Doc’s Blog

Nothing. Really. I’ve had this damned cold that’s kicking my butt! If I don’t have a headache from congestion I’m blowing snot all day. (Pretty picture, that.) Cough Cough.

Really. Last Sunday I missed Church cause I didn’t want to spread this around. Didn’t get out to the property or anything. And it’s been pretty much the same thing all week. Damn! Except Tuesday SWMBO and I went to the Goodwill in Gig Harbor. Looking for an old cassette player to convert our cassettes to digital format. Didn’t find a player but did find a couple of books: Active Server Pages 2.0 & Mastering Autocad Release 11. Got them both for $4. Yeah, they’re old but they’ll still cover the basics. IF I ever take the time to sit down and go through them!

I hate getting old.

Did mention to SWMBO last Sunday that we’d be having snow by Wednesday. Guess what. It started snowing at 2300 last night. By 2320 we had probably a quarter inch of snow on the truck. And it kept coming down too! Hard (thick?). Heavy, I guess. Only accumulated an inch so SWMBO didn’t have any problems getting home from her work in Renton.

Believe it or not: Things seem to be moving forward at the Bank and with the County on getting our house built. Double Damn! We got a big envelope of papers to sign for the loan and our Contractor stopped by yesterday to pick up the signed contract (and a check for $1000) and a check for $1000 for the Tress Engineers. Cool! Now I just gotta keep getting up there to finish that crawl space and get the dirt moved out of the way.

Didn’t win the Mega Lotto. Again. I kind of like that machine we can use to check the numbers; it doesn’t flash “You’re A Loser” when you don’t have a winning ticket. It very politely notifies you that “Sorry, Not A Winner.” Sure would like to find out how it reacts to a winning ticket! So I spent another buck for another ticket.

Found that KOMO 4 netcasts it’s news in the mornings (and other times I suppose). Got to watch all the chaos our little bit of snow caused this morning. I’m getting to know Yahoo Video real good too!

Gotta go blow my nose.

From Our Local News:

Headline: Rare sea otter sighted on Oregon Coast . What they didn’t say was that it was hanging from the antenna of a 54 Chevy going 60 mph southbound down Hwy 1.

Headline: Woman dies after car plunges 350 feet into reservoir . Gee, Ya Think!?

Headline: Why are property taxes going up as values drop? . Because the City/County/State is NOT going to give up one red cent to help out "The Little Guy." Especially this state! Our Governor ran a $100 Million deficit into a $1 Billion deficit. Of course she needs the money!

Just not much happening around here. I have gotten out to the property 4 times this week! Cool! The weather has been, well, not great, but not freezing during the day. Almost got warm enough to take my coat off yesterday!

We had to make an "emergency" run to the bank that may be giving us our loan. I hate driving on that side of the water! And we got lost, of course. Just happened upon the cross street we needed to be on and found the bank. Spent an hour or so going over paperwork and signing things. I swear I didn’t sign that many papers to enlist in the Navy! We did stop for dinner at Burger King on the way home. That Whopper Jr. tasted Good! (I don’t eat a lot of beef.)

SWMBO and I went on our weekly "date" Thursday this week. I caught a killer-cold and really didn’t feel like eating a lot so we went to the Teriyaki Chicken place up by Albertson’s. I tried to have some of the wanton soup but just couldn’t eat. Nothing had any taste. Wasn’t feeling well so we skipped our usual shopping and came on home. A Sudafed, a shot of Robitussen and a shot of NightQuill(?) put me right out. After falling asleep in my chair (and being woken up by my own snoring) I trundled off to bed by 2200 and passed right out. I hate taking cold meds. They always make me drowsy.

The "Great Experiment" seems to be working out well for us. Not that SWMBO watched much tv anyway. I find that the only thing I still miss is the morning news. And mostly tv is "background noise" for me anyway. Been doing a CSI Marathon this past week. Downloaded Battlestar Galactica this morning and watched it. They are wierding me out! I have no idea where the show is headed now.This latest episode made absolutely no sense except to show what a (drunk) bitch Ellen is. You’d expect more from one of the creators of the Cylons.

Anywho, that’s it!

"Bosco" Chavez & Me. 1969. Upward Bound. AWC Yuma, Az

Cause I’m sick of the bullshit:

Headline: GM, Chrysler seek billions more, to cut more jobs . Gee, what a surprise! They have Not responded to my offer to run their companies for $50k/yr. No bennies.

Headline: Clinton seeks to improve US image with Muslims . Sure. Send a Woman to a region that treats their women like possessions. That’ll get a lot done. Muslim TV exec accused of beheading wife in NY . See…

Headline: Animal experts are baffled by chimp attack . Duh! Even if you were another Chimp you probably wouldn’t know the why of it. Hey, y’all, Humans trying to understand why Animals do things is, well, stupid. We can’t even understand our own species yet…

Headline: Recession could lengthen the twilight of dial-up . Duh! I have a friend that lives up the corner from us. He’s 70 and brings in (probably) less than $200/mo. I’m trying to get him to give up his land-line ($25/mo) and go with Internet from WaveBroadband ($25/mo) and I’d buy him a MagicJack for phone. He likes his "free" Juno account though and has a bit of trouble with "new" technology. Maybe I’ll spring for the $25 for the first couple of months to let him try it…

Headline: How to go from analog to digital TV . Read it. It’s one of the better decisions that we’ve made.

Headline: Tiny search engine alleges Google abuses its power . A bit more explanation: "A would-be challenger to Google Inc. said Tuesday it is suing the Internet search leader for alleged abuses that include illegally rigging its prices to thwart potential competitive threats." Now, I’m just wondering how someone can "illegally rig" it’s prices to thwart potential competition? How in the hell can a company be sued for setting the prices for it’s own product/service? Isn’t the purpose of running a business to set your prices just low enough to bring in customers but just high enough to make a profit at it? All I do know is that if all this keeps up, I’m going to sue IBM & Microsoft because my Home Network can in no way compete with their infrastructure and they’re engendering feelings of helplessness and inadequacy in me daily…

Headline: Teens Crank Up iPod Volume, Risk Hearing Damage . Duh! I mean; What?

Headline: Intel Sues Nvidia as CPU Power Moves To GPU . Moving the video/image processing from the CPU to the GPU is bad, how? Intel needs to get it’s head out of it’s ass and create their own video cards if they’re worried about this.

Headline: FCC Fields 28K DTV-Related Calls . I think I’ve figured this out. All the people that haven’t a clue about the DTV switch over didn’t know about it because they haven’t been watching tv! That’s gotta be it because they all can’t be that stupid. And if they haven’t been watching tv they don’t need to switch to DTV anyway…

I’m Outta Here…

Greenville, Miss. Age 13?

Ready? 1 and a 2 and a 3

There ain’t nothing going on. My Life is Boring Everyday. There ain’t Nothing Going On. And It’s been going on so long. It’s the Same Every Day…

Repeat as needed.

If life got any more SSDD around here stubbing my toe would be a major happening! Get up at around 0600. Feed The Fire. Go pee. Go out and toke a smoke. Come in and start up the browser to check the weather. Maybe read a bit of the (always the same) News. Make sure the voices match the lips in whatever movie/show I converted overnight. Then I get to start my day…

Did manage to get out to the property and move a bit of dirt a couple of times this week. Last Saturday there was still and inch or two of snow left over from the last time it snowed around here. Kinda cold up there too! Gotta remember to buy some fuel on the way back up there.

For our Friday Date SWMBO and I went to FHP for breakfast (almost as usual) and stopped to do our shopping on the way home. Kind of freaks her out that I can (usually) look at a cart full of stuff and guess the total cost within a few bucks. Wish I could do like my Dad could; he could glance at a column of numbers and tell you what they added up to within a few seconds. That I’d like to be able to do.

As you can tell, there is just nothing going on around here. Which can be a good thing. Nothing "dramatic" is a good thing. Not winning the lotto… We’ll, we’ll see if I ever win the thing. Hey, I only spend a buck when the MegaLotto gets over 100 Million. Figure it’s worth the buck.

Never did learn to play the Sax…Look at that tv!

Headline: Amid nurse shortage, hospitals focus on retention . They’re always telling me to "Hold it for awhile" before the barium…

Headline: Study: ’Astonishing richness’ in polar sea species . And I’m sure someone will figure out a way to steal it from them.

Headline: Earth-like planets in our galactic neighborhood . I’ve believed this since I was a wee lad. Hell, when we were teens didn’t we believe our parents came from another planet?

Headline: Hot New Cameras Add Smarts and Speed . But people will still find the stoopidest(sic) things to take pictures of!

Headline: How the economic stimulus plan could affect you. Hey, aren’t they taking money from us to give us some money? Can’t we just cut out the middle man? Then we wouldn’t have to give up more money to pay it all back later.

Headline: Despite trillions for economy, next job might mean less pay . Change that to WILL. Everything but out pay will go up. Watch for it.

Headline: Partisans Still Squabbling Over Stimulus . What’s Italians got to do with this?

I’m outta here.

Went outside at 0530 this morning and it was dark but dry. Went back outside about 0630 and SWMBO’s car was covered by a light dusting of snow. Snowed most of the day. Started out that light icy snow but turned into those big wet flakes for most of the day. Started raining after dark and most of the snow is mushy. Will probably be gone by tomorrow. Cool! Wanted to get out to the property to video some snow in the clearing but it would have taken me a couple of hours to get out there. Then a couple of hours back. No Way!

Did take Phillip up Peacock Hill to the bus stop. Was snowing like crazy and sticking to the road uphill from us. It’s amazing what a hundred feet in elevation will produce in weather around here!

Just not much else going on.

Me in 1962. 10 years old.

Put our Magic Jack on it’s own computer in the back room. Got tired of it hanging up for a few seconds when someone would call while we were watching something on the MediaServer. Seems to be working okay.