I am writing this on Thursday, June 5. There are no pics this week.

We’re leaving on our visit to the UK Saturday evening. I published our itinerary earlier, and am repeating it at the bottom of this post. If you are interested in contacting us while we are in the UK, here are some things to know. The best way to contact us is to send an email to deichenlaub@gmail.com. I plan to get a UK SIM card with a data plan. I should receive the Email on my phone so long as we have a cell phone signal. This should be everywhere except perhaps a few hours while hiking in Windermere. If you feel the need to call, it is best to call my Google number (410-417-8854). Google will send me an Email. I can play the voice mail from that Email. Danita’s phone does not work in the UK. We will have only my cell phone and Danita’s iPad. I hear that public Wi-Fi is not very good in the UK, so our web access will likely be limited. I won’t be posting much while we are there, because I don’t know how to move pictures from my phone to the web without a computer.

As you might have guessed, my computer, a Lenovo Think Pad, is still not working. The problem is the fan, so I thought it would be relatively easy to get it fixed. I took it to one shop. They said they could fix it, but then they said they couldn’t find any new fans. I took it to a second shop that specializes in fixing Lenovo Think Pads. They ordered the fan, only to find out that the supplier’s web site said they had 200 fans in stock, but actually they didn’t have any. Fans are available only from Lenovo, and they cost $500. I wish I had bought the 3-year service contract. My fan died after 2 years, 11 months. I could have had one of those fans for free. I started a serious search for a replacement computer. There are some very nice computers available these days that aren’t made by Lenovo, but they are quite expensive. (50% more than what I paid 3 years ago for my Lenovo, or more.) I finally settled on an HP Split X2. The entire computer is in the display part, which can be separated from the keyboard and used as a touch-screen tablet. The unit sold in the stores does not meet my requirements. But by ordering directly from HP, with the right options, I was able to get quite a nice computer at a reasonable cost. (I upgraded to a dual-band Wi-Fi, the better screen, and included a 500 GB rotating disk drive in the keyboard section.)  This time I bought the 3-year service contract. That probably means my computer will die in 3 years, 1 month. Because it’s special order, it should ship about the same time we get back from vacation.

Two of the places we enjoy eating Sunday breakfast are Bob Evans and Mimi’s. They both issue plenty of coupons, most of which exclude Sundays or breakfast. That’s understandable, because Sunday is their busiest breakfast. But lately, they’ve been having breakfast BOGO battles. We have so many BOGOs we’re having trouble using them all before they expire. We were kind of keeping up, using a Bob Evans BOGO last Sunday. Then we got a BOGO for Mimi’s. That’s bad news, because we’ll be in the UK Sunday. Fortunately, we just happened to run out of breakfast food, so we’ll have to go out for breakfast Saturday. I’m thinking we’ll be using our Mimi’s breakfast BOGO.

It was a busy week. Last Sunday we had the last our last BSO concert. They offered a performance of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The BSO was there to play Mendelssohn’s incidental music. I’ve seen the play and I’ve heard the music. I was skeptical, but it turned out to be a delightful performance. I couldn’t understand everything the actors said and could understand very little of what was sung, but knowing the plot was very helpful. I never realized how brilliant Mendelssohn’s music was until now.

My work at Habitat is lurching on in it’s normal way. I’ve been working for two years to get all their ReStores networked to their main server. They will have FIOS internet installed in their main office Tuesday. This is a key event that allows their IT support company to do a major piece of the project while we are in the UK. That’s very good news, but I recently realized that while all their computers are updated and ready, their Columbia store never connected to their local network correctly. It’s a long story, but the result is that the Columbia store could not be connected to the new network. Fortunately, I was able to get that squared away this week.Then, at the last minute, the office manager sent an Email saying she wanted to check with the CFO to make sure they will proceed as planned. To put it very politely, my feelings were “My, oh my”.

Three years ago, our clubhouse office purchased an inexpensive inkjet “all in one” printer to be their fax / scanner / backup printer. Besides the high cost of ink, this printer was not built to stand up to the heavy usage they give it. They asked me to recommend a replacement printer. I suggested a specific model of an HP color laser all in one. The board approved it and one of the ladies ordered it. Unfortunately, she ordered a completely different printer sold by Dell. This thing has some of the worst drivers I’ve ever seen. After 3 hours of work, the scanner still wasn’t working. I finally called Dell. At least she took our recommendation and bought the 3-year service contract. If she hadn’t bought that, Dell wouldn’t have helped and scanner still wouldn’t be working. Everything was squared away by yesterday afternoon.

Our deck is coming along. The contractor started laying the floor yesterday. He will be done with the floor today or tomorrow. That will end this phase of the project. The support column and beams were trimmed with white boards. This was the source of the problems, because the trim held water from the rain and the support beams became saturated with water. We decided to split the work into two parts. After the floor is done, we will let the support beams stay open to the air for a while to dry out. Then we will put up new trim using white vinyl boards. The next slot the contractor has available is in August, which will give plenty of time for the lumber to dry out.

Danita’s been spending time polishing our UK itinerary. She found more hiking options for us in Windermere and has been reviewing things we might want to see in Edinburgh. We will have very long days for the next two weeks. London is as far north as Newfoundland. We’ll be there for the summer solstice. We will have about 17 hours of daylight each day. “Daylight” is not the same as “sunshine”. The forecast is calling for plenty of rain, which I suppose is normal for that part of the world. When I purchased train tickets to go from London to Bletchey Park, I picked up a BOGO. If one prints out the coupon and shows their train ticket, they get a free admission. Danita found out this is common throughout the UK. It won’t help us in London (because we are arriving in London by plane). And it won’t help in Windermere (the admission to the hiking trails, when converted to US dollars, is approximately — nothing). But it is quite useful in Bletchley Park, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Edinburgh. Purchasing tickets ahead, traveling mid-day, and printing coupons before we leave, we will save quite a bit.  We were able to get all our train tickets for £15 or less, which is a good deal. The BOGOs turn a good deal into an amazing bargin.

That’s all the news. I hope this finds everybody doing well. Here’s our itinerary. (“BA” is British Air.)