Ignoring The Barking Dogs: “Life” Had a Hiccup

Why the title?

"Pioneers take the arrows"

Oh, wait. I should be upbeat and taking arrows doesn't sound like an upbeat thing to say.

So, let me amend that statement.

It was courage and vision that led the pioneers to leave behind a comfortable, settled life and trek West to begin a new life in a new place. Many of those from the East that went West found a strength within themselves that they didn't see while they were in their old life. Instead of being one of those that just kind of went along with the others in the old life, they became leaders and visionaries in their new lives.

The sentiments of that last paragraph come from a favorite author, Louis L'Amour, in many of his books. So, I can't really say that it is an original thought from me. However, what he said is truthful.

Welcome to being a pioneer. Look ahead and ignore the "barking dogs" that give you negative opinions and comments. Louis L'Amour also spoke of the barking dogs.

In some of his stories, it was usually a father or older man telling a young boy how it was that when the Westward bound Conestoga wagons rolled through towns, the dogs came out to bark at them. His character then told the young listener that the barking didn't stop the wagons from going on to their destinations.

Following the advice of the Louis L'Amour characters, may we all forge ahead with our plans, after carefully considering all consequences and leave the "barkers" behind.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

“Life” Had a Hiccup – And I Panicked

We returned on Sunday, May 27, from the few days in Elk City and Rolling Retreats after having the new dining table installed and the wheel recall work done. It took longer for me to get all set back up this time because I needed to re-torque the wheel nuts after driving the distance from Elk City to Oklahoma City. Each time a tire and wheel are removed for any reason, on has to re-torque the wheels after a certain number of miles.

I also had to undo and re-route our Direct TV satellite cable from the dish to the RV. When the technician came out and installed it, I had chosen what I thought was the best place for the tripod and had even gotten it leveled. The technician acted as though I didn’t know anything about it all and wanted to move the tripod and dish all around the lot to find the best spot. Guess where the best spot was located. Yep, right where I had it before.

Then, he decided to not listen to me when I asked him to route the cable in a certain way. He also wanted to bury the cable since it is one that is recommended to be buried. However, I had to remind him that eventually the cable and the coach are going to be moving and I didn’t want to have to dig up the cable. So, it took extra time to re-route the cable as we wanted.

That job was followed by “THE HICCUP and PANIC MODE.” Jo had set up the laptop with all its needed connections, including hooking up our external hard drive. When I sat down to start doing things, the laptop couldn’t find the external hard drive.

So, with that in mind……

……meet “Life.”

All of my research into the RV lifestyle and planning is on that drive. The photo book that I am writing is on that drive. Literally thousands of my photos are on that drive, and guess what. Some of that data has not been backed up.

Here I am, the husband of an IT professional and manager, and I didn’t do enough backing up of the data on the hard drive. While I have backed up a lot of my photos onto DVD discs, all the vacation pictures for 2010 and 2011 were not. Again, that is literally thousands of photos.

Jo took over and began to fiddle with the drive. It would light up and one could hear the drive trying to run, but then the light would go out and everything would stop. She tried it a number of times with the same results. She did give me just a glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel by saying that she thought it was the controller board instead of the actual drive.

So, the next day “Life” went to work with us. Jo had removed the drive from the case and had one of her employees to use their “magic equipment” to check the drive to see if it looked like the drive itself was OK. I waited for almost the whole day at work for word of the outcome of the analysis by the “magic equipment” as to the status of the drive.

Jo finally called and said that it looked like I was going to be happy. Her co-worker and employee had hooked the drive up and stated that it “spun up” and he could see “directory stuff” on the display. So, we may be saved by getting a new enclosure and installing “Life” into that.

In spite of the “favorable” news that my drive may be salvageable, if it is alright with all of you, I will remain searching for that full-fledged light at the end of the tunnel to be seen. Jo has ordered the new enclosure, but it could be as late as next Wednesday before we see it arrive.

Believe me, when “Life” is installed in a new home and I am positive that all data is secure and readable, I will be doing a number of backups. Jo has already bought another new external hard drive with 3 terabytes of space and gotten it hooked up. My laptop has two 500 gigabyte hard drives. I also have numerous blank CD and DVD discs in the coach as well. The “King of Overkill” will strike again.

However, until then, all I see is that glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel.