giant – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

Computer Gift

Repair & Yippee, it works!

November 28, 2022

Computer Gift

Louis came home with an amazing anniversary present for me: A computer!

He’d bought a used computer that could access the internet! I was super stoked! Set it up, plugged it in, started and *pop* there was a sound that anyone who has ever heard it knows – a blown fuse.

I started by taking it all apart to find the fuse. It was not a pop in and out fuse, but an enclosed one soldered to the breadboard in the power supply unit. A few other things on the power supply were burned and tested bad. I considered trying to redo the power supply, but instead decided to use parts from two old computer bases we’d kept in hopes of fixing. I ended up with a power supply and a few other small things picked from the other two bases and voila! It worked!

The table looked a little messy with three computer innards scattered around.

It reminded me of my Daddy building custom computers in the ‘90s, when I was little more than an observer asking a million questions and occasionally handing something to Daddy. When it worked, I was super stoked.

Now I can access the internet from home again!

It is a slow giant (was originally too fast for the power supply I put in, but I fixed that) but that’s still okay! Nothing has to be super fast for me. The fact that it puts text up on the screen at the same speed I type is a major improvement over the last desktop computer we had! The previous base had lagged a little. I would be typing and it was a few words behind in the displaying of said words or sometimes when I was really into it, sentences behind. It used to make Christina and Becky laugh when my computer did that.

Now, I have a working internet computer that loads everything I need! Another thing I’m thankful for!

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

My New Gym!

August 22, 2019

Our New Gym!

Have you ever moved?

YES! I can remember 19 different homes in my early years. My husband and I have shifted houses 10 times in almost 17 years.

I am intimately aware of moving.

I know just how many boxes can fit in a 5×8 moving trailer. I can look at your furniture and see it morphing into place inside a moving van like blocks in Tetris – just with some blankets and pillows strategically placed here and there for padding.

WGV Gymnastics (which yes, I call “my gym” even though it’s not mine, I coach there… but I love it!) just moved from their old facility to the new one at 135 Center Place Way, Saint Augustine, in World Golf Village area. (They literally moved across the pond!)

We helped with loading a trailer and cleaning. Our monster was the pit – do you know how many giant trash bags are needed to clean out 15,000+ 6”x6”x6” foam pit blocks? We have no clue, but it’s upwards of 500. And that doesn’t count those wrapped up in the tarp!

Our new facility has amazing new equipment, huge cooling fans, the climbing rope (Kimberly’s favorite), and I can’t wait to teach classes in the new preschool area! Our after-school program is very nice. We have two vans that pick children up from area schools. (Mill Creek, Pacetti Bay, and Palencia Elementary, to name a few – check with the office if you want to find out if your school is covered!) In this program, you can pick which days you need pick up, and your students will have assistance with homework, crafts and games to entertain them, and snacks while they wait for you to pick them up! Since we are a gymnastics facility, the bonus to the program is access to specified gymnastics classes.

Dozens of people helped out in this massive move. Teamwork. That’s why I only know a small facet of the whole picture.

We finished by sorting all the blocks into good, bad, and ugly. Good went to the new pit, bad to be shredded to make new mats, and ugly to the trash bin. Our teamwork system was separated into groups of various sizes doing specific tasks: One pulled bags up out of the pit, one opened bags, one put good blocks neatly into uHaul boxes, one bagged up the bad & trashed the ugly, and one took “train cars” (aka uHaul boxes loaded with pit blocks) to the door to wait for the “engine” (aka the truck to the new gym).

Lucas and Jillian loaded the bags out with a rope (before it got reassigned to another task) while Kimberly tosses bags up to be sorted! This teamwork went on for hours.

While I only know the pit blocks intimately during this move, I am super excited for the new facility and our growth from here out. Come and see us at 135 Center Place Drive at WGV Gymnastics!

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Watching Fish

Interesting colorful “feeder” goldfish in the girls’ community tank.

August 17, 2018

Watching Fish

Becky and Kimberly have a little tank in which they keep trying to grow fish.

Once, (after collecting fish slowly over about a year) they had about a dozen Platys (live-bearing freshwater fish) in four different varieties with two plecostomus (bottom-feeding suckermouth catfish) and two Siamese algae-eaters (bottom-dwelling freshwater fish). It was a very colorful tank. They had plants in the top and bottom levels for hiding places (needed for baby fish).

Lucas watched them feed the fish about three times a day. One day, he dumped a mega can of fish food in the water. Although they tried to save the fish, unfortunately, only a few recovered. Lucas watched them “Save” the fish with the fishnet and thought he could replicate this with a milk cup. We found the remaining three Platys floating in the milk cup.

The tank became a water plant tank for a month or so. (They slowly saved up money for new fish.)

A few weeks ago, Becky and Jillian bought some colorful feeder goldfish and feeder minnows to join Ooh (the remaining Plecostomus who had hidden in the shark decoration for over a week so they were super surprised when he was seen in the “plant tank!”).

The tank has Nemo and the big shark in it, along with some other Nemo stuff, a unicorn laying against the wall like she’s sleeping, a snail, and beach shells (I do not know why the unicorn lives underwater).

The little goldfish have animal names like “Tiger” and “Gazelle.”

They have beautiful coloring!

Aren’t animals amazing? The girls love watching the interaction between the fish (and, they are so funny sometimes!) and play-talking what they are saying. These conversations go something like this:

“Tiger: Food! Food! That tall giant is feeding us that flat stuff that looks like dead leaves but tastes gourmet!”

“Gazelle: You actually eat that?”

“Tiger: (while chomping away) Yummy yummy yummy!”

“Ooh: Why don’t you hide from the giant things?”

“Gazelle: Only the hyper one.”

“Tiger: The hyper one? It isn’t as scary as the smudgy black one.”

At this point I laughed at Becky’s monologue. “Becky, what is the smudgy black one? I get Lucas is the hyper giant.”

“Mom,” Becky laughs and points at the fishtank. Prim (Christina’s 4-year-old Aussie Mix) is standing in her new favorite spot between the fishtank and the couch.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Tag: giant

Computer Gift

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My New Gym!

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Watching Fish

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