Good news and bad news today.

I went over to my parents’ place this morning. To set up the new old computer and get it all working. Only to find that I needed driver CDs for the motherboard and ethernet and such. So I had to go all the way home and then back again with the CDs. Only to find that those CDs were for my other old computer. I don’t know where the CDs for the computer I have given my parents are. Oops. So I had no drivers for the computer. Bad news. I’m going to have to see if I can find them online. Right now they have no internet access and no sound. Damn. I thought I had prepared so well for the move. And then it all blows up in my face. Oh well. Hopefully I can get it sorted in a couple of days. Otherwise… the hamster will have to get back to work.

After messing about with the computers and running for CDs I went up to the playground to see the goats. Magnethe and Mio were alone in the fold and for a second again I thought “oh no, are the boys gone now?”. But the boys weren’t gone, they had just managed to circumvent my fence repairs. They are hard to hold in.

But I got a nice surprise. Kurt was there. Good old Kurt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him. It must be years. So it was really nice to get to say hello to him. He looked well. And I finally, finally got news about Vanilje’s kid. It’s more than a year since Vanilje passed away and her little girl went to stay with Kurt. I still vividly remember sitting in the hay with the baby, fortunately at that point too blind to see Vanilje lying nearby. And the little kid very hungry trying to latch on to anything to drink. Nibbling at my nose. Alice tried to get her to drink from a bottle but she wouldn’t have that. Until I finally managed to get her to take the bottle and she gulped it all down. I have been dying to find out what happened to her, but Kurt retired of course and whenever I asked people at the playground they said they hadn’t been in touch with him. But now I finally got to ask him how it all turned out. And I was so glad to find out that Vanilje’s girl is still at his place and doing very well. She is called Soft Ice. Kurt couldn’t put her with the other goats there (they aren’t as well behaved as playground goats) so she was put with the sheep instead. Today the goats and sheep are all together in one group, but Kurt said that Soft Ice sticks mostly with the sheep. He said she might not be completely aware of whether she’s a goat or a sheep. A cute little sheep-goat. I am just so happy that she’s okay and that there’s still a bit of Vanilje going around. I hope maybe I can get to see her some day. I imagine she must look just like Vanilje. She certainly looked a lot like her mother as a kid.

I was also told that Kurt will be taking one of the current boys. So that’s really good too. That means at least one of them will have a really good new home. I hope they’ll all find good homes. I don’t know which boy he’ll be taking. I’m going to cross my fingers for Bandit. It would be nice to have Bandit and Soft Ice playing together at Kurt’s.

I would like that very much.

Took a trip to my parents’ house today. Carrying a computer monitor. My dad decided to take the bus. He was carrying my old computer.

With my recent computer purchase I had no less than 3 PCs in my tiny apartment. Which seemed a little over the top. And since we’d been planning to buy a new computer for my parents because their old one was very slow and outdated… well it all made sense. So my parents got my oldest computer and the screen. It’s not a state-of-the art computer, but it should still be a significant step up from the ancient one they have now. And the bigger screen will be nice. Not least for me, when I go and help them with computer stuff. A 15 inch flatscreen is not a good thing when your eyesight is wrecked. A bigger screen and a faster computer, that should be nice.

I spent some time today copying over their files and exporting bookmarks to a USB drive. And then next week I’m going to go back and set up the new computer and import everything. Meanwhile my second oldest computer has been hooked up to my TV. I’ll use that for some backup and maybe some retrogaming. I loaded up Gamebase64 the other day and played some old Commodore 64 games. Brought back a lot of good memories. And I found that with my improved eyesight I can sort of play games a little again. If I put on cheat mode I can at least get a little fun out of the simple, old games. So that’s quite nice. Certainly better than nothing.

In goat news, everything is still okay. Although when I went to the playground on Monday I found Magnethe and Mio (formerly Snow White) alone in the fold. For a second I thought “Oh no, this time the boys really are gone”. But then I decided not to jump to conclusions and it wasn’t long before I heard goat baby baahs in the distance. And as I went to investigate I found the boys running around up in the residential block. Four of them at least. Bandit was nowhere to be seen. I thought maybe he had left after all, but some 10-15 minutes later I suddenly heard his distinct wailing siren-like braying. From the other end of the playground. I guess he’d been out on his own. Usually goat kids stick together a lot, I’m surprised that they seem to be going off on their own too. Maybe it’s because they’re all boys. I don’t know. But the fence of the fold can’t hold them in at least. And the mamas aren’t happy about it of course. The boys don’t listen to them at all anymore. Poor girls. Especially Mio’s baahing is so sad because of her frayed voice. And she’s younger, she has less experience with kids running off. Magnethe usually takes it a little better. But then when she does get upset she voices it even louder and more energetically.

I went up there again today, and once again the boys were out exploring on their own, having left the mamas back in the fold. I did some repair work on the fence. Using branches and wooden planks to board up the vulnerable spots. I’m not sure how effective it will be. But when I left all the goats were still in the fold. So we’ll see. The mamas are much happier with the boys in there with them. Of course the boys are less happy when they can’t just run off on their own adventures. It’s hard to make everyone happy at the same time!

Here’s a video from Monday: youtube.com/watch?v=CzQ7yaxj5QI. The boys playing around up in the residential area. And the mamas crying for them to come back. I do love the white tip on the dark boy’s tail still. Whirring back and forth. Cutesy.