So when we got back to Cow Bay two days ago the truck wouldn’t start. Eventually I ended up having it towed to the Ford dealer in Duncan. They informed me that the computer needed to be reflashed but, not to worry, I would get more reliable starts and better fuel mileage. I didn’t really have much choice in the matter so they reflashed it, got it running and we have it back. There’s a minor problem that has appeared since the reflash – we can no longer open the back doors. Its not a huge problem – there’s four doors after all and we still have the use of the front doors. Crawling into the back seat will be a bit awkward for guests but fortunately we don’t do that too often so it should be manageable.
The only part of that paragraph which is 100% true is the first sentence. I had put one of those solar battery tenders on it before we left and clearly it did precisely nothing, except perhaps help to drain the batteries. One call to roadside assistance, a few minutes hooked up for an electron transfusion and all was good again. However, the story does have a point – we had exactly that experience with our all-in-one nav computer. So substitute “Microsoft” for “Ford”, “upgrade” for “reflash” and “touchscreen stopped working” for “can’t open the rear doors”.
Most of us can no longer live without Microsoft but they sure don’t make that relationship easy. Windows had been whining plaintively about not being able to phone home pretty well ever since we left for Alaska. So when we got home and hooked up to the dockside wifi I thought “What the hell, what harm can it do?” It downloaded some bizarre (obscene) size of a file, “upgraded” itself and appeared to be working fine. Then last night when we had company onboard and Marilyn wanted to show them our trip path we discovered that we no longer had a functioning touchscreen. I have now wasted the last 3 hours trying to figure out what Messysloth broke with their so-called upgrade and I’m still not sure I’ve solved the problem because it takes a while to appear.
And on a semi-related subject (idiots who mess with our lives) – we went to the yacht club yesterday morning for a work bee. Adrian always has an excellent lunch laid on after the morning’s work. Over lunch we were visiting with a couple of the folks we had been doing yard work with. Some wag had registered Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper on the worker sign-in sheet which brought up the subject of Stephen Harper at which point one of our lunch companions voiced her opinion that she “sure hoped he wouldn’t get elected again.” I just zip my lip at those junctures but our other lunch companion said something to the effect that he didn’t really like Harper but he disliked the alternatives even more. At that point it became abundantly clear that the complaining woman didn’t even know who the alternatives were. I got up and left but as she repeated her desire to not see Harper re-elected I couldn’t resist telling her to prepare to be disappointed.
I understand it has been raining a lot in SE Saskatchewan. Maybe it will get that over with before we get back there. You’d think that the sky would eventually be empty.
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