Letters From Home

The cable internet connection is very, very flaky this afternoon.  Somehow, reminding myself “at least it’s not dialup” doesn’t make me any the less irritated thereby.  Probably because I pay the bills and I know how much the cable company is gouging us for every month.  At those prices, it oughta work.

I was wondering this afternoon what we’ll do when our trusty call-blocking Caller ID boxes finally give up the ghost.  Nobody makes Caller ID boxes like that any more, as far as I can tell.  I suppose the next best thing would be to get another Fry’s bargain-basement no-name Linux box and set it up as a call director, or add that into the one we already have, since it’s on all the time (although we’d definitely have to get a larger hard drive for it if so).  I’m sure there must be software out there that can answer the phone, tell the caller they’re not welcome, and hang up on them (besides being a straight-up answering machine).  We even have an extra external voice modem to contribute to the cause, although making it work under Linux might be problematical.

We used to have a great two-line answering machine that let us have several different customized outgoing messages, had three mailboxes (we only used one, but at least the other two were there), and read us caller’s phone numbers if they appeared on the Caller ID.  I think it was made by GE.  Alas, it gave up the ghost, and that was something else I couldn’t find again anywhere, not even on eBay.  Just try to find a two-line answering machine of any kind, as a matter of fact–I guess either having two phone lines is less popular than it once was, or having one machine answer both lines is out of favor, or something.  We had to replace that one machine with two separate machines that aren’t nearly as versatile as the one they replaced. At the time we bought the replacements we thought it didn’t matter about the machine on the second phone line; that machine could be as cheap as possible (and it is) because we never answered that phone.  However, I’ve come to the conclusion that that phone number is better to give out than my pager number (I think after this year’s subscription is done, I’m canceling the pager) so I’m back to the “could we use a cheap computer as a call director” consideration again.

We were late adopters of a lot of (nowadays) common-garden technology because we had to wait for the price to come down.  Poverty had its benefits, though, because by the time we’d saved up for gizmos like an answering machine and a VCR, we were able to buy a much better one for a much lower price than when we’d first decided we wanted it.  I’m still a firm believer in not buying version 1.0 of anything, even though we can afford it now.

I still haven’t worked on the put-the-flash-drive-into-the-Lego-brick project.  The little container of Legos and the flash drive have been sitting on my desk looking at me for quite some time now.  Of course, now that I have a PanaVise, that job will be a lot easier.  I just haven’t decided on the best way to install the PanaVise on my work table.  Or the best location for it, for that matter.  I also need to figure out how to install my bench pin, since the frame of the work table is way too thick for the clamp for that.  At least I know where I want to put it.

Corollary:  Everybody and their dog seems to have flash drives on sale for next to nothing these days.  I keep eyeing them in the ads.  But I’ve got three of the silly things already and not even the 256 meg one is half full.  I wish my old Toshiba had USB, because the combination of a small, light laptop and a USB drive to securely store my writing on would be a winner.  The HP is a glorious machine, and I’m forever grateful to Blink for giving it to me, but we both know, portable it ain’t.The cable internet connection is very, very flaky this afternoon.  Somehow, reminding myself “at least it’s not dialup” doesn’t make me any the less irritated thereby.  Probably because I pay the bills and I know how much the cable company is gouging us for every month.  At those prices, it oughta work.

I was wondering this afternoon what we’ll do when our trusty call-blocking Caller ID boxes finally give up the ghost.  Nobody makes Caller ID boxes like that any more, as far as I can tell.  I suppose the next best thing would be to get another Fry’s bargain-basement no-name Linux box and set it up as a call director, or add that into the one we already have, since it’s on all the time (although we’d definitely have to get a larger hard drive for it if so).  I’m sure there must be software out there that can answer the phone, tell the caller they’re not welcome, and hang up on them (besides being a straight-up answering machine).  We even have an extra external voice modem to contribute to the cause, although making it work under Linux might be problematical.

We used to have a great two-line answering machine that let us have several different customized outgoing messages, had three mailboxes (we only used one, but at least the other two were there), and read us caller’s phone numbers if they appeared on the Caller ID.  I think it was made by GE.  Alas, it gave up the ghost, and that was something else I couldn’t find again anywhere, not even on eBay.  Just try to find a two-line answering machine of any kind, as a matter of fact–I guess either having two phone lines is less popular than it once was, or having one machine answer both lines is out of favor, or something.  We had to replace that one machine with two separate machines that aren’t nearly as versatile as the one they replaced. At the time we bought the replacements we thought it didn’t matter about the machine on the second phone line; that machine could be as cheap as possible (and it is) because we never answered that phone.  However, I’ve come to the conclusion that that phone number is better to give out than my pager number (I think after this year’s subscription is done, I’m canceling the pager) so I’m back to the “could we use a cheap computer as a call director” consideration again.

We were late adopters of a lot of (nowadays) common-garden technology because we had to wait for the price to come down.  Poverty had its benefits, though, because by the time we’d saved up for gizmos like an answering machine and a VCR, we were able to buy a much better one for a much lower price than when we’d first decided we wanted it.  I’m still a firm believer in not buying version 1.0 of anything, even though we can afford it now.

I still haven’t worked on the put-the-flash-drive-into-the-Lego-brick project.  The little container of Legos and the flash drive have been sitting on my desk looking at me for quite some time now.  Of course, now that I have a PanaVise, that job will be a lot easier.  I just haven’t decided on the best way to install the PanaVise on my work table.  Or the best location for it, for that matter.  I also need to figure out how to install my bench pin, since the frame of the work table is way too thick for the clamp for that.  At least I know where I want to put it.

Corollary:  Everybody and their dog seems to have flash drives on sale for next to nothing these days.  I keep eyeing them in the ads.  But I’ve got three of the silly things already and not even the 256 meg one is half full.  I wish my old Toshiba had USB, because the combination of a small, light laptop and a USB drive to securely store my writing on would be a winner.  The HP is a glorious machine, and I’m forever grateful to Blink for giving it to me, but we both know, portable it ain’t.

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You have not lived until you’ve tried to sneeze into a CPAP mask going full blast.  Yuck.  That’s the way I started my day today and it hasn’t gotten much better since.  I hope I’m not turning into one of those crabby old bats who turns having a cold into an excuse to give everyone what-for all day.

A calico cat who follows up a hiss at her brother with a hiss at her human may very well find herself airborne when she least expects it.

A big fat lump o’cat who ends up on his person’s bed at who-knows-when-o’clock in the morning had better darn WELL purr his head off when his person’s mom comes to rescue him at breakfast time.  (His person’s brother better do a better job of making sure the door is firmly closed from now on, too)

The library finally came through with the copy of Inspired Cable Knits that I’ve been waiting months to get my hands on.  There’s a sweater in there that I’ve just about mustered up the gumption to try, even though it’s a far more complex pattern than I’ve ever attempted before.  I was going to go over to Michaels and look at yarn, but figured I’d probably make everyone in the store sick, at this rate.  The ad makes it look like they’ve got better yarn on sale next week anyway.

Do slightly swollen lymph nodes under the jawline mean this is more than just a cold?  Bleah.  I don’t feel like cooking even Frozen Stuff From Trader Joe’s™ tonight.

Sigh.

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Haven’t posted for a while, I know.  I was hoping to come up with some kind of really new and interesting content, but life has been pretty much same-old-same-old for a while.

Although there have been some notable highlights.  F’zer and I celebrated our 34th anniversary.  We’re now ahead of my parents by a full seven years.  I’m doing well in my classes, I think, although neither subject is exactly a snap to master.  I’m on good terms with the teachers already, at least.

The weather is finally beginning to cool off, so I’m thinking seriously about starting to walk home from school.  It will be a pleasant route and good exercise.  I have a great backpack from the Duluth Trading Company and can carry all my assorted junk comfortably.  I also have a good sun hat, from the same place.  Don’t know yet whether I should invest in a folding cane.  I will have to try the walk at least once to see how it goes.  I will definitely order it from the Fashionable Canes web site if it turns out to be necessary.

Some ongoing irritants:  Man, am I tired of political ads, and it’s not even October yet, much less November.   I’m also getting tired of cleaning up cat urp, which is just about as noxious as the average politician’s blithering.

I wonder if the “el Niño” plus all the volcanic eruptions will give us a soggy winter this year?  I happen to like rain, but that’s because I grew up where there was rain.  I wouldn’t even mind walking home in it.

Got the video editing software installed and the manual printed out.  So many projects, so little time.  Also need to keep working on my writing, my web pages and my other blogs.  Is there enough time in any given day for all that?

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The upgrade went through without too much disruption.  Now, I need to put up a better home page, figure out my e-commerce options, and generally get this site going on the path to something more than a bunch of trivial filler.

I can do this.  Provided I don’t piddle away my days, of course.

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I’m going to be upgrading my web sites soon.  1&1 is offering me 25% off the next step up, and I’m going to take advantage of the offer (which is good through the end of the month, if anyone wants to click on the 1&1 logo on my home page and get the same offer on a new hosting package.

What this means is that there are likely to be some whoopsies, because I’m going to have to back everything up, then re-create everything on the upgraded site.  They don’t transfer content from package to package, alas.

I’ll probably do this over this coming weekend, so who knows how long the “can’t find that page” message will turn up…  with any luck, not long and not often.

Onward and upward!

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Today is one of those “I remember exactly what I was doing when it happened” days. There are quite a few of those in my life.

Some of them are good (Alan Shepard’s flight, hearing “The Eagle has landed” and watching Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon. seeing the very first transmissions from the surface of Mars) and some are not (the death of Apollo 1, the Kennedy and King assassinations, the Challenger explosion, and the day that will forever be known simply as 9/11).

Most of the good Remembrance Days have something in common: They were the result of careful thought, preparation, teamwork and planning. We-the-people had a goal, and when we reached that goal, we-the-people had reason to celebrate.

Most of the bad Remembrance Days have something in common as well: We were caught by surprise, and something awful happened because we-the-people never thought something like that could happen. If there were warnings, they were ignored in favor of business-as-usual. And any after-the-fact preparations have been sadly marked by ineptitude, a marked propensity for tilting at windmills, and a complete lack of vision and thinking-things-through.

The increased protections and precautions after the King and Kennedy assassinations did not prevent the attempts on the lives of Gerald Ford, George Wallace and Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s obsession with the Libyans didn’t keep Lockerbie safe or protect that barracks in Beirut. Fixing what killed Challenger did not save Columbia. And the ineptitude of our “national security” in the wake of 9/11 was broadcast for all the world to see when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gave us plenty of warning and still roared through areas without a plan. The rigmarole of airport security makes it appear as though we’re “doing something,” when in fact, Osama and the boys have demonstrated time and time again that they’re not stupid enough to try the same approach twice. When they hit us again, and they will, hijacked planes won’t figure into it.

Why can we not re-apply the kinds of preparation, planning and careful thought that took us to the moon? Probably because the moon landings were the work of scientists, while taking risks in the name of the almighty dollar, like our current “national security,” is in the hands of bean-counters and politicians.

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Things I want to do with the rest of my life, in no particular order:

• Learn to speak Spanish fluently
• Learn to fly a helicopter
• Take a trip up the Nile
• See a live volcano
• Set up my own jewelry-making workshop
• Visit all the places I lived when I was growing up
• Take my kids to London

That’s just off the top of my head.  I wonder how many I’ll be able to check off the list?

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First day of school today.

The good news:

• The Beeline gets me there in plenty of time, and it’s not even crowded enough that anyone has to stand.  Outbound, that is.
• Both my profs are very likable and interesting, at least on the first day.
• I am likely to stand out in both classes because I’m too old to be any of my classmates’ mom.
• I probably won’t have to carry my networking class book with me at all, which will free up both space and weight in my backpack.
• I already have quite a few of the items I need to buy for the welding class (although I will  have to look long and hard for my bifocal safety glasses) and I knew quite a few of the answers on the safety quiz we all had to fill out.
• I got my student ID today and bought the book I needed for the welding class even though the bookstore web site says there’s no book.
• The book cost $3.95 new.
• The GCC campus is bright, airy and easy to navigate once you make the mental stretch to fit the topography into the map.

The bad news:

• The networking class is right at the 10-person minimum limit, so if anyone drops we’re all in jeopardy.  Anyone want to sign up for a networking class?  The prof is very interesting and you can get Network+ certification if you pass the class.  And GCC’s prices are a bargain.
• My student ID picture looks like it was taken by a failing security camera…  at the morgue.
• My backpack just isn’t going to work for this.  I need to investigate getting a new one.
• I need to wear a long shirt, long pants and boots for the welding class.  That’s going to be a pain in the butt, especially when it comes to walking home (no way am I doing 4 miles in my boots) unless I can find a locker in the welding shop to claim.  I didn’t see any without locks on them today.
• The networking prof, interesting and experienced as he is, read the Powerpoint presentation off the screen word for word.
• There were enough seats for all the GCC riders to sit down, but I cannot BELIEVE how many kids the bus driver and the Hoover security guard allowed to cram on the bus.  I sat right by the back door but it still took me forever to wiggle through the kids to get out.  “Let the elderly out!” yelled one comedian.

All in all, though, I was feeling very upbeat after the day was done.  I hope things continue to go well for the rest of the semester.

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I was back on a college campus as a student today, for the first time since about 1980.  Classes don’t start till Thursday, but today was “new student day” and I wanted to see what the place had to offer to a new student.  Plus I needed to pick up my textbook (ordered via the bookstore web site last week) and turn in my little postcard in hopes of winning a prize.

Oh, and locate my classrooms so I wouldn’t be running around like crazy on Thursday, and test out the bus ride to see how long it takes to get me there and how much pre-class leeway I will have.

All went well, but it was already in the 90s when I arrived on campus just before 10am, so my plan to get my student ID picture taken today was put on hold.  As is customary for me under such circumstances, I was literally dripping sweat and I didn’t think the large wet spot on the front of my shirt should have its image captured in perpetuity.

I will wear a bandana on Thursday, since that will serve as a more fashionable sweatband and also keep my hair out of my face (I am growing out my hair, and it’s well into the “not the right length to do anything with” stage).

I specified a used textbook when I placed my order and was pleasantly surprised to see that the book is nearly new.  It’s almost like its previous owner didn’t open it much.  I plan to keep it, since it looks like it’ll be a good reference book, so having it in such good shape is a bonus.

I bought an insulated lunch bag on sale at Office Depot, of all places, choosing it for its backpack-friendly size and shape and its attached water bottle.  My first class is from 10:15 to 11:45 and my second class starts at 1, so there will be plenty of time for me to find a shady spot to eat my lunch (maybe in the adjacent park) and any leftover time I can surely spend in the library enjoying the air conditioning.  I’ll have to move right along on getting my student ID, though, so I can actually check out books.

Maybe it’s just the thought of being a student again, or maybe it’s the change I’m making in my medications, or maybe it’s just general world-wide well-being, but I feel happier than I have in quite a while.

Hope this continues.

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