even have to think of the bills until the cable bill at the end of the month.  We can leave with a just a quick stop at the bank for cash for the trip.  One less thing that has to be dealt with.  Actually the only other problem is the newspaper - if we go at the last minute there will be a paper sitting in the delivery tube while we are away - I guess one paper will look like that day’s paper so it is not bad.  Most of our mail goes to our box at the Post Office and we put in a large locking mailbox at the house so that we do not have to stop the mail that does still come to the house.  Clothing can be washed and dried and then packed the night before and just tossed on the RV bed when we go.  Food, etc can be stuck under the RV bed in a holder that is there.  It can all be unpacked when we get where we are going.  So if he finds a place to go we can leave the next day.

He has had another project he has been working on and frustrated with, which affects me.  He has been trying to convince me to stop using this laptop and buy a new one.  I have some problems checking posts on some websites - the laptop runs Windows XP.  We have been looking and have found some laptops at the price we can pay - actually more than we can pay, but we can stretch the amount another $100 or so t buy.  I am still resistant as there are only one or two websites which are affected and I have software I like which may or may not work with Windows 10 and at least one I know will not work with same.  Yes, it can take up to 20 minutes for the laptop to boot and takes awhile for programs to open, but I am used to.  The alternative he comes up with is installing Linux on this computer to use when online.  He has found and set up about 5 versions of same on USB stick drives and DVDs in the past week or so.  The latest version on DVD actually works - but one of the sites I have a problem with only partially opens.  I have not have my laptop at least part of each night as a result as he loads the new try.  (Notice I made sure to write and post on time this week since I was late last week, but some friends on an embroidery site and some friends on a comics site will not hear from me - and I normally am on the comics site on Monday nights.)  I am guessing that I will be giving in and getting the new laptop - but not until after the cutoff for the credit card bill this month, so we won’t have to pay for it until October - the house insurance is in September, plus any travel bills if we go away.

Oh - I did finally vacuum up all the shreds of paper from my big shredding of 2008 last week.
                               
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One may fall behind due to illness or other reasons.  Don’t panic.  One can always catch up. 

FINALLY STARTING TO CATCH UP

Husband gave up on his weaving project this past Monday - someday he will try to do this type of weaving again, but not now. 

I have been working on catching up and getting the house and chores back up to date. 

I have stored away the several pairs of boots each of us had out for snow this past winter.  We have a sort of charm that we believe in (which did not work this winter) - once a pair of boots comes out for the snow, it is bad luck to put them away before the winter is over and will result in even more snow.  Yeah, it is stupid and certainly did not work this winter, but we leave them out anyway.  Since my teeth are in their seasonal ache period (spring and fall) and I have my seasonal stiff neck (ditto) I am pretty sure the weather will actually stay warm now.  So I put the boots away.  Our setup for the boots is 2 good sized plastic boxes with lids at the bottom of the front closet.  The bottom box holds the boots for more severe weather - the actual snow boots, a pair each of rubber (plastic?) covered shoe boots and such.  The upper box holds the boots that might also be worn in rainy weather - the leather ones - and a pair of my old sneakers which slip on.  The latter has nothing to do with boots or bad weather.  If I have to run out of the house - take out the garbage, recycling, forgot something in the car - they are easy and quick to slip on instead of stopping to put on shoes with laces to go out.  They sit at the front and top of the top box so they can be quickly and easily reached.  The lid of the upper box becomes a boot tray when we have the boots out - it is placed next to the front door and wet boots are left on it to dry and await their next wearing.  I washed and dried the top of it well before putting it back on the box in the closet.

While I managed to fit in the bank reconciliations for our main bank accounts and those of the clubs of which I am treasurer, I did not get to the other accounts - personal savings accounts and a couple of small checking accounts that are used for money transfers, as well as since it was the quarterly statements, the statements for our IRAs.  At this point the new statements will be here next week - so I will do the two months of statements together as that is quicker than doing one set now and one set next week.  I did find time today to go back and post the purchases and credits on our main credit card statement from last month.  I had matched the slips to the statement and paid the bill - in full of course - but had not had a chance to post it to my computer records - so today I did so.  Providence must have been helping me as the items for this statement rarely comes out even (posts done with what was billed and paid) on the first try - sometimes it takes lots of tries - but this was one of the time that it worked out on the first try.

Right now I am doing my Wednesday night laundry.  Forgot that I had done a load of jeans last week and it was left in the dryer to dry - so I had to bring them upstairs to be able to use the dryer.  I also have 2 extra loads I need to do this week.  I change the bed’s “underwear” once a month.  While I bought new pillow undercovers during the month (as the ones I had were really icky when I saw them - stained and such) I need to wash the mattress pad I took off.  We sleep in winter with two blankets.  Since it is now in the 70s during the days husband suggested that we only need one blanket now for the warmer weather.  I only made the bed with the green blanket and the blue one is waiting to be washed and put on the bed next week.  Why do we have two different color blankets?  When we needed a new blanket after we had the bed bugs we bought the blue one.  Later when it got colder we decided we needed a second one and the store only had the green ones in the correct size.  Since I like blue, I wash the blue one first when we are switching to one blanket and leave the green one on the bed to use while the blue one is washed.  Then I will put the clean blue blanket on the bed and wash the green blanket.  The green blanket will be put in a clear plastic bag when it is clean and after squeezing as much air as I can, the bag will be sealed.  The green blanket will then be store in the bedroom in a piece of furniture (a plastic end table with a shelf under it and a closed cabinet area below that - it used to be in our living room in our apartment). In the fall I will put the green blanket on the bed and again wash and dry the blue one.

Today was my embroidery chapter meeting.  Due to illnesses somehow not only was I the treasurer, but the secretary asked me during the week to take minutes for her and then this morning the membership chair called and said she was ill and asked me to take care of the renewals (our national group sets the membership year as June through the following May, so everyone has to renew right now), getting a sign in list of members, etc. for her. Plus the VP is out of state and she asked me to get the list of who will bring what to her house for our annual party next month. 

After the meeting - which was the first one I went to since January (February and March meetings were canceled for weather and husband’s birthday meant that I could not go to the April meeting).  I ran errands which have been waiting since late January to be done. 

I had packed some items to donate.  Many of them were old computer disk storage items, some were household serving pieces and others were clothes.  The bags have been sitting in front of the office closet door since they were packed in late January - each time I thought it would only be a month before they were taken to Goodwill.  So if I needed our business checkbook, new paper for the printer, my other laptop bag (I have one for travel and one for work - they hold different things) or the box of 2017 paid bills that I temporarily stuck in the top of the office closet until I clear out the 2008 box from the top of the closet and pack the 2017 papers (bills, statements and anything else) in it and put it in the top of the closet I had to move all the bags, open the closet door, take out what I need (or put away what I no longer needed) and then put all the bags back.  So nice to be able to just open the closet. 

Similarly I had not been able to bring back our recyclable plastic (soda) bottles for refund of their deposit since early January.  I managed to get rid of one small bag (10 bottles, 50 cents) when I suggested to husband that we get rid of a small bag of bottles easily and quickly in the interim, but I kept forgetting to bring another small bag and get rid of them. There still is about half a month’s bottles in the porch - if all goes as it should, they will be returned next month along with any bottles between now and then. 

I even managed to fit in a quick trip to the bank branch where we have a safe deposit box and switch an updated offsite data stick drive for the one in the box - also not done since January and intended as a monthly thing to do.  I also ordered new checks as I am down to one book while I was there. 

So catching up is progressing.  I even fit in one of our VERY long telephone conversations with mom. 

I mentioned late last year that we had accumulated and submitted a variety of paperwork to our local township for us to receive a senior real estate tax exemption, which is income based.  I am happy to say that I received the paperwork saying that we have been given the exemption.  This will cut our property taxes for the school year 2018-2019 and our other real estate taxes for 2019.  We have to reapply later this year for the following year - at least now we know what to do and what we will need.  I have already started collecting the papers as some of them come in without us having to request them.  I start contacting the places I will need additional paperwork from either late this month or the beginning of next month - it is all due by the end of the year, so there is time to get it done easily and they will not send out the forms until late August.

For a bit of extra fun, we need to put a new carbon monoxide monitor alarm and a new propane monitor alarm in our RV.  We have actually replaced the carbon monoxide monitor before and did not anticipate any problems with it.  We have not needed to replace the propane monitor before, but the instructions seemed pretty straight forward.  We had to order both monitors.  The propane monitor had to be ordered from Canada.  Husband found the carbon monoxide monitor listed for sale online, but the one he found said “marine” across it and is intended for a boat.  He emailed the company selling it and was assured that it was it the same one - same model number and all. 

The carbon monoxide monitor arrived first at our PO Box.  When opened it did say “marine” across it.  It also has not only different specifications than the one we have, but also they are different than those in the listing it was purchased from.  Husband emailed the company about this on Friday.  On Tuesday he telephoned as he had not heard back.  The employee had him leave a message for the person he needed to talk to and he was assured he would be called back later in the day - today (Wednesday) he called again, spoke to the same employee and was told the same thing and he was a bit less pleasant and she told him that he had written to the wrong email address (the one in their listings) and gave him her email to send the info to - hopefully this will get resolved.

Husband went to take out the old propane monitor - should be easy - push two pieces of plastic on the front together and pull.  Apparently the wire was too short for it to pull out.  While we need the wire to attach the new one, we had to squeeze in a small wire cutter and cut the wires to get the old one off.  We have attempted to remove the piece of floor in this section to get to where the wire connects - but it won’t lift out even after the screws were removed. 

Hopefully both of these will soon work out and be installed or we cannot travel in the RV.  Next we will progress to dewinterizing the RV - a messy job over 2 days to drain the antifreeze in the pipes and tanks out, add a vinegar and water mixture, run it through the pipes and shake it around the tanks by driving forward and backwards (I mean backwards or forwards or there will be a hole in the garage door) and stopping quickly.  Then the vinegar and water mixture is drained out and plain water put in the tanks - then run out through the pipes and taps (3 pairs of taps and toilet) and then the plain water put in again and run out. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - If the work that needs to be done seems immense, do it little by little.                                     

Figure out what is most important to be done and do that work. 

Take what can be set aside “for now” and do so - but put all of the items set aside as same together. 

Then do the next the thing which needs to be done and so on.

It is amazing what will get done this way and you will get closer to catching up, if not caught up completely.

SCHOOL AND OFFICE SUPPLIES

This week back to a bit more normal organizing - instead of our weird adventures.

First of all, we bought and I have been using a new dish rack instead of using the dead dishwasher as a rack.  It is actually smaller than my old rack and I have trouble fitting in the dishes and pots from dinner and must store them away before I wash the items from night snack - well, at least it makes me put everything away. 

Now -school supplies.  I think I have mentioned before my love of office supplies - as a child I played with my dad’s supplies in his office and I am always looking at them for ideas of what to do with them.  I was also a strange child who actually loved going to school and the new supplies for the year were exciting.

You are thinking - I don’t need school supplies, so I will skip this post - don’t!  You may need school supplies and not realize it.  I know our purpose is to get rid of stuff - not buy stuff, but sometimes school/office supplies can help us organize.

We are in school supply season (at least in the U.S.) and the stores are all competing for business so there are very good prices on the supplies.  A wonderful time to stock up on needed supplies.

Our reenacting unit had to move out of our headquarters for a good part of a year.  When we move back our modern space in the back was disorganized and simple supplies lacking.  When school supply season rolled around I bought a package of pens, one of pencils, a clip board that opened for storage, a large pad of lined paper (now we were set to pass around a paper each meeting for attendance, as well as additional ones for lists of who is coming to which event), scissors, tape, glue, ruler, marker pen, small box to keep it all in and a second box in another color to put sewing supplies in (they had been in a small open basket before in a file cabinet).  Now we are set for whatever we need - a sign for the door saying “use the front door” or “keep this door closed” no problem, someone needs to take minutes as the secretary is not there - plenty of paper and pens, and so on.

So think about it.  Do you journal your organizing efforts in a notebook?  If you think you will need a notebook before next year, now is a great time to get it cheaper.  If you can never find a pen or pencil - a package is cheap to buy now - put pens and/or pencils around the house where you always need them and can’t find them.  Scissors also inexpensive.  If you sew and fly and have a problem with pointed scissors when flying - I bought Fiskars blunt tip scissors (even have a cover for the tip) which are nice and sharp for cutting, but blunt ended to take on planes (or in my case to jury duty) - best price of the year right now on them.  Folders for filing what you sort - even in colors.  Pocket folders for papers you need to bring places. (I have one for my papers to take to our reenactment unit meetings and one in a different color for same for my embroidery chapter meetings.)  Small plastic boxes for storage.  Backpacks.  Great time to stock up.

But now, remember, don’t buy more than you will need - this time will come again next year.  Also it is important to set a place for the spares to be kept so that you can find them when you need them.

We had a small month calendar on our fridge for TV shows.  Husband made it on the printer and sealed it in plastic sheets.  He has been using it as a “white board”.  It is hard to fit the info in the small squares and the ink is hard to get off of it.  I saw in with the school supplies a larger wall calendar which is a white board.  It said that it was magnetic - which I took to mean it would stick to the fridge.  No, it meant that one could put magnets on it.  Husband was intrigued by the idea and we bought one to see if we could put it on the fridge.  We did so.  There are 5 weeks on it - we set the first week as 8:00 pm, the next as 8:30, next 9:00, next 9:30 and the last 10 pm (rarely half hour shows at 10 or 10:30 pm).  Since the shows no longer run a full season, we list what is on and we would like to see. Petty idea I know.  But what could you use a large calendar which can be erased for?  It is actually made to hang on a wall with included hangers so don’t think it has to go on the fridge.  (We glued washers to the back and then put heavy duty magnets on same - but even then we needed to put a string around the sawteeth it was suppose to hang from and then around two magnet hooks on the fridge.) 

That reminds me of another great office supply - but it probably is not on sale.  We have a labeling machine.  It prints small plastic labels.  Labeling is good and helps one to find things easier. In our case it from Brother, but there are several companies which make them.  Husband printed the times for each set of boxes small and put it on a tiny thin magnet and put it on the board to make it easier to see what time something is on.  But since labeling things is a great way to keep track of what there is and which box, can, etc. is which - these labels are wonderful.  They even come off of many surfaces cleanly.  I label the various stick flash drives I use for data with them.   I put them on DVDs/CDs to know what is on the disk.  If it is a reuseable disk, when I delete it to reuse, I take the old label off.  My husband (since the time of floppy disks, through zip disks to stick flash drives) does not label his.  He “knows” which is which - the green one over there is “X”, the red one over there is “Y” and so on.  Generally he has no idea which is which and has to sit and stick each one in his computer until he finds the one he is looking for - if he does.   Boxes of craft supplies when labeled are easy to find the supply one is looking for  - ribbons, buttons, pompoms?  Easy to find when the box says what it is in it.

Of course, for cardboard boxes - marking pens work great for labeling also. 


THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -           

Supplies to make organizing easier are good to have - but don’t go crazy buying “more stuff”, buy what will be of help to YOU.  Make sure you have a place to keep what you buy so that you will be able to find it as it is needed. 

ELECTRONICS CAN HELP YOU BE ORGANIZED OR PLUNGE YOU INTO HELL

Well, here I am.  In our little RV on a little trip - going to a quilt show (quilting supplies and exhibitions of quilts) tomorrow and then on Friday go to a fiber show (wool and related items for sale) which we have never been to before. 

Well, that’s where I am suppose to be, but I am not.  While I use electronics - computer, cell phone, old cell phone as a PDA - to help keep me organized (even weekly reminders to write and post to this blog - along with every other day “make pudding” for snack, daily time to stop and “make dinner” and other reminders in addition to normal appointments to keep organized, sometimes something goes blooey and stops it all.
       
We were debating whether or not to go on this 3 day trip.  It is nice to have something different as a diversion, but it is a lot of money (for us) in terms of tolls, RV park, and admission to the quilt show (fiber show is free) and dinner runs a bit more than dinner out normally does for us. 

So, we were unsure what to do.  We filled the RV tanks with water and decided to decide at the last minute.  I packed up the snacks and related that we would need (including medications) and put them in the cloth supermarket shopping bags we use for same - one has blue handle - anything for the fridge goes in same, so I know to pull same and put it in the fridge in the RV right away when we start the trip.  (Why blue handle?  Well, 2 bags have beige handles and one has a blue handle so the blue handle is the odd “handle”out and easy to spot.)  Clothing is taken out to the RV in laundry bags, so to toss same in the laundry bags and throw the clothing and non-refrigerator bags in the RV and unpack them when settled in is not a big a deal. 

We were leaning towards going as of when we returned home from running errands yesterday.  Then the electronics crashed.

Husband goes online - on his computer - when he gets up for the day and then we both go online - on our computers - after we go out and run our errands for the day.  Yesterday he had no trouble in the morning.  When we returned I tried to download my email accounts to see the new emails and I could not connect to the Internet.  I tried going online - same thing.  Husband came up and with the usual “really, you can’t connect to the Internet - what did you do wrong” attitude, tried to connect his computer to the Internet.  No Internet.

We tried everything we knew - we rebooted the modem.  The lights on same went on and off in an odd assortment and would then start again - searching for the Internet over and over. We tried reaching the wifi from our cable co.  (While the cable co. insists this is impossible, we get their wifi in our house - according to them it only exists in the street - and when there is a black out that is how we get wifi for the laptops.)  No luck.  Finally we gave up and called the cable co - knowing exactly the conversation which would occur. We had the same conversation a week ago when our TV service went out.  “Unplug the modem.”  We did that already. “Do it again.”  Then a discussion follows on our wiring and splitters.  Our house was wired - by the cable co.’s private contractor - and I have to explain that our wiring is odd and splits on the outside of the house not inside the house.  (Each room with cable has its own line coming into it from outside.)  Finally - “We have to make an appointment for someone to come there.”  We asked if exchanging the modem might help and it was agreed that we would do that.    We remembered that we have two “drops” (we have 2 lines from the cable co.’s line into our house - each serves half the small house as they did not have enough signal coming through when the house was wired by them originally).  We take the modem to a line coming in on the other drop and try it there - it does not  work there either.  This says to us that this is something beyond the wiring to our house.  Logic would say that other people should be complaining, but in today’s world no one else on our street might have service through the cable co. 

Husband who before was not sure if we should go away, now is disappointed.  It is decided that we will get up early (well, early for us) and exchange the box and if this corrected the problem, we would then go on the trip. 

Now we were each looking for something to do so that our time was not wasted.  Husband started playing with a wifi dongle in his computer to see if he could use the wifi in the street.  Problems with the dongle.  He tried using his laptop - wifi from the street was very intermittent.  I did various things I needed to catch up on - bank reconciliations and such - which did not need Internet access.  Then again, every other thing I thought of doing needed the Internet.  Remember I still need to get contact information into my new cell phone - what a great time to do it.... Oh, I need to be on the Internet to do that.  And so on. 

By the way, we would have been able to do much less if we used “the cloud” (aka a cloud server) as we would not be able to access data and possibly even software (apps) as we had no Internet access.  Remember this if you are someone who is very gung ho about using the cloud - you could loss access to your data and/or software if you have no Internet access.

After dinner I figured I would use this laptop to check a few of my email accounts - family, reenacting unit, embroidery chapter, and accounting email accounts - the ones with possible important emails.  I tried signing into the first account using the wifi from the street.  In just connecting and seeing that there was no email in the account (and again in each successive one of the four accounts) it took 3 or 4 attempts to get into the account and open the email “in box”.  No new emails.  I gave up trying to do anything else on the Internet and played solitaire until it was time to have snack and go to bed.

Today we went to the cable co.’s “store” and exchanged the modem.  Husband told the employee that last time we exchanged the modem, and got the one we are returning, when we were given the box it was not “registered” and it was several days and an employee visit to our house for several hours to find out that when the modem was given to us it was not registered to our account first.  She told us that we have to register it when it starts and we should see the instructions on installing the modem and registering it on page 10 in the instructions.  We took the modem package and the instruction package and went home.

The instructions turned out to be of no value as they were for a router not a modem.  Of course, setting up the modem is not hard - plug it into the electric, plug in the incoming cable line, and plug in the outgoing Internet cable.  It started right up - doing the same as it did before. Lights went on and off in the same pattern as last night on the old modem and then started over.  Husband turned on his computer just in case it was waiting for him to do something.  No connection.

I called the cable co again.  The employee said that she would try to register it from her end.  She could not as there was no return signal.  We would need - a visit from a service tech.  First appointment is Friday  - No Internet from Tuesday night to Friday morning - if they can get it working then.  Oh, and if the problem is in the house - in the cable wires which the cable company originally installed or in the modem, which we just exchanged or anything else in the house, there is an $80 fee. 

The trip is of course, off at this point as we have to be here on Friday morning.

Now, we have noticed something odd about our cable company.  We call up with a problem.  We go through the hoops they want us to go through - which we have already done, not being stupid to try to resolve the problem without calling them.  (By the way, while on hold there was actually a recording saying that if one is having a problem with their cable box remote - check that the batteries do not need changing.  Really?  People are too stupid to think of this on their own?)  We are then told that we need to exchange equipment or have a service tech come to work at the house.  We agree to exchange the equipment.  Within a half hour later - by magic - the problem resolves itself.  (We thought we would have Internet this morning based on this “magic”.)  

So as we are sitting there upset at no Internet until Friday - don’t forget husband does counseling online so he is not able to work until this is resolved nor can we deal with orders which might come in for our handcrafted gifts business, husband notices that suddenly there is a window on his computer to register the new modem.  We put in the information and  voilà, we have Internet again! What happened?  Did they send the service appointment in to the repair department and someone look and realize a switch was off?  Magic?  Why does this always happen?                                     
Just to be on the safe side we are not calling and canceling the appointment for the service tech until tomorrow - a day before they are due to come, but a chance to make sure that the service does not disappear again.        

It was too late by then to go on the trip, so here we are.  I did have a chance to transfer all the contact information for my embroidery group to the new mobile phone, as well as get a start on transferring the remaining contacts which were not “critical” to transfer.  Oh yeah, the cable company phone number had not been transferred yet - I had to find it in my old cell phone to call the cable co. - during the various calls, it was transferred in.           

I guess you knew that we got our Internet back - didn’t you?  How else could I have posted this?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-
If you must use “the cloud” have the information (data) you store in the cloud available to you on your computer, tablet etc. or in hard copy also.  This way when you have no access to the Internet, you still have the information to work with. 

Imagine if my checking and savings information only existed in the cloud and I had planned to write checks yesterday - I would not have known how much money I had to spend nor how much I could transfer to help cover checks.  This could have been a major problem - especially if the service really had been out until Friday - no access to information in the cloud for 3 days!

(And never forget - the cloud is not mysterious - it is only someone else’s hard drive - why not keep your information on your own hard drive or a flash drive.)

BACKING UP COMPUTER FILES SO YOU DON'T USE THEM

I have written before about my regular daily back up of my data and my archiving it at the end of the year.   There is other backing up that I do that I thought I would tell you about.

I was very careful about backing up - day after day - and then I realized I had problem with the data to my organizer.  There was a problem (I forget what by now) and unfortunately both my daily backups (A and B) were bad - for over a week.  Now I had to go and try to figure out what went wrong and when and come up with replacement info about what I had done.  (Remember I use my organizer for appointments, to dos, anniversary/birthdays, my contacts directory and memos - things to buy, info I need, etc.) I managed to get it corrected.  I was lucky that I make a monthly backup on an exterior hard drive.

Once a month I run software to copy my computers to an external hard drive.  The idea is that if my computer hard drive crashes I can restore it quickly and easily.  Of course this sometimes goes awry since one does not know if the backup worked unless and until one needs to use it.  I also copy my data and organizer separately at the same time to the same external hard drive.  So lucky me, I had organizer data from less than a month before to help me catch back up. 

To prevent the loss of data backup from overwriting the backup daily - even with A and B alternating backups - I came up with the idea of - yes - another backup.  I took a flash drive (you can see I love these things) and made a folder - “Backup” and another “Calendar” (meaning everything from the organizer), and another one “client name” for each client.  On a Friday I backed all my data from these assorted sources to this drive.  I call it my weekly drive.  The following Friday I went and added the date of the first backup to the names of the backup files I had made and made new “backup”, “calendar”, and “client’s name” files.  I ran the backups again.  Now I have a backup as of the end of “this” week and one from the end of last week.  If I overwrite the data and backups with the same error - I have a backup from only a week ago.  I kept doing this for 4 weeks.  At then end of 4 weeks I had the latest weekly backups which just had the names of the backups and 3 backups from the prior 3 weeks - each labeled with the date they were backed up.  What then?  Well, I again added the date to last Friday’s backups, but this time I removed the date from the oldest backups - putting them back with their original names and ran an update backup.  This is what I do each week now - add the date to last week’s backups and remove the date from the oldest backups - and update them. 

So now I am backing up my data and calendar daily to flash stick drives (A and B) and then backing up my data weekly to a different flash stick drive, and monthly to an external hard drive, when I back up my computers to same. 

I think, but I am not sure, that I have mentioned I do a backup once a month to still another flash stick drive (and yes, they are very well labeled so I know which is which and what is on them) that also has a copy of my annual archive on it, which I bring to my bank safe deposit box for “offsite” storage.  I used to send this drive to work with husband when he worked in an office which was not in our house.  He would take the drive to work and bring back the one he already had there.  Now I take the one I just updated to the bank box and bring home the one from last time.  The one from last time will be updated just before it goes back to the bank box.

One would think this was enough backups - right?

My external hard drive was getting a bit old (and therefore is rather small).  It suddenly dawned on me that if the external hard drive went bad, I would lose the data and if the computer crashed, well I would be stuck (sort of like when we bought a new internal hard drive due to problems with my old one and the backup had not worked).

So - I bought a new larger drive (the storage was a lot larger, the physical drive only a bit larger).  So now I back up my computer and assorted data onto this drive monthly - and I have new software so hopefully if I need to use it, it will work.  I then backup to the old external hard drive quarterly - just as, well, a backup of the backup.  I work on the idea that more backups make it harder to lose data or computer hard drive.

Now, I know I am backing up way more than anyone short of a major corporation does, but I don’t want to lose my data or my hard drive again. 

Do you back up?   You really need to.  I lose business type data - if you have your photos on the computer you could lose the photos if you lost your drive.  At least get a couple of fairly inexpensive flash drives and make copies in an alternating pattern . 

Oh, another advantage to my keeping my data on flash drives is that they are small.  I can take them from once computer to another - very easily.  I can also put all of my flash drives in the pocket of my jeans - at the same time - if I needed to take them - which leads to -

I have mentioned that I have a grab and go folder for financial stuff - last bank statements, insurance policies, copies of deed, mortgage payoff and car titles, duplicate birth and wedding certificates and such.  I also have a copy of the latest archive on DVD.  If we need to leave the house in an emergency we can grab this folder (actually a sectioned “file wallet” with a top that closes) drop in the lastest data drive and run in an emergency and have as much info with us as we can.  If you have precious photos you can keep a copy of them in there also - DVDs are more definite than flash drives (another reason I keep a lot of backups - flash drives can go bad) and you will not have lost info you need plus personal photos and infos you would miss.  (Remember you can scan in your child’s art work, etc. also.)


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is May.  While I know the weather is odd this year, we are over a quarter of the way through the year and well onto halfway through the year.  Don’t wait any longer.  Do something towards getting rid of clutter and beginning to organize and clean up. 

Today I had my embroidery chapter meeting.  We have the room until 2 pm.  Most, sometimes all, the other members leave at the end of the program- between noon and 1 pm generally.  I always have some embroidery project (or two) with me.  Today two other members were staying and working on their needlework after the others had left.  I took out one of the projects from my bag and started stitching.  I did not get a lot done as this particular project is a slow one with tiny stitches and one strand of cotton embroidery floss at a time, but I am now that much further along on the project - not even a ful petal of a flower - but I am that tiny bit closer to finishing it. 

Each step you take towards getting organized - throwing even one item out or otherwise getting it out of your house - is a bit less that needs to be done.  Small amounts add to large ones.  There is a quote (I think from Patrick Henry) “I have never seen a man devour an entire bunch of grapes at one time, but I have seen a man accomplish the same thing, by plucking the grapes and eating them one at a time.”  In the same way we cannot accomplish everything needed to declutter, organize, and clean everything at once - but we can do this a bit at a time - so do something as the first step and then tomorrow do something else, and so on.

WHAT A WEEK - AGAIN!

This was another whirlwind week of not much done. 

First - more Christmas followup.  I have packed most of my bear figurines from the living room and will soon put out my February bear figurines from the same set.  Large Santas and elves stored away on top of the main tree’s box and the basement was put back into order so that all could be used again down there.

Last Saturday night after we came home from the movies husband went upstairs to go online.  I was in the kitchen downstairs on this laptop doing the same.  Husband came running down the stairs a short while later.  He asked me if I was cooking anything as he smelled something burning.  I was not and went upstairs with him.  At the top of the landing I smelled an electrical burning smell. 

When we went into the office I knew it was coming from my side (the nearer to the door side) of the office.  I unplugged everything plugged in on my side.  We waited and the smell cleared up.  I then started plugging things back in, one at a time.  When I plugged in the printer the smell came back.  Unplugged it - smell went away.  We took out the paper tray and the toner cartridge and looked - nothing stuck inside.  We left it unplugged to explore what could be the problem.  After looking online and contacting the manufacturer we determined that the printer was no longer safe to use.  If plugged in the burning smell returns - blowing out of the side vents.  We were lucky that we were home when it started and we got the printer unplugged before it or anything else caught fire.

Now, we do/did have another printer set up in the room - it just costs more per copy - so that is not a problem.  It is all in one so we also lost the scanner, copier and fax.  Well, I also have a copier - it predates the computers but still is used and works well.  That left the scanner and the fax lacking.  We each have a scanner from before this one.  Husband went to set his up  - it does not seem to work with Windows 7 (or 10).  He managed to get it up and working with an older computer he still has set up which has Windows XP.  I have not tried to set up my older scanner yet - it will probably have the same problem and need to be set up to use with my laptop if we don’t replace the all in one now.  The fax function - well, we only fax a few times a year - mostly for medical matters so I am not as worried about same.

Husband immediately went out to buy a new unit - we saw what he thought we should get - a duplexing color laser all in one unit, which also duplex scans.  Pricey, but it is for my work.  Then he read the reviews and it did not rate well - actually none of the units seem to rate well.  He was in a hurry - I told him we should wait and take our time.  While in an office store over the weekend we saw a similar model - except it has no color.  Husband’s printer prints color, but he has not been happy with the color printing, so he was happy at the thought of a different color printer.  But, if we get the same unit without the color it is half the price - so that it was what we plan to go with. He took the old unit downstairs yesterday - we get a credit if we trade it in towards the new one.  Important - we made sure that there is nothing in any memory that might provide personal information to anyone - I checked with the manufacturer on what needed to be cleared and how to so so.  Tomorrow we plan to go and buy the replacement unit (on sale only until this Saturday and it will double in price if not bought by then).   I am sure setup and getting to know the new unit will take awhile. 

I also had my embroidery group meeting this week - I am on the board so I have to prepare a report for the meeting and it was my turn to bring snack - so yesterday in the (relatively light) snow we went out and spent an hour buying a small cake and a box of small doughnuts for me to bring. 

After the meeting I returned our soda bottles accumulated since the last meeting for their deposits and switched my offsite flash drive at the bank vault.  I tried to visit a couple of stores we don’t go to.  The craft store is now primarily a clothing factory.  The “new” supermarket has already gone out of business.  I did buy some canned tomatoes on sale.

Right now I should be doing the laundry and running my suitcase heater (stuff I brought to the meeting today and mail that has come in from people) but I had two new things tonight to deal with and if I did what I am suppose to do also - my head would explode - and I had to get my post written for tonight.

I use my old cell phone, a Palm, around the house as a PDA as my newer phone, a Blackberry, does not work for the “to dos” with the software I like.  I sync one and then the other with the same program in my computer.  The Palm would not sync.  I tried various things - including using a spare sync cord I have and trying to sync it with this laptop - but the computer does not “see” the Palm.  Too much going on right now.  I will work around this and not sync it until I figure out what is going on.  I may need to use husband’s old Palm which matches mine if mine is broken.  For now - I will not go crazy and get upset - I will use the appointments section of my Blackberry to deal with new items to do and to record what I have done when I am not at my computer until I figure it out. 

I paid some bills due out tomorrow and did some follow up to today’s meeting and made dinner.  During dinner husband says to me “You know that day trip to Pennsylvania I wanted to take a couple of weeks ago - maybe we can go Friday.”  My brain starts whirling - nothing major to do, I will just ignore the Palm problem a little longer. We can buy the printer tomorrow - even if we don’t get it set up, we will have bought it while it was on sale.  Uh, oh, there were other bills due out Friday and over the weekend and I need to transfer money to our business account - went upstairs after dinner and paid the bills and wrote a check to the business account - have to deposit it and another check tomorrow.  Soda on sale - we have to buy by Saturday when the sale ends - either tomorrow or Saturday it is.  So, I got downstairs much later than normal to write to all of you after a week of basically “treading water” to keep from falling behind and basically said to myself - “the laundry and the heating of the stuff can wait”.

I did clean the upstairs bathroom rather extensively last week.  I even got down on my hands and knees and cleaned around the edges where the floor meets the walls.  We have rather small bathrooms.  I have to lie across the (closed) toilet bowl to clean behind it - on an angle to one side and then again on the opposite angle to the other side.  To clean between the sink and the tub  I have to climb into the tub and lean out - but only slightly or I would hit my head on the sink.  Hah!  That’s when I bruised my knee - it was during cleaning the bathroom - I knew I would remember where the bruise came from!

TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.  What I mean by this is that if something exists to use to do something or there is a good way to do something - don’t try to come up with something else.

I used to sort my laundry on an old bed sheet on the floor of the basement.  After we had mice husband said that it was too disgusting a place to sort the laundry.  I kept trying to figure out what to use instead.  I brought a tray table over near the washer and was balancing laundry on it for awhile as I tried to figure out what to do. 

Then one day it hit me - something exists to sort laundry into - it is called “a laundry sorter”.  You know, those frames with 3 bags hanging from them that one sorts laundry into.  How could I not have thought of same.  I never used one as I do not sort laundry in the typical way.  I normally sort the laundry by throwing the clothes (except jeans and other heavier items) into the washer, then a pile of towels, a pile of bed linens, then jeans and the heavier items into another pile.  Sometimes for various reasons there is more laundry and more piles. 

So now the clothes go into the washer as before.  The towels go into the front section of the sorter.  The bed linens in the next section.  The final section gets jeans, sweatshirts, etc.  The items in the last section are not necessarily washed every week. I hold them for a fuller load - I will do a load of jeans or I will do a load of heavier clothing such as sweatshirts as needed. 

So the idea is that if there is a way to do something, use it - don’t try to come up with a new way to do it. 

SCANNERS AND PRINTERS - AND HOW TO USE THEM TO ORGANIZE

There are several people I have been speaking with who do not have a scanner or a printer for their computer.  This amazes me - as well as makes problems for them.  My scanner and printers are vital to me. They are very useful for getting things done quickly and great for helping deal with keeping paper information without needing as much file space or time to file and look for files.

The first person I heard this from is my mom.  Mom has used a computer for decades including back when she worked.  Mom is also an accountant.  (Ok, fair notice - dad was also and one of my sisters also has a degree in it and works as a bookkeeper.)  Mom is 87.  Mom had a printer and a scanner - I know this because we bought it for her.  She has had another printer since, but has been told that she can no longer get the ink for it and/or the heads would be bad by now.  (The latter makes no sense as in an ink jet printer the heads are replaced each time the cartridge is replaced.)  Mom goes out and prints or copies things at the library when she needs to.   

Another person I just heard this from is a friend in a club I belong to.  I just made up revised membership lists as we had a group of new members.  I told her I would email everyone the new membership list.  She told me to print some and bring to the meeting in case others, beside her, cannot print the list out.

I have heard this idea also from others and, as I said, I am amazed.

Printers -  I have never been sure of the value of a computer without a printer.  Yes, I know we all email everything to everyone, but we don’t (well, I don’t) really. 

I find that I still need to write actual letters.  Not all businesses respond to email - no, don’t laugh, it is true.  In addition actual mail stands out when received differently than email.  I am not sure if I have mentioned this, but I do not do anything financial online.  Okay, you may think me old fashioned or laugh - but when my bank was hacked it was their online accounts which were hacked and mine was not.  I started working with main frame computers in the early 1970's and there are two things I know about computing which are absolute - “It is not a question of if, but when, a hard drive will crash.” (hence my need to backup and keep data off the hard drive) and “There is no such thing as a secure website.”

I had to write a letter to the bank we have our RV loan from about a problem we were having.  I had been trying to telephone the bank for some time with no luck. I actually went to their Facebook page and posted, anonymously, about needing a way to reach them - no luck.  Letter to the CEO of the bank - received the information I wanted and needed.  There is no way that the CEO would ever had have read my email, but a letter to him - even if he did not actually see it, his staff took care of the matter.   Letters work.

Have you ever had to mail something or other to a company?  A cover letter explaining what is enclosed and why - and what you want done about it - makes sure the recipient understand what is being sent and why.

I can also fill in forms which have to be done on paper (yes, they still exist) or are more convenient to do on paper and print them out.  My handwriting is terrible, but even if yours is lovely, printed information tends to be easier to read and read correctly than hand written information.

A printed letter, like the typed letter that existed before it, is much more presentable than a hand written letter (other than personal letters to friends and family) and is more likely to be taken seriously.  I have a client who hand writes her business letters as she does not use a computer - it looks terribly unbusinesslike.  When I can I write them for her while there.

Oh, I almost forgot - envelopes!  You can print envelopes when sending something by mail - and even add the computer coding for the address.  Less chance of the envelope and its contents going to the wrong place if the address can be easily read and even more if the sorting computers can read the address coding on the envelope!

Scanners - One of the best things ever invented.  In terms of organizing - one can scan in all manner of papers which take up room in the house, get lost, or get confused and get some space back.

I need to mention here as I have received several of these, taking a photo of a document is not the same as scanning it into a computer and is a major problem for the recipient to use, in addition to making a HUGE picture of the document which is hard to deal with it. 

When I do tax returns - for myself or clients - I scan in the form after I do it.  Yes, I use a computer to prepare the returns, but an error can result in accidently changing something on a page after the fact, if I only have the returns in the program they are prepared in, as well as there are always added schedules (pages) not prepared by the tax program.  I scan in the return after it prepared and save that as a separate pdf file and I have an exact duplicate of the return as filed.  I also scan in any of the notes, etc. I used to prepare the return.  I also scan in copies (front and back) of the checks I sent to pay the taxes - estimates as well as the final payment - and of any documents which show amounts withheld for taxes (W2s, 1099s, etc.)  I actually keep a hard copy of the return until after the following year’s return is filed, as it is easier not to have to go back and forth on the computer, but have the hard copy for reference while preparing the next year’s return.       

If I fill in a form I scan it into the computer to have a copy - less room than keeping a paper copy and it will not get lost.  If you prefer to keep a paper copy you can scan it in and print it out - or often just use the scanner as a copier.  More on this idea later.  For example, I take the membership forms received from members of our reenactment unit and scan them in, then (after backing up the data) shred them and throw them out - no need to keep another 30 pieces of paper a year in a file drawer. 

I think I mentioned in a past post about a project to scan in the most instruction booklets from the assorted things in our house.  If there is a large instruction book I am keeping it, but small instructions of say 15 or less pages I am scanning.  Remember one does not need to scan in the instructions in other languages, only those in one’s own.  I then (after backing up the data) put the booklets with the recycling.  So far I have gotten rid of 3 file folders of instructions.  Similarly I plan to scan in the paperwork from some car accidents we had in the past and the receipts from items returned to our cable company. (I can just imagine one day leaving them and being told that I never returned a cable box I was given in 2001 and the charge will be $500 for it not being returned, so I have kept the receipts for returned equipment.)
           
Now there are papers I do not do this with. I don’t scan in all our credit card receipts - too much work and they are stored away in a year.  Anything you need an original for - you can scan a copy, but the original must be kept (marriage& birth records, titles to car and house and so on).

What papers could you scan into your computer instead of keeping them and having to store them?

Now combine the two - scanning plus printing.  Even better.  Scan in a form and use software to fill it in and then print it out.  (See software below.)  Again, my handwriting being terrible it is a great way to make sure that what you fill in on a form can easily be read. 

One can buy an ink jet “all in one” unit for around $50.  This will let you scan in items and print out pages.  One can usually use the machine directly as a copying machine, but if not one can use it as same as one can scan in an item and then print it out.  Today after starting to write this post yesterday we were in a major discount chain store.  They had 4 all in ones which print and scan from $50 to $60.  Sometimes the all in ones are also a fax machine - yes, one sometimes still needs to fax something. At least one of them said that it was ready to be used with tablets and cell phones, solving the problem of printing with them. 

Yes, one can go to the library, Kinkos (Fed Ex these days), Staples, OfficeMax/Depot (if you still have one near you  - all the ones in our county were closed, nearest one now an hour away), work, etc. and make a copy if you need one.  Did you know that when you do so the copier/printer keeps your document in its memory and that when the machine is disposed of, often that information is still in the machine?  Who knows what happens to the machines after they are disposed of - and who has access to them.  Copy something with your Social Security number or bank account information and it will stay in the copy machine - much safer to make copies at home.

The scanner will generally come with software to do scanning.  You will need software though.  If you already have word processing software you can, of course use it with the printer.  There are freeware programs to make the printer/scanner do even more.  While I have nothing to do with the following programs and have no responsibility for them or how they work, I have found them to be very useful.  (I must give credit, husband told me about them and to use them.)  In addition I am running Windows computers and the software may not be made for other computers or for tablets.

Foxit PDF - this allows one to scan in documents and forms as pdf files and work with them.  One can use the “Type” function to fill in blanks on forms.  One can attach notes to the documents. There are assortment of other features which I have not even gotten to yet.  There is a freeware version of the program and that is the one I use.  One can print the pdf files made.

Cute PDF and Primo PDF are two of several programs which allow one to print what one has written directly to a pdf file.     They are will show up (at least in Windows computers) as alternate printers when you go to print and you select them and print the pdf - without needing to print the document out and then scan it in.  This lets you write a document and then email it to others who might not have the same word processing software to open a written document. For example, I like to use Wordperfect instead of the standard Word program.  I either must save the file as an rtf file (rich texture format - can open with many, if not all or most word processing programs) or I print it with one of these programs and send it as a pdf.  The only problem I have had doing this some of the tax forms generated when one files online in my state for some reason will not print this way (sales tax, employment taxes).  For these forms I need to physically print them out and then scan them in to keep a pdf copy of them.

LibreOffice can be used instead of Microsoft Office.  It is free.  By the way, if you have an older version of Word and can’t afford to upgrade and people keep sending you docx files - this will open them.  According to my husband this program will work on all “platforms” meaning it will also work with Mac computers, Ipads, tablets, Linux, etc.

Open Office is similar to LibreOffice, but husband says that LibreOffice is better.  Open Office will work only on Windows computers.


Now there is one problem I don’t know about.  (Yes, despite the fact that my friends think I am a “know it all” I don’t.)  Generally printing with a computer is not a problem.  However tablets and related use a different way to print as they do not attach or use wifi to work with printers.  This involves “cloud printing”.  I asked husband how this is done in anticipation of writing this article. After looking up how to cloud print I got dizzy reading as it seems to vary for each device being used and each company that one has their cloud account with.  He looked it up and could not figure it out either.  I know there is a way to do it.  If you must print this way, check with your cloud server to find out how.  Unfortunately it seems to sometimes require you to have a computer also.               


   

BEST LAID PLANS... PART 2

Well, last week I left off with my computer having Windows reinstalled and having to reinstall software.  The computer is still not up to full working set up.  I figure it will take at least another week.

I started installing software in, more or less, the order that 1 - I thought it was of importance and 2 - I thought I could install it myself.  In addition to installing the software much of it needs to have its registration information given again (from the original registration of the software into this computer).  Luckily when programs have needed to be registered I have made a record of the registration information which was given to activate the program - in one case of the “hidden” location the registration information (is validation the correct term) where the information has to be entered.  

Installing software takes time - which is why the backups were made to begin with - and while the installations are being done I have been using my larger, slower, “kitchen” laptop to get some work done.  I also, by hand, copied all of the entries in my Palm Centro to the organizer on this laptop so I was finally able to sync the two and not lose any entries.  I am continuing to do so until the computer is setup and the software for the organizer, the sync program, and the sync program for my cell phone are installed on the desktop computer - they will be put in towards the end of software installation.  Tuesday and Wednesday last week were spent installing software to the point that the computer was partially workable. 

Thursday I installed my email software - a freeware program.  I am not good at updating programs and was using a rather old version of the program.  Husband told me to install the newest version.  I did so.  He then tried to copy my profile from the old hard drive to the new.  It did not work in the program.  He tried all kinds of things.  Finally we reached the conclusion that old profile did not work in the new version of the program.  We uninstalled the email program and installed the old version from my old downloads file.  The program would not open.  The computer thought the deleted version was still running.  We rebooted the computer - 3 times; it did not help.  Finally husband figured out what to do.  So after about 2 or 3 hours of installing and uninstalling and rebooting, I finally had my email program back.  I had only been checking my more critical email and the accounts more likely to have email, so for the first time since the previous Friday I finally checked all my email accounts.  No surprises, thank goodness.

On Friday I tried to add 2 of our printers to my computer, the 2 I actually use on a regular basis.  (We have a travel printer which was not of immediate need, a plastic tape label printer - I don’t think I have ever printed on it from the computer, a photo printer - only husband uses, and an older printer which still needs to run on a parallel port.)  Our printers were purchased before my version of Windows.  The disks therefore did not work.  When I tried to have the computer add the printers, they were not listed.  Panic set in.  I then looked in the downloads file from the old hard drive and found - YES - the printer drivers!!  We installed them and as of last Friday I can print again!  Well, I guess, technically, I always could print by copying what I needed to print to a laptop, but who wants to do that.  

Since then I have not had a chance to install more software.  I am coping with the fact that my computer looks “wrong”.  I don’t know how I had it set before, but buttons look smaller, icons look bigger.  One button just looks wrong.  Husband says to me that can wait until all is up and running.

On Monday morning we get not one, but two orders for our craft business.  We have few enough orders that when we have one I have to remember how I do the paperwork for our records.  Not only do we have 2 sales, but one of them is for multiple items - goodness knows how long since we had same - and is for our home state - which means sales tax was collected and I have to remember how I do an invoice with sales tax.  All of this would be minor, except I am using alternative software, other than I normally use, for some of this as the software I normally use is not yet - let’s hear it - installed.  I have a program which lets me write pdf files with multiple pages. The program I am using instead makes one page pdfs, so I have to start a folder to hold what is normally a single file until I can fix it.  The software I use to print labels is not yet - let’s hear it again - installed.  Husband manages to print a label on his computer with some program he has - we had to figure out which Avery label number the labels were.  The orders went out on time, but I still have to get around to straightening out my records to what I like. 

At this point husband suggests that I make a backup with the new backup program - so if anything happens as we go, we have everything to this point saved.  Of course there are problems using the new backup program.  I finally had to leave him working on it as I had to make dinner.  He figured it out and I have a backup - which hopefully will work if I ever - oh, I hope not - need it.

Tuesday I went to work.  No dealing with the desktop.  I just had to use my work laptop - unchanged, everything as it was.  What a pleasant thought.  All went fine until I was done.  I keep the info on a USB flash drive as I keep all my data on same and each client’s info is on its own flash drive so I can just bring that client’s info with me when I go to the client and I am always using the correct version of the info as it is on a specific flash drive.  When I am done and about to leave the client, I back up the info to the laptop’s hard drive (and then again at home onto my regular backups).  I finished work and went to back up the flash drive - I get message that the drive is full and it cannot be backed up.  Panic starts to hit me.  Then I think about it.  I have about 3 backups at home from last month.  I did not do that much work while here that I could not easily duplicate it next month if needed.  I can deal with it.  I come home.  I put the flash drive in my desktop - as I thought, the drive is only about 1/3 full.  All the work I did was there and it was easily copied to my backup.  Okay, one problem easily solved.       

When I made the list of programs on the old computer we realized that some software related to the processor chip was missing.  I found the instructions for the software - which apparently is on the mother board disks.  Husband installed the software for me while I was out today.

Today I had to go to a board meeting for an embroidery group I am treasurer of.  Normally I am the most organized person there.  I have notes and information - whatever might be needed.  Between not being able to work on my computer and prepare in advance and dealing with this client and running to back up it’s data tonight, I am not prepared for the board meeting - or the errands I plan to run tomorrow around the meeting.  I printed out a financial report and quickly made some notes on the back.  When I got to the meeting today I explained, that they are about to see the other me - the one without her computer to keep her organized.  Luckily, I still managed to come up with most of the info needed. 

I still have not hooked up the USB hub with my flash drives - archive, data, backup A and backup B and I am waiting until a few other programs are reinstalled and ready to use. For now I put the flash drives in and take them out as I need them. 

Hopefully when I next post it will all be resolved - I doubt it though.

Have you ever been through a mess like this?

BEST LAID PLANS...

The reason for the title of this weeks post is that we had several things fall apart on us.  We were to be away and I planned a part 2 of “Organizing and Storing in our Tiny RV”.  We decided not to go away - luckily before I made up the bed in rather hot weather - hotter in the RV.  This turned out to be even luckier because of what happened.  The piece will be written and run at a later date.

In addition to backing up my data, mentioned in a prior post (Organizing Computer Files, June 22, 2016) I also back up my computer.  I do this on a monthly basis.  I back up the computer, using a software program, to an external hard drive.  Currently I am using a newer, larger hard drive I bought for this purpose (monthly backups). I have been making a new back up of the computer quarterly, with incremental backups for the following two months - by this I mean I make a new backup in January, then add to that backup in February and March and then make a new backup in April, etc.  I also back up to the older external drive quarterly - in January, April, July, and October - each time a complete new backup - just in case the drive with the backups ever failed.  I hate loading software when I get a new computer and did not want to deal with doing so for lack of backing up my computer or loose anything in case of a problem with the computer’s hard drive.

So last Friday I backed up my computer to a new monthly backup on what I will call (external hard) Drive N - for new - with no problem.  At the same time I back up my computer which is a desktop, I also backup each of my two laptops on the same schedule.  I backed up my smaller, newer laptop before backing up the desktop computer to both hard drives with no problem.  I then attempted to make the quarterly backup of my desktop to the other drive - (external hard) Drive O (for old) and the same software just used for the monthly backup, but could not make up a backup due to bad sectors.  I tried twice and then decided that instead of panicking I would wait and try it again another day.  My older laptop is very s l o w and I set it up to run the backup overnight.  I did the monthly back of it to Drive N overnight that night - no problem. 

Saturday night, over night, I set my laptop up and did a quarterly backup onto Drive O - again no problem.  So now I was pretty sure that there was no problem with Drive O.  I then tried to backup my desktop to Drive O - again, it could not as I had bad sector problems.  On Sunday evening, just to be sure that the problem was the hard drive of my desktop, I attempted a new, complete backup of my desktop to Drive N - to which it had backed up on Friday with no problem - it also could not make a backup due to bad sectors on my desktop’s hard drive.  So, I told husband and asked him what to do.  He told me that I needed to get a new hard drive in my desktop.  It would not be much of a problem as we had backups and they are relatively inexpensive.  (Can you see where this is going?)

So he did some research on hard drives (he builds our desktop computers these days) and figured out which one we should get and we went and bought it.  At this time we were still thinking about going on a trip this week.  Luckily we decided not to go on the trip just as we were starting the restoration of the computer to the new hard drive.

We brought the new drive home and disconnected the computer from all its wires.  He had the good idea to have me take photos with my cell phone of each of the connections on the back of the computer to aid in putting them all back where they came from.  It is filthy with dust - I dusted it and after we open it, we vacuumed it and dusted the parts that did not vacuum inside and out. 

He disconnected and removed the old hard drive and we set it aside.  Relatively easily he wires in the new hard drive and it snaps into place.  We have trouble putting the sides back on the computer (it is a tower) and then remember it has to be done with the case lying down.  The sides go back on.  We are aided in all of this as I have the instruction books from the computer case and the computer chip from when he first assembled the computer, set aside in a folder for my computer (there is a folder for each computer he assembled - 3 to date). 

By now the office is a bit disorganized - large manila envelope with computer instruction folders, parts, wires, box to new hard drive, old hard drive, work I had planned to work on... all out and about on the floor and what was before clear space on desks and printers. 

We put the wires back on the computer.  We turn it on.  I use a touch pad instead of a mouse for the computer - it does not work.  We then spend 15 minutes looking for a USB plug in mouse, including a trip by husband to the RV in case it was there - he finds it on his desk attached to a Raspberry Pi project (very small computer and coding).  (We have since bought a second such mouse to keep around for when we need one in a situation such as this.)

We hook up Drive N (remember both N and O are external drives), we put the recovery disk into the computer’s DVD drive and start the computer.  It finds the internal hard drive, it finds the DVD drive, then it keeps spinning.  Finally we give up.  We shut down the computer .  We then hook up Drive O, restart the computer,  and it appears on the screen.  He runs the restore software.  We go to reboot the computer and see that it has been restored - the computer will not boot.  Of course, we try turning it off and on several times before being sure that there is some problem.

He looks up on the Internet what to do if the boot manager is missing.  Oh, so easy, just run Windows repair.  Well, I have the disk, but - it is in the closet in the office, which has all sorts of items from our earlier efforts of installing the hard drive and the project I hoped to work on spread around the room and blocking the closet door.  So all of this must be moved elsewhere (in a crowded bedroom being used as a library and an office for 2 people).  The Windows disk is put in the computer.  He follows the directions on the Internet - I sit at his computer and read him the command line.  We turn off the computer - then turn it on - it does not boot. 

One instruction we find online says to reinstall Windows.  We do so - which wipes out the restoration of the hard drive - computer now boots - yea!  We reinstall the backup - it does not boot.  We repeat this several times (we worked on this from around 3 pm to after 8pm- Chinese food for dinner as no time to cook).

As he has been doing the research for this online he finds out something important - the backup program, a popular (paid program, not freeware) has a reputation for not working.  He had a problem when he tried to restore once before, but found that there was a problem if the backup or restore was done using USB 3 connections - so we had been using USB 2 connections.  He reads that a newer version of the program does not recognize drives bigger than 5 TB, maybe it did not work at all with Drive N as this is an older version of the software and the drive is 4 TB, while Drive O is only 1 TB?                  

We finally give up.  He reloads Windows and now I must find and reinstall all my software.  Luckily the data, which was on a USB flash drive is intact as are the backups of it as they were on same and were done with different software so my data is all intact.  I realize as I start to install software that much of my software is freeware and the downloads are on the old hard drive which was replaced.  I did not anticipate needing to replace any of it by hand and so I also did not anticipate needing to get it off the drive before we took it out of the computer.  While the programs could be downloaded again, many of them are older versions of the programs because I did not like the updated versions (and in many cases neither did husband), so I really need access to the old internal hard drive we took out).  I asked husband if they could both be in the computer (extra empty drive bays in the computer anyway) - he said they could not as they are both drives which boot the computer and it would confuse the computer.

Today we went out and bought a case to convert an internal hard drive to an external one - so I can access the files on the old hard drive for whatever I need and is on parts of the drive which is still good.  I then loaded more programs onto the computer with more to come.

I sat and checked my email and did other things on my smaller laptop while we were doing all of this installing and reinstalling the backups and Windows.  I went to check my main email account.  I changed the password a few months back - I know what it should be but that does not work, so I couldn’t check my main account - even worse, I had to hope that I checked that account with my bigger, older laptop - luckily I did and tonight - after not being able to check email yesterday or today on this account (I don’t check on the weekend) I was able to check email on this account. I still have to send an email to a friend for her birthday - which ended a little over an hour ago - as I did not have her email address other than in that email account.

I use very old software as a calendar/address book/todo list - an organizer program.  I also use my old cell phone, a Palm Centro, as a PDA around the house as it syncs with this software (my current cell phone does not work with the todos section and I tend to only use same for home chores, so I sync both cell phones to the organizer software.  When I start using it again, since it is being reinstalled on the computer I will have to overwrite the Centro - so I cannot make any entries or changes to same until they are synced again or I will lose any changes made on the Centro. 

I cannot wait for all the software to be back, changed to how I like it to be (and you may know by now that I am picky and don’t like change) and it all to working as it used to be again. 

I have learned that, unfortunately, one does not know that one’s backup software will not work until it is too late.  We will trying another program which seems to be better liked and seems to work from now on. 
           
While we were installing Windows and the backup Monday I also managed to start sorting through computer program and printer manuals back to I don’t know when.  I pulled 3 large books (from when software came with large manuals) and some smaller ones.  The 3 large ones I am going to donate as they are for programs not all that old and might still be used, the others have gone in for recycling.  There were others I would have pulled out to toss, but they are for games that husband bought and I will have to go through them with him - I never toss or donate anything of his without his permission.  I do now have the books to the printers on top of the others (they are lying down on the shelves) so they can be easily reached as they are still used when something goes wrong or needs to be reset.