I uploaded a picture of a flower from the garden at the hospital. Alice said that David Cavennarro and Asiline planted and maintained that garden. David is an expert gardener and photographer. His pictures have been in magazines like "Mother Earth News". Asiline is a barista at Bookends and Beans. They did a great job with the garden.
I'm sorry that I haven't been posting many blogs, lately. I've been busy with sick computers. I now have 4 that are ready to be given away. I'll go see Joan Nelson at the Community Action center, Monday. She wasn't there today. I think she'll know poor, deserving, people I can give my laptops to. I only know of a couple of people who need a laptop. Jenelle and Blackie are the only ones I can think of. Jenelle might be able to simply buy one. I saw her drive a new pickup. Blackie might have troubles with transportation. He drives a motorcycle. He lives about 30 miles away so it might be a problem. I was surprised to be able to get so many working.
I'm spending too much on that hobby. I figure that I'm spending between $100 and $200 a month on old laptops. I could be investing that money in bonds. I might take up reading magazines online to use up my time, rather than messing around with old laptops. At least, I could cut back my laptop repair to one or two machines a month.
I went to the Democrat fund-raiser, last night. For an off-year, and heavy rains, it was well attended. I had to wear a jacket because of the cold. For this time of year, that is surprising.
On the disability topic, I think I'll discuss poverty and disability. They go hand-in-hand. Social Security and any other type of disability isn't intended to provide for you in a comfortable fashion. It's meant to keep you poor. Get used to it. It's not bad once you accept that you'll always be poor. You get used to not spending much money. Eating out is out. You'll find yourself watching where every cent goes. If you are poor enough, you'll be eligible for a lot of financial assistance. There are things such as heating assistance, food stamps, rental assistance, and food pantries. They make a big difference.
One thing you'll find, is that, as you get more money, your assistance programs will diminish. It's almost at though someone wants to keep you poor. The more you make the more will come out of your pocket. The only thing to do is to take charge of your finances by reducing your spending. Cook your own food. Forget movies. Curtail your coffee drinking at coffee shops. Try to move to a place where you won't have to drive. You might get rid of the car and just walk or ride the bicycle. My car is my biggest expense. I figure that I'm spending over $100 a month for just the gasoline. Insurance is another $25, and I don't even know what I'm likely to spend in repairs and maintenance.
I'm trying to get an apartment in the downtown area. That's my last big expense.
Well, I have to leave now. The conversation at Java John's is getting involving.

I uploaded another picture of the garden at the hospital.
Well, I'm still struggling with getting the laptop that Nick gave me to work. I added more memory and then it wouldn't load anything. I ran a memory test that came up with a bunch of errors. After considerable messing around, I found that the memory sticks had to be installed in a certain way. After getting that straightened out, I found that most of the programs loaded.
The problem was that they didn't see the sound card and most of them didn't set up the video card right.
I found a program that does everything right in the "live" mode. That means that it runs the system from the cd player. The idea is that if everything runs in the "live" mode, you click on install and load the system. I tried it and it didn't mount the program on the hard drive. If I can get it to load on the drive, I'm all set. Maybe a latter version will be the answer.
I bought another Gateway 9300 on Ebay today. I paid $40 with the shipping included. I figured that I could use some parts off of the scrapped 9300 to get one going.
I probably blew it. I've been trying to get away from such old and slow machines.
I also bought another 22 Delphi bonds. Somehow there was $50 in my Etrade account so I bought some more Delphi. They are supposed to come out of bankruptcy in September. Good things could happen to their bonds if they do.
Later

I uploaded a picture of the garden at the hospital.
I'm sorry that I didn't publish a blog, yesterday. I just wasn't inspired to.
Today I want to write some more on disability. I've been running out of things to say, so I'll revisit some of the topics I've already covered.
Today I want to go over disability for veterans. There are two kinds of disability that a veteran may be eligible for.
The first and most common is for service-related disability. That means it is for something that happened while you were serving.
It is awarded on aI sliding scale. I think it goes from 10% to 100%. The pay for 10% is rather low. I don't think it would go over $100/month. For 100%, the last I heard it was at $2200/month. Of course, you would have to be laid up rather severely to rate 100%. You would probably have to be blind or missing limbs.
The advantage to this disability is that you can go to college for free if you are on it. 100% of the tuition would be paid for 4 years. You also get a stipend whilst going to school.
I've known people who were in pretty good shape, who had their college paid for by this disability.
The other disability, one that is usually forgotten, is the war pension. This is a disability pension that is paid if the person served during time of war.
Your disability doesn't have to be service-connected. You can become disabled after you left the service. I'll try to remember the requirements for this.
1. An honorable discharge.
2. Serve during a war
3. Be 100% disabled, but they are rather liberal on this
4. Have a low income
5. Have 6 months of active duty
6. I always forget the sixth requirement, I might be able to look it up, later.
It's rather low paying and there is only one amount that you can get. I think it's around $950/month.
If you get another job, you have to deduct that income from this pay. It discourages a person form working.
There is no college benefit.
If you are thinking about either of these disabilities you'll have to go through the VA hospital. That's a good thing because you can get free health care if your income is low enough. It's better than nothing. I get a physical once a year and I go to the psychologist 3 or 4 times a year. I get my medications from the VA and that is probably saving me thousands. It's a good thing.
Later

More computer troubles

I took some pictures and a video of some deer across the street from my home. It was 6:30 in the morning and the fog hadn't burned off yet. It was a bit dark so I'm sorry that they don't show up very well. When I move I'll miss the deer.
Well, I bumped into Brian at Java John's this morning. His computer was down. The ac adapter is bad. It has an intermittent problem. When I tap on it, it comes on and off. I confirmed the problem by trying it with Alice's computer. The problem went with the ac adapter.
Alice's computer had problems as well. The keyboard quit working. It turned out that Windows 2000 was bad. I reloaded it and it works.
Now I have to see Brian about buying another ac adapter. We'll probably get one on Ebay.
Anyway, it's hot and I'm staying at Bookends to keep out of the heat. I'll probably have to mow the damned lawn tonight.
Later
I was just attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets. I was mowing the lawn and I went over their hive, which is in an old railroad tie, that's used for landscaping. I was bit 4 or 5 times. They pursued me right into the house. Oh, the joys of homeownership. I can't wait to get my apartment.
I poured gasoline into their nest. Nick told me that there is something at Wal-Mart to spray into their nest. I'll try that tomorrow. I just hope that I'll be able to sleep, tonight. I'll take a couple of aspirin for the pain, tonight.
I'll keep you posted, tomorrow.

More computer troubles

I called Faye, today. She told me that I can get a hold of her through Face book. I tried and found a lot of Fayes. She didn't have her picture posted. I had to register with Facebook in order to do a good search. I never did find her. I'll have to tell her to put up her picture so that people will know where to go. I don't think I prefer Facebook to a blog, anyway.
Alice's computer is messed up. The hard drive is running and running for no reason. It might have something to do with her CMOS memory battery. I'm going to change that, tomorrow. It might have something to do with the virus attack that happened today. Wall Street was pretty much shut down for a while. Maybe I should load Linux on her machine. We'll see.
My desktop had the hard drive running a lot for no discernible reason for a while. I had it in Windows mode because I was downloading pictures from my camera. I haven't been able to get my camera to work with Linux. Maybe it had something to do with updates. Maybe it was a virus attack. I don't know.
Dave W. was having troubles with his Thinkpad at to co-op. I told him to use Linksys as his server here. The co-op's server is too limiting. I can't even get email using it. Linksys has no problems.
I'm using a computer that has no pictures on it. I might load one, later.
I'm getting another old Gateway from Nick, tomorrow. He said that it's a 9100. I looked up that number on Ebay, last night. The only thing that I could have used off of it was the ac adapter and I bought one, yesterday. I was interested to find out that it runs at 600 megherz. That is as fast as my 9300s. If it is a 9100, it will be a good machine to give to somebody.
I loaded a picture of some flowers at the hospital. They have a nice garden, there. They had both vegetables, and flowers.

This is a picture of Brian, getting his new, old laptop at the Co-op.
I gave him an old Thinkpad a couple of days ago. That was my last Thinkpad. I think I'll quit working on them because I couldn't get the sound working right with Linux. Microsoft quit supporting it's older operating systems, so you can't update anything older than XP. This makes it hard to work on them. Linux is the normal answer. I think I'll just get some newer Thinkpads. Maybe model a31s and newer. They'll be fast enough for the video and sound to work right.
I've been working on old Gateway 9300's lately. I had to scrap out 2 of them. One had a dead processor and the other wouldn't see it's cd drive. Now I don't have to get as many parts for the computers that I have working.
I might try to sell one tomorrow. I could use the money to build newer computers.
I checked on the price that the local trailer park charges for camper. Out in California, I lived for a number of years in an RV. It turns out that here the price is prohibitive. They don't rent for more than 2 weeks and then they want $17/day. That comes to more than $500/month. I think living in your trailer is out, here. That's just another reason to move back to California.
I rather liked trailer living. Inside the trailer was a bit crowded, so you stayed outside most of the time. It forced you to keep your possessions limited. And, of course, moving was easy. I'm going to look into it some more. Maybe I could get an RV and park it on my land, whilst I tear down my old moblehome. I might be able to stay in it while I build another home, here. I'll have to examine my options.

At Barnes and Noble

Alice and I are at Barnes and Noble, in La Crosse, today. She decided to shop for books and I'm just along for the ride. I never miss a chance to come here. I enjoy the food as well as leafing through all the books.
I'm looking for something on digital photography. I'm thinking about getting a Cannon Powershot camera. I need something that is small enough to fit into the pocket and yet is stabilized. I also want something that has a zoom lens.
I gave away another computer, last night. I saw Brian, who is a chimney builder, at the co-op. I know that he uses computers a lot, so I gave him my last Thinkpad. I never did get the sound working right. I last saw him at Magpies, using that laptop. I think he's happy with it.
I now have two working computers to give away, and 2 that will need parts. When I'm done blogging I'll go to Ebay and bid on parts. I need a couple of hard drive caddies and a hard drive. I'll also need ac adapters and a cd drive and a floppy drive. I feel a bit cheated to buy a floppy drive since I couldn't imagine using one. I'll need it to hold the hard drive in. That's the way these old Gateways are designed.
Well I think I'll get on Ebay now. Later