Beating Murphy's Law

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Trip Start Apr 10, 2008 Trip End May 28, 2008

  Madrid, Spain
Thursday, April 10, 2008

Lufthansa Airlines 1st leg LH 469 PDX to Frankfurt, Germany 10:hrs
Preflight security ... food, Kosher meal , coffee whitener
37,000 ft 600 mph .. -72 F
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"The best laid plans of men" ... Great idea without "Murphy," as in, "Murphy's Law."
Regarding "Best laid plans ... ; I should tell you; we have spent 2 years discussing this trip and 4 months planning the route and getting our "ducks in a row," and that includes gathering assorted pieces of gear, including a new, pocket-size GPS with preloaded Euro maps.
Did I mention that we bought a new travel computer to carry with us on the trip? From previous traveling we learned that Internet Cafes get expensive

Yanks - Madrid, SPAIN Airport

. Besides that, they aren't always easy to find, machines are antiques, and there is NO privacy.
ASUS released a new, very light MINI-laptop computer last fall, 7" x 9." I told you it was MINI. It's called the "eee PC", as in, "Triple -E PC." It has limited storage and minimal programs, BUT, what it DOES have that makes it SO attractive to people on the go are the features that you really need; the following features are built in! >>> Wifi (that works better than ANY computer that I have used), stereo speakers, Web cam, 3 USB slots, 1 SD card slot, head phone & mic jacks, Ethernet jack, and external monitor plug. Remember, all this is packed into 7 x 9 inches ... that's little. It cost $400!
For us, this little computer is a big deal. We love email, shopping online, and most importantly, access to our online banking. I mention this because it's a major pain in the ass to sign in to some secure Web sites when you are using a computer that the bank doesn't recognize as your usual computer. The security questions, alone, are enough to make you scream. For that reason we had to get our little Triple E logged in as one of our regular machines.
I understand the security issues and appreciate the bank trying to protect its customers, but what I want to know is where the hell do they come up with the auxiliary security questions?
Mother's maiden name? Okay, that's not new. Date of birth? Still okay. But, let me tell you, if you screw up one little bit along the way and make one stinking 'typo,' they go off the wall and throw stuff at you like "Where was your paternal grandmother born? What was your paternal grandfather's sister's middle name?
It's like they are playing a little game with us to see how far they can push us before we "snap." There's probably a secret room somewhere with a bunch of college students, the class clowns from the past 4 years, coming up with these off-the-wall questions every time we get one right, and laughing their guts out the whole time.
"Who is the father of your first born son?" "Was your sister an only child?" "Where was your great great grandmother, on your mother's side, buried?" "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" "Have you every attempted suicide?" Do you own a ferret?"
Keep in mind that I am writing all this at 600 mph at 37,000 feet ... the air is thin up here - you know. Forgive me, I get like this when I don't get enough oxygen.
Anyhoo, it took some time to get all the Web sites set up for our Travel Computer, but it's worth it in the long run. Having our own computer means we don't have to deal with those class clowns every time we sign in, and we can get online anywhere we have a good wifi signal. We're all set, ready to go. Keep that thought in your mind.

The Plan; Friday, 4 April -- Drive our motor coach, with our mini-van in tow, from Arizona to our friend's house near Los Angeles where we could leave it while we were overseas -- secure, and free of charge. Friends would drive us to the airport on Sunday and pick us up when we returned weeks later. That all sounds simple enough - doesn't it?
Think again. Here comes Murphy.
Murphy ONE!
We didn't make it. With only 2 days before departure, a critical engine component on the Motorhome failed en route and we could not continue. Never break down on a Friday. Unable to arrange repair without missing our flight, we decided to leave the coach in an RV park and deal with the repair when we returned. We loaded our gear in the van and drove the to our friend's house and rode to the airport with them in time to catch our flight.
Murphy won that round.
We departed as scheduled on Sunday for a 4 day stopover in Portland, Oregon. We would take off again on Thursday for Europe, with our wonderful little computer in my backpack. The computer was working great on the hotel's wifi. That is, until I came up with the brilliant idea to install a simple "log on" password to protect our data while overseas.
Disaster! Fricken Murphy! The computer locked up, probably forever. This happened on Monday night. We fly out on Thursday. Tuesday morning I tried to find a computer guru, but "all the King's men and all the King's horses couldn't ..."
Get this; these computers aren't in stores yet. Of course we panicked - we're human, and we're getting old, and one of us doesn't deal very well with crisis. LOL What's the answer? I got on the Public Library Computer, went to ebay and ordered the upgraded version "Triple-E" with twice the memory; $541 delivered NEXT Day air ... IF they could ship it immediately.
It arrived next day all right, but only after I had sat on the sidewalk biting my nails for 4 hours. FedEx showed up at 2 o'clock! By then I was a wreck.
I'm getting too old for this much stress. Now I had to get it all set up again before we went to bed. Typing the 'answers' was easier without fingernails.
What do you think was the worse part of getting it all set up again?
Did you guess "class clowns?" I swear they remembered me, and they were in rare form; "what is your mother's 2nd cousin's maiden name?" "Did you ever spend time alone with a sheep?"
I told you the new computer was the upgrade version, AND we got a nice bonus with this one; it came with the coolest little 2-button mouse complete with scrolling wheel. I had brought my wireless Logitech laser mouse because the laser mouse will operate on surfaces that an ordinary optical mouse won't. EeePC mouse works great! Love this tiny mouse.
Here I am;
37,000 feet and 600 mph and we'll be in Germany in 2hrs 40 minutes and I have been sitting in this seat for 7 hrs. My ass is asleep. We'll talk later in the next episode. I can't believe you are still reading this.

Ooops, I forgot to tell you; I sent the bad computer and the Laser mouse to my son. We'll deal with getting it fixed in a couple of months ... LOL
Murphy TWO.

Footnote; misspellings and typos are intentional.

I have been on this computer for 3 hours and the battery is just now down to 30%. I brought a backup battery because there is no place to charge it on the plane, but this is much better battery life than I expected. I just got a "Low Bat" warning. TTYL.

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