Saturday
- the bread tasted good, last night! Then, fresh bread and coffee in the morning, ah...
The cats like it outdoors in the morning, and it's no trouble to oblige
them. When it's cold they want in rather quickly. By leaving the french
doors ajar, but nearly shut and braced with a phone book against the
draft, it is easy enough for Phoebe (that linebacker of cats) to
shoulder open. Riley, build more like a quarterback (or kicker) hasn't
the weight to push the door open, but drags his claws across the
glass...which is unpleasant enough to impel one to get up and let him
in. Fortunately they generally like to hang out, or in, together, so
Phoebe opens the door and Riley follows. When I hear the heater kick on
I know it's time to go shut the door, after counting ears to make sure
both are inside.
I had a list of things to do. Of about ten listed, four were actually
done, and another half done. Success: haircut, oil change, new tires,
installing new RAM in a friends' computer. Failures: USB/Ethernet
adapter, garage cleaning, fixing the MP3 player (can't find it),
watching the season premiere of Burn Notice (too busy), bills.
One of the things to do was to pick up the USB/Ethernet connector for
the TIVO. No luck there, after trying two or three places. So then I
went back home, printed out the list of supposedly compatible wireless
adapters, and tried to find one. No go. Finally, resigned to waiting, I
have ordered an adapter (wired) from the internet, for $13, including
shipping. I probably spent that much in gas, but at first it didn't
seem as though it'd be that hard.
Friday
- more rain in Ventura. Home in Lancaster, where it is also raining. I have a loaf of bread in the oven, the house smells great!
I stopped by Fry's on the way home, picked up a 50ft Ethernet cable to
hook up to the TIVO. Ran it from the other room, through the cable
chase over the carpet and under the sofa, behind the stereo cabinet;
reached around back of the TIVO, felt for the Ethernet port...and
felt...used the other hand and came in from the other side...felt some
more...couldn't find it. Weird. Looked up the manual online - and
discovered that Series 2 TIVO's do not
have Ethernet ports! Instead you can get a wireless adapter or a wired
adapter, for the USB port. So, something to buy, tomorrow. Wired,
probably, since the wireless portion of the wifi router is kaput, again
( I seem to replace them at 18 month, maybe two year, intervals).
There is one place where Riley is sure
to get my attention - the computer mouse. I've posted similar pics
before (from 2004!), but it's amusing how constant he is about the
practice of laying on it, or occasionally on the keyboard. Or, as here,
both-
Thursday 22 January
2009
Thursday
- it rained, but in between rain drops I did some punch list stuff,
measurements and video that were missing from the database. Stuff
needing a redo, from early in the inspection.
The US Air Flight 1549 ditching in the Hudson river isn't the only
occurrence of a jetliner to land in the American drink next to a major
city. Cronaca brings up a link to the DC-8 of JAL Flight 2 that ditched in San Francisco Bay in 1968, by accident, undershooting the runway in the fog. Wikipedica article is here. Despite living in the bay area at the time I don't recall this.
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Wednesday
- worked dark until dark (ten hours + on my feet), but with no rain and
a rather nice overcast. It did start raining on the way home though, so
probably no work tomorrow or the next day. Perhaps a trip back to
Lancaster is in order.
A friend called, thought he might have a virus on his laptop, Win32.worm.agent.v,
but after a bit of further checking it looked like it might be a
false alarm. He downloaded a new copy of AVG and is running it
overnight. Let's hope things work out...
Tuesday night my landlord, roommate and I were discussing the world of
land lording. They had some truly awful tales to tell, of the various
grifters and dirtbags that rent your property, and who eventually stop
paying rent & start wrecking your rental, and the hoops and delays
that the state laws put in your way before you can forcibly evict
them.
Yet they both still own rental properties, so the obstacles aren't insuperable.
It's time for that perennial crowd pleaser, the Found CD picture, first of the year!
Tuesday
- .back at work. Warm, but there is a rainstorm threatening in
the next day or two, so I worked as long as I could.
An interesting security
cam video of the A320 ditching in the Hudson, and the quick
response (by civilian ferry!) to rescue the passengers and crew. A little bit better video than
those I had seen earlier, and with a substantial pan/zoom capability used
by the camera operator.
Monday 19 January 2009
Monday
- Did a few minor chores about Dad's place, refilled the bird feeders -
all three of them, and cleaned up under them. Cleaned out the spare
bedroom, which has been used as junk storage since Thanksgiving, and
needed some work.
I had bought before Christmas, and now installed some more RAM
for Dad's laptop, he was using about 550MB out of 490MB available. Yes,
you read that right, he was using more
than he had,
by swapping out to disk. The original configuration was only
2x256MB, so I replaced one of the original memory sticks with a 512MB
stick because the little shop in Lancaster didn't have anything bigger,
but that,
plus the installed 256MB, gives some wiggle room for Windows.
Performance should improve a bit.
By mid afternoon I was back on the road down to Ventura, no stopping in
Lancaster.
I finished Book #4,
She*,
by H. Rider Haggard, on the way down. I suppose that now I'll have to
read Ayesha,
and She and Allan.
Sunday 18 January 2009
Sunday
- Not too bad a day. I won 25 cents on the Cardinals, then, trying to
make up his losses my Dad bet an entire 50 cents on the Ravens!. So I'm
up almost a dollar for the trip. At this rate an early retirement (for
me) is not entirely out of the question...
