Okay this is one of those weeks.
I had to call our reenacting unit’s insurance company - again - as it has been 3 weeks and we have not received the renewal of our insurance policy - and I paid them 4 weeks ago when I called to find out where the policy was.
I also had to redo their emergency list as we had a new member join and he had to be added, okay, I did not redo the entire list, just add him, but then I had to email out the list out to the board members - again, and print a new list for us and to keep in our HQ - again.
Worst of all this week is suddenly the computers were not working right. Emails did not go out. We had trouble printing. We had trouble scanning. Husband traced it to the Internet equipment. We have a modem from our cable co ($10 + taxes per month) and we have our own router. Husband decided that since the modem was replaced (due to problems) less than 2 years ago it must be our router.
Last Sunday we bought a new router at Costco. It looks like a space ship - no really, it looks like a space ship from Star Wars or something.
Monday we spent the day setting it up. Since it was so large it involved moving almost everything on the work area of husband’s desk. (He has a work table as part of it covered in papers and stuff - that luckily was not affected.) To do this I had to clear off my desk and throw the 2 piles (do and scan) into one pile on the floor on top of a pile of folders waiting to go to our reenactment HQ for storage in the file cabinets there.
Have you ever seen the wires from a computer twisted around each due to them being added into as time went along? Well, I have a computer, husband has two, we each have a laser printer (why two of them - one is color and the other scans) plus a couple of ink jet printers he has and a tape machine that can be printed with the computer. I spent a good deal of time under the desks pulling wires loose for this project. We even had to move husband’s computer - it is under his work table and I managed to disconnect something when I did this. I then had wires going over my desk in an attempt to get all the wires separated. We managed to get it all set up and fit all of husband’s stuff back onto the working part of his desk.
We went to activate the router. The instructions consisted of a card that said we needed to sign in using wi-fi to the company’s website to set up an account with them to start. Quite frankly at this point I thought, “hmmm, an account with them, stupid instructions, bring it back”, but not husband. We had to figure this out as with no router set up, we had no wi-fi (and without wi-fi we could not set up, yes, the router). We really don’t like to have things like this on our cell phones, but he managed to connect to the wi-fi from our cable co in the street using his phone. We managed to get through all the steps - until it told us that we had to print something from the cell phone by wi-fi - how? We don’t print with our cell phones. I wrote down the info instead. Huge space ship of a router, stupid sign up - I knew this was a mistake (an expensive mistake).
But then it was all set up and he was using it. After dinner I was down here on my laptop. The entire system was just as bad and just as slow. So - maybe it was the modem. Before going to bed we packed it up and I pulled the latest cable bill. Tuesday we went to our cable co - on our way out, the new cable bill arrived - of course. Luckily they are still at their location and the employee did not try to push their new system on us. We stopped for lunch and the daily trip to the post office to pick up mail at our box and then home to set up the modem.
The set up went fairly quickly - we have set this up several times, but when we were done the lights were not flashing in the correct colors and manner. So I got to sit on hold until a man answered - I don’t know if it is was their phone service (we don’t have phone service through them) or what, I had trouble understanding him. He looked up our connection and said that all was correct. Husband tried it and it seemed to be working better and quicker.
We decided that since the problem seemed to be the modem, we would return the router. We packed it up and did so on Wednesday and then we went to a computer store and bought a different router which was on sale - husband decided that a newer, more powerful router was a good idea. On the way home from the computer store we stopped in Walmart for some unrelated items we needed - the same router we had just purchased was $40 cheaper there - husband had looked online and the Walmart site had none other than from third parties. So, we bought it again.
I have to put out the newsletter for my embroidery chapter on the last Wednesday of the month. I had actually worked on it a bit on Tuesday - normally I do it all on the day it is due out - not much to do - I use last month’s meeting info to thank people who did stuff then in the thank you for last month section, I put in this month’s meeting info, I put the small blurb from the chapter president on the front page in the spot for it - most months I remember to change the month on the front page, I update info from our Region in the page(s) for same and ditto our National in the page(s) for same, and remove events and exhibitions that are past date and add any new ones which have come my way. After it is done I attach it to an email along with any other needed attachments (info about classes from Region or National, how to sign into new National website, etc.) and email it to the members. I then email a copy of it to other newsletter editors in our Region and to some others from National/Region who need a copy. Lastly I send a copy to the chapter’s email address with blind copies to an assortment of people who said they were interested in joining and members who have quit the chapter. (No really, it takes maybe an hour or two most months. Of course this month there are all sorts of things that went awry - including the chapter president writing a full page message as it is the end of her presidency. After working on it in advance I finished it about midnight last night.
Then I realized that I had to have the annual renewals (with checks for dues) for the chapter out to National and Region by May 31 - Saturday. Normally this is not that hard. Normally there is a list from National of the members they have - no list, no form to send to them with the payment. So, my solution normally would be to go to the members list in a database, sort it for the renewed members and print out the list of same. Problem - as of 2 months ago the database no longer sorts and I have to copy it over - item by item/person by person - to a new data base of some other sort (this one is very old software that I liked). But I don’t have time to do that NOW. So I sat and made up a list of renewing members by copying each item separately - member number, first name, last name of each person to a word processing program page. I then filled in a renewing page for a rejoined member as National needed all her info again. Then I filled in a new member form for a new member with her info. Then I calculated and wrote a check for their dues and wrote a cover letter for all this. (And I scan all checks written and the bill/supporting paper for them into the computer so I did that too.) I have a blank copy of the form to send to them with the calculation of the amount due and copied and used it. It asks for the name of “the current president” - uh, oh. We will be having a vote next week at our meeting and will have a new president - I put the woman who is the president now. I listed our new membership chair as same (and listed me as treasurer). In my letter I mentioned the changes and that the information about same would be sent after next week’s meeting and the election of the new president.
Onto the Region renewals - at least I don’t have to list everyone. I had a copy of the Region’s form, calculated what was due on it. There was a place for the membership chair’s info and I put in the info of the new chair. Wrote a check (scanned again) and a cover letter and I was done - 2 am. And I then realized that not only I had not posted to all of you, but I never did the laundry either!
Today we returned the router we bought at the computer store and set up the one from Walmart. For about 10 minutes it did not seem to work, but then husband figured out the problem and it is now working. Of course I had to climb under the desks again and sort all of those !!%%$ wires again.
I received an email from one of my fellow embroiders - the newsletter said that we are having an election - who is the candidate and who is the new membership chair? DARN! I knew I forgot something from the newsletter - I sent out an addition to it with who is running and the info on the new membership chair. (I had apologized in the email with the newsletter for any errors or omissions due to the craziness.)
As I write this the second load of laundry finished washing - first load should be dry - and I will when I finish writing this I will go down and switch loads before posting.
We have a 2 day event reenactment event this weekend - with setup on Friday afternoon, so I will fall even further behind.
I have to remember that we are expecting a copy of the insurance policy for the unit and - oh, I forgot - I received a new ATM card last week as mine is expiring, guess what? Yes, there was a problem and I had to go in to get a new one (they couldn’t do it by telephone). It was the wrong kind - the kind that rich people get. So I have to hope that shows up in the mail soon.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Yes, there are weeks like this and one just has to drop everything else and get stuff done, even if it means that one posts a day late. What else can one do?
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