4th: A recent exchange with Microsoft Support

Had a call back from MicroSoft "anxious" to close a call I had already indicated via email that could be closed, given that they couldn't understand what I'd told them, namely that their instructions could not be carried out because I couldn't access where I needed to be to initiate them.
(which part of "I cannot access a command prompt to do any of that" do you not understand?")
I mentioned that I had solved the immediate problem caused by their dratted security patch myself, but now had outstanding subsequent issues, such as every time I started a MSoft Office program it insisted on configuring itself, as if opening for the first time.
He promised to log that separately, and arranged that someone would call me at 11am the following day, NZ time.
11am came and went, as did all of the day, without my phone ringing.
6:58pm NZ time an email arrived:
Hi Lorna,

My name is [xyx] from Microsoft Technical Support.

This is a follow up email in regards to your case [nnnn]. I've tried
to contact you via telephone, however was unsuccessful. We would be
happy to continue to assist you if necessary.

If you have any feedback regarding Microsoft support, I would be glad to
hear from you. Otherwise, you can email ausadmin@microsoft.com
on any other feedback.

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Technical Support.

Sincerely,

[xyz]
(names and numbers changed to protect the guilty)

My response:
thank you for your bog standard email.
My phone has not been in use all day, and I have been at home.
You were scheduled to ring about 11am. I waited. .....
(with a list of the further issues that were now manifesting themselves, having solved the reconfiguring problem by uninstalling and reinstalling MSOffice, and yet again, upgrading it to SP2 - my network provider must love my additional bandwidth use at the moment).
ending:
Yours, a still very annoyed MSoft customer.

His, immediate, response (which implicitly says he hadn't called me at 11am):
Hi Lorna,

Apologies for not being able to call you this morning. The person who was supposed to call you called in sick today and it was just now that the case was endorsed to me. This is the phone number that we have in your records: +61 nnnn, and also the one I called but I only got your machine. If this is the wrong number, please let me know so I can update your records and be able to provide support to you.

Sincerely,
[xyz]

My response:
+64 (nnnn) might help. I'm in NZ and there is nothing on my answer machine, but presumably on someone in Australia's.
-----
(and given that someone had already called me the day before, why ever did it have an Australia country code?)
So, all in all, not a jot of useful help from Microsoft.
Several more issues have since manifested themselves, and mostly, gradually, been fixed.
All of this is keeping me from the fun things in life such as researching my own family tree, the FAIRBAIRN and RUNCIMAN One Name and DNA studies, and writing the course I'm about to give in a fortnight's time.
But I suppose it does have it's fun, ironic side.

30th: Never enough backups; New sources

Nothing like a computer problem to make you realise you never have enough backups, or enough of the right bits of the system.
The computer repair (see 13th, %^&#$ Microsoft security patch "installed" on the 4th) continues apace, but did involve a repair of my Win XP Pro operating system, which resulted in a(n ongoing) reload of my software, although MOST of the settings remained intact and the data is fine.
Could take some time as yet.
Meanwhile, over on the laptop where my genealogy remains intact....

Assorted recent contacts include a branch of the RICHARDSONs in Australia - the WOONTONs, so some updates will ensue in due course.
It also occurred to me that it was time to do an update to OneGreatFamily with whatever I'd changed since last time, which seems to be back about March.
In the process of reviewing what I was about to upload I did of course spot that several more updates were also likely, given the inclusion of a heap of Cheshire records on FamilySearch (which link is only to the Parish registers, other useful indexes exist), and the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations),1861-1941 on ancestry.
The former allowed me to firm up several dates for the family of Walter Maes TURNBULL & Rosetta COURT, as well as identifying their third child, whose presence was known from the 1911 census, but no further details (a Lionel Maes TURNBULL).
The latter, filmed indexes to probates, are a welcome addition to the data now available online, showing death dates and places, along with dates/places for administrations granted to whom (and estate values).
I've already had some unexpected finds in there - several Scottish probates, granted in London, where I would not have thought of looking.

And then today an email out of the blue providing details from the death cert. of Catherine BAIN, whose 1904 death cert, apparently said she had died Fuarry, Kirkwall, at least according to the chap who transcribed it for me.
Obviously not a local. I'm now informed that it actually reads the Quarry, Halkirk - which is a tad more understandable!

13th: Not so Black Friday

It really is the time for the McGREGOR branch of the HENDERSONs to be updated.
Must be something in the air. Three contacts in as many weeks on different twigs of Margaret HENDERSON's descendants.
The latest appears to be a descendant of Charlotte BETT.
In checking where I'd got to for this line, I noticed that William, son of Margaret HENDERSON, who had emigrated to Canada in the 1850s, could probably have more information found for him these days.
And so it proved.
I thought I was merely going to be adding a census or two and ended up finding and documenting a first wife, two children, and some descendants as well. Check out William's updated page. (William, son of William married a Helen DRONE, their dtr Charlotte Jean married a James Elsner CRONIN, but as yet I've not figured out what happened to William's sister Mary, nor Jean's sister Elizabeth Swinton McGREGOR).

In addition to all the above, the RUNCIMAN DNA project has turned up trumps. The preliminary results mentioned back on the 6th did indeed end up being an excellent match at 67 markers as well.
On the strength of that I've updated my RUNCIMAN surname page to include some of the descendants of Thomas and Alison (GRIEVE) RUNCIMAN as well.
By no means all, just some I've documented in passing.

All I need now is for my computer to be fixed! I'm somewhat hampered at the moment as I was silly enough to download a supposedly 'critical' microsoft security patch, KB2286198.
More fool me. My desktop went into a boot loop which I'm still fighting.
There's always a silver lining though, as a result I was forced to resolve a couple of things I'd not bothered about on my laptop, and at the end of the fix, I will end up with a backup server on a spare older slow machine, which task has been on the to-do list for rather too long.