The ladies of the circuit and techie me

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I go to a gym that is populated with very interesting older women. I always learn something. Most of the time it is of no value but it can be amusing!

Source: computerclipart.com

Source: computerclipart.com

This morning the gym was empty. There was another person and me. I went early to avoid bad travel roads. It had just started snowing.

This other person is someone I know in passing. Normally she is leaving when I am arriving so other than “hi” and “bye” I don’t know her. She seems nice enough.

This morning’s encounter answered the question of “whose coat smells like pub grease.” I have been trying to solve that for a while but it’s hard to sniff coats with everyone about. Don’t want anyone to think I’m any stranger than they already think I am.

Pub grease is not the topic for today. Computers are.

This woman is having computer woes and is looking for someone to fix it. Someone who is cheap, like really cheap, like in double digits cheap.

Always the helper, I asked her a few questions. Most of these ladies are not technically savvy and this was an opportunity to demonstrate my vast (smirk) knowledge. (No eye rolls please! Especially from those of you who know me personally!)

She is having trouble with her browser. She can’t open internet explorer. I suggested things like reinstalling it or trying another browser. Not sure she got the concept of browser.

She explained that she has that other one from long ago. I was stymied. IE has been around for ages. There was one that was older? She finally said that she got her emails there for the last 15 years. Ahhh! AOL. I didn’t know it still existed.

She ran her antivirus software and found 35 viruses. The product quarantined half and fixed half. She didn’t understand the concept of quarantine. My explanations didn’t help her. (Not necessarily her fault as my explanations may be faulty. I know that’s hard for me to believe too.)

I didn’t know how she got that many viruses. I haven’t had one in years. (My mind started to wonder what she was downloading…)

After a lively conversation I gave up any idea of making suggestions. She wasn’t getting my terminology and I wasn’t sure she had any.

She did not want to contact help at Microsoft or pay someone much more than $20. My final suggestion was to find a techy high school kid who could fix it in a nanosecond.

I learned a few things.

I know whose coat stinks and that AOL is still around. You always learn something even when it appears that nothing is making any sense.

 

33 thoughts on “The ladies of the circuit and techie me”

  1. Your recommendation to have her contact a high school techie does show how computer savvy you are. When I’m at school and can’t figure something out, like how to get a video to play … I just ask one of my students. Viola! It is done. 😉

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  2. This made me think about my Daddy. He was a “functioning” alcoholic and sometimes stopped for a quick one on the way home from work.. Something he swore he never did. We always knew because he smelled like a beer joint when he got home.
    I have no comment on the tech challenged cheap lady. She sounds like a soul mate.

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    • The tech challenged lady is a great person. It’s hard for any of us to pay $100 for a couple of clicks that we think we should have known how to do. I feel like that when I get a quote to paint a room. I always end up doing it myself. I know the bar room smell too. Yuk!

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  3. It’s so funny how lives collide and intersect, even virtually. Today my wife said that a neighbor of ours wants to take her to the female-only gym she visits to see if she might like it. And, as I sit at my slow computer right now, I am awaiting Comcast to come out and look at our WiFi router. Synchronicity, I tell you.

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  4. I have had similar conversations with friends about their computer woes and, after listening for what seemed like hours + offering solutions only to be discounted, I’ve walked away with “suit yourself.” Sometimes people don’t want a fix as much as they want to rant about what’s broken!

    Your pub grease reminded me of our Hockey Rink= they always fried onions for the burgers so there was no way any of us could come home and lie about being at a hockey game … our coats gave us away. our solution was to leave them outside over night! Generally speaking the fresh air and -40F temps blasted the stench away 🙂

    MJ

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  5. Computers and everything related have changed so since I started in 2000. Nobody is ever talking about the same thing. And the more you try to help or explain, the more mixed up it gets. 😦 You were brave to try to help. 🙂

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    • And even wiser when I decided to take a step back. The different pieces especially those that don’t have a physical presence (such as a browser or operating system) are lost on a lot of people. I am no expert myself but I can muddle around. Sometimes it works and sometimes……

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  6. I’m stuck on thinking about pub grease! I’m not sure I know what that smells like. LOL! But I’m certainly glad your mystery was solved. And you ARE very helpful. You tried to explain. That’s more than most would do.

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    • Pub grease is that deep fryer smell that attaches itself to your clothes (and hair) when you go to a restaurant without good exhaust. We have a few locally. Fabulous food but you stink afterward. Last week my husband made me smell his jacket because he thought it was smelling like grease.

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      • Very familiar with pub grease. In high school I worked at a place like that and always left my coat in my car. Hair had to be washed as soon as my shift was over! Yes, you were very brave to attempt a computer consult. As soon as he has time and we are out of the extreme deep freeze my techie guy will visit my home and figure out why my laptop stopped recognizing my router. Good thing you didn’t have to explain that!

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  7. Speaking of smelly coats, I washed my down coat on Sunday, following all the directions on the inseam. Then I dried it together with some special drier balls. Before I washed it, it smelled just fine. Now it smells bad–ever so faintly, but still, I don’t like it. I wonder if the feathers didn’t like getting wet. I sure don’t want my coat to smell like the coat in your gym.

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    • I’m sure it doesn’t smell like grease. Maybe it just smells a but like geese? Maybe a good airing or a spray down with Fabrese? First, ask someone else because maybe it’s just something you can smell.

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  10. The gym was empty on January 6th? I didn’t think that happened until late February…must have been the fear of bad weather. Ha ha…now you have me thinking what that woman might have been downloading. 🙂

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  11. $20 budget to fix a computer… man, I thought I was cheap! I hope she isn’t doing any financial stuff on it until she gets it fixed (although she doesn’t sound like the type that does online banking anyway).

    Some friends of mine also still have AOL. I had thought it was obsolete too but I guess not.

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