Nope, it was kind of a brown Christmas...
The county water authority had a project that tore up the street and it has been raining.
In spite of what it looks like, it was a wonderful Christmas because it was peaceful and Pam liked her gifts.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
White Christmas?
Nope, it was kind of a brown Christmas...
The county water authority had a project that tore up the street and it has been raining.
In spite of what it looks like, it was a wonderful Christmas because it was peaceful and Pam liked her gifts.
Friday, May 26, 2006
How to prepare for a flat tire
Last week I had to run over to BGH to do some server work. I had a couple of small disk drive boxes to carry in from my truck. I got out, picked up the boxes, decided to leave my jacket behind because it was fairly warm and not raining any more, put the boxes down, took off my jacket, picked up the boxes, and shut the door. Later in the afternoon when I was getting ready to leave, I couldn't find my keys in any of my pockets. Or anywhere in the computer room. Or under the computer room floor. Or in the hallways. Or in the rest room that I had visited earlier. Or in the Security office. Or in the Security break room. Or in the hallways for a second look. Or in the computer room for a second look. Or in the ignition of the truck. Or anywhere inside the truck that you can see through the windows.
Dave was working at BGH but didn't have a copy of my key with him, so he gave me a ride to my doctor's appointment at 4 o'clock when he got off.
In the evening, Pam brought me back to pick up the truck, and wouldn't you know it, the keys were in my jacket pocket because I had dropped them in there when I first stood up.
As we were leaving the parking lot, Pam noticed that there was something hanging from under the back of my truck. It was a bicycle lock chain that I had used to "anti-theft" my spare tire years ago. The lock had disintegrated so the chain was hanging loose.
--- time passes ---
This week I was scheduled for a blood draw at eight in the morning on Thursday for which I was supposed to fast for twelve hours. So, on Wednesday evening, I rushed bishopric meeting to hurry home to eat before 8 PM. (We ended at 7:55, but still earlier than usual.)
I was on the home stretch when I heard a strange noise coming from the back of the truck. I pulled off and there it was, a totally flat tire.
But the timing was good:
It wasn't dark out yet (which was unusual after a bishopric meeting).
The evening was getting chilly (but I still had my jacket in the truck).
The spare tire was good (and I didn't have to cut off the bicycle chain even though I had forgotten the combination).
The tire was ruined (but Goodyear was having a 30% off sale on this tire model).
Dave was working at BGH but didn't have a copy of my key with him, so he gave me a ride to my doctor's appointment at 4 o'clock when he got off.
In the evening, Pam brought me back to pick up the truck, and wouldn't you know it, the keys were in my jacket pocket because I had dropped them in there when I first stood up.
As we were leaving the parking lot, Pam noticed that there was something hanging from under the back of my truck. It was a bicycle lock chain that I had used to "anti-theft" my spare tire years ago. The lock had disintegrated so the chain was hanging loose.
--- time passes ---
This week I was scheduled for a blood draw at eight in the morning on Thursday for which I was supposed to fast for twelve hours. So, on Wednesday evening, I rushed bishopric meeting to hurry home to eat before 8 PM. (We ended at 7:55, but still earlier than usual.)
I was on the home stretch when I heard a strange noise coming from the back of the truck. I pulled off and there it was, a totally flat tire.
But the timing was good:
It wasn't dark out yet (which was unusual after a bishopric meeting).
The evening was getting chilly (but I still had my jacket in the truck).
The spare tire was good (and I didn't have to cut off the bicycle chain even though I had forgotten the combination).
The tire was ruined (but Goodyear was having a 30% off sale on this tire model).
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Travel Musings
Last week, I flew to Indiana (I should say Indianapolis, but who can spell it?) to pick up a car and drive it to Maryland. I was going to be driving all day anyway, so why not help out?
The Weather Channel was pretty excited about the big storm that would be covering this route, but, as it turned out, I had sunshine almost the whole way. It started drizzling when I reached Route 29 at the end of the trip. Apparently I was a few hours behind a small storm and a few hours ahead of a big storm.
This was a nice visit. Evan doesn't mind playing with Grandpa. He greets me with a "Come on!" and sets me right to work playing with super hero village people and reading about "Swampy Critters" in the swampy swamp.
It must be a sign of getting old, but spending time in the car with no distractions makes me reflect on my life and how it could have been different. I can't really call it regrets, because I wouldn't necessarily do anything differently if faced with the same decisions, but here are some items of advice:
1) Don't slip into debt for "operating expenses" and needless things. Education and home ownership may require going into debt, but those are investments that could provide for the family. We seem to have slipped into debt just by living. If I didn't need a high-paying job to stay even, we could pick up and go anywhere we wanted. Golden handcuffs are pretty, but freedom would be nice.
2) Stay in touch with your friends. I sometimes wonder what has happened to the people I knew in high school. The ones who didn't die in motorcycle accidents and in Vietnam are probably still out there. Are they happy? Did they find the Church after all?
3) Have fun while you're young and single, but get serious about preparing for the future, too. I was a great student in subjects that I was interested in, but I wasn't self-disciplined enough to complete something like English 111. So what if the teacher has an affection for her local rules of punctuation? (Maybe you can tell that I am still ticked off that the West apparently had a different opinion than the East on the need for a comma before "and" in a list. I now randomly do it both ways.) If you can learn where a computer prefers to have a comma, you can adapt to where a teacher wants one.
4) There are things that you can do when you are young and single that you may have to wait a long time to do later. Like a mission. Don't let your fears or someone else's bad experience scare you off.
5) When you are working day and night to provide for your family, stop to ask yourself if you are providing for their needs other than monitarily. Did I spend enough time doing what the kids wanted to do? I could have been a better leader.
6) Read the scriptures every day. You don't know what you are missing until you try it. Last year's challenge was a good experience and we can do it again.
The Weather Channel was pretty excited about the big storm that would be covering this route, but, as it turned out, I had sunshine almost the whole way. It started drizzling when I reached Route 29 at the end of the trip. Apparently I was a few hours behind a small storm and a few hours ahead of a big storm.
This was a nice visit. Evan doesn't mind playing with Grandpa. He greets me with a "Come on!" and sets me right to work playing with super hero village people and reading about "Swampy Critters" in the swampy swamp.
It must be a sign of getting old, but spending time in the car with no distractions makes me reflect on my life and how it could have been different. I can't really call it regrets, because I wouldn't necessarily do anything differently if faced with the same decisions, but here are some items of advice:
1) Don't slip into debt for "operating expenses" and needless things. Education and home ownership may require going into debt, but those are investments that could provide for the family. We seem to have slipped into debt just by living. If I didn't need a high-paying job to stay even, we could pick up and go anywhere we wanted. Golden handcuffs are pretty, but freedom would be nice.
2) Stay in touch with your friends. I sometimes wonder what has happened to the people I knew in high school. The ones who didn't die in motorcycle accidents and in Vietnam are probably still out there. Are they happy? Did they find the Church after all?
3) Have fun while you're young and single, but get serious about preparing for the future, too. I was a great student in subjects that I was interested in, but I wasn't self-disciplined enough to complete something like English 111. So what if the teacher has an affection for her local rules of punctuation? (Maybe you can tell that I am still ticked off that the West apparently had a different opinion than the East on the need for a comma before "and" in a list. I now randomly do it both ways.) If you can learn where a computer prefers to have a comma, you can adapt to where a teacher wants one.
4) There are things that you can do when you are young and single that you may have to wait a long time to do later. Like a mission. Don't let your fears or someone else's bad experience scare you off.
5) When you are working day and night to provide for your family, stop to ask yourself if you are providing for their needs other than monitarily. Did I spend enough time doing what the kids wanted to do? I could have been a better leader.
6) Read the scriptures every day. You don't know what you are missing until you try it. Last year's challenge was a good experience and we can do it again.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Vocal Experiment
I wouldn't say that I am a good singer. Sitting next to the Bishop on the stand, sometimes it seems like I am lost trying to find the right notes, and he is lost getting the words right. I would like to do better, but what does it take?
Kirk is trying to get a choir together to sing for ward conference, so a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. If I practice and learn the song, could I develop the confidence to do well?
The music that he has chosen this time is called "Bless Us With Your Love". It is kind of Mozarty. It has "Alleluias" with twice as many notes as sylables.
The first challenge is getting to choir practice. They want to have it "right after Church", meaning about 12:45 PM. That is also the time when everyone wants to do things. We count donations and make the deposit right after Church. People need things right after Church. Checks need to be printed and signed. Can't we set people apart right after Church? We really need to.
We don't have baptisms right after Church, they are at 1 PM.
What I did two weeks ago was I went to choir practice and they called me out as they needed me to sign checks or whatever, but I kept my MP3 player/recorder running while I was gone. Now, going to and from work, I can sing along to Kirk's instructions.
I may be getting better. We'll see.
Kirk is trying to get a choir together to sing for ward conference, so a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. If I practice and learn the song, could I develop the confidence to do well?
The music that he has chosen this time is called "Bless Us With Your Love". It is kind of Mozarty. It has "Alleluias" with twice as many notes as sylables.
The first challenge is getting to choir practice. They want to have it "right after Church", meaning about 12:45 PM. That is also the time when everyone wants to do things. We count donations and make the deposit right after Church. People need things right after Church. Checks need to be printed and signed. Can't we set people apart right after Church? We really need to.
We don't have baptisms right after Church, they are at 1 PM.
What I did two weeks ago was I went to choir practice and they called me out as they needed me to sign checks or whatever, but I kept my MP3 player/recorder running while I was gone. Now, going to and from work, I can sing along to Kirk's instructions.
I may be getting better. We'll see.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
"Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow nor Dark of Night"
The rain doesn't seem to stop them, and "dark of night" doesn't make any sense when they close up the post office by 5:30. A year or two ago, they said that they wouldn't be able to deliver the mail in the sleet or snow unless we moved our mailbox so that they wouldn't have reach across the front steps.
That's why we have two mailboxes now.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Winter is Back
Winter is back. My shoes have white salt lines around them. Driving to work this morning, it was nothing but grey skies seen through a dirty windshield. I hate it when the snow at the curbs turns black. How can snow be so ugly?
There was a tow truck at the toll booths waiting and watching for something bad to happen on the slippery roads.
My rear-view mirror has fallen off and it is too cold to glue it back on. It hangs there from a power connection and goes "bonk" if I slow down too fast.
Just have to deal with it and keep going...
... time passes ...
The drive home is much better. I figured out how to unplug my mirror so it doesn't bonk anymore. The roads are clean and dry and feel safe again. The unsightly parts of the city are covered in a clean white blanket. The blue sky has reappeared and there are fluffy little clouds going by. The sun is setting across the river, and along the horizon the sky has a rosy peach color, blending up into a baby blue that you only see in the winter.
My shoes will survive...
I will survive...
Life is good.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Crazy Wild Desktop Day
I knew it was going to be bad when the pager started going off at 7 AM, before I had crawled out of bed. They said that "a lot" of people were getting rebooted for security patches and after reboot, they didn't get their desktop. They also said that they didn't get the "I Accept".
Okay, I dialed in and checked the WSUS server: 1,800 desktops or so updated so far. Not a Good Thing if they were all broken.
"Not getting their desktop" was something that was reported from time to time. Also known as "lost the printer setup" or "lost email profile". When we do automated installs, it is generally by making the machine automatically log in to a special, captive desktop admin account. The account runs a login script that does the install. When a user reported that their desktop is blank, email profile is gone, printers are gone, I had written it off to something failing in the script and the user not knowing that they are logged in to a different account. TAC walked them them through getting it straightened out.
This was not like that. These updates were being done by Automatic Updates. Straight Microsoft code with no automatic login or anything.
The patches were released by Microsoft on Jan. 10 and we applied them to our 30 or so test desktops. No problems in the last couple of weeks. They were scheduled to be released to all desktops last Wednesday, but we had too many other problems going on that day. Finally released then Monday evening. They downloaded to the desktops during the day yesterday, then started installing at 4 AM this morning.
It looks like all of the ones that installed at 4 AM worked without problem. Machines that were powered off overnight were different. The user powered on the machine, Symantec AV kicked off a scheduled weekly scan (on Wednesday by coincidence), the patches started installing, and then the user logged on.
"Can't load profile... NTUSER.DAT file in use." (Was it being scanned?) Windows was kind enough to create a new profile by copying the default user profile... but none of the user's desktop shortcuts, printers, My Documents, etc. were to be seen. Some new profiles were worse than that: Default User\NTUSER.DAT could not be copied because it was also in use. Ugly profiles resulted. (They didn't get the "I Accept", which being interpreted, means the login script didn't run.)
1,880+ out of 3,000+ already installed and the others probably couldn't be stopped because most would already have been downloaded and waiting on the desktop. Vogue la galère. We'll just keep it going.
To shorten a long story... We developed a safe and effective fix to get the users back on their original profiles and "a lot" did not turn into "very many" or "every".
Okay, I dialed in and checked the WSUS server: 1,800 desktops or so updated so far. Not a Good Thing if they were all broken.
"Not getting their desktop" was something that was reported from time to time. Also known as "lost the printer setup" or "lost email profile". When we do automated installs, it is generally by making the machine automatically log in to a special, captive desktop admin account. The account runs a login script that does the install. When a user reported that their desktop is blank, email profile is gone, printers are gone, I had written it off to something failing in the script and the user not knowing that they are logged in to a different account. TAC walked them them through getting it straightened out.
This was not like that. These updates were being done by Automatic Updates. Straight Microsoft code with no automatic login or anything.
The patches were released by Microsoft on Jan. 10 and we applied them to our 30 or so test desktops. No problems in the last couple of weeks. They were scheduled to be released to all desktops last Wednesday, but we had too many other problems going on that day. Finally released then Monday evening. They downloaded to the desktops during the day yesterday, then started installing at 4 AM this morning.
It looks like all of the ones that installed at 4 AM worked without problem. Machines that were powered off overnight were different. The user powered on the machine, Symantec AV kicked off a scheduled weekly scan (on Wednesday by coincidence), the patches started installing, and then the user logged on.
"Can't load profile... NTUSER.DAT file in use." (Was it being scanned?) Windows was kind enough to create a new profile by copying the default user profile... but none of the user's desktop shortcuts, printers, My Documents, etc. were to be seen. Some new profiles were worse than that: Default User\NTUSER.DAT could not be copied because it was also in use. Ugly profiles resulted. (They didn't get the "I Accept", which being interpreted, means the login script didn't run.)
1,880+ out of 3,000+ already installed and the others probably couldn't be stopped because most would already have been downloaded and waiting on the desktop. Vogue la galère. We'll just keep it going.
To shorten a long story... We developed a safe and effective fix to get the users back on their original profiles and "a lot" did not turn into "very many" or "every".
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