Over the years, my sister, mother and I have all ended up in the most Northern of North American climate zones. We live in Minnesota, Maine and the Idaho Panhandle respectively. In the U.S., it doesn’t get much more North than where we live. Around this time of year, we all start going through the "can I REALLY stand 8 months of winter?!" problem.
In my case, I tend to go into a big funk in around early November when it starts getting seriously cold. At that point, I finally accept the reality that, yes, it is going to be cold and that I really need to put on warmer clothes. (Say hello to those turtlenecks!) Throughout the winter, the holidays are fun, skiing is fun, but then I tend to go into another funk in February.
Like for example, right now, it’s gray and snaining (my term for a mixture of snow and rain). The roads are a complete mess. It’s slush-o-rama out there. By late February (after Valentine’s day), the freeze-thaw cycle is all getting somewhat tedious. And in March, we can look forward to it all turning to mud. Yuck!
However, one bright spot this week amidst all the bad weather and bad roads, was that our intrepid UPS man got James’ new computer here. And I got my first glimpse of Windows XP. (This may be good news for those of you who are hoping I’ll get around to including XP tips here someday).
My first view of XP was sort of a shock. If you haven’t seen it, be ready for a blast of somewhat kindergarten-esque color. The good news is that you can very easily rid yourself of that jarring color scheme if you don’t like it. James changed a few settings and actually the interface is really quite pleasant to look at now.
Only time will tell whether or not Windows XP will be a pleasure or a nightmare to work with. However, one reassuring thing for me was that many of my worries about upgrading to XP were for naught. I had thought that maybe I’d have to start ALL over on the learning curve, but it’s not the case. Realistically, it’s just another operating system, so you still have to manage files and do all the same ole stuff.
It appears that with XP, many settings are in different places or look a little different, but basically, it’s still just Windows. If you’ve used Windows before, you’ll be able to apply your existing knowledge to the new version when you get that lovely new computer.