Father's Day

It is Father’s Day today. I should be happy but I’m not. Sort of not happy, if there is such a thing. It’s the damn computer, or more precisely Microsoft Publisher. I have Windows 7 on my computer but I’m running Microsoft Office 2003 on it. Transferred the program from my old computer.

I use Publisher for making cards for the family. I make one for every occasion. It is fun, more personal and it is cheaper than buying cards in the store, many of them are stupid anyway. We can never find one that is appropriate or attractive. The joke ones are dumb. If we somehow find one that we sort of like it is so expensive, we might as well use the money to buy another present.

Last week I was in the middle of making a card for my wife for our upcoming anniversary when the program acted up. The card I printed did not look like the one showing on the screen. I did some editing and that’s when I got the message: Microsoft Publisher has stopped working. Windows will look for a solution to the problem and notify me when it finds one.

I tried all kinds of ways to fix the problem to no avail. I searched the internet and there are quite a few Microsoft program users who seem to have the same problem. Microsoft has stopped supporting the 2003 version of Word and Office. Apparently, they also sent a little program on one of the updates that does something to old programs to prevent them from working properly or not at all. Just a rumor but I don’t doubt it. They want you to buy new programs every time you buy a new computer. Nothing personal, just Business. There were plenty of suggestions how to fix the problem but none worked for me. I did a System Restore to a time before the last update but that didn’t fix it.

So now I’m really ticked off with Microsoft. I can’t even print out any envelopes because they rely on Publisher. And I had such nice designs.

Happy Father’s Day #Microsoft. Enjoy what you’ve done to me and all the other ticked-off computer owners who use your products and made you rich.

Maybe the next time I buy a new computer it will have an apple on it. They don’t seem to have as many problems. One of my friends has an Apple Computer and he doesn’t even run a Virus program, because there are no viruses to worry about.

Otherwise it is a nice day. Warm if not a bit cloudy with rain, possibly a thunderstorm, in the forecast for tonight. Hopefully it won’t happen until really late. The kids are coming over and I’m barbequing ribs and chicken. I even bought a couple of bottles of the favorite beer my sons drink: Stella Artois. Expensive. I paid $2.75 plus tax per bottle and there are only 330 ml in one bottle compared to 341 ml in a regular bottle. (Don’t ask me where they get those odd numbers from!). And I treated myself to a bottle of Grolsch, imported from Holland. Even they cut down on the volume. They used to have 473 ml now they are only 450 ml in one bottle.

Alcohol in Canada is much too expensive compared to other countries, like the USA or Europe, especially Germany. Even the wine and beer kits are going up in price. Every time the liqueur prices go up so do the prices for the kits.

When I was at the liqueur store I saw beer from Mexico. They had quite a nice selection and I would have liked to buy a case, but when I saw the price I changed my mind. There must be a huge mark-up by the liqueur commission on that one. Greedy bastards! What ever happened to competition? I always thought price-fixing was illegal. Monopolies are against the law, but I guess it’s okay when the government does it.

Oops, I got myself back into an upset state. It is Father’s Day and I should be smiling and be happy. I’ll quit now and get the BBQ ready. The smell of barbequing ribs should put me into a happy mood. Seeing my grandchildren certainly will.

Happy Father’s Day.