08.02.08
Fawn encounter & “unknown device”.
This morning I had just finished turning off the water from the pond filter to water Daniel’s garden, when I returned to the back gate to close it. In the back yard behind the fruit trees near the tree line stood a lone fawn, no Mama in sight. The fawn seemed small for this time of year, and I wondered if it was truly alone.
I walked back into the house and told Daniel what I’d found. He was busy building his mother’s new computer, so I returned to the back yard keeping the fruit trees between us. I began to talk softly to it, certain that it would run off, but it didn’t. Rather, in a round about way it approached me, then backed off to the trees and stopped. I crouched down in the grass and once again began to talk softly. Camera in hand I was able to take ten photos, all with the zoom. Suddenly, it ran towards me and stopped twenty feet away, lowering its head and licking the air, all the time flicking its tail. I took three more photos as it continued to approach cautiously. I changed position to sit down in the grass in the hopes it would continue to approach closer when it turned tail and disappeared into the trees. I guess I didn’t taste like Mom. I never did see her.
Once before, about fifteen years ago, something similar happened, but with twins. They were very small and appeared thin. It was in June that year and together they approached me without what would appear to be any fear at all. Again there was no mother in sight. I sat down in the grass and they came within two feet of me, all the while nibbling on clover. They were so close I could smell them. I talked softly to them, but made no attempt to reach out. After five minutes or so, they had cleared that section of the yard of clover and moved off. I waited until they were about twenty-five feet away when I stood and walked back to the house. At no time did they seem frightened.
After spending several hours assembling his mother’s computer, Daniel spent nearly as much time installing the operating system and software she uses. After he finished with her computer, he began to install a new motherboard into his newest computer, and for the past several hours he’s been reinstalling software and drivers. The company sent CD’s with old drivers on them and after two attempts to get it up and running, he realized they were the wrong drivers. He had to go to their website and download the most recent drivers to work with his current operating system. At the present time, Daniel has been working on computers for twelve hours. It will be close to bedtime before he is finished. Then he will have to transfer all the data back onto that computer, that he transferred off in preparation for the upgrade. Fortunately, the data transfer can take place overnight. Tomorrow I’m sure he’ll be tweaking this and tweaking that until it’s just right. Sounds like porridge, doesn’t it?
Finally, Daniel was stumped. While he was installing the device drivers he kept getting a message that was bugging him. “Unknown Device” kept showing up on a list, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. This particular computer has more bells and whistles than a “One Man Band”. Being the simple minded technodult (technically challenged adult) that I am, and knowing Daniel as well as I do, I posed a question to him. “Was there anything special that you may have installed on this computer that might be unique to other computers?” He snapped his fingers and said, “Yes, a firewire 800 card, a cheapie, no-name brand made in Korea, and because it doesn’t have a name, the drivers can’t identify it. I’ll bet that’s what it is.” Turns out that wasn’t it, but it got him to thinking. The last time I checked, he was investigating the LCD message display screen. As he said, “I didn’t install any drivers for that!” After a few minutes he snapped his fingers again and said, “That’s (the LCD message display screen) connected via USB, and I didn’t install any drivers for that so it doesn’t know how to talk to the screen. I’ll bet that’s it.” Turns out he was right. He also identified the remote control he had installed on this computer. Once he installed those drivers the message went away.
See, simple minded can be good sometimes, it attracts fawns.
O.P.W.
