July 17, 1996 Subscribers: 2 Volume 2, No. 8

MICKEY MOUSE: We spent 2 weeks in Disney World . . . in Orlando . . . at the end of June . . . it was soooooo hot . . . we were like walking water parks . . . Blizzard Beach . . . Typhoon Lagoon . . . Sweat City . . . the only pleasure in Pleasure Island was the ice water! . . . we rode every ride . . . some twice . . . Alien Encounter was a fun ride . . . I think it's where the Rocket to the Moon used to be . . . a MUST do though is the Tower of Terror at MGM Studios . . . that is a really terrifying ride . . . you don't get used to it! . . . another attraction in that area is the Terminator ride at Universal Studios . . . that one ride is worth the price of admission . . . they blended live action . . . robotics . . . 3-D movies . . . special effects . . . so well . . . puts every other amusement park to shame! . . . if you do find yourself heading that way then pick up a copy of "The Unofficial Guide to Disney World" . . . I can't remember who the author was . . . but we followed it religiously . . . it really worked . . . one additional item that wasn't in the book . . . keep your elbows out from under the armrests during the Terminator show . . . it hurts big-time if you don't!

#2 MARRIED: We got back just in time for my #2's son wedding . . . he waited patiently . . . for her to graduate from Notre Dame . . . it was a beautiful wedding . . . a lot of fun . . . we were kinda sweatin' the hurricane . . . Bertha blew in Friday night . . . we escaped most of the problems . . . however . . . we came real close to a disaster . . . we had all gotten up kind of early on Saturday . . . everyone was gettin' showers . . . hairdo's . . . puttin' on all the tuxedos . . . oh yeah . . . most of the male part of the wedding party was at my house . . . my 4 other sons were part of the bridal party . . . so were the 2 girls . . . but they had gotten ready . . . went over to the bride's house to finish dressing . . . well anyway . . . we were all ready . . . set up for some pictures in front of the mantle . . . when BOOM . . . the lights flickered . . . then another BOOM . . . the lights went out . . . a final BOOM and a bright orange flash cast an eerie light in the room . . . we decided it was time to leave for the wedding . . . we called our friend down the street from the car . . . she was also getting ready to come to the wedding . . . unfortunately she was an hour behind in gettin' ready . . . her hair was wet . . . she had no electricity . . . she called the electric company for us to tell them it was in our backyard . . . the remainder of the day was out of a Fairy Tale . . . when we got home the electricity was on . . . but 4 trees were laying in our creek . . . the one that caused the original problem was still standing . . . minus 30' off the top . . . Monday evening another 20' almost took out my barn . . . I s'pose this weekend I'll take down the remaining 20' of trunk that's still stickin' up . . . I just hope the wind keeps blowin' away from the house!

5 MINUTES TO KILL: Yours truly decided to finally fix the broken CD-ROM drive in my computer at home . . . everyone had been buggin' me for months . . . I'd tried everything . . . cleaners . . . cable reseating . . . even resorted to disassembling the drive once . . . had it all apart . . . watched it work . . . saw that the motor wasn't spinning the disk . . . knew it had to be replaced . . . I kept searching for a SCSI replacement . . . the original came with a Pro-Audio Spectrum sound card . . . I just wanted to replace the drive . . . no luck . . . yesterday I ended up buying an IDE drive with an interface board . . . it was a name brand . . . claimed that it was a simple installation process . . . should only take 5 minutes . . . last night . . . about 9:00 . . . after dinner . . . I started the process . . . "Remove computer cover" . . . OK . . . "Plug the interface card in an empty slot" . . . done . . . "Install the drive in an open bay" . . . took out the old one . . . put in the new one . . . "Plug in the power cable" . . . snap . . . "Connect the data cable between the drive and the card" . . . pin 1 to pin 1 . . . no problem . . . "Connect the sound cable between the drive and the sound card" . . . hmmmmmmmmm . . . the cable ends don't look at all like the old cable . . . in fact . . . the only similarity is the gray color . . . uh-oh . . . I finally figured out that the wiring was the same . . . it was only the plugs that needed to be changed . . . that meant I could cut the wires in half . . . splice the new drive-end to the old card-end . . . OK . . . but before I did that I wanted to make sure the drive worked at all . . . I figured it'd be hard enough to return without havin' to 'splain my custom cable job . . . I installed the "easy" Plug-n-Play software that they'd been kind enough to include . . . then I put in the actual CD-ROM software . . . re-booted the computer . . . it couldn't find the CD-ROM drive . . . the crowd around me is growing impatient . . . I overhear comments about my competency . . . more and more people are starting to get hysterical . . . grumbling about wasting money . . . the inconvenience of taking the stupid thing back . . . I ignore the remarks . . . I edit AUTOEXEC.BAT . . . re-boot . . . no-go . . . I edit CONFIG.SYS . . . re-boot . . . no-go . . . I edit some more . . . I re-boot some more . . . I'm starting to think about hammers . . . LARGE hammers . . . I finally scream at the computer . . . obscene gestures are having no effect . . . the crowd is dwindling . . . I hear the Grandfather clock chiming out midnight . . . I'm at my wit's end . . . I stumble across a configuration utility . . . I muck with the settings . . . viola . . . it was a stupid IRQ problem . . . the drive starts working . . . I customize the cable . . . do the final testing . . . everythings cool . . . I put it all back together . . . round up all the tools . . . including the hammer . . . and head up to bed . . . it's 1:30 in the morning . . . now I get it! . . . the translator for the manual made a type . . . it's not a 5-minute job . . . it's a 5-hour job! . . . silly me!

"Time's like a bird - it flies - and it craps on your head!" --Mikey, Thinking Too Hard