The Latest From the One Duck Pond

The “Minnick Computer Services” business is prospering, the proprietor is pleased to report. Not only that, the business is whelming and not overwhelming. If it were overwhelming, Ol’ Ran wouldn’t be able to keep up with it and would likely have to just go feed the ducks. The business is steady enough to keep me from having to go fishing all the time but not so busy as to force me into hibernation or a trip to Russia. There have been a number of really good solid clients including the Springville Elementary School, the Sequoia Riverlands Trust, Parkview Apartments in Porterville, and a few assorted folks with assorted computer afflictions. The computer guy is getting closely acquainted with just about every inch of every computer ever built.

Add to that, I was able to vend a couple of laptops after having had access to them. One was a nice Compaq and the other a gorgeous Toshiba Satellite P205. Yours truly would have kept the big bad beautiful Toshiba except for the fact that it was running Vista as an operating system. There is no meter large enough to gauge this computer tech’s hatred for Vista. It is an evil foisted upon humanity by egghead geeks who dwell with bats in caves and have fungus growing on their gray matter. So…I sold the bloody thing to an unsuspecting friend who was pleased as punch to get a 900 dollar for almost half price.

And, other blessings are abounding. For instance, we were on our way to lunch in Porterville the other day. There was a yard sale only a few blocks from the restaurant so we knocked it over first. When we pulled up, we saw a computer monitor and a few computer cables. So….I presented my card to the guy there and asked if he had any other computer equipment for sale. Talk about knocked off one’s feet! He brought back a tower, a 400GB hard drive, a handful of PCI NIC cards, a PCI sound card, and various and sundry other chucks of good stuff. I bought the small stuff for ten clams (the 400GB hard drive alone is worth about 100 bucks by itself) then turned to see about the tower. “One dollar”, the guy says! “Works for me!” I heard the computer fixer say!

When the computer was set on the work bench that evening, there was a completely unexpected surprise. This thing had the original 20GB hard drive replaced with a 120GB one!! Then it was determined that there were only couple of things wrong. One was that the optical drives (DVD and CD drives) were jumpered incorrectly (meaning that the BIOS couldn’t see them). Also, the previous owner had attempted to install Windows XP on it but failed to make sure that the file system was FAT32. He used NTFS and this older machine’s BIOS simply cannot detect NTFS. And, if that doesn’t beat all, the box was hording 512MB of RAM! When it was all tidied up and the personalized software was installed, this little box was a screamer and worked flawlessly! It can easily be sold for about 200 bucks. Not bad for a one dollar deal!

A lot of the new business is because of the “Connie and Randy Flyer Hangin’ Company”. They go out and hang flyers all over the local towns and track down business by handing out business cards all over the place. The calls are coming in but it’s evident that someone is going to have to learn Spanish to be able to keep up with the times.

Spring has sprung. It’s blooming time in Springville (who’s spring is now on private property and inaccessible to the public). The orange trees on the back half of Dos Acres need to be harvested. We’ll be good for a couple of bags of juicers but will likely just list the harvest on Yahoo Freecycle and let a few folks come and pick them to their hearts are content. Last year’s oranges were sweeter than candy so we’re wondering just what they will be like this year.

Farmer Ran mounted the genuine Sears LT1000 lawn tractor the other day and finally cleared away the jungle. A couple of difugalties managed to block progress for awhile and the grass took off on a growing spree. One was that the trusty but dusty tractor had the unmitigated gall to toss its ground drive belt. That isn’t a biggy since you only have to remove four bolts from the rear hitch plate then reach inside and remount the belt. Then, the tractor evidenced its hatred for work by breaking the mower belt. If the blades can’t spin, the will be no mowing happening that day. Farmer Ran had to detach the mower section from the tractor itself. That was a first. Then, it took a few days to get back down to Hooterville and retrieve a belt from the local Sears store. That was sufficient delay to allow for a new forest.

After getting the new belt, the good farmer dutifully crawled about the tractor and replaced it the next day (making sure that there was no lack of skin to driveway contact). However, when the mower dude started the tractor up and took it for a test drive, he was engulfed in a cloud of dense blue grey smoke. There was no need that day for a BBQ’d tractor so it was parked in silence while the driver listened to the grass grow taller.

Within a couple of days of ponderating (sort of like pondering but with greater intensity) the intrepid tractor driver (well…semi-trepid tractor driver) hoisted up enough gumption to approach the work resistant 17.5 HP mechanical troll. After close and careful inspection and consideration, it appeared that a hitch pin was probably not doing its job (don’t you just hate lazy things?) and had migrated from its intended position (now, who could have been responsible for that?). The problem lay in that the idler/tension pulley wasn’t moving far enough back when engaging the mower. This allowed the belt to come in contact with the pulley bracket which then created great clouds of smoke. This in turn alerted the good folks around us that their neighbor was in violation of a “no burn day”.

Anyway, after dropping the mower section, restringing the v-belt, readjusting the cable, and re-securing the hitch pin, the mower section was again attached to the tractor (which is sort of like trying to pin a diaper on an elephant). With glee only muted by physical exhaustion, the good driver commenced his hay mowing project post haste. In only a couple of hours the place actually looked like someone other than the Adams family lived there.