The Time Sink

Let's recap for those keeping score and those checking up on things from Shelley's site: the furniture is all shoved/piled/stacked in the middle of the living room. The walls in the entry, living room, hall and one bathroom are as bare as Mother Hubbard's pantry. Shelley's computer has a newer CDROM installed and ready for duty this evening to install software for the soccer club's newest 'Equipment Manager', so chosen since she has a geek for a husband and they needed someone with a computer. The loan papers for the new van (what? you haven't been keeping up?) should be ready today (the van is supposed to be ready in another few days). ...and the carpet people have confirmed for next week. Homework from the weekend is complete with more forecast for later this week (severe homework weather is expected for the weekend). Baseball will take place as scheduled this evening; furniture replacement may be delayed due to soccer software installation. The TV is still unplugged; medication may be needed soon for the two short people. It is a priority. ...of sorts. We'll still be eating on the patio as we don't see much sense in putting the living room back in the living room from its current storage space in the dining area due to The Carpet People, as noted above.

Hell week continues... The painters are in and out; it's time to vacuum and clean a little, just enough to make the place liveable. Oh, and plug the TV back in so we can take the kids off the book therapy they've been on for Two Whole Days, Dad!!! Loan papers signed. Soccer threw me a curve last night when they supplied a hosed floppy for the second of two updates. I think I'll burn one clean CD for the next poor schmoe when I get a good set of files. ...and on and on.

Heh, that was written early this morning and never posted. ...and events continued apace during the day and well into the evening as the soccer software installation saga continued. But there's a geek story in there about how Tux almost saved the day...

Hey, let's start the day off with birthday greetings to the head Daynotes Grinch! Way cool, Brian; yet another banner year under your belt...

...and while we're over in the land of the penguinistas, I'll add in some comments as a not-so-prominent Daynoter: I use Linux on a day to day basis for the bulk of my operations at home. ...on a testbed that I haven't stripped down for nearly a year. ...with the KDE libraries hosed to the point I have to run under Gnome. ...and still under the original RedHat 7.1 install.

...and it's still doing the Energizer bunny thing. Email? Kmail. Webposts? Bluefish. FTP? gFTP. Browser? Konqueror. CDs? X-CD Roast. Graphics? Back to the land of Adobe on Windows 'cause I'm slow on that part of the learning curve. OpenOffice? Yeah, but in truth not much right now.

This portion of my domain is managed almost totally under Linux. All email comes though Tux first. ...and most all starts from here. Am I on the cutting edge? Heck no. Can I add in a program? Usually. Can I ssh from here to Canada to Seattle to Sunnyvale to my office to view a web page? Um, no. ...but that's a 'not yet', not a 'never'. ...but last night when the soccer guy ran back to his house for some files and came back with a ZIP disk, it was a matter of minutes to burn the files from the ZIP to CD on Tux (Shelley's machine is off the network while it's in the kitchen. ...and I admit I did think about dropping in a wireless NIC <g>).

So. Functionality is directly related to the programs needed. If I had to have Word or Excel up nightly, I'd likely learn to use OpenOffice more. As it is, I just don't have a huge need. Graphical stuff is happening more and more on Tux, but Wolf still has the programs I know how to work with. Mail is gone from the Windows boxes except for some convenience uses. Browsing is mostly on Tux because of the way some site's comments boxes operate: it's just easier for me.

Sure, I have the luxury of a second machine (and others), but I also ran things in tandem as I learned what worked for me. ...and it is a bear to come to work in the morning to find that highlighted items are no longer a double-click away from being pasted <g>. As usual, YMMV; but the penguins in your mirror are closer than they appear...

A Shelley update for those checking in from her site: The painting thing went okay, although we are still not allowed in the house for fear that someone will touch the walls and leave a mark of some sort. I've slung hammocks in the trees in the back yard to sleep in; and so far no one has fallen out of one into the pool. The only problem has been with the doves who seem to be bothered by our intrusion into what they seem to consider 'bird space'. So far, we've been able to find a mutually attractive solution. ...except for that one young dove who wants Brad to stay in her nest.

...and the car situation should be under control by Friday afternoon. The old van from hell is cleaned out and ready for the exchange; but the process of having a flatbed tow truck come by to load the van on board every time Shelley wants to go somewhere is a bit of a bother. The drivers don't mind, but yesterday a bug hit the windshield and we're worried if that will affect the trade in value. I think she'll be happy when she can actually drive something again without having to worry too much about damage...

All in all, the disaster we call a home is moderately triaged out. ...and the one at work now has me at least able to start clearing the mess since all the problems have at least been accounted for. But I will tell you I'll be glad for the weekend!

Cruisin' on a Friday evening... Well, Saturday morning <g>. The work week is over and things ended up much better than they started out. ...and the biggie research project I had to have done had its breakthrough late Thursday. That let me get those ducks lined up in the shooting gallery early today and allowed Janeen and me to take some shots at them this afternoon...

On the home front, the new van is in the garage and the carpet is backed off a week due to concerns about the weather. ...and Shelley's computer is finally back where it lives, so I'll let her take over those reports once again. There's lots to do this weekend; I'll check in as time allows...

Coastal weather here... Yeah, passing strange. Usually this time of year we're fretting about how long summer will seem when we've been hammered with heat so early, but this year spring has flip-flopped so often I've lost track.

When I got to work and was parking the car Thursday morning, one of the support staff said, "You are going to roll your windows up, aren't you? There's rain forecast for this afternoon." Excuse me? I was leaving them cracked some since it's been close to ninety and the car is darned hot in the afternoon. Well, it didn't rain during the day, but the cloud cover was most impressive as it came and went. The forecasts from the net were changing hourly and decided to bag blading and hit the store after dinner in lieu of my usual Friday night run. ...but then, when I came home from the store, there was still some light left and the air had that 'pre-storm' ozone tang to it, and I took to the streets anyway. ...and that was a wild ride: the winds were swirling as the storm moved in and I had to work some to maintain my pace as the headwinds and tailwinds shifted in mid-block. ...but still nothing wet from sky.

Ah, but Friday morning when we got up it was obvious there'd been a bit of a storm: leaves and small branches were scattered about and the concrete was wet even under the tree canopies. The forecasters were now going for afternoon clearing, so I took my umbrella along to work <g>. ...and the entire day was like someone had moved the coast inland 150 miles: we had some rain, some light fog, some misting rain/fog; and the sun never broke through until late afternoon. ...and I was real glad I'd bladed Thursday because the streets near home were soaked from a late afternoon downpour.

Today is starting off the same way... We aren't supposed to have any rain, but the cloud cover is keeping things cool and the air is heavy with moisture. ...and where the forecast last night was for perhaps some rain on Monday and temperatures in the high eighties once again, this morning's guess is now calling for rain throughout the week and temps in the seventies...

I did something last night that I rarely do anymore: I pulled a disconnect on the telco line around 2100 and went to bed and read for a while. By 2200, I was out.

'Course, something like that disrupts nearly the entire household: Shelley ended up with a pillow over her head to block the light from my reading lamp (she was still out in her usual forty-two seconds); Daniel just didn't know what to do since he thinks it is impossible for parents to go to sleep before children; and the cats were totally confused by the lights off routine. ...especially RunTunTun: when he saw his catbox headed down the hall, he just sprinted for a hiding place (I caught him later).

...and I didn't even get into any heavy reading; I just finished the latest Zits comic compilation and started on the new Get Fuzzy.

So... No internet, no catching up, no email, no phone calls, no tech stuff, no tech reading, no geeking out...

Of course, there is a price to pay for going to bed too early: I was wide awake at 0230. ...but turning over worked and I got a second night's worth of sleep (and a nap) before I had to get up to get ready for church this morning. ...and I owe on email, and catching up, and phone calls, and tech stuff, and internet and tech reading, and some other things.