The_Doc_Man is off for a while

[The_Doc_Man]

Jefferson Parish pays for the tree removal, so that 5-digit number does not include the tree itself. The sidewalk is my responsibility based on current laws. But the driveway that was damaged by roots would always have been my problem, and since we have had some subsidence, part of the secondary driveway has collapsed. Now that the kids are out of the house, we don't use that driveway for anything but loading and unloading, but it is still a mess waiting to give us more trouble.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Where I live the sidewalk and parkway are owned by the city. The parkway is usually maintained by the homeowner, watering, grasscutting etc.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

AB, I envy that you get sidewalk maintenance. However, for Jefferson Parish, LA, USA - the trees are owned by the parish even though my wife and her first husband planted them 40 years ago. The sidewalk is mine even though I am legally required to maintain it. We are responsible for keeping the grass cut in our right-of-way (some folks call that the "easement" which is a legal term.) But grass cutting is no biggie.

 

[Pat Hartman]

@The_Doc_Man have you ever investigated any software that can port installed software? I need a new system and I am so dreading it I keep putting it off. Copying data is trivial. It is all the software that I have to find the disks or downloads for as well as the license keys that are the issue. On top of the software installation problem is the Gorilla in the room that is Win 11. I tried to use it when helping a client. What a royal PITA. Why, why, why does MS change stuff that works?

I'm also having a problem finding a box with a DVR drive. I'm not ready to give up my CD's yet.

I've been using Carbonite for at least 15 years. Very reasonably priced and it's saved my bacon more than once. I also use a local backup drive that backs up everything. The one time I lost a HD, I opted to download all the files from Carbonite. Bad idea. It took 5 days. If I ever have to do that again, I'll pay for the HD and have them send it overnight. Carbonite turned out to be a convenient way to get files when I was out at a client site and needed something I didn't have with me.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Unfortunately, no. The problem isn't the game files, it is what goes into the registry to point to the game files. What I have done before, and what I intend to do again, is re-install from original DVR media OR (for some games) reinstall from original vendor download. STEAM games do that, for example. I take a full backup of about a dozen folders, none of which are system, system32, or program files from the "Owner" or "SYSTEM" users. Then I have backups of the "save" sub-folders if there is a game in progress that I want to save. STEAM will also save game progress for some games. My writing, ancestry, tax, and e-mail folders also get backed up. Then at some point I start the process on, essentially, a virgin system.

The "box with a DVR" I solved another way. Best Buy had a very good chassis that included a 1TB SSD, but I don't fully trust those. So I bought the unit and took it to Geek Squad to install a 2TB HDD and a new DVR. Yes, I could have done the installs myself, but my knuckles get cut too easily these days due to aging, thin skin. Plus doing it that way plus my membership with Best Buy means I have a warranty on what they assembled for me. Besides which, with the tree and concrete problems and my wife's recent foot surgery, I'm juggling too many plates at once anyway.

 

[Steve R.]

@The_Doc_Man have you ever investigated any software that can port installed software?

Pardon my interjection. Though, I don't know of any software that can port installed software there is software designed to operate on multiple operating systems. That implies that a solution can be achieved by using this type of software. With this approach, copying data is not a problem. Of course, I don't know the full nature of your concern so my suggestion may be naive and not practical.

On top of the software installation problem is the Gorilla in the room that is Win 11. I tried to use it when helping a client. What a royal PITA. Why, why, why does MS change stuff that works?

If the client is committed to Win 11, then a Win 11 solution is somewhat mandatory. Nevertheless, are there clients that have a degree of flexibility and therefore don't need to use Win 11?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

In my case, because I'm getting a new Windows box, I'll get new Windows - which is Win11. Past a certain point, the stores won't sell you older O/S kits. The licenses for those kits won't be good if you attempt to connect to certain Microsoft sites, particularly gaming sites.

 

[Pat Hartman]

@Steve R. I'm using Win 10. I am simply dreading the switch to Win 11 which will come with a new computer. They changed the right click menu so that copy and send to which are the two options I use ALL the time are MIA. You need to click on other or something to bring up another list. It is such a little thing but it is little stuff like this that drives me crazy. I also couldn't find the option to turn on extensions. I'm sure it's there somewhere. Why anyone actually wants this off is beyond me. I guess it makes Windows explorer more "mac like". So I just have to write to MS again and remind them that if I wanted a mac, I would buy a mac and they should stop trying to make Windows more "mac like".

The question about the copy installed software is pure laziness. It is such a hassle to identify all the software I have and locate the downloads or disks AND find the keys too. Then spend two days doing installs.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Last time I had to do this, about five years ago, I did it twice (because my first SSD died). With my games to be installed, took me closer to 4 days to get it all right.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I now have the new PC hooked up to the Internet with my antivirus loaded and with Firefox loaded. I reloaded all of my critical files that I had backed up on a USB thumb drive. I also have reloaded Office 2021/32-bit. Next will be to reconnect to my mail files.

It wasn't that expensive because I was able to use my old display. It is actually cheaper in dollar value than the machine it is replacing despite the higher performance stats. Perhaps because the old machine was from 2008 - and the original system lasted until 2019 before the disk bit the big one. But a total of 16 years with only one disk replacement. This is an off brand but it has 32 GB RAM, Intel i7-14700, and an NVIDIA GEFORCE 4060 graphics card. I think it is an ASUS motherboard. Plus 1 TB SSD and 2 TB HDD, and an external DVR/W drive. No sound yet, but I'm working on that one. For now I can use headphones.

The only thing left after this will be to load my games. I've probably lost the game history for good - except for anything that was on STEAM. I'll be working on that aspect of things for the next few days. Thanks for your earlier concerns, folks. I'll be more active now that I'm not so worried about a machine that is ready to tank on me.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Stepping back into this one more time with an anecdote/tip regarding Office in general.

For my new machine, which is now pretty much up fully, the problem of getting the Outlook data files (file type .PST) was a pain in the toches because I had kept the files in a different place than the "standard" file location. I had to go through a bunch of gyrations to reconnect to those files. When Outlook came up it insisted that I create a new account. So I gave it my old account name. I had to supply the originally randomly generated 16-character password used by AT&T's servers. Which, fortunately, I still had. Then, once it came up, I had to manually add the data files one at a time. After that, I had to delete the newly created file that was the main account .PST file, because I was supplying the old one. Outlook balked because it was updating that file at the time. The whole ordeal to about 2 hours to install Office 2021 (LTSC version).

My dear wife, however, needed to upgrade her Office 2010 to Office 2019 because of a little volunteer side job she has. She kept her Outlook files in the default location (she's not on an SSD so wasn't quite as paranoid as I now am). When I installed Office and keyed in the product key, ALL of the utilities came up clean. But then, when she launched Outlook, it saw the .PST files in the default location and just connected to them cleanly. For her, the whole installation took maybe 20 minutes. The Outlook file setup took seconds. Didn't even need the passwords.

For those who weren't sure, the default is C:\Users\your-local-user-name\Documents\Outlook Files\*.PST and if you have more than one account (which she did), it picks them up all at once, smooth as silk.

 

[AccessBlaster]

What a drag, I am so glad to be done with Outlook and most office products in general. When I was employed by the school district our email system was Outlook stored on district servers. The district was obligated to archive and maintain emails for x amount of years for legal reasons. This became a full time job for IT to maintain and archive this portion of their business. When they ditched Outlook for a Google corporate account that was a halleluiah moment. The reliability and useability improved significantly. Most people were somewhat familiar with Google and it's products, almost nobody knew the innerworkings of Outlook.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

One more little speed bump in the road. I was getting ready for my concrete guy to come fix our sidewalk and driveway. We had set up for to happen today. However, Hurricane Francine had other ideas and is now passing through. I can hear some gusting winds outside, but we were lucky this time. Francine found a patch of dry air that screwed up some of her circulation so while she made it to category 2, it was a close call to get there AND her wind wall isn't huge. PLUS the rain that is coming down isn't extreme. Yes, we've got some falling water, but in our area, no more than minor street flooding.

I will get my sidewalk done. I WILL get my sidewalk done. I WILL, I WILL, I WILL get my sidewalk done. (To be said with the cadence used by Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz".)

 

[The_Doc_Man]

And... minor street flooding has become just a little bit worse. The street is above-the-ankles deep in water as some of our drainage canals have flowed over the tops. I don't THINK my floor upholstery is wet, but it is probably very close to it. The water isn't deep enough to hurt the car engine. (I've been through a couple of dozen hurricanes so feel confident in that particular call.) On the other hand, our garage has maybe a couple of inches of water in it. We'll have to clean out and throw out a few things that are on the floor. Oh, well, could be worse.

Francine's winds were not terribly bad, but she wet us all down pretty seriously. The pumps are still working but the rain was for a while falling faster than the pumps could handle. Now they are playing catch-up. I will probably have a considerable amount of debris to remove from the yard when it clears out tomorrow - which it will do. Local radar already shows the southern edge of the cluster of rain showers has moved to the edge of the lake that is north of us. We still have some winds but the rain is moving out. The forecast is that Francine is taking the Mississippi River tour, following it up towards southern Illinois. Hope you Yankees need the rain, 'cause you're gonna get it whether you needed it or not.

 

[Cotswold]

And... minor street flooding has become just a little bit worse. The street is above-the-ankles deep in water as some of our drainage canals have flowed over the tops. I don't THINK my floor upholstery is wet, but it is probably very close to it. The water isn't deep enough to hurt the car engine. (I've been through a couple of dozen hurricanes so feel confident in that particular call.) On the other hand, our garage has maybe a couple of inches of water in it. We'll have to clean out and throw out a few things that are on the floor. Oh, well, could be worse.

Francine's winds were not terribly bad, but she wet us all down pretty seriously. The pumps are still working but the rain was for a while falling faster than the pumps could handle. Now they are playing catch-up. I will probably have a considerable amount of debris to remove from the yard when it clears out tomorrow - which it will do. Local radar already shows the southern edge of the cluster of rain showers has moved to the edge of the lake that is north of us. We still have some winds but the rain is moving out. The forecast is that Francine is taking the Mississippi River tour, following it up towards southern Illinois. Hope you Yankees need the rain, 'cause you're gonna get it whether you needed it or not.

Although I now live maybe 30 miles from the sea and five miles from a river, I did live by the sea for most of my life. By the time I was buying houses I knew where it flooded and where it didn't. In fact when we moved down here, avoiding being flooded was important to me. I have to say I'd never buy a house where it could flood, even though the views for a couple of months would be better. I see on the TV whole towns destroyed by flames when the surrounding forests catches fire. I simply cannot believe that anyone would live there. Not only that, any possibility of a view is removed by the trees .

I am just amazed how you are so patient and have the matter of fact acceptance with water in your house and garage. For myself and as in all things medical I seek a solution to the cause and not simply treating the symptoms that the doctor tries to get away with. Personally, I'd have moved years ago. Or probably never gone there in the first place. I am just totally amazed at your stoic acceptance of the various hurricanes and flooding.

I can just imagine you getting up in the morning, finding the roof blown off and then casually making breakfast before going out and dragging it back from wherever it landed, then nailing it back on!

 

[DickyP]

We have three Lime trees behind our property which are a nuisance because of their droppings, the fact they are diseased, and block out the light! They aren't mine but I'd be delighted to pay to get them removed, however, in UK we have these delightful things called Tree Preservation Orders! There is, in reality if not in theory, no way of challenging these orders and these Lime trees are all subjects to such orders.

Local authority logic when asked was "they aren't a danger as they haven't fallen down" - somewhat twisted logic as they are only a danger UNTIL they've fallen down. The real text of the reply to my request is "we don't have to justify doing nothing therefor we won't bother to do anything".

 

[The_Doc_Man]

@Cotswold - I am not necessarily happy about water to the house, but only our garage got a little bit. So, we turn on the fans and open up the garage door to air everything out and later, any paper on the floor gets picked up and tossed in the trash. Then I go pick up fallen branches. The biggest one I've seen this morning looks to be about the thickness of my wrist at its widest part. I've cleaned up worse.

Your other comments are worthy of a simple response. The only places where there are NO disasters these days are either overcrowded or so hot that neither my wife nor I could tolerate the area. Plus they are so distant from the rest of our families as to be pretty much isolated socially.

Should I live in the northeast or in fact anywhere in the norther tier of the USA? Not a fan of butt-deep snow. What about USA's southwest? With days of 120+ degree heat, that's not attractive. The Pacific states? Between forest fires and earthquakes, no thank you. OK, what about the central plains? Oh, did you mean Tornado Alley? That doesn't seem right either.

Basically you live where you live because you DO get used to its quirks and you DO tolerate its risks. This morning, the aftermath of Hurricane Francine is that I have a lot of fallen branches to pick up and drag to where I can work on them. The dragging will occur today after I have digested my breakfast. But with standing water, I want it to dry out another day before I pull out the old electric chain saw.

I am patient because having personally lived through hurricanes Betsy, Camille, Isaac, Katrina, and Ida plus a bunch of other less memorable storms, I know that my house was prepared for worse than we got. It is the nature of the human beast to be resilient in the face of hardship.

 

[Cotswold]

By an amazing coincidence. On the news today there was a report from New Orleans.
Apparently, the driver of a Peterbilt, or similar tractor, decided to see if it would float.
It didn't and he had to be rescued by a fireman. Which was a surprise, as you'd think that a waterman would have done that job.

 

[AccessBlaster]

@The_Doc_Man sorry to hear you've been battered again. It sounds like family and friends will be okay, almost everything else is replaceable.

 

[Isaac]

Hope you Yankees need the rain, 'cause you're gonna get it whether you needed it or not.

Send a little water westward!