Universal Suckage

A couple of months ago my father broke his leg. He had mobility problems to begin with so it all but incapacitated him. He's doing much better now but still has to use a wheelchair to move around for the most part.

This precipitated my sister having to postpone her wedding so that he would be able to attend. It also meant that my mother had to take FMLA leave in order to take care of him on a day-to-day basis.

This would not have been so terrible in and of itself but my aunt, my mother's only sister, who has battled breast cancer in the past, found out that her cancer had returned, it was in several locations, and it was in her bones.

We knew that she was going to be fighting an uphill battle but it turned difficult a lot sooner than we had expected. She was in and out of the hospital shortly after her diagnosis with dehydration and minor infections. To top it off, the meds she is taking for treatment and pain cause her so much confusion it jumbles memories around in her brain.

Turning a little closer to home, several of you already know that I have been having difficulties at work. It all finally came to an end last Friday and I was dismissed. This was not unexpected and I'm actually OK with it. What I'm not okay with is because of the process they followed and the official reason they cited, I have been put on a restricted list. I had to ask twice myself before someone finally explained that it meant I am ineligible for any jobs in the OSU system for at least a year.

Yesterday, I sent an appeal that included a four-page letter and thirty-one pages of supporting documentation. All I asked for was to be removed from the restricted list and to have the official reason for dismissal changed.

I have been trying not to think about it. I have been trying to be patient and let the process work. The problem is that when you put something like that together, you have to think about all of those things that you feel were unjust or incorrect and you can't help but be agitated and it takes a lot of effort not to be angry and bitter (stressful in and of itself).

Earlier this week, my aunt went back into the hospital with a pretty serious infection. The infection did not seem to be related to her other conditions but required immediate and aggressive attention either because of the type of infection or a compromised immune system due to the medications she was taking.

At any rate the infection was not responding much at all to the medication and her kidneys started to shut down. They believe that she had a stroke (or suffered some other type of cerebral event) yesterday afternoon and there was talk of whether she was going to make it through the night.

Besides being her sister, my mother is her medical advocate. Mom was on the phone most of yesterday with family, doctors, and airlines. She caught a 6am flight to Vermont to go be with her family and her sister.

I guess it's a good thing I'm unemployed for the moment because that means I am available to assist dad until my sister, who was planning on coming up next week for just that purpose, can take over.

Injury, unemployment, illness, and stress. I just figure the universe is getting all of our family suckage out of the way in one concentrated burst.

Our Love Is Strong

It's valentine's day and I'm in another state. I left the wife at home and headed for KC to spend some time with my nephews. I learned on Friday that they were coming in to go to a car show. I haven't seen them or my parents in a few months (snow storms prevented the Christmas visit) so I made a last-minute decision to head North and spend some time with them.

Don't be like that. I didn't run out on her. I discussed it with her and even asked if she wanted to come. She's in an online Master's program and is in the last week of her current class. She has two papers she needed to work on and turn in. She told me I probably wouldn't see much of her this weekend anyway.

I had a great time at the car show and visiting with the nephews. I texted the wife a couple of times and sent her a couple of pictures (there was a pink Dodge). My plan for today is to stop on the way home for some flowers and I also have a poem I wrote for her (I haven't done that in a long time). I may come up with something else.

Simple Gifts

I don't have any clue how old I was but I was relatively young, maybe eight years old. We had gone to the state fair and my sister and I had won matching, cheesy teddy bears. Mine was blue, hers was pink (that's how I know it had to be the state fair).

I don't recall how it happened but my bear got lost or destroyed. Whatever happened, it upset me. I recall laying in my bed crying one night. My sister's bedroom shared a wall with mine so she couldn't help but hear me.

I annoyed her quite a bit during that time so, obviously, I was annoying her by crying. She came into my room and asked me, in that tone of voice of hers, just exactly what I was crying about. "I want my bear." Thinking I was being a baby she rolled her eyes (I wasn't looking at her but she must have - she did that a lot in regards to me back then) and she left.

I kept crying.

For several minutes.

I was really devastated.

Look, this isn't a story about me being upset. Stop focusing on it. It's embarrassing enough as it is but I do have a point and it relates to my sister, not me.

I mean it - stop it. Stop imagining me as a blubbering child missing his teddy bear. It's not cute, it's... it's... disconcerting to even remember it but it's important to the story. So stop it.

Anyway, my crying obviously continued to annoy her because she eventually opened the door to my room, threw her pink bear at me and said, "Here. Now shutup."

I did. I curled up and went to sleep. I was very grateful to my sister for sacrificing her possession so I could be happy. She told me it was just to get me to shut up so she could get some sleep. That probably was her motivation but I really appreciated it.

And now... my point. Ever since then my sister has had this knack for getting me presents that I absolutely love but didn't even know I wanted. (okay, there was the "sweater incident" but even George Lucas had the Ewoks Christmas)

A Picture Is Worth... A Lot, Apparently

We ventured to Oklahoma City yesterday to get our pictures taken at a studio I will not name (unless you email me - I'll tell you in private). I did not pick the studio nor did I make the decision to have our pictures taken. My mother in law decided she wanted pictures of my wife and I as well as her grandchildren, my nephew and nieces.

The photo shoot itself was not bad. Most of the pictures turned out well. The wife and I really liked one of ours, I liked another one (she didn't - something about her bangs) and the others we staged well but there were problems with expressions, position of glasses, etc. The pics of the grandkids were similar. The work was fine, the photographer was nice, but it was what happened after that really shocked us.

I have been to a photo studio semi-recently so I knew we were going to get a sales pitch, they were going to try to upsell us, and they would do some fancy talking such that we didn't realize how much money we were spending. I also knew that outside of a package, photos are sold by the "sheet" and the sheets are priced such that people like us think hard about just how many copies we need of each picture.

It didn't go exactly as I thought it would. The person who took our pictures was the one selling to us. She really needs more practice at it. What I expected was that she would sit down and go over the packages, starting with the largest (almost $400) and working her way down, limiting poses and reducing picture count along the way. She started by going through the pictures with us, showing all of the poses, including some with optional changes such as sepia tone, Christmas cards, frames, etc. What bothered me about that part was that she kept saying, "this is cute," or "I did this to it, which I think is cute." Sorry, I'll be the judge of what is or is not cute.

From there most of what she said was negative-speak, "we can't do that," "no, I'm sorry," "it doesn't work like that," etc. It really shocked me. My mother in law was obviously getting agitated at being told no at every turn and this girl just wouldn't stop. Here's a hint: If you're saying you can't do something, turn it around and offer something you can do before the customer has a chance to get agitated.

We convinced them to let us buy two promotional packages - one with the wife and I and one with the grandkids - that was limited to a single pose each. We had to get a little snippy and remind them that we had booked two appointments for just that reason and it shouldn't matter that all the pictures are in the same folder to get them to do that but they did. We had a coupon for one package at $7.99 and we bought the same package for the other picture at the regular price of $9.99 (despite the photographer trying to tell us that the regularly priced package was different that what was listed on the coupon - it wasn't). We chose a nice picture of my wife and I sitting on the floor with presents around us and a shot of the grandkids in sepia tone. My nephew doesn't usually let himself get in front of the camera so my mother in law also bought a single sheet of wallet prints of him alone for $19.99. This brought us up to $37.97.

Being a digital couple, my wife and I inquired about a studio CD that included digital versions of all of the shots from the session. We quickly declined when they said they wanted to charge us $200 for it. I kind-of understand that because, since they include a print/copyright release, anyone they sell this to is never coming back for more prints.

The photographer went to ring everything up and after about a minute came back to tell us she had forgotten to include the $5 subject fee per package for having more than one person in the shot so that brought us up to $47.97.

I wasn't keeping tabs on the total in my head so when all was said and done I asked my mother in law what the final total was. "It ended up being seventy-four something."

"How did we get to $74?"

"Apparently, there's an 'enhancement' fee [for the sepia print]."

Sheesh. I knew it was going to be hard keeping the price down but I didn't realize that we were going to get nickel-and-dimed to death. I don't go to studios for pictures much but the next time I do I don't think I'll be going back there.

Another One Of *Those* Posts

It's the holiday season. That means more time spent out of the house visiting friends and relatives and shopping as well as more time in the house making and wrapping gifts or imbibing adult beverages that numb the pain. Whatever the reason it means less time for blogging.

I have been popping up on Facebook a lot more lately. It seems a lot easier. For one, I can do it from my phone so it's more immediate. For two, it's an ideal forum for quick messages that convey my thoughts at the moment. The blog always seems like a blank sheet of paper begging to be filled in its entirety.

Thanksgiving went well. We didn't have "the dinner" until Saturday because it wasn't until Saturday that all the niece and nephews could gather. When we did there was the usual fecetiousness, joke-telling, all-in-fun insults and general mirth. We arrived on Thursday so by Sunday, we were ready to head home.

In general, we did not participate in Black Friday. There were a couple of small items my wife wanted from W-Mart so she got up just before 5am, popped across the street from our hotel to the store, grabbed the 2 or 3 small items she was interested in, and was out of the store less than 45 minutes later. When she returned to the room, she went back to bed.

On Saturday, The Wife's laptop gave out. It was generally unresponsive and completely unusable. I tried everything I knew to try to revive it including installing a brand new hard drive with a fresh load of Windows and flashing the BIOS but it didn't help. Parts for her computer are scarce and expensive. To get a new motherboard would have cost over $200 dollars (assuming we could find one in stock) so we were forced to participate in Cyber Monday where she found a new laptop of the same brand for $400. It was a necessary expense since she is currently in an online-only Master's program. Luckily there was still some financial aid money sitting in her account to help offset (or cover) the cost.

That's about it for now. I'm sure I'll be back soon but in case I miss you, may you all be blessed this holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah/Hanukkah, Joyus Kwanza, Uprorious Festivus, or Blissful Binging... whatever floats your boat.

Conversating

It's beginning to look a lot like that time of year again. Just the other day, the wife started asking me about what I wanted to do for Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, I wasn't really ready for it. It didn't hit me like a ton of bricks or anything but I did have a realization moment that, yes, Thanksgiving was not too far away to start making decisions about.

We generally go to either my folks' place or her mom's place for thanksgiving and the other for Christmas. Problem is, I really don't care this year. Just throw me in the car, point me in a direction and I'll stop when we get there.

Most of the reason it really doesn't matter is financial. Wherever we are, we won't be doing much but sitting around after dinner chatting and possibly playing cards. If we weren't barely making the house and car payment we might go to a casino in KC or maybe out to a movie. Since I know I'll be seeing both sets of 'rents before the year is over, I don't really mind who we start with. It should probably be who we didn't go see last year but I don't remember who that was.

At any rate I really need to call my folks just to check in. I think it's been 6-8 weeks since I talked to them.

Whew, now I can stop worrying about not having posted anything for over 10 days.

Unexpected Gifts

There is a store here in Stillwater called Wall's Bargain Center that sells closeout merchandise at discount prices. It's a little like Big Lots but they tend to buy stock from stores that are closing, going out of business, had fires, etc. more than "the manufacturer changed the box design" type stuff.

I got word from one of the students at work that Wall's had recently acquired a large batch of inventory from a Best Buy that had experienced an extreme heat incident with rapid incandescent oxidation and gaseous residue followed by liquid deterrent application (a fire). Said student had picked up a new Dell computer and a flat screen monitor for under $500. It wasn't a fantastic discount but it was a good price nonetheless.

I decided Friday night that I wanted to go see what they had and just how good the discounts might be. I entered the section where they had concentrated the stock and began to drool look around. I saw many shiny things and lots of blinking black boxes but they were all beyond my price range. Wall's was only offering a 25% discount (which ain't bad, really) but was using the original Best Buy pricing as a baseline which is inflated anyway (i.e. a weather radio you can buy @ WM for $29.99 marked at $39.99). Many of the objects were originally over $200 so I stuck my hands in my pockets and continued to drool profusely "window shop."

The wife, who has been wanting a digital SLR for a couple of years now, wandered over to the display case filled with cameras and camcorders. She had spied some Canon Digital Rebel models but even with the discount they would end up over $500 (except for one but we ruled it out since it didn't have a box). As I was scanning the various camcorders available I saw a Sony Digital Alpha tucked unobtrusively in the back of the case. If you didn't know what it was, it would be easy to overlook. Heck, I knew what it was and almost overlooked it myself.

It was a Sony Alpha DSLR-230L with an 18-55mm zoom lens. The price written on the side was $549.99. With discount and after tax, we figured it would cost about $450.00. The wife asked to see it and looked at the specs on the side of the box. She took the body out of the package to see how it felt and to examine all the buttons and ports. She was suitably enamoured with it and we considered buying it since her birthday is a week from Tuesday. In the end, we decided to sleep on it. First, we didn't know much about the camera itself (the best I could come up with via my smartphone was that it was released last May). Second, we didn't know where the money was going to come from. We could fudge $450 but it wouldn't be a wise thing to do.

After dinner, we both retired to our respective computers and began researching the Alpha 230. The first thing I figured out was that current selling price is $499.99 (via Best Buy, Amazon and Sony). The wife read the reviews on Amazon and felt the camera would be a good fit for her. At that point, I put into action a plan I had hatched on the way home from the store.

First, I called my mother. I explained the situation to her and asked if she would be willing to contribute $100 (or more if she wanted to) toward the Wife's birthday gift. She thought that was a splendid idea. [Side note: Mom informed me that my brother had won $2,200 at the riverboat casino... on a penny slot machine. Of course, he was playing a dollar a spin (the bonus came up all wild). I never win that much because I never risk that much.]

Next, I called her mother. I again explained the situation and she agreed to contribute $150 to the cause. We were now going to be responsible for less than half the cost of the camera (an amount we could justify without too much guilt) and had current cash on hand to float what was being covered by The Moms. Because of the nature of the business and there being only one on hand, I told the wife about the contributions, said "happy birthday" and we agreed to go to the store as they opened on Saturday to give the camera a final inspection and purchase it if it passed muster.

We got to the store and went straight to the display case with the cameras. The same lady who had helped us at closing time on Friday was in the general vicinity and came around to greet us, "You came back for the Sony, didn't you?"

The wife opened the box and removed all of the contents to take inventory. Everything was present except for the battery which we quickly located as being installed in the camera. We agreed to purchase it and the attendant filled out some paperwork for the 30-day store return warranty. We then found a suitable bag (that we later discovered was too small for more than one reason) and checked out. The camera came out to $449 and some change. With the bag, we walked out about $468.00 lighter and one camera heavier than when we walked in.

But wait, there's more.

The wife charged the battery and fiddled with the camera some to get a feel for it. I had been wanting to go to the fair in Oklahoma City all day so I struck out on my own. After visiting the ATM and grabbing a bottle of water at the gas station it was almost 3pm. I was driving toward the highway when a prominently displayed garage sale sign caught my eye. The street it pointed to only has 3 or 4 houses so if it was still going on it would be obvious. although it had been picked over quite well, they were still open for business so I dropped by.

There really wasn't much left. What they had most of was bundles and pieces of fabric they had bought for their sewing business but ended up with too much inventory and not enough time. I wandered into the garage itself and spied upon a box for a Minolta Maxxum film camera. The Sony takes the same lens mount as the Minolta. The kit had a 35-80mm zoom lens with it. It was a cheap lens. It even felt cheap. Almost every bit of it was plastic except for the optics. But it was a different lens than the one that came with the camera.

"How much?" I asked. "We were asking $40 but we're trying to get everything gone so we're doing half price. $20"

I texted the wife: Do you want a 35-80mm Maxxum kit lens for $20?

Without hesitation, the answer came back a simple "yes." I bought it but it meant that the camera bag which barely fit the camera if she took the lens off was no longer suitable.

So, in the span of a day, we had managed to get the wife a new camera with a kit lens, a bag that was now too small, and a second lens for a very reasonable price. It was a happy early birthday for her.

The Microbus With A Theme Song

In 1980, my father bought a used 1979 Volkswagen bus (van). It was two-tone brown with a four-cylinder pancake engine mounted in the rear. Just like many VW's of the time, it sounded like a reved-up sewing machine. It had "armstrong" power steering (the stronger your arms, the more powerful the steering) with a flat steering wheel. The front seats were mounted on the wheel wells and it had a built-in citizen's band (CB) radio. I have a lot of fond memories of that van.

We drove the van to Vermont to visit relatives many times. The van got its theme song on one such trip. When we fired her up to hit the road, her song was playing on the radio (although, it wasn't her song yet). When we piled in after a pit stop and a fill-up, her song was playing on the radio. After lunch, we turned the key, and there was that song. Over and over it happened that way. It seemed that every time we started up the van, her song was playing. Dad remarked that it must be her theme song and it stuck. Thus, the theme song for the VW bus was "On The Road Again" by Willie Nelson.

Another time I remember was around Thanksgiving. One of my uncles was getting married and we all piled in the van to head North. In November in the Northern United States, it has a habit of snowing. That van had a tendency to embarass other drivers in the snow and ice. While they were spinning their wheels or sliding backwards, it was the little microbus that could. All you had to do was to let the van do the work. We'd cruise by and wave at the silly people in their fancy cars and four-wheel-drive vehicles.

There was once during that trip that we were the embarrassed ones. I don't recall what state we were in. Pennsylvania, maybe? We drove into a sleet storm in the late afternoon. The further we went, the slicker the road became. I was lying down asleep in the back seat and my sister was riding shotgun. I have no idea what precipitated it but there was an over-correction and, despite traveling relatively slowly, we started to spin out. The centrifugal force was enough to rouse me and I sat up to see the world rapidly spinning by. We ended up doing a double 360 and landed in a ditch. We came within inches of plowing down a mile marker sign. My sister can still tell you which mile number it was because, when it was all over, she was staring right at it big as day.

We tried the CB but, as usual for a CB, its urgent need circuit kicked in and we weren't able to raise anyone. We were lucky enough that someone in a Scout or Bronco or some similar off-road-type vehicle happened by in the next half hour and pulled us out. The near miss with the mile marker (and the spinning) convinced dad that it was time to stop for the day. We weren't far, relatively, from the next town but it took us a while to get there. I don't think dad broke 25 MPH until we stopped for the night.

We took her to Disney world once. We left on Christmas day. We had opened gifts and been to church. We were going to take a little time and leave later that afternoon but an ice storm was moving in. Mom decided that we'd better get out while the getting was good. Our original plan was to head across on I-40 then turn South. Had we done that, the storm would have followed us and we'd have probably repeated the wedding trip fiasco. (would that be a Fusco fiasco?) The weather was just starting to inch its way into Tulsa so we hit the road and headed straight South through Dallas. Mom was right. Had we stayed, we'd have been stuck.

What's relevant about the van in this case was that it gained a permanent navigator. My brother, John, had received from his girlfriend (later to be his ex wife) a small Disney Christmas tree ornament in honor of our trip. It was a small, stuffed Gus Gus (a mouse from Cinderella) with a string looping off his hat to hang him on the tree. John had first crack at Shotgun and, on a lark, hung Gus Gus from the sun visor clip on the passenger's side - facing outward. Dad dubbed Gus Gus the navigator and there he stayed. When we sold the van, Gus Gus got transferred to the new car. To this day, Gus Gus holds that place of honor in my dad's van. Ah, the silly things we do.

When I was old enough to drive, I had the privilege of practicing my driving skills in the van on occasion. On one such occasion I was driving to school with dad in the passenger's seat. We got to and on the Broken Arrow Expressway with no trouble. As I passed the 15th street exit and started taking a wide curve, a small convertible (something like an MG) came up the on ramp and started to move right over into the traffic lane without so much as a glance. I could tell he/she never looked because the top was down and I was taller than his/her car.

So there I am, a relatively inexperienced driver in morning rush hour traffic being pushed over by an idiot in a sports car. I couldn't speed up because there was someone in front of me. I tried to slow down a bit but the gap didn't widen enough and the MG wasn't going fast enough to slip into it. My initial thought was to just move over but there was a car to my left. I was boxed in.

I adjusted my speed and moved over as slowly and as much as I could to avoid having this dumbass take a suicide swipe at my broadside. As the curve straightened out, I was out of options. There was now a gap beside me but it was still partially occupied by the back end of the car that had previously been pacing me. I finally made my move at the last second and ended up clipping the back part of the car with the front part of the van.

In a panic, I looked at dad and said, "What do I do? Should I stop? Do I need to pull off?" He looked as flustered as I was but observed that the other car, now several lengths in front of us, was showing no signs of stopping so I should just proceed as if it didn't happen (easy for him to say). It's a wonder there wasn't a great deal more mayhem, death and destruction on the BA that fine morning.

That poor van went through long family road trips, stalling/starting problems and even an engine fire. Somehow, Walter the mechanic kept it running. It served us well for many, many years. I'm pretty sure it was my dad's first van. He took a brief side-trip with a VW Rabbit but to this day still insists on driving a van.

I Should Have Played The Powerball

There's been a lot going on lately that I have wanted to tell you about or comment about but I just haven't been able to make the time to get the posts written. Then, when I do have time, I generally can't recall exactly what I was going to write about which is why I posted my last post.

One of the things I was going to write about was this weekend. The post would have been written in future tense but since the weekend is now over it will be written in past tense.

The middle nephew graduated from High School this weekend. Sunday, to be exact. We drove up to Kansas City, then up to Linneus, MO (about 2 hrs NE of KC) for the doings. There are 4 or 5 small towns (populations 200 to 500) in the county and I'm pretty sure it's a consolidated school. Even at that, there were only 18 people in his graduating class.

Side note: When we left for KC on Saturday, we had been on I-35 for 15 to 20 minutes and saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV1). We were heading North, it was heading South.

The small number of graduating seniors in his class doesn't in any way diminish the fact that M was 3rd in his class. The valedictorian and salutatorian were both major overachievers (that's not a bad thing). We are very proud of all of my brother's kids. Given the cards that life has dealt them, any or all of them could have easily written off their education and underachieved but none of them did. E graduated, went into the Army reserves and is now working on a college degree. N graduated with his HS diploma and Associates degree on the same day through a special academy in Missouri. M just graduated 3rd in his class with scholarships to pursue his chosen career of Funeral Director/Mortician (at least he'll never have a lack of clientele). B is a basketball star set to graduate next year and will probably end up with some sort of scholarships himself. Q is coming into his own and is shaping up to be just as smart and active as his brothers. I am proud of all of them... yeah, I know I already said that but I figure it's worth repeating.

Now, to explain the title.

When I got to KC on Saturday, I had an email from Sprite Backup. Sprite Backup is a backup program for windows Mobile devices. My phone came with a lite version pre-installed which has saved my bacon more than once. Anyway, they were running a contest to give away a copy of the latest version so I entered... and promptly forgot I even entered until I got the email this weekend. I didn't win the software but I did win 3rd prize which was an 8GB MicroSD card. Not too shabby.

But wait, there's MORE!

In mid-to-late-April, Pantech, AT&T and 26 blog sites started a contest to give away 26 Pantech Matrix Pro phones, each with a $100 AT&T gift card for activation or accessories or whatever. The contest rules were decided by the individual sites. Some of them asked for essays about anything from the best ways to using cloud computing to why do you need this phone. The ones I entered (about 15 of them) required entries about the contest on personal blogs, comments posted to the contest announcement or tweets about the site and the contest.

When I got home this evening, I had received a private message from the site administrator of GearLive saying that I had won their contest! I am so excited! I've just been getting stuff left and right this weekend... which now explains the title.

FINALLY!

When I came home with the Wii, the wife was none too happy. See, her mother had thought that we were both interested in having one for the health benefits. She had it wrong. I wanted a Wii, the wife specifically didn't want one. Whoops. I thought she'd expressed an interest as well.

For years I have wished the wife was into video games so we could play things like Starcraft or other multiplayer games together. She won't go near them. She doesn't mind certain types of games. She bought a Nintendo DS and Brain Age just to play Brain Age. Since then, she's gotten Big Brain Academy, Brain Age 2, and Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? See a pattern? No aiming or button trickery involved.

The day I hooked up the Wii, I prompted her to give it a try. I was feeling guilty because it was purchased as a birthday present for me and an anniversary present for us. If she wasn't going to ever use it, that meant it was a really expensive gift for me and she got gipped. She refused. And it was one of those refusals where husbands can tell that "no" means "Not a chance in hell I'm letting you off the hook that easy."

As the week has progressed, I noticed her warming up to the idea. On Monday, my birthday, she gave me some cash to go buy some games so I wouldn't be stuck with just Wii Fit and Wii Sports. When we went shopping, she was taking an interest in the games and what was available. I only bought one (the jury is still out on whether or not I like it) so I still had some money left.

Fast forward to tonight. We went to Wal-Mart on advice of a friend who said they often have a selection of Wii games for $10. I bought Monster 4x4 and Rayman Raving Rabbids (you can throw COWS!). Neither is on the $10 rack but Rayman came highly recommended and Monster 4x4 came with a steering wheel. Later, we went to the other WM in town and looked to see what their $10 selection was. As we were wandering around, the wife asked me, "aren't those games you just bought multi player?"

"Yes, I believe they are."

"Why don't we get an extra controller so we can play together because I don't think I would play by myself."

We came home and played Monster 4x4 a while (she actually started to get the hang of it... and I was getting worse for some reason) and we just finished our third game of Wii Bowling.

Thanks, mom-in-law, we finally got her hooked.

The Hardest Thing To Say Is Goodbye

This is Sam Cody. He's my sister's dog. As I've mentioned before, we never had dogs or other animals growing up so Sam Cody is one of my sister's first dogs.

Several years ago, Sam Cody ended up with a herniated disc in his neck. It causes him pain at times in his shoulders and legs. I don't know if they've done surgery or they couldn't do surgery or it just wouldn't do much good if they did. I do know he's been on steroids and other anti-inflamatories for a few years now and it has become increasingly difficult for him over the last several months.

My brother just called an told me Sam Cody's back legs gave out this morning. He simply couldn't move them. He eventually recovered but that is probably the sign. I haven't heard anything definite but I'm 75% sure they'll take him in and he won't have to hurt anymore.

This is my sister's first loss of a pet. I've been through about six for various reasons. Some are easier to take than others but it always sucks. Especially those that you haven't come to accept quite yet.

We'll miss the Cody Bear.

Update: I received a two-word text message from my sister, "It's done." :(

The Week In Review

My last post was a mere snapshot of events I wanted to discuss but had no real context. So, I'll go over some of those today and I'll fill you in on what has happened since then.

I was mildly excited about the city-wide garage sale in Cushing last weekend but I didn't make it. I woke up way too early and was extremely tired. I decided to hit a couple of local sales before heading to Cushing. As I was driving between sales, I got this really odd feeling of dread. It was more an anxiety attack than anything else but it hit me out of the blue. For that reason, I decided to stay local.

As I normally do, I grabbed breakfast at Carl's Jr for the wife and I before going home. I finished breakfast and all but passed out I was so tired. I slept for a couple of hours and woke up with a headache that felt like someone had stuffed my sinuses with lead. I already had a heat rash that I knew was caused by a mild infection so I headed to the walk-in clinic where we decided that I had a sinus infection.

The doctor prescribed Doxycycline because it would treat the sinus infection but is also secreted through the skin and would help the rash. One of the side effects is that it also makes you photosensitive. So, Sunday I was out mowing the lawn. I was taking breaks more frequently than I usually do and was staying inside longer to cool down more before going outside and continuing. Plus, I was drinking plenty of water.

About half way through the back yard, I decide to come in for a break. I'm not feeling especially ill or hot or anything, just a little fatigued. No sooner did I sit down and take a couple of drinks of water than I noticed I had a monster headache... at the base of my jaw.

Of course, the very next thing I did was to make sure I didn't have any chest tightness or numbness in my arms... nope, good there. It felt like someone had dug their thumbs under both sides of my jawbone at the bend and the pain was radiating through my entire head. It was a bit unnerving. I stayed inside and waited about four hours before stepping outside to put the mower away. Now I have this big patch of tall grass in the center of my back yard... I really gotta get a self-propelled mower.

The wife had gone shopping with a friend and called me to tell me there was a vacuum cleaner on sale. She had told me our current vacuum was not working properly. I checked the one in the house. Suction on the hose: Check. Beater bar rotates: Check. Bag not full: Check. Suction from the bottom of the vacuum: Check. Picks stuff up off the floor: Nope. Best I could figure (after she'd bought the new one) was the brush roller is worn out and doesn't actually come into contact with the carpet anymore.

Anyway, she bought a Kenmore Quick Clean bagless upright. I had spilled something dry but small onto the floor Sunday so I decided to give the new vacuum a test. I vacuumed a two square foot area that didn't *look* terribly dirty. When I checked the canister, there was enough pet hair to knit a small kitten! I was immediately sold.

The week started out normally. Monday and Tuesday passed without generating anything worth mentioning. As I was drying myself off after my shower on Wednesday, I got a sharp pain in the upper part of the left side of my neck. My right shoulder was already hurting right where the shoulder meets the neck so I was suddenly in some serious pain. I could barely move without getting another sharp stab of pain.

I called in sick and laid down until the doctor's office opened. I made an appointment but had to wait another 90 minutes or so. By this time, my neck had loosened up some and it wasn't quite as horrific but I was still walking around with my head tilted to the right like a curious dog becouse I couldn't straighten up my head.

Three hours after arriving at the doctors office, I walk out with a tired neck, a couple of new x-rays in my file, an anti-inflamatory injection (Deposomtherin, I don't recall exactly), samples of a muscle relaxer (Skelaxin - good stuff! Effective but doesn't gork me out), and a prescription for Mobic (an anti-inflamatory). I spent most of the rest of the day in bed.

Thursday morning came but I was still hesitant to drive the hour to work and sit in a mid-back task chair holding my head up all day. There were a couple of points during the morning that I felt foolish about my decision but it turned out to be a good thing I stayed home. I ran to the store to pick up a few things we were out of. I wasn't out more than an hour and I had a huge headache and stiff neck by the time I got back.

I made it to work on Friday and was extremely glad I had those drugs. There were a couple of points where I squished down in my chair such that my back and legs were definitely in a non-ergonomic position but I could rest my head against the back of the chair. I also found out that we had done some realignment within our group and I was now working for a newly hired manager. Same job, same desk, same pay, just reporting to a different person.

I woke up early again this morning but managed to get back to sleep for another hour or so and was pretty well rested. I managed to complete many of the items on my weekend to-do list. The sales were decent to me this morning and I picked up a few things with the wife in mind. I almost bought a pocket-sized digital camera and gave serious thought to a Palm Zire 21 (about the same as my m105 but it has a rechargeable battery) and a set of 4.1 computer speakers... but I kept my money in my pocket on those items.

Well, I think it's about time for another round of medicine so I will leave you all to have a nice rest of the weekend.

OH! I almost forgot... Tomorrow, June 29, is my parents' FORTY-FIFTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!

Garage Sale Marathon

I got up this morning, as I often do on a Saturday, with the intention of spending my morning cruising the garage sales. I had gone through the newspaper, then entered several of them in a mapping program so my efforts would not be so random. It appeared that the day would have plenty of opportunities because there were not one but two neighborhood sales. The day did not disappoint.

The MIL is still staying with us and her recovery is coming along very nicely. She is still using the walker but has started using a cane more and more. I think she also had her final home health care visit late last week. Chances are she will be back home and independent by next weekend.

As I was preparing for my adventure, I discovered she was awake and wanted to come with me again. The wife was not awake and was quite content to stay snuggled in bed a while longer. Once my MIL was ready, we got into the car, stopped by the ATM and headed for the first neighborhood sale. We spent somewhere around two hours in that one area alone. There were LOTS of sales.

As we started to drive by the same sales and were preparing to move on, the wife called and wanted to join us. We went by the house, picked her up, dropped off what we had purchased so far, and headed for a drive through to get breakfast - hey, we have to keep our priorities straight, here.

From there, we visited a couple sales on the opposite side of town from the neighborhood sale mainly because one of them had advertised a dining room table and the wife is looking for a more suitable table for us. All that activity killed at least another hour.

There is a local restaurant that does a pretty good business selling T-Shirts and other clothing items. Throughout the year, they produce their share of "factory seconds" and today was the day of their annual reject sale. In addition, they were also holding a company garage sale so that's where we went next. The garage sale wasn't anything spectacular but they did have a couple of restaurant tables and more than a few retail and display items (if I needed a cash register for anything, this was the place to get it). The wife grabbed a locking file box, the MIL picked up some nick-nacks, and I ended up at the reject sale and bought three T-shirts. One of the shirts had a 3" tear in the front (that I mended when I got home), one had a couple of "pin" holes in the back (which I also mended), and I'm still looking for the flaw in the third. All this I got for less than the discounted price of even one of the shirts I bought.

Next stop was an estate tag sale. I managed to pick up a set of Big Band vinyl (that's record albums to those of you among the younger CD crowd) and the wife nabbed a scarf.

Once that was done we finally made it to the second neighborhood sale. It wasn't as impressive as the first, partially because it was a smaller neighborhood. I can't recall that I actually bought anything, either.

As the afternoon wore on (yes, we were well into the afternoon by this time), we stopped at one final sale that had advertised dining room tables. They had one of them left but it was no better for our space than the one we currently have.

Finally, we had to go back to the area of the first neighborhood sale with the aid of a friend who has an SUV so we could retrieve a plastic garden shed I picked up for a song. It was very similar to this one but I only paid $20 for mine.

When all was said and done, we had spent six to seven hours trolling garage sales. I don't think I've ever spent that long on that particular activity.

So, what was the tally for what *I* purchased?

Brand new crock pot, never used - $3
Garden shed - $20
Misc. small items - $5
Ionic Breeze Quadra air filter - $5

And the bargain of the day....
Magellan 315 Handheld GPS - $2

No, that's not a typo, I bought a handheld GPS for TWO dollars. It works fine! It had some hazing on the plastic over the LCD but a little quality time with a buffing disc and my Dremmel and it took care of most of that - at least enough for it to be usable (even with the gouge I somehow managed to put into the middle of the screen).

Weekend Update

I spent part of my weekend building my computer. I discovered a problem with the motherboard. The audio plugs on the back don’t work. At least, not for output. The board has a header for front audio plugs and my case has audio plugs on the top so that gives me a workaround. I’ll keep an eye out for a cheap Vista-compatible sound card.

Speaking of Vista, I got it installed (dual boot with XP) and it’s actually pretty responsive. My biggest complaint before was that the system I had should have been able to easily handle Vista but it just bogged the system down. It seems to be running comfortably on 2GHz dual core and 2GB of RAM. It’s not without its gotchas, though. I installed a sidebar gadget to monitor system performance and noticed the CPU was constantly running at 30-50% (that’s a BAD sign). Upon further investigation, I determined the cause was a poorly written widget that was monitoring my hard drive space. I quickly found an alternative and now she idles at below 1% as she should. The system even passed the “ultimate” test. I installed and ran Doom 3 with no issues.

Whilst I was fiddling with the PC, I decided to work on straightening up my office. I spent some time under the desk installing some cable management and getting the rats nest off the floor (or, at least hidden in the corner of the desk). I still have a little bit of work to do but I have to find my good speaker wire first. The biggest accomplishment was to get the second CRT up on the desk and connected. I am running dual 19” Dell P990 Trinitron monitors. Flat screens would be nice but I can’t beat the price I paid for what I have.

My mother in law has been staying with us while she recuperates from knee replacement surgery. I wasn’t planning on hitting garage sales on Saturday but she wanted to and the wife wanted to so we spent a good 3 hours running around town. By the time all was said and done, my trunk was full. Most of it was not mine. The wife bought some framed art, a foot bath, and a few books. MIL bought books and a couple of other small items. I bought a gift for my sister (sorry, it’s a surprise but you’ll LOVE it) and a couple of computer games. The big bargain, however, was a $150 Dymo LabelWriter 400 Turbo label printer for $13. I came -| |- this close to buying a LaserJet 8000 printer for $5 but it was missing the network interface card and no cartridge. The NIC is $20-$30 off eBay but the cartridge is $50-$300… and I’m not sure I really have a place to put it (it's big!).

I mowed the lawn, too. This may not sound like much but the grass was pushing a foot tall. Luckily my $7 garage sale special handled it with nary a problem. Yes, my lawn mower cost me $5 at a garage sale, I had to put a new pull rope on it for $2 and it starts and runs better than any… that’s right ANY mower I have ever owned. It’s just so dang hard to push.

Another weekend activity involved assembling a set of shelves for the office. I already have one set and had been thinking about a second but when the back started to come off the first set (the back is what gives most of that type of furniture stability), that tipped the scale and pushed up the schedule. I was able to get the new set in place and repair the original set. And no, don’t ask if my office is all clean and shiny now.

Oh, yeah. I got the iMac set up. I installed 512MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. I tried to load Mac OS 9.2.2 that I acquired from someone but it wouldn’t load. I checked the system specs with a utility on the system disc and discovered it has a 350MHz processor. I think the best I can do is OS 9.1.something but some flavor of 8 or just 9.0 would probably do fine.

Wow, it’s actually been a busy weekend.

Wrongway

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It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

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I pulled into the drive thru, got my phone out and dialed in, recorded this entry, still waited another 3-5 minutes and only moved forward 1 car length. I pulled out of line, went inside and was out the door in less than five minutes... no idea what was going on.

More Power!

As an early birthday gift, I received what every man desires... power tools.

Let me set the wayback machine about six years when we were in our previous house. The linoleum in the kitchen was not only in sad shape but also included a dated design in atrocious colors. Our solution was to install laminate flooring.

Laminate flooring is not difficult to install, although it can be a bit time consuming here and there. One of the tools I purchased for this adventure was a trim saw. It is a 12v cordless circular saw with a 4" blade. (maybe it was 4.5" or 5" but it was smaller than the standard 7-something inch circular saw.) This little gem was a life saver! It was lightweight, made quick work of sawing through the boards, and the battery lasted all day.

About two years ago, I was charging the battery when my charger fried (literally - there were blackened bits inside). I took the battery to work where I had access to a multi-volt charger for these exact batteries and learned that the charger had taken the battery with it.

I checked the local hardware stores and learned that the world of cordless power tools had moved beyond the post-style battery and on to the slide-on battery and neither a compatible battery nor charger was locally available. When I checked online, the cost of a multi-voltage charger and a replacement battery was as much as a new saw. Not having immediate use for the saw, I did not purchase a new one and eventually ended up selling the battery-less saw I had in a garage sale.

Fast forward to last month when we got a deal on laminate flooring. We were now much closer to our dream of putting laminate flooring into the living room so I've been keeping my eye out for another trim saw. I have an old, heavy, full-size, metal, corded Skil circular saw but if I'm going to do this, I want the convenience of a smaller, cordless saw. I've looked at the local home improvement center but all I can find are full-size saws.

So that brings us to yesterday (Saturday). We ended up in Oklahoma City visiting my Mother-In-Law. At one point, my wife went to Home Depot to have a key made. When she returned she reported that she was told by an associate that HD no longer carries the small trim saws. He suggested some items they did carry and also suggested a retailer who might still carry the small trim saw.

Later, we went to dinner and stopped by Lowe's to see about having a different key made that HD was not able to duplicate for us. While we were there, I went to look at the tools just to see what was available. B&D makes an 18v 6.5" circular saw that was selling for $58.99. It is also available in several combo kits. As I was looking (seriously, JUST looking) at the B&D saw as well as several other, more expensive options, we noticed the sign that all combo kits were 20% off with one exception that I will get to in a minute. The smallest B&D combo kit that Lowe's carries includes the saw, a drill and a flashlight for $99. With the 20% off, that makes it about $20 more than just buying the saw.

I decided to locate an associate to see if they carried any of the small trim saws and I was just missing them and to ask a few more questions. I had to hit one of those page-for-help buttons and wait for an associate. As I waited, I saw the wife and MIL looking at the saw, the small combo kit, and a larger combo kit. I knew they were deciding which was the best value but, mind you, *I* was still just looking.

The associate was very helpful. He said that they did carry one of the small trim saws in a special combo kit from DeWalt that included the saw, a drill and something else (it may have been a reciprocating saw) for $199... but they sold out within 30 minutes of putting them on the shelf and all of the stores statewide were showing negative inventory. Mind you, this kit included over $600 worth of tools if purchased seperately. It was a damn good value. It was also the kit that wasn't included in the sale.

Next thing I know, my MIL has hijacked the associate and is saying something about not believing the $99 B&D combo kit includes a battery charger but points out that the $139 combo kit shows a dual-battery charger in the picture. I try to tell her that no tool company is going to sell a cordless tool combo without a charger to which she replies, "You never know with some of these companies." So she has the guy open the larger kit and prove it includes the charger. Before I know what's happening, she offeres to buy me the larger kit for my birthday. I take a quick look at the display tools and tell her yes.

Now, I am one step closer to installing our laminate flooring.

Wedding Pics

I'm not supposed to blog at work so I'm sneakin' one in. If you want to see some of the pics from the wedding, check them out here.

It's just a raw dump. I haven't edited anything yet so the color and lighting is highly variable.

Still Troubled

I don't get it. I swapped out the data cable and now the system boots as quickly as it ever did. The secondary drive shows up correctly as a new volume. But try to actually DO anything and she'll freeze. Not right away, but she will eventually.

Here's the kicker. After writing zeros to the drive, re-initializing it in Windows and performing a complete format (and swapping out the data cable), I used the WD Data Lifeguard tools to perform a full scan on the drive. Yes, the same full scan that told me the drive was going bad about two months ago. Guess what it told me this time... the drive is fine. No errors. So, why won't the two drives play well together?

I was heading up to KC for my niece's wedding so I unplugged the spare drive for now.

There wasn't too much chaos when we arrived yesterday afternoon. My mother and sister were working on the flowers (my sister has some floral experience and agreed to do the flowers - what was she thinking?) and mom would later assemble the groom's cake, complete with John Deere tractor. My brother (the niece's dad) and the boys (her brothers) were all at the rehearsal and didn't return until after we all went to bed.

Right now, it's snowing in Kansas City. It's pretty cool, especially since it doesn't appear to be sticking to the roads. It should make for an interesting wedding. Precipitation on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck - was for me.

Before I ramble on too long, I'll close this chapter.

Hey Ron, Is This Better?

This post has nothing to do with the title except that Ron told me I needed to tweak my RSS settings then told me how to do it.

I am getting ready to head up to Kansas City for my niece's wedding. I was originally slated to be the photographer but after some investigation into what that involved, both de-niece and I agreed they should probably hire someone. My ability was not in question. I knew I could pull it off but we discovered that I could either enjoy the event or be the photographer... but not both. Oh, my camera WILL be there and I WILL take many pictures. But if I miss one of those shots the official photographer is expected to capture - no big deal.