Tag Archives: Life

A Superior Week – Part II

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Well, it’s been 11 days since I put up the first half of my journal from a trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and I should probably go ahead and finish that story.  Before I get to it, however, I might as well catch everyone up on things that have happened in the last 11 days.

For starters, I’m now officially free of credit card debt, having paid off the last one earlier this morning.  Technically, I’ve still got an ongoing one, because I set up a few monthly utilities to be paid automatically by my Discover card, just to see what type of cash-back kicks I get.  If it works out, I’ll leave it that way.  If not, I’ll undo the auto-pay and call that one done, too.

In other news, I’ve been fighting a head cold for the last week, and it’s really getting on my nerves.  Particularly considering that I had a brass band performance yesterday, followed immediately by a wind orchestra rehearsal.  Thought my head was going to explode.

The performance went well, anyway.  And we sold a good number of our brand-new CD.  So there’s that.

On the home front, I switched from U-Verse television to DirecTV a couple weeks ago – mainly because my employee discount is so much steeper for DTV.  I was paying around $25 for U-Verse and I’m getting DTV for $10.  So that’s nice.  I’ve learned, however, that DTV is *worth* about $10/month.  What a piece of crap.  Leave it to ATT to push something that’s terrible while trying to get people off of the one really good product that they have.  Pathetic.  And now they want to buy Time Warner?  Seriously?  Ugh.

Enough of that.  It’s depressing me.  Lessee…what else has been going on in the last couple of weeks?  Oh!  I got a meatloaf from Publix the other day, and DAMN was it good!  I may have to do that more regularly.  Or, you know, learn how to make meatloaf.

But enough.  Moving on to the conclusion of my Superior Week:

10/6/16@11:20 – Hot dogs didn’t happen.  I made some freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff and a couple of cheese sandwiches in the tent and then crawled into bed at around 19:00.  Slept okay for the most part, although I lost my blankets at some point and woke up at around 02:00 due to the cold – and because I had to pee.

Ended up getting up for good at around 05:30, at which point I put on a sweatshirt and a headlamp and set off for the lighthouse in the dark in order to accomplish a number of tasks.  I needed to check my bank balance (today is pay day), shoot the sunrise, download some new podcasts, and book a hotel for Friday night.

Think about that for a second.  I checked my bank account and booked a hotel – in minutes – in, basically, the middle of nowhere.  It wasn’t long ago that, when taking a long trip, I drove until I got tired and then started looking for a hotel, hoping for a vacancy.  Cellphones really are kind of amazing, as intrusive as they are.

I had hoped that the cold last night would be enough to kill of the flies, but they seem to be worse this morning than they were yesterday!  Ugh!  If I do this again next year (assuming I still have a job), I may wait until November.  Stupid global warming.

[Note: The featured image at the top of this entry is one of several that I took of the sunrise that morning, using my phone’s camera.  I didn’t bring a DSLR with me on the trip and wanted to figure out if I could use the phone’s “pro” settings for low-light stuff.  I thought it worked okay.]

10/6/16@16:21 – So after getting back from the lighthouse this morning, I had a breakfast of freeze-dried Mac & Cheese (good stuff!) and then began pre-packing for the trip out tomorrow.  Put all the stuff that was in the tent into the car and then setup my mattress in the tent.  If all goes well, in the morning I can just deflate the mattress while in the tent, put it in the car, strike the tent in a few minutes, and hit the road.  Hopefully, it won’t rain tonight.  It’s been sunny all day and my stuff is dry.  I hate packing out wet stuff.

Going to start a fire in about 30 minutes and try the hot dogs again tonight.

Forgot to mention that I walked over to the Twelvemile campground and back this afternoon.  It’s a nice place, with several campsites very near the lake (almost said ocean!), guaranteed to have a non-stop breeze, though maybe a little sandy.  They look quite nice, though, and the wind would keep the flies away!

10/6/16@20:47– The hot dogs were excellent….but I forgot to use the relish!

10/7/16@18:47 – Lima, OH – And so I’m halfway home, staying the night at the same Carlson In that I stayed in on my way up to the lake.  Same room, in fact.  The ride down was largely uneventful, although I had about 100 stowaways in the car: the flies.

By driving with all of the windows down through most of the upper peninsula, I was able to lose most of them, but still had a few in the car when I hit the only traffic jam of the day – which happened less than 20 miles from this hotel.  Try as I might, I couldn’t get the last hangers-on to flee, so they’re still in the car tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.

Planning to have some noodles in the hotel room tonight and hit the road early tomorrow – after a shower that is going to feel amazing.  One cannot appreciate how awful one can smell until one goes a week without bathing.

And that, friends, Romans and countrymen, is the end of the journal regarding the trip.  I did indeed leave the hotel very early on Saturday the 8th and made it home by around 2 in the afternoon.  Spent some time emptying out the car, watched some football, and hit the sack.

Should you be wondering, there was one final fly left in my car when I went to work on the 10th.  It got out with me in the office parking lot.  So I’ve probably brought an invasive species to Georgia.

These things happen.

A Superior Week – Part I

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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……

Insidious and Insightful Insights Into the Debate

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So it’s Tuesday afternoon and I’ve nearly recovered from the last 5 days of activity, which included driving up to Greenville, SC, for a mini family reunion – during which Dad met his first great-grandchild – and driving over to Conway, SC, for a football game in which Furman was pummeled by 20 points largely because their special teams gave up 18.

Both events were enjoyable, of course.  I’m just not quite as young as I used to be, and that was a lot of driving in a pretty short period of time.  Basically, I got about half of the sleep that I needed between Friday and Monday (and, believe me, I was a mess yesterday).

So the big presidential debate was last night.  Here’s my take on it:

 

Moving on, let’s talk about my cat Chamberlain, who has had a pretty rough couple of years but has come through like a champ and, in the process, has turned into possibly the sweetest feline on earth.
chamberlainIt was just about a year ago today that I brought him to his vet because he’d been losing weight and had very little energy.  He was diagnosed with diabetes and had to start getting daily insulin shots.  A month prior to that visit, I’d taken him in to the vet because he was scratching incessantly and had bald spots all over his head.  That, it turned out, was because he had a flea allergy.  Just a few bites had turned his life into a nightmare – which was cured with some superb flea medicine and a steroid shot.

As it turned out – or at least appeared to turn out – it was the steroid that kick-started the diabetes; fortunately, he eventually recovered from both.  I’d weaned him off of the insulin by about March of this year and everything was going great.  He had lots of energy, enjoyed playing and racing around the house, and occasionally snuggled in my lap.

In April, he got startled during one of my lunch hours, jumped off of his cat tree, tore through my music room, lost control cornering on a hardwood floor, and was immediately unable to put any weight on his left leg.  Two hours later, we were back at the vet and I was looking at the x-ray confirming that he’d broken the ball off of his left femur.  Surgery to extract the broken femur head was scheduled for three days later.  A few days after that, he came home and we started a long rehab.

For a week or so, Chamberlain was confined to my guest bedroom – the mattresses removed from the bed and put on the floor so that he wouldn’t try to jump more than a few inches.  In the mornings, I’d carry him downstairs for breakfast and then carry him back up to his room while I took my walk.  In the evenings, I’d carry him down to lie in the kitchen for a while before bedtime.  At night, I slept on the mattresses on the floor so that he could have some company.

It’s now 5 months later and, unless you know what to look for, you’d never know that the little guy has absolutely nothing attaching his left leg to his skeleton.  He runs and jumps and plays and does all the things that a cat should do – but his personality has completely changed.  Cuddling in my lap is no longer an occasional thing – it’s something that he loves to do whenever I sit down.  He used to be somewhat of a loner, but now he wants to be wherever everyone else is.  He rarely tears around the house now – not because he can’t, but because he’s more inclined to look around and SEE what’s happening before reacting to it.

Can’t say that I blame him for that.

Anyway, he’s a sweetie.  And – hopefully – we’re done with the vet for a while.

I’m on vacation next week.  The plan as of now is to drive up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and spend a week on the southern shore of Lake Superior at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  I discovered this place last year and fell in love with it.  Looking forward to some fresh air, cool temperatures, steady breezes, and solitude.

 

Computer Fights

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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?

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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.

The end of an era…and one of those days

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So the last straw came for me around this time last week, when I opened the Kindle app on my phone, planning to read a bit during my lunch at Dairy Queen (healthy, I know).

I was unable to get to my library.

Being bored, I pulled up my email instead, and found a message from Amazon, announcing that they would no longer offer Kindle for Windows Phone, as of the day before.  This came during a week when Microsoft had announced updates to several of their apps for Android and iPhone – but not for Windows Phone, so I was already ticked off.  See, the thing is, Windows Phone is without question – at least to me – the most solid, attractive, easy-to-use, secure, and intuitive phone OS on the market.  And it integrates seamlessly with all of my other devices – my car, my computers, my cloud accounts, everything.

But I still can’t get basic apps for it, like Wemo for my Belkin devices (lights, thermostat, etc.) or Capital One banking or Kroger coupons…on and on and on.  In spite of the phone’s superiority, nobody will write software for it.

So I finally took the plunge and “upgraded” my phone to an Android.  I also got – briefly – a Samsung Gear S2 smart watch with the phone.  Took that back after two days, as it couldn’t hold a candle to my Microsoft Band 2, and I saw no reason to spend an extra $10/month for something that I’d almost never use.

So I’m on android now.  I don’t like it.  I really don’t.  It won’t do simple things, like read me my text messages in the car or notify me when I’ve got new emails.  But at least I can lower the temp in my house when I’m at work and I can keep track of my finances.  And, with enough messing around, I can connect to my Microsoft Office account and be able to view some essential work documents from anywhere (this, by the way, was much easier to do on my Windows Phone).

I continue to hope that, someday, Microsoft will allow any apps to run on top of its phone software – or that businesses will wake up and figure out that the $50K they spend on hiring a Windows developer will pay off when they pick up 5 million new customers.  Until then, though, I guess I’m stuck with using this phone that looks like it was designed by a kindergarten class on meth.

In other news, I’m having a very large tree taken down in my back yard this morning.  Additionally, the crew doing that is cutting down a bunch of privet (the bane of my existence since I bought the house), trimming a large beech tree in the yard, and leveling my deck (which has been slowly tilting over the last several years).  This is not cheap – $2,200 – but it should really open up my back yard, let some grass grow, and maybe encourage me to spend more time sprucing it up and hanging out on the deck.

I had planned to be at the office while all this was taking place, and was on my way there this morning (after going for coffee), when my high-temp idiot light started flashing at me.  Since it had done this very briefly on my way home from a band board meeting last night, I pulled a U-turn and headed to my mechanic, which was about two miles from where I was at the time.

By the time I arrived at the mechanic, every light on my dashboard – and I do mean EVERY light – was either flashing or burning non-stop.  Check Engine.  Hill Climber. Brake. Traction Control.  Heat. Headlamps.  Even the cruise control indicator was flashing at me.

I was, to put it mildly, a bit freaked.  Also a bit ticked off, because, you know, when every light is flashing at you, it’s not going to be a $5 repair.

It’s not.  Need a new radiator and a new thermostat.  For good measure, I also had a nail in one tire and I’m due for an oil change.  When all is said and done, the mechanic will be into me for just over a grand.

That’s on top of the $2,200 for the tree guys.

Happy friggin’ Wednesday.

On the plus side, I had to walk home (a bit over 2 miles) from the mechanic, and I’ll have to walk back this afternoon.  So, in addition to my regular morning walk, I should get 7 miles or so in exercise today.

And, hopefully, I’ll have a cleaned-up backyard.  As I sit on my couch writing this (I took a vacation day to deal with the car), I’m being serenaded by multiple chain saws.

 

What happened?

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The last week was kind of a blur.

Monday and Tuesday were okay, but I had to do an upgrade late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, and then I ran trivia Thursday night.  Between Wednesday morning and Friday night, therefore, I think I got about 6 hours of sleep.  And I’m not as young as I used to be.  Pretty sure I was in bed by 7:00 on Friday and I got another 5-hour nap yesterday afternoon.  Feeling a bit better today.

After literally three years of trying to get the television feeds at the call center fixed/upgraded, I managed to do so some day last week (I’m guessing that it was Thursday, but I honestly don’t remember).  The problem was that the account was setup around 5 years ago by someone who left the company 3 years ago, and nobody knew any of the account information – ergo, we couldn’t get anything done.  As it happened, I was searching through my intranet forums for something (I don’t remember what), and I stumbled across a post I’d made about three years ago with the subject line, “Avalon Ridge U-Verse Account Information.”  Imagine that.  I’d never thought to look in my own notes.

Long story short, I called support, gave the information, and by the next day all of our set-top boxes had been replaced, and we got two new wireless ones to put in the break room.

Maybe people will leave the floor televisions alone now that there are two that they can control.  I’m not hopeful, but that was the plan.

I think I’ve decided not to film the football team this year.  The decision is still somewhat up in the air, but realized that I’m starting to feel the wear and tear after doing it for the last 16 years.  The first game is at Michigan State, and I was kind of dreading quick up-and-back jaunt anyway, but I got swayed to just call it off since Jenny’s going to be out of town and Herb has his hands full with Andi.  It’s kind of a relief to have an excuse not to make the trip, and the more I think about the rest of the games, the less excited I am about getting up every Saturday and driving a minimum of 3 hours to stand in either blistering sun or a downpour.

Not to mention that I lost nearly two grand on equipment rentals last season because everybody and their mother has their own DSLR cameras now, so nobody’s buying my shots.  So yeah… I might just stay home and either watch the games on television (everything’s on ESPN3 these days) or not pay attention at all.

On the vacation front, I’m still planning to take a couple of days off on the week before Labor Day, and I’ve got the first week of October off (going back to Lake Superior), but I have 8.5 days yet to schedule and my boss is leaning on me to get them on the calendar.  I have no idea when I want to take them or what I’ll do.  I’m really kind of comfortable just hanging at the house and I hate taking vacation days to do that.  If I don’t use them, however, they’re lost forever.  So maybe Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks?  No idea.

If you’re reading this and have a suggestion, I’m all ears.

The picture for this entry is of the GBB at the Great American Brass Band Festival (Danville, KY) four or five years ago.  We were invited to play, and we got Brett Baker, trombone player from the world-famous Black Dyke Band, to hang out with us for a week and play some solos.  Great guy, and a good time.

More from the lake

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And so we’ve come to Wednesday.

It’s about 11:30 right now and a beautiful Ahmic day.  A bit nippy out of the sun (probably low 60s), but I’m sure that the docks are in the 70s.  I couldn’t make myself jump in the lake when I woke up 5 hours ago when it felt like about 55 degrees.  Pathetic, I know.  Jamie – who arrived yesterday afternoon – and Cy both said that the water temperature was perfect.  I opted for a hot shower instead, though I’m sure I’ll hit the lake within an hour – after which I’ll take a nap on my screened-in porch.

I made jambalaya for dinner last night, and thought that it was pretty good.  In addition to chorizo sausage and all the “regular” stuff (onion, peppers, garlic, etc.), I included bacon, ham, and scallops.  Made a lot of the stuff, which was good because Patrick and his wife (a Canadian couple who’s last name I cannot recall) showed up.  Got some nice compliments on the slop, and there’s enough left over for lunch today.  I always like the stuff better after it’s had a day to marinate in the fridge.

Had a bit of a scare – or at least an uneasy feeling – yesterday morning.  I got a text message from my neighbor asking if I’d left yet and saying, “The house looks occupied!”  I forwarded that to Jenny, who replied that she thought that she’d heard water running the last time she went to check on the cats.

After grilling the neighbor a bit, I learned that she was just referring to the lights going on and off (they’re on a fairly complex schedule), and Jenny and I decided that the running water was probably the refrigerator.  Heard from her last night that all is well, all doors are locked, etc.

A bit freaky.  Had me on the verge of heading home after only two days here!

I also drove down to Huntsville yesterday – mainly to get ingredients for the jambalaya, but also to look for souvenirs for a few friends in Atlanta.  Wasn’t able to find anything that wasn’t stupid, so I guess I’ll try Parry Sound this weekend.  We’d planned to go there on Friday, but realized that Friday, being Canada Day, won’t be good.  The whole town will be closed.

So what to do Friday?  I hear that there will be a Canada Day parade in downtown Magnetawan, which should be fun.  I’ve been here for at least one of those, and it was so much like a July 4th parade in Shoreham….

 

God’s Country

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After two years away, I’m finally back at the Mag.  Joined Dianne, Cy and “T” at around 3:30 yesterday afternoon after a fairly pleasant drive from Lima, OH, in which I’d spent Saturday night.

The drive from Atlanta to Ohio was uneventful – once I actually managed to get out of Atlanta.  Seems like the west-side traffic gets worse down there every day.  It took me close to an hour to make it from Duluth to Kennesaw.  After that, it was smooth all the way to Lima, and I arrived there at around 7:30 Saturday night.  Woke up early and hit the road by 7 :00 in order to get to Magnetawan before dinner.

After said dinner (dirty bird (a.k.a. bastard bbq)), the four of us played Oh Hell until 10:30. CY was the big winner, followed closely by “T”.  I, as usual, got my ass kicked.  Never have been good at cards.

We got a couple of brief showers on the lake last night – enough to hatch some mosquitoes – but the sun is out today, and it’s absolutely beautiful weather.  When I woke up this morning (at 5:30 – ugh), it was about 68 degrees in my cabin.  I’d estimate that it’s currently in the low 70’s, and there’s a perfect western breeze coming in off of the lake as I sit on the porch this morning.

No plans for today at the moment. I’m sure that napping will be involved, and maybe some tennis. There is also a decent chance that I’ll go into town, as I need both Vodka and a mosquito/deerfly net for my hat.  I took a walk this morning, and the flies were terrible.