The Time Sink

Hey there. We're back. Oh, you didn't know we even left? So sad. Well, we'll all get over it soon enough...

How can that be? Well, simply put, we're in town for this week and leaving again on Saturday. Whoohoo. This time it's to the coast for a week. Oh, yeah. Do the dance... Dig the holes... Have a margarita... Read a book... Have some down time?

No, I'm not at all exited about the thought at all. I was too tense to really enjoy this weekend, so I think I'll try to survive the workweek and get out of Dodge for a few days...

Well now, that was a most interesting Monday <g>! Before I left last Thursday, I'd lined up all my ducks in a neat little row so I could knock them over one at a time as soon as I got in. Heh. They're knocked over all right. ...from all the stuff that hit when I got in. Sheesh. At least I'll have something to do today...

Man, I need to find some time this week to find the laptop and the other stuff for connectivity at the coast! I don't do much online during the day when we're there, but in the evenings I live by the web as the gang watches TV.

...and right now I can't even tell which HDD is loaded in the thing. ...or where the modem is. Hey! I can count that as 'packing up stuff from the library', can't I? Cool...

I spent last night gathering up the nesting materials for Kitfox's den while he's at the coast. Man, stuff was scattered everywhere! But it looks like I found it all. Battery one should be charged by now; #2 will charge this evening. ...and I found the little oddball cable that connects the PCMCIA modem to the phone jack <g>! Most importantly, I had a visual lock on the HDD that's labeled "Coast-Gold"! Heh. No matter what I have loaded, that drive will bail me out and let me email and surf (real basically, I think I only have IE4 on it) and post...

...and this may be Kitfox's last year at the beach. He's a P-120 and a bit long of tooth for anything but basic work. Since we may only be over once this year, I'm not sweating it; but it's past time to upgrade some software and he just doesn't have the jets to handle the new stuff. OTOH, I think he's currently running Linux; I may leave that on and see how the Gimp fares with graphics.

Hey, thanks to everyone who wrote Shelley and told her "Happy Birthday!" She seemed to enjoy the notes from near and far. Yeah! ...and I'm sure she'll post about her day, so I'll defer my comments unless she lays low about it <g>...

...and laying low is what I need to keep doing this week. I'm getting things done, but it's hard to get ahead as new stuff flies in the door. Sheesh.

...but this year, I've been real careful not to let people know I'm going on vacation; so far it's worked out better: I'm not being flooded with 'can you handle this right away!' items. Now, they'll just show up when I get back as the normal crisis.

That's it for the week from the central valley; tomorrow's post will simply be a check in from about 300 yards from the Pacific ocean (+/- the tide).

...and today it seemed like everyone knew I was leaving and had an agenda!. ...and I was the one to deal with their perceived crisis and/or problem. Mostly I just dug in and handled it, but one or two them got spindled big time. ...and one of the major ones (a bid decision) got placed on hold until I get back (yep, I notified the vendors!). <sigh>

So, there'll be a stack waiting when I get back, but I really could care less about now. The bags are mostly packed and I may even load the car tonight. Kitfox is ready for a test run to the dialup in SLO and that will be all I have to do this evening. Cool.

Made it! Even though we slept in a bit (that's after eight for us), we still didn't push it getting out of town: we didn't leave until sometime after noon. Shelley likes my 'leave when you're ready; we're on vacation' system: I just can't see getting in a rush and all stressed to go relax and have fun! So, we don't set a timetable and we leave when we leave and get in when we get there...

...and there is here. ...and the family is in bed. ...and the ocean waves are breaking just a few hundred feet away. ...and the sound is so relaxing sitting upstairs and looking out at the lights from the pier as they reflect off the water. Yeah, for a change, I'm about half wound down. Usually I can't shake the world for several days.

Could be because it's been a good anniversary for Shelley and me. Yeah, twelve years ago today... (Yes, ladies, a card and a charm for her bracelet <g>...)

Interesting morning here on the daily and geek side of life...

The problem: two connectivity glitches last night and an inability to reconnect this morning after I pulled the mail.

The tools: Full account information on the system, one cell phone with an earbud, one PDA with contact info (not used in years; I am real happy with Worldnet), and paper and pencil (hey, sometimes the best backup!)...

The solution: I routinely ignore certain errors from Dial-Up Networking (such as "check your password") since I know that's a canned answer to most of the hiccups that happen. ...and I hadn't made any changes to the system, so I didn't really think the problem was on my end. Bonus points: connectivity through Outlook gave me a slightly different answer: the domain didn't like the username/password combo. Bingo!

You see, I could clearly hear the connection take. ...and the base negotiation went fine. So the failure was at the PPP level. Okay, off to the level one dude or dudette for the day. Turns out Glen had the duty. ...and didn't play the reboot/reinstall Redmond game; once he caught on that I had all my account information handy, we just checked it off and moved on...

...and move on we did. ...to another dialup in another city a little further down the coast. Bingo #2! Connectivity, albeit with a Rockwell chipset modem bank, but heck, I was back on line. ...and Mr. Glen had a slightly different trouble ticket to deal with, one to do with the modem bank in San Luis Obispo!. Heh. ...and it turns out he attended college about ten miles down the road. Small world...