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| Fun weekend. |
| 09.29.06 (6:43 am) [edit] |
Good morning Boys and Girls.Bit hectic this morning, but a fun weekend in the offing. Leaving here at 7:00 a.m. for Howell, Michigan. Arrive about 8:45, work till 12:30 or 1:00. Lunch, if time. Drive to Metro AIrport. Be there two hours early for late afternoon flight to BWI in Baltimore where Jesus will meet me. His flight from Montreal gets in thirty-five minutes after mine. We'll spend tomorrow in D.C. maybe doing a museum and waving at the White House, the Capital, the Supreme Court Building and the some of the other icons. Plus there's a political memorabilia store I love just a couple of blocks from the White House where I love to look at the collection of buttons, bumper-stickers and books by everyone from Ross Perrot (one "R" or two?) to Walter Mondale. There's something fun to me about looking at the tangible residue of faded dreams. Plus, Jesus has an extensive button collection and he'll buy a couple of treasures, I'm sure. Drive back to Baltimore for an 8:00 show where "Eyestrings" will thrill a bunch of stuck-up music-heads, including yours truly. A band called "Fear of Flying" kicks things off and then I'll get to watch the kid strut his stuff for a couple of hours. I know there's a new twelve minute piece they're quite proud of called, "Gates of ...." Well, Gates of something to other. I can't remember, but I'm sure I'll be able to say Sunday! Staying at a Microtel, which I've never done before. From the name of the place, I picture having to take Alice's pills in order - the one that makes you small when you arrive, and the one that makes you larger as you walk out to your car when leaving. If there's a computer for general use at the hotel, I'll catch y'all late tonight or tomorrow. If not, see ya Sunday in the late evening from back home here. Enjoy your weekend folks - and be good to everyone. |
| My true love.... |
| 09.28.06 (7:49 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! Well... I was sitting here trying to decide what to write about this morning and all of a sudden, in the time it took me to click on my tmail button, the rest of my life's path became clear. I am loved. Just got this tmail... (I'm sure I'm the only one.) ........................................... Message: Hello dear My name is loveth upeh i saw your profile today and became interested in you,i will also like to know you the more,and i want you to send an email to my email address so i can give you my picture for you to know whom i am. Here is my email address (loveupeh22@yahoo.com)I believe we can move from here! I am waiting for your mail to my email address above. I love you Miss loveth ........................................... I went to her blog so I could begin to get to know her, cherish her, need her, want her and love her - but alas, there's nothing there. Probably a tBlog snafu, right? Damn you Nick! ROOOOCCCKKKKYYYY Help me! Here she is, the love of my life, and her blog is blank. Life is so hard. Yuck, yuck. Gotta' love spam love letters. Be good to everyone, so in that spirit, after the hard break-up and I'm done with Miss loveth, I'll pass her on to any of you other guys... or gals! Don't want to be close-minded! |
| What will it take? |
| 09.27.06 (9:00 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! It's 7:58 a.m. as I start this and the sun has just come into full view, or would have if not for a couple of small clouds serving as bodyguards. On a few of the maples around here, bright slivers of dark red on random twigs portend the coming change for the rest of the leaves over the next few weeks. At work, I realized that I'd had a jacket on all day yesterday without even taking it off for the mid-afternoon warm-up we've had since Labor Day when the whole idea of a jacket being a neat thing to have with me began to take it's annual form in my head. Last night, I spent some time reading the newly released NIE report which the administration has had since April. In part, it proves what we with a modicum of common sense have been saying since the outset, which is that the war in Iraq IS in fact creating more terrorists and will have a lasting detrimental effect world-wide on the war on terror. No surprise there. I just shake my head... Oh dear me, what slick morons we have running this country. But, to their credit, they may be the very best salesmen on the planet and they fooled over half of us for a while there, though thankfully some folks have seen the light as time has marched forward. Understandable. The pitch was perfect. I've watched it happen all my life. Create need in the customer's mind and fill the need you've created. And, just like customers who've been overly taken advantage of, many refuse to allow themselves to EVER see it and will go back for more time and time again - which the truly unscrupulous salesmen count on. Interesting aside, at least to me. The guy who taught the London subway bombers how to make the explosives they used? He's been identified by the U.S. Turns out he learned his trade in Afghanistan in the eighties while doing the bidding of the U.S. - right alongside Bin-Laden. The guy learned his trade from us. Now, am I blaming us? No. But it's depressing to me that this fact too will be entirely dismissed by those starry-eyed customers who still insist they got a good deal from their salesman. I've written this in fits and starts this morning and it's now 8:59 a.m. The sun is gone and rain is falling. Hope it's a short shower! Be good to everyone. |
| 09.26.06 (8:04 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! Once as a young man I went into a place that had called me to do some work for them. The manager called me into his office and asked me a few questions about my prices and the like. He was new in the job and I got the impression he was trying to get all his ducks in a row, deciding which companies he'd use for various services he knew he'd need as he went forward. I answered his questions and after a few minutes he looked down at his desk a second, then looked up at me and pointedly asked, "Are you less rude than your father?" 'Huh? My Dad was rude to you?" "Yes." I furrowed my brow, a little shocked and asked him where and when he'd gotten this idea. "A few months ago, at the last place I worked, I called your Dad to come over to do a job for one of my customers, and just before he showed up, the customer had called and asked to reschedule. When your Dad showed up, and I told him he said, "Why you rotten s.o.b. How dare you waste my time like that." Then he asked if there was anything else I needed done while he was there! AFTER calling me an s.o.b.!" I asked, "Had you ever met my Dad before that day?" "No. Someone told me he was good and gave me his number." "Was he angry?" "No. I don't think so. Just rude." "Um, You MUST know he was kidding around." I could just see my Dad doing it, kiddingly blaming the new guy for something it was obvious that neither of them had any control over. That was Dad! That would have been him letting the guy know it was okay. If he was the least bit upset, he'd have gotten very business-like and probably very quiet. Plus, He loved the term "s.o.b" Not "son-of-a-bitch" ; mind you, just the initials... Makes me laugh to think of it. "You know so-and-so?" I'd ask him. "Oh yeah," he'd say, "He's a good s.o.b. You'll like him!" Oh well. As I get older, I'm trying to learn that, especially with people you don't know, you MUST be careful with being even the slightest bit sarcastic or sardonic. It's something I still, at damn near fifty, have a real hard time with... even here on tBlog when I'm commenting. I'll learn. Just now, as I walked up to the kitchen to get another cup of coffee, I saw that there were SEVEN deer (including two babies) enjoying the salt lick in the back yard... I sat down to watch them for a few minutes before they moved on. I'll get some pics eventually. The problem is, pics through the screen come out crappy and if I open the door to get a clear view, I'll scare them away... I'll figure it out. Happy Birthday to someone I've loved for 30 years. Enjoy your day, and BGTE. |
| Do not feed the 2wireGateway. Do not annoy the 2wireGateway. Never allow the 2wireGateway to be submersed in a vat of cooking oil. |
| 09.25.06 (5:51 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! So. The internet woes seem to be over. The cure? Move the modem at least three feet from any source of potential interference, in this case, the monitor. Bam. Fixed. Annoying. You'd think that MIGHT have been listed in the instruction booklet, or been suggested by any of the other four techs with whom I'd spent hours on the phone prior to getting to a "level two" tech at ATT Yahoo yesterday, especially when this guy said it's supposed to be the very first thing they suggest when the modem/router (they've combined the two in this latest incarnation) is resetting itself continuously, as was the problem here. Perhaps someone ought to have suggested it even before asking me to do all of the following, (in no particular order) and more - over the past two weeks... 1. "Please disconnect the 2wireGateway (they use the name of the thing in just about every sentence they speak,) and take it into your bathroom and connect it to a GFI circuit and let's watch the power lights go through their cycles. A GFI ensures a more constant and pure electronic signal..." (Um, this I knew was utter BS, since a GFI is exactly what the acronym claims it to be - a Ground Fault Interrupter - an internal fuse, so to speak, but I did it anyway.) 2. "The 2wireGateway is very susceptible to any viruses or worms you may have in your system. Please do a thorough system diagnosis to ensure that this isn't causing the problem..." 3. "Remember, the 2wireGateway is a little touchier than most modems, but this ensures your security on the web, so let's see if the internet protocols are set up correctly..." 4. "I'd like to go through a system check with you. Let's start this way, - wait, what was the last case number we gave you? Let me read through the notes. Oh, I see we've already tried that. Hmmm. I've never really dealt with a Mac using the 2wireGateway before. Perhaps it's your Mac that's causing the problem... (At this, I wanted to shoot the guy - Shawn, I think this one's name was.) 5. "Well, I see by looking at your file that you've been having some connection problems with your 2wireGateway. Let me give you a a return number. We'll send you out a new 2wireGateway. It sounds like you may have a piece of defective equipment, which isn't all that surprising. We've been having problems with some of the 2wireGateway modems. Shall I send it to the same address as listed on the account?" ("No," I felt like saying, "don't send it anywhere. Shove it up your...) And on and on. And the new one came, and the exact same problem persisted. So yesterday, I finally got passed up the chain - got to talk to a "level two" guy. He read through the entire file - asked me to give him a minute while he did it. I said sure. After a couple of minutes during which I assume he read all the reports, he asked, "Where is the modem?" and I knew he was a real person since he didn't use the infernal "2wireGateway" name. "Next to the computer." I said. "Try moving it at least three feet away from the monitor. These things are really touchy since they're wireless routers AND modems combined." "Oh," I said, "okay, just a sec... okay." "Try it now." "It's working!" "Try logging on and off a few times." I did. "Wow. Working fine!" "I'll bet that was the problem." It's been on since yesterday around one without interruption. Amazing. HOURS on the phone and weeks with little or crappy service and he resolves it with a suggestion that took about three seconds to follow. "Wow," I said, "You guys should put that in the manual, or at least make it the first thing you suggest to people." "Yeah. We should, and it IS the first thing we're supposed to tell people, but I saw in your file it wasn't listed as something anyone actually did." "No," I said. "No one said a thing about that." (And, since I'm connected with an ethernet cord, it didn't cross my mind that a radio signal is still being sent and received by the 2wireGateway - oh shit, now I'm doing it - and that interference might be the problem...) I thanked him; he apologized for the ineptness of his co-techs. I hung up grinning and feeling a big old exhalation of relief building up in my lungs. And, after all that, I knew I'd learned something: From now on, any time I have a problem with anything in life? -I'm asking for a "level two" guy. Be good to everyone. |
| So, I'm just standing there, and all of a sudden... |
| 09.24.06 (8:06 am) [edit] |
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Gooood morning Boys and Girls! Oh man. I just had the coolest experience. Just now, standing outside the lower sliding door looking at the long l-shaped hill behind and to the north of the house. Four does appeared from the side yard to my left and walked by not fifteen feet from me. They startled me but I didn't move (or drop my coffee mug.) After a few seconds, one of them turned her head and saw me standing there and slowly she turned away and in what looked like slow motion, began to lope in a leisurely fashion along toward the ridge, the others following. Had I been sitting here at the computer looking out my side window, they'd have walked by no more than five or six feet away. I don't know why stuff like this gets me all excited, but I'm glad it does. On a different subject, any tBloggers around Baltimore or Washington who'd like to meet for coffee next weekend, let me know. I'll be over that way to watch the kid's band play Saturday night and beforehand plan to spend the bulk of the day in DC walking through one or the other of the Smithsonians, or just socializing, and as far as I know Sunday's wide open. Hmm... not much of a post today. Okay... lame blonde joke: Window company collection person calls, "Ma'am. You haven't made a single payment on your account. It's been thirteen months. You have to start paying for your windows or you'll lose the house." Blonde answers, "Uh, exCUSE me. The salesman said they pay for themselves in a year. Duh!" Yuck yuck. Be good to everyone. |
| 09.23.06 (8:32 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls. I've been listening to "Life on the Mississippi," by Mark Twain, still perhaps the, if not at least one of the greatest American author(s), living or dead. I'd like to make the case that the man is still as alive as one can be if being alive means saying true things for the living. The book is non-fiction and was written as both a memoir of his own days as a riverboat pilot prior to the Civil War and as a commentary on what he found as he revisited the River some twenty years after the War at the height of his own fame and popularity in the late 1880's. As far as accomplishing what he says he's set out to do at the beginning of the story, he does it wonderfully, telling the tale with wild anecdotes and blatant lies he readily admits to, but as he explains, (in what's a bit of a typical self-depricating boast,) that his well-chosen fabrications are far more truthful and informative than the mere and mundane actual facts could possibly be, something I've half-believed all my life! Of course, the real fun of the book is Twain's use of the language, which though in a few places comes across as a tad anachronistic by now, for the most part, is just perfect. Each sentence and phrase is turned out with the sort of care a sculptor might use with those last few necessarily delicate hammer taps on the chisel at the very end, hoping and praying that now, after all the work, that the marble doesn't split wide open. And yet, somehow, I have a feeling that this high quality prose fairly flowed out of Twain as easily as we might recite a long memorized limerick. Fun stuff. I'd planned to write more about it, but I'm meeting a mechanic friend in a half hour so he can weld up a little hole in my exhaust... Well, my Jeep's exhaust. Thankfully, my own exhaust system seems to be in fine shape. I'd think welding on it might be a bit detrimental to it's ability to function - not a good thing considering how many people already think I'm full of it! Be good to everyone. |
| Future Shocker... |
| 09.22.06 (8:39 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls. Yesterday Lindy made a comment on my post in which she talked about hoping there would be some sort of calamity that forced the world to change. She wasn't hoping for great loss of life or anything like that, I don't think, but more of a technological breakdown that interrupted all the major computer and television and radio networks. I've dreamed of that for the better part of my life. I know it doesn't make sense, and what with all the back-ups and redundant systems out there, I'm sure nothing of the sort will ever take place, but damn, I'd love to see it. I don't hate technology and God knows I love my 'puter and this wonderful web, but I could live without it for a while. And I would. I'll never forget New Years Eve 1980. My friend Bob was over with a bunch of other friends for a party and we were looking forward to a great new decade's worth of change. At midnight, with glasses high, he made a cute little speech finishing with this, "The eighties will make the sixties look like the fifties!" He thought so, I thought so and so did many of the people I knew. Later in the year, Reagan was elected and the country did in fact take a turn, but in exactly the opposite direction we thought and hoped it would. I was sickened. Greed became the watchword of the day and school children raised during the eight years he was president were spoon-fed the idea that this guy was the greatest president in our history. Then, after eight years of Reagan's me, me , me, decade and two more of George the first, when the Soviet Union finally fell under the weight of it's own hopeless system, somehow that too was added to the strange list of what were credited as Reagan's accomplishments. I love this country, but I do wish things would come to a sudden halt for a while. I wonder, if we had to worry more about simply feeding ourselves, or really thinking through our transportation needs and how we get our information, would we have time to be attacking other countries? Would we be more sensitive to the opinion of the rest of the world? Would we be more appreciative of the planet we live on and its life-giving ability? What's the rationale, for instance, of us not involving ourselves in the Kyoto treaty? One argument is that It'd be harder on us that it might be on many more undeveloped countries. So? We use a quarter of the world's energy. Maybe we need to be cognizant of that fact, and force ourselves to be doing something about it. In fact, EVERY argument I've ever read from opponents has to do with something akin to crying, "It's not FAIRrrrr." Whining. We claim to love competition in business, but do little when a corporation is found to be cheating, especially if it's a corporation doing business overseas. We allow businesses to merge and corner markets virtually unchecked, and even when there is a break-up of a monopoly, it only takes a few years for the corporate honchos to bring things together again. We've even allowed our schools to become tools of marketers. Pizza Huts in school cafeterias? Commercials embedded within specially provided educational programs? Reagan would have LOVED this. He'd call it pure capitalism, just as his administration tried to call ketchup a vegetable. Yeah. I'd like to see a meltdown of some sort. Maybe we could insist that the rebuild includes healthcare for everyone, and that it, like public schools, shouldn't be areas where profit and loss is the main concern. I mean, do you really need to see billboards for your local hospitals' emergency rooms? Be good to everyone. |
| Bambi, come out! Be seen. |
| 09.21.06 (7:39 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls... Now you all know I'm a liberal weenie, but I don't want it to be said I don't have a sense of humor... So, I heard this earlier spoken by Michael Grahm during an interview on my morning standby background noise, the "Imus in the Morning" radio program that's televised on MSNBC. He was complaining about the Pope deciding to quasi-apologize for his remarks during the now famous lecture. "I don't know why he'd apologize." He said. "Fanatical Muslims ARE violent! You know what the most popular bumper sticker is right now in Damascus and other middle eastern cities? Don't call me violent - or I'll kill you!" Pretty cute. Wow... just looked out the window in here and saw a deer. First one in about ten days. I think they've been skittish since they saw the house occupied after it hadn't been in some time. Put out a salt lick for them but haven't seen any signs of it being used. Maybe they equate such niceties with being hunted by now... Maybe I'll put out a sign. "I won't shoot you. I promise. Just want to see you." I've tried that sign for people in the past - but it hasn't worked then either. Damn. The weather has turned big time the last few days and I suppose it's time to get the furnace turned on, but... but... That would be admitting that autumn is breathing down the neck... and knowing what follows that? Yipes! It's more than "crisp" this morning. It's downright chilly. Yesterday at work, considered moving my little operation indoors more than once - and I know I'll have to soon for the winter, always a bummer - but it's something I'll put off as long as possible. Surely I can squeeze out another couple weeks of sun shining on the top of my bald pate a few hours a day. Surely. Undoubtedly. Certainly... Maybe. Be good to everyone. |
| Rushing to meet a non-existant deadline... |
| 09.20.06 (9:02 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! Overslept. 8:44 a.m. Should be at work in about twenty minutes. Not gonna' make it. Took me over an hour and a half to put together a tiny little computer cart last night and then I had to fold my clothes, something at which I'm notoriously slow. I SUCK at folding clothes, and I always have. I'll be fifty years old in a couple of months and I'm a reasonably intelligent and dexterous person with full use of my arms and hands... So why can't I get the creases right when I fold a pair of damn Jeans? I've even given up on balling my white socks in pairs. I just lay them out neatly in a pile as high as I can get them to stay without toppling over and take the two off the top every morning. For work, thankfully, my wardrobe is very simple: jeans, (or shorts when it's warm enough) a collared polo, white socks and running shoes. Long ago, to speed the folding process, I decided that ALL my white socks would be exactly the same and I replace the entire lot every seven or eight months with another dozen-pair bag from one of the discount stores (and then make elaborate Dick Cheney and George Bush sock-puppets out of the old ones...) Okay, that last bit's a lie. I toss 'em. I sound a bit like Rain Man, don't I? But without the savant aspect - ya know, just the idiot part. Oy. Once? I had to iron something - but it was years ago and I'm over that particular trauma now. Should I even post this? Let's see. How to turn this into a post worthy of others' time. Oh. I got it. I should ask the readers a question related to what I've just written about... Ummm. I got nothin'. Be good to everyone. |
| Feet slide easily into many mouths.... |
| 09.19.06 (7:48 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls.
Be good to everyone. |
| He picked up the quill, stared into the candle's flame for a moment, and then, he began to write.... |
| 09.18.06 (9:17 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! I bring this up because, as kids, my sister and I were constantly told how evil the car business was, yet there was some sort of strange disconnect my Mom was able to make between the business proper, (buying and selling cars) and the stuff my Dad did for the dealers. In her mind, he was a better person than people who would be in "that" end of the business. No great sin, I suppose. He was her husband, after all, and she had to justify how the food got purchased somehow. Does the business have a bad reputation overall, and is it deserved? Yes. But, is everyone in the business an evil greedy person? No. In fact, I'd say that for the most part, the people who stay in it and are the most successful, tend to be good folks. I should add that the guy I'm basing my protagonist on is someone who, to my knowledge has NEVER had any financial trouble, has never stolen anything and is a decent guy. He does, however, have enough funny idiosyncrasies to make a great wire-frame on which to build a leading character. |
| Sometimes you get the bear. |
| 09.17.06 (10:34 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! Internet woes still hampering the efforts here. Weird problem with the DSL that just hasn't gotten figured out yet. The damn modem keeps resetting and shutting down. Annoying, but not insurmountable. So... Friday afternoon. 4:40 p.m. Driving between two small Michigan cities- taking the back roads to avoid traffic and and construction on the highway. I'd driven about twenty miles along some beautiful but isolated roads and just as I neared the town of Davison, all of a sudden my engine started making awful noises, culminating in a loud SCREEach... but it was still running. I was at the first red light (or traffic light of any sort) I'd seen in a half hour. Looked to my right and lo and behold there was an auto parts store with a big old temporary sign advertising that they were now doing most types of mechanical work... I limped in, opened the hood and immediately saw that one of the pulleys (the very top and center one, and, thankfully, one that wasn't connected to any engine components, hence just a tensioner) had thrown it's bearings and was spinning laboriously and loudly, metal against metal. I shut off the motor and walked in. "Help?" I said to the counter man, as in "HHHHEEEEELLLLLLPPPP PP." Asked him to come outside and take a peek. He did and said. "Wow, strange, I just got two of those in this morning." He didn't have the serpentine belt and called another auto parts store the next town over and they told him they'd have the part there in about twenty minutes. The belt wasn't bad, really, but since it had to come off anyway to replace the pulley, he suggested I replace it since no more labor would be involved. He said to give them about forty five minutes and sent me across the street to a brand new little coffee shop called "Chrissy's." Excellent coffee, free wireless Internet AND a regular desktop free for any customer to use. Amazing. I checked email, responded to a couple of comments on the last post and just plain relaxed. At 5:45 I walked back to "Add-Ons" (the auto parts store along M-15 in Davison, Michigan - manager's name is Zak.) The mechanic, whose name I didn't get, damn it, was wiping his hands and closing the hood. The Jeep was idling. He smiled and said. "All set!" Labor? Fifty-five bucks. Fifteen bucks for the pulley and NO markup on the belt he got from the other store because he was embarrassed he didn't have it in stock. Sometimes you meet some damn good folks in this world.
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| A story. |
| 09.14.06 (8:36 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls. In a little park not far from his house, a boy got things ready to go. He'd brought a box kite and the longest ball of string the hardware store had carried. As he tied the lead to the kite, hoping he'd measured down the right distance from the top of the frame, an old man slowly walked up and said hello. "Box kite?" "Yep." "Pretty nice. Looks like you might have made it yourself." "I did. Got some plans on-line and altered a few of the measurements to accommodate for wind speeds we're likely to get 'round here." "Wow. Impressive. What's the frame made of? I used to use thin strips of birch. Tried balsa but it never seemed strong enough." "No. I wouldn't think so. I ordered some kevlar coated hybrid stock from a fly rod manufacturer. Took seven weeks to get and cost my Dad two-hundred bucks, but it should be able to take any crash, even if the thing falls out of the sky at terminal velocity." "No kidding?" The old man drew on a pipe and thought a minute then asked, "And what's that cloth you used for the sails?" "It's got kevlar in it too, but it's really just your basic rip-stop nylon with the kevlar threads sewn in to add strength. From what the product engineer I talked to said, I understand it's the the type of weave used that's special - more than the cloth itself. It's ultra light and super strong. I had to buy special diamond tipped needles and some really unique thread for my mom to make the seams for me. See the little grommets at the edges? Those are titanium." "Wow. Have you been making kites for long?" "No, this is the first one. First flight in fact. See the way the frame stock is shaped? I tapered each piece and formed the struts so hopefully they'll help too. My goal was to make the frame itself help give lift." "I'm amazed." "Nah, just a lot of work. I've got over two hundred hours in this if you include the research. ...and... I'm just about ready here. "Great. You won't mind if I watch?" "No. Not at all. In fact, if you'd hold the kite up while I let out the string and let go when I ask, it would be helpful." "Oh, why sure. I can do that! It's been years though, say, how old are you?" "I'm eight. I'll be nine in December though. Ready?" "Sure." The boy walked backwards about fifty feet, letting out string as he moved. The old man picked up the kite and held it high. "My goodness, this thing feels as if it has no weight to it at all!" "Eighty grams. Here's a gust of wind. On three?" "Okay." "One... two... threeee!" The man let go and the kite shot up into the air. The boy let out string as fast as he could and within a few seconds, the kite was hundreds of feet in the air. Then? -of course, the string snapped and the kite continued upward as the string fell to earth. "Oh no!" The man cried. "What a shame." The little boy smiled and calmly walked to a small duffel bag he'd brought with him. From it he took out a small TV-like device with a joystick and LCD screen. He turned on the little computer and, after giving the machine a few seconds to boot up and acquire the signal, he took control of the kite. The old man watched, confused as the screen blinked on and filled with a crazily shaking view of what looked like the earth from above. The boy smiled again and began to wave while looking almost straight upward. The old man watched the little boy's face shakily grow on the screen before becoming still and perfect. He saw himself there too, from above, looking at the screen. After a few more seconds the camera slowly pulled back, sweeping the area and giving a perfect panoramic view of the city and countryside beyond as the little boy controled the camera with the joystick. "Mini steady-cam," said the boy, answering the old man's question before it was asked. Be good to everyone. |
| Glad to be back. |
| 09.13.06 (8:06 am) [edit] |
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Good morning Boys and Girls! Rainy morning. Got up this morning at 5:30 as usual, but I'd woken up a few times in the night (probably because I was so relieved to have Internet access) and I know I was excited about being able to write a post, but it did mean I was still tired - and it WAS raining, so I made myself go back to sleep for a while. Think it was a good move. Time will tell. If, at the end of the day, I've accomplished everything I hope to get done today without having become an irritable jerk? The extra sleep will have been worth it. If, on the other hand, I find myself cranky or full of bitter rage wanting to cleanly split the skull of everyone I meet? Well, then I guess I'll see a specialist, since I never get THAT bad, and surely it would be a sign of the water around here being tainted. It isn't, by the way. It's well water, but man has it been a pleasant surprise. Looks great. Tastes great. And as far as I know, the little frogs swimming in it right out of the tap is just bonus protein! Kidding. But there WAS the coolest bright green frog on the porch the other night. Neon-ish green, about the size of a plum. I'd never seen one like it. So far it's been a first-class nature show around here. Not too bad. It'll be a fun place to have visitors to, but please, call ahead?
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| Hey, remember me? Yeah... the cute one. |
| 09.09.06 (3:09 pm) [edit] |
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Good afternoon Boys and Girls! Can't tell you how much I've missed everyone. I finally got to the library today to post, and it's simply a "why I haven't been posting" post, so ignore it if you wish! Shortest version. The house is 200 yards back from the road. The cable people said that according to their records, there was already a line back there... There isn't. Six weeks to run a line as the "engineering people" are backed up. Screw that. DSL Tuesday. Slow? You bet. But I can't wait six weeks to have Internet access. It's Saturday afternoon, and since I'm suffering posting withdrawals like crazy but have been either too busy or unlucky enough to have hit library branches that have been closed this past week, (a truly annoying Grand Rapids phenomena - tons of beautiful new buildings that seem to be open about twenty hours a week) I finally snuck (sneaked?)away this afternoon to, in essence, bitch about how little time I've had to sit to do this thing I love to do. Three more days. If I chewed my fingernails? I wouldn't have any left to chew. I know I have a bit of an addictive personality, but I can't tell you how not being able to check email, or the blog, or yap with friends on-line has made me feel fidgety... (Did I spell fidggggggety right?) Anyway, truly, miss you all more than seems sensible... ...and far more than you'd guess.
Be good to each other, and everyone else too! |
| quicky update. |
| 09.02.06 (10:01 am) [edit] |
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Good Morning Boys and Girls. A quick update: Picked up Jesus last night at the airport at 5:17 p.m here in Grand Rapids on my way back from Howell, a small city about an hour this side of Detroit. He flew in from L.A. via Chicago. He was impressed with my new (very old) Cherokee, but says he'll miss the old Lebaron Convertible. (Seems like the only time I'd drive with the top down was when he was with me anyway - when he'd insist on it. For me, it was too much of a pain to arrange all my work crap well enough - to make sure it wouldn't go flying - to bother very often...) Found the Jeep down the street from my new home on the street at a price that screamed "get it out of here," but it's very nice looking and runs well AND I have a buyer for the old car for almost half of what I paid for the new one, so... for a difference of less than 500 bucks, I'm stylin'. Yes, to answer your question, I do drive cars that old and crappy. Think it comes from growing up around new cars and watching them lose value faster than a pile of coke disappears at a Hollywood party. LOVE finding really old cars (especially if they still look fairly nice and I won't be too embarrassed to be seen driving them) that people are sick of and squeezing another year or two out of them - for next to nothing. As it happens, we're just going to make a couple of more trips in this boxy Jeep today, as the little bit of furniture and a bunch of tools I'll be moving will be coming from Detroit where it's been stored at my Kid's place for the better part of two years, and I won't get to that till next weekend. First thing Jesus suggested upon seeing the Cherokee? "Let's go four-wheeling!" Uh, no. Unless we get a huge snow or ice storm, this thing will probably never see four wheel drive since I'm worried about the gas mileage as it is. It's a straight six, but I've put 50 bucks worth of gas in it since Thursday night and I've already driven 325 miles and there's just over a quarter tank left - I'd guess another 80 miles or so... So let see, without figuring it the normal way, that'll mean about 12.5 cents a mile gas wise - and that's with us all enjoying the pre-election gas price reduction we're seeing, but that we also know won't last even a week after the election. I'm figuring it'll be about 16 cents a mile by December. The Lebaron cost me about 11 cents a mile to drive gas-wise, (figuring $3.00 a gallon) but there's no getting over the fact that it was a pain in the neck to work out of, and working out of the Cherokee will be a joy, in fact, it already has been (yesterday)... so? Trade-offs. If I get a year out of it, I'll be thrilled. New digs, new old car all in one weekend... weird. Well, Jesus is pouring coffee while I write this - He says to say Hi. Then we're off to move more crap and later we'll end the day at a Chinese buffet. I've scouted out two near the new place and one is definitely superior to the other. He'll love it. Last night we started to watch "Simon Birch" at the new place. It's a favorite of both of ours, but I fell asleep right after John's Mom gets hit with Simon's foul ball, and by then Jesus was already snoring - so I'd imagine we'll watch the rest later if we don't end up playing cribbage instead... Jesus get's at least one 20 plus point hand EVERY time, and I've yet to beat him... Maybe tonight! Be good to everyone. |
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