Monthly Archives: February 2018

A Day Away

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My buddy Brett and I decided last week that we had to get away from Atlanta, so he sent me a text saying, “How about the Chatooga?”   That was pretty much all of the planning.  I knew it wouldn’t give me a chance to try out my new car-camping setup, but I honestly thought we might go canoeing.  After a day or so, I figured out that he meant he wanted to go to Burrell’s Ford, near Walhalla, SC.

That was good enough.

I brought along my digital audio recorder, as I’ve done on a few other camping trips (with some half-assed plan about putting together a ridiculous podcast), and we had a great time recording ourselves getting rather cronked in five-minute segments. I also recorded some stuff on my phone. I’ve discovered that I tend to lapse into a somewhat idiotic southern drawl when I record myself on these camping trips – see for yourself (video will take a while to load):  Southern Camping Podcast

It was a quite short, but enjoyable trip.  I arrived about an hour before Brett at around 9:00 Saturday morning.  Took a hike down the river looking for (and finding) a nice spot to pitch a couple of tents, but when Brett got there I learned that he’d brought a cooler with him and didn’t want to walk very far.  So we set up pretty close to the parking lot in a site next to one that we’ve used many times (there was already a group in our “regular” spot).

Saturday afternoon and evening were absolutely gorgeous.  Sunny, warm, quiet.  The water in the river was pretty cold, but I had no intention of swimming in it.  I just used it to keep my beer cold.

Hit the sack fairly early and slept until nearly 7 Sunday morning, when I packed up in a drizzle (Brett had already left) and came home.

At some point, I’ll do some (heavy) editing of the audio that recorded and upload it.  I listened to it at home on Sunday morning and cackled to myself.

 

It’s Finally Saturday

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I percolated some coffee last night.  I’m not positive, but I think that was the first time I’ve ever done so when I wasn’t camping.  While I do love the speed and convenience of my little pod-based coffee machine, there’s something about percolating that I’ve always like; and something nudged me to brew a pot when I got home last night.  It was good.  It’s also good this morning.

Spent some quality time lying in bed with the cats this morning.  5:15 came incredibly early, so I got up to feed the cats (Ocean Whitefish today – Boo was not pleased), then went back to bed for a few hours.  I would dearly love to spend most of the day there – checked my sleep activity yesterday, and I haven’t gotten more than 7 hours in two weeks – but I’ve got a concert with the brass band at Kennesaw State this afternoon.  Next weekend is also booked with band stuff, all NABBA-related rehearsals.  Friday night, Saturday morning, all day Sunday.  I suppose I should be looking forward to that.  To some extent, I am; but I really just want a weekend with nothing planned.  Preferably a sunny one (it’s raining again today and is forecast to do the same tomorrow) so that I could head for the woods and try out the new car-camping setup that I put together several months ago and have yet to try.  I’ve got a new Napier rear-gate cover, similar to the tent that I’ve used for a few years, but without the tent.  It just slips over the back of the car, and provides a screen window and a very shallow awning.  Also picked up a couple of door window condoms – I think they’re supposed to be used to keep sun off of babies or something, but they also function as fast and sturdy door screens (to replace the netting & magnets that I’ve been using).  The only thing I’m still looking for, to have what I think will be the perfect car-camp setup, is a kid-sized memory-foam mattress.  The air mattress that I normally use is great, but I’d like to get something a little firmer and less prone to leaking.

Had a pretty decent day at work yesterday, although I learned in the late afternoon that the client who had previously sent a letter from their lawyer has now sent another.  They’re unhappy.  I get it.  They want to get out of their 5-year contract.  I get that, too.  I really sort of hope that we just let them go.  I’m tired of hearing their complaints, and I’m tired of them blaming me for stuff that I can’t control.  I’m told that I’m not mentioned by name in this second legal missive.  That’s a good thing, I guess.

Still thinking about retirement and how to go about it.  It’s dawning on me that I may have to postpone it for a bit – mainly because of the cats, although if I can put up a big enough shack, they should be fine.  Questions about pooping (mine, not the cats’) have me vexed for the moment.  I know I’m hiking & camping guy, but I really don’t want to just have a composting toilet as my primary john.  I’d be completely happy with a pit toilet in a separate shack, but if I do go to the place in SC that I’ve been thinking about, I don’t know if that would be allowed.  If it would be, I’d have to find out how much it would cost to put it up.  Understand that I don’t want just a hole in the ground with a wooden one-seater over it.  I’d want a cement vault, as you might find in some decent wilderness campgrounds.

I’ve also decided that I want a hot shower, which my friends who’ve retired early have so far forgone.  They’ve been bathing in a tub resembling a small horse trough and heating the water with a huge heating element.  Yeah.  No.  I want hot showers on demand.  Propane could do this, I guess.  Or a tank-less water heater.

It’s basically all coming down to “what am I allowed to do, and what will the start-up costs be?”  I’ll continue to work it out in my head and then start putting things on paper before deciding if and when I can actually take the plunge.  It’s always in the back of my mind.

Today’s featured image, by the way, is – I think – one that I took during a weekend in Waukegan a few years ago.  Amy and I spent a good part of an afternoon at a little coffee shop and took a shot of the wall.  Or maybe it’s a stock photo, but I don’t think so.  I can’t imagine why I would save it if it is.  Nah.  Pretty sure that I took it.

Since mentioning a few weeks ago that I intended to start walking in the mornings again, I have yet to actually do so.  I’m usually dog-tired in the mornings.  I guess that getting out of bed and walking for 45 minutes or so would help with that, but I just don’t have the energy or the desire to bundle up and go out into the (relative) cold.  Maybe next week.

Well, I must do something productive before getting ready for the gig.  Still working on the football site, and I have to figure out why the images from my migration blog aren’t showing up in my media library on this one.

Need to start taking back my guestroom, too.  It’s still full of boxes that got thrown into it when Mary moved in.  Really want to clean that room out and make it usable again. It’s a nice room.

 

Consolidation

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I think I mentioned a few days ago that GoDaddy had completely screwed up my website.  If I didn’t, well…they did.   And I, being the go-getter that I am, decided, basically, “To hell with them.”

To that end, I signed up with a new host, and you’re seeing the first tentative steps that I’m taking towards getting everything off of GoDaddy.  My new hosts have – wait for it – actual daily backup service.  They have integrated WordPress service.  They allow subdomains (and if you’re here, you’re on one of them).  And they seem to have pretty fast servers.  So I’m moving everything here.  My blogs.  My forums. My sandboxes.  Not only that, but I’m pulling in all of my OLD blogs, too.  How cool is that?  Remember the original “Stuff Nobody Reads”?  It’s here.  So’s “Frowzy Noise.”  And the ever-popular “Lives of Our Days.”  With the exception of a few very short startup attempts, everything I’ve ever written in blog format is now under this virtual roof.

I’m sure the historians will thank me, although I still have to bring over some photos that are still on the migration site.  If you peruse posts, you’ll see a lot without photos, even though I may reference photos in them.

Today’s featured photo, by the way, is an old picture that I found of Chamberlain.

I’m also moving the football forums here, though that’s going to take quite a bit more effort than this did.  I had them set up, briefly, but realized too late that I’d made a few stupid mistakes, so blew away what was there and I’m starting over.

Oh – I accepted that job today.  The Level 1 Lead for the X-Company.  It’s not a huge step up, but it’ll be an extra $4K a year.  That will be helpful for retirement.

 

Hockey night in Duluth

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Today’s featured image is – what a surprise! – my cats.  It’s not often that I can get all three of them in a photo together.

February has arrived.  As far as I’m concerned, that just means that the year is about 1/12th over, and I’m good with that.  Work has been a disaster since late December and the closer we get to the end of tax season, the happier I’ll be.  I’m actually updating this on this lovely Saturday morning while I’m also working at home.  I’ve got a huge client in Chattanooga & Memphis (surely you remember the story about setting THEM up) which has been having nothing but trouble since things started ramping up for the season several weeks ago.  As usual, someone made a major chance to their environment a few days ago.  Didn’t document it.  Apparently didn’t test it.  The result being that, since Thursday morning, a high percentage of the users at this particular client can’t get any work done.  So they’re losing tens of thousands of dollars daily, they’re yelling at me, and I’m saying, “Not much I can do to help you.”

Oddly enough, in the middle of all of this, I was indeed approached about taking a level 1 lead role, which will put me into more of an administrative/teaching capacity.  I interviewed for it – seemed to go okay.  Waiting for an offer letter to see what kind of salary bump we’re talking.  If nothing else, it will take me out of the first line of fire from clients like the one I mentioned – but it will also put me into the middle of problems with a lot more firms, as the L1s on my team will start sending their problem children to me.  I figure, “What the hell?”  If I don’t like it…well…I don’t like what I’m doing now, but I’ll be making more.

GoDaddy has once again managed to destroy a few years of my life.  They did something to my website early last week – said they were moving my source files and it would only take a day or two.  Most importantly, they swore that they weren’t moving the database.  After several days of not having database access, I called and asked them what the deal was.  They said they’d take care of it.  Yesterday, connectivity to the database was restored – only the database in question was missing about a year’s worth of data.  This includes not only messageboard posts, but also statistics, custom code, forum modifications, vital links….the site is pretty much dead in the water.  I put up a message last night to tell my users what’s going on and today I’ve been contemplating what to do next. Starting over is the logical step, as it would take – literally – a year or more to get things back to where they were last week.  I still have two years left on my contract with GoDaddy, but I’m honestly not thrilled about the chance of this happening again, so I’m looking at alternatives.

Should you be wondering, THIS site is also hosted on GoDaddy.  Don’t be suprised if it just disappears one day.  I’m trying to keep local backups of the database with this, at least.  Doing so with the football site was nearly impossible due to its size.

Jenny and I are slated to take in a minor league hockey game tonight.  Truth be told, I’d really rather sleep; but it should be fun.