Saturday, Clearing out

We have been having a persistent problem with the AOLDialer. When I try to turn the computer off, Windows complains that AOLDial.exe is still running and is not responding to a request to quit. When Mom runs AOL, she uses a broadband connection, so we should not need a dialer. And this happens even when we turn the machine on, use Chrome only, and then turn the machine off.

There was a web posting about editing the msconfig start-up script to remove running AOLDial.exe, but that does not seem to work -- after I remove it, something just puts it back in the list. I removed all the old dialer information (old phone numbers, etc.) so it has nothing it can do anyway, but that doesn't help either. I unchecked the box in the AOL setting that says to check if AOLDial.exe is the default dialer. Nothing seems to work.

I figure there are two remaining options. One, a new version of AOL is available. If we upgrade to that, the re-install may fix the problem. Two, I can find the AOLDial.exe file and rename it to be something else (old_AOLDial.exe) so that there is no program for whatever currently starts it to find and run. Of course, if it does do some necessary function, that may cause other problems.

Mom has a very old floor lamp in the Sun Room. She says it is one of the few things that she got from her Grandfather when he died. It was coming loose, so I tightened everything up and cleaned off the dust and dog hair.

I've moved the old TV and VHS VCR and stand out of the Sun Room. Mom said that she hasn't watched anything on this in, like, forever, and had forgotten how to run it. The batteries in the VCR remote are so corroded that it doesn't work.

The stand had a bunch of VHS tapes on it, which I put in a box and moved out too. There are more tapes in the bookshelves under the windows, and I will wait a bit and then move those out too, since she can no longer play VCR tapes. (no VCR; no TV). But there were a few that looked personal.

1. Peterson Family Home Movies. This has been replaced by the DVD, so I don't see an issue with getting rid of it (recycle as plastic).

2. William & Mary Peterson, June 27, 1993 50th Anniv. Video

3. SPRR 4. Bethel Boy Scouts 1960s by 3 Heberts.

I'm assuming that we/Mom may want to keep these. But she can't play them. Seems that we want to take them either to Sue's or my place in Texas, and have them transferred to DVD, if we want to keep them. So I've put them aside.

Mom said there was a big piece of sheet metal and a pole behind the shrubs in the back yard that she wanted to get rid of; she was concerned that the dog might run into a sharp edge. It appears to be a piece of galvanized metal roofing. The pole used to hold a bird house. I posted both to Criag's List and Mike came by and picked them up.

I bought some metal wire shelf units from Home Depot and intend to mount them in the utility room on the wall. That would allow all the cleaning supplies to be put in one place and visible; we could get them off the kitchen counter. The wall was used to display three blue and white plates; I moved those to the Sun Room.

Also, I looked at the hallway electrical wiring. The wiring for the 3-way switches to control the hallway lights looks right -- almost text book. So my current guess is that the switches themselves have broken. I have new switches and will try to swap out the old with new.