Tom's Diary

Dear [Raffle Organizer],

We’ve had problems getting the checking account transferred from Joe to me. The bank had an incorrect address on file for me, which caused some delays. Plus, I can’t easily secure rides to Altoona, and can only get up there when a family member happens to be going up. This created more delays. However, I did get the signature card sent to the Citizens Bank in Pittsburgh this past Thursday. Hopefully, they’ll receive it tomorrow (Monday), and then I will send out the checks to all the winners.

Thanks,
Tom Hesley

[Lex],

All is well here. The DJ gigs keep coming. Have a wedding reception to do in November.

Good luck on getting your Honda running again.

Don’t know when I’ll be in Philly again. There are no immediate plans to visit. But when there are, I’ll let you know.

Take care, and I’ll talk to you later,
Tom Hesley

Good morning, [Kandi].

Things with the new girlfriend [Ballerina] are going well. She drove here on Monday to meet me and says she’s very happy with me. I feel the same about her. We went to Olive Garden for lunch and then came here to the house and I showed her the river that flooded, and the pavilion, where we sat on the swings across from each other. talking for ten minutes. It’s kind of cold here these days so we couldn’t stay there too long.

She’s Romanian and has been living in the US for fourteen years, and is quite beautiful, without wearing any make-up. She’s tall and thin, taking her health seriously. It shows too. She doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, and avoids too much sun. Though she’s forty-six years old, she looks like she’s in her early thirties. I truly believe that age is just a number, meaningless in and of itself, because it’s not how old you are, but rather, how well you’ve lived that determines your attractiveness to others.

I’m going to Pittsburgh on Friday to spend four days with her. Things are moving quickly. I keep pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. In fact, she ended up spending Monday night here because there was lots of rain and fog that she didn’t want to drive back home in. That’s only the second time in my life I spent the night with a lady, the same day of meeting her in person for the first time. But of course, we were talking on the phone and emailing for a month or so prior, so we weren’t total strangers. She trusted me immediately, never once holding me at arm’s length. I suppose that, when it’s right, it’s right, right away. No amount of time can make a wrong relationship into a right one. I’m hopeful that this will take off and that the search for my dream girl is over, at least, for a good, long time, but hopefully, forever.

Flood cleanup continues. We finished repairing the basement floors – filling in those holes and installing new beams for the steps. Now, I’m building a new ramp out back into our tool shed (the old one got washed away). Our furnace and water heater have been replaced and are working well. Some of the power tools, that worked initially after the flood, are starting to go bad. But the ones I really care about can be repaired.

I did two DJ gigs last weekend. One of the computers had problems during the first one (the music disk drive became corrupt for some reason). Fortunately, I had the back-up computer. It was the strangest thing. I have six copies of the music on six different drives. It appears that some drives work well in one computer but not the other, while the others work well in the other computer, but not the one. Don’t know why that is. Not sure if it’s a hardware problem in the computers or in the drives, or both, or neither. So I just have to keep the right drives with each computer, and the problem doesn’t appear. At any rate, no difficulties occurred in the second gig – a sweet-sixteen birthday party this past Sunday.

Getting ready for the wedding reception in November. There are 34,200 songs in the library now.

Just sent in my money for the camp winter retreat. Talked with Chris there the other day. She’s doing well but was getting ready to go into the hospital for some minor surgery. Hopefully, she’s through that now.

Yes, this fall is indeed speeding by. It’s good to hear that you’re enjoying yourself so much over there [in China]. Be sure to take lots of good mental notes because the experiences you have over there, you’ll probably want to tell your grandchildren about. Yep, life changes that way often these days.

Well, best wishes to you for the rest of your time over there. Take care, and keep in touch.

Tom Hesley

Dear [Ann],

I found the school pics [from before they tore most of the buildings down in the late 80s]. There are 22 of them. I’ll have to get my scanner from storage and see if it will work.

Tom

Dear [C],

For the hard drive information. In the Properties window , on the General tab. On my machine, there is an edit box at the top of the window called “Label” This is the volume name of the drive.

Beneath that, there is the word “Type” and to the right of that is the file system type (probably FAT32 in Mike’s case).

Then, under that, there are “Used Space” and “Free Space” labels and to the right of each of those, there is a number. At least, that’s how it is on mine.

Then, about the computer information. In the System Information window, just underneath the place where it says Windows 98, there is additional information that describes the type of CPU and amount of memory. It is possible that Mike’s doesn’t display this, especially if his BIOS is very old. Windows 98 gets this information from the BIOS, but if the BIOS does not advertise the information the way Windows 98 expects, it may not display.

You may want to get someone sighted to look at the screen. It is also possible that JAWS isn’t reading the data in the window for some reason.

Tom

Dear [Ann[,

[My nap] was good.

I got the other beams cut and installed. However, I came up two washers short to complete the project. So tomorrow morning, I’m going to Surplus City to buy them. Then, once they’re installed, the project of sealing those old post holes will be done. Yippie!

Tom Hesley

Dear [Ann],

Aaaah, you got your scanner to work. Did you fix the button on it, or did you figure out how to start the scanner software from the task bar on the computer?

Yes, I’d say, left to right, that the people in the picture you sent are Sherry [...], You, and [C].

Am I right?

Tom

Dear [C],

To find the size of the hard drive, go to Windows Explorer. Go to the Folders pane. Right-click the drive you’re interested in knowing about, and choose Properties from the shortcut menu that comes up. The resulting window tells you the drive statistics, including how big it is, how much free space it has, how much used space it has, and so on.

To find out the computer statistics, including how much main memory it has, go to
Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Information

The Microsoft System Information window appears. The right-hand half of this window tells you about the computer – the memory, type and speed of the CPU, and so on.

Tom Hesley

Dear [Kandi],

So nice to hear from you. It’s good to hear that you’re learning and enjoying yourself so much. And you still have two months left. Hmmmm. By the time you get home, you’ll be quite the scholar.

All is well here. Flood cleanup continues. Looks like the only DJ equipment damaged was a dual CD player and a compressor. Two of the speakers that had been under about six inches of water have since been repaired, and I’ve ordered replacements for the CD player and compressor. My wireless microphone was also swimming. But after it dried out for a couple weeks, it seems to work well again.

I have two gigs this coming weekend – a hose-closing party (a cousin is moving out of her home and wants to have a final blast there before leaving), and a sweet-sixteen party the next day. Then, in early November, there’s another wedding reception. Equipment-wise, everything should be back to normal by then.

Basement repairs are continuing. I’ve done some cementing to seal up several big holes down there in the hopes that the next time we get a flood like the one Ivan dished out, we won’t get nearly as much water there. The furnace and water heater are being replaced this Wednesday, In the meantime, we’ve been using electric heaters to keep warm. Fortunately, our existing water heater still works. But since it was also under water, we’re going the safe route and replacing it, to avoid the possibility that it might fail down the road and cause a fire, explosion, or worse.

I discovered a sweet woman a couple weeks ago. She’s a tall, thin, gorgeous prima ballerina, and we seem to be getting along well so far. She lives in Pittsburgh, and we’re planning on getting together after next weekend’s gigs. She says that she doesn’t mind the fact that I don’t see well, and loves driving, and is actually attracted to men in glasses. It’s a shame that more women aren’t like her in that regard. But then again, that’s what makes her so unique and loving. I’m hopeful that she’s what I’ve been seeking in a lady. But it’s very early to tell that yet. We’ll see.

Well, I’ve got to go and figure out my day. So take care, study hard (but not too hard), and write again when you have a moment.

Later,
Tom Hesley

Dear [Ann],

Yea, ungraded women are so much more attractive than the graded ones. They just know so much more about what they want, and how to please a man.

Mmmmm mmmmm!

Tom