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problematic hibernate
Wednesday, September 2 2009
This morning there was a problem with Gretchen's computer when it came out of hibernate. Suddenly the process was interrupted by a blue screen telling us that a stack dump was being initiated (has anyone ever used such a stack dump for anything?). The error was a
KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR, so I did a Google Search which led me to a typical Microsoft support page, one that prescribed a range of general purpose solutions (installing a virus checker, running CHKDSK) without bothering to explain, in any language whatsoever, what is fundamentally going wrong. Based on the presciptions, I surmised that there was a hard drive hardware problem, probably because I'd selected the "quick format" when installing Windows XP and this had failed to map out the bad sectors on the the hard drive (a 300 Gigabyte model that had originally lived in Woodchuck). So I initiated a comprehensive CHKDSK, which took over an hour of the time Gretchen had hoped to dedicate to reorganizing her first poetry manuscript called Fiery Cake. In the end it turned out the problem was a lot easier to fix than I'd imagined; Windows XP evidently has problems with hibernate when the main harddrive is set up as a slave. When I moved the jumper to make it into a master, it hibernated just fine. (I found this information on the web, but it doesn't appear to exist in any of Microsoft's online "help.") Hibernate and suspend are essential features for modern computers, and will be increasingly so as Peak Oil rocks our world, but those capabilities are primitive and failure-prone on Microsoft equipment. Still, I do what I can to make them work, even if it means replacing motherboards.
The other day I installed a frame of pressure-treated lumber in the greenhouse as the structure to support a series of planters for the plants that will eventually be growing there (it's been over a year in the making, but that's what it's supposedly all about). Today I gathered some surface material for those frames, which will act as low tables. That surface material was bluestone, which I gathered from that old bluestone mine I found above the Stick Trail less than a quarter mile south of the house.
This evening Gretchen and I attended at dinner party at the residence of Kris and Kirsty (our "photogenic Buddhist friends"). They're the ones living in a house they just built on Zena Road. We didn't bring our dogs because, well, they live with something like ten cats and the politics of introducing dogs into that mix are just too mind-boggling to contemplate. Also, the last time we brought our dogs by for a visit, one of their cats died (but of natural causes).
Also in attendance at this dinner party was Kirsty's brother (Chris — they're all named, however obliquely, after Jesus). Chris the brother had just completed the writing of a novel, and thus we all clinked glasses of champagne. Then, for whatever reason, we went around the room asking for the recent accomplishments of other attendees. Gretchen had just completed restructuring her poetry manuscript (clink-clink), and I just fixed the muffler of our car using a scrap of Cor-Ten steel leftover from Chris (the husband) and Kirsty's siding (clink-clink).
Kirsty imagines she is allergic or in some way incompatible with wheat gluten, so the vegan meal was based on corn and potato products and was better than expected (I tend to be skeptical of potatoes as a food component unless the food is either French fries or decidedly Indian). Most of dinner conversation consisted of members of each couple telling how they got together (or, in our case, back together).
Back at our house, Ray, Nancy, and Linda arrived late from Brooklyn. They'd be spending the night en route to something further upstate. Our living room was a little chilly, so I stoked a raging fire using paper and cardboard as fuel.
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