It's 1:30 on a wonderful Saturday afternoon, and I'm partially drowsing to a Sci Channel show "What the Ancients Knew", featuring the Greeks. They're talking about the tricks used by the architects of the Parthenon to make it "look" like it's perfect. I wonder if they used the same tricks in the replica in Nashville. Even if you've been to the original, the replica is well worth going to. The huge gilded statue of the goddess in the middle is worth the trip, even if you don't go through the art gallery that the building houses.
The physical therapy session I had yesterday was interesting. I'd ran out of the pain patch, so the therapist plopped a cortisone patch on, which had to be held in place with tape. Today I've not had but maybe one litttle twinge in my tendon, which is very promising. I'll be seeing him daily beginning Monday, so that he can work on it a little bit more before I leave for Atlanta Wednesday afternoon. I'm really hoping that this makes DragonCon more enjoyable, and pain free.
The concert Thursday evening was wonderful. We had excellent seats and really enjoyed the performance. The musicianship was amazing, and the harmonies were exactly what you expect from Allison and the band. We ate at a "gastro-pub" called South of Beale a few blocks from the Orpheum Theater where the show was. The food was good, the service almost intrusive, but pleasant until I remembered that I'd left the tickets at home. So, we run for the car (which I'd already paid $15 to park) and rush home to get them, then back downtown. We got back in plenty of time for the show, and Gayle got to rag me about always rushing around and forgetting something important.
The cats are always bewildered when Gayle comes home. It takes them a few hours to remember that she's someone who belongs here. The best thing for me is that if i want to sleep in, like I did this morning (I didn't get up til 10am!) they split their time between trying to make me get up and bugging her to do the same.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Comfort is relative
Gayle's coming in for her monthly break today. This trip is early, as her birthday was Sunday, and our anniversary is Sunday, and I got us tickets to the Allison Krauss and Union Station concert tomorrow at the Orpheum. This means that we actually have the chance to eat downtown, as I get off work at 4, and the concert isn't until 8. So, we have a much larger range of possibilities of dining choices as opposed to usual.
Gayle has gotten acclimated to a much warmer environment since she's been living with her folks than what we used to maintain. I've upped the thermostat to 78 during the day, and 74 in the evening, and she'll still put on a sweater when she's here. Now, when she's not here, I jack the temp up to 82 during the day, and 73 in the evening, figuring that the cats don't pay rent, so they get no say in the temperature control. This has ensured that my electric bill has only been over $200 bucks once this summer.
Late on the 14th my achilles tendon decided to misbehave. The last time this happened I had 6 weeks of hell in a cast. This time I limped around, and finally even bought a cane to help walk (which help a great deal...even if it did elicit rude comments about old men and staying off lawns at work). I got in to see our leading foot doc at the clinic this past Monday, and got a pain patch which works, as opposed to ibuprophen which doesn't, and scheduled for physical therapy, starting Friday. That, along with a night splint to sleep in, beats a cast any time. This sort of service is a wonderful benefit of working at the clinic, especially since it seem that the older I get, the more I tend to break.
Next week I make my first trip to DragonCon in Atlanta. My sister, who is a regular attendee, is the reason for this. It seems like every year, she takes someone who has zero interest in SciFi or Fantasy, and that definately doesn't like to participate in the activities that are the reasons for going to such things. Well, when the lady that was going with her had to cancel, and I got invited, I figured I owed it to her to go and see if I couldn't make this one a DragonCon that she doesn't have regrets over. I do draw the line at paying large green for autographs, but I'll wait in line with her if that's what pops her cork. Since she already knows I'm a cheapskate, this will come as no surprise.
Gayle has gotten acclimated to a much warmer environment since she's been living with her folks than what we used to maintain. I've upped the thermostat to 78 during the day, and 74 in the evening, and she'll still put on a sweater when she's here. Now, when she's not here, I jack the temp up to 82 during the day, and 73 in the evening, figuring that the cats don't pay rent, so they get no say in the temperature control. This has ensured that my electric bill has only been over $200 bucks once this summer.
Late on the 14th my achilles tendon decided to misbehave. The last time this happened I had 6 weeks of hell in a cast. This time I limped around, and finally even bought a cane to help walk (which help a great deal...even if it did elicit rude comments about old men and staying off lawns at work). I got in to see our leading foot doc at the clinic this past Monday, and got a pain patch which works, as opposed to ibuprophen which doesn't, and scheduled for physical therapy, starting Friday. That, along with a night splint to sleep in, beats a cast any time. This sort of service is a wonderful benefit of working at the clinic, especially since it seem that the older I get, the more I tend to break.
Next week I make my first trip to DragonCon in Atlanta. My sister, who is a regular attendee, is the reason for this. It seems like every year, she takes someone who has zero interest in SciFi or Fantasy, and that definately doesn't like to participate in the activities that are the reasons for going to such things. Well, when the lady that was going with her had to cancel, and I got invited, I figured I owed it to her to go and see if I couldn't make this one a DragonCon that she doesn't have regrets over. I do draw the line at paying large green for autographs, but I'll wait in line with her if that's what pops her cork. Since she already knows I'm a cheapskate, this will come as no surprise.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Editing is a pain in the butt
I got a IM from Gayle, telling me that I'd duplicated my last post. So, instead of actually looking at the posts, I just deleted one of them. Of course, I deleted the wrong one. Oh, well, such is life.
I got going early this moring, heading out to Walmart and Kroger for some things. Sundays are always my laundry day, and this is sheet and bedspread day, along with being dusting and vacuuming day. So far, I've only the bedspread left to wash, and I still need to run the vacuum. Then I'm going to sit on my butt and do nothing!
I got going early this moring, heading out to Walmart and Kroger for some things. Sundays are always my laundry day, and this is sheet and bedspread day, along with being dusting and vacuuming day. So far, I've only the bedspread left to wash, and I still need to run the vacuum. Then I'm going to sit on my butt and do nothing!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
It pays to practice
I decided that a trip to the shooting range was just the ticket this morning. 100 rounds of .45 acp, from 5 to 20 yards. The largest miss was 6" off my aim point at 20 yards, with most shots being in 3" groups. I shoot a Beretta PX4, and it's one of the easiest pistols to shoot that I've ever experienced. Recoil is next to nothing, and the sights are very easy to pick up, making multiple shots to the same point almost effortless.
Friday, August 12, 2011
TGIF
The end of one hell of a week, and I couldn't be happier. After that last post, I went into the office for what I thought was going to be an hour or two. Four + hours later, and I called it a day, planning to rest and get back to it on Sunday. After about 4 hours on Sunday, I had finally gotten all of my users home folders moved, the Citrix users back functioning the way they were supposed to be ( I got blind-sided by a few undocumented settings ) except for their autocorrects, which was finally working again around 9am Monday morning. I had to completely rebuild both of my vCenter servers, as the P2V failed, then (hmmm...think this might have something to do with the vm failing?) the physical server crashed. So, by then a rebuild was just easier than scratchin' my head for hours to find the error, and I rebuilt my 2nd vCenter server just 'cause I was on a roll.
The workweek was busy as hell, but nothing major...just a lot of small things, and users suffering from summertime stupidosis. For some reason this didn't really bother me as much as it usually does. I guess I'm finally getting accepting of the fact that a sizable percentage of my users will never learn anything more about how their computers work than "I click the same link on the screen, and then do the same thing that I always do." And the Gods help us all if ANYTHING is different, because they just can't comprehend that there's always multiple ways of getting to something on a computer.
Matter of fact, I had a harder time with coworkers than users this week, and that just 'cause I can get crabby at times.
The cats are both still breathing, which was a near thing a couple of times this week. Whenever you're wore out, and keep getting woken up by one or the other of these oblivious animals (oblivious to how close they are to sudden death, that is), it's hard to stay calm and understanding. Mikey howls, and Julian drive-by sneezes, seemingly in a coordinated attack. Maybe I've been watch too much Military Channel?
The workweek was busy as hell, but nothing major...just a lot of small things, and users suffering from summertime stupidosis. For some reason this didn't really bother me as much as it usually does. I guess I'm finally getting accepting of the fact that a sizable percentage of my users will never learn anything more about how their computers work than "I click the same link on the screen, and then do the same thing that I always do." And the Gods help us all if ANYTHING is different, because they just can't comprehend that there's always multiple ways of getting to something on a computer.
Matter of fact, I had a harder time with coworkers than users this week, and that just 'cause I can get crabby at times.
The cats are both still breathing, which was a near thing a couple of times this week. Whenever you're wore out, and keep getting woken up by one or the other of these oblivious animals (oblivious to how close they are to sudden death, that is), it's hard to stay calm and understanding. Mikey howls, and Julian drive-by sneezes, seemingly in a coordinated attack. Maybe I've been watch too much Military Channel?
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Saturday in the Park
Having typed that title, now I've got the Chicago song stuck in my head. Oh, well, I really liked early Chicago.
Gayle was here this week, which is always fun. She spent her entire time at home in the kitchen, canning pickles and taco meat. I managed to keep some of the pickles, but the taco meat all ended up in Arlington. Given my druthers, it'd have been the other way around. But, she'll be back in 3 weeks for the birthday/anniversary visit, and so hopefully she'll bring some back then.
The temperature in Memphis this week has been about what you expect and dread for August...actual highs over 100 (that's over 38 to fans of the metric system), with humidity to match. We finally got a good thunderstorm out of it yesterday, which brought the temps down into the upper 70's, but with near 100% humidity that wasn't really much of a relief.
Work was busy this week, with the beginning of the PACs migration having begun. Since this is my on-call week, I've got a nice stack of work to do later today, mainly converting a physical server to virtual, and changing the location of all of my users home directories. No sweat, right?
My sister has talked me into going to DragonCon with her in Atlanta this year. This is a scifi / fantasy convention that she goes to every year. It seems like every year she takes someone with her who'd rather be eating bark than having gone to the con, which usually makes it not as fun as it should be for Lynn. Well, I like scifi and fantasy, will put up with the lines (tho don't expect me to pony up cash for autographs...I'm of the opinion that the actors and such should be paying me for being such a fan!) and will do my damndest to make sure that she has the time of her life. After all, what are brothers for?
I'll obviously be giving the full rundown on the Con when I get back, and will even get Gayle to show me how to post pictures on the @#$#$#@ blog!
Gayle was here this week, which is always fun. She spent her entire time at home in the kitchen, canning pickles and taco meat. I managed to keep some of the pickles, but the taco meat all ended up in Arlington. Given my druthers, it'd have been the other way around. But, she'll be back in 3 weeks for the birthday/anniversary visit, and so hopefully she'll bring some back then.
The temperature in Memphis this week has been about what you expect and dread for August...actual highs over 100 (that's over 38 to fans of the metric system), with humidity to match. We finally got a good thunderstorm out of it yesterday, which brought the temps down into the upper 70's, but with near 100% humidity that wasn't really much of a relief.
Work was busy this week, with the beginning of the PACs migration having begun. Since this is my on-call week, I've got a nice stack of work to do later today, mainly converting a physical server to virtual, and changing the location of all of my users home directories. No sweat, right?
My sister has talked me into going to DragonCon with her in Atlanta this year. This is a scifi / fantasy convention that she goes to every year. It seems like every year she takes someone with her who'd rather be eating bark than having gone to the con, which usually makes it not as fun as it should be for Lynn. Well, I like scifi and fantasy, will put up with the lines (tho don't expect me to pony up cash for autographs...I'm of the opinion that the actors and such should be paying me for being such a fan!) and will do my damndest to make sure that she has the time of her life. After all, what are brothers for?
I'll obviously be giving the full rundown on the Con when I get back, and will even get Gayle to show me how to post pictures on the @#$#$#@ blog!
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