The Three New Planting Areas

You ever get yourself planned for more than you can do  by the time you should?  Of course you have.  Think of that last party you threw...  For me it is planting stuff.  And the order of planting stuff can get awkward too.

I'm tired of digging ditches for edging.  It's harder than I thought for the 3 new planting areas.

Perspective is strange.  That far one is as big around as the near one.  They are 80', 40', and 80' respectively.  So I had to dig narrow trenches 5" deep to set the edging down mostly in-ground.  The far area ground has a lot of gravel and rocks.  Half the digging required a leverage fork to dig dirt loose along the perimeter, a pick to loosen the rocks, a trenching shovel to scoop the loosened mixture out, and a grub hoe blade (the other side of the pick) to chip away the bottom to get in uniformly 5" deep. 

Naturally, all those tools have short handles, so I was either bent over or on my knees the whole way around with each tool.

OK, it's getting easier as I move toward the house.  The soil is better.  Maybe.  Fewer rocks, but more heavy clay.   The clay stick to the tools and I have to bang them on the ground to get the stuff off!  I was going to say I can't decide which is worse, but actually they both are.  :(

Then of course, the edging has to be set in the trench and the trench has to be refilled.  More fun...  Well, it's easier to backfill the soil than to dig it up, but it still takes some work.

So I have the far area finished (took 3 days of off-and-on work).  More "off" than "on" because I'm way past 30 (my vague recollection of when I was at my physically best).  At 65, I'm at the point where I don't mind working hard with rest in between but darn don't want to die of a heart attack just to plant some flowers.  At 30, that possibility never even occurred to me.   So I make sure to stop every 15 minutes and relax for 5.

I finished the middle edged area today.  Just the nearest one left to do, and I am pretty sure that area as the easiest soil to dig in.  I might get that last edging in in 2 days.

But today, it occurred to me that I have a timing problem with the plantings.  The far area will have a natural wildflower area and some transplanted purple coneflowers, goldenrod, and black-eyed susans.  The smaller middle area will have only the invasive Lychimastria Firecracker.  The nearest area will have half-shade wildflowers.  So far, so good...

But 2 weeks ago, I had the great idea of planting a lot of spring-flowering bulbs among the areas for early color (and most enclosed in below-ground 1/2" wire mesh cages for protection from the voles and squirrels).  Well, the daffodils don't need protection, but the tulips and hyacinths do, and that causes a problem. 

If a plant the wildflower seeds in the far are now (as I should), they will be JUST growing when it is time to plant the spring-flowering bulbs in mid November.  Ack!  I would be walking all over the new plants.  I can't plant them now, as they won't arrive until early November. 

The middle area isn't a problem.  The Lychimastria can't be transplanted until they go dormant, and that will be early November.  So they and the spring-flowering bulbs go in at the same time.  The near area isn't a problem, because the half-sunny wildflowers will get sown in Spring and I can easily walk around the emerging bulbs then.

I'll have to think about how to manage the planting of that far area some more.  I'm not worried; there is always a solution to any problem.  I just have to find it.

And I have more on the landscaping To-Do-List.  200 crocus bulbs to plant in vole-proof cages.  But that's for the next post...

Headphones

I like to watch TV while I am am working in the kitchen.  But I also make a lot of noise in there (running water, etc) which overwhelms the TV sound.  And that's even with running the TV through the stereo speakers.

So I researched wireless headphones.  Most got poor ratings, but mostly for not trnsmitting through rooms walls.  Well, that wasn't my concern (I'm still in direct line-of-sight to the TV).  So I bought a well-rated wireless headphone.

I couldn't get it to work.  There were 2 ways to connect them.  One was  direct from the headphone plug to the back of the wireless headphone station.  The other was from the back of the headphone station to the A/V controller unit (whatever you call the device that lets you select the various other devices like TV/Stereo, DVD player, etc). 

The cable to plug into the device controller headphone unit was too small though the audio in/out fit perfectly.  No arrangement of plugs allowed the audio-out connection to work.  So I needed either an adapter plug to fit betwee the small plug and the headphone plug.  I hope that makes sense.  I assumed there was an adapter plug to fit from th small headphone plug to the larger one.  

So I went to Radio Shack, of course.  They opened and tried several adaptor plugs which didn't work.  I suggested maybe there was a cable that matched all the plugs.  The salesperson at Radio Shack didn't think so. 

I found it on the shelves myself.  Am I the only one how thinks Radio Shack personnel aren't as experienced as they used to be?  I had to find a rather obvious cable MYSELF!  At Radio Shack!

So back at home, I plugged it in.  It worked perfectly.  The wireless headphones work great.  But nothing is perfect.  Plugging the headset in cuts off the stereo speakers.  Worse, my radio won't play whether the headphone plug is in or out.  I'll have to explore that.

But I have to say that while the dishwasher is running and I an running sink water to clean dishes or get hot water, I CAN hear what is on the TV.

Small victory...

Neighbors

This isn't about a HORRIBLE AWFUL neighbor who does completely TERRIBLE MEAN things.  This is about a long-time merely annoying neighbor who just finally got me all ticked-off today.

OK, lets say you have a drainage easement along a property line.  And that drainage easement is shared by a neighbor.  And you are mutually legally responsible for it (the storm drain itself is a county responsibility).  The responsibility means keeping it free flowing right into the storm drain (meaning around the storm drain and the grate on the top of the storm drain is OUR responsibility).

Let's say you have had that same neighbor for 28 years, they refuse to pay any attention to cleaning (because their yard is higher and the occasional flooding caused by the debris-covered storm drain never causes them any problem), and you have mentioned this very politely several times over the years.

Let us further suppose that you have cleaned the sides and grate numerous times.  And picture the sides and top as "beaver dam material" - interwoven sticks and small branches that fill in with leaf-packed mud like the squishy stuff at the bottom of a natural lake but also plastic bags, fast-food containers, and general trash).

And let us further suppose that you had spent over an hour 2 weeks ago wedging the sticks and branches loose with an iron bar (throwing most of them onto your own side of the property line) before ripping loose handfulls of leaf-packed mud and feeding them into the newly-rushing water escaping into the now partially opened storm drain to break apart in the flood-flow.  And you are doing all this bent over at the waist with pooled water 3/4 the way up your boots.

After doing all this work, you clean up your property side, but also pick up all the trash plastic bags etc on both sides and fill up your trash can.  You leave the 1/4 of the sticks that happened to land on their property while you were pulling them all loose so that they will notice it while mowing and see that you have cleaned the storm drain grate ONCE AGAIN!

I don't usually act passive/aggressive (and it wasn't intended to be the "aggressive" part).  But I almost never see those neighbors outside and I didn't want to go bang on their door with my muddy hands and temporary annoyance.  I figured they would see the branches, see the cleaned storm drain grate and just pick up their minor share of the sticks pleased that I had cleaned the storm drain again...

Nope!  Are you surprised?

And, then imagine that after all that neighborly work, you return home today from errands to discover they have picked up all the sticks and dropped them onto YOUR lawn...

Now THAT's "passive-aggressive"!

I suppose I have to go knock on their door some Saturday afternoon and discuss it.  Again.  Explain the work I did, that I picked up most of the debris and all the trash, scooped the leafy mud with my bare hands, and that I am tired of doing this myself all the time when we are both responsible for it, and that I expect them to clean the storm drain grate themselves sometimes.

Not to get too far afield, but I DON'T like having to tell people what they should be doing.  I avoided several management offers in my career for that reason.  So I really don't want to go knock on their door and surprise them with a complaint (they may be utterly clueless).

Several ideas come to mind...

1.  Knock, knock.  "Hey neighbor are we having a stick fight"?

2.  Knock, knock.  "Did you notice I cleaned the storm drain in June?  It's your turn every November". 

3.  Knock, knock.  "Thanks for the sticks.  Is that a cultural gift I should know something about"?

4.  Anything else.  But please don't suggest "I should have just picked up their sticks as well".  I won't go for that one.

I'm willing to have a minor fight about this if there is a positive outcome.  But they seem to have some problems.  They half-built a garage and then let it stay that way for many months.  They did some yardscaping another year and that stayed half-done for several years.  A psychologist friend of mine said those are signs of personal and/or family dysfunction. 
 

Donations Thwarted

I have collected a lot of really good stuff to donate to charity.  And I can't seem to get anyone to take it.  Goodwill won't return my calls from their collection site way off in Washington DC.  Salvation Army says everything must be in boxes or bags "for the convenience of their pickup drivers".  Have they never heard that beggers can't be choosers?

Here's a list of the stuff I want to give away.

1.  Dining table with 4 chairs  A bit dinged, but I BOUGHT it from the Salvation Army store that way intending to refinish it (which I will never do).
2.  Riccar upright vacuum cleaner. Works great but I don't have many carpets and I have a newer vacuum.
3.  4" lens  Refractor telescope ( I have a better one now)
4.  Binoculars (have 2 the same, stupid purchase)
5.  HDTV wall mount (liked the HDTV better on a stand)
6.  Hanging wine racks (2)
7.  Ceramic Turkey Platter (I have 2 and don't need 1)
8.  Christmas decorations of many types.
9.  4 wood craft kits.
10.  2 Alton Brown measuring cups (plunge type)
11.  Oxo Good Grips Turkey Forks.
12.  1 postal scale (good for weighing food, too)
13.  10 wolf thank you cards, blank inside.
14.  36 rolls crepe paper in assorted colors
15.  One bike with heavy tread tires
16.  Hand-painted lampshade  WITH a suited lamp
17.  2 stacking plastic chairs


And there is more to the list.

How do you put an upright vacuum cleaner in a box?  Or a bicycle?

This is just too bizarre.  How can the donation services not want these things?

Looks like I have to go to Craigs List to sell the major items and just trash the rest.

Any ideas? 

A Little Computer And Some Garden Problems

COMPUTER:  Well, first, I KNEW everything wouldn't be perfect on the new old laptop.  The thrill of connectivity deceived me.  Oh, it's not terrible news, but the "M" key came loose right away, and my feedly.com reader list keeps disappearing from the sidebar.  It sticks on the desktop but not the laptop.  I'm sure I'll find out how to stick it permanently, but haven't so far. 

And there are other annoying problems.  I'm sure most can be fixed, but some may just be part of using a laptop.  I was expecting that since I was only using the laptop for reading blogs (at the moment), what did I care about security?  There's nothing ON the laptop.  But then I started getting unending, nearly constant ads.  It was like "Whack-A-Mole"!  Close one, another pops up.  I went 15 minutes doing nothing but closing ads at one point, and even closing some of them seems to have generated some email responses to the ads even though I don't have any email set up tat I know about.  Probably some basic gmail embedded in the computer.

I went into the system preferences and made some adjustments which reduced the ads but haven't eliminated them.  I was hoping not to have to buy MacKeeper for the laptop (it can prevent pop-up ads among other things.  I may find free software that does that.  Apparently, I'm going to have to compare files on my desktop to the laptop, see what I can copy over, and maybe buy some simple versions of other software.

If anyone has Mac desktop and laptop equipment and some of those things sound familiar, please drop me an email with any useful advise, please!  Reattaching the "M" key is actually a priority, but the other long term stuff is more vital.

GARDEN:  We had an unusual 70+ day today, so I set about constructing the 5th of 6 framed beds.  I thought it would go fast, but NOOOOO....

I mostly have to laugh at all the surprises a project can offer.  Well, it doesn't help to complain.  Not that I don't both laugh AND swear sometimes.

I got out in the garden at 1:30.  First, I had to carry the precut boards  (by me, not the Home Depot guy after the first bad experience).  I carried one out to the garden, then decided to try using the dolly to carry 2 at a time.  Didn't work, they were too tall and awkward.  So I carried them all out one at a time.  2"x8"x7' preservative-treated boards are heavy, but on my shoulder one-at-a-time worked.  That part was fairly expected.

So the 5th frame was to go 2' from the last and since there had been old beds there before (full of good soil), I only shoveled soil enough to lay down the new boards (different sizes from the old and 90 degrees in rotation).

Dragged out all the usual tools from the shed, connected the 150' of electrical cord, set up the radio on Classical, and started to dig some trenches where the new frame would set level.  There are invading vines from a neighbor, and I have been digging them out as I go.  Dig, pull, toss, dig, pull, toss...  Only one looked odd out of the corner of my eye, so I looked at it.  A poison ivy plant!  Sure, why not?  I haven't seen a poison ivy plant in the garden for several years and I was holding it in my bare hands.  Might as well find one now. 

So I dropped it in a remote corner where it could die peacefully and went into the house at once to wash my hand.  Holding the hand up so that I wouldn't touch anything in the house with it, I got safely to the bathroom and washed with soap for 5 minutes (hurray for pump soap).  Then I washed again with rubbing alcohol.  If I'm not complaining of poison ivy in 5 days, you'll know it worked.

So I was back out at the garden and set out the corners for the 5th bed.  Which meant clamping a long straight board to the end on the previous bed so that they all stay even with each other.  Naturally, I had brought the small clamps back to the house for a different project, so back to the house I went.  That 150' of walking back and forth adds up!  So I clamped the "straight-edge board" and set some corner bricks to support the lower lever of the frame.  Yes, I've developed a routine after the first 4 beds.  Experience accumulates.

The distance to the far end of the 5th bed was farther than I eyeballed it, so I had to rip out more of the old frame boards and dig off more old garden soil into the existing beds than I had expected.  More time gone.  And then I hit a 3" tree root from my neighbor's junk trees.  And I mean "junk".  He just let whatever grew, grow.  None of them are good trees, just invasive ones that grow thickly and unhealthfully.  Someday, I may ask him if we can just cut them down and plant nicer smaller ones like dogwoods and crabapples or whatever he likes.

But it meant I had to find my ax to cut the invasive root, which was back in the house, of course (for a perfectly good reason).  Then I remembered that the ax was a bit dull, so I had to sharpen it.  And the bench grinder on a stand was behind a bunch of stuff moved when the insulation guys worked in the basement, and by the time I got access to it and sharpened the ax to "OK" that was another quarter hour gone.  And of course, the root was loose in the ground so chopping it with the ax took some time.

An hour and a half and I still hadn't gotten the first board in place for the 5th bed...  I used some bad words.

But I was finally able to start with the frame.  Previous frames, I leveled first and constructed later.  I tried constructing first this time.  If you place bricks angled at all the corners, you can get all the board corners to match.  That worked pretty well.  I got the lower layer of the frame attached in only 30 minutes.  That sounds long, but I am obsessed with getting all the corners matching as perfectly as possible.  These beds should last 20 years and I'll be looking at them a lot, so why not go for the best appearance?

To construct each layer of the framed bed, I set the long boards on a brick at the corners.  The brick also holds the short end boards at the same level.  After that, I can use long clamps to loosely hold the 4 boards together.  After that, I tap the boards until the square ends match up.  Sometimes the boards are not exactly the same width, so I wedge one up to match the next.  I used little twigs on the first few beds but realized the axe blade was very good for that.

I have 2 drills for the project.  One is a standard electric drill for drilling pilot holes for the long screws that go though both boards at the corner.  The second drill is a cordless drill with a screw setting (has a slower speed and a torque control to not overdrive the screws in).  But most importantly, it means I don't have to keep changing the drill bit for the screwdriver bit.  And I'm using lubricated star-drive screws designed for preservative-treated boards.  Those resist the P-T board chemicals AND go in easier.  They are worth the very slight extra cost.

I got the lowever level of the framed bed finished and saw bad news.  The sun was on the horizon!  It was only 4:15!  But my horizon is not flat horizon.  The land slopes up radically on my west side.  But I had all the tools out, the 2nd level of boards ready, and I wanted to finish the 2nd level today.  It supposed to rain tomorrow and get colder.

And wouldn't you know it, my box of screws was empty.  Back to the house...  I thought, and correctly, that I had another box of them "somewhere".  Took only 15 minutes to find them.  Yes, they were in an obvious place, but not obvious to ME today...  LOL!

So back outside in the fading light.  Fortunately, the 2nd level of boards is WAY easier than the first.  And I found a few quick tips to make that easier.  I had used a square piece of 4"x4" to establish square corners on the first couple of 4' wide framed beds.  I found that using 4" bar clamps on the 3' wide 3rd and 4th beds was easier.  I tightened them loosely, tapped all the corners flush, then tightened the claps more and drilled the holes.  Worked great. 

Except the 5th and 6th beds (like the 1st and 2nd beds) are actually 4'3" wide and the 4" clamps are JUST too short.  Well, guess what, you can hook 2 clamps together!  So I attached a 4' clamp and a 12" clamp across the beds at both ends and locked all the corners tight after making them flush in all directions*. 

After that, and with the sun over the local elevated horizon, I got the last of the screws in!  The framed bed isn't complete.  The 2 levels are not attached to each other.  I uses a 1"x6"x6' P-T board for THAT.  I attach it on the inside of the long boards.  Half the width above the seam between the frame boards and screw it on.  Then attaching screws in that 1" board below, draws the 2 levels together beautifully!

Tomorrow isn't going to be as nice as today.  50 degrees vs 75.  But 50 is OK  I might get the last  LAST, LAST LAST framed built finished tomorrow.  If it doesn't rain...

So close to the end, and chasing the decent weather to the finish, LOL!

But you know, if there weren't surprises all the time in a project, it probably wouldn't be worth writing about it.    Seriously, how exciting would it be to just write "I built 6 framed beds this year"?


* I still had to tap boards around in all the corners until the matched up evenly horizontally AND vertically.  THEN I tightened the clamps hard and drilled pilot holes for the screws.

Pictures in a few days when I finish...

Snowblowwer Snow That Wouldn't Melt

Well, I intend to write mostly about something else tonight, but I just stumbled across something on the Public Broadcasting System at dinner I really liked.  A show called "Classic Rewind" plays famous classical music set to film (like Disney's Fantasia" was classical music set to animation).  And apparently, it is a regular show but also available as an 8 DVD set of 135 pieces of music.  I plan to get it.  So I just wanted to mention that first.

OK, onward...  Before it gets too late, I wanted to mention a seeming violation of the laws of physics.  Seriously, ice melts in your drink too fast, right?  Well, I had the opposite problem.  I couldn't get snow to melt!

I happened after I FINALLY got to use my 3 year old snowblower for the first time March 5th (See?  This is already 10 days old).  But the point is that I used it, it worked pretty well, and I was done clearing the driveway and sidewalk.  But there was a slight problem.  Toward the end as the snowblower warmed up I suppose) the input area got packed with snow (so it was heavier than the snow on the ground) and the output chute got clogged with slush.  I had cleared it once, but when I was done, I didn't think about it much except to recognize that the snow in the snowblower would melt in the garage, so I placed an old towel under it to wick away the melting packed snow and let it evaporate.  Good plan.

Except the snow packed in the snowblower refused to melt!  The garage was at 40F degrees, so it should have melted.  Three days later, no apparent melt!  It was FIVE DAYS above freezing in the garage before the snow finally started to melt.  It was only 2 days ago that it finally all melted.

I wish I had taken pictures, but I had no reason to think it would be interesting at first, and after a few days I was just fixated on my annoyance that the snow in the blower wouldn't melt!

You can imagine it though.  Sort of like the "snowman who wouyldn't die"!

Minor But Annoying Problems

I am fortunate to not have any major health or financial problems.  But minor ones add up and can be really annoying. 

The tire pressure light is on in the car even though I made sure they were properly inflated and checked to make sure they are staying inflated.  That means a couple hours sitting around the dealership.

A tooth has gone bad and I had going to the dentist.  Its not the dental work that bothers me.  It's the bite block.  I have a small jaw AND I can't hold it open voluntarily.  As soon as that bite block goes in, I start swallowing.  Just try to swallow with your jaw wedged open!

It's January, so all the cats have to go to the vet.  There goes $800...  And I'll have to isolate each one to get identifiable stool samples.  It's amazing how long they can go without pooping when they are enclosed alone in a room!

I had an older Mac Desktop cleaned because of fan noise a few months ago.  Last week, I learned that my router is wireless-capable, so I decided to set up the desktop and move my Mac Mini to the TV room so I could visit cat blogs while watching TV.  After 5 minutes the "repaired" desktop was buzzing loudly again!

But the intolerable annoyance is that my HDTV died!  It had been turning itself off randomly for several days.  Sometimes it came back on by itself, sometimes I had to turn it on manually.  But tonight it just stopped completely.

Anyway, the Panasonic support (phone and website) is a joke!  I called the number on the manual and was informed the service department was closed.  Hours are 9 am to 9 pm Eastern Time.  The time was 8:50 ET.  WHAT?  They were supposed to be open.  So I went to their website find a local authorized service center.  They wanted the model number and my zipcode to find  service centers within 100 miles.  My model number was not on the list.  I manually entered the model number (checked it on both the TV and the manual).  I got a message saying "no such model number".  Hey, its only 6 years old!  But then the message was to choose the closest model number on the list.  OK.  But when I entered my zipcode, it deleted the selected "close" model number!  AARGGHH...

After several tries, I found a model number on the list that stayed listed when I entered my zipcode, and got a list of "servicers".  One is right here in town.  Good thing, too, because the next nearest is 30 miles away!  Naturally, the local "servicer" has no answering service, so I will call tomorrow.

The TV is 6 years old (I was shocked when I found the receipt and discovered that - my guess was 2-3 years).  If these HDTVs are anything like computers (and I suspect they are), I might just be better off buying a new one.

I LIVE with the TV.  I'm home all day and it's too damn quiet.  So when I get up, I turn on the TV before I even make my morning mug of green tea.  I always look for science or nature shows first, then switch to MSNBC for political talk (sometimes I put on science/nature DVDs and I have a 5' shelf of them).  But I have to hear some voices!  Fortunately, tomorrow is Friday and I can listen to rational talk from 10 am to 2 pm, and then science discussion from 2 pm to 4 pm on PBS radio.  That's almost as good since I mostly listen to the TV most of the time.   In fact, if I could simply listen to cable TV channels through radios throughout the house, that would be fine with me.  There used to be radios that received the sound from TV stations.  Are there any that do that with cable TV?

I'm looking at Consumer Reports reviews of HDTVs, talking myself into buying a new bigger HDTV, aren't I?

Then I'll tackle the other issues.  Like, if I am going to have a tooth pulled (which is likely), I will damn well have a working TV to watch through the several days of pain.  And if I have to ignore the cats scratching and meowing at the room doors while waiting for them to poop, I will have a TV to watch cuz its too darn cold to sit outside to ignore their pleas to be let out. 

UPDATE!  Bought a new HDTV.  80" Sharp LCD/LED.  Sharp and LCD isn't my favorite brand or type, but I really couldn't  see the difference from the better plasmas and the plasmas don't come that large.  If I'm buying a new one, it ought to at least knock my socks off.  The only step up from 80" has to be a whole wall (probably 5 years from now).  

I may go back for the sound enhancement.  They showed me the sound on a regular HDTV playing a tiger roaring (from The Life of Pi).  It was good.  Then they showed me the same scene with the sound enhancement speakers.  I JUMPED BACK and I bet every cat tail within a mile was POOFED!!!  It was astonishing.  But I want to see if hooking my stereo to the new TV is nearly as good.  I bet it is close. 

BTW, there is something called "4K" now that is way better than HDTV,  I wanted to reach in and touch the person in the screen.  It was "that real".  But maybe next time.  For what I watch, I don't need that.  And it was "super-tech", which I also am not.  But when this HDTV wears out, there may be even better stuff.  I can wait.

Should have delivery Saturday afternoon.  I can't wait. 

Fun With Monitors

Soooo, I bought this new monitor for the old PC I use only to play Civilization 2 (and maybe retrieve some old files and photos from AND it has MS Paint which I've always liked for creating greeting cards).  At 19.5" diagonal, and 16:9 aspect, its bigger than the monitor on my "real" computer (the fast internet one).  But I needed one that had the older-style connections (male, D, 15 pin plug, so I didn't have a lot of choices). 

Opening the box, I found warranties in several languages, a page of disclaimers, a page of warnings, and a CD.  No set up instructions...  Those were on the CD.  Um, how do you read a CD if you dont have a working monitor?  How often do YOU replace a working monitor with a new one?  Plus there was a page that said if the monitor did not receive a working video input it would turn on.  I had to think about that later...

Fortunately, the monitor was good for both PCs and Macs, so I could load the CD in the Mac while I set up the monitor on the CD.  The CD PDF manual was pretty pathetic.  Even though I could choose among languages to read it in, there were mostly just pictogram instructions.  One instruction said to repeatedly press the f8 button while booting up to get to a "safe screen" and and a page of possible ways to get to setting up the monitor.

Nothing happened...  Which could either mean the plugs weren't connecting, the monitor wasn't compatible, I had a "too old" version of Windows (and how can you find out if there is no monitor to click on the Windows icon to see what Windows version you have?), and how do you know the electrical cable is working if the monitor won't even light up?

BLEH!  It was a real Catch-22*

Fortunately I saw a PFD-manual reference to a small LED light that would show a working connection to the computer.  I didn't find one, but feeling around the bottom of the monitor frame I found a  pinhead-sized plastic button hidden about as well as possible.  I pressed it.  The monitor lit up (HOUSTON, WE HAVE LIFT-OFF).

The brief printed guidelines were COMPLETELY false.  NONE of the setup instructions had anything functional about them.  The manufacturer probably fired the person who wrote the instructions for the 3-generation previous version and never had them rewritten.

The instructions DID have some useful guidelines for setting the screen resolution and aspect choices.  IF you figured out that they were in the wrong order.  If I was new to this stuff, I would have returned the monitor to the store as "non-functioning"...

Then I turned on the Civilization 2 game I use the PC for.  The colors were HORRIBLE!  Dark, blurry, and the text was unreadable.  OK, little habit here.  I often just squat in front of the computer rather than bother with a chair.  I often did my computer work at the office and home squatting, standing, etc because I am restless and hate to just SIT.  But when you stand or sit a lot, squatting  puts a different tension on the leg muscles that can be relaxing.

So image my surprise when I stood up and the computer colors suddenly became perfect, then "too light".  This monitor is apparently very direct "square-on" to be color-correct".  I was angry!  I went to the Mac and loaded up a full screen color photo and tried the same "from squatting to standing" examination.

I was shocked!  It did the same thing.  Then, with some testing, I realized that the situations where I squatted to use the Mac were for reading email and that is in black and white.  When I am doing lengthier work, I sit.  Try it yourself; with a full color photo on the screen look at it from below to middle to above.  Do the colors change severely?  Mine do.

So, when I use the old PC to play the Civilization 2 game, I will be sitting in a chair with the monitor aimed directly at me for proper colors.

It shouldn't have been that hard.  Of all the parts of a desktop computer, the one part that OUGHT to be utterly "plug and play" is the monitor.  If it doesn't just "come on" automatically, its really frustrating,  And useless.


*  If you don't know what a "Catch-22" is, its a situation where one is trapped between conflicting rules from which there is no escape.  Catch-22 is a novel by Joseph Heller about absurd situations in WWII.  The title was originally Catch-18 but was changed because of a then-recently published book Mila 18, then changed from Catch-11 because of a movie Ocean's Eleven, then changed from Catch-17 because of the movie Stalag 17, then not Catch-14 because "14" wasn't considered a "funny number", finally landing on Catch-22 for the duplication of "2" which seemed to fit the duplication concept AND "2" standing for the deja vu situations in the book.  I knew some of that, but got more from Wikipedia...  Didn't want to do a "Rand Paul" here.