November 2012

North Syracuse, New York.

So Earl and I are on our first night of our vacation. Tomorrow morning, at the bright and early time of 0556 ET, we will be on a play headed for Cleveland. From there we will hop to Houston, with our scheduled arrival time at 1045 CT. It’s an early start to the day, but at least we will be able to enjoy the day tomorrow and do some of our initial exploring of the fourth largest city in the United States. We are very excited about relaxing and exploring this vacation.

Because we have to get up really early tomorrow morning, we decided to stay near the Syracuse Airport to avoid the crazy drive in the pre-milking hours of the day. So we are stationed at the Holiday Inn Express on So. Bay Rd. in No. Syracuse. I love using those old style abbreviations in that previous sentence because when I was a kid all the road signs says “So. Bay Rd.” and “No. Syracuse”. I wonder if they still use those older abbreviations in other parts of the country. We’ll find out that point in the Houston area tomorrow.

We don’t have a lot of plans made for this vacation other than a tour of the Space Center on Tuesday. I am really looking forward to that. We might meet up with our friend Jay , whom we met for the first time (in person) in Toronto almost a decade ago, for lunch or drinks or something like that. The main focus of this vacation is to lose ourselves in a relaxing time. I’m looking forward to doing just that.

To start the vacation off, a photo. I call this picture of me, “Use of Effects To Mask Poor Lighting Conditions.”

30 November 2012 by Fun and Games Dept 1

Clean.

So yesterday the mound of laundry waiting to be washed was about waist high. That’s quite a bit of laundry. I don’t mind doing laundry, but it is a little bit difficult to get to doing laundry when one works all day, does the whole supper thing, heads to the gym and runs the little errands that need to be done since one works all day. I have no idea how people with kids and the like keep up with it all. But I managed to get the laundry mostly done so Earl and I can get ready for our vacation. Tonight we pack, tomorrow after work we hit the road. I’m looking forward to the adventure.

There’s something about clutter reminding you that it needs to be taken care of that can be more daunting than the actual chore of doing something about the clutter. It’s kind of like when you’re used to doing your own thing at work, like I am with working from home, and someone suggests that you should book an appointment or meeting or something. The prospect of having to structure your life around this appointment can be more daunting than the actual meeting itself. Or maybe that’s just the way I think. I like to feel free, and entries on my daily calendar can make me feel unfree. But I cope.

Inspired by the laundry accomplishments yesterday, I ended up cleaning out some cupboards and heaving out cat beds that Tom has never used in his life. I don’t know that I have ever known a cat to use the actual cat bed. They might use the box or sleep between said cat bed and the adjacent wall, but sleep in the actual cat bed? Nah, cats have better things to do. They have free calendars with little worries.

Maybe I should take a cue from them and sleep on the waist high pile of dirty laundry next time.

29 November 2012 by Ponderings and Musings 3

Retro!

I miss TV theme songs. This one clocks in at 100 seconds; one would NEVER find a theme song of this length on today’s television.

Here’s “Different Worlds”, sung by Maureen McGovern, from the second season of “Angie”.

28 November 2012 by Geek 2

Glass.

I really like the concepts shown in this video, and I find it interesting that this technology is being developed in Upstate New York. The future looks wicked cool.

28 November 2012 by Geek 6

Step Aside.

So I posted a photo on Facebook and Instagram yesterday when this clock arrived, but I felt the need to share this on my blog, so here it goes.

This is the newest clock in my collection of clocks from The Standard Electric Time Company. Date stamped 1950, this clock is a model AR-2 (which was a fairly new model back in that day). The AR-2 means “Automatic Resetting with two wires”. Like the other school clocks in the house, this clock is tied to the computer in the basement that advances it on the minute (with all the other clocks) using 24 VDC to do so. The automatic resetting part would be a 48 VDC impulse on the 59th minute of the hour, but I’m not using that functionality because the other clocks in the house don’t do that and it would be bad to try to make them do that.

I’ve pretty much stopped buying clocks on ebay but this one is younger brother to the type of clocks that were found in my elementary school and was different enough that it made it a worthwhile addition to the collection. Upon it’s arrival, I put the proper movement in it again (the previous owner had converted it to quartz) and I cleaned up the paint splatters and polished up the wood so that it would pass Bear Inspection (the husbear’s approval process). The only thing I couldn’t do was repair the little dimple that has found itself over the “10” mark. I guess it adds character. I hope it’s not a bullet mark or something wild.

This beautiful clock can now be found in our kitchen.

It’s good to step aside from technology once in a while and lose yourself in a hobby that doesn’t remind you of work. I’m really happy with this clock. Now I have extra clocks in the basement that I’m going to clean up. I’m saving them for a local school that still has this type of clock system in their building; I hope to help them maintain the clocks for a while and save the taxpayers a little bit of money while maintaining the original clocks found in the building.

28 November 2012 by Fun and Games Dept Geek 4

BN.

The 2004 Motorola Flip Phone at the next table is screaming for its charger. Earl has a hot green tea with a couple squirts of honey. Jamie is reading a bunch that he is contemplating purchasing. I am reading and responding to emails.

All is normal at Barnes and Noble.

“I’d like to write a blog entry before I leave”, I muse.

“It took you an hour to respond to an email.” This is accompanied by a glare.

I send out an all-points Tweet and Facebook status update:

Someone give that old woman a charger for her rotary flip phone so it stops beeping!

Earl looks at his phone and starts doing something electronic. Jamie continues to read the book he might buy.

I get a look from the husband. He says to me, deadpan, “Sooner or later my bowels are going to explode.”

And so ends this blog entry.

27 November 2012 by Fun and Games Dept 4

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

November 2012
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