Even though I have worked from home for over a decade, I still strive to wear “professional” clothes while I am at work. Here in Arizona that usually means a decent pair of shorts and a polo shirt.
For the first time that I can remember, I just finished a zoom call I was leading where I was wearing a ball cap and a hoodie, with just a plain t-shirt underneath the hoodie. I still have shorts on.
The world kept turning.
On Monday I shall be back to my “corporate garb” because it helps with my mindset during the workday, but for today, I shall relax and just get stuff done.
I’m sitting on our “ampitheatre”. The view looks like this:
Those two photos turned out better than expected, considering I just spun my MacBook Air around and pointed the webcam at the view. Hmmm.
Anyway, I’m out back, looking over our 2 1/2 acres, and hearing coyotes making a ruckus on the other side of the wash. This, in turn, is getting the dogs at the neighbors worked up. So there’s barking from them and a yip yip party from the coyotes. A bird to my right is making some noise as well. Lucky and Jinx are silent on the matter. They’re content in the house.
I think about these coyotes that have their yip yip party together, doing the whole ‘travel in packs’ thing. Good for them.
Today I remarked on Mastodon that I’m feeling like I don’t have a tribe. Oh, I have a wonderful family, both here at the house and back East, but outside of that, I don’t really have a lot of folks I would consider part of a tribe in these parts.
I attribute this feeling to growing older and my expectations of and approach to life changing as time passes. My politics are left of center but nowhere near the “far left”. For going out and socializing I’m content in a quiet beer and/or sports pub enjoying that sort of thing versus going to a gay bar and thump thump thumping my way through a sweaty crowd in time to a remix of a song from the ‘80s that the boys think is da bomb. I don’t vape in any flavor. I don’t identify as “queer”; in truth I identify as “fatigued”, but if I had to put a label on my sexuality, despite my Uncle Arthur like antics on my videos, I’m “more guy than gay”. I feel like mainstream entertainment like television shows has been dumbed down to Lippincott Reader K, and honestly, I have little patience for the willful ignorance that has plagued this 2020s society.
Boy I sound cranky. Small wonder I don’t have a lot of friends.
I talked to my friend Matt back east yesterday and it was so wonderful to have a conversation with him. I’m hoping to make a trip to see him some time next year. He’s the older brother I never had.
I get that I have a good life. I actually have a great life. And it’s not like I’m no longer a loner. I’m still very much a loner, I’m just a loner that wants to be around likeminded people once in a while. The digital connections are enjoyable but not a replacement. Maybe I need to talk to a therapist or something. It’d be like a paid tribe, I guess.
I attribute some of these feelings to the head cold I’ve had this week. I’ve been going to bed early and we haven’t done much of anything. Plus, the holidays are looming and for the past decade or so I haven’t really felt the excitement of the holidays. Earl has insisted we light up the Christmas decorations even though it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet.
I’m too fatigued to stand my ground so let the rest of the family have some extra holiday joy.
My mood is better than it appears to be in that photo. It’s Friday, the weather is gorgeous, and I actually got a decent night’s sleep last night.
Wrapping up the week is always an enjoyable endeavor for me. It’s a shame that I don’t really get into the groove until Thursday afternoon. Calm down boss, I’m kidding a little bit. I’m a josher, I am.
We are suppose to have a weekend of record heat here in this part of Arizona, so my hike tomorrow will probably be on one of the trails at a higher elevation. I like it up there; there’s more trees to enjoy. The only downside is the amount of time it takes to get up there.
Even though we can see Mount Lemmon from the back yard, and it looks quite impressive, it’s still 20 miles away as the crow flies.
I wonder if crows actually fly from our back lawn to Mount Lemmon. Perhaps they’re on their way up to Flagstaff or something.
After that tangent I believe it’s time to set down the MacBook and just enjoy the moment.
In 1979 our local grocery store, which we called “the P&C” and was actually called “P&C Foods”, upgraded their checkout systems from the venerable mechanical NCR Class 5 cash registers to Electronic Cash Registers made by Data Terminal Systems of Maynard, Massachusetts. I’ve included a photo of the type of cash register above; photo courtesy of a screen cap from a Shutterstock video. I don’t know who the cashier is, and the video is from another grocery store somewhere else in the country, but she seems friendly enough.
The P&C installed Data Terminal Systems Model 440 cash registers. These electronic cash registers replaced the functions of their mechanical predecessors in that prices were still entered by the cashier, departments were selected, and there was no scanning available at the time. Other store chains in the area had these new electronic cash registers as well and being the young geek I was at the time, I was able to identify by the printing on the receipt whether the store in question went with the “Series 400” cash registers or the more simplistic (but still quite capable) “Series 300” cash registers. I do remember the Series 400 cash registers were able to do rudimentary price look ups; at “The P&C”, a “53 PL#” followed by a price on the receipt meant my mother bought a loaf of Wonder Bread. After the “53 PL#” was a price, like “.99 GR”. Nowhere did it indicate this was a loaf of bread, it was something I had to figure out for myself.
I was fascinated with these electronic cash registers and through hours and hours of careful studying of the receipts my mother left in the bottom of grocery bags, I was able to figure out how these cash registers worked. A watchful eye of cashiers at work helped my observational understanding. Two cashiers at “the P&C” were a favorite; one was named Delores and she was a gangly sort of young woman always stationed on Register #2. Another, a woman by the name of Betty Brown, was the personification of a sigh; she always seemed resigned to her job and she was usually on Register #1. She didn’t move as quickly on the DTS 440 as Delores did on Register #2.
There isn’t a lot of information online about Data Terminal Systems of Maynard, Mass. My scant research has revealed that it was led by a pilot by the name of Bob Collings of Stow, Mass. From what I am able to gather, he left Digital Equipment Corporation, also of Maynard, Mass. (and a company I worked for in the late 1980s) and struck out on his own after Sears & Roebuck approaches Digital to have them computerize their point of sale operations and CEO and founder Ken Olsen turned down the opportunity. Apparently Mr. Collings felt there was ample opportunity for Electronic Cash Registers that were able to chat with one another in the marketplace, and he, along with other DECcies, formed Data Terminal Systems.
At one time I had a large collection of receipts from these cash registers, as I saved that sort of thing while I studied them, but I believe they have long been lost. After all, it’s been decades.
I would love to find one of the cash registers in a thrift store or flea market to see if I can figure out how they tick. From the little information available online about DTS, I believe they were 4-bit machines, with processors made by Rockwell. The earlier models didn’t have scanning, but all models were designed to by upgraded to a more powerful model by field personnel. I do know they had “Star Trek (The Original Series)” look to them and I found them very nifty. I can still hear the distinct sounds of the Seiko EP-101 (later known as “Epson”) printer in my head.
My search continues for equipment by Data Terminal Systems. I hope to create a website dedicated to the memories and information of this company that started the Electronic Cash Register revolution as we know it today.
Maybe one day I’ll stumble across one of these registers at a flea market here in Chicago. I know these machines are what got me started in computers to begin with.
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.
