End of the Year Relief

Christmas has come and gone. The things that revolved around keeping secrets (which is hard work!) are done.  I, no--we--can relax. The proverbial cat has been let out of the bag. A gift I had bought and stashed for Sarah, as well as the (somewhat) surprise trip Sue and I had been looking to share with her: All out in the open and common knowledge.

Okay, let's back up. There is a lot of ground to cover.

Sarah is graduating from college this spring. I have been wondering what I could buy her for a graduation gift. It had crossed my mind several times over the last year or so. Some time several months back I had an idea and brought up the possibility of buying her a trip. Not just a trip, but a trip that we could take her on. I get twangs of guilt when I buy gifts for her. I don't spoil my daughter, but still--I only have one, so the things I do buy for her are sometimes a notch or two higher on the scale of gift-giving. Yes, guilty as charged. This year will signify a transition in her life though. A transition from child to adult. While I will still help her when she's in a bind like any parent would, no longer will I be buying any extravagant gifts. This is her send-off year. Her last hurrah so to speak.

Anyway, back to the beginning.

The Christmas gift I had bought and stashed for Sarah: An iPad. Being the practical man I am (or try to be anyway) I did not buy her a new one. Truth is, I broached the subject with some trepidation when I first mentioned it to Sue. I mean, we had already agreed to spend all this money on a trip for the three of us in June ($$$), then we bought my parents a new computer($$). Now I have thoughts about buying an iPad for Sarah!?  Well, I did not just venture forth and spend--nay, that would not be good. Instead I talked it over with Suz. I basically told her I wanted to see if I could find a nice, used one and asked how she felt about that. She agreed with my reasoning.  I had no intention of buying a new one because they were just too much money. After all, we both know how techies get these flaming cases of "trade-upmanship" when new versions come out.  I was pretty sure I'd find a decent deal out there.  The deal I found was way better than I had even hoped. I ended up buying her a beautiful iPad 2 with 32 gigs of storage. It literally looked new. When I brought it home the first day, I charged it up to 100% and powered it completely off before i went to bed. Imagine my surprise--no, alarm--when I turned it back on the following morning and found the battery to be at a gut-wrenching, apprehension-riddled, buyer's remorseful 28%. I was almost sick. I started researching the web on any information I could find.  Fixes, battery prices, and anything else I could come up with as an avenue to save my ass.  I was grasping for any firm hold I could find.  Lo & behold, I found a website where so many others like me were bemoaning their battery-munching plight.  The fix, as recommended by the guy running the Q&A forum, was to do a restart using a specific pattern of keystrokes, then leave it to recharge fully overnight. Could it be that simple? Although I was extremely skeptical, I had nothing to lose.  Guess what?  Success!  Apparently, it's pretty common to have that happen when people upgrade their iPhones and iPads with the newest operating system when such upgraded OS's come out. The fix, in the guy's words, "re-syncs" the battery.  Whatever.  All I know is I breathed a giant sigh of relief.  The gal I bought the iPad from said she sold it because she never used it (which may also be true), but I think she sold it because the battery wouldn't hold a charge.  We won.  I put a Merry Christmas 'wallpaper' on it and boxed and wrapped it up.  Since she opened it up on Christmas morning she's been inseparable from it.  We also put a cute wallpaper on it that showed up on its desktop screens (pictured up on the right). Sue added the specific dates of our trip to Ireland in June to it.

What? I didn't tell you our destination is Ireland? It's true!

We gave Sarah the basic surprise/news of our wish to bestow a trip upon her a few months ago.  The only requirement was that she had to take us with her of course.  At that time we didn't give her a destination, but rather, several choices or potentials for a trip.  For obvious reasons we wanted a trip that would give us the maximum enjoyment/expense ratio.  We told her to get back to us with a list if multiple selections for us to go on if she could.  She was more than happy to do so (for obvious reasons), and when she did we kicked a few of them around and settled on Ireland.  We had to keep that under wraps along with the iPad.  Christmas morning brought an end to our secretive plotting, and now plans are being finalized with everyone collaborating.

Today brought an end to the saga of my parents' new computer. Who knew it was so much trouble to buy your parents a new computer?

The setup (the part where it lived in our house for a week or so while we loaded things on it and set it up for the both of them) went fine.  When Suzie and I proudly delivered it to them on their anniversary the problems began.  The saga was underway.  No, the computer worked fine.   Their DSL however: Not so much.  After playing with their modem (resetting, contacting tech support, etc) for a while we managed to get it up and running.  Then is wasn't.  Then it was.  More often than not, it wasn't.  When we left their house, I was disgruntled for obvious reasons.  I started looking for a replacement modem.  Word got out and we found that Sue's son Denny had one up the street he'd let us have.  Cool!  It was working great when he unhooked it and switched to cable Internet a year or so ago.  We went down to the folks' house again--all pumped up and full of good tidings and confidence.  I plugged it all in and surprise--it worked even worse than the original one.   This one wouldn't connect at all!  Once again I headed home with my shoulders drooping.  This time there was only one answer that we were willing to accept: Buy a new modem.  We both wanted closure.  This gift that we both wanted so badly to give my parents had turned into a can of worms.  We wanted it over with, with no ifs, ands, or buts.   I ordered a new one from Amazon.com a few days ago--this one with wireless.  The good news is that it cost nothing because I used Amazon "points" from my Visa card.  The bad news: More waiting.  Well, it showed up this morning, and I didn't waste any time getting down to their house and hooking it up.  It works fantastic!  Plus, any of us that visit can now connect to their wireless network!  The name of their new network: TheOldManOnThePorch.  Really.  Isn't that great?

Whew.  Let's see if the next few months give us a break.