WELCOME TO MY DAY..

Well, I'm kind of settled in to this first stop...my third species of Marriot..there was the Courtyard Marriot in Leeds/Bradford, and the Marble Arch Marriot in London....
This time, it's a Residence Inn in Vermont, and I've already met Rudco and Lady J and Beth from my chatroom,
Though Rudco didn't HAVE to take that picture, just then...
Rudco, do you know how many people have message me to say how TIRED I look?
And you KNOW what I think they are really saying!!

And I waited a few days,until I WASN't so tired, before I cooked the Australian meal for Rudco and Mollie.. but I had to do it the French way, though,because his microwave is a bit different from what I am used to, and his exwife hadn't left any large enough microwave cookpots...
But the kitchen was rather grander than I have been let loose in before, and very well equipped, though after I had finished all the preparation,I found a mixer and folk processor, still in plastic wrap, in a cupboard...
and Rudco explained to me later that the insinkerator had only attacked me because I had fed it its rubber sink-stopper along with the leektops..
And he must have thought I looked tired when he came home because he immediately started cleaning the FLOOR of his kitchen..
(HE says that's because the house is for sale, but I think he is just not used to an energetic Australian cook!)

Of course, soon as Mother Nature realised where I WAS, she organized a typical welcome- weather reception for me..same as I have received all over the world so far...
so if I tell you there are people sitting on their ROOFTOPS here waiting for the rescue helicopters, and all the weekend holiday acitivities have been cancelled, and the flood warnings are interrupting the classical music programs, you won't be surprised, will you?
It's just that in the US of A, they do EVERYTHING bigger than Europe!

And talking of 'bigger', you ought to see how IBM looks after its workers, foodwise, anyway!
"Lunch in the works canteen" turns out to be the equivalent of the smorgasbord at RACV RooftopGarden..only with more choice, more staff.. and bigger!
Now, we have all heard the jokes about how you get too tired to eat making choices about your American meal!
Well, I have to tell you folks, that part is all true..
Faced with such a midboggling array of culinary choice, I thought to just have a sandwich, to keep things simple...
Simple? have you any idea how many choices of bread there are, how many fillings, how many spreads, how many garnishes, how many extras?
And how many different kinds of tea you must select from...and coffee?
It's a very long way from the"..white or black and how many sugars?" approach!!
I asked the sandwich lady what she eats when she goes home at night and she said,

>

I was just a little bit apprehehensive when Rudco took me to his usual table and all his gang were still seated there,even though they all appeared to have finished their meal..
Really, I can't think what it was gave me the idea they were all hanging about to give ME the onceover!
And I can't think why Rudco looked so relieved when I failed to wear the bone through my nose that I had promised, and had discarded my grass skirt in favour of a very ladylike, (though defnitely businesslike) tailored navy microfibre shirt with white buttons, and white tailored slacks!
But Rudco has this feeling he is going to take some ribbing next week...
Geez, George..they are just JEALOUS! *giggle*...and that bit about my being a spy from Microsoft isn't fair...
I was genuinely interested in your work,, really, and understood some of it...and it is another company, entirely, that is going to pay me to report , I assure you.(though if anyone from Micrososoft is reading this, I am freelancing right now, and still open to offers...

And had we known what was really wrong with my computer, we mightn't have lingered quite so long over lunch!
If you remember, a couple of days earlier, I had wanted to take a nap and use my screensaver, but my computer said "NO SCREENSAVER"
So I went to fetch my Windows disk and inserted it to retrieve a screensaver and the computer said "NO CDROM INSTALLED"
And I thought about this, and played with Sysedit and tried to persuade the computer-god that there is, indeed a CDRom expensively fitted, but in the end I figured to restart it and see if that made a difference..
And the computer said, "PATH INVALID; CANNOT START WINDOWS"
So I had to do a very quick revison of DOS techniques and commands...and I pulled the CD drive out of the machine and put it back in again and it registered, and Windows said it was working perfectly...
So I found the Windows Disk and installed a screensaver, and wondered if I had fixed the problem...
But each time I turned the machine off, the CD Drive disappeared again...
But I could reinstall it by taking it out and sticking it back in,except that when I tried to reinstall Windows to fix the strange messages on startup, the machine assured me that the bootup commands had been altered and told me to switch off and then run setup again...
But each time the machine restarted, it said I had no CDRom and could not run Windows setup...
And it suggested I run a virus-scan program, but mine are all on CDs, and the CDs say my hard disc is write- protected....

So Rudco said we would go to the Toshiba Service Centre after lunch....and we did, and I knew CP Computers Plus was going to be a good place because after they said they couldn't work on it till Monday and I said I would take it home and fix it myself, a WOMAN came over to look at it, and noone told her to back off because women don't fix computers..
And it was just like being told, in 1987, that my husband did, indeed, have cancer, when she said:
"You have a virus....BOY, do you have a virus!"
You have the RIPPER virus here..".

And to cut a long story short, I agreed to pay an expedite fee and leave the computer for a couple of hours, and have it checked out to see how cleanable it might prove..
And I didn't stamp my foot or swear until we were outside..
And I had visions of every floppy disk we owned at home having to be discarded..but then I started to think about this, and how new the computer is, and worked out that the only place these infected disks could have been introduced into the system was in Belgium,and that everything earlier at home was safe..which made me feel better...
Until I thought about the 1700 files in my Webspinner, ( pagedesign), directory, that is....

So Rudco took me over the shopping mall, which he said he had planned to do, anyway, and we were given free hazelnut flavoured coffee, (which HE said was the most expensive free cup of coffee I EVER had) and looked at a bigger collection of soft toys than our shop has, and summer clothes, (which I need),and engagement rings, (which HE needs) and baby clothes, because he is about to become a grandfather for the first time and I a grandmother for the sixth time....talk about confused consumers!!

And when we went back to the shop, (George had looked at his watch several times), Killiam Hermann said it was good news, and no files were affected, and only charged me $120, so we went home quickly, before anything else could go wrong, and before it could get any wetter,and I made dinner for Rudco, and smalltalk , and tried to breathe because the wet air was making my asthma flare up,and didn't switch on the computer once, nor even put it together again until he had gone, though he had looked at his watch several times...
And the first thing I did was install my Virus-scan program...the second was to identify and clean the infected floppy discs..
the third thing was to message poor Luc, in Belgium, that his brother-in-law's computer has the Ripper virus...

And when I finally logged on, IBM said there had been too many attempts to use a wrong password on my account and that I had better change it, so I did,(three tollfree calls), and then IBM couldn't authenticate it, (ten local calls), so I made the acquaintance of a very nice man at theIBM helpdesk and we worked through lots of deletes and rejoins,(another 10 local calls), and finally decided to pass it all to a higher authoriity for the morning...
And it was raining and thundering so very hard that it DID cross my mind that this might be being caused by flood conditions, though the nice man assured me not, that it would be the virus, or the virus-scan program..
But I had other ideas, and it took another several local calls, to prove him wrong...which I figured I had when I managed to use the toll-free number to check my EMail..

And when I woke next morning, the Saturday, to the sound of those rescue helicopters, not only was the Air National Guard at work, but so was my internet connection....albeit at only 16800, but who was counting?
And while I was talking to Rudco, and to my husband online, another really nice IBM serviceman was calling from Tampa in Florida and telling me how much better I was going to enjoy Georgia and Florida, and how much improved the weather would be...
And I was working very hard at getting my washing dry, and wondering if I should advise him how El Nino and I seem to be labouring together to everyone's disadvantage..
But I figure he might as well wait to find out what is in store for him when I hit town..
Anyway, he gave me his number just in case I need help with my suitcases....or my umbrella!..(*grin*)

And along those watery lines...whatever happened to American bathplugs?
I mean, my first night here,...having flown 12 hours or so , and waited in unbelievable airports, and unpacked all three cases for the first time, (having certainly had no need of cool clothing in Europe!!!), and substituted Rudco-cooked popcorn and coffee for dinner, and talked myself quite senseless, I decided a bath was in order and that only a bath would do....
And I prepared for my bath, in the usual away-from-home way, by taking off all my clothes and bundling them in to the bathtub...
And there wasn't a plug, was there...nowhere, no way...and too late to call for one..besides, I wasn't exactly dressed to greet the Night Manager...
So I figured, what the heck, a shower is almost as good, and I tried to find some way of turning on the shower, which is a strange multicolored dahlia-thing..
and there was only the bathtap, and it turned on just fine but all the water went...down the plughole...
Well, I hate anything to BEAT me folks, and I figured that in a Marriot establishment having both bath AND shower out of action would be unlikely, so I started investigating in earnest.....and later, much later, I took a shower to cool off, and then inserted the nonplug to stop the water and soak in it and then wash my clothes later...
because I'm not sure at which point of time I discovered that the funny knob on top of the bath-faucet diverts the already-running bathwater to the shower head...and that you CAN stop the showerhead spraying all around the room and pulsing like one of our lawn-sprinklers...
and that there IS no bathplug..at least not one you can see.....
because while I was thinking the little pullout pantyhose line was kind of low, suitable only for kneehighs, and was EXTREMELY difficult to extend, I somehow discovered that it was the 'bathplug' after all, because when you flip that switch up, folks, the water just won't go down.....and when you flip it down, it will...but , just as in Europe, the water goes down in a quiet kind of well-bred way, no crude gurglings like in Australian bathrooms, so it is a bit hard to tell the difference,sometimes....
But I mastered it all, and, just to be really smug, took another shower only four hours later, before breakfast, just to prove I could....
of course, the fact that I hadn't yet mastered the air-conditioning had something to do with that, too!

So for those of you who've been asking is it 'like Australia'?..well, YES....and...NO!!
I mean, I tried to walk to the supermarket and take a cab back, and that is singularly difficult because there is no footpath, (OK, SIDEWALK!), and no cab company in Williston...
And when I persevered, because in the Land Of The Free, there must be the possibility of a taxi, they sent... an 18 seater bus..just for me!!
And I told Bob, the driver, that I would put him on the internet and make him famous but he would only give his first name, so I guess Bob must be moonlighting...
and it turned out the trouble I was having calling the nonexistent cab company was because I was trying to feed the smart phone-machine English, Belgian and Portuguese coins, my American coinage having dropped into the bottom of my handbag..
And when I told Lady J about it she said,
"You ARE funny..noone in America walks or takes cabs.. we all have to have our own CARS!!"

And to those asking about the weather the answer is "INTERESTING!!!"!
(Especially if you are into fog on a near-century day, followed by a thunderstorm and flash flood!!)....
It is not the dry clear heat we get in Australia, though perhaps if I had holidayed at Buffalo or Kosciusco in the offseason I might feel more at home...but it is damp and misty and soft and fragrant with some kind of aniseed plant..not dill..more like a camomile/clove/aniseed mix...and everywhere they cut the edges of the grass.. which grows like soft lawns all over the fields and spaces..
..and I am thinking Tennyson had this place in mind when he wrote 'The Lotus Eaters'

..A land of streams..
Some like a downwards smoke,
Slowdropping veils of thinnest lawn did go...

It is an ethereal kind of place,...not your average outback at all!!
Even the WEEDS grow tidily here, and masquerade as wildflowers...
But they DO have flies and mosquitoes, so all is not QUITE foreign....
until you want to buy lamb chops for the Aussie meal, that is, and then, when your host finally tracks them down, you find each is cut one and a half inches thick, and when you ask for something thinner, they apologise because that is the regulation cut!!!
Oh..and it WAS kind of DIFFERENT seeing the BOATS stacked right beside the garden plants and bakery products in the wholesale supermarket...
Rudco says you can buy ANYTHING there as long as you have the money!
And even THAT kind of supermarket has its pharmacy and optician!!

But it wouldn't be MY holiday, would it folks, if nothing were to go WRONG???
And I only have a few days left here in Vermont to reflect my new status as a dignified Oldie In the USA!
Which apparently is how I come across.." dignified but still fun-loving.."(Lady J)
Hmm..guess you CAN still fool some of the people some of the time...

Lady J..I think that description will never fit YOU!!!

And to those of you asking, 'Are you still coming home early?', the answer is
'Probably not'..
Because I hear from Zach Paleozogt, my host in Atlanta, that I am probably going to see a Braves' baseball game, and attend a Fourth of July party...
and I'm staying at a Marriot Residence Inn just like this one so I will love it, especially as I am going to be right in the city, and have saved up my shopping for just this kind of opportunity!!
And I haven't scheduled my time after that so severely that changes can't be made, and if I am enjoying Georgia a lot, and can breathe easily there, well, I might just have to stay longer in Atlanta, and cut my time in California....
Unless someone there, or elsewhere, can convince me otherwise, of course.....
To that end, JCMan, it was seriously nice to hear from you ....
Perhaps my faith in American men is a TAD restored....but a long way to go YET!!!

Love to everyone over 50,and everyone on our side! -from ..Robink in U.S.A.

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