The Time Sink

Hokay, no rain for a bit... But cold and windy? ...at least it was yesterday in the late afternoon. The comment last night about a story to go along with the blading worked out like this: Since I was trying to wake up and decided blading while still comatose was a bad idea, I figured it would be a good time to change my wheels out. I had plenty of sunshine left and the wind had died down rather nicely. Cool... Time to move back to the 76mm wheels I prefer.

Not cool... As I changed the wheels over, I noticed I wasn't getting the 'spin' I liked from the new ones. Sometimes that can be from too much tension on the bolts, and sometimes it means the form factor for the wheels simply will not work with this particular frame. No matter, things usually loosen up once I'm on the road.

Not! Uphill, upwind, pulling a trailer? I don't think so... I made it three houses before I realized there was something seriously wrong. Okay, back home to regroup (Bradley, "Back so soon, Dad?")... I took one wheel off and looked it over. ...and compared it to the ones I'd removed. ...and changed out the bearing sets and spacer. ...and looked again. ...and took out the micrometer and started measuring. ...'cause these new wheels were about 2mm slimmer than the old ones (same brand, different diameter). ...and being slimmer meant the bearing protruded that same distance from the wheel. ...and made contact with the rocker inserts in the frame. Sheesh.

Time to change back to the old wheels. ...in time for the sun to be setting as the winds came up once again <g>.

Man, that's two nights this week I've been up too late working on projects... That's okay though, I'm learning new stuff and breaking new ground. ...at least for me. Last night involved a combination of graphics work and formatting a web page in XML. Overall, I think think things turned out okay; I'll know more after a couple of co-conspirators get back to me. ...and after Worldnet gets the ftp servers back up.

...and today I'm hoping the servers stay up at the work site; yesterday started off poorly since I couldn't get to the net to research or order or to the purchasing database. Hmmm, maybe move that sucker over to the old box that's going to become a Linux server when all is said and done? There's a thought: local administration. ...and there's precedent set with the finance database. Double hmmmm...

It's still windy! What's up with that? Translation: no blading tonight... Yeah, I've heard the suggestion: just head on out and have Shelley pick me up a few miles downwind. Okay, but she'd make me ride on the luggage rack on the way back since I'd have managed to work up sweat anyway...

I knew we'd have some wind coming: the weather report promised a ten degree drop in temperature today. ...and you don't get that overnight without moving some serious air! ...but the expected fifteen mile an hour winds turned into at least thirty-five mph stuff around 2300 and those kept up most of the night. This morning things died down; but it's been picking up steadily all day long.

The only plus side I see to things is that I should be able to jump on homework with Daniel as soon as I get home. Hey! Maybe I can actually have something resembling an 'evening with the family'...

Heh! Also could be, "A learning we will go..." In any case, I ended up blue-screening Tux last night! Yeah, can't happen. Umm. Sure can. I guess the herring supply ran a little low or something. 'Course, it couldn't have had anything to do with the twenty or so instances of Konqueror I have open at any given time. ...or the other six or eight programs I leave running. ...or the fact that it's really just a testbed installation that I never bothered to take down 'cause It Just Worked. Good grief, I'm Aunt Minnie!

So, what to do??? Well, Wolf can handle the work load well enough once I configure an email client (yeah, faithful readers will be nodding their heads and thinking, "Isn't that a test bed also?" ...and they'd be correct). ...and I spoke with Brian today to check into what options I had...

Oh, yeah, what happened? Well, at some point, I must have hit critical mass: I realized I wasn't seeing a task bar any longer; all I had was one of the console windows. Hmmm... I've been down this road before... Close that program... Yep, gFTP is up (close it); Advanced Editor is up (close it); Bluefish is up (close it). ...and that's all for that desktop; none of the four instances of Konqueror that belong up in that desktop are there. ...and I cannot get to the other desktops; I cannot reach a console; I cannot get anywhere to re-log in! Argggh... This one could be bad...

But, not to worry; it's happened before and a hard boot or two usually gets things back in fine mettle. (...and no, I didn't remember how to or even if I could, kill the X-server; that could have saved me the next little bit). So I kill power to the machine, and restart it while I go in search of some ice and some herring. Cool! Look: a login screen. Hey, hey; once again I've dodged a bullet. Deedeedoo. Log in and watch things not come up. Crud: lost the session. Phooey; there were a coupla' sites I hadn't put up on Whitenoise yet.

Ah, well. Time to resume work. Fire up Konqueror. No go: locked machine. Reboot: relogin; try Kmail. No go: locked machine. Bleah....

When last we left our hero... Ummm. Yeah, where was I? Oh, yes: with a machine that would boot all the way in to KDE but would lock up when I called Kmail or Konqueror...

So I called Brian. I figured worst case I could reinstall RedHat ...and I was feeling rather smug 'cause I had all the goodies safely (+/-) on a /home partition. But, learning is good, so I went to the mountain to talk with the guru.

Two pieces of advice, given to me, they were... Item the first, "you may be hosed, dude" (paraphrased <g>). Item the second, instructions on how to change my run level, back up 'etc', and load the needed rpms.

...and that got me to thinking: how do I know which rpms I need? ...and is that any less frustrating than a reinstall? Hmmm... Time to color outside the box...

Ya' know... That was a kitchen sink install. I wonder if Gnome is available. Reboot; relogin; Gnome... Maybe since it alliterates like that cold Alaskan city, Tux will come out and play...

Umm, yeah. Konqueror comes up (with bookmarks intact); Kmail works (settings A-Ok); gFTP? Yep! Bluefish? Sure. Analog? Ah, here's something interesting: some things aren't available... Hmmm. Okay. So. The programs are basically intact. That looks like I have a problem with KDE. Okay... Grab the rpms for the latest KDE at work and...

Ummm... Pepsi Twist and Red Bull, jump start of champions! Time will tell whether that beats other concoctions to get me moving. Breakfast first; and then maybe take advantage of the quiet to get a few things done.

Things are still good with Tux the Gnomer. I thought I'd be posting here from a Windows box, but that hasn't happened; the last few days have been cool enough under Gnome. Now to either reload the KDE rpms or see about a download while I'm working outside.

Okay! We have a gentle rain falling here. I'm sooo glad... WT? Well, I didn't realize how much the combination of the job and the evening homework routine took out of me this past week until yesterday...

I'd planned on spending Friday night working on some site stuff until 0'dark30, but I found I was too tired (mentally and physically) to manage anything past 0100. ...and then, Daniel and Shelley took turns waking me up the rest of the night, likely because they were excited about the yard sale routine coming up in the morning). <Sigh>.

...and then I ended up getting up anyway and trying to make a day of it. Bleah. No stamina. ...and last night, I just said the heck with it and went to bed with none of my usual late night shenanigans with the net crowd.

That's not a whine, by the way; just more a less a rationalization for welcoming the rain. That will force me to stay inside and relax rather than blading and weeding and other outside activities...