Trash In The Attic

I FINALLY got up on the ladder and cleaned out the roof vent at work that I've been complaining about for the last year.

I guess the roofer left this little present behind a couple years ago. The hardest part of this exercise was getting the screws to bite on something when putting the grill thingie back up. I only cut myself once with a slipped screwdriver, and I didn't fall off the ladder at all!

Now maybe the Apple servers won't be so hot, Summer seems to have visited us early this year, it being in the 90s today.

What's Up, Doc?

Went to the Doc today. She said my PSA is going down, as to be expected, so everything is looking fine and dandy (not her words!) so far, and my next appointment is in the fall of the year.

Almost finished with the baths and such, only another day and a half.

No word from the physical therapy people on the arm thing.

The hose reel in the garden is working out well. The sunflowers are coming up, although some of them look very strange. The marigold seed popped up in a few days too, so that is going well. The garden should be a blaze of gold in a few weeks, baring snail attacks.

The lady next door has an electric organ in her patio. She apparantly cannot play it, but there was a guy playing something we can't remember quite what, just at the moment! Ah, senility!

I've a little railroad project, putting that little station I built into a railroad diarama using a little glass display case I couldn't resist buying at Michael's. Here's where I am so far:

I painted the white part green after taking the picture.

So now you have something to look forward too!

This Space For Rent

I forget what I was gonna write about, so check out this very cool steampunk keyboard mod. How cool is that?

I'm currently reading A Treasury of Southern Folklore: Stories, Ballads, Traditions, and Folkways of the People of the South, by B. A. Botkin. It quite a wieldy tome, running to 700-some pages. I'm giving it a rest today, and taking up another "withdrawn" title. This one is a World War II action story by John Clagett, titled Typhoon 1944. It's pretty good for a teen book. It was published in 1970, so the author is showing some awareness of the racial discrimination in the services back in WWII. the author drops the N-word, I guess to emphasize one charactor's prejudice, but the "hero" is bothered by it, and I think is going to call the guy on it. This volume is on 190 pages, so I should finish it soon. I've a pile of other "weeded" title to read, too. The Treasury may have to wait.

Pie

Every time someone mentions rhubarb to me, I salivate. It's truly disgusting. I LOVE rhubarb pie, and you can't really get just plain rhubarb. It's always that wierd strawberry-rhubarb combination. Which is all right, in its place. But IT'S NOT THE SAME!!

It's all about the tartness.

Here's a link to a blog entry at Pie Day Friday showing how to make pie crust, and a rhubarb pie recipe, with some lovely pictures.

Sadly, the picture I use at work for a desktop picture (Not the rolled tacos machine, the OTHER one), Lurid Rhubarb, can no longer be found on the web. Use your imagination. Picture my surgery. The first one.

Lucky Day

Today is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. Also, Al Green, Ricky "Rick" Schroder, and Caroline Rhea. Among others...

A piece of chocolate cake!

And an Oreo cake from D.Z. Akins!

Do not be afraid to click on the images to visit my zooomr page and see the even yummier big images!

First, the news:

Burglar gets away by driving against traffic (scroll down)

Performance Bicycle in La Mesa is burglarized. Ebay soon to be flooded with cheap junk bicycle parts! Just kidding, I do all my shopping there. It's my forte'!!

I was going to link to a very cute photo in today's Onion Tribunal, but the lame SignOnSanDiego site doesn't seem to have it. It was cute. A doggy in a front pannier on a bicycle.

Why would anyone cate what television shows I'm currently watching this month? I don't know but here they are:

Simpsons
California's Gold
Desperate Housewives
House
The New Adventures Of Old Christine
Two And Half Men
Monk
How I Met Your Mother
King Of Queens
Are You Being Served
As Time Goes By
Keeping Up Appearances
Waiting For God
My Name Is Earl
The Office
Scrubs

Stopped watching: Grey's Anatomy

And I had bran flakes for breakfast...

Fat Saturday

I am finding that Triscuit, in all its assorted, sordid, flavors, is extremely addictive. I am particularly fond of chedder. Uuummmm, cheeessseee...

I like to let them melt in my mouth!

Sodium? Carbohydrates?

Pif paf!

Is It Saturday Yet?

Walked up to the library and the train store. Purchased some MORE instant super glue, as the last bottle had solidified, as it will.

Glued the smoke stack on the station. I had Gooed the lights on before (with Walthers Goo), but super glued them again, just to be sure.

Almost glued my fingers together, AGAIN!

Another pic, and bigger ones, at my zooomr page. Just click on the image!

Stuck it on the layout in place of the OTHER Fallberg station, for the photo. Looks right at home!

How come I haven't ballasted that piece of track yet?

Working On The Railroad

Been working on the train station all afternoon.

There are three more pics at zooomr, and they're BIG! Well, BIGish...
Just click the image...

That roof is printed paper, it looks pretty good. It certainly is easier than trying to weather the old Sydam corrogated metal roofing!

I got a little heavy-handed with the epoxy and used it to glue the windows in. Bad idea, too much epoxy. The excess oozed out and so the window glass doens't sit quite flat in some of the windows.

I still can't get more variation in the stone color. When I hit the structure with a blast of Flat Clear to seal the colors it kind of blended together... I'm going to try to touch up some of the rocks with an acrylic wash.

I still have the smokestack and lights to attach.

I'm not even sure what I'm going to DO with this station, I've alreay got one! I guess I'll have to start another layout..

Thursday

Did my 39th radiation treatment today, the last one. They gave me a nice "diploma". I have to go back in a month and see if it "took". I don't know what I will do with all my free time...

Went over to Michael's to get a shadowbox. They are 40% off, woot! I wandered around and looked at stuff. For some reason I wish I was in elementary school so I could make a California mission model out of the supplies they have. I'm not even interested in missions, what's up with that?

You probably aren't interested much in guns, but I like guns. I like stuff that is utilitarian and mechanical, like motorcycles, knives, guns. I don't HAVE any of those (Well, I have a knife) . but I like them. Even though a friend was accidently killed by her son with a gun, in a tragic handgun accident a few years ago. Anyway, the Bike Riding Donut Guy has this story (scroll down to "How Not To Clean A Gun" buried in one of his posts. He says it's from another site, but I can't find it to give credit. I thought it was pretty funny. And instructive.

A Rose By Any Other...

OK, inquiring minds have asked about the flower press.

We will get to that.

First of all, I must admit that, due to my incompetence, I was only able to press one flower, my lapel rose. All the other roses spoiled. My fault. I accept total blame in this matter.

Please remember you can clicky on the images to zip to my zooomr page and view the images in larger sizes. The last two images are especially better, bigger.

Here's the press, all its flower-crushing glory:

The wingnuts hold the whole thing together nicely, with tension being infinitely adjustable.


Let us observe the various layers inside:

Plywood for crushing flatness, cardboard for cushioning, blotting paper to soak up the juices.


Let's open it up:

It certainly is flat!


Let us take a closer look at the crushed flower:

Yes, I would said it is totally crushed flat!


Here is an interesting shot using that flash setting I always use by misteak:

Psychedelica!!

And here is pretty much what we end up with:

Not too bad, I'm thinking! I've heard roses are hard to press. I believe it!

Now I need a shadow box to mount it in, with a bit of the bride's veil.

Rest Day

Layed around the house all day today, reading A Better Part Of Valor, by Tanya Huff. This is the second book in A Confederation Of Valor. Military Science Fiction, pretty good stuff.

A Quote I liked (Paraphrased, from memory): He looked pretty depressed, for a species that invented flavored massage oil before the wheel.

Got the roof on the Fallberg Station over the last week. Getting short of Tenax plastic glue, so had some adventures getting enough glue on the rafters to secure them. Also, had a MAJOR PANIC when I thought I had used the wrong material for the rafters. Thankfully, it turned out I was mistaken.

There's another angle of the station on my zooomr page, somewhere.

I also oiled the chain on the Schwinn.

Flower Power

We visited the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on the trip to Alabama.

The pics are posted at zooomr, just click on the picture below to go there.

This is probably the best pic of the lot. My pics don't do it justice, it's really a beautiful place.
I also made a SmartSet of the pics, but it may or may not work, according to the vageries of zooomr.

Odometer Reading

I just turned of 3,000 miles on the vehicle the other day, that's in a year and an half of driving.

And it already had 500 on it when I bought it.

I need a serious discount on my insurance, I'm thinking!

------------------------------------------------------------

The ten pictures of our visit to Oak Mountain State Park a couple weeks ago are up.

Please click on the image to visit my zooomr page, wander around, try the SmartSets and see if they work for you.

More pictures

As I mentioned before, we visited Vulcan Park in Birmingham on a Sunday a couple weeks ago. I finally posted the pictures! Visit my zooomr page, if you dare, wander around and see the pics in all their glory!

I made a "set" for them, but Zooomr sets don't seem to work too well, so often other people's pics get in there, even though I limited the set to my own pics. And sometimes MY pics don't get in there!! Wierdness! I hope they can fix it, or explain to me what I'm doing wrong.

Stationary

Not much going on with the station, but before the trip I glued on the roof.

20007Mar25station Hosted on Zooomr

I got some grey pastels, I'm going to try to "individualize" the rocks a little. We shall see...

Motorbikes!

We visited the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Alabama last Sunday.

Tons of bikes! Really an amazing place, if you like motorcycles, I highly recommend it!

Click on the picture to visit my zooomr photos. Wander around, there are 17 more pictures from the museum.

Dining Out

CAUTION, THIS POST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS MY COMPANIONS CORRECT MY INDCREDIBLY HIDEOUS MEMORY!!

So, where did we eat on the trip? Let us see:

Thursday

T.G.I Fridays in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport -- I had a Caesar salad, and we shared an order of potato skins. Very good!

Taqueria Valencia in Pelham -- I had a "Quesadilla Chica", which for some reason I thought meant "Chicken Quesadilla", so when the guy asked me what kind of meat I wanted I kept saying "Chica", so I'm sure he thought I was California Wierd!

Friday

Moe's Southwest Grill in Alabaster -- I enjoyed a Sherman Klump quesadilla. Very messy! A fun place, check out their website.

Cracker Barrel in Calera -- After the wedding rehersal we all went here for a late dinner. I've heard about this restaurant, but never been here, as they don't have any locations in California. I ordered a Half Pound Bacon Cheeseburger, low-carb style, with a side of sweet whole baby carrots. Afterwards we decided to have separate checks, so it took longer to pay than to eat, almost! The cashier was overjoyed, I'm sure, as she had to call for assistance to figure out the bills.

Saturday

I had a granola bar for brunch. Yikes!

At the wedding reception we had a marinated meat that was really good, with some homemade salsa. Really good stuff! I also had a piece of wedding cake.

Sunday

Ruby Tuesday in Pelham -- We were too late for the breakfast menu, so I had a Smokehouse Burger with cheese, bacon and barbeque sauce. Pretty good stuff.

Ted's Montana Grill on the Riverchase Galleria perimeter road in Hoover-- We wandered around the town trying to find a place we all could live with, and ended up here. I'm glad we did! Our server, Krystal, was very attentive and the manager checked several times to see how we were doing. The food was really good, and the price was very reasonable, I thought, and I'm pretty cheap! We were offered a free appetizer, pickled cucumber. It was very tasty. I had my usual diet cola to drink, and ordered a New Mexico Chicken Grill with a side of onion rings.

Monday

Waffle House in Pelham -- I had an omelet, hash browns, and grits. The omelet was not as good as here, but the hash browns and grits were pretty good.

Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen in the Atlanta airport
I had a slice of pizza. It was big and bready, not bad for airport pizza!

Delta Airlines snacks -- I had some cheese and crackers, shortbread cookies, and trail mix, washed down with Diet Coke. I don't want to think about my glucose level!

We're Back!

As you know, I traveled to Alabama this last weekend. My primary concern was to avoid unpleasant accidents, so I didn't drink any coffee for five days. It was tough. Here is what I discovered during the trip:

Bathroom Report:

Aircraft: Didn't have to use. Wow!
Dallas/Fort Worth airport: Semi-nasty!
Travelodge--Pelham: OK, odd flushing, no spare roll of paper first day.
Peavine Falls porta-potty: Very nasty!
Moe's Southwest Grill--Alabaster: Very clean.
Walmart-Pelham: Very clean.
Birmingham airport--Ok, but those automatic flushers scare me!

We stayed at the Travelodge in Pelham, Alabama. There was a big window looking out the back towards the trees, which in turn concealed a river my scout reported.

One odd feature of the room were the pictures on the wall. Two of the same picture!

On Friday we went shopping at the Wall Mart. I noticed that front license plates are not required in Alabama.

I also noted that women call you "hon" and "baby" a lot, and that men say "ma'am".

Later we drove to the site of the reception to help set up. We stopped at Moe's Southwest Grill for lunch. It was a pretty fun place. Along the way we saw some trains.

There are a lot of train tracks going every which-a-way, probably hauling the products of the many quarries in the area. I learned that "Calera" means limestone in Spanish.

After the wedding on Saturday we headed to the reception, going through said town of Calera. More train tracks!

I saw this old drug store. I remember when we had Rexall in San Diego, but haven't seen one in years.

The traffic lights are strung on wires across the streets and their positioning seems odd to me. I noticed they don't have a traffic light at the side of the street like we do in San Diego. Several times I didn't even notice there was a light at an intersection! Good thing I wasn't driving!

On Monday we had breakfast at the Waffle House in Pelham.

I had an omelet and hash browns, and of course GRITS! The omelet was rather different than ones out here, not that wonderful, but the hash browns were excellent. I enjoyed the grits, too, haven't had those in a long time. My companions had pecan waffles. Those looked pretty good. I wish I could have had some coffee, but sadly I've been avoiding it for the last week. Did I mention that already?

After that we visited the Vulcan statue in Birmingham, then turned in the car and flew away.

I've lots of pictures of the statue area, views of Birmingham from up high, and of Sunday when we went to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark (bought a miniature bar of pig iron!), and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. But we shall save that for another day, when I get around to posting the pics.

Leavin', On A Jet Plane

Kinda hate that song. MY song is more "Sister Ray".

Went to radiation, per usual, today. Parked in the parking garage (LOVE the free parking pass!!). Ran down the hill after treatment to pick up a prescription. Observed guy running the stop sign. Ran (well, walked briskly) back up the hill, including the stairs. My Stairmaster! JUST missed seeing a guy coming in the "In" gate in a truck, not clearing the gate and BREAKING IT OFF! How cool that would have been! After watching and waiting for the attendant to pick up the pieces, made a right turn out the "Out" gate and stopped. Watched a guy back up about a hundred feet on the road, in what seemed to me to an unsafe manner. I mean, some people run stop signs!

That's about the high points of today! If I think of anything else, I'll add it later!

Can't Think Of A Title!

Not too much going on. Buying clothes, shoes, going to radiation, getting ready for the BIG TRIP. No, not THAT big trip, the one to Alabama! You kidder, you!!

The Fallberg Station project is coming along slowly but shirley.

It getting pert near roof time. Before that I need to install the door and windows frames, which have been painted an odd shade of green that I mixed.

That's all for this week!

What's Up

Instead of using my spare time in some useful manner increasing my wealth, or bicycling, I'm spending a few moment here and there building yet-another-building for the model railroad. This one is the Fallberg Station from Downtown Deco. I bought it last year. It took me a year to work up the gumption to put it together. Step one is to glue the four Hydrocal castings together. I already messed THAT up!

Apparently, according the directions, there are not only left and right sides, there are front and back sides.

Huh.

Apparently, also, I can't read, because I missed that little bit of information.

I don't think it will make a lot of difference to the untrained eyes that will view my finished product, but it's kind of an insult to the craftsman who meticulously designed the kit, don't yah think?

I just ran spell check on this, there were seven errors. Can you guess which seven words were wrong? Hint: three of them were the same word.

I just finished spraying the castings with flat white paint, prior to putting some color on them. (By the way, as I type, my fingers are sticking to the keyboard because, also apparently, I have white paint on them. Huh.)

Well, other than that, things are going ok. The radiation doctor said she was cool with the trip, that I was experiencing side effects in accord with expectations, so everything is good. In case you wanted to know, my "nether regions" are feeling much better today, thank you very much!

Periodically Speaking

Received what is probably my final issue of my subscription to Sunset magazine. If not the extra issue designed to ensnare me into another year. I've quite decided that I am not going to renew the magazine. No matter how many plative letters I receive from school band relatives. I find it too depressing. Unrealistic expectations, dreams that will never be fullfilled. Nor could be, really. Not unlike my relationship with the Walthers catalog. Over a thousand pages of HO fantasies.

As if, here are my favorite magazines, pretty much, from over the years:

Model Railroader
Popular Electronics
Electronics Illustrated
Drag Cartoons
Analog
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
National Lampoon
Ham Radio Horizons
Popular Communications
Softalk
QST
Bicycling

I had subscriptions to most of these, and bought the rest at the newstand. I still have tons of Model Railroaders around, but the rest have disappeared over the years.

Friday Before The Holiday

Went to radiation this morning. No parking in the "special" lot, so I had to park on the roof of the parking structure. Nice and sunny up there, and I get to run down the stairs for a bit of exercise.
Since I had hit EVERY red light, I was a tiny bit behind schedule.

No worries, the guy ahead of me broke the machine!

Well, not really, but it was broke. So me and the guy after me chewed the fat, as it were, for an hour. The repair guy came and started working on it (a plumbing problem). The tech said it would have to be tested and that would take another hour. I graciously offered my space to the guy after me, so HE could be the guinea pig, but he declined. Turned out they didn't need a victim anyway. We reschuduled for the afternoon.

I hurried back to work to cover lunch so the boss could go eat, but it developed that she locked the joint up and went to lunch. So I went and ate.

Did I mention the "tummy" troubles I had in the morning after drinking my coffee? Three times! Yikes!

After work I made my way to the clinic and found parking place no problemo. Got radiated, said bye, went home, fired up the machine and here I am!

The Day After St. Valentine's Day

Today is, as the title states, TDASVD. I had some radiation (or "radiatino" as I first typed it.) today, like always. No sweat. I actually converse with people in the waiting room as it is the same people at the same time very day (except weekends (and next Monday)). The guy I follow is not looking too chipper. The guy that follows me gets there before I do most days. Not that I'm late, he's just EARLY!

Saw a bumper sticker that gave me a chuckle today:

FISH TREMBLE WHEN THEY HEAR MY NAME

I felt pretty crummy this afternoon, probably either high or low blood-sugar, or something else.

Felt better after an hour.

Maybe too much caffeine?

Definitely need to ride the bike, but it is hard to schedule time. I guess it will have to be on the week ends.

I think there is a Zone Of Senility around me. I may have just invented that phrase, it's not Googleable!

Double-checked the not-needing-a-lot-of-water statement from the the technician, as I was reading and hearing conflicting stuff. The doctor says I don't need to drink more than usual. And coffee and sodas are ok. Thank goodness, I was scared there for a minute!

I was thinking the other day that I resent the diabetes more than the cancers, because of how much it has changed my eating habits. Although the second cancer is turning out to be rather annoying!

Day Three

Had my third radiation treatment today. Here's a picture, as promised.

(You can click on the image to visit zooomr.com and see my witty notes on this image.)

Parking has been good the last two days, managed to snag a spot in the special reserved area. Door-to-door, it's been taking between 45 minutes to an hour. So that's good, too. No side effects, so far.

Apparantly I misunderstood the instructions about drinking lots of water. I don't need to. So now I don't have to go to the bathroom ten times a day!

Get Me A Jaywalker

I have to drive to work for the next few weeks. Look out, world!

I was taking it easy, obeying the speed signs, when some girl WALKED out across Lake Murray Blvd., a FOUR-LANE divided blvd.. And NOT at a 90 degree angle, OH NO, she's ambling along at a much more obtuse angle. And not necessarily in the mathematical sense.

I laid on the horn, she startled (Hey, I had my LIGHTS ON!), and moseyed on over the the side of the road. Not the SIDEWALK, mind you, but what would possibly be the bicycle lane, if there was one.

I arrive at work.

Time passes...

I'm getting ready to go to my appointment, I'm carrying a bicycle fork I had brought to work. Deborah comes in, sees me, says, "Oh, are you riding your bike to the doctor?".

Yes, Deb, after I re-assemble the bike I'm riding it to the doctor!!

She cracks me up!

So, I get to the clinic, all the reserved parking is gone, so I have to park in the structure. No worries, I got the magic pass!

I check into the clinic, I change into a gown. I'm sitting in the waiting room. Other patients are there. I'm talking to a fellow (guy) patient. For some reason I am amused that the woman patients are wearing their pants under their gowns, and we guys are wearing our shirts under our gowns.

My name is called, I head into the treatment room. I tell the nurse I was going to bring a camera, she said no problem, bring one next time, lot's of people do. Cool! So maybe next time we shall have pictures!

I was pretty nervous and kept feeling like I was going to start twitching or something, and my blood sugar was probably low, too. But, I made it through the procedure no problem. Only 40ish more to go!

Well, that's all for today!

Rainy Garbage Day

I was having so much fun trying to find a Powerpoint file that I could download to the iMac at work this afternoon that I almost forgotted to go to the doctor! Yikes! That could have been expensive! But, I made it in plenty of time, due to some judicious cutting-off of rotten middle schoolers crossing a street.

Why was I looking for a Powerpoint file? So I could get ready for assisting a teacher tomorrow with projecting said files, student created, on the big screen in the classroom. I thought I would make sure the equipment was working, and I wanted to used the iMac because it is nicely portable. Alas, the rotten mousepad thingie is not all that compatible with my big fat arthritic fingers. I couldn't find any files I could download. I am teh sux0r!

So, anyway, I saw the doctor, he said since it's my five year anniversary I don't have to see him anymore. I observed that I still had all the OTHER doctors to see quite a bit more often than I would like...

Also, he noted my PSA has gone up another tenth, to .9, in the last month...

When I came out it was pouring rain. I had to walk down to the shopping center (Oh, yeah, they're called "malls" now, are they not?) where I had parked (don't tell anyone!) because I am cheap.

So I got wet.

Good thing I drove today, or I would have gotten REALLY wet!

Yikes, What A Monday!

First, I had to get two teeth filled this morning. Not too bad, but I felt a little woozy at first after getting the Novacaine shot. I duly recounted all the dental humor (or, as our British friends might say, "Humour") that I heard on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me this last weekend.

In the afternoon I got three tattoos from a nice lady.

(It's worser bigger, but you can click the image to find that out!)

"X" marks the spot, I guess. This is the one on the left side. There's one on the right side, also. And then there's the one in the middle. You don't want to see that one!

I also got ANOTHER CT-Scan. I was also told that they were going to inject a little something in a place I don't care to have things injected, but it turned out that in my case, since I don't have the thing that the injected stuff shows up in, that....Oh, heck, I've lost the narrative thread!

Anway, it went ok, but I had to hold VERY STILL for 20 minutes.

They are going to call next week and set up a schedule, but it will be around 40 or so visits, 5 times a week. With time off to visit Alabama.

I visited the Public Library on the way home and checked out 1632 by Eric Flint, on the recommendation of someone whose opinion I respect. I looked for Stephan Baxter, but that was a no-go. I shall have to peruse the catalog to see if one is available somewhere.

Of Peanute Butter and Hamburgers

Have been eating peanut butter most of the day. Albertson's brand. It has a rather plain non-taste, but I love the big crust of peanuts on the of a fresh jar. Probably should toss it after getting past that, or maybe mixing more peanuts in, there's the ticket!

John Scalzi has some comments on his blog for a fellow (Chuck, of Chicago) who dares to compare White Castle hamburger with In-N-Out, unfavorably.

Open House Thursday

I'm not going to Open House, who wants to see me? I went to Horizon training today, learned all sorts of stuff, and took some pictures along the way.

(It's Better Bigger at zooomr.com, click the images!)

Looks like the mighty Ford crushed the cement bumper, but I SWEAR it was already like that!

Afterwards I was crusing down the freeway...

I KNOW you've all driven down the freeway, but I had kinda given it up for the last few years, so it's still new, and kinda scary!

I've an appointment for the preliminary radiation setting up thing on Monday afternoon, and the dentist in the morning for a filling. What fun!

Summing Up

Saw this in a fark thread today:

---------------------------------------------------

2007-01-21 04:50:15 AM oldebayer

[...]

Seriously, this is the human condition in a nutshell: no matter how much we learn as a species, each of us is born in a state of complete ignorance, and we can only learn what those around us are wiling to teach us. This would not be so bad, except that they were born into exactly the same situation.
---------------------------------------------------

You may have seen this post already on the My Bicycle Musings blog. Whoopsie, is all I can say...

Sorta Wet Friday

It drizzled a little this afternoon, I noticed as I was checking out textbooks to the poor freezing students, who wouldn't have had to stay outside in the cold so long if THEY HAD BROUGHT THEIR I.D. CARDS!!!

Hey, just sayin'...

Had the bone scan today, it was a piece of cake. I drove the freeway three times forth and back. I am a BIG BOY! It was not scary, and I was amazed at the amount of time I saved over driving the back roads, as I normally do.

They gave me Free Parking slips so I didn't have to pay today, w00t!!

Don't tell my doctor (which ONE??), but I ate three pieces of apple pie today, and cake. I are a BAD BOY!!

I shall have to go bicycling tomorrow...

Oh, and the tech said she didn't see anything bad on the scan, and the CT folks said it looked good last week, so I guess the cancer hasn't spread, or attached itself, or whatever (Yeah, I'm REALLY paying attention to the doctor, aren't I?). I figure the oncologist (Oncologist #2 that is, my appointment with my ORIGINAL (Primary?) (#1?)Oncologist in a week away) is gonna call next week and let me know how the radiation will proceed.

So there.

"Someone's at the door."

All these years I've thought Juliette Lewis was the ghost sister in American Gothic. Tonight I discover is was Sarah Paulson! What else am I confused about? Hey, but tell me she DOESN'T look like Ms. Lewis!

This all came about reading a thread at fark! about the National Lampoon Vacation movies.

I found out what a ha-ha is yesterday.

This certainly has been a week for revelations! Let us hope next week reveals nothing that I don't want to hear!

Somehow I managed to find my way to this page about scythes while at work the other day. Apparently the Austrian scythe is the new hotness.

I guess I didn't take the right science classes 'cause I've never seen nothing like THIS!

Waiting For...

You've probably already seen this, but it's news to me:

Bill Maher on drug testing of volunteer library helpers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-we-dont-need-d_b_32463.html

A quote from this, plus other interesting library-related quotes, was in the January 2007 issue of American Libraries. You're not finding THAT at the newstand, I'm thinking!

I was reading the November/December 2006 issue of Westways yesterday at the CT/MRI place whilst waiting for the Berry EM to flow through my guts. It was the article titled "Book Smart" by David Dutton that caught my attention. It was about Lawrence Clark Powell, who was a big name in the library biz, as it were. I read a book he wrote titled "Bookman's Progress", I'm pretty sure it was. It was a long time ago! But I remember I enjoyed it very much!

I also read Cosmo (very enlightening!), Parents, National Geographic, and Wood magazine. I didn't get to finish Wood, they called me to get zapped. Now I'll never get to finish that article on how to make an adjustable mini-clamp using a clothespin!

I also walked around the area a bit, to help the gunk flow. I walked up by Miramar Road and looked in the windows of all the furniture stores. A different world, I was thinking, different than mine! My calves were rather sore the next day. Too much bicycling, not enough walking!

And Now For Something Completely...

Model railroad pics, because you care...

All these images are "MUCH better bigger", so be not afeared to click on the image to visit my zooomr.com page, where you can choose "All Sizes" to get to the big one.

Yeah, I COULD have linked it, but it is too much work!

Less close-up of the fork lift, used camera flash on this image only.

The fabulous depot!

Fishing pier.

Tree built from instructions in Bill McClanahan's Scenery For Model Railroads.

Does this LOOK like a suppier of Mars bars? What's going on here?

Piller (or quite possibly "pillar") crane with decided list to the right...

The wonderful transition apron that keeps breaking.

Two guys playing checkers. I am full of hope that the SUV will get hit by an errant train.

Nice little fork lift with pallets.

Foreground building was built by my grandfather in the 50s.

First Day Too

Hey, if you know what this shiny object is, I would appreciate hearing about it!

It says "Toko" on it, that is apparently the manufacturer, made in Japan, and it is some kind of lens. Has a leather case with a belt loop.

Also The Day Before Tomorrow

It's turn out, looking at the list of books I've read, that I already read "Old Man's War" last year in March. What's up with that? I've been looking to reading it for several months and now I find I already read it. And LIKED it! So why don't I remember it? Talk about lame-o!

I got the bills paid. Another tramatic event dealt with.

I REALLY appreciate how my employer decided last year to finagle our paychecks so that we don't get paid for several days in December that used to come out of our vacation balance. We still get to work the days (10 month contract), but in June. Which is nice for June, but December comes up 500 smackaroonies short. Since we got a retro pay raise THIS year, it's pretty much covered. But it would have been nice to be able to apply the retro pay to something fun, or the xmas credit card bill, or any EVENTS that are coming up in, March, say.

Anyway, I've TONS of vacation days, I lose them every year because I don't take them. I think I'm going to start taking a few weeks here and there this coming year.

Libery Day

I HAD to go grocery shopping today (out of Pepsi, you know!). I stopped by the library to see if my books were in. They were!

I checked out:

• Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
• Mortal Engines, by Phililp Reeve
• High School Confidential, by Jeremy Iverson

I also picked up a copy of the East County Gazette to abuse myself with.

I'm still (It's VERY slow going!!) reading The Risk Pool by Richard Russo. In fact, after the bike ride today I sat in the sun and read for a while. It was rather civilized.

Sat Ur Day

I just found out that Xmas is on MONDAY! That means I can put off Xmas shopping for one more day!

I decided the best way to induce a B.M . (Who calls it that?) is to do something, like firing up the blog-machine or going on a bicycle ride. So far, no joy...

Crud

Just came back from the uro-doc. Crud, the PSA is up. He wants me to talk to the radiation guy. I understand that I may lose my continance. Or is that gain incontinance. And lose other funtionality, which isn't all that functional anyway.

Saw a discussion on another bike thread, I think it was The Fat Cyclist (it was), wherein someone (chutneyboy) mentioned that wearing bike shorts with a chamois looked like one had a diaper on. I wonder what wearing bike shorts with a chamois AND a diaper will look like!

Baby, It's Cold Out There!

The boy called Sunday and suggested we take a little road trip to see the International Space Station pass over. I readily agreed, as I was BORED outa my skull, having not left the apartment for two days, except to WALK to Vons to pick up a case of Pepsi, a hunk of cheese, and some non-fat cottage cheese.

So, we headed up to the windmills.

We parked very near top windmill in the picture. It was very cold, and there was snow in the shaded areas. It wasn't as clear as we hoped, there were clouds moving in from the north. We finally saw the ISS pass over. It's like a fast moving star.

Next time I'm bring my long johns and something warm to drink!

And the scanner, we could have listened to any ham radio yakking going on.

Back in the day we used the scanner to listen to the Dove satellite. We had the tracking program going on the computer in the house and the scanner outside hooked up to the four element quad, pointing into the sky. The neighbors thought we wuz crazy!

People...

It's not just my rantings here, you get links to OTHER peoples' rantings too!!

Ran across this link on Bike riding Donut Guy blog:

Two Phrases That Destroyed American Culture on the Violent Acres blog.

Rated "R" for language.

The Bike Riding Donut Guy always has some good links, but I suspicion he is farming fark.com for them sometimes.

breakfast in the library

What's for breakfast in the library?

Only for staff, of course!

Waiting For The Man

I was going to post some real whiny stuff here because I've been TOTALLY depressed all afternoon for various reasons, and then I had to go do my labs afterwork, and it was a big hasszle getting out of the parking lot, not really, it was making the left from (Couldn't DSL be just a LITTLE faster loading a map?) ... (still waiting...) (went to Google maps instead of Live Local) ... from Center Drive north on to Grossmont Center Drive. There's no turn arrow so youse gots to waits untill the people from the spa and the hospital go straight, and then all the yahoos that would have been behind you go STRAIGHT and make a u-turn and come back so that messes things up EVEN MORE!!!

Needs a turn signal.

Anyway, I see on fark.com that the Velvet Underground record that was on ebay turned out to have a bogus bidder, so there was some discussion about THAT. But the good thing was a fellow named manhandler posted a link to a this youtube video.



Funniest thing I've see all day, and cheered me up IMMENSELY!!

Hope it does the same for you.

Unless you don't like the VU... I've heard some people don't.

Reading

I'm reading Hemmingway's A Farewell To Arms. It isn't terribly interesting, but it's not as bad as Moby Dick, so I guess I can stick it out. What was that book I quit reading once, oh, yeah, my favorite pre-diabetes cookie, Lorna Doones. Good movie, boring book.

Hero

There was a discussion on a fark.com thread on the use and misuse of the label "hero".

It reminded of a fellow I had the priviledge of meeting once, John Finn. Mr. Finn is 97 years old and is the oldest Medal of Honor receipient. He was awarded the medal based on his actions at Pearl Harbor.

An article by Diane Bell in the San Diego Union, December 7, 2006, he was quoted as replying when asked if he was afraid, "I was too scared to be afraid."

I thought that was pretty good!

You can read about John Finn at Kaneohe Bay -- The First Attack Of World War II

Open wide!

I'm trying out a new image host.

It won't make the content any better, but it gives me another place to stash photos on the internets.

Oh, yeah, you're probably wondering. That's a shot of a blood blister in my mouth. I get them more than I think I should, and they just seem to appear magically! Last, last night, I was eating a zillion oatmeal cookies, probably a bad thing since I have diabetes, although the cook SAID they were made with Splenda. And all of sudden there was another blood blister in my moufs!

If you clikety on the image you should be taken to zoomer.com where said image is hosted, and there you will be amazed by the humerous notations I have affixed to it.

I AM the erudite individual!

Your Vocabulary Score: A+

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Saw this link at Dorothy's place!

Seen on tv

I was just watching some silly movie and something they said struck home. "We can't keep wondering what we will be when we grow up, we ARE grown."

That probably shouldn't be in quotes,it's not an exact quote.

Fish On Sunday?

Actually got out this afternoon at the wife's request to driver her to the fish store to get a Beta to replace what 'is name that died a few months ago.

Had to honk at a big red pickup that was easing through its red light nearly on top of me, then a few seconds later I pulled out a bit too soon in front of two, as it were, trucks, coming from opposing directions. But we made it to the fish store ok. And back.

A Walk On The Wild Side

Ran across this interesting article about walking a 50 miler while I was looking for a sign to warn people I am videotaping them. Don't ask...

Turkey DAy

Happy Turkey Day.

My mother called to wish me Happy Thanksgiving. I talked to my brother, the one who was cooking the bird, he told me I get my holiday "pessimism" (putting it mildly) from my mother.

Now I know who to blame!

I'm reading "Predator's Gold", by Philip Reeve. It's pretty good.

Garbarge Day

I was wandering around snopes and found an article in the Lost Legends section about mobile homes. It said that mobile homes were so-named, not because they had wheels, but because they were first built in Mobile, Alabama.

This was so amazing, I spent two hours trying to verify this fact. The only thing I found was an article on blog.duder.net repeating the snopes information.

Eventually I found this page that explained what the deal was, as Airman Adorno might say.

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I've read three books so far this weekend:

1. The 2nd book of Abarat
2. Christopher Mouse
3. Becoming Naomi Leon

I am going to start Aretmus Fowl : The Lost Colony as soon as I finish this.

TTFN!

Double b7eek

Finished "Son of a Grifter" Saturday.

Finished "Best Science Fiction Of The Years 6th annual collection" (1976) this afternoon.

Some good stories in there.

Crude, I was going to type some other stuff, but terminal ennui just overcame me.

Sorry.

Reference Interview Of The Week

A patron asked me to help them find a book. They said it was a small book, VERY small. They didn't remember the title, or the author, but maybe it was by Judy Blume. But it was small. VERY SMALL. And it was about a girl. We looked at the Judy Blume books, but no joy. Oh, and there were TWO books. They said last time they saw it on the other side of the room, which is the other end of the Fiction alphabet from 'B'. I thought, and said, that the only SMALL books I could remember were in the 'W's'. Turned out where the wuz, wuz in 'V'. Vail, Rachel Vail. The Friendship Ring series.

I rock!

Tuesday? Wednesday?

I don't know what day it is. To paraphase that kid in that movie, "I see garbarge trucks". On Jackson Drive. But yesterday was garbage day here, so, the world moves on.


Looking for Huell Howser on YouTube, I discovered this little movie. Huell is so fabulous, and his shows about California are so interesting. Every state should have their own Huell!


From The Pocket Dictionary Of American Slang, compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner

French-inhale. The act of exhaling a mouthful of smoke and then inhaling it through the nose. Considered exotic and ultrasophisticated by teenager and students.

Liteweight

This isn't much of a story, but I was at the libery this afternoon, looking through the new books. I could hear the reference librarian in her office talking to a patron. Apparently the patron did not like the answer she received to her question. The librarian got an "edge" in her voice, said something like, "Ma'am, I looked up this question yesterday for another person, and now you are questioning my answer."... After a bit she ask the patron if she would like to talk to another librarian, so she transferred her. I couldn't hear any more...

How would I have reacted? Probably would have started speaking R E A L S L O W . . . and loud. And the "edge" would have been there, too!


I checked out a Jane Heller nove, "Some Nerve" and a William Tapply mystery, "Cutter's Run". I JUST THIS MINUTE (Monday, while fixing typos) see on my Books Read list that I have already read the Tapply book! Oh No!

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I've been fixing broken Apple ProMice for work, on my own time. I got some hints on how to go about it at Opening And Repairing An Apple Pro Mouse and at Apple Pro Mouse Repair. Their articles are pretty complete, but I wanted to post this picture showing an actual splice, as I accomplised it.


(Click image to visit flickr and see the BIG version, with comments!)

It's a pretty nifty feeling to have the mouse actually work after I've had it apart!

I was going to put a picture of me wearing my magnifier hood, but the image has disappeared!

This is last night's dinner:



Clicky on the image for the rest of the series (three more, pretty much the same) with Clever Captions and Humorous Mouse-Over Text, at flickr.com, of course.

I actually enjoyed eating this pizza, it wasn't THAT burnt. It was neat letting the hard bits soak in my mouth and gnawing away at them. Must have been like eating hardtack, back in the day. Without the weevils.

Smoking Tax Redux

On Fark.com there was a discussion about a proposed tax increase on cigarettes in Missiouri. Check out the discussion here. There were a lot of interesting opinions.

I looked up cigarette taxes for each state. The lowest was South Carolina (surprise!) at $ .07 per pack, the highest was Rhode Island at $ 2.46 per pack. California was number 23 at $ .87 per pack. SOURCE: Federal Trade Administration

I thought California would be higher than that.

I had a cigarette last night at 7:00 P.M. That breaks my 7 week stretch (I don't know what that means, but "stretch" seemed to fit nicely in there.). I took down the QuitMeter. I'm starting over again.

Vote No on 86

If you are in California, please vote NO on prop. 86, the tax on cigarettes iniative. I believe it is an unfair tax, because the tax on cigarettes was raised by several dollars s a few years ago.

I think it would be fair to raise taxes on alcohol, as the abuse of alcohol is a very bad thing in society. I do not recall the tax on alcohol be raised, ever.

I would not be opposed to a tax on movie theaters, either.

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me say that I do not drink alcohol (for no particular reason, actually I had a beer this summer, don't tell my diabetes doctor!), and I don't go to the movies much (saw the first Lord of the Rings, and I THINK I saw Star Wars Episode 2. I think I fell asleep...), but I DO support a three hundred dollar a month smoker.

Whither reading?

I was searching teh intarweb for "textbook storage" and found these articles.

I'm just gonna pick some quotes out, you can read the articles if you wanna.

Reading for Fun will Boost Scores

"The kind of reading that really counts is free voluntary reading"

But in many, many homes in the South Bay and throughout the state, I also know there are homes without books and newspapers. Homes where no reading is done by anyone. Homes where young children are never read to in the crucial lap position. Homes where children never see an adult reading a book or a newspaper in any language.

They come to school without having heard the language, any language, in complete sentences, in stories told, in looking at printed words while a loving person says those words aloud. They have never participated in family discussions about what's going on in the world. These children have no idea of the structure of language. They don't know that sounds go with the printed symbols.

In the United States, there is one school librarian for every 900 children. In California in 1992, there was one school librarian for every 5,000 children.

And in California in 1999, there is one school librarian for every 6,200 children.

And most importantly, re-open all elementary-school libraries all day with trained librarians.

Library a chapter in school's past Computers seemingly replace

If students at Castlemont High School want to check out "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" or find books on Polynesian culture, they'd better have a bus pass or some good walking shoes.

"I think it's unfair," parent Chavone Johnson said. "I can't see a school not having a library. ... That's denying them a part of their education."

"We ain't been able to checkout books or nothing since I've been here," senior Erik Fuller said recently.

Some books appear to be randomly organized -- on one shelf you can find a book called "Herpes" right above a book called "The Right Dog for You."

"That's not a library, not what a normal high school is supposed to have," said Johnson, whose son attended Castlemont this year but is now in juvenile hall.

Many books in Castlemont's former library are gone -- it's not clear where they are. Some books may have been sent to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and one teacher may have sent some to Africa, school employees said.

Rick Gaston, principal of Castlemont's Business and Information Technology school, said computers have supplanted traditional school libraries, at least when it comes to doing research.

In Oakland middle schools, librarians have become scarcer over the last few years as the schools choose to spend their resources elsewhere, officials said.

Here's another article on an un-related subject:

ANN BIANCHETTI Diary #12 Indirect Lessons learned at a one-day workshop.

I don't have anything to say here, it's just my dooty to point you towards informative stuff out there!

Day After Yesterday

Yesterday I drove the vehicle to work, because I had a class to go to, and just because!

I noticed the mileage was 2,018 at one point (rather near Montgomery Field, if it's any of your business!), so I thinking I must have turned over 2,000 miles on the odometer some time on Tuesday (Grocery Day) when I drove to work. Since I've had the vehicle about a year, and the starting mileage was 500 (yah, I KNOW!), that means I've driven around 1,500 miles in a year.

Since (According to my inprecise figures) I've ridden 2,098 miles on both bikes total) in 2006, that means, well, I don't know what it means.

And I've ridden 2,633 miles in the last year.

So I guess my bike mileage is sorta almost total the vehicle mileage.

My daughter says I'm ranting too much.

I saw a very pretty sunset Thursday night. And it was very pleasant outside. I do not usually go out at night, for various reason, plus, I live in a sort of a hole, so I don't see sunsets often. Sunrise, I see nearly every morning!

One of my favorite television show that never made it, was a short-lived series titled "United States", starring Beau Bridges. My favorite episode was "Sometimes".

------------------------------------------------------------ (to lazy to remember the html...)

Sometimes when I am riding the bike...

"I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jims in this town
And all the politicians making crazy sounds
And everybody putting everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds"
---Lou Reed

Ham Radio Humour

I was looking for the text of a joke I heard (Two antennas got married...), found it on the AC6V Amateur Radio Humor page.

My favorite funny line:

"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history -- with the possible exceptions of tequila or a borrowed Vibroplex key." --K0HB

A fairly narrow niche in the humor field, but not as narrow as Humor For Library Employees...

The Drama Dept. is putting on The Pajama Game at work this year. I remembered hearing something on the radio this weekend about a protest in Saudia Arabia about a production of said play. I wanted to share this with the Drama Dept. Head. I spent an hour looking up Public Radio sites and stories. Turned out it was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, on the Bluff The Listener segment, presented by Moe Rocca. And that would be one of the bluffs. So I so vividly remembered a bluff story, but not the source.

Typical!

Mail Crude

I would consider it an acceptable proof of a divine prescence if every purvayor of mail order spammer and marginal charity would drop dead at the same time. Horribly, horribly, dead.

Also, why are the SO MANY organizations dedicated to the welfare of pets? How many "Save The Felines" organizations can our society support?

Warm Enough

It was rather sunny this morning, AND I slept in till eight, so I didn't go for a bike ride. Whoops, wrong blog!

I added the QuitMeter to the top of the blog, let us see how it works there.

I pulled ivy from around the stupid palm tree this afternoon. I also water the tomato, and also the tiny compost pile. I wish a tornado would come and take the stupid palm tree away. It stopped being an amusing tree many years ago.

I have been musing on the meaning of friendship, and levels of friendship. Someday I might write about it.

Watt hertz?

For some reason thought I might enjoy watching "Men In Trees" on television. The catchy title, I guess. I almost spit up when the innkeeper said he had a 10 megaHertz radio station. So, he has a shortwave broadcasting station? Ok, I guess. Really aren't too many of those in the United States, around 27 by my cruddy interweb count. I'm thinking, NOT!

Maybe he meant the station's power? Ten megawatts? That's 10 million watts. The highest power station I could find on the internets was 2.5 million watts. A typical high power station might be 500,000 watts. KCBQ in San Diego was a high power AM broacaster, back in the day, with a daytime power of the legal limit of 50,000 watts.

So a lame misteak starts the turn off from the show, for me. I guess it's back to the computer.

And here I am!

LATER: Stupid me! I plum forgot radio station WWV is on 10 mHz, with 10,000 watts of time-station goodness! I've GOT a QSL card from them, what the heck was I thinking? There is NO WAY he would have a station on that frequency. So, it is indeed just another stupid TV writer boo-boo. And this is a rant!

Plugged In

The telephone guy came out to our work site today to see why the phone wasn't working in our tiny storage room. It used to. Eventually he figured out that the computer guy that had been out the other day had disconnected the phone in the network cabinet when he was tidying things up and replacing cables. While he was working on the phone I noticed Horizon stopped working, but I thought it was just because I had a big data thing going on. Then the internet stopped working. Then the patrons starting complaing that the internet wasn't working on the Macs. I told the phone guy, but he said he didn't do anything to the network. Well, he showed me what he did to get the phone working, then he had to go. I went over to the main office to see if they were up, and they weren't having any problems. I told the Data Tech. (Steph.) what the deal was, so she came right over. She checked the routers, checked to see if we had rebooted, then called *T*h*e* *H*e*l*p* *D*e*s*k*. They couldn't think of anything, so a Service Request was filed. I suggested I show Steph. what the phone guy had done, in case I wasn't there when the repair guy came. We looked in the cabinet, checked the power connections. Everything was plugged in (remember this point). Steph. noticed three power cords that were plugged in the outlets, but not connected to anything. I remarked those must have been from the routers that the network guy had changed out the other day, he must have forgotten to pull the plugs, as it were. It's a very messy cabinet. I noted one of the routers had no blinkies, looked in back, saw its power cable was not plugged in, and was rather short. It looked like the network guy had carefully taken up the slack with a velco wrap, but took up too much slack, so when the phone guy opened the cabinet the power plug popped out, but the phone guy didn't notice it!

Paragraph.

So then we went out to check the computers. No joy. Went back to the cabinet. Noticed that the blickie-box for the Optical cable/interchange whatever was unlit. Checked the back, yah, the power cable is unplugged and way too short. Fixed it. Now we got power, and eventually we got network.

Steph. cancels work order. I finish fixing my data screwups.

Later I got an e-mail from Vick. saying she was going to e-mail us that Horizon had gone down, but by the time she got teh e-mail written it was back up again.

Foggy

It was pretty foggy this morning. I drove the truck because I had to run errands in the afternoon, like buy cigarettes and groceries (Importance in that order...). I had my headlights on, but then I usually do when I drive to work because it (and me) is usually dim.

I want people to see me.

I don't understand those people who drive with their "parking" lights on.

In the fog.

It's like, oh yah, your're twenty feet away, I can see your lights now.

Morons.

What are they thinking? They're gonna save a penny's worth of gas not having their headlights on?

Then there are the people with NO lighting what-so-ever!

Guess what, people, if I'm on the bike I CAN'T SEE YOU in my rearview mirror in the dim predawn. If you don't want me in your lap, turn on your headlights!

Yes, yes, I do a mirror check then and then a head turn. But if it doesn't attract my attention in the mirror I'm less likely to "see" it when I turn my head. The head turn is more to see "where" a car is, and to judge our closing speed, as it were, than to see if anything is there. Sort of a double check.

In other words, my vision sucks, so turn on your headlights!

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In a "lighter" mood, I noticed the moon out today. I supposed I've seen it out during the day many times in my half-century (I REALLY must look up the proper use of the hyphen!), but it struck me today as a new and wonderful thing. I pointed it out to several kids and adults, and we were amazed.

And TODAY I didn't bring the camera!

Smooking

Had a dream last night, I dreamt I had a cigarette.