New Arrival

I could have just stayed awake.

Lia Joy Phillips, our newest grandchild, appeared about 5:30 this morning - all 8 pounds 7 ounces. 

She has the normal appendages and such, is noisy at times and quiet at others, and I am sure she will lead our Elizabeth a merry chase from time to time.

Another miracle at which I can marvel.

Happy Birthday, Lia!

Never boring around here

It's almost midnight - and the phone just rang.

Our daughter is in labor - only several days late, but a couple of days before they would take her in and induce her. I'm too old for the excitement I think.  Another new life is coming.

I remember when this daughter was born - I was there.  I am at heart a simpleton, theologically speaking - but the day she was born, I was present for a miracle - the birth of a live child, and as far as miracles go, it is the only one I ever needed.

But I had a few other miracles that day, too - I gained an understanding of the reason recovery from a surgical (C-section) delivery seemed so tough.  I watched the doctor cut her open from hip to him, then stick his arms inside up to (it seemed) his elbows to pull out the daughter that had decided she wasn't coming out any other way.  I got to watch the very first hours of this daughter's life, and literally see her grow, change and gain strength.

Now, there's a granddaughter coming. By the time I get up in the morning, she might be here.

Of course, we are getting snow now, supposed to be continued through tomorrow evening, just to keep life interesting.  Happily, my son-in-law has a Subaru, which is good for a trip to the hospital - and since this child is number two, you might think he'd be used to it - but I'm sure he's going nuts anyhow, and will be asleep on his feet by the time we get there tomorrow. 

Merry Christmas to all.  I guess I ought to get some sleep....

But it's something good, a thing to be celebrated - a new life!

No longer Monday

Monday turned into a mental health day - by the time the morning stuff was done and the remainder was done in the afternoon, it was not worth spending two hours to travel downtown and back to work two hours - so it was 8 hours Medical instead of the four that I had planned.

If got cold overnight - it was still motorcycle-warm when I went to bed, and when I got up it was cold enough that I didn't even want to try to start one up.  I am sure that at least one will start - but there wasn't any real point since I don't really want to ride when it is that cold.  Must be my age showing through - there was a time when I'd ride no matter how damn cold it was.  But then again, there was also a time when I'd ride after ten beers to get a couple of cases to tote back to the barracks for those still thirsty.  Some of those adventures should have killed us all except maybe we just didn't know it at the time.

I have decided I need two more days in the week.  One to play poker and/or bridge, the other to bury myself downstairs in my house and fix the mess that is computers.  Procrastination is great stuff, but it can be overdone, and I've been proving that for a couple of years now.  I have a really nice IBM super workstation (dual 3 gigahertz Xeon processors) down there that I bought a year ago to replace the machines now doing mail server, file server, desktop and DVD/CD burning duty - and it still hasn't been fired up.  I'm going to be really pissed off if it won't start up.  I ought to go and get a one of the virtual machine systems except I don't feel like taking the time to learn it just now, so it will end up an XP machine doing everything that is currently done by three machines over in the work side of the basement.  I have a couple of terabyte drives for it that I intended to store all my MP3 and video stuff on - until the 250 and 300 gig drives in Alfred (that's the server's name - all my machines get names....  There's Alfred, Wallis, Rabbit, Howard, Charles, Golem and Andrew out there) started going bad.  Now I have most of a terabyte on failing/failed drives, and am pissed at myself for not taking hold of them when the failure started.  I'll probably have to go out and find all the stuff I had again.  This time, though, I think I'll do a RAID array and lay in a couple of extra terabyte drives against the day one decides to croak. They're cheap enough right now - if you look around they can be had for $100 or so.  If I can find the right motherboard, I may have to twin the super desktop just to keep from stepping on myself.  When Jamie left, he had cleared off what he wanted gone from the downstairs machine, so I can remove it and maybe replace it with something bigger and faster.

There's always something that needs done - I just hope I can recover enough of the web site and FTP site to make their rebuild just a matter of recollecting data from the binary newsgroups.  I'll also have to get a new Newsbin, since mine is on one of the fail3ed drives, and I'll have to go and make nice with Giganews, since my contract with them ran out when I let the credit card die that was used so they cut me off - but that was a year or more back, so they've probably forgot all about it by now.  Maybe I'll start on this tonight if I can find a piece of cat5 to reach from the switch to the table out in the other room.  Sounds like a good project for this evening provided I don't get sucked into a CSI:Miami marathon or something like that.

And of course I still have Christmas shopping to do - just about all of it, and I gotta call my brother because I don't have a clue in hell about what I should surprise him with this year.  This was a whole lot easier when he was only 30 and didn't already own everything that I could afford to get him.  I know - I'll call his wife and see if she has any ideas - although they've been married long enough she's probably as out of ideas as I am.

I think I've had enough fun for today, so I'm going to close up and go home.  Maybe I'll hear from Jamie tonight with more adventures from Australasia.  He's putting up his pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/ijam357 if anyone wants to look.

Happy Tuesday, y'all.

Monday Morning

Well, it is Monday morning again.  We have something to do before I head for the office, so I won't be in much before noon or so.  To balance, I'll end up downtown until around 8 or so in the evening, but I may actually Get Something Done today.

Jamie is now in Australia.  It took a bit - he went from Timaru to Wellington to Auckland to Sidney, and apparently picked up a tour guide, because he spent yesterday on a whilrwind tour of Sydney, including some parke he didn't know existed, and now is shopping for a GPS.  He even got a new telephone number afer leaving New Zealand.  Text messaging, FaceBook and Skype all come into play for information transfer.  We may yet get his Mom out of the 60's as far as electronic thingies are concerned.

I was hoping for a motorcycle day today, since it is supposed to get into the mid 60's but it is also supposed to rain - and I do not like riding in the rain.  Still, it is beautiful out right now.

Ten days to Christmas - don't even ask about my shopping - it is not only undone, it is practically devoid of ideas.  Never have I felt so far behind.  Yesterday I never even got dressed - I spent the day online and sleeping (not simultaneously) and am still tired.  Retirement is starting to look pretty good - it is a shame that I can't afford it yet.  I think Phyllis is probably glad I can't afford it - having me under foot all the time would probably make her crazy.  In the summer I could ride but in the winter maybe I'm better off going to work.

Well, it's time to go and see Joe, so I'll get ready and do that.  Have a good day, y'all.

Jamie left

Our kids are our kids - we just have to love them. Our oldest, James (Jamie since he could talk) just left yesterday for the west coast, then New Zealand, then Australia and after that who knows.

We knew he was going sometime this week, but didn't know he had gone until we got home from work yesterday. He's driving, plans to sell his car on the west coast, and leaves on the 26th on a big airplane.

A couple of years back, he spent a year in New Zealand, and liked it a lot. Phyllis and I have a feeling that if we are to see him again, we'll have to go there, but one is never certain. I'd like to think I had wisdom to impart before he left, and he missed out on it, but really, he's 35 now, so anything I might have said would not have made a big change in his plans or his life.

I had rather hoped some woman would throw a rope around him and tie him down, but he's skinny and flexible, so nobody managed to do that. It's going to be quiet around here without him, but it was quiet before and he came back. He would have been gone some time ago except that his baby sister got married and threatened mayhem if he left before he could be in the wedding, and I guess he just got too comfortable and stayed around for a lot longer than planned.

I might be a little envious - I had wanted to go back to Germany and never did it, but may yet - he's still unencumbered by responsibilities like wife & kids - but he's pretty much on his own as all of his pals have taken up the conventional life and have wives, kids, mortgages and such - although one of them moved to New Zealand to live his life.

There's something subtly seductive about that part of the world - we have family members that had gone there once on vacation and never returned, having found mate and life there. I guess there's still hope for Jamie, but I rather fear he'll end up old and alone for being too picky or something. Of course, I may just be being morose - it is, after all, Friday....

Anyhow, he's off again, and I miss him already. Wonder when we'll see him again....