My HP Home Server

The HP Home Server is my latest attempt to organize my digital life. I know backups are absolutely needed to preserve the thousands of photos that my grand-grandchildren will be perusing to learn a little about our life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Well at least they will be laughing at our funny hair styles and weird clothes.

I also want to add some photos to my screen saver at work so that my colleagues can the see the charm and beauty of my grandkid, and their uncanny likeness to myself. But, alas, I keep forgetting to save the photos to my flash drive so that I can take them to work.

Then there are those times when you are bragging about your grandkids and you find a person who would like to actually see their pictures. It would be so nice to go online right then and show him the pictures, before he comes to his right mind and remembers an important appointment that he must get to immediately.

The HP Home Server is suppose to make all this possible and, dare I say, easy. Well, I believe it is possible and the backup portion was very easy. But that part about getting at my photos on the server using the internet has not proven to be easy. I attribute a lot of the problem with my internet/LAN set up and a little to my ignorance. I suppose there are those who would say it the other way around, but it's my blog so I get to tell is like is should be.

I'm may have to ask for help. Yes, I am that desperate. However, I believe that asking for help on a technologically tricky problem is nothing close to asking for directions. So my manhood remains unscathed. In the meantime, I feel sorry for all my friends at work who are not getting to see the latest photos of some of the country's brightest prospects for high positions of leadership in the land.

Oh the Peace and Quiet, NOT

The last few months have been anything but tranquil for these empty nesters. No one moved back in with us, but we have moved my mother-in-laws, Wayne and Alyce, to Vancouver to be closer to us. She was living in Yakima with her other daughter and son-in-law, Jane and Frank. Frank got a new job that required a move, so we had a family pow-wow and decided that it would be best to move the folks to Vancouver because we expect to be here for the forseeable future and could provide a stable environment for them.

Alyce and Wayne are well into their eighties and a few parts are breaking down. Wayne has alzhiemers and has a difficult time communicating. He seldom gets the noun correct when he is telling you about something or asking a question. So you have to figure out what he means by fish, ice, big thing, or chin. Is it a cookie, his wife, or that toy on the floor. It can be rather humorous, but of course, we have to be sensitive to Wayne's feelings because he is just as frustrated in his inability to communicate as we are in trying to figure it all out.

Alyce recently had a total knee replacement which went very well, but the day after she got home from the hospital, she was back in for a few days to treat her congestive heart failure. This was a unexpected hiccup, but the family pulled together so that everyone was taken care of and no one was over burdened. By over burdened, I mean that no one else ended up in the hospital or psych ward. Jane, Lesley's sister, left Frank to fend for himself, Lesley set aside her garden and her domestic engineering career, and Jenni, our daughter, left the comfort of her own bed to take the night shift when 24 hour care was required.

Jane is back with Frank, and Lesley and Jenni are continuing to help Alyce and Wayne by fixing meals, doing their shopping, and running them to the doctors appointments. As long as everyone stays clear of the emergency room, we can see light at the end of the tunnel. Wayne will soon need more care than we will be able to give, but for a little while we will enjoy our new scheduleable hectic lives. (Scheduleable, I think I just invented a word.)

It does make one pause to consider the cost on others when we grow old. People don't want to be a burden on their families, but I don't think that is the way it is supposed to be. God created the family and we are to help one another, as well as enjoy one another. A strong family will prevent some disasters and cleanup after others, but together they will also celebrate the victories, laugh at the dumb jokes, and marvel at each new member as they arrive. Family relationships are the most difficult to sustain, because everyone knows the real you. But family relationships can be the most rewarding, when they love you anyway.