During the process, Millie got scalped, er, I mean spent four hours in the beauty parlor. They took her down to a mere ¼ inch of fur and certainly a new level of comfort for this heat. Wallace and I stopped at Jimbo’s and the shop for a few hours before picking her up. We were doing something we shouldn’t, which is talk politics. This new “Ultimate” virus is indeed nasty. But I found out why it could not be deleted by any ordinary means. It is a script that logs repeatedly onto a web site called “uav2008” and only appears to be running on your computer. It is actually running small video from the web site. This is so difficult to eradicate that I have upped my priced to $80 per instance.For the record, I do hold MicroSoft at least partially responsible for the problem for designing a system that could be so easily tricked in the first place. This is a Russian virus that asks for up to $79 to remove “viruses” but you never see your money again. Oddly, I think the credit card company they use may be American and I hope they get arrested. I will spend enough time in the shop tomorrow to learn the most efficient way to eliminate this virus, for right how it takes me nearly an hour. The virus is a marvel of trick programming, it writes a trigger to your task manager that restarts every time you boot up, and another script in your “All Users” folder that duplicates things if you delete it. Simply brilliant. The code and English are perfect, so they had help.
Wallace is not adapted to the heat which is difficult because he enjoys being outdoors. This has been a terribly hot stretch of weather. I’m not adapted to the heat, I’m adapted to planning around it. This process requires time Wallace has not had. In a day or two, he’ll siesta and find indoor activities to his liking. Slowing down to half speed is no easier on him than any other active person. It would have been nice if he’d made it to the gig tonight. He would have had a nicer time than most of the musicians and here are the details.
Myself, I got drowned out. I challenged my Ampeg BA-115 against a brand new Peavy PA system, With my volume at full, I could not find the right balance yet several people in the audience stated it was the best I sounded there (Donovan’s). You see, in the Hippie’s generally known management style, there was another band set up when we arrived. That band had played there last Saturday and “thought” they were supposed to play tonight instead of next week. The reality is that they are pushing for a house gig so they don’t have to pack equipment much and as far as I’m concerned, they win. There was zilch in the tip jar and because the Hippie and I have not learned any new material together in a month (I added six new tunes to my list in the same time). The audience has spoken.
Wait, there’s more. Then he goes outside where he parked his new Ford Focus (I’m not buying the theory he saved up all his money for 8 years to buy it cash) and right down the brand new paint job on the hood are two parallel scratches around three feet long. They are surface damage but quite permanent and disfiguring. It looks to me like somebody sat on the hood while wearing a pair of blue jeans with rivets on the back pocket. They then slid off the hood scraping paint all the way. He is leaving for New York for two weeks tomorrow. We did a decent one-hour show and I may have scored a birthday gig at the Bahamian restaurant a few doors down. End of Tuesday.
I’ve heard rumors now confirmed about the old thrift. The regular customers don’t like the new owner and the Hippie was in there and says all the price tags have been removed. That used to be one relatively nice thing about the place; Dickens put prices on the smaller articles and posted the price on the clothes.
