The Time Sink

Good morning or good grief, your call... Me? I know my dad and I used to spend the occasional weekend in the mountains around here, sleeping on frames made from two by fours slung with cut up inner tubes from car tires (yeah, there's a memory for you). ...and slit trenches (there's another). But I think my sons will have to visit John one summer to learn the finer points of camping from a true master of the art...

General business: I changed the redirector at the root entry to this part of the site to a more automatic version; you shouldn't even be aware of the transition to the current page. I've been testing something similar over on the alternate site's archives links and it seems to be working well enough in IE, Netscape and Konqueror to give it a go over here. If anyone has a problem with it, drop me a line and I'll check into it a little further.

I've also corrected last week' links to the trip page; there will be enough there to warrant its own directory, so I might as well deal with it early on. Currently, pics of the circus trees and the waterfalls are up; I'll add more in this week, likely the flowers and the rides. ...and a special section of what happened when Shelley made yet another attempt at getting The Perfect Picture for The Christmas Card.

Three days in a row and the cardiovascular system is showing green lights across the board! OTOH, the legs have one or two ambers still showing. OTGH, the respiratory system is starting to come back on line...

One or two more nights and I'll move things back to my normal 'short route' and work that one for a time. Last night's blading was on the extended "too short to be worth it" route, but I did it for time and that worked out okay.

...and I'd better get things going soon: the diviners of chicken entrails (specifically those surprised by the thunderstorms last night) say our days of mid-nineties are gone for a time; we're supposed to be hitting 104 for a while starting in just another day or so...

I ended up watching some of the TV news last night after Shelley said, "I really wish you had seen that last article; you could have explained it to me." Huh???

"Yep, some guy was going to work at this computer place and asked who the guy was waiting for him was. His eyes got real big when he said he was from Microsoft." "Then the police showed up." Umm... Local? "Yeah..."

Okay, that meant nearly an hour wait for the next newscasts...

Yepper, it seems that one of the local hole-in-the-wall outfits had been saving everyone a few bucks on new machines by using their one copy of Windows 98 a few more times than is legal. Like lots more times. ...and the sign shown on one channel advertised: XP available now on select machines.

It's official: I have Summer's Disease...

Gotta' be... Why else would I fail to take advantage of the family being gone to Vacation Bible School three nights so far this week. I mean, like, you know, like, the kitchen table is just sitting there ready for a rebuild on the NT box. ...or waiting to steady the firewall case whilst I stuff it with old parts. ...or even, nah; not even.

No, I'm off blading (back up to the normal 'short track' last night!) or planting flowers and gardening instead of geeking out.

I admit to being totally ready for Friday this week. ...and mostly due to work: I have one project that I've been trying to get untracked on all week that keeps getting pushed back due to other "more important" issues that keep coming up. Nah, that's enough of that; you've heard that rant before...

...and the home gig's been working out well enough: this week I've managed to blade four nights out of five (I hit the short speed route yesterday; that may have been a little too early in the rehab. Ibuprofen is on the list for today); and, on the night off, I planted a thirty some odd flowers behind the pool. That'll do as a lead in to the weekend.

I suspect I'll drag out the lists and see what I can get started on. Bradley is scheduled in as Dad's Assistant while Daniel is at a party tomorrow; that sounds like a good time to fix a low-voltage fixture and evaluate some drip line.

Oh, and I did put up two more picture sets on the trip page; I still have another section or two to post before I add some explanatory text. Maybe this weekend. ...although I have another concept page to put together for the church site.

Sheesh. First, I find out that some of the full-sized pics didn't make it up to the server for the trip page (since fixed), but then I managed to lose about a week's worth of Blog (the week of Shelley's birthday) when I went to archive that site earlier tonight. I recovered that okay, but I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Yeah, staying with the minimalist approach to the weekend: I ended up going back to bed and sleeping until noon. ...and still had a headache. I must have been in the sun too much Saturday... I didn't think I'd pushed myself too far, but I guess that wasn't the case.

But I still ended up in the "outside living room" barbecueing chicken. I tried for a smoked flavor this time and it worked out well for a first try. Four hours at 250F and that was just enough to give it a light flavor. Of course the infidels and their mother drenched the finished product in BBQ Sauce! I just put chunks into a bun and sat back and enjoyed the nuances of the flavoring.

...and I promised you a link: Okay, how about Linux on Big Iron? That's a story that ties in well with the IBM Linux references you've seen on other Daynotes sites this week. It overviews how corporations like Rubbermaid, Korean Air and Winnebago are using IBM mainframes running Linux to handle scheduling, network management and email under Linux.

...email? You thought things had ended when HP caved and bailed on Openmail? How about Bynari? I don't know, but Winnebago seems to like it. Groupware and email at a reasonable price?