Where Did the Graphics and the Colors Go?

One of the factors about living in a co-op RV park like ours is the concept that everyone is expected to participate in some part of making sure the park runs well. That's why, two years ago, Suzy and I volunteered to be part of the Propane Committee. During the season (October to March) I help with the pumping part, and Suzy works as cashier. At least she did the first year. Last year her shoulder surgery and other problems had her sidelined. We hope she can return to work this year, as she really enjoys it.


While it is not strictly part of the Co-op, we also are involved with the SKP Chapter 21 activities. Suzy is the Treasurer and Membership Officer, and I am the Editor of "Saguaro Signs," the Chapter newsletter.


Another area we work in is making computer generated displays and decorations. We started four years ago by making table tent cards for the Thanksgiving potluck dinner. There are two cards for each of ten long tables, plus a matching card for the food table.


What happens at the holiday potlucks is that everyone signs up for a specific table; for some tables it's the "in group," for some it's a few couples who want to sit together, and for the rest it's just who can fit into a couple of open spots on a sign-up sheet.


The Clubhouse Committee liked those Thanksgiving table cards so much, they asked for another set for the Christmas potluck. So we designed and printed 30 more cards! At that point, the Clubhouse Committee designated us as "ex officio" members, which means we don't have to go to meetings, just do graphics.


The next assignment was some "theme" cards for a Valentines Day party, and then several other assorted projects.


Recently we had been looking through the park's decorating supplies and found that there were only four of the original eight Valentines Day cards left.


I guess some of the loving couples had taken souvenirs. So I started looking in my computer files for those cards so we could print some more. They were not on my primary computer, the laptop in the casita!


Well, we have three different computers currently active, and one more old one stuck up in the closet. I started going through all four of them, finally finding all of the cards scattered about. I decided to copy all of them to a single DVD to put into my archive book.


What I found then was that,when I copied some of the Thanksgiving table cards, five of them had lost the main graphic and the background color had changed to a pale blue! Where had the graphics gone? Why had the color changed? I tried re-saving those cards, with the same effect, even though in the original software I could bring them up just as they were supposed to be!


Now our friend Rick of Rick & Paulette's RV Travels is a master computer guru, and I'm sure he's already got it figured out. But I wanted to do it myself this time.


I still don't know what happened to the graphics and the colors. What I do know is that it only took me about 20 minutes to go back and recreate the cards with the original colors and the original graphics and to save them with a different name. The problem had occurred when I copied them from the desktop computer in the house to the DVD. When I took the DVD back out to the laptop in the casita, the newly recreated files worked just fine.

So, now we'll print the other Valentine's cards to complete one set. Next we'll have to contact the Clubhouse Committee people (when they get back from their summer travels) to see the status of the Thanksgiving and Christmas table cards, and do what is necessary to rebuild that project.


For all you folks out there wondering if I'm a real fancy graphic designer, heck no. I use an inexpensive piece of software you can buy at Costco, Staples, or other shops, called Printshop. I'm currently using their version 23 (having started years ago with version 5 or 7 or somewhere in the single digits).


So that's part of what we do living in the co-op park during ... Our Life on Wheels.