. I'm so thrilled. I did something I'm really not good at....
A few weeks ago, I reluctantly upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Windows 11 is a free software upgrade that's been available for over a year now, but I stalled and stalled because I was perfectly happy with how my computer was operating and my experience has been that when they want you to "upgrade," it can usually end up costing you. And that was right in this case.
I finally upgraded becus they started sending messages that they would no longer support Windows 10 with security updates. So as you may recall from earlier posts, I had a problem with all of my photos being "lost" and not showing up, until I discovered them all in my Recycle Bin. While I was mulling over resaving them to the hard drive or cloud, one by one, they magically reappeared in my photo folders. For which I was eternally grateful.
But a week ago, I noticed a new popup message in Windows Security teling me it could not turn on Memory Integrity (core isolation) which is aparently very important, because I had 2 IBM Rapport drivers that were incompatible and might need to be updated.
All this computer talk is like a foreign language to me, but I guess I've picked up little bits of info during the past 40 years of work when various things like arose and our tech person would deal with it. I always liked to watch and ask questions.
Anyway, I searched for a way to update the 2 drivers, got on the IBM Trusteer website and read about the updates but couldn't find where to download the updates! It was driving me mad. I finally caved and had decided to bring the computer in to a local computer repair shop where they wanted over $100 and up to 3 days' time just to diagnose the problem.
This morning I decided to give it one more shot to see if I could figure things out myself. I found it pretty quickly this time (I think the key word I omitted in my prior searches was teh word "download." Bingo. The warning message is gone and I do indeed see that my core isolation is now protected.
I'm amazed. And thrilled. As much by avoiding the need to do without my desktop for 3 days as having the spend the $$.
I had been keeping my computer shut off for the past few days, until I could bring it to the repair place, out of an abundance of caution since your computer cannot be hacked if it's not connected to the Internet. Believe me that was hard!
Well, it's the end of an era. Or at least, something I enjoyed for the past 2 years, serving on the board of a statewide nonprofit dedicated to organizing litter cleanups. I submitted my resignation, effective immediately, yesterday. Due totally to a complete lack of activity and the willingness of no one (myself included) to serve as chair. We only had 5 board members. It was a lot of work and not enough people to pitch in and help. The bulk of the work usually fell on the chairman.
I always felt that having a statewide focus was biting off way more than we could chew, but that's how others (no longer with the group) wanted it to be. I just feel my time will be spent more productively by joining various other cleanups by other groups and also organizing cleanups in my hometown. I've done 2 "flash" cleanups here in town but got just a few people. I'm having another one today; if I continue to get next to no participation (despite getting tremendous support on the town FB page), I may just drop it. I do worry about liability issues, and let's face it: picking up litter on the side of the road is not a low-risk activity.
Now in the statewide group I just resigned from, they had written waivers at a sign-in table we had every volunteer sign, but that is not 100% guaranteed to stand up in court should we ever have gotten sued by someone hit by a car or something.
That's why today's cleanup is on a road that leads to one place, our town transfer station, and since it's closed on Sundays, there should be no traffic there. The last 2 cleanups I did were at an Interstate rest stop/park-and-ride that always seems to attract heavy litter.
So I designed a cute logo and name for the litter group and we'll see what happens. Worst case, I'll clean up litter myself for 1.5 hours in somewhat chilly weather.
Curious visitor...
In other news, the HVAC guys returned with a replacement firebox for my oil furnace and this time, it worked like a dream. He even said it was probably the easiest firebox replacement he's ever done. On top of that, they billed me in the middle (not the top) of the price range estimate he'd given me. I was afraid they'd bill even MORE for having to come twice to attempt the replacement install, even though it wasn't my fault that the supplier gave them a part that didn't fit.
November 16th, 2025 at 07:33 pm 1763321583
November 16th, 2025 at 09:19 pm 1763327991
I learned early in retirement that I am not suited for volunteer work. I need someone to be in charge and people to step up and do what they committed to do. Volunteering seemed to involve a lot of people with opinions on what should be done and few with the skills or motivation to actually make it happen! You are good t keep looking for ways to help.
November 17th, 2025 at 07:21 am 1763364099
November 17th, 2025 at 01:12 pm 1763385147
I like the photo of your visitor!
November 17th, 2025 at 02:28 pm 1763389733
However, that is no longer the case as apparently, my otherwise highly capable PC hardware is now missing something critical that is needed for said upgrade? (TPM 2.0 in the firmware or some such.) Despite that, I still managed to upgrade for some reason. In any case, I am definitely wanting to migrate, I just haven’t done so yet.
Also, what is the story with this deer? If one is willing to get that close to be photographic, I have wonder and even worry if that one is a bit too receptive to humans? For both their safety and ours (and our vehicles), they should learn to run and stay away from us humans.
November 17th, 2025 at 02:36 pm 1763390175
Similar to Windows prodding users to upgrade to Windows 11, my Internet provider does the same thing, finally pushing me to upgrade to fiber optic from broadband, which worked fine. I see no real improvement with fiber optic although I don't use my computer for streaming or gaming so maybe any improvements are less obvious. The main difference is I'm paying more.