Yesterday was one long day. After struggling with AOL most of the day, I signed Mom up with a local ISP... I had to go down to the office and pick up the materials and a CD to auto-install it, which worked OK, but I don't think that Mom could've done it herself.

We did some shopping, too... I bought her a phone to put by the computer, and a power center. I had to get the power center at Sears, for a premium price, $40... I had bought one in KC when we were there last for $10.

Before I went into Sears, I went to the radio shack... the guy there had no idea what I was talking about.

I also bought a ribbon for the Panasonic printer, but it jammed when I tried printing, and it broke the gear off of the wheel that rotates the ribbon... effectively ruining the printer. So Mom has to use the Lexmark that she hates...

I'd been trying to call Karen ever since I got here, and kept getting a "All of the circuits are busy" message. Mom's got a rinky-dink long distance company that is impossible to get ahold of... very frustrating. Luckily, Karen called this morning and got though. Unfortunately, she had some bad news for me. Linda Morris, a friend of many, many years who works at the hospital, was killed Thursday morning as she was crossing the street in front of the hospital. Linda was a transcriptionist, and she came in at 05:00 every morning, and we had worked together at the now-defunct Sante Fe Hospital in the 60's. I am very saddened by her death, and she has a very large extended family that I extend my sympathy to. A lot of people loved her.

Karen will not be going to Wichita this weekend... I had planned on meeting her there, so I guess that I'll just be driving straight back to Topeka instead.

I'll probably leave tomorrow afternoon... hopefully, I can get Mom trained on the internet, or at least familiar with the email program, before then. I've got her set up with Outlook 97, but I can't get the update from MS to Outlook 98, which simplifies a lot of things with that program. I think that I'll go try again with that... they were supposed to be sending my password via email, but I haven't got it yet. Probably because I'm not at home, on the machine with the original software on it. Those damned people are so picky!

More tomorrow...