The monitor

A few months ago, Elder Daughter bought Dad a new, flat screen monitor for his desktop computer as she thought he could do with a better and clearer image. When they got it home, hey presto, it was faulty and had to go back. The shop didn't have another in stock so she got her money back and bought one online instead. Unfortunately, it was delivered to her house in Sheffield instead of Dad's house in Bristol so it has taken until now to get it in the right location and it was down to me to set it up.

So far, so good, except that Dad needs the dimmest setting to suit his eyes.

On this monitor, there were about four choices, one setting for gaming, another for video-viewing etc and then an economy one, which, as it provided the dimmest setting of all, was the one I chose.

Fast forward to last evening, when I reminded Dad that he needed to try it out and make sure it suited him, which he went off to do, coming back fifteen minutes later to say that it was hurting his eyes.

Off I went into the dining room to see what I could do...

Two hours later, I was still fiddling about with it and getting increasingly exasperated. Dad backed rapidly out of the room, wearing his hard hat and left me to it, just after I had expressed a wish to hurl the thing out of the window.  Then Keith rang,

"Why didn't you ring me to help?" he asked when I explained my difficulty.

So, there followed a further half hour of me explaining the settings and menus available on the monitor and bemoaning the fact that, for some reason, I couldn't access the brightness and contrast options to change them and Keith flatly contradicting me and telling me that I MUST be able to, maybe I wasn't doing it properly. 

Unsurprisingly, we made no progress and I spent the night wondering how to break the news to Kathy that Granddad was not going to be able to use the monitor.

Up at the crack of dawn this morning, I spent a further hour doing battle and then, having run out of options, I decided to restore the default settings and, guess what! I was suddenly able to reset the brightness and contrast, It seems that option is not available if the monitor is on economy setting.

Of course, they didn't bother to mention that in the instructions.

Well, that would make it too easy, wouldn't it?

Decorated dog

Paddy's only concession to Christmas...

What's for dessert?

We went over to meet up with Kathy and Claire and to see Paul and his brother, Nathan last weekend. Keith generally takes the opportunity on such occasions to fill his face partake of any delicacies available and this time was no exception.

(In case you are wondering, it arrived with three spoons and he did have help demolishing it!)

You know that meat in the fridge?

This video of the 'talking dog' was featured on Breakfast TV this morning and Keith greeted me with it when I came down this morning. Of course, the next step was to line Paddy up for a few lessons. After all, if a German Shepherd can do it, so can our little mutt.
Wrong.
"Paddy," I said, as he sat obediently in front of me, "you know that meat in the fridge?"
Paddy shook his head firmly and wandered off to lie on his cushion.
A bit more practice, I think.

Stonehenge and Wales

This article on the orgins of some of the stones at Stonehenge reminds me of the sterling research Keith carried out, which he told me about a few years ago.
Remember, you read it here first.

Groan!

"Can you make sure you empty the pockets of your jeans properly, please?" I said to Keith this morning. My washing machine is already showing signs of wear and tear and the everlasting offerings of coins and tissues from Keith's pockets don't help.

"I'm fed up with removing all your detritus," I said, to reinforce the point.

His expression was one of outrage.

"I've never had detritus!" he protested. "You can ask the doctor!"

Sut mae'r tywydd y bore ma?

Mae'n bwrw eira! Rough translation being, we're getting some of the white stuff and no, I am most definitely not impressed, especially as Keith has been to do a job on Anglesey this morning and is now on his way back. Just to make things difficult, there has been an accident on the A55, which has meant a detour for him and around Mold, unlike here, the snow is settling into compacted slush.

Ah yes, I hear you say, but the councils this year are prepared for this. They have stockpiled extra grit and have been waiting eagerly and alertly for the first signs of wintry weather so that they could rush out and grit the roads...

Dream on!