It has been a while

It has been busy both where I work and where I live.  Lots of stuff to do; lots more to think about.

For the first time in many years I took two whole weeks off, and haven't been called in or managed to get worried about anything that caused me to drive in.  I have not even logged in remotely.  Things must be running well, or there's something I am not understanding.

I have a good bit to do before the new year starts, and not all that much time in which to do it.  I also have a personal task - the yearly Christmas letter that has not gone out for several years, and a puff piece for the blog about mended families, my kids and grandkids, and other things that are somewhat personal.  There are also plenty of emails owed, at least some of which debt will be covered before I go back to work, I hope.

In less than 60 days I will be 72.  I'm not so sure I want to be 72, but the only way I can see to avoid getting that old is not to live that long - and I am not done living!

This Christmas is the first in many years wherein we have had complete families.  It's a really big deal - one grandson spent the first 13 years of his life without his father - this year, just weeks back, his father has been returned to him and to his mother, yielding a complete family.  There's a lot of history that doesn't bear opening up right now, but at this end of that long period, it seems to be all good - and I'm glad that Ronnie, Jr. has Ronnie Sr. back in his life on a daily basis.  My daughter is better, Junior is better, and Senior is the stuff of miracles. Synergy is happening- the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the whole is good for the entirety of Rudolph in this area.

Other daughter is doing well, and their two children are marvels and growing - soon they will be schoolchildren, and we are not ready for that! Within the next three years, both will become students. Their teachers are in for some really interesting times!

The coming year will be interesting for Phyllis and myself, too. It seems that we are undergoing restructuring at work, and the duties of all of  us will change.  This may lead to retirement for me, or it may lead to incentive to stay even longer than I plan at present.  What happens with me will have effects on Phyllis's plan; we just don't yet know what they will be.

Over the years, I have met many people who had a significant effect on me and on directions I have taken - some to my benefit immediately, some where the benefit could be seen only with years of hindsight.  My father, when he was alive told me that there was no learning without lumps.  Much as I hate to admit it, he was right - I have accumulated my share (and probably yours) of lumps over the years, and each one was a lesson - some of which came with considerable pain - some physical, some not.  Every time I dropped a motorcycle,  there was enough real pain involved I resolved never again to do that particular thing. Sure enough, over the years I dropped them less frequently, and sometimes wouldn't drop one for years - until I forgot how much it could hurt, then I got reminded....  I guess you'd have to be a motorcyclist to understand why I still ride them....

I have to get busy and Do Some Things.  I'm not done with the Year End Maunderings yet - there will be more, but for right now I have a few other things get accomplished.  I'll be back!

Friday the 13th

Well, it is still Friday the 13t, and so far no catastrophes have fallen on my head.  I am still at the office, moving from one area to another, which could take quite a while as there is a huge accumulation of stuff that must follow me until I can determine if it stays or goes.  It is truly appalling the amount and description of crap that seems to cling to and follow me where I roam.

Also there is a fair amount of hardware here that belongs to me, not to my employer, and I need to make sure I get it all.

And no, I am not superstitious - being superstitious brings bad luck, don't you know.

Looking through my email this morning, I am amazed at the amount of funny stuff comes from folks that I have known for over 50 years. I am sorry to note that I know more dead folks from 50 years back han live folks, so I guess I should feel blest, as I haven't joined them yet as far as I know - or if I have, they went to a different place than I did....

Christmas is 12 days away.  Every year I promise myself to do all the shopping I need to do in July - and every year it gets down to the last ten days and I get nuts.  Maybe next year....

Gotta get busy with Amazon - I don't like malls or crowds and the way shoppers behave any more I would almost expect to be shot (or at least shot at) some of the places I might want to go. My wife says don't spend money on her, but I ignore that some - nothing is free, and whatever I do spend, she's worth it.

I'm still moving things at work - it will take a couple of days to get myself relocated.  Soon I gotta go home; I'm tired and have to come back tomorrow.

Y'all be well, and be careful - it's dangerous outside!

Today

Today is Friday the 13th.

I probably should not even start writing anything, because Friday the 13th actually came on Friday this month, and that's always worse than the months when it comes on Wednesday or Tuesday.

For anyone old enough to remember Pogo, well, you'll have an idea where that got started.

I finally got permission to move back down to the fourth floor at work.  The move will be a major PITA - but it will be kinda nice to get back to a place where everyone who comes through the door does not have to walk past me and look over my shoulder before doing anything else.

It'll also be nice to move my speakers downstairs where I can play the music LOUD if I want to.

I have not been sleeping enough, and it has been too cold to go motorcycling.  I love the Volvo, but there is something about December that brings out all the folk whose heads seem to explode the minute they put a key into the ignition lock and start the car.  I promise I'm not gonna start a traffic rant - but commuting is suddenly a trip into hell every morning.

But it could be worse - I could be riding many buses to get to work, and taking at least twice as long as it takes to drive there.  So I am going to shut up about that lest I get T-boned and have to resort to the train and the bus....

And before anyone asks, I'm not ready for the holidays - there's still more money I have to spend.  But I'm working on it in my spare time.

Anyone who knows me knows I like to read.  I discovered BookBub which is a web site that takes your email address and daily sends a list of inexpensive (and usually FREE) e-books.  I have amassed quite a collection that will take years to read, but I am enjoying rereading many things I haven't read for years and have not been able to find.  Amazon has some real treasures (and daily Kindle ebook giveaways) available that are worth a look.  I don't have a Kindle - but my Android Phone, Android tablet(s) and windows computers have kindle apps - and Google's Chrome browser has a Kindle plug-in that connects seamlessly with Amazon's Kindle cloud.

I've talked about the Kindle readers before, so I won't bore anyone now - if someone wants more info, leave me a note with an email address and I'll gather all the mutterings up and send them to you as links.

I got Phyllis a new toy - a Keurig coffee maker - and it was worth every penny it cost.  It is a complex device, but it makes great coffee and while the per-cup cost may be a little higher than what we were doing before, the svings comes in the form of cups of coffee that we just throw away.  I'm not seeing all that much benefit since I am supposed to be off coffee, at least until I get scoped again for the doctor to look and see if I still have ulcers, but of course I will do what I will do - and damn it makes great coffee!  If I am ever allowed to drink coffee again, I may have to get one for the office!

Tomorrow and one day this weekend I'll be moving, and it will be a hell of a job, but it will be nice when it is done.  Some computers will come with me, as well as lots of books and miscellaneous stuff that has accumulated over the years - and my supply of small parts, screwdrivers and sockets, pocket knives, hammers, cables and various USB gadgets.  Kinda makes me wanna just go back to bed, but it has to be done.

I almost forgot - I finally have collected all of Greywolf's Roswell stories.  If you don';t know what that's about, it's OK, but if you do know and want any, I can tell you how to find them. Getting them together was a PITA, but they are all in Google Docs format, and easily available.


I gotta go to bed.  Be well, y'all.

Thanksgiving Day, later

I have a lot for which I am thankful.  Sometimes I need to be reminded.

I am thankful for having reached my present age in relatively decent shape.

I am thankful for my wife of over 45 years, who is a patient and loving lady.

I am thankful for my children, who have found their own way in the world.

I am thankful for my grandkids, who make me proud and make me laugh.

I am thankful for my large extended family of cousins, with whom we have stayed in touch lo these many years, and for all our differences still like being with one another.

I am thankful for my siblings, although we are seldom together, when we are together it seems like just yesterday when we last met and talked.  That having been said, I wish one brother was closer than where he is - but I also know that I don't get to make choices other than my own - and their choices obviously worked well for them.

I am thankful for old friends and for people I have known for many years who still put up with me.

But there's more to it than just what appears above.

I am thankful for my son's having found something that he enjoys, something that he really loves doing, and for success in having fun at work.

I am thankful for mended families - my daughter who is married and has a child who is my grandson.  I am thankful for a son-in-law who has found his way, and together with this daughter have made a family unit that is sound, happy, functional and meaningful. All three of them make me proud and happy to have them as family members.

I am thankful for my other daughter's family - her husband and her two children, who serve to remind me that kids are wonderful, that growing up is not always easy, and that there is no end to surprises that grandkids can supply, nor to joys that come from just watching them grow.

Phyllis and I spent yesterday with the newly mended family, and today that family will join the other daughter's family in a second thanksgiving.  It may be a bit sappy of me to say this, but I dearly love all of them, and I am certain that there are days when I don't deserve them - but it is good to be with them, to see that all of us love one another, and that while imperfect we are all intrinsically good.

Most of all, I am thankful to have lived to see the day that I can say what I said above, and mean every word sincerely and with love in my heart.

God bless us, every one.

It's been pretty quiet around here

so I thought I'd see if I had anything to say.

Of course, I always have something to say - just gotta get it organized a bit.

I had something bad happen at work a little bit back, but it looks like it may be solved after a few days extensive research.  My work desktop PC lost its mind, and with its mind lost a number of other things, including its way to do some automated things.  I moved them elsewhere, but it turned out one event just disappeared - and it took a while to find what it was doing and to get it into shape to be used again. Happily it seems to be on the mend, although some stuff may have to be renewed to get it to behave again.  Never a dull moment....

The weather hasn't been much for motorcycling - I did get a day of commuting in last week or so, but today it is supposed to snow - and when that happens it is too cold and too dangerous even to start a bike, so both of them are covered up in my carport, waiting for the next half-decent day.  Many friends are still riding - but they all have Gerbings electrically heated suits - and as of yet I have yet to see a reason to spend almost a kilobuck on getting outfitted that way, although if I get antsy enough this winter, and it stays cold but not snowy, I just might have to do it.

Commuting is becoming a pain - there are so many thoughtless idiots out there it is a wonder there is not wreckage strewn from heck to breakfast.  I watched four this morning pass over a double yellow at speeds of 30 over the limit, and just bulldoze their way back into where they should have been.  Two of them were talking on phones and one was arguing with a passenger.  It is not comforting to know that Darwin may get these folks - because Darwin might well use me as the immovable object, and I've no desire to be a sacrificial lamb to those who will not learn. Happily, the Guzzi has an air horn - and I am considering adding one to the Volvo.

Speaking of which, I still like the Volvo.  I have not driven anything more comfortable or more stable in a very long time - and it jut starts every day.  The bunwarmers (heated seats) are lovely in this cold weather, and the heater puts out seemingly within 3 minutes. If you need something to drive, you could do worse than an old Volvo - and mileage does not seem to matter all that much - my last one was out at 180,000 when I got rid of it, this one I bought at 128,000 and it uses no oil or anything - at least not any more - it did get me pretty good (close to a kilobuck) with a radiator leak, but everything I have ever had that I kept for anything over about 100,000 did that.

If there's anyone out there needing PC parts, cables, controllers, please leave a note - I have a load of stuff scattered around the basement that has to go, and I'd rather give it away than throw it away.  Motherboards, too - at least half a dozen or so, some with memory even.... I've been building and salvaging for the last 20 or so years, and have accumulated a bunch of parts, mostly not the most current state of the art, but still usable for folks eking out the lat years of a PC.  Let me know what you need, or even what someone you know needs, and I'll look and get back to you.

The Obamacare fiasco is one I don't feel like addressing right now - it just makes me angrier when I think about it.  When you consider that the software was written by a Canadian firm after failing in a spectacular way to get Canada's long gun registration even functional, then consider that the firm is connected to a friend of Michelle - THEN consider that the back end is not yet even written, well, if you do not wonder if there's something crooked afoot, try to keep your old insurance plan....  One size never fits all - anyone who wears clothes can tell you that.

Oops - I said I wasn't gonna talk about it.  Shutting up....

I guess everyone knows I was in Las Vegas a few weeks back for a family wedding - and I found Las Vegas to be a really odd place.  It isn't a great place for a fat gimp who an't drink and doesn't gamble, that much I can tell you - and everything is just so damn big that you can't get anywhere without walking at least 20 minutes - and that walk (if it is inside) will be longer than it needs to be because you'll have to walk around several thousand slot machines, all bleeping and booping at you.  The wedding was nice, the food in Las Vegas is exceptional - but the hotel cost too much for what it delivered, and they hammer you for internet access.  I ended up plugging my phone into a charger and using the HotSpot app to let my laptop and tablet talk to the internet.  I'm sure glad I have a grandfathered plan that has no data limit....

On another topic, my middle daughter is married - something that was a long time coming. The circumstances are convoluted, but from where I sit it all looks positive.  Her husband is a welcome addition to our familial circus, and we look forward to having them around for a long time. Now if my wandering son were only a little closer to us geographically - but he's in Texas, somewhere around Dallas, and has opened up a new enterprise that is interesting.  If you are curious, a visit to Jamie's Place will show you what he's up to, and may even give you a gift idea or two.

...

I got interrupted by life - it is now a day later than when I started this.  The weather is crappy, this is the last workday this week (followed by gluttony as Thanksgiving is tomorrow) and no hope for motorcycle weather any time soon.

So I think I'll just hang up here - there will be more as time permits and as things that bug me come to light.  Meanwhile, have a really good holiday or holidays, whichever you observe, be kind to one another, think positive thoughts and remember that you are truly unique - just like everybody else.

Today.

Today was a really good day - good enough that I started up the motorcycle and rode in to work.

It was a great morning until some arzl on my right put on his signal, looked at me in his mirror and then proceeded to move over into space that I was already occupying.  Loud air horn got me a middle finger sign.

I did not shoot him.  No pistol, and anyhow I know that that isn't a really good educational tool for such behavior, although it does tend to put a stop to it (at least for that one arzl - there are always more....)  I thought a few unkind things things about his putative parentage, moved over, and went on my way - nothing will get my goat today, it is a lovely day, warm, the bike feels good, traffic is flowing and all is right with the world.

That lasted until I got to work and discovered that everything I had set up last week to run over the weekend failed to run.  Crap - now I gotta figure out why that has to be that way..

Along the way, I discovered that our efforts to capitalize on our help desk personnel by borrowing them from sister organizations was somewhat less than satisfactory - apparently sister org teaches them to rigidly follow a procedure and ignore the caller's statements about what is going on. I managed not to become impolite, but I got pretty terse before he agreed to do what I had asked him 15 minutes earlier to do.

Soon, however, I get to go outside on the roof, get my jacket out, put on my gloves and motorcycle home - and I do look forward to it.  Great weather at least for today.  Gotta get those last rides in.  On the weekend I need to get Big Suzi over to Jack to get checked out, and then think about getting her sold.  I really don't want all that badly to ride anything that heavy any more.

The year is winding down - less than 45 days before I start writing checks with the wrong year on them again - or until I would be doing that if I wrote checks any more, which I do not. Along the way, I noted some of my classmates have been married longer than I have (I was a late starter) and some are even older, but still alive.  All too many no longer live - a consequence of the aging process, I know, but the table at the last reunion with deceased's pictures was entirely too full to suit me - some good folks that are no longer have with us.

Tomorrow I gotta get serious about recovering something that has disappeared on me (again) - to see if I can convince it to come back to life.  It seems some stuff about which I had no knowledge depends on the stuff I can no longer pull down from elsewhere, so I gotta reverse-engineer what I can find and get it working again.  Life is never dull.

Things at the home of the newlywed daughter are going ell - Big Ronnie is back to work, Little Ronnie is doing well at school, and Jessica seems to be doing well.  Once in a while things do go better than one has a right to hope.  I'll talk more about that whole circumstance at a later date - but it has been interesting to watch it grow - and I am well pleased at this point.

Once in a while, my dreams take me to strange places - back to Germany, back to an earlier day and an old flame, back to school, etc.  The past week has been full of this - someone's trying to tell me something, but I cannot imagine what it is.  If I figure it out, I guess I'll just have to write about it. Meanwhile, I have phone calls to make to check on a few folks about whom I still care.

Over my lifetime so far, I've missed out on good things because of my own insecurities and perceived limitations, and screwed up in more ways than I could have imagined existed. For all of that, life is a good place, and the regrets I have, while many, are not great enough to make me do more than occasionally wish to hunt someone down an deliver an apology that I believe to be owed. It is always good to call some people that I've not seen in years and catch up - whatever I might happen to be I owe at least part to others that I have met, experiences we have shared, and answers to questions that I would never have been able to make by myself alone.  The most valuable things are often not really mine, but things shared with another.

I think it is time for me to pack it up and to go home. Y'all take care.

November 11, 2013

Today is a holiday that we know as Veteran's day.

For many, it is just another day off.

For some, it brings memories of good times, for others, bad - but increasingly it brings nothing at all, because veterans are slowly becoming few in number, and the respect and honor accorded them appears to be diminishing as they become more rare - and this is a shame.

Once upon a time (or, if you were a sailor, this is no shit!) being a veteran was a pretty normal thing to be.  I am old enough to remember the draft - and to remember when going elsewhere to avoid it was not so cool.  As a matter of fact, many who served chose enlistment as an honorable way to avoid the draft, and to avoid duty that was certain, even in peacetime, to become not-fun.

I was a draft dodger - I served four years in the Air Force rather than spend 18 months face down in the mud in the Army.  It was my choice to do so, and I was, and am, glad I made that choice instead of accepting whatever the draft board had in store for me.  What I did was interesting, we were told it was important (and hindsight shows that to have been true) and I enjoyed much of those four years, particularly those I spent in Germany.

I was in from July 1961 through July 1965.  Viet Nam had not yet got ugly, Korea had been over for almost ten years, and when I went in, I wanted to go overseas.  My father, who was not a veteran had spent critical time in 1949 in Berlin, Germany, keeping the aircraft that kept the city from starving flying and able to communicate. The time later became known as the Berlin Airlift, and is historically interesting and important.  Anne Tusa has written a very god book about the Airlift - if you are interested, I encourage you to get it and to read it.

My duties were not as dangerous as those of my father - I was not in a city surrounded by ideological enemies - it was in a relatively small city in Germany.  Overall, I enjoyed being there - the natives were friendly, the food and beer was good - what could go wrong?

What we did was a deep dark secret, but the overview was easy to figure out - we all worked at a place outside town - a fenced place with a windowless building and armed guards, where every 8 hours a bunch of guys (before the time that women were part of this career field) with headsets over their shoulders walked in and out of the guarded gate. It was possible to assume with some reasonable certainty of correctness that the folks walking in and out might have been using those headsets to listen to something.  Outside the fence there was an antenna field the size of a small town - mostly rhombic antennas (the largest kind known to man) of a size to receive certain frequencies well, all pointed in roughly the same direction.  It was reasonable to assume that we were not listening to BBC....

Our position as enlisted men was also a bit on the odd side - other services would have used officers to do what we did - and we did it very well, too.  We knew that if things got ugly we would be the last to be evacuated - we supplied information that would be needed until we were overrun, but we accepted that as part of the job - or more likely just figured as so many people so young did that we were immortal, ten feet tall and covered with hair - and that we were untouchable.  We never got to test that, and I am not at all sorry that we never got to test it.

I loved the work, even when it was boring.  Old Cold Warriors were pretty busy sometimes - but we all know that what we did made a difference.

Other veterans were in harms way - many of my colleagues who stayed in the service after the first 4 years were up ended up in Viet Nam after it got ugly.  Some died doing their job in airplanes, some died on the ground by accident of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I'm sure nobody thought about it all that much - we did what we came to do, that others might avoid being in a wrong place at a time when they would die.

Being a veteran brings mixed feelings to me - I got to be one after a large personal failure - and my enlistment was in some ways a penance for things I left undone.  But I am proud of having served, and have encouraged many kids who have asked to just take the time out of high school and go ahead and enlist - at the end of the term you will know at least 200 things you never in your life want to do again, you will have learned about people in other places, particularly if you go overseas, and you will emerge understanding the difference between commitment and involvement.  you may also find an environment to your liking, and a good career.

In the final analysis, though, I am proud to have served, I honor those who served before me, with me, and after me, and I am a better person for having served. I met people who made an impact on my life, both serving and outside the service in the locations in which I served.  I learned languages, and learned about people in foreign lands by living with them, not just by reading about them.  The four years?  I had nothing better to do at the time, and those years will always rank among the years in which I learned the most - about myself, about other people, about friends (and some non-friends) and about  people who talked funny.

Those who serve are owed our respect - they wrote a check on their lives that could have been cashed at any time, in order that many others would not have to write such a check.

/sermon ends

thanks for listening (reading?)

Friday, the 8th. It only FEELS like the 13th.

My desktop PC at work is still hosed.  Oracle won't work on it.  That means that the 24 or so automated processes that run every day haven't run since Wednesday. Maybe it is time to move them downstairs to a PC in the data center / server farm room.  I guess I ought to do that before I piss away another day trying to fix this POS outdated PC that I am stuck with....

Normally, Friday when it isnot raining would be a motorcycle day - but when I went outside this morning it was pretty chilly,and I decided t drive the old Volvo instead.  I would rather ride, but riding cold isn't much fun, and at my age, I don't need to do things that aren't fun when they are supposed to be fun.  Sunday, there's a Breakfast ride with the Ramblers that I plan on riding - hope it doesn't get colder before that.

I do plan to ride some more before it gets too cold.  Years ago, I rode all winter, but I was younger then, and had a snowmobile suit that (mostly) kept me warmer than necessary.  Maybe I should get another one - we'll have to see about that.

Anyhow, I think I will move all the automated stuff downstairs, and then get the miscellaneous pickups and sendings caught up -  then I can spend the rest of the day doing something else - like trying to make this XP POS on my desk actually talk to Oracle.

I just bought another KVM switch (powered) to replace the unpowered one I bought a while back that has gone all flakey on me.  Brought it in and discovered I had mismatched video connectors, so I ordered the needed gender menders.  They arrived yesterday.

Today I came in, hooked it all up anticipating great results, no more lost mouses - and what I got was no display - the monitor switching stuff does not work. Damn damn DAMN!  I knew everything was going too well.  Now I gotta go back to the vendor, and am still stuck with a flakey KVM switch.  I should have known it wasn't too late for something else to turn to poop for me.

Well, now I have to go downstairs and get these auto-scheduled things to run again, and get all the back stuff caught up, or I'll have a double shift facing me on Monday.

I plan this weekend to pull down everything Greywolf has ever written and store it on the Big Server.  His RosFic is too good for it to be hidden away. It will be a PITA - some of his stuff is pretty large, but I need to do it for myself and for posterity.

I'm going downstairs to curse at hardware.  Have a great rest-of-the-day, y'all.

Friday the 13th came today....

On the offhand chance most of you aren't old enough to remember Pogo, a comic strip, the title comes from a favorite statement of Pogo Possum - 'Friday the 13th came on Tuesday this week.'

This started as a pretty good day - light traffic on the way in, not too much grief waiting - at least not until I booted my PC and tried to log onto the network.

In a word, it did not happen - the blasted thing would not boot, and gave me a BS message about how something needed was not there.  Well, of course, nobody had a boot CD, nobody had a boot floppy, nobody had a release CD, so I was reduced to removing the drive and putting it into a PC that I own, to see if I could find what was missing.  I could and I did, and then I moved the drive back to where it belonged.

No joy - I changed the BS message to another BS message, but the (muttered imprecations) thing steadfastly refused to boot.

I have a release CD.  Of course, I have it at home, and it is my personal CD, not something I want all over work, so I did not have it with me.

Eventually, someone came up with a bunch of CD's designed to do everything but eat (which is a pun on a very old IBM Utility named DEBE which was later renamed DITTO....) including a current release CD, but nothing did what was needed.

So I moved everything over to a Win/7 machine that belongs to me - at least I hope I did.  hen I remembered that a whole bunch of automated stuff runs from that desktop that was dead, so I had to create auto slots for each one (that I could remember) in the new machine.  I guess tomorrow I'll get some idea of whether I fixed some or broke more. Also, if I am blessed, tomorrow I'll remember to bring my own personal recovery disk and get the other machine working again mebbe.

Now it is time to go home, and I have not one new thing to show for the day.  I guess it could be worse.

Tomorrow looks like it will be a good day for the motorcycle - looking forward to that!

Be well.

Monday Morning at zero dark 30

I should be asleep, but here's what's not happening - sleep.

The week has been productive, mostly - couple of good motorcycle days, and progress on a messy bug. I'm pretty well satisfied with results, and am headed into a week with neither medical nor other sorts of interruptions.  Possible schedule alterations, but not much else.

Today I took off this afternoon to take the a ride.  It was brisk, but not really cold, and I cracked off about 80 miles without stopping except for lights and such.  Great ride, albeit different - I took a route I haven't take on the new bike yet, and it was really a fun run.  I ended up in Pennsylvania (no I did not take my helmet off!) and rode by to salute Susan's blue heron on the way home.  Altogether pleasant except for the fact that the sun was in my eyes.  It might be time to fashion some kind of a visor for this helmet.

This entire weekend was peaceful.  Jessica and both Ronnies were over, and Big Ronnie cleaned out Jessica's car, during which process he found stuff that the previous owner had  lost, and gave Jessica a fit for not having ever cleaned it out.  Doubtless he'd've been giving me a fit had he been cleaning my car, but so far my car retains it's very own personality, unmarred by neat freaks.

Ronnie seems really good - fate is throwing crap at him, and not making his return to the fold easy or pleasant but he is weathering the storm(s) and rolling with it.  I do not envy him some of what must be learned and experienced, but I know he'll be OK eventually.  Jessica is over the moon - the family is finally complete, and Little Ronnie is loving life - his deportment at school is improving as well as his attention to his work.  Looks to me like a win-win for all of us.

Last weekend in Las Vegas I met someone with whom I have been in touch for several years but had never met.  Through various online groups I meet people this way, and it was very good to meet the actual person and family - I had a great time, wish I had had more time, but they were headed into a really busy time in a different state. It is really good to be able to put faces and places together with the names (or 'nyms) with whom I have been in contact over the years.  At least this person stayed alive - another died before we ever had a chance to meet, and it really bothered me at the time.

Someone in Las Vegas asked me when I would retire, and I thought about ti, and decided maybe sometime before I reach 80, which isn't as far a way as I might wish.  Naturally, I am interested in pensions (not that mine will amount to all that much unless I can last more than 10-15 years) but I also really enjoy what I do, and as long as someone is willing to pay me to do things I like, why should I stop doing them?

Seeing all my family members last weekend was really good - while my parents were Pittsburgh kids, many of my relatives have moved to places like Los Angeles, Texas, South Carolina and Florida - and getting together is no longer as frequent or as easy as it once was, and I find that I miss all these folks. We are all getting older, and one day they'll not be there to miss any more (along with myself, who also one day will be gone) so I rather cherish any opportunity to be with them.

One thing about Las Vegas, though - everything is to big and too far apart for old fat guys with sore knees and legs!  I actually lost weight in Las Vegas!

Well, I am hoping for motorcycle weather when I ariise - right now, it's late and if I don't soon get to bed it will be time to arise!

Be well, y'all....

Hallowe'en day

This morning was a little foggy, but otherwise nice enough to uncover the Guzzi and ride it to work.

Our weather seems to be confused - by now, in normal times (which all occurred before I was half the age I am now) we would have had snow by now.  Instead, it was over 60 when I left for work and a bit foggy but not really all that damn - it felt good to start the Guzzi and get on it to head for work.

I didn't take a back way - just down 795, around 695 and down 83 and it took less than 40 minutes, which is pretty good time for heading in in the morning - I never get it that quick in the old Volvo.

There's something about riding a really good motorcycle that energizes me - the Guzzi likes to have its gearbox stirred, and doesn't produce all that much power below about 2500 RPM - and really likes t be run above 3000.  Since 4000 in fifth is about 75, that gives plenty of gears for maneuvering around traffic, and backing down for entering a curve.  Stirring them can be a lot of fun....

Everything was just right this morning - cool enough to make me alert and make the mixture to the engine great, traffic never stopped (unusual in the morning) and it was just a joy to be out there in the air chasing things.

Everyone should at least one good motorcycle for a time in their lives.

Otherwise not a whole lot to relate - choir rehearsal was good last night and I think I might have finally caught up on time zone changes and lost sleep in aircraft.

So on that positive note, have a wonderful Hallowe'en!

The Day Before Hallowe'en

I've been pretty busy, and haven't been here for a while.  It's been an eventful couple of weeks.

By now all of you faithful readers know that my middle child, Jessica, married the father of her son, which is a Good Thing, although she did take her sweet damn time about it.

There's a lot of this marrying stuff going around. This past weekend, I went to Las Vegas to help a first cousin once removed get married. It was an interesting trip.

My last trip to Las Vegas was from Los Angeles in a Mooney owned by an uncle - the very physician who delivered my son, and it occurred about four days after his delivering my son.  Phyllis and I were out there to pick up this child and bring him home, and the tradition at the time was that whenever someone came to visit, it was Uncle Jim's job to get them up very early, stuff them in the airplane, and go to Las Vegas for breakfast.  My recollection is that the food was incredible, and the choices so varied one could starve just making up one's mind what to choose.  I won a few bucks on the slots, and we flew back to San Bernardino before the air over the mountains got too rough.  I got to fly his Mooney and loved it, although one of his daughters told me this weekend I almost made her airsick.

But that was 40+ years ago.

This time when I went it was for a wedding at Caesar's Palace.  I almost did not get a rental car since I looked at the map and it appeared that everywhere I was likely to have to be was a short walk from my hotel, Harrahs.  The maps didn't have a scale anywhere and I was soon to find out why.

I have lived in towns smaller than Caesar's Palace.  It was a good half hour's walk from my hotel to the garden in which the wedding took place.  It would have been 20 minutes, but I am not 30 any more, I have recently broken a leg that is healing, my knees are probably 30 years older than I am and, of course, recovery from abdominal surgery tends to slow one down.  I never walked so damn much before in my life, nor did I ever find it needful to sit down so many times in the course of one journey to a place that looked so close by.

I out-smarted my self once by using what they call the Monorail.  It is technically interesting, and on Google Maps it looked ideal - and I guess it was ideal for someone 35 who can run a mile without breaking a sweat.  For me, it took me to a place about half a mile from my destination.  I was inside a casino all of that half mile, and it had the ceiling not flat, but curved and painted like a night sky - so well done one could believe oneself to be outside. I saw no clocks ever inside any place that I was, and it was impossible to walk anywhere without a slot machine so close you had to deviate from the planned route in order not to run into it. The hotel had no free WiFi - they suggested I go downstairs to Starbucks and use theirs - their tables are right next to about 128 new slot machines, all electronic.

These new slots are so different from the old three-reel slots (mechanical) that I soon figured  out I was too dumb to work them without 24 hours of dual - so I stayed away from them.  Didn't gamble, so I got no free booze, and wasn't buying.

The wedding was lovely, tastefully done, and not at all what I kinda expected from larger-than-life Las Vegas.  Everywhere we went, the food was the best I have ever had - and the portions far too large for me to consider eating, even before my gastric bypass.  It was hard for me to believe it, but when I got home (after I woke up) I got on my scale and found I had actually lost almost 5 pounds.  That was a truly unexpected result.

I flew in and back on Spirit Airlines. The prices were really great, I thought - at least until I started doing things like seat selection and baggage arrangements.  My checked bag was overweight, so it ended up costing near to $100 for the privilege.  There went the price advantage....

The aircraft were all A-320 Airbus aircraft - apparently a good workhorse much in the class of the old 727 (of you are old enough to remember having flown in one - I am) and they are not (or did not seem) as cramped as other flights I have taken - but they flew full aircraft, and both times I managed to request seating in the only row that did not recline, so there was no sleeping, not even on the late red-eye I took to get home. Also, I had walked so much I was in a lot of pain, and having to cross my arms to avoid molesting the person next to me wasn't much fun.

Next time I think I will take the train, if I can be sure I can get enough time to manage it.  I really do not enjoy flying any more.

It was great to see some family I seldom get to see, and to spend time with them, although it seemed as if we got together only at mealtimes - it was the only way to get us around a table that didn't have slot machines on it.

I was fortunate to have reserved a rental car, and even more fortunate to have done so when there was a mistake on their web site, allowing me to ask (successfully) that they honor a truly stupid low rate, and I got an upgrade to a Toyota 4-runner, which was nicer than I expected.  Had I not had a reservation, they would have had no cars - the PBR was in town, and that's a really Big Deal for Las Vegas.

Arriving late Friday night as I did, I drove to the hotel.  Any more, I make sure I take the car mount for my Android phone, as I like Google's Maps and GPS services better than anything else I have found, and it really works well.  It managed to find the entrance to Harrahs by the desk, which was around back and almost underground - the only trouble I had was finding a parking place, and when I did, it was free and I could park near the elevator.  Check-in was a breeze, and it was only about a mile and a half to my room (if I counted the distance the elevator had to travel to get to my floor.)  I found vending and ice - and found that snacks were cheap, but sodas and such were not (I found the same to be true on the plane, incidentally - Spirit does everything a la carte, so you get nickeled and dimed without realizing it.)  There was no in-room coffee, but Starbucks was right downstairs (next to a boatload of slot machines....) and there was noise and music all around.

A really different experience.  I am well beyond the age that I would seek excuses to go back - but I might go back just to visit people I met there.  It is always good to put faces with names of folks you 'know' from many years of meeting on-line but have never seen.

All in all I am glad I went - it was mostly a good experience, and the pain will go away in a few weeks.

Aside from that, I guess there isn't much all that new, so I'll close this down and get it posted.

Y'all take care....

Moto Guzzi, redux

Well, yesterday I took the new (to me) motorcycle on a trip with some other riders who I know from the Baltimore Ramblers Motorcycle Club, a club of which I am a member.

It was an eclectic mix - a Triumph, my Guzzi, a BMW, a Suzuki Burgmann superscooter, a Harley Trike and about 5 Harley 2-wheelers.  The route was set by Jeff Hutchins, the club president, and was a really pleasant back road tour to see the leaves (although I spent more time looking down the road to see what I had to do than looking around) and included some rough roads, some twisty roads, and some turns that were not easy to make.  I was somewhere in the middle of the group, and managed everything pretty well, although I did go wide at one intersection and ride up on the grass.   Happily all I got for it was a muddy boot.

The day before, a group had gone on a ride that covered about 300 miles.  What I learned yesterday is that my arse isn't good for much over 100 miles, and I run out of strength soon after the 100 mark is hit. I don't actually collapse, but my skill erodes to the point that I really need to get off the bike and into a car if I am traveling farther.

Getting old is really a bummer - I used to think nothing at all of 300 and 400 mile days - now I don't even think about them because I am not strong enough to manage them, although there is hope if I get more weight off and finish healing this leg that I broke that it will become easier.  My fear is that I'll have to get my knees done first - and that is something I don't really look forward to.  I keep telling myself if I could get off another 60-70 pounds, my knees might stop yelling at me.  Then again, they might not.

But the Guzzi is one of the most pleasant bikes I have ever ridden. It is right up there with my old BMW's as nimble, and I don't exactly get on it and ride it - it's more like I pull it on and wear it.  Lean angles are (or seem to me to be) easy; very little requirement for counter-steer; no flex laid over in a fast curve, flexible power (although the engine does prefer to be kept over 3000 RPM,) good power delivery from the fuel-injected engine, and even decent mileage.  I'm slowly getting used to the brakes (the right hand lever controls one disk on the front - the other disk and the back disk are actuated by the rear brake pedal, and the proportioning valve is apparently set up very well.)  The pedal placement is not ideal after riding the Big Suzi, but I think I can get used to it (or change it if needed).  The shifter is the same, but the weakness of my knees and upper legs make the problem a lot worse than it has to be - maybe I'll get more strength back in the coming months....

But riding it is a real giggle - it doesn't need muscled - it seems as if all I have to do is drop a hint what I want to do, and it satisfies. Hands-off it tracks straight and true for as long as I am that silly, and it even has a steering damper that it doesn't need.  No shakes at all, no temperment at all - a wholly friendly ride.

This lack of strength is beginning to bug me.  It isn't apparent in the car (of course, the car isn't as much work to drive) but it sure makes itself known on the bike.  The commute ride is OK at 25 miles each way, and there's plenty of recovery time, but spending a couple of hours in the saddle wears me out to the point that I begin to scare myself (and possibly the folks around me, although they don't say anything....) and I am not happy about that.  Motorcycles have been a part of my life for so long now I hate to think that the day will come that I can only look at them and drool...

However, within my own limits, I am enjoying the Moto Guzzi a whole bunch, and the weather has been cooperating enough that it hasn't yet come to the time to put it up.

Anyone out there need a big Suzuki (VL1500, 2004?)

Until later - I'll have more to say about family changes as time goes by - right now, we are all feeling very positive, and thankful that we feel that way.

Second chances, redux

Well, last night a bunch of us got together for dinner, to meet again with my daughter's new husband, whom we have not seen for many years, and to watch his son be surprised because his dad joined us at dinner and he was not expected home much before Christmas.

Both daughters were there with their kids.  This can be pretty exciting because the youngest's two (almost four and more than 5) are bright, vocal, active kids, and tend to end up being the stellar attraction, however, last night they seemed to sense that not only was this a Big Deal, but it was a Big Deal for their older cousin and made sure to greet the new Uncle as family and not as some interloper who just showed up out of nowhere.

My wife and I had concerns about the evening - we have not seen the new son-in-law for more than just a couple of years and, understanding some things that had been said and some that had been thought over the years, the potential was there for a heated emotional disaster - but it did not even stick its head in the room - we met a gentleman, an intrinsically good man who had spent much of his life in places that weren't really that good either for him or anyone else.  He has used his time away well, taking coursework and other opportunities to better his understanding of why some things are as they are and how to handle those things and turn them to his advantage. It was a great evening for all of us, and we look forward to more of them.

My daughter is of course over the moon, and her son likewise - they can look at him, talk to him, and not worry what machinations of fate are going to get him moved, segregated or otherwise barred from being around those who love him. It's a win for all of us.

I know he had his concerns - he knows all too well that there have been times he was not one of my favorite people - but he's not the man I didn't like, not any more - he has turned into a guy that I can respect, someone who has shown that he can handle adversity and learn from it,  that past behaviors do not rule forever, and that he is capable of growing, learning, and becoming a greater person.

I am feeling pretty positive now - I think this is a positive thing for all of us, not just for the daughter and her son - and that there will finally be healing for all of us.

It is a shame that his mother did not live to see this day.

But the rest of us did live to see it - and it looks better than any of us had a right to anticipate.  I'm suddenly sleeping really well.

On another topic - my surgeon tells me I can't have coffee.  Growlgrumbleandbitch! I asked him why, and he told me that  the ulcer that did not perforate was the worst one he has ever seen, and he's seen a few.  Until I get scoped again, no coffee, and maybe not then.  I wish I wan't asymptomatic regarding the ulcers themselves - seems to me anything that ugly ought to cause me pain, and they don't, not just being there - and at my age, I don't guess it will change a whole lot, so I have to pay attention and do what he wants, just so I don't get to see him again late one night....

Orthopod visit Monday morning, new glasses Tuesday - everything is moving along.  My knees are lousy, but they've been lousy for a while and as long as I ignore them it is bearable.  Getting up off the floor, however, is a real exercise in funny-looking.  I am stillnot as strong as I want to be, but the Guzzi is at least keeping me grinning riding it.

Well, I gotta call my wife and see what she wants to do about dinner,then go into the garage, start the  Guzzi and head for home, grinning all the way...

Y'all be well, y'hear?

Second Chances

One of my grandkids has a father whom he sees very seldom.

That will all change today - his father is getting out and returning to his loved ones.

Many of you know me to be a hardass about convicted felons, crime, and such things in general.

Well, from working around cops, I know Correctional Facilities take what appear to be Bad People off the street.  Some do their time, reoffend and make their way back.  For some, they've spent so much time incarcerated that it's the only life they feel to be safe - the rules are known, inflexible, and iron hard.  Outside, among real people, the rules are sometimes harder to discern.

Once in a while, however, someone comes out having learned something - possibly the consequences of particular behaviors, possibly what happened that creates the inappropriate behavior, sometimes just with the resolve never to return.

For a change, I am not cynical about this - I truly believe that this person is the exception.  I might be naive, but I have to give him the shot, and support his efforts.  We are about the only family he has, and I honestly think there's not a malign bone in him - although life has crapped in his cheerios times without number.

Now, I really tried to hate this guy - some pretty difficult times with one of my kids were times over which he had influence - but I couldn't hate him - many times I saw a good person there, sorely misguided, a victim of his own shortightedness, poor choices, and poor familial examples.

I know the rate of recidivism is large - but this will be the time the prediction is proven false.

I guess underneath, I'm a big softheaded dope - but that's what I believe, and I am convinced that this guy won't let me down, that he'll be a good father to his child, and a fit husband for my daughter.

And for right now, that's all I have to say on the matter - except you might pray for all of us, that we make the best we can out of what we've been handed.

Thanks.

Death of the Second Amendment

I wish I thought that this was premature, but I fear it is not.

The Supreme Court refused to hear a case from Maryland, where the right has been severely abridged for many years.

In case you don't live in Maryland, right now it is necessary to get a license to think about buying a handgun.  After you get the license, you still have  the paperwork and delays for which Maryland has become notorious - but you have to spend more money, get training (not a bad idea, but redundant for many of us, and costly for all of us) the survive a background check - then see if you can find a gun dealer that has what you want - or learn that the gun dealers are flummoxed by the way the rules are written.

An example of the last - I wanted to buy a Smith & Wesson Governor - a popular revolver that chambers .45 Long Colt and .410 shotgun shells.  It is a great home defense weapon, less likely to kill someone outside the house than most, and noisy as hell.  I know of folks in Texas thats hoot skeet with them, even. Right now, no dealer will even order one for me - because the law disallows drum magazines on shotguns but is written in a way that does not specifically call out long guns, and in a way that uses 'revolving cylinder' as a term describing the mechanism that is prohibited which, of course, could include any revolver-type handgun as well. Taurus is also impacted - ordering a Judge might be problematic, as they also are chambered for .45 Long and .410 shot.

Weapons are being banned not because of some function (like select fire) but because they look like they may be easy to use. There is not a particle of (functional) difference between a long-range hunting rifle and a sniper rifle - except perhaps for appearance.  Even one of my .22 rifles qualifies as an assault weapon by some readings.

Were it not for the fact that my family and friends are here, I'd be looking really hard at Texas right about now, or some other place that has legislators smart enough to understand that the primary identifying characteristic of a criminal (or a crazy) is a pronounced lack of interest in laws and in obeying laws.  Our legislators appear to think that if they make enough laws, at some point the criminals and crazies will count them up and say to themselves "Oh shit - this new law makes 147 (or pick your own number) laws - maybe I should start paying attention to them."  It just won't happen.

Many ideal defense weapons are being made unavailable for the most ridiculous of reasons.

An example occurred several years back - in the small .32 caliber (semi)automatic pistol market. There are several fine .32 ACP pistols made, among them Beretta, Seecamp and too many others to mention. KelTec began making one - a very nice little pocketable pistol, reasonably accurate, well made and decently priced. This pistol never made it onto the Maryland List of Things You May Own because, they said, it was too small.  Seecamp, which is smaller, made it onto the list. Seecamp sent representatives to appear before the committee that determines what you may own to plead the case and KelTec did not - they are a small firm noted for good design and manufacture and reasonable price and apparently thought that the money to do so would be better spent improving the products.  The P-32 is, so far as I know, forbidden for Marylanders to own.

It really is not about guns at all - it is about legislators who think that, having been elected, they get to think for us and determine for us what is good and proper for us to own.  They have bodyguards and don't have to dirty their hands protecting their homes and families. Mere citizens like the rest of us do not have  that luxury, but it does not make the obligation to protect our homes and families and less, it just makes it our personal responsibility unless we can afford to hire the guards - which the legislators get from the state (which is us, and our taxes.)

Some folk will say 'It is only property' - but I don't consider wife and children to be property, and I  doubt there are many who do.  It has already been established in court many times that the job of police is to show up after Something Bad has happened, collect spent brass, draw chalk marks around the bodies and gather up anything that might help them catch whoever it was that did the terrible deed. Their responsibility does not include protecting folks unless they happen to be around when something nefarious is being perpetrated, and they are not charged with preventing any crime except one that they see happening. Indeed, they arenot permitted to act on imputed intent - they have to wait.

The Powers that Be in Maryland will not rest until citizens are disarmed. If I were young and single, I'd begone already.

Is there anyone out there that believes that more laws are the answer to anything?

Furloughs

I have been thinking about all the folks on furlough.

I have been furloughed - three years running for a total of 24 or so days.

I had to be available (essential employee).

I got no back pay.

I got no pats on the back for the work I did while I was not being paid.

I had no expectation of being paid for those days I was not at work.

I just heard that it is likely that the federal workers who are on furlough will likely get back pay when they return - for the time that they did not work!   

How does this happen?  I thought they were furloughed because the gummint could not pay them - where is the money to pay them back pay going to be found (of course I know - it will come out of our paycheck taxes, yours and mine....) when they return?

I do not wish them ill, I really do not.  I understand tight money.

I don't understand money that magically appears after it could not be found.

I don't understand paying folks not to show up.

Something about all of this is clanging a really discordant bell in my head.

And I am wondering - should I now sue the City of Baltimore for back pay for all those days I was forced to take off? Gummint is  gummint, or?

It's just a little but pissed that I am - but the longer it goes on, the worse it will get - and the harder the gummint will come after the rest of us to appease the federal drones.

What do you think?

Headed home.

Well, I survived the 3-11 shift, broke nothing, aggravated nobody and even managed to fix a thing or two.

Now I can go home, gram something to eat and go to bed.

Sleep well, y'all....

Sunday. Friday the 13th came on Sunday this month.

If the title is confusing, it comes from an old Pogo comic strip.

If you don't know about Pogo, well, I can't help all that much - you are probably too young to understand the humor that Pogo and his pals were wont to use.

It is Sunday, and when I got up it was  raining.  I guess it doesn't matter that the new battery for the Guzzi has not yet arrived - I wouldn't ride in the rain anyhow.  So it was off to church in the old Volvo to be a choirboy again this morning.  I've been doing this so long that it feels very strange to sit in the congregation - I don't know how to behave with only hymns to sing.

Right now I am at work - I volunteered in a moment of insanity) to cover a shift today and tomorrow for which there was no coverage. I got here a bit early to pick Margaret's brain(since I haven't run this shift in a couple of years, and Margaret is the source of all knowledge about any shift that I haven't had to work for a while.

I don't expect all that much activity this afternoon - for one thing, there's a Ravens game that will keep most folks either glued to their TeeVee or suffering in the weather, shouting their voices bloody at the stadium. This evening some stuff might happen, but it isn't here yet, so I can just sit and wait, and blather on about things that matter to me (and probably nobody else in the known universe.)

Next week is just full of things to do - Monday has a dentist visit and a 3-11 shift, like today.  Wednesday has a visit to the surgeon that patched the hole in my gut a little while back.  I expect he'll want me to go and have an upper endoscopy, which will shoot one whole day for me whenever I have to have it done, but I am interested in knowing what there is to see down there, and if it looks better, worse, or the same as it did the night I had surgery. I'll also be interested to know if there are to be any medication or dietary changes.

Brought a couple of toys with me today - my tablet, my phone and one of my laptops, a headset and a little gadget I picked up a while back.  We don't have WiFi most places where I work, so I have a little access point - about the size of a jump drive that will plug into an ethernet cable and make a local wireless zone. I got it when I found that many motels are now wired and don't run wireless into rooms - and if they are wired, they have only one cable connection and with more than one device that is networkable (particularly when phone and tablet do not have ethernet connections, only wireless) this makes my life a whole lot easier.

This is what it looks like, if you are curious:

Tiny Access Point / Router / Wireless adapter

I got mine from eBay, but they are available all over the place, and at all kinds of different prices.

I just looked over at Facebook, and see some bleeding-heart libs are attacking the Conservatives again - calling them names, telling them their sources are crap - but they don't seem to be able to supply any real refutation of the conservative points - or else their minds are not so oriented that they think that real information is required.  They seem to be from the school that says "shout louder and insult and you'll be believed, or they'll get pissed and go away - which leaves yours as the only voice."  I don't feel line engaging this afternoon - I'd rather just be here in this space and read, or write, or drink coffee and/or answer the phone and think my thoughts.  No rants today - I just don't feel like expending the energy only to cast pearls before swine....

Hmm.  That wasn't nice.  Pretend I didn't say it.

I just learned that the Blue Man Group is to be in Las Vegas during the time I am there.  I wonder if I can arrange to see them?  Tickets aren't cheap, but it might be worth the time to go.  I have this feeling that I'll not have much time for fun at all over that weekend - too much to do in a strange town - and I am told that there is nowhere to walk that takes less than half an hour....  With my knees and one leg the way they are, it doesn't sound like a real fun time - but we shall see.  If I can find a couple of other folks that wanna go, it's on!

Last time I was in Las Vegas was a little over 40 years ago, and I imagine that nothing will be where or as it was then - not that I'd remember all that much as I was only there for the day.  Jamie had been born, and our Uncle Jum was taking some of us to Las Vegas for breakfast.  He is a physician and has had his own airplane for many years, so we were flying in.  Lovely trip, and I actually got to fly a Mooney and didn't even scare him (as far as I know.)  But we left before midafternoon, because the air over the mountains that we have to cross to get back to San Bernardino gets pretty rough in the heat of the day, and the Mooney is just too small to accommodate airsick travelers. It was an interesting trip, and the damnedest breakfast buffet I have ever seen - easily ten times the size of the largest I had ever seen before.  Bad place for a fat guy...

This time I won't have time to gamble - too much other stuff to do.  Last time I think I won about $20 in dimes from slots (remember, this was 40 years ago - and $20 was a bunch of money to lots of  people....)

Only 6 hours to go in this shift.  I may have to go upstairs to my office and borrow some music or something to keep me buzzing around - nobody even to chat with and I'm not a really great person to leave alone somewhere.  Maybe I can find some speakers - I already have a thumb drive with some music, or I'll go to the Big Server at home and pull some down.  I also have Netflix- maybe I'll watch a movie.

Well I just had to do a little work.  Makes the time go faster, it does.  I also had to admit to an end-user that I could not help him because I didn't know how.  Oh well....

Just discovered that Google Chrome has a bunch of apps or builtins - gotta try a few to see how this TeeVee stuff works in here.  We supposedly have a pretty fat Internet pipe - I think I'm gonna go see what I can find.

This window has been open too long - y'all have a fun evening.  I'll stop in again if I find anything really exciting - or if the urge to start a rant overwhelms me.

TGIF Day!

Well, Friday has arrived, and started off with a visit to my physician.  He's a good guy, and we have known him for probably 30 years or so.  His MA took my blood  pressure and found it elevated.  He took it and found it low (for me) - so we both reassured the MA that she's still got 'it.'  I hope he doesn't have to explain it later today - she's a newbie and might not know about old standing jokes.  She managed to give me a B12 shot without giving me any pain, and we set up an appointment to come back in 6 weeks. He also reminded me that I need to get an upper endoscopy to see if I still have ulcers or something.  You all have to know how much I look forward to endoscopies.....

So I was a little late.  Rain was all over today, and we have a couple of small lakes in the back yard.  The motorcycles got wet (only a little) and getting the newspaper this morning was an adventure, running (actually walking slowly) between raindrops was the order of the day.  I got a little wet, but dried off before leaving to go to the doctor, where I got wet, and dried off before getting to work. I parked inside today, so I didn't get wet any more.  Fridays around here are pretty quiet, particularly before a 3-day weekend.

I finished up (again) the project for that outside consultant, logging on late last night to ship him the latest data - all 1.02 gigabytes of it (actually compressed down to 113,996 kb using WinRAR, a really useful tool) via my Google drive - which reminds me I need to clean that one up!

Something messed with my Chrome apps - I need to rebuild that.  Happily I remember what I use, mostly.  I have been amazed at how useful a lot of the apps and extensions for Google's Chrome have become - there are some I have come to depend on, and I hadn't given much credence to Google's approach.  Looks to me as if they got a lot right!

I fear there won't be much done today that is mission-oriented - too many other things that can be cleaned up.  Next week I have to start cleaning up to Clarion apps that I still have active, killing off the ones that aren't used, and upgrading at least to Version 8 anything that isn't already there.  I have Version 9 installed, but haven't had a chance to mess with it much. I also need to purge off a bunch of unused .bat files, SQL scripts and FTP scripts - there is so much that was put out there and has fallen into disuse that if I don't do this soon I'll be breaking more stuff than I fix....  I need to get all this stuff into a book somehow, and some of it needs major cleanup and simplification.  Always time to screw with it, never time to get it right - story of my life....

On another topic, has anyone that reads this ever heard of Heather Rigdon?  I ask because some nice person at the office gave me some of her MP3s and I am enjoying them a whole lot. I also discovered that the Beth Nielsen Chapman collection I thought I had lost just got hidden on a damaged drive on the big server, and I was able to recover all of it, which made me pretty happy. Now I have to transfer some of it over here, for use on the days I can make noise and not get bitched at by folks with tin ears.

In going through some old jump drives I have found some music that I had thought was lost - including a bit by Steve Miller at the end of a live concert that merged All Blues with  C. C. Rider   and some original lyrics to create a long track that was really great, very jazzy and funny, too. If anyone wants anything that I might have, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do for you.

Having discovered that by BluRay player is internet-smart, and that there are all kinds of movies available, I am thinking of killing off most of my movie collections and reclaiming some server space so maybe I won't have to buy drives so damned often to keep everything happy. I am continually amazed at what can be found on YouTube as well as some of the other services just kicking the BuRay box around a bit.  I had built a whole media player desktop, and find I don't use it at all - I can do everything media-wise I ever want to do just using the BluRay player. Now I have to get it away from where it is  and take it somewhere where it will be useful - like  down into the family room, maybe....

My watch must be busted - it sure is taking a long time to get this day over.  I'll be in Sunday and Monday (both scheduled days off) to cover a 3-11 shift that would otherwise be uncovered, because I am such a Nice Person - and because it will supply the comp time I need to take that weekend in Las Vegas in a week or two and not use any precious annual leave.

I'm trying hard to stay away from politics because some of what is going on makes me angry (and profane) and I don't want any nastiness to leak into this - so I'll save it for a time I want to show just how damn nasty I am capable of being when profoundly irritated.   But not today - I don't have the energy.

What I really need is a day that is about 32 hours long - then I could get lots done and still sleep for 9 or so hours.  As it is, I get to bed usually between 1 and 2 (my physician says older adults need bedtimes, too - but nobody can stay up around our house long enough to see that I observe any established bedtime.) and wake up at 7:45 when my phone says it is time to get up, make coffee, and do Other Things to get ready for the day.  What I should do is get up an hour earlier and walk around the block a time or two. No point taking any bets on when this will start, as I don't think it will any time soon.

I really hate this time of year, when I come home in the darn - it removes from me any desire to do anything after I eat something - anything, that is, besides park my arse in the chair read and/or watch the TeeVee.  I don't lose a whole lot of weight that way....

While I was off doing some real work a moment ago, my mind wandered into the place where the various ladies I have known over the last 70+ years have been stored, and I remembered a funny thing or two about a couple of them.  Then I seemed to wake up and realized where I was - and decided it wasn't time to visit those spaces.  Usually I visit them late at night when nobody is around to watch my face.  Maybe one day I'll talk about them, too. But not today.

I've been reading Augusten Burroughs, a brother to John Elder Robison, whose stuff I have also been reading.  Robison has Aspergers (which has, if I recall aright, been rendered no-longer-a word by the folks who decide such things) and is a most interesting person to read and to hear.  I'm not going to say more - if you are curious, read something from either or both - if you are Kindle-smart I might even loan you some of mine if there is a legal way to do that (and I think that there is.)

Any more, I do a log of my reading with my tablet using a Kindle app, or on one of my Windows machines using a Kindle app for Chrome, the browser.  Kindle is set up such that it remembers where you are when you bot a 'book' down.  Turn off the computer you were using, go home (or elsewhere) and get out your laptop (or tablet or Android phone) and fire up the Kindle app, and when it opens,m there is the page you were reading when you put it down.  Most thoughtful - and you can carry a hell of a big library with you, since e-books don't take up much room, and the Chrome app does everything from the Cloud (whateverthehell that means...)  If you hadn't noticed, I'm much impressed by Kindle - particularly by the fact that you don't have to buy one - anything you own can be a Kindle if you need it to be.

I think I've had enough fun, so I'm going to close up shop and go home and see where my lovely wife wants to go for dinner this evening.  Be well, y'all.

It is now Thursday. Imagine that.

Got up this morning not quite so stiff - apparently I am slowly recovering the ability to get over things quickly. If that sounds contradictory, it may be.

Late last night, before going to bed I started a process to get some results this morning for a consultant on a project for my top boss, the Police Commissioner.  The consultant and I have worked for some time with this data, and I have so far managed to get him almost anything he might ask for - but it hasn't alwways been easy.
When I left the office last night, a database was building that would have the latest subset data for the project.  I had thought the one I did the day before would be the last, but I figured out how to get a little more info that will shortcut a lot of effort on the consultant's part, so I asked him if he wanted it, and he did - hence the rebuild of the primary database.

Well, last night I logged in remotely to start a process that would strip the data down to manageable size files for him, secure in the knowledge that it would run about 6 hours and when I arrived everything would be ready to send to him.  Well, that is how it should have happened.  hat actually happened was that part way through the run, Microsoft decided my desktop needed patched, so it downloaded the patches, applied them and booted to box, leaving my process partway finished.  I fear I said a bunch of things better not said in polite society (not that cops are all that polite) and immediately restarted the process.  With luck it will finish before noon and I can get the info out to the man who needs it. I truly wish Micro$oft would let me d3ecide how to do some things....

It is raining, so having the Guzzi down doesn't really distress me.  I have to get a battery ordered today so it will maybe arrive by Saturday so I can have the bike ready for work on Monday.  I had planned a ride with the club on Saturday that would have taken a lot of the day - but the weather folks assure me it will rain all day - and I am no longer excited by riding in the rain.

I have to think of a name for the Guzzi - anyone have any thoughts?  The Suzuki is called "Big Suzi' because it is so big - what should I call the Moto Guzzi?  It is definitely Italian and definitely female and if I knew the name of the girl in the Fiat commercial who is so delicious I would name the bike after her, but I don't know her name.  Somehow "Phyllis" doesn't seem to match the character, and "Susan" would not feel honored if I used her name as she has never liked motorcycles, particularly when they were mine....

Someone come up with a name - if I use it, I'll give screen credit.

Otherwise, not a whole lot new.  I'll be in Las Vegas from 10/25 through 10/28, for the wedding of Sally and Fred (Sally is a first cousin once removed - there are lots of cousins on my mother's side of the family as she was one of six, one of whch had six, one of which had four - Sal is one of those 4) and to meet with a bunch of other cousins that I don't see as often as I wish because they all moved to the left coast, although when they speak, Pittsburgh is still detectable....

I'm looking forward some to the trip - the last time I was in Las Vegas was in July of 1973, when Jamie was born in California. In addition to my beloved cousins, I look forward to meeting for real someone whom I have 'known' from the world of RosFic for some time, so it should be a fun trip, and I should be busy enough to avoid gambling and/or drinking except for the obligatory glass of champagne at the wedding.

I had hoped to take Phyllis with me on this trip, but it was not to be - church jobs make weekends pretty hard to use for personal things. That morning, our friend Jack will be holding down the tenor section in the choir in my absence, and I do appreciate that.

Meanwhile, the phone is ringing, one of our guys is just back from Ireland, and I have to at least appear to be doing some work, so I'll close this one out.  Be well, y'all....

Wednesday, when I was reminded how old I am....

I recall expressing a hope that not too much pain would accrue to my last misadventure, in which I managed to get a new (to me) motorcycle over once on each side. I ended the day hoping that I wouldn't be in any pain when I awoke.

Well, it worked - partly.  I didn't start to hurt until I got to work - and by the time I left work, I knew that I was hurting - so I went to choir rehearsal, and then came home and really hurt.

Took some Tylenol, logged in at work and started a process that will run almost all night, but will give me a head start on tomorrow and some data I need to get ready for a project. After yesterday I drove the old Volvo to work today, and will do so tomorrow and Friday and hope to have a battery for the Guzzi by Saturday, when I intend to take a ride with the Ramblers.

Meanwhile, life goes on, the politicians in Washington make spoiled 2-year-olds look positively reasonable - and I have to see a doctor Friday morning to be told that I need to lose weight and get more exercise.

I think I'm gonna go to bed - that last wore me out!

I might have to start up Big Suzi tomorrow to feed my motorcycling monkey.

G'nite all.

Tuesday. It sucked.

This has been a Tuesday that was a Monday in all normal respects.

It started out decently - I rode the Guzzi to work, and enjoyed every minute of the trip.  I had quite forgot how good it felt to ride a motorcycle that is so much a part of you that you almost put it on and wear it rather than do something so mundane as to get on its back and tell it what to do.

I left late for work and got there a little bit early - a perfect trip in.

It turned to poo when it was time to go home.

I went out on the roof to my motorcycle and out the key in, unlocked the steering, got out my jacket and gloves and put them on and stowed my tablet bag, climbed on, and started it up.

That is, I turned the key and pushed the button.

No lights.  No noise.  Deader than last year's news.

I said a word, then remembered it won't start with the sidestand down, so I put the sidestand up.  Wouldn't start with it up, either, dammit!

I rolled it down into the garage, and started to think about getting it a hotshot - we have hotshot boxes all over the place.  The battery is under the seat.  Bear in mind, the motorcycle is Italian, so anything you thought you knew about where things are normally located will only confuse you.

But the battery, as I knew, was under the seat, so I started to take the seat off. I started to look around and see what I had to make loose to get the seat off. I took off some side covers that didn't need to come off. I found nothing pertaining to the seat under the covers, so I put them back on. The seat still won't come off.  I look in the user manual, and can find nothing about removing the seat.  I look some more - still nothing.  I look all over the motorcycle - and find nothing.  The seat won't budge, there are no bolts - nothing to be seen.

I read the manual end to end, and under helmet lock there is the information I need.  Effing Italians, hiding the seat lock by combining it with the helmet lock - where's the logic in that?  Now the seat's off, and a couple of guys bring me a hotshot box, and it starts.  I shut it down, put the seat back on, and start it up again.

Or try to start it up again.  No go.  Hotshot box, seat off, apply and restart.  This time block at high idle for about 8 minutes while I find helmet, gloves, leather jacket, get dressed, and head for home.  About ten minutes later, the get gas light comes on. Bear in mind I haven't had this so long that I know how far it will go with that little light on, and I have this feeling tonight ain't the night to risk it - so I get off the highway to a gas station, fill it back up, and start it again.  Or try - the damn thing just clicks at me and won't turn....

Push it out of the way, set the sidestand, and call the motor club for a hotshot.  They say in 35 minutes - the guy actually shows in 20, and I'm so happy, I get on the bike to set the center stand, and promptly fall over on the left side.  Allstate Guy helps me pick it up and get it on the center stand, and it starts right up - with a hotshot box.  I start  heading home the rest of the way, secure in the knowledge that I have enough gas.  The rest of the trip is a dream.  I really do love the Guzzi.

So I get home, ride up into the carport and set up to park next to the big Suzuki - and promptly fall over onto the other side from the side I fell over onto when the Allstate guy come. While I'm laying there on the ground, my cell phone rings - it is my lovely wife, wondering if I am home yet. She detects that I am not really thrilled and asks me what has happened.  I tell her I just dropped the damned motorcycle and can't pick it up and probably mumble some profanities just to spice it up.

She offers to call someone to help me pick it up, and I thank her and then hang up so maybe I can breathe again and get my BP under control.

Damon shows up and helps me (actually does most of the work) pick it up, and I scurry around and set the sidestand.  Then Phyllis shows up, and I decide to move the bike to where it should be parked, so I pop the sidestand up and start it - or at least try to start it.  It won't start. By this time, I am beyond pissed! I push it into place and resolve to get a replacement battery - and drive the Volvo tomorrow, on what will be a wonderful motorycle day. The rest of the week, of course, after I have a chance to get a battery, will be rain - including the Saturday that I had planned to go on a ride with the club.

See what I mean about imperfect Tuesdays?

I came inside, got something to eat, and fired up the Toshiba laptop intending to read email and go to bed. Instead I wrote this.

Tomorrow will be better.

Tomorrow will be better.

Tomorrow will dammit be better!

I think it is time to get some sleep, and hope I don't hurt in the morning.

I surely hope that this isn't a Sign that I am supposed to get a toy with more wheels....

G'night, y'all.

Monday Again....

It is Monday again.  It seems like it was Monday just yesterday (or maybe it only felt like a Monday.)

I know yesterday was Sunday, but for me it was a profoundly stupid day.  As I get older I seem to have more of these days.  Yesterday I came to work, secure in the knowledge I had offered to cover an uncovered 3-11 shift Sunday and Monday.  Well, I was part right - about the Saturday and Sunday part, but picked the wrong Sunday to start - it is next weekend that it starts. So, since I was already here I made a few programming changes that I had had on my to-do list for a while, then went home and proceded to arrange for my wife of 45 years to misunderstand something that I thought I had said.

Communication is something magical when it works. However, when it does not work, it leads to misunderstandings and cases of the grumps.  Happily it no longer leads to a week or more of the deadly quiet times.

When I got back home, I had intended to go motorcycling, but did not do so, Instead, I sat down to start writing this entry (which never even got to opening the app as I got distracted by something else....) and we talked briefly about something we had kinda planned for the evening and agreed (I thought) to pass it and go to dinner somewhere else later.  That's what I heard, anyhow.My wife heard something else, and when she reappeared, she had decided I probably wasn't going to get hungry and so she was going over to church to work a bit and would get something to eat on the way.  I of course was flummoxed, but I seem to spend a lot of time in that state.  Somehow later on in the evening we discovered each what the other had meant (and had heard) and learned something we have learned times without number - our assumptions about what is meant by what is unsaid usually are dead wrong.

So off she want, a little bit irritated, and I decided to go for a motorcycle ride....

By the way, if you follow you know that I have supplanted Big Suzi with  a Moto Guzzi (as yet unnamed) that is a couple hundred pounds lighter (at Phyllis's suggestion) (so maybe next time I drop a motorcycle it won't break my leg on the way down) and much easier to ride than Big Suzi, which is heavy, ponderous, comfortable, and a gas to ride except when I find it laying on my legs.

Anyhow, the Moto Guzzi (a V11 EV from 1999) looks like this:

except instead of a windshield it has a small fairing.  It is labeled a cruiser, but it handles like a sport bike, and is a blast to ride.  There are some quirks about it that are similar to some BMW quirks, but that's OK - I already know about them, and it is thoroughly happy once the quirks are noted.

It is also vastly cheaper to feed than Big Suzi, although it does demand high-test gasoline, and is fuel-injected, which makes it a great deal nicer to manage when things are not all warmed up. The long and short of it is that I love the thing, and wish I had found it sooner.  I've always been fond of the Moto Guzzi, and the folks I have known that have had them swear by them.

One thing I didn't know is that Moto Guzzi is the second oldest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, having produced motorcycles of varying sized and descriptions since 1921. The current design involves a V-twin (what's new) but it is a 90 degree V, which is far better balanced than the other 'normal' V-twin angles, and is mounted tranverse in the frame, using a shaft drive to the rear wheel. - nice and clean and stone-reliable. The engine design itself is probably 40+ years old, but has had detail improvements throughout the years, and has appeared in sizes from 350cc to 1500cc - and typically will run 100,000 miles if you change the oil as it requires.  I like things that don't require fiddling (one of the reasons for my love of Japanese motorcycles - they just work, kinda like a kitchen sink or something) and the Moto Guzzi is atypical among Italian machines in that it is appliance-like (at least in the touring models.)

Probably enough about motorcycles....

Today's political circus reminds me of a story about a small southern town with two churches.  The town was so small that it could not adequately support one church, so strangers who passed through were often spurred to ask "Why in this tiny place are there two churches?  Would you not be better served if they would consolidate?" to which a handy native will always reply "They disagree on something fundamental - this church says ' there ain't no hell' and t'other says 'the hell there ain't!'"

It would appear, if you listen to the President, Harry Reid or John Boehner individually (before they get excited) as if all are the souls of reason and the other(s) is(are) one way sonsofbitches.

I guess it all depends on your worldview.

I do think closing open air parks that do not have a guard staff and are intended to be available 24/7 is pety and vindictive.  I also think WW-II vets ought not to be messed with - all of us who were born afterwards owe them a debt, and as a veteran myself (of a far less interesting period in history) I have an understanding of the commitment involved in military service - something not well understood in todays "I've got mine, Jack" social environment.

ACA is something that I just don't believe in, the president having assured all of us about a number of things proving not to be true, leaving me wondering what else we haven't yet discovered that is also not true. My personal physicians are being required to ask questions that have nothing to do with my treatment, and are having to complete revamp the way they do business to accommodate the demand for more and more information to be shared that used to be sacrosanct.  Questions like "Are there guns in your house" are none of anyone's business but mine unless and until I do something proscribed with one of them - and I refuse to give the government information to keep in a database that would let them render me helpless in the guise of making everyone else safer, which we all know, by looking at (among others) England and Australia is not the outcome. For further proof, we might consider looking at Switzerland.

Being required to report depression (and probably ADHD or anything else that would involve psychotropic but not anti-psychotic medications) is also a bit much. I work around cops - and if they had to turn in their guns for either depression or ADHD we'd be down to half strength or less in no time at all.

On other fronts, I'm headed for Sin City (also known as Lost Wages) for the first time in more than 40 years - the child of one of my cousins is getting married there, and I am representing the Reisterstown Rudolphs as Phyllis is unable to get free from her duties for that weekend. It should be an interesting time.  I thought about renting a motorcycle instead of a car, but then thought maybe a car would be smarter.  I have heard that Blue Man Group is in town there - maybe I can score some tickets for that.  Coming home on a redeye Monday Night onto Tuesday Morning - saved almost $100 that way.  Airline fares are a flaming nightmare!

Not much else to report - there's a major family change coming, but I am sworn to secrecy, so I'll talk about it after it happens.

Have a great day, y'all - the weather here is sucky, but it is outside - and I am inside, so it is all good!

New Things

It is Thursday and while all is not right in the world, all is pretty OK by me.

I had a really good time at the Stammtisch meeting on Monday - maybe I already talked about that.

Tuesday, the Moto Guzzi motorcycle I got via eBay arrived at home via uShip just as it should have, on time and in good condition. The culmination of a week of waiting and wondering, but as of today, it is all good.

It took a lot of Wednesday to get the inspection, insurance, tags and request for new title accomplished and it wasn't cheap - but when Wednesday was over, there were tags on the motorcycle, I had ridden it enough to know I was going to like it, and I even rode it to a pretty good choir rehearsal, after which I came home and died. Apparently I  moved around more on Wednesday taking care of Bike Things than I usually do and wore myself out.  It is becoming apparent that the healing from the broken leg and perforated ulcer is not anywhere near complete. I had allowed half a day to get that all done, and it took almost the whole day, but now it is done.

Bu now everyone knows that, between Congress  and the President are doing their best to  make their little pissing contest affect everyone. I can't believe that they would close a park that is open space and needs no guards, but apparently everyone is going to get hammered while congress and the president come to grips with the fact that they won't always get what they want.

Meanwhile, a judge n Maryland used a specious circumstance to get petulant with folks that are concerned about the gradual dilution of the Second Amendment, and denied a request for an unreasonable reason, thus falling in like with King-wannabe Marty.

I suspect that most folks who wander by here know what I think about guns, gun control, and folks who would tell me what I need, and why I should bow to their imagined possibilities of this'n'that - and probably also know that I don't have a whole lot of patience with those who harbor an irrational fear of an object that without a human to operate it mostly just stays where it is put.  If anyone doesn't know, I would suggest starting with the essay(s) found here:   http://lneilsmith.org/

I do own a motorcycle or two, a gun or two, a television or two, a computer or two and an automobile or two.  It is my opinion that just how many of each of these items I own is between myself and my wife and should be of profound indifference to anyone else.

Likewise if someone should ask why I need more than one gun I shall point out that if I were in charge of what folks need, well, nobody would have more than 1 car, 1 television, 1 house - you get the idea. If it gets as far as my daughter's shoes, well, I'll have to move to a new universe to get out of the way of invective that will surely be coming my way.

I did not intend this to turn into a polemic, but it looks like it might. Those easily offended would be well advised to go and watch The Price is Right or some similar twaddle on the TeeVee.

Speaking of TeeVee, Amazon had a hell of a sale a while back on TV Series, and I picked up Firefly, which has to be about the best show aside from maybe Roswell, NCIS, Eureka and the early Law & Order.  One of the few benefits of having a broken leg is that folks will leave you alone about parking yr arse in front of the TeeVee and watching all the episodes of a show in one sitting.  Firefly is just great!

I just heard someone tried to drive a car through the white house gate - wonder what that was about, and how that person missed knowing that there were no tours....

Someone's looking for me, so I really need to go and do something useful.  Y'all come back, y'hear?