Happy New Year... Kind of....

Happy 2007, I just rang in the new year (Eastern time) about 45 minutes ago. Ain't gonna make it to New Year's Pacific time, however. Gotta be up and at it early in the morning, have a very long day ahead of me. It'll be nice to return home, but it will feel cold and lonely without Jacque there to greet me (see my last post). I did get to talk to her a couple times today, she's well, and doing what she needs to do there in Indianapolis.
Hey, the Chargers finished the regular season with the best record in the NFL! Home field advantage throughout the playoffs... at least as far as they make it. Hopefully, that's all the way to Miami, site of this year's Super Bowl. Wouldn't that be grand!
I'm outa here, gotta get to bed....... Happy New Year!

Da wife is gone for a while....

Yup, that's right, Jacqueline hopped on a plane for Indianapolis this morning. Why? She flew there to help out with a cousin who's very ill. I booked the flight for her, she'll be gone 10 days. Classic Jacqueline, it's one of many reasons I love that woman. She *always* thinks of others first. Anyhow, I'll be "bacheloring" it for the time, honing my rusty cooking skills and maybe even vacuuming the house (!). It will be a bit strange to come home to an empty house, day after day. With my non-existent "schedule", I often am around the house all day while she's working, or perhaps arrive home way earlier than she does. But, she eventually comes home! This will feel a bit different, that's for sure. I'll be talking to her daily, so it's not like there won't be communication. The ill cousin is in his final days, and Jacqueline's help will be appreciated, I'm sure. She's an "old pro" at this, unfortunately. Her first husband died in 1993, after a long fight with leukemia. But, as a result, she's well-qualified to be where she is right now. My heart goes out to her, this can't be an easy task. I imagine some of our conversations are going to be pretty emotional. I was able to talk briefly to Dik, her cousin, tonight. He sounds very weak and frail. I wish him Godspeed on his journey, and as little pain as is possible........

Kickin' it in Bear Valley

Well, the drive up to Bear Valley was relatively uneventful except for some seriously strong Santa Ana winds in L.A. Otherwise, just a long day, made a bit longer by a couple women (on two different occasions) who were inconsiderate and made everyone wait for them. Oh well, goes with the job...... Anyhow, I was able to get all the way here to Bear Valley without chaining up, a real bonus. After getting the people dropped and off to their condos (a 45 minute affair), I chained up there in the lot because I needed to move the bus and the immediate area there in Bear Valley was icy. One of the chains was incredibly tangled, making my long day just a wee bit longer, while I figured it out. No service today, tomorrow I drive 25 miles down the road just to dump the chemical toilet at a mobile home park. Gotta be done! I also have some service with my people tomorrow, as well. I'll probably be able to consolidate the two.
I figured it would be Internet access the old-fashioned way here again (dialup), as it has been in years past, but lo and behold, one of the condos nearby has an unsecured wifi! Not only that, he made it *real* easy for me to determine which way to point my directional antenna; the name of his network is "Condo88"! Haha, how good is that? Sooo, I have fast Internet access, and, as a bonus, my cellphone works here too (kind of). The signal's really weak, but, with the addition of the kewl aftermarket antenna I have for it, I can call out just fine. So, life is good. The only negative at this point is a pervasive smoke smell in the condo, upstairs (my room, fortunately, is downstairs). When we got in last night, the condo was full of thick, acrid smoke. Why? Some moron had put smouldering embers into the ash bucket, where they continued to smoulder and fill the condo with smoke. Brilliant! To add to the problem, the electricity was down, as often happens here, so there was no light, no heat, etc, and we had to open all the windows to air it out. Oh well, the electricity came on a short time later, and I spend as little time as possible upstairs.
The weather is cooperating, looks like it'll be a pleasant trip. I need to consider my routing home on the 1st, however; my normal route takes me thru Pasadena, and the Rose Bowl would be letting out about the time I'd be passing thru. NOT good!

Playtime's Over

Hello again, the majority of the past 2 weeks has been filled with family events and, of course, Christmas. Oh, and of course, "molding" my new PC to my liking. Also involved was the transfer of one of my previous desktops to my daughter and son-in-law. Being the holidays, I've had LOTS of time off, but that's about to end. Tomorrow I embark upon a 5-day trip to northern California, a ski trip. A major winter storm just swept through the area (it's hitting us now), and dumped up to 3' of new snow. Good news for the skiers, not so sure for me. The good news for me is that, as of now, the forecast for the entire time we'll be there is looking pretty good. Oh sure, I'm sure there'll be chains involved (there always is...), but as long as it's not really nasty weather, I'll take it. I'll have my laptop along for the ride, last year I was able to pick up a few wi-fi signals from our cabin. Maybe I'll post once or twice while there. Anyhow, it gets me out of going to Pasadena on the 1st, woo hoo! I'll be returning on the 1st, so that'll be a mega-big payday. Good, I need that, after the holidays!

WOO-HOO

Today's the day my new computer is supposed to arrive! Obviously, I'm pretty excited about that. Unlike all computers over the past decade+, I am not building this one. After reading an excellent article in PCWorld Magazine about under-$1000 PC's, and seeing that a small company just up the road in Irvine, CA, Micro Express Inc, had *by far* the best performance rating, I contacted them and we came to terms. Of course, there was "price creep", but it was all for items I felt were well-worth the additional cost. My thinking was, with all my obsolete hardware, I was going to have to buy a LOT of new components. After adding it all up, the costs were so close, I opted to let someone else do the "dirty work" for me. I save myself the hassles and inevitable snafus, and in return I get a warranty! Two years, at that! The system ought to be a scorcher, it's an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 2 GB 800 mhz memory, 512 MB ATI video card, and lots of other goodies. Oh boy, oh, boy!! Santa is coming early this year!