Tag Archives: leisure

Starting the Second Act

Posted on by

Today’s featured image is of me sitting on the grave of Corinne Elliott Lawton (born September 21, 1846, died January 24, 1877) in Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery.  According to legend, Miss Lawton’s expression changes depending on what she thinks about her visitors.  I did not know this when I took my seat and tried to mirror her, but now that I do, I assume that she’s smiling.  Right?

If you like cemeteries, you really owe it to yourself to visit Bonaventure.  It’s an amazing place with lots of famous dead people, fantastic statuary, and long avenues of old man’s beard-draped live oaks.  There’s also generally a really nice breeze coming in off of the Wilmington River.  Great place to spend an afternoon.

So I spent a fairly quiet Christmas at home yesterday.  Did some laundry, hung out with the cats, took a couple of naps, paid some bills, and contemplated the fact that my final paycheck from AT&T will be deposited in less than two weeks.  For all intents and purposes, my final day at work was last Friday, though I’ll go in today or tomorrow to finish clearing out my desk, wipe my laptop’s hard drive, turn in my company phone and ID badges, and continue to wonder just what the hell has happened.

I had an interview with a company called The X Company last Thursday, which is somewhat heartening.  At least I got past the initial phone call and actually got to go somewhere and sit in front of two hiring managers.  That led to a background check by their boss (in Bozeman, MT).  Assuming no murders are found, maybe I’ll get an offer.  If so, I’ll be starting at the bottom again, handling support requests from CPA firms who use The X Company’s cloud services.  It’s a small company (just over 100 employees), which is nice.  Not sure how interesting it’d be, but a foot in the door is all I’m looking for at this point.

I also had a phone interview with Americold, a company that provides refrigeration services from farm to market.  110 years old.  I’d never heard of them.  That job, should I get it, would require a bit of travel (domestic) and would feature working in “environments as cold as -20.”  I told the phone interviewer that I grew up in Vermont, so that second bit wouldn’t be too much of a problem.  The call was on Thursday and I had a pretty good reference as a lead, so maybe something will come of it.

Another lead came from a bar friend of mine who works for Ricoh.  After I told him that I didn’t see any jobs that I could do listed on the Ricoh website, he went to his boss and asked.  Boss said, “Get me his resume.  Sounds like we could use him for something.”  So I sent my resume to my buddy on Thursday afternoon and we’ll see if it goes anywhere from there.

And, finally, I got an email introduction from one of my tubist friends to a guy who owns a number of IT-related businesses.  Introduced myself and told him I’d get him a resume after the first of the year.  Not hugely hopeful about that, but who knows?

Regardless of all of that, unless I get a miraculous job offer from AT&T today or tomorrow, it’s time to start over at something new.  I never envisioned myself looking for a job at 51 and I’m not entirely sure what type of job I actually WANT, considering that it’s probably going to be my last one.  Don’t see any reason to throw in the towel on my computer experience – it’s the one thing that I know I can do – but I’ve let my mind wander about other possibilities.  Teaching beginning music – to adults or little kids – is something that I’ve thought about quite a bit.  Have also considered freelance programming and/or web design (a friend of mine in Canada does the latter – basically just tweaking WordPress themes for people and sometimes updating content).  And I’ve talked with a couple of people about helping the online side of their small businesses.

Then again, maybe I should just get a license to sell insurance or houses or something….though I’m not a salesman in any sense of the word.  Ideas?  Email them to me.

So the weather in Duluth has been nuts lately.  Today is supposed to be rainy and in the 60s.  Yesterday hit 70.  Last week it was clear and in the 20s.  It’s an adventure deciding what to wear for my morning walks every day.  Will I need long-johns or just sweat pants?  Sweatshirt or light jacket (or, this morning, just a tee)?  Wool socks? No socks?  I make more decisions before 6AM than most people do all day….

Anyway, the house and car are paid for through another month, I’ve got one check coming, and hopefully a big one due in February.  Combined with my renewed Costco card (which got two workouts last week….I’ve got enough food to last a year, I think), I just might make it for a little while.  Long enough to figure out the second act, hopefully.   Here’s hoping 2017 has something good in store.

A Superior Week – Part I

Posted on by

So I’ve been back from my fall vacation to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for nearly a week, and I guess I could share parts of my experience with the madding crowds hitting this here blog.  I’ve decided to do so by simply transcribing the notes that I took while there, and those will follow in this post and the next one.

To set the stage, I should mention that I took a short week to go camping at Hurricane River campground on the southern shore of Lake Superior.  If you look at the little map up there, Hurricane River campground is represented by the two little tent icons a third of the way across the map – oddly enough, on the Hurricane River.

The dot at the point of land to the right of Hurricane River is the Au Sable Light Station.  That small point is virtually the only area on the entire map where one can pick up a cell signal.

Moving west from Hurricane, you can see the icons for the Benchmark campsites (back country), Twelvemile Beach campsites (cars), and Sevenmile group and single campsites (back country).

To the east of the Au Sable Light Station are a number of back country campsites, the Grand Sable Dunes (labeled) and the little town of Grand Marais.  The distance from the Sevenmile sites to Grand Marais, were one to walk along the North Country Trail, is right around 17 miles.  Over the course of the week, I did indeed hike every inch of that distance.  And loved it…although one of my ankles is still bothering me.

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the field notes.

10/3/16@19:10 – I’m sitting at my picnic table in a leather bomber jacket, listening to Lake Superior crash on the shore while my fire crackles happily.  It is so nice finally to be somewhat chilly.

Today was mostly a driving day.  I left my hotel room in Lima, OH, after sleeping until nearly 07:00, which was nice in and of itself.  The drive to Grand Marais was uneventful for the most part.  It did get rather interesting in the last 10 miles, when my GPS discovered what it presumed to be the quickest route fro me.  Last year, I took only paved roads.  This year, however, the Garmin took me about 8 miles down what amounted to a logging trail – and not a very good one.  I admit that I considered turning around a few times, but the Subaru was a trooper.  The Audi wouldn’t have made it.

[Note: I opted to take a longer route on the return trip.  Did not want to try the Rhoddie Truck Road again after a night of rain!]

 

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

 I arrived at my campsite at around 16:30 and got things set up before taking the 2-mile walk to the Au Sable Light Station to check my email and to let Jenny know that I’m still alive.  Had a voice mail from my boss, so I called him and was informed of a mandatory meeting at 10:00 tomorrow.  Oh goodie.  I wonder if either a}Digital Life has been sold or b}I need to start looking for a new job…

10/4/16@08:15 – Not to be a global warming alarmist, but it is decidedly warmer here than it was during the same week a year ago.  If I had to guess, the temp is in the low 60s this morning.  I’ve put on my leather jacket now, but have been sitting here in just shorts and a t-shirt for the last 45 minutes.  Last year, it was more like 45.

Made some coffee this morning, but probably won’t have anything else before I start the hike to the lighthouse for the 10:00 call.

Charging with boiling water!

Charging with boiling water!

While making the coffee, I did my first real test of the “charging pot” that I bought a few years ago.  It has a wire attached to it that clips to other wires and eventually goes into my phone (or iPod or exercise band or whatever).  Through some sort of magic, it is supposed to be able to charge small electronics by using the heat generated in coils built into the bottom of the pot.  I was delighted to find that it works beautifully on my Coleman stove, and am determined to try it on my alcohol stove the next time I go ultra-light.  What a great thing it would be to have a renewable source of recharging on those trips, rather than having to carry relatively heavy charging blocks.

I also brought a solar-and-crank-powered radio with me on this trip, but haven’t tried it yet (though I did let it charge via sunlight on the first driving day, and it seemed to take a charge really well).

Woke up twice during the night.  Once at around 03:00 to pee, and again a bit after 05:00 because my blankets had become dislodged and I was cold.  The first time, my fire was still burning, but it had died by the 05:00 awakening; and it was so unbelievably dark that I seriously wondered if I’d gone blind.  After trying (with no success) to see my hand in front of my face, I pressed the “light up” button on my wristband and reassured myself that my eyes still function.  Had an interesting time falling back to sleep, entertaining myself by imagining what I’d do if I’d actually lost my sight and had to hike to the lighthouse in order to call for help.  Or, for that matter, how’d I’d be able to dial 911 (assuming I got there) on one of these newfangled phones with no tactile buttons.  I guess “OK, Google – call 911” might work.  I’ve never considered it before.

10/4/16@13:20 – As I suspected, the meeting this morning was called so that my boss could pass on information regarding upcoming firings at AT&T (“surplussing” is what they like to call it these days).  Apparently, the company has decided that too many people with my job title exist, and they’ll let us know later this month who will get to stay, who’ll get shuffled to new AT&T jobs, and who needs to watch their ass as the door slams shut behind them.   Having gone through this so many times previously, I’m almost too tired of it to be worried – although I’ll admit that it adds a bit of stress to life as I try to determine how I’ll take care of the cats if I end up looking for a new job in a few months.  But I’m on vacation, dammit.  I’ll try not to think about things like that for a few more days.

Made some hot dogs and mac & cheese for lunch and finished listening to “Mozart In the Jungle” this afternoon.  It’s a book by oboist-turned-author Blair Tindall.  A fascinating tale about a woman who hung her hat on being an orchestral musician while the world of orchestral music spun out of control financially.  At 40, she gave up on her dream, went back to school, and became a journalist.  Well worth a read (or a listen).

This afternoon, I think I’ll go for a long walk.  The breeze is lovely, temp is in the 70s, and rain isn’t due to arrive until late tonight.

10/5/16@09:00 – Didn’t sleep particularly well last night.  Not entirely sure why, as I re inflated my air mattress, had plenty of blankets, and got a lot of exercise yesterday.  I think that it might’ve been too quiet, although at one point I got my radio out (works great!) and listened to a bit of the VP debate.  There was no wind, however, so I couldn’t hear the trees or the surf.  I need that stuff to sleep when I’m here!

It is much cooler this morning.  I’m still in shorts and a sweatshirt, but the breeze has come back and the temp is probably in the 50s.  Weather forecasts, however, have been saying that it will remain unseasonably warm – nearing or surpassing the 80-degree mark.  Not at all what I was hoping for.

Flies were terrible this year.

Flies were terrible this year.

The heat – what else can one call 70s and 80s in the U.P. in October? – has had one extremely negative effect: flies.  Flies have been incredibly annoying over the last two days, and I’m sitting here now stamping my legs under the table in a way that reminds me of Vermont Holsteins in the summer.  During my walk yesterday – from Hurricane River to Grand Sable Dunes – I must’ve killed 1000 of them on my shirt.  It used to be an orange one….now it’s orange with multiple little blood spots all over it.  U.P. Tie-Dye, I guess.

Made some coffee and sausage links for breakfast today and took the opportunity to charge my charger while doing so.  Everything seemed to work pretty well in that area, and I’m back up to 75% power on the charger.

Not sure what today will hold, but if it gets to be as hot as predicted, I might just jump into the lake for a minute.  My hair could certainly use it!

10/5/16@19:03 – I took a very long walk today – long enough to drain the battery on my Microsoft Band, so I’m not sure how much distance it’s going to give me credit for.  I know, however, that I went about 18 miles.  Left my campsite at Hurricane River at around 09:30 and walked on the NC trail westward until I got to the Sevenmile back-country campsite, which is just about 6.3 miles.  I then turned around and came back east, passing my site and continuing to the Au Sable back-country sites, which are about 3 miles east.  Stopped at the lighthouse on the way back in order to upload the information from my Band.  As I mentioned the Band was dead by the time I got there, so I just checked my email and walked back to the tent, where I started charging the band.

My feet, by the way, are killing me.  However, I got a really nice (and really COLD) dip in the lake about 5 miles west of here.  I kept passing side trails leading to gorgeous (and completely empty) beaches; so finally I took one of them, stripped down to my jockeys, and got wet.  Spent probably 15 minutes there before getting dressed and continuing on my trek.  Yeah – getting the sand off of my feet was a major pain in the ass, but I dried off pretty quickly, so wasn’t cold.  In the water, though…wow!  “Bracing” seems like a good word for it.  Each dunk felt kind of like my torso was going to break.  But damn, it felt good.

This was MY beach. Gorgeous, cold, and empty.

This was MY beach. Gorgeous, cold, and empty.

As I said, my feet were on fire when I got back to my tent…and I was also sweating like a pig….and I was also out of beer.  The last problem needed to be addressed, so I unhooked the tent from the car and drove to Grand Marais, which is a tiny town about 13 miles away.  It basically survives by catering to North Country Trail hikers and hunters, although it was a booming lumber town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Got some beer and some relish, figuring on grilling some hot dogs over the fire tonight, and came back to my site.  Got the fire lite….and then the skies opened up.  I spent 10 frantic minutes arranging tarps and tent flaps and getting everything into the tent, with a minimum of things getting soaked.

And that’s where things stand now.  The fire is burning merrily in the rain and I’m waiting it out from the confines of the tent, wondering if maybe I should just boil the hot dogs.   At least I’ve got beer.

To be continued……

Computer Fights

Posted on by

Took a long walk this morning and managed to get home shortly before it started raining, which was nice.  After having a cup of coffee, I decided that I should probably put a new post in this here blog, so I plugged my SurfaceBook into the new port replicator that I got for it last week (told you I was making my office back into an office), and – on the spur of the moment – decided to hook the speakers that were initially attached to my television into the port replicator.

That worked well, so I had to immediately fire up a game of Battleground and fight Russians for an hour or so.  The fine folks who were with me in Canada this summer got to watch me waste several hours fighting the Germans in WWII (all of whom I eventually defeated), and I’d previously crushed all Japanese resistance (again in WWII).  So now I’ve moved on to the Russians.  I’ve got some Vietnamese people itching for a fight, too, but thus far I’ve been unable to get the game to load as a single-player thing, and I have no interest in forming a team with online people, so it’s the Russians for now.

I’m winning.  Slowly.

At any rate, after shooting at the commies, I turned my attention back to the blog.  Logged in, and was informed that an update was available.  So I backed up my stuff and ran the update.

You catch that, you computer neophytes out there?  I “backed up my stuff” BEFORE running the update.  This is why I’m a paid professional.  Because I’m paid to know that updates that I didn’t write personally never work.  Naturally, the update failed halfway through and left this site in a completely unusable state.

So I got to do some computer fighting of a different sort.  I will eventually win, but you may notice that a number of graphics and photos are missing as of the date of this post.  That’s because, while I did back everything up, I still have to restore it all.  At this point, I’ve got the database restored. That’s where all the interesting stuff is anyway.  The pictures and a few settings will have to be restored later.  After I get the file and folder permissions set up correctly.

So…what else is going on….hmmmm…

OH!  Furman lost again yesterday.  We’re now 0-3 for the season and – as two of the three were against Southern Conference competition, we have virtually no chance to win the conference and/or make the playoffs.  Again.  In defense of the purple guys, the first part of this season is a monster.  At #12 (FBS) Michigan State.  At #15 The Citadel.  Home against #4 Tennessee-Chattanooga.  And next week will be at FBS-transitioning Coastal Carolina (which would probably be ranked #2 FCS if they weren’t transitioning).  So we’ll be 0-4 after next week.  I don’t remember the last time that happened.  And I’m not going to look it up.

Also yesterday, I got a good deal of cleaning done in my garage, which is something that’s been on my schedule for several months.  I still haven’t got it cleared out as much as I’d like, but I can once again park my car in the middle of it, which gives me room to set up my workbench and play with power tools if the mood strikes.  So that’s nice.

The weather in Duluth has been hot lately.  By “lately,” I mean, “for the last 6 months,” and by “hot,” I mean, “unbearable.”  It’s been a basket of unbearable, I swear.  Temps nearing (or exceeding) 100 several times.  Usually passing 90 by noon.  At least the mornings have been somewhat okay – high 70s when I take my 5:30 AM walks – but it’s in the 80s by the time I get to work at 8:00.  This can’t last forever, right?

Time to go back to killing Russians.

Is Fall on the Way?

Posted on by

It’s 7 o’clock on Saturday morning and I’ve just returned from a walk (a couple of miles, I think).  This is not an unusual event – I take a walk almost every morning – but, for the second day in a row, it was not a horrible experience for me, temperature-wise.  Yesterday morning and this morning were both the beneficiaries of, I assume, the storm that’s currently wafting around the southland (Hermine?).  Light breeze, temperature in the low 70s.  Really nice.  I should mention that I also have the window to my deck open in front of me, so I’m still benefitting from the breeze, and the cats seem to be loving it.

Strike that.  I just had to close the window because one of the feral cats just came up on the deck and started messing with Chamberlain’s head.

So it’s a long Labor Day weekend, made longer by the fact that I took Thursday and yesterday off several months ago with the intent at the time of driving up to East Lansing, MI, to shoot the Furman/Michigan State game, which occurred last night.  For various reasons – expense of renting equipment, a dearth of desire to drive for 24 hours in a 72-hour span, and Jenny’s vacation to Peru – I didn’t go.  I did watch the game on the Big10 network, however.  The Furman guys acquitted themselves well, holding one of last year’s FBS semi-finalists to 28 points and getting 13 of their own marks on the scoreboard.  The official point spread was set at 42.5, which was patently ridiculous for a number of reasons. Were I a betting man, I would’ve put the house on Furman and the points.  Be that as it may, for a team that went 4-7 a year ago to lose by only 15 to the team that won the Big 10 during the same period ain’t bad at all.  Perhaps – just perhaps – there is reason to hope for good things in Greenville this year.

As I said, Jenny’s in Peru – at least I think it’s Peru – and I’ve been tasked with taking care of her cats and, at some point, going out to dinner with Herb, who’s been feeling all of his 83 years recently, what with having to deal with Andi in assisted living (still recovering from her leg surgery), deciding what he’s going to do with himself and their house, and (I would assume) still working 40 hours a week.   I also need to bring him some packages that Jenny had sent to my house and, if I can figure out how, to borrow (read: take forever) his extension ladder.

I need the latter (the ladder – get it?) because I noticed during the day of the great tree massacre that I have a tree growing in one of my gutters.  Wish I could say that I’m joking about that, but I’m not.  There’s literally a small pine growing in the gutter over the back door, and I don’t have a ladder tall enough to get up there and clean the gutters – and I’m not getting on the roof.  Don’t remember exactly when I became deathly afraid of heights, but I did.  And I am.  And me no go on roof.   I took out my pole saw a few days ago and tried the classic “knock that sucker down” approach to the gutter-tree, but all I managed to do was knock some dirt on myself.  So an extension ladder is the next step.

If I can’t do that, well…me go on roof.  I’ve had a full life.  It’s been nice knowing you.  Somebody take care of my cats – and get my clock fixed.  Sorry, Dad.  Quincy’s clock needs to go to the shop again.  4 times in 150+ years….I guess that’s not bad.

So the picture up there is what my back yard looked like on the day after the tree guys left.  It’s a panorama, which explains things like the shape of the yard and the fact that the bird-feeder pole looks funny, but the things to notice are the large stump near the fence on the left, the fact that my shed is actually visible, and the lack of privet on the right.  The south forty, behind the white fence, will be the next area to get mauled by my tree peeps.  That’ll cost me another $2,300, but all except one of the trees back there (a large Oak) will be gone.  Once that’s done, I’ll have the fence back there replaced (it’s in bad shape), and will then decide what to do with it.  Either a garden (doubtful) or some new grass.  For the last couple of years, I’ve basically abandoned that area because nothing except trees will grow there.  I’d love to be able to get it sodded and maybe put in a swing, for which the frame is already there.

I can hear you all thinking, “Man.  That yard looks like shit.  He spent how much on that?”   And, for now, you’re all right.  It does look crappy.  Largely because of the tree, which is now gone, and the limbs on the Beech tree in the center, also gone.  Nothing could grow there.  Now, hopefully, grass can.  If that photo doesn’t open (I don’t think it does), you can get a better view from the one below.

After the trees came down

After the trees came down

Today, I think, I might start to reclaim Scott’s old room (which also served as a recovery ward for Chamberlain when he broke his leg) and turn it back into a home office – which is what I had nearly completed when Scott first moved in 6 years ago.  I’ll have one decent expense for that project: since I got the new laptop, I’ll need to get a new docking station for it.  Other than that, though, it should just be some sweat equity.

Might help me lose some weight.

Snuffles

Posted on by

Had a fairly boring weekend.  Mowed the lawn and did some shopping on Saturday before going to a watering hole to play some trivia (came within 18 points of a perfect score – good for #2 in North America); and did absolutely nothing on Sunday other than taking a long walk in the morning.  Spent most of the day watching the new implementation of Roots and doing laundry.

Also took a walk on Saturday morning.  Both walks featured tiny bits of rain which did not mitigate the ungodly heat and humidity.  You’d think that it’d be comfortable at 5:30 in the morning.  Not at all.  This is going to be a long, hot, summer.

I’ve been sneezing my head off for the past several weeks and it’s really getting annoying.  Picked up some Claritin and Flonase last week to see if either of those will help.  Just started a regimen of the latter yesterday.  I’m not sure exactly what I’m allergic to at this point.  Thought it was the cats, but I’m ruling that out for now.  Also thought it might be a new detergent that I started using about a month ago, but switching back to the old one hasn’t yielded any improvements.

The Puff’s company is pleased, anyway.  Can’t buy enough of the stuff.  Here’s hoping that a couple of weeks in Canada will clear things up at least temporarily.

In my spare time, I’ve been amusing myself for a couple of months by playing two computer games in a series called Medal of Honor.  Both are first-person shooters (in that the action involves a scene as it would be seen if you were in it, and you’re shooting at things) set in WWII.  The first one, Medal of Honor, Pacific Assault, puts the gamer in the marines at Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and a few other Pacific islands.   The second, MoH, Allied Assault, has the player landing at Normandy and fighting through the French and Belgian countryside.

Both are graphically excellent, and seem to be fairly historically accurate, too.  Both have inspired me to look up details of several of the battles that “I” have been involved in (Tarawa is fascinating.  I wouldn’t mind visiting).

I found it somewhat amusing that, when I watched Saving Private Ryan last Monday (Memorial Day), it became apparent that a number of the scenes depicted in MoH, Allied Assault were taken directly from the movie.  Not just close or similar, mind you.  Exactly.  From the scenery and “battle plan” for D-Day to the towns, weather, and sniper towers throughout the movie.

Anyway, they’re fun games that kill time and make me curious enough to look up WWII history, something that previously hasn’t interested me in the least.  I’m currently watching an HBO series, Pacific – you can probably figure out what it’s about.  Quite well done.