THE MOJO SCRAMBLE

One day, when we were living at the house (not at our second story apartment, fortunately), we heard something we couldn’t identify.  It was as loud as Mojo’s tail-chasing acrobatics - but different.  It sounded more like it does when he finds an open window and claws and scratches his way underneath the blinds and onto window sill.  Oh no!  I had washed the windows and didn’t put the screens back in.  Mojo might run away if he gets outside. 

I ran to the living room and saw Mojo walking away from the window as if to say, “I didn’t really do that.”  That window is eight feet above the ground.  I would love to have seen the stunt - Mojo jumping (or falling) out the window, landing on some unstable iron chairs with latticework seats, getting terrified, then leaping back up to the very high window sill and grabbing on for dear life, dangling from his front claws, feet kicking, until he could scramble back into the house.  How did he negotiate all of that without losing a toe on those lattice chairs?  He’s getting too old for that sort of thing. 

COMPUTER REPAIR

My computer wouldn’t turn on and my son Fred said it needed a new power supply.  He said I could simply take one from an old computer and install it.  Really?  

I happened to have two computers on death row.  Why not give this a try? 

After Fred told me what a power supply looked like (I thought it was a plug in the wall), I removed it from one of the old computers and began installing it in the good computer.  It went well until I got to the last wire, which was TOO SHORT.  I stepped back to scream.  I looked at the computer.  Why hadn’t I noticed?  The computer itself was shorter.  Of course the wire was shorter.

Being pretty wired myself, I snatched the other computer off death row.  I opened it up.  OMG!  It was packed with wires.  It had two of everything.  Perhaps I could plug in half the wires and leave the others hanging?  . . .

Can you believe it?  It worked! 

(Note:  I wrote this story a couple of months before the computer died.)

BLOGGING GETS STRANGE SOMETIMES

Sometimes I have trouble posting blogs because of computer illiteracy.  Mine!

One day I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong on the Blogspot website.  So I did what all computer non-geeks do once they discover that it’s available.  I looked on blogspot.com’s forum.  This is all the help they could give me:

People using Chrome may find that the latest update, installed 7/10/2013, will perform better…People using Internet Explorer V8 are finding themselves between a rock, and a very hard place, this month.

Don’t ya love it?

CROSSWORD PUZZLES

Crossword puzzles do not intimidate me any more.  There was a time when I’d run into the first question about the name of a river in Kenya, or an opera by Mozart, or something, and I’d throw down the newspaper in a rage and mutter, “Who in the world thinks of these ridiculous questions, and why do I care?”

My crossword life changed one day when I conquered one.  I was so proud of myself.  I thought of my dear mother.  I regret this, but the first time I saw my mom working a crossword puzzle, I said to her, “Mom! I didn’t know you did crosswords.   I thought people had to be really smart to do those things.”  If she were alive today she could tell me, “See?  You proved that isn’t true!”

CASUAL CYCLE

My washer has a “Casual” cycle.  I don’t know what’s so casual about doing laundry.  Can a machine agitate clothes casually?  Maybe it’s for washing clothes when I’m feeling casual about it.  Maybe the washing machine wants to be used on “casual day” at the office. 

I’m going to write a letter:

Dear Kenmore,

I am applying for a job as a washing machine.  Can you program me to relax when the “Casual” button is pushed?   Can I get a setting for “Slow Down”?  And I especially want to be programmed for automatic shut-off when the cycle is over.   

I am willing to relocate.  My preference is to be in a calm house.

Casually yours,

Hugh Mouse