Wes weighs in on Smalley's antics

Over the years there have been a number of stories published in this column written solely from the perspective of one individual. We shall call him Fishful

Fishful has been the indubitable expert I relied on for fishing. I faithfully followed his tips for all of our fishing adventures.

Not commonly known, however, is that his fishing prowess does not necessarily transfer successfully to the computer skills required to process his articles about fishing. Notably, the acquisition of computer skills has come with some reluctance.

Case in point:

For decades I worked with Fishful in an educational environment and it can be said without dispute, that my growth in technology came measurably more rapid than Fishful’s.

Fishful and I have a unique relationship. I listen and apply all he says about fishing and he follows my computer advice with an “attitude.” Comments vary from “Why do I have to reboot?” to “I don’t have time to mess with this mouse.” to “Hitting the Enter key takes too much time.”

Over the years, my suggestions that worked, compared to the times I followed his pointers and caught fish, overwhelmingly favor my advice.

A few more examples and I will retire this prattle and go fishing.

Fishful recently called me for some advice about why the Internet was stopping when his computer was asleep. (Note: I did not reply “If your computer is asleep why do you need the internet?”).

After the usual boisterous verbal discussion, the problem was solved. “No, Fishful, Gremlins in Windows 10 are not shutting down everything including the refrigerator.

“You had plugged your computer into the master power switch and it was shutting down everything plugged into the power strip as it was designed to do.”

And that “corded mouse” you wanted me to get rid of — that’s the receiver for your wireless mouse!

Now if Fishful can convert this article to a PDF file, it will get to the paper.

In the meantime, I am going to follow the advice of my most trusted fishing acquaintance, ”You can’t catch any fish if your line is not in the water.”

That advice may actually help me catch a fish.

— Written by a guy we will just call “Wes.”

Jerry Smalley’s Fishful Thinking column appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.