My Second Century - My Voice From Afar

 

My Withdrawal

It's been, what? Six weeks since my computer crashed?

My new motherboard (*sigh*) finally arrived while we were away. Fortunately, the friend house-sitting intercepted the courier and signed for it. Otherwise, it may have been sent back to the company. Ugh.

Got home late on Friday and my friend won't be able to fix it (again) until Tuesday. So, I'll be taking it there first thing Tuesday morning.
The wait has been killing me. And, yes Dreama, that's why there hasn't been anything on eBay in a while.

That, and I had trouble getting into my account from the old computer. I put a few things up with another account. Sold one thing for almost 2 dollars (hold me back!) and have 2 more on right now just shy of $20 each. Much better. One was a 'find' during my cleanup of the basement before My Vacation. The other I knew would sell once I had it up there.

My parents have finally succumbed and allowed me to dig into their record collection that has been gathering dust for decades. They have 300+ LPs from the 50s and 60s gathering dust on shelves in their basement. There's Peter, Paul and Mary albums still sealed in plastic wrap. This could be fun.

My Latest Vacation

We left for the Okanagan on July 26th, although I'd told all my co-workers that we were gone as of July 19th. It worked that first week, but they must've assumed I'd be back by the 26th as there were 9 messages from work this past week. Nine messages at double-overtime works out to be.... 72 hours, or another 2 weeks off.

They're just not getting it.

In fact, we have a newbie working there for the summer and my boss told him the importance of contacting anyone BUT me during July. So, he called me to ask why. As tempting as it was --I let that one be a freebie.

I knew this was going to be a difficult vacation. The last time I went up it was a solo trip and this one was with 2 small kids and a wife who barely wants anything to do with me. Fun. We weren't even 50km into our 450+ km trip when the first 'are we there yet?' erupted from the back seat. With just over 150km to go in the drive up, my son started screaming because he was sick of sitting and his ears were popping. Couldn't get there fast enough at that point, so you know what's going to happen to me.

As we headed into town with the boy screaming, I looked at the 'Welcome to' sign and the population of 1,256 people. I live in a small town. We have 35,000 people. We live next to a large town with 110,000 people. I refuse to call it a city because it hasn't grown up properly yet. 1,256 people. 1 traffic signal. And a fucking traffic jam over 2km long.

In desperation, I turn down the closest side street to avoid this traffic jam (one light, I mean come on already!!) and wouldn't you know it, I found the dead end street. The boy is still screaming and I whip the car around and head out in the opposite direction. My daughter asks what I'm doing and my wife responds, "Daddy's trying to find as many 4-way stops as possible." Now's not the time I tell her, but she's gotta be correct. Just gotta. I hang a right at the next intersection and head back in the right direction and manage to pull a left on the one street I need.

Unfortunately, a pick-up truck overloaded with hay cuts me off and I'm now stuck behind a hay truck doing 45 in an 80 zone and it's a double-solid line. the boy is still screaming. There's hay flying off the back of the truck and I'm wondering how much hay it'll take for my allergies to kick in and my eyes to seal shut. The last thing I want to do is crash with my wife in the car. She'll be saying "I told you so" all the way up the stairway to Heaven. Screw it. I pass and accelerate to 110 in the 80 zone. The boy is still screaming.

We get to my parents' place and I take the boy (still screaming, but quieter now) out of the car. We walk toward the house and I look longingly at the pool. It's then that I realize my bathing suit is sitting at home.

Shit.

We spend the week up there and pretty much laze around the house. It's too hot to do much of anything, but I do visit with my police office friend. I get to go on a different ride along this time as he's on patrol in the boat. The town's population where he's stationed sees it's population quintuple over the summer and there's plenty of drunks out in boats. We're out on the water and he gets a call that some drunk dove off his boat --into 3 feet of water. We're off to retrieve the body. I'm playing CSI all of a sudden. and, yes, I can tell you how disgusting a human body looks after it's been floating in the water for 12 hours.

And that actually was the highlight of the week.

Oh wait, there's more. Wednesday was my birthday, but I'm acknowledging that I'm 31. 30 was difficult enough, but now I'm 30-plus-one and that's way too much to handle. What the hell happened to 23 and 24? I got a chocolate cake and barely convinced my wife that we should go see a movie. I suggested 6 movies before we finally agreed on Spider-Man 2.

The city of Vernon in the Okanagan is one of the worst cities in British Columbia. It's right in there behind Surrey and Abbotsford. I consider Abbotsford "Surrey, Jr." and Vernon has become to me the "Abbotsford of the Okanagan." Abbotsford sucks and Vernon doesn't like competition...

I've posted before about seeing movies in Abbotsford and how there's always a rather large contingent of losers in the theatre. When watching 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' a few people left because the movie was too quiet. You could barely hear them speaking Cantonese, fer cryin' out loud. Of course, the subtitles were still readable. Others complained that the movie was 'too fake.' Really? What gave it away? The people flying everywhere? During 'Spider-Man,' the lady sitting next to us gave a play-by-play of the punches thrown: "Oh, good one!" "Ew, yeah!" "Nice punch!" "Way to get him!" You get the picture.

So, we're sitting in the theatre in Vernon and although it was a little confusing getting to our seats (they had two small walls with a space in the middle which we eventually figured out to be wheelchair seating). We sat in the back row with the wheelchair space behind us. Why? No one can kick our seats.

About 15 minutes into the movie, I was conscious that someone was looking over my shoulder. There was a guy, at least 6'4" and 400 pounds standing behind us. I guess waiting for a time to sit down. Naturally, in our row. He doesn't fit into the seat, so the entire rows of seats heaves as he sits.

And then it begins.

This guy had throat problems that saw him hacking and coughing for the next 2 hours. The row of seats shook whenever he pounded his big meaty fist in the popcorn bag to grab another handful. and then he started shaking his drink to get the ice. No, no. He's not eating the ice. He sucks a couple cubes in his mouth, sloshes them around for a few minutes, then spits them back into the cup. PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! PTOO! Who knew ice cubes would last for over 45 minutes? At least he entertained everyone in the rows around him. No one had the guts to see when he'd be done. As it was, the movie finished before he did.

The drive home became a whole new nightmare. My daughter threw up her breakfast and morning snack just before lunch. there's no worse smell than vomit mixed with apple juice. I just about lost it myself. While I'm cleaning out the car and paying for the vacuuming, I'm griping about bashing my head on the door. My daughter asks what I'm upset about and my wife says, "you ruined his day."

Not true. My daughter didn't ruin the day. My soon-to-be ex-wife ruined the day. Again.

My Problem Solved

How many variations did we actually try to fix my computer? 20? 30?

Whatever. The problem looks like it's finally solved and I need a new motherboard. A techie at the company where I originally bought the computer emailed me to ask if my 'processors were burnt out. Now, before sending an email telling him that I was completely burnt out, I checked the processors on my motherboard (they look like batteries standing on end) and lo and behold --5 of them were completely thrashed. My super-genius friend then said over the phone, "I never would have thought to look at those. I've never seen that happen."

That's me. I make the impossible happen.

I've now ordered my new motherboard and I should be computer-savvy again within the week. I hope.

My New Nightmare

I shoulda just bought a new computer.  We're coming up on a month now since my hard-drive packed it in and I decided to go all-out on the new HD, monitor, printer, and DVD-burner.  This is the longest my computer's been running in 3 weeks.  And we're coming up on 9 minutes.
I've had a very, very (VERY) good friend trying to fix this nightmare machine and he originally surmised the video card had failed.  So, out to the store and $130 later I have a new video card.  I installed it, but all I got was 'no signal' from my monitor so out it came again until my friend can look it over.  The next thing to go was the RAM. 512MB gone in an instant, so back out to the store and $160 later, I have new memory.
and computer is running --sort of.
My friend installed WinXP and OfficeXP for me, then he let it run for the afternoon with no problems.  I installed Mozilla Firefox, Norton Antivirus, and Novell Groupwise email server (work email) and...
KABLOOEY!  The computer would restart whenever I double-clicked on anything.  So, I've uninstalled Firefox, uninstalled Novell and we're at 12 minutes without a restart.
Yay.
For those keeping score, this has cost me nearly $1200.00 now.
I shoulda just bought a new computer.

My Dread

So, today's the beginning of The Big Project, which I figured would totally burn me out just before my vacation which officially starts on Monday.

But lo and behold, while I was expecting to be putting in 30+ hours over the next 4 days, my participation level is more along the lines of 18 hours. I can handle that. It's more like my vacation beings today.

And that's exactly what my children have figured out. As if a 'sign' from the two, both have decided to turn into monsters just in time for me to be home for the next 3 weeks. My daughter (who talks constantly already) has brought the whining up a notch or two. My son, sadly, has discovered a new horrible trait just shy of his first birthday:
The hissy-fit.

He literally sprawls out on the floor and screams and kicks and pounds his fists and he's discovered it a year early. This is going to be a long 3 weeks.

My Ringtone

The Boy & I were discussing ringtones today.  We've both set ringtones for the work number, so we know when we're getting 'the call.'  But I had to laugh at his choice of ringtones.  He's got the 'Mission Impossible' theme ringing whenever the office calls.  Why?  To him, it means that he's got an impossible task ahead of him (talking to Drama Queen is definitely a task these days).  To me, it sounds like it's super-urgent that he pick up the phone before it self-destructs.  Then he asked me what my ringtone for work is....

"Turkey in the Straw."  Fitting, yes?

My Own Hero

I complained about traffic yesterday and I could literally write for hours about how bad drivers are in this town.  Then again, even thinking about it is enough to set me off and was a major reason why we moved out of here 6 years ago.

The highway I drive everyday to and from work is finally being widened after 25+ years of complaining and 'government planning' (oh, and 300 or so deaths... hello?).  It's an annoying highway in that it starts at one end with an ultra-modern bridge 4-lanes wide that then merges almost immediately after a traffic signal.  That means that half the drivers figure they can drive on the shoulder of the road in order to get ahead of you --even though you're being an asshole like everyone and are now doing 30+ km/h over the speed limit to stop the assholes from getting ahead of you.  Why?  Because we all do the same thing for the 10 km of one lane driving:  Do less than the speed limit.

But that's not even what I'm writing about.  Neither is this, but I'm getting there...

So, they're widening the roadway and it took them 6 months to pile dirt beside the highway in order to ensure whenever there was another accident, the vehicles had nowhere to go except into oncoming vehicles.  So, since the dirt's been piled there's only been an accident every other week.  

The dirt's lower, but that means paving is coming soon and with paving come delays.  So, people start to take side roads and lo and behold the city has decided it's the best time of year to clean out the ditches.  And the cable company has opted for this month to be the month they redo the cables along the side roads.  The telephone company opts to work on their lines... as does the hydro company.  Yep, every 20 feet there's another vehicle pulled to the side of the road making this conspiracy add 30-40 minutes to the already-bothersome commute.

So, I decided to start going further west to get to my job on the east side of town.  Good plan, yes?

Oh, great plan.  Yeah, give me 15 extra minutes because of lights and problems, right?  Wrong.  The 2nd light I get to, idiot boy with the mullet is carrying a camper on his truck.  Spins out leaving the intersection (very slippery roads as there was a quick storm blow through this morning and although he makes it through the intersection, the camper stays in
the middle of the intersection, blocking 1 northbound lane, 1 southbound lane and one westbound lane.  Way to go, loser.  I'm giving my statement to the police and mullet-boy is yelling at me saying he wasn't spinning "nothing".  Ugh.  I yell at him to shut up and get off the roadway.  I hand my business card to the officer and he chuckles.  He asks me if I yell a lot at work... Why yes, officer.  I do.

I leave the accident and head to work, now less than 40 minutes to go (I had planned on working out beforehand, but alas...).  I skip 2 blocks east in anticipation of getting around the mall just before the lunch crowds converge.  I'm sitting at the intersection when... a lady making a left in front of me runs over a pedestrian.

So, I'm out dialling 911 while using my first aid skills (oh yeah, I'm certified, baby!) on this 70-year old man who is going into shock.  I let the dispatcher know what's happening and where we are.  Meanwhile, the lady who was driving the car is yelling at me to let the man get up because "he's fine."  o I start yelling at her to sit in her car and wait for the police to arrive.  Fortunately, she does, but when the police officer (one from the previous accident no less) arrives, I'm yelling at her again because she's still insisting that this man is fine.  The ambulance arrives and they take over first aid on the poor guy and I'm still yelling at the woman.  I give my statement to the police officer (who called me by name when he was ready --kind of embarrassing in a way) and the only real questions he has for me are:
1 - Am I going straight to work?
2 - When am I off (so he hopefully doesn't have to deal with me later today)?

Fortunately, the rest of the drive is uneventful, but my 'detour' to save time took me an extra 95 minutes today.

I hate this town.

My F#^!-Up

Note to self: Next time you start installing software on the new hard-drive on the computer, don't install the ethernet card until you have the f$%%#$%#ing FIREWALL running!

Dammit.  My friend's fixing it as we speak.  New hard-drive lasted almost 5 minutes before it got hit with a bad virus.

My Ultimate Nightmare

Well, okay, I'll start with a 'positive...'

Went to visit some friends of ours this weekend to: a - see their new place (they sold their home for something like $320K and bought a new place further away for $170K --nice profit, eh?).  their place is beautiful and has a spectacular view of the valley. Tempting just because of the view.  Making it even more tempting was realizing we could still hear ourselves talk even with the kids going wild.  Why?  No traffic.  None.  I think 2 cars went by the entire time we were there --about 6 hours.  Beautiful.  At my house, 2 cars go by every second --and they're getting louder every year.  So much so that our dining room light now tinkles and vibrates when they drive by.  And we're over 30 feet back from the roadway.  Our street is so busy and it started when they widened a parallel street just west of our place a few years back.  They widened that one to 4-lanes because of the new housing development going in with 1,000+ homes.  So, with a choice of a 4-lane roadway or a 2-lane road --take the 2-lane road, ya morons!  And, yes, it's a lot steeper than the 4-lane road too, so everyone has to 'gun it' to get up the hill.  Take the other road and it doesn't burn out your car as much and if someone is having trouble getting up
the hill, then you can legally pass them in the inside lane.  Our street, nuh-uh.  You can't pass at all --legally.  some idiot tried every day though and every once in a while there is a patrol car there to hand over the ticket.  

So, yeah it's busy.  And here' this beautiful house worth about $50K less than ours with a spectacular view and no traffic.  Very, very tempting.

And then Drama Queen drops her news today.  She and her fiancée have bought a place not 5 blocks from my house.  Know what 5 blocks means?  It means she's in my backyard.  It means she can drop by unexpectedly because she's "in the neighbourhood."  It means she'll call me at home for even more inane reasons.  It means...

It means I need to move.

Soon.  And far away.

My Bitz

My new computer parts should be arriving today.  Got an email confirmation late last night that everything had shipped.  The only thing I'm miffed about is that I had everything shipped out here because a friend of mine in an old department is a computer-wiz and said he'd install the hard-drive and DVD-burner for me.  So, the stuff arrives today and I said I'd bring my computer in tomorrow (didn't know the items had shipped until early this morning!!) , he replied saying he wouldn't be in the office again until next week. 

But I'm not here next week!!  GAH!

So, now I have to drive everything to his place (and he just moved another 35km further away) in order to finally have a real computer to use at home while I'm on vacation.  Yeah, I said home.  I'm telling everyone around the office that I'm out of town the day I leave, but I'm actually not going anywhere until the 26th or so.  My boss mentioned I should block the work number on my cell phone as he's getting antsy with my accumulation of overtime hours (on the first day of vacation a phone call equals 4 hours of work and from the second day of vacation on, it equals 8 hours).  And my last day off, I had 4 phone calls (16 hours for a day off!!).  So, I took 2 days off to get rid of some of my overtime and ended up adding another 2+ days...  Whatever.  I can't be without the computer for my entire holidays.  Come Hell or high water, I WILL have stuff on eBay before the end of the month!!

All other plans are pretty much moot right now.  Anything I want to work on is idling because it all revolves around the computer and the Celeron 300 just ain't cutting it.  I had it running for 24 hours and it lost over 3 hours on the clock.  Norton SystemWorks shows it's running at 99% with no programs open (it used to be at 30% if you moved the mouse across the screen), so it's losing memory somewhere.  Unless the firewall eats up a lot of memory, there's something wrong with it too.  Regardless, when newer computer's fixed, then I add in Norton Anti-Virus and do a major-major-major update followed by an installation of the firewall.  Then I can start moving goodies over from the old pig and start anew.

I feel like I'm dying right now...

My Saturn Night Fever

The Cassini images from Saturn's moon Titan are coming in loud and clear.  Well, loud anyway.

This, according to rocket scientists, is a fuzzy picture.  But it's caused by the atmosphere --not a cheap-ass camera, in case you didn't know the difference.

Also of interest is the big 'H' appearing on the moon's surface:

Apparently the result of tectonic origins, the moon is officially branded.  That means there are two working theories:
1 - Titan is officially saying 'Hi' but it hasn't had the time to tectonically form the 'i' yet.  Hence, the message may not be meant for us here on Earth.
2 - Titan is the property of someone named Harry and they've put their brand on the moon and it is officially copyrighted.

Who says I'm bored?

My Wedded Bliss

8 years ago July 6, I got married.  Feels more like 30 or so years ago, but then... I'm only 30 now.  Laughed at my horoscope today.  It said that life would be changing, starting now.

So I've sat back to wait for it to hit me.

Nothing yet.  Although I am on the verge of making a decision regarding school.  I'm debating whether or not to pack up and head to Waterloo and try and finish up everything I can in a semester or two on campus.  It's been 8 years since I've taken courses on a campus and everything since has been by distance.  And I'm not motivated anymore.  That, and it's difficult to study when there's a kid on either side of you screaming for something --anything.  In fact, my motivation was at it's highest 5 years ago when I visited Jude on campus.  Not to say that Jude had anything to do with it (yeah, like I'd give her credit -- ;o) ), but for the first time in years I was feeling motivated for school.  then I had a couple bad semesters in a row and there goes the motivation.  Add 2 kids to the mix and 3 job changes and school drifts further and further away.  And so, accordingly, do the job prospects --but that doesn't seem to be a big enough motivator, even though reminders are thrown in my face every few months for the past 4 years.

And now my major has been dumped at Waterloo for distance students.  Great.  I'm looking elsewhere too.  That's what I'm left with and so far I've narrowed it down to 2 American schools, which sucks in a new variety of ways.  What will transfer over?  How far away am I now?  And can I get the degree I'm looking for there?

Regardless, it's a time to acknowledge and celebrate the decisions I made in life 8 years ago.  Focus on that for a while instead of the future.

My Finicky Computer

So, the new hardware for my computer has been ordered through a purchase plan here at work.  I can't afford (especially 3 days after paying property taxes) paying for the stuff any other way. By the end of the week, I'll have my new 200GB hard drive (yep, more room and more stuff to lose in the next crash!!), a new 19" flatscreen monitor (my monitor went in April and I've been using my 10-year old 14" for far too long), a new DVD-RW/DVD+RW (don't ask me the difference), so I can burn more and store it.  Each DVD is the equivalent of 5 CD-Rs, so my research can be condensed onto less material space now.  A new printer (mine's 6+ years old now) and a new scanner (6 year old scanner would randomly shut down my 1 year old computer) are also en route.

There's nothing worse than sitting at my desk with the old Celeron 300 and whining about how long it takes to load... anything.  I hate my finicky
computer.