Travels and Thoughts

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WEEK 51 2007

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Saturday 22 December 2007

Saturday - out running various errands. The oil needed changing in the Explorer, a hair cut, a trip to the library to pay an overdue fine. Also a nap.

It was also time to do laundry, in preparation for the trip north. First load: whites. Second load: t-shirts. At the tenth gray t-shirt I stopped and took stock. Ten in the washer, I am wearing one, and there is at least one more upstairs on the floor where I'd dropped it the night before. And more in the dresser. Am I in a rut, sartorially speaking?

Nah. That would be if they were from the same place. Instead some were from Hanes, some Fruit of the Loom, and some (my favorites) were from Dickies.

Adrian Monk and I have nothing in common. Nothing.

It could have been ugly, beautiful models quoting a physicist's quantum mechanics lecture without permission:

"I am, of course, gratified that this sordid southern-hemisphere tale of sex, plagiarism, quantum mechanics, and printers could be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, without the need for a courtroom battle..."

Heh. You have to play the video to get the full effect.

Friday 21 December 2007

Friday - keeping busy. I worked about a three quarter day. In the morning, going up the hills over Ventura I wanted to pause and just gaze out across the ocean, maybe take a few pictures - it was extraordinarily clear and bright, the islands sparkling. But my assistant was following in a work truck so I couldn't really stop. It made me want to go sailing!

Later, after work, I picked up the ham - there was no line around the block, or even across the store. There were, in fact, only two other customers when I walked in. So, that's done. Packed away nicely in the ice chest.

On the road, back to Lancaster. The GPS let me down however! As before I told it that I wanted to go to Lancaster when I arrived at the I-5 overpass. Rather than navigating me quickly and easily back to the I-14 through Canyon Country it led me, rather, after several miles of torturous streets, back to the I-5. Much to my annoyance. After thinking about it I realized that I had reset it to "fastest route" earlier in the week, rather than "shortest route" - I think that made the difference.

Fortunately traffic was light on the I-5, and the northbound connector was open, so it actually did save me time. There was a fair amount of northbound traffic, far more than southbound. The Friday before Christmas traffic?

Thursday 20 December 2007

Thursday - I did get in a mornings' work, before breaking for lunch and more rain. So it goes. They had a nice Christmas barbecue luncheon at the yard and were kind enough to let a slimy lowdown contractor partake. Great eats! Ever have a meal where it's so delicious you want to eat more, but you are too full to do so?

It is supposed to be clear tomorrow, so I should get some work in.

Heh. I suggested the use of the phrase in situ for use in a report describing an in-place inspection. This has apparently caused great amusement among my co-workers for some reason. Maybe there isn't a lot of Latin used in civil engineering?

Slashdot has a post on the whole Sony E-reader vs. Kindle thing. It's a bit odd that Sony didn't give their ebook a cute name of some sort. E-reader is sort of bland.

A link to The Most Dangerous Roads in the World. Generally third world mountain passes. Astounding stuff. There is even a neat, if smallish, stone arch bridge, with a bigger image linked on Flickr. [via Geekpress]

Wednesday 19 December 2007

Wednesday - more rain. I took the opportunity to do some work the spreadsheets and GPS stuff. It's odd: a while back I was looking for an Excel function to convert the Degrees-Minutes-Seconds format to the Google Earth required Decimal-Degrees format, and couldn't find anything. I rolled my own, but it was a bit tedious to use. Yesterday, on a whim since I was pretty sure there wasn't such a function I looked again and found it immediately, at Microsoft Support: Convert_Decimal. Bizarre.

Southern California can use the rain.

Tuesday 18 December 2007

Tuesday - It rained all day, no working the flood control channels today!

Picked up a ham, or ordered one for pickup on Friday, at the Honey-baked Ham store. About 8lbs, according to the helps suggestion. This should be enough for Xmas dinner and some left overs for a day or two.

They had an advertisement on the window for help, to do gift-wrapping and "Ham Processing". Ham Processing might be a good gig - after Christmas you can probably get a good job backstage at 'American Idol'.

The same mini-mall also had a small computer store: 'AT-Plus' computers. This dates the store - according to Wikipedia IBM came out with the AT in 1994. The 'plus' suggests that they realized at some point that the AT was dating them. Or it suggests that they had other computers for sale: Osborne's, Atari's, Pets, perhaps even that pesky Apple product with the funny name ( the Banana, or Grape, something like that).

There was also a clock shop next store, so I stopped in to see if they could clean my grandfathers' old clock. No one seemed at home at first, so I walked to the back. There was a guy seated at a desk, who didn't even look up. I asked him if they fixed clocks, and he said "Yes.". I said it was an old government wall mount Thomas, and he said "Free estimate". All without looking up. Then, apparently sensing something more was needed to clinch the deal he said "Take a card." and handed me a business card.

Okaaaaaaaay.

I am a bit non-plused. On the one hand, it was a weird and non-business like exchange, but on the other hand, a good mechanical clock repairman is probably going to be an oddball. The problem is: the bad one's are likely oddballs as well.

Monday 17 December 2007

Monday - back at work. A new reach to inspect. Rain may be on its' way, though the weathermen are notoriously unreliable in Southern California. Lack of practice and a desire to say something new.

I was exhausted when I got home and was in bed by 7:30.

About this weeks' picture - it was an accident, really. I was actually trying to take pictures of the various ducks and waterbirds, but when looking at the pic later realized that it made a nice study in the background layers of gray.

Sunday 16 December 2007

Sunday - busy, busy, busy. I was trying to finish buying - and wrap - presents. Trying to get things done around the house, before the Christmas holiday. And trying to visit friends and family as well. Things got done, but it was tough not to call in and say that I'd be late to work on Monday.

I did get a new phone this weekend: an XV6800 from Verizon. This replaces the old PDA that was on (phone-wise anyway) it's last legs. It's much smaller, which is a drawback, but the screen is still usable. It comes with EVDO, Bluetooth, Wifi and IR. Also a USB connector so I suppose you could browse the net over an Activesynch connection, if desperation struck.

I'm trying not to play with it too much, because I want to do that over the holidays... Also I've just too much else to do!

Pics of the new and old widgets later.

Picture of the Week

Photo Notes: View across a foggy Ventura River.

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