Treasure Hunting... And Computer Woes

Good morning, friends...Another week and another Monday...  Ever feel like kicking the computer tower out the front door????  That's what I've been dealing with here at my office for the last week.  We got a bunch of viruses and trojans on our computer here.  It decided to just shut down and the viruses covered up all our programs and our 400+ customers and we came to a screeching halt! 

I won't even begin to tell you how mad and frustrated I was.  We had to do everything by hand. The computer was in the shop for 3 days.  They were able to save most of our files, EXCEPT our Customer files!!!  Well, since that happened, I decided to change self-storage programs to a more modern one, and I've got my assistant inputting all our current customers and all their information.  She's young and fast, and she's gonna have it done in a couple more days.

So I thought everything was all fixed this morning, got to work, and the printer/fax/scanner program had to be re-installed.  The computer guys stored all the software inside the stupid PC tower, and we had to take it apart to get to the software CDs.  Then,  WE COULDN'T GET THAT DAD-BLAMED SIDE PANEL BACK ON!!!  I guess I'm on stress overload - I was so mad I could feel my blood pressure go up and you know, when I get mad I wanna cry.  But I didn't.  Instead, I walked around my office saying ugly hateful things to my computer AND to the geek squad.  I did call and tell them I thought it was kinda dumb to store those CD's inside the tower and that THEY could come to my office and put this stupid thing back together.  I guess they could tell I was put out.  One of them volunteered to come.  I hung up the phone and made one last attempt.  There were some little doobers that appeared to be bent that I straightened out and then it snapped back into place.  Whew.  I called 'em back and canceled their trip over here.

OK, calm down, Vickie.....OK, I'm calm now......

New topic ---

Treasure hunting!  Now, some of you may think this is silly BUT...  There's a  couple of spots on our land way back up in the woods near the creek and the pond where we knew the folks that lived here long, long ago had used as a dumping place. That's just what people did.  There was no garbage service.  People burned what they could, but glass and tin cans and metal they just dumped.  Now, to look at this area, you'd never know it had been used as such.  But Tony and I had run across a couple of old items in this particular area just digging around and so we felt like this was the spot that his long-dead relatives had used.

Well, Sunday afternoon, in nearly 70 degrees temps and bein' a blue-bird day, we got a couple of digging tools and went down to that area and started poking around.  We unearthed decomposed metal and rusted out tin so bad that it crumbled.  AND old glass bottles.  Old medicinal bottles, perfume bottles, salve and ointment bottles, fifth of whiskey bottles (Old Uncle Claude liked his whiskey - drank a glass before bedtime each night and lived to be 97), all kinds of old soda bottles - some of which I'd never heard.

Some were broken, (some of the oldest and coolest), some still had lids on them, some of the lids were rusted out.  It was such fun!  We had us a frog-gigger with a long spike on it and could poke around in the dirt until we heard a "clink" and then start digging!  Sometimes just a big think piece of glass, sometimes the whole bottle.  They made glass real thick back long ago, didja know?

One of the most interesting bottles was a Chattan**ga Medic*ne Co. green bottle of McElr*e's Wine of C*rdui.  Now, this was a tonic for ladies supposedly from a recipe used by the Cherok*e Indians.  It was called a "regulator" for women's menstrual ills of all kinds.  Even supposed to get rid of tumors, fallen uteruses, and all kinds of fun women's stuff. This old medicine company originated back in 1897 and this magical elixer was a best seller!  They also put out a black draught and some other things, and even as late as the 1980's had some more modern items that are still in use.  Wish I had me some of that Card*i right now!

I'll show you a picture of some of our bottles.  Tony even got out the tractor and we scooped up several layers of dirt to go through and look.  He said, "Here, let me take your picture with some of your bottles to put on your blog".   So I let him.  Here's a few of my bottles.  Thought they'd be neat to clean up and stick a flower in them or just group them together somehow.  This picture is unedited in anyway since it came from my phone...

Ok, here's me in all my glory with my rake, frog-gigger and dirty bottles.  Doesn't look much like treasure, does it?  Well, it was fun.  Hayley called me and asked what we were doing and I told her, and she said, "Yuck".  When I told her it was kinda like a treasure hunt to find one not broken and how old and cool they were, she said then "SAVE ME SOME!  Don't find them all!"  haha!  It's all in how you look at it! 

Well, friends, I'm outta here.  Sorry I've not been posting often lately.  Just too, too busy, and too much going on with sick ones and holidays and traveling to Memphis and stupid computer problems.  Take care of yourselves and know that you are all a special part of my life!  I'm so glad you're there!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!!!