March 1, 2004

• Heap Big Magic

  
  

  I have been under the weather since Friday.  It hit me while we were in town Thursday, but with my crazy immune system I couldn’t tell whether it was allergy or infection.  The pussy willows down there at the warm lower end of the Valley were open, so pollen was a possibility.  We had picked up a hitchhiker and he smelled of tobacco smoke, so that was another possibility to explain all the sneezing, the streaming tears and runny nose, postnasal drip and sore throat.  I didn’t develop a fever until Friday afternoon, and then my throat was swollen almost shut and I still have these enormous lumps in my neck nodes… but enough about that!  I’ve survived another one and am on the way back up.

  
  

  I just wanted to share a little techno-giggle from Greyfox the Luddite.  This morning what got me out of bed and over to the computer was his complaint that the, “little strip of links” at the top of the page, the links toolbar in IE, had disappeared.  First I tried verbally walking him through clicking the menu, etc., and then I gave up and came over here, sat down and ran the mouse pointer up to the top edge of the window, clicked and dragged down the gray area to make room for the links bar, and there it was.

  
  

  Meanwhile, Greyfox had moved over to the coffeemaker (not for nothing is he called Captain Caffeine around here), so I called him back to see how I had done it, in the hope that next time he could and would do it for himself–Doug frequently compresses the toolbars to make more room for his game windows.  He watched me run the mouse pointer up until it turned to a double-headed arrow, then click and drag down….

  
  

  He wanted to see it again, so I dragged the edge of the window back up and then down again… and again.  I heard a deep, awestruck, “Oooooh…” and looked over my shoulder.  He was backing away slowly, eyes downcast, bowing repeatedly with his hands outstreched and downturned before him, muttering, “White witch woman make heap big magic.”

  
  

  Okay, that’s it from me for today.  Greyfox did have something in mind, some reason he was sitting here at the computer when he was flummoxed by not finding his accustomed strip of links.  Meanwhile, I have taken the time to check my comments, visit one of my new readers’ sites, clean out the spam filter at my ISP, and post this.  My next stop is Couch Potato Heaven (where else?) and Disgaea.

  • 2:26 pm
  • 3 Comments