Relative Something

What is with the gall of these poison ivy sprouts brazenly making a move into the mowed path along the western fence line of the back pasture?

Is nothing sacred?

Don’t bother answering that; it was a rhetorical question. I know the way nature works. My attempts to wrangle the persistent growth on 20 acres into submission are basically Sisyphean futility.

Speaking of futile… I failed to reach success in an attempt to retrieve data from a remote hard drive with a broken USB connector. A local guy had been advertising his tech services heavily on the neighborhood app, “Nextdoor.” Cyndie suggested I contact him to see if he could help. We like to support the local businesses.

I was so happy to connect with him that I neglected to clarify that all my devices are Apple. Turns out his first strength is PCs. Still, a hard drive is a hard drive, and he took a shot at communicating with the Western Digital drive using a docking station and two of his software tools. No go. We decided to try plugging his docking station directly into my iMac, but the drive was not recognized.

It became obvious that the intermediate circuit board from which the USB connector broke, which we had been hoping to work around, performs some necessary role in communicating with the drive. That realization led me to search for a replacement assembly and/or forum discussions related to my dilemma. It turns out that the little surface-mount mini USB connector has broken off its circuit board for plenty of other folks, as well.

Buying a replacement connector won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible. Finding a way to have a skilled person solder the 5 teeny tiny pins onto the itsy bitsy pads on the board will require a fair amount of research and likely a strong dose of sweet-talking. The number of retail options for this kind of work is pretty small in this neck of the woods.

I’ve got my work cut out for me on this one. It would sure be handy if I still worked for a business that did this kind of thing every day.

What was I thinking, moving so far away?

Don’t bother answering that.

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