It has been a busy week here. Monday morning my truck was dead. I got a ride to work and shifted into another truck while mine was being repaired. I moved some tools into it and I was off to a client site about 90 miles away to do a repair that required a second round trip back to the shop. The guy that usually drives that truck is a smoker and likes those tree shaped air fresheners. the combination of the two smells mae me a little nauseous all week. After an eleven hour day, I had the client's system working again. The next day started real early to let me do a few system checks in the protected rooms of a hospital. Once again, eleven hours. Wednesday, I started at regular time, but had a night appointment for that same hospital for the system in the computer center. Twelve hours for Wednesday. Yesterday I did a few odds and ends. The guy had my truck running, so I moved back into it, then helped another tech on a job he should have done Friday . He is at least two days away from done. Maybe by Monday. I am heading back there today to help him out again.

We had six inches of snow overnight. We also had nothing planned for today, so I put some nice lean beef in the slow cooker for a stew this evening, cleaned off all the cars and shoveled the driveway. It's a good day to just relax, sip some wine and watch some old movies. I hope your day is lovely too!

I just got back from my license renewal test. This takes place every four years. Since my last test, the material from which they draw the questions has been updated. Back in August, I gave the service manager a list of the seven books I needed. I told him I would be more than happy to pay the three hundred bucks, but I wanted them soon so I could start the conversion process. He told me to keep my money, and that he would get right on it. In November, He finally purchased the books as pdf files rather than the hard copies. The pdfd files were the same price. He assumed that he would just run us off copies whenever we needed them. What he did not think about was the size of these works. One of them is 765 pages. He used about a dozen printer cartridges, and a few reams of paper. I got the last of the material yesterday. (lots of study time there....) I have since ordered real books rather than the single sided huge binders I have been using.

Today was the test. I am pretty confident in my answers. The results will be here in about two weeks.

Good morning friends,

It is seven am, and bone chilling cold out there. I should be snuggled up in bed, but I am sitting with a cup of coffee while my truck warms up. One of our larger clients requires that we test their alarms during off hours. All three of us will be there, and we will be billing them for overtime rates, but even at time and a half, I really hate to work weekends. I hope your weekend is going better.

Good evening friends,

On New Years day, I resolved to:

Laugh more
drink more good wine
Take Sunflower out to dinner more often

as a start on accomplishing these tasks, I took Sunflower out to our favorite Italian place tonight, where we laughed, ate delicious Sirloin Marsala and shared a bottle of claret from the Copolla winery.....

Happy New Year, my friends

This fall, Sunflower and I spent a weekend at Arbor Lodge. This is the home of Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day. We get down there every every spring as the apple blossoms are at their peak, and every fall as the trees are turning. We arrived a little early this year, and our room wasn't quite ready, so we sat on a bench beneath a tree and took this picture from the camera built into my MacBook. Right now it is snowing lightly outside, and we have had some freezing rain, but the spring will come, and the apple trees will bloom......

Good morning friends,

It is raining here. The last weekend of the year looks pretty dreary. We have no great plans for New Year's Eve. We will probably go out early in the evening for a quiet dinner, then home to get out of the craziness. I am sure the college boys in the rental house a couple of doors away will have a house full of noisy, underage kids drinking vast quantities of beer, but this will be no different than any other given weekend. I see a few police cars in their near future.....

I hope you all have a lovely and safe holiday.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:1-20 kjv)

Merry Christmas, friends

Well, a couple of weeks have gone by without a funeral to attend. We will see how it goes.

At one point, the company I work for was one of three locations. Fifteen years ago, my boss bought our location, cutting us off from the old owner. We have a pretty good working relationship. We do not encroach on each other's customers or territory, and once in a while, we order together to get the bulk discounts.

A couple of months ago, the guy who did my job at the Lincoln office quit, leaving them without a programmer. I have been rented to them off and on for the last month. I finished the bulk of the work today. Every day up there has just put me farther behind on my projects. Hopefully they will send someone to get some training, but it doesn't look likely. Today, I drove up there to load some programming. The panel was not done, and the CPU card was broken. The apparantly pulled the new card from this job and used it somewhere and didn't order a new one. I transfered the profgram to their laptop, gave detailed loading instructions and drove off.

More than likely, they will call when they get a new part and want me back up there. I don't think my boss will go for it. I hope not.....

The wake and the funeral are over. My nieces and nephew will now need to go through my sister's possessions and get the house ready for the market. Real estate is in a down turn here, so it may be a while before the house is sold. I have been speaking often to my sister in Texas. It is hard to imagine that we are the only ones left. She had planned to come this week for her daughter's Christmas party, and was unable to change her flight to get here for the funeral. I will pick her up at the airport Thursday for a long weekend visit. Possibly, I will have something other than depressing struff to post here soon.....

My sister had her carotid artery surgey a week ago today. A couple of days later she had a quadruple heart bypass. She did pretty good Thursday and Friday, but Saturday was when it started to get bad. Sunday evening she was in intensive care. She passed away this evening about 5:30......

Happy Thanksgiving all.

It was jsut the four of us today. One of our favorite retaurants had a dinner package available for just about what I would have spent at the grocery store. We picked it up last night, and just heated it according to instructions today.

Tonight, I have had too much good food and too much good wine. It has been a great day. I hope your day was great too.

It just continues. My sister, who is 63, went in for some tests. It was determined that her carotid arteries are plugged up. One is 90 percent blocked, the other 60 percent. Further testing found the need for a quadruple heart bypass. She will check in monday for the coarotid arteries, and stay in the hospital. Wednesay they will do the heart bypass.

Someday soon, I will post something upbeat........

Good morning friends,

I guess I am just getting to the age when we realize that we are not immortal. My friend Duane died yesterday of heart failure. Duane and his wife Pam have been friends of ours since our oldest children entered Kindergarden. We coached Little League with and against each other for years. Pam was a teacher's aid at the elementary school. One afternoon she held and comforted our oldest daughter, who had been injured on the playground until we were able to get there. Our familys have been joined by good times and bad.

Duane was a young auto shop teacher at the high school. On a field trip, he was discovered in a compromising position with one of the senior class girls (Pam) and fired. They were married a month or so later, and went on to thirty five more years together and five children.

He had heart bypass surgery a couple of years ago, but has been in failing health for a long time. I am glad he is at peace.

Good morning friends.

It would be great to have interesting and amusing stuff to post in my blog, but it just ain't happening. My trip to Fike last week to learn the Cheetah and Vesda systems put me a little more behind on my projects at the University. When I got back, I found that we have a new apprentice in our department. He seems like a nice enough kid, and he is willing to work. He knows nothing at all about what we do, do we can teach him from scratch.

It also proves that we do not profile our employees. He is in his early twenties, Arabic and his name is Jihad. Well, he will at least sty put. I am sure the Department of Homeland Security would not let him get on a plane,,,,,,

My brother Eddie died tonight.

Sunflower called me a few minutes ago. Eddie died of Lukemia. He was not actually my brother, but I have known him most of my life. He was the same age age my older sister. When he was sixteen, his mother got a job as a live in housekeeper. There was no provision for a teenaged son in her job, so Eddie was on his own. My sister brought him home, and Eddie slept on our couch for the next three years. This was forty five years ago. All these years, he has just been one of the family. I am stuck here for the next couple of days, so I am hoping the funeral won't happen until I get back. i'll sure miss him....

Good afternoon friends,

I am on the road again. I will be spending the next few days in Blue Springs Missouri at another programming school. This is for a type of system I have been working on for a few years with no training at all. So far, I haven't broken one, but I will be much better off with factory certification.

I have been pretty busy at the University. My esteemed competitor installed a system in a section of a building that was remodeled. It is incompatible with the rest of the campus, and I have been brought in to rectify this at my competitor's expense. Since this has begun, we have been given two of the other buildings to completely renovate. My competitior has been removed from the approved bidder's list.

A short trip to Blue Springs will be a nice break....

Good evening friends.

This weekend wil be one of the good ones. It is payday, i have a few extra dollars coming in overtime and commissions, and the best part: It is not my turn to take calls. we have tickets to Man of La Mancha at the local university, and plan to have a lovely dinner at our favorite restaurant.

The first Broadway show I ever saw was Man of La Mancha. It was on tour with Richard Kiley as Cervantes/Quixote and started my love of theater. Sunflower has never seen this play. it has been great to take her to various plays that she is seeing for the first time. Sometimes i envy her. wouldn't it be great to be seeing Damn Yankees, or West Side Story for the first time?

I hope you all have a lovely weekend too.

Good evening friends


The mac thing didn't work out. This afternoon I plunked down $2k of my hard earned cash and took my mac home to get started just like the commercials promise. right out of the box, step number 4 is to connect to the internet. Mac was able to see my home wireless network and prompted me for a password. Ten digits and click. fifteen seconds later, connection failure. I opened up my IBM thinkpad on the table next to mac and connected without a prolem. Five more failures, and I boxed mac up and took it back.

The store manager was sincerely trying to help and hooked me up with someone from the "genius" bar. He fiddled around about forty five minutes, and told me that I was good to go. Back home, mac would not even see my network until I forced it to. I entered the password, and recieved connection failure for my efforts.

My daughter's friend was around, and he tried with his mac to connect. Yet another connection failure. His mac dual boots in mac and windowsxp pro. He booted up in windows and was able to connect with no problem.

I boxed mac up one more time and returned it for my hard earned cash.

I guess my network just speaks windows. So much for mac advertising......

good afternoon friends, just a quick test post to make sure i remember how to do this....

it has been a long time between posts. when i came back from florida, we were a little behind on the work. shortly thereafter, we found that a competitor, who had underbid us for a project at the university, had ignored the portion of the contract requiring them to use the same technology as the rest of the campus. they have no one there who knows how to program this stuff. after a couple of rounds of meetings, the competitor refused to fix the problem. the contractor cut me a purchase order, which led to three weeks of pretty intense work to convert the new system to the older technology. now i am waiting for the program data from their system to be able to finish.

see, this blog can be just as boring as it always was.....