Deb's Day

 

In honor of Deb's Day, we're taking a look at her first encounter at home with her sister, Mary, who had just come home from the hospital.

She simply could not contain her excitement about having a sister! And this excitement continues to this day.

She often arrives at home after a long day's work with her ear stuck to her phone, having talked (hands-free) with her sister the entire time.

Because she loves her sister.

And she loves babies. And little kids.

And you can see that in the way she just can't stop trying to shower affection on her.

(You can also see how she and James were constantly butting heads, but that's another story!)

We love you, Deb! And we're glad you finally found someone to share all that girly stuff with!

Cell Phone Surgery

 

The Patient is Prepped

Cell phones are the bane of human existence. A parasite, if you will. Everyone is dependent on them, addicted to them, annoyed by them, and spends far too much money on them.

I inherit mine from my children. Hand-me-ups.

This model (Motorola G6) was obtained from my daughter some time ago (I don't recall exactly when) as she was upgrading to something far better. It has served me well for a long time, allowing me to communicate across vast distances from the convenience of whatever location I happen to be in, including in the middle of nowhere, U.S.A, on a trip to Someplace Else.  It also enables me to confirm a the contents of the shopping list -- including the alternative selections for items for which the desired brand or size is unavailable -- while wandering through the grocery store without the company of my beloved wife. (This is known as "saving my bacon".)

It also allows me to conduct business while away from home, acting as a internet hotspot so that I can attend meetings, connect to servers and lab stations, and accomplish all manner of work-related activities.

It also links me to a world of social media wherein I can spend countless hours connecting to people across the globe conversing about topics of interest and opinion.

It also allows me to browse through the libraries of knowledge across the world, full of treasure and trash, to fill up my mind with more clutter than can be imagined.

And, if I'm not careful, it can so fill up my brain (and my time) that there is nothing left for the here and now, and all the things that need to be done around the house, in the neighborhood, the community, the over-arching network of reality that we all The Real World.

Sometimes they break.

Sometimes they become obsoleted by the unstoppable march of progress.

Sometimes they become just another pile of electronic detritus collecting dust on the desk (or shelf) of an geek who doesn't have enough sense to get rid of useless things.

Dead Phones

This latest model -- the one pictured at the top -- started having issues several months ago. The battery wasn't holding a charge very well, so I replaced it.

And then it worked for a while, intermittently. But it still wasn't consistent. It would charge up to 50% and then stop. Or it would take all day long to charge up. Or it would only charge with one cable and not another.

Using my professional troubleshooting skills -- gleaned from years of DIY fixit sessions -- I wiggled the connectors and noticed that it seemed to have a direct effect on the ability to charge. Unfortunately, that meant that the trouble was not in the cables themselves, but in the little connector at the bottom of the phone.

So it could either be one of two things: (1) The connector contacts are oxidized and need to be cleaned; or (2) the connect itself, which is soldered directly to the 'motherboard' of the phone, has become dislodged or cracked. I was hoping for the former, since fixing a broken connect on the little motherboard is a bit above my pay grade.

But I still had to take the silly thing apart in order to have access to the connector. And remove the battery. Because spraying de-oxidizer directly on the connector while the phone is 'live' -- even if it isn't turned on -- can turn into some lovely sparks and short-circuits and fireworks. Which is generally frowned upon in DIY (unless you want to make a viral video).

So I got to this point:

Close-up of the connector

Prior to performing the de-oxidation, I disconnected both the charging plug (on the right) and the battery (via the little connector at the top of the picture with the red and black wires going to it). Note that there is a little black rubber cover over the contacts of the connector; that had to be pulled back to provide access. Once I had that pulled back, I sprayed the de-oxidizer, then went over it with a brush to try to wipe some of the oxidant off. Then put it all back together. And tried charging it.

Success! It went up to 100% fairly quickly. I didn't check to see if it was doing a Fast Charge, but it was fast enough.

So now I can get back to my social media addiction.

The Joys of Clutter

 

After Today's trip to the Storage Facility

What you see represents over half a dozen trips to the storage facility, and we're not even close to filling the thing up -- although we're going to run into some challenges when it comes time to start packing stuff in around the car; I may have to build some kind of framework around it like the loft I built in my own garage. This only represents a tip of the ol' iceberg.

This picture doesn't do justice to the depth of this space. It's twenty feet deep and ten feet wide, and we've got boxes and other assorted paraphernalia jammed all the way up to the back wall. We are trying to leave a lane open next to the car so that we can pull it out if we need to.

But there is still so much clutter in the house. We're trying to go through it carefully, to get rid of the things we don't need, to reduce it to a manageable level.

But we've got over twenty years of memories (books, artwork, documents, etc.) to go through, and deciding what to keep and what to throw away is an emotional roller coaster. Some days, I'm ready to toss it all out on its ear just to simplify our lives; other times, I want to wallow in meloncholia and memory, re-living the days when we were all young and silly and had a whole life ahead of us.

We're in the process of having all our photos and videos professionally archived to digital format, which is expensive but worth it; there's no way we'd have the time to do it ourselves, not with our day jobs and all the other things we have to do to keep the house running smoothly. Then if something ever happens to our own physical media, we still have the archives.

And perhaps in the meantime, we can reclaim the space it was all taking up so that we can move on with our lives.

The hardest part for me is getting rid of all my old electronic gear -- the broken stuff -- because I've always dreamed of having the time to just sit and fix it all. In face, when I was in high school, my dream was to open up my own fixit shop so I could just tinker with radios and TVs and toasters and appliances all day long, fixing everything and making people happy while having a wonderful time (because at heart I'm just an overpaid tinkerer).

But nowadays it's very difficult to do that because it's such a throwaway society and everything is made of plastic (which is near impossible to repair to any useful condition) and so dirt cheap that it isn't worth fixing. I hope that changes someday but the whole point of technology is to improve to the point where everything is ubiquitous and cheap. Unfortunately, real craftsmanship is (mostly) too expensive for normal human beings to afford and no one wants to pay someone to fix something when the labor cost far outweighs the cost of parts.

So I keep lots of ancient hardware around on the off chance I'll finally find the time to tinker with it, and the mountain of clutter keeps getting higher and higher.

Storing it in a facility like this is just shoving the problem a little further down the road. At some point, we're going to have to finish the de-cluttering process. And it's going to hurt.

Friday Fowling Fun

I'd never heard of this strange sport called "Fowling". Well, it's not actually a sport so much as it is an excuse to get a large group of people together to eat, drink and be silly. And pretend to get exercise. It's been around quite a long time, but this is the first I've heard of it.

Basically, it's a mashup of bowling and football -- thus the name. Apparently 'bowling-ball' was too confusing. And already taken.

For us, especially for Cheryl, it was just an excuse to get together with all her fellow teachers from the middle school and have fun without having to deal with the children. Lots of food, drink, socializing, and (for those brave enough) throwing footballs at bowling pins.

We didn't actually partake of the exercise portion of the evening -- except for exercising our mouths -- but it was still a lot of fun.

And I could tell Cheryl was having fun because she turned Italian and started talking with her hands. It was so much fun to see her smiling and having a good time!

She introduced me to lots of people (whose names I instantly forgot), but the ones I most enjoyed were the ones with the crazy backgrounds and even crazier stories.

You have to be on the crazy side to work with middle schoolers. They're all certifiable!! (Just like the teachers...)

After a couple hours, we were all peopled out and ready to head home. But it was certainly a fun evening. And the food was filling: Pizza, pasta (red & white), breadsticks, salad, chocolate-chip cookies, and super-dense chocolate brownies (with frosting on top).

And for the first time in a million years, we got to have a 'tab' at the bar! Endless drinks! "Just put it on my tab." I felt like a character in an old movie!

Of course, I was only able to get through two Cokes in two hours. I have my limits!

We're such noobs about it -- I had to ask the server behind the bar when it came time to "settle up" because I wasn't sure how that worked. Back in the old days, it was a cash-only business -- we don't generally carry cash around anymore -- and even when people started switching over to credit/debit, it was still standard to tip with cash instead of credit. But apparently it's just normal nowadays to tip on the card. Which is easy but kinda weird. When I tip my barber, I still prefer to use cash because it seems more personal and thus more meaningful. Am I crazy? Or just old-fashioned?

Here's a badly-framed photo of the fowling experience from behind the 'fence' (which protects the casual observer from getting a face-full of football):

The best part of the Fowling experience is watching people try to throw a football. And because the 'lanes' are not protected from one another, it's hilarious to watch the ball bouncing between the lanes and knocking other people's pins over!

My Poor Plants

The current state of our winter garden, house-bound but warm!

	One day when we were wandering through the grocery store getting items for the Cooking Club, we happened upon one of those little displays which featured 'live' basil plants. Thinking it might be nice to have a source of fresh basil on hand, we decided to purchase one. And this was that plant: our first kitchen basil. Which sat near a window sill for the longest time, drinking in all the sunshine and water it could stand. It has waxed and waned as conditions and circumstances changed, sometimes flourishing with many leaves, sometimes looking like it was about to kick the bucket. We generally leave it inside the house so as not to bring in any bugs which might be attracted to its fantastic scent. And it seems to be doing all right this winter.
	Last year, for one particular recipe, we needed a bit more basil than normal, so we purchased an additional basic plant for the classroom. It stayed in the classroom for a week or so, then came look looking sad and forlorn. It looked like it was reviving itself over the course of the Christmas break, but then started looking sad again, and did not respond to the tender loving care it was receiving. So I put it out in the plant fixit shop where I do all my winter composting to see if something can be salvaged from this sad-looking little plant.
	Our original strawberry plant hung out (literally) all summer long on the deck, dangling from a very strong cable which had been wrapped around the beam of the pergola. I don't remember where the original plant came from; the planter had been sitting under our deck for the longest time, filled with dirt but not really growing anything since the last time we'd used it many years ago with our last pergola. In the beginning of the summer, it was doing quite well, then some varmint (we strongly suspect the skunk) started digging in it, so we had to hang it up high where he couldn't get to it. It has faded back a bit since winter set in but we're hoping it will recover soon.
	This started out in the summer as a runner from our main strawberry plant. I just happened to have a nearly-empty pot sitting next to it, perfect for colonizing, so the strawberry planted itself and I just kept watering it. I'm not sure how well it will fare inside but we'll see how it goes.
	This cutting came from a massive sweet potato plant which started growing in the pantry and we never had time to eat it, so I just put it on the windowsill in the kitchen and the vines just kept getting longer and longer until finally I had to cut most of the body (and make sweet potato fries out of it; or was it part of the sweet potatoes we had for Thanksgiving? I forget) so all that is left is the top of it plus all the vines. I really need to get this thing replanted in some proper dirt!
	Cheryl said she wanted to get some ferns going in the front landscaping so I got this one from the local plant store. It's a Boston Fern, said to be nigh on to indestructible (which is good considering who is trying to take care of it!) and has only complained a couple of times when I forgot to water it for a couple weeks and all the inner fronds turned brown. We'll just see about that 'indestructible' claim!

Manic Weekend

We have a new resident at the house. Her arrival was sudden; it was one of those situations where a need arose and we needed to act on it quickly. Obviously we weren't prepared for it -- who is? -- but Cheryl kicked into high gear and got the bedroom ready, and I dealt with the issue of driveway space by locating a storage facility for the Camry so there's enough room for an extra car.

We became aware of the need on Friday, and spent the weekend making preparations (except for the storage facility, which wasn't open til Monday) so that our guest could be accommodated by Sunday night.

It was fun, but hectic.

So now we have a 10x20 storage space into which we are putting a lot of boxes which have been sitting around the house for millions of years, packing them tightly around the Camry so it is completely insulated for the winter; and we're setting up the front parlor as a workspace for her; and the third bay of the garage is almost cleared up enough to set up my winter shop.

And the cats have someone else to play with!  

Computers are Stupid (So I keep lots of backups)

I don't trust computers. They stop working at the worst times. And it is far too complicated to figure out what went wrong.

Many, many years ago when we were young and silly and having way too much fun in our little apartment in Everett, Cheryl and I had a personal computer desktop (not a laptop because nobody had laptops back in those days unless they were ridiculously rich) which ran MS-DOS 5.0 -- the latest and greatest Disk Operating System in the whole wide world! -- and we had a multi-app program we used for documents and databases and spreadsheets -- I can't recall what it was called off-hand -- and this desktop boasted a super-amazing 40 megabyte hard drive with lots and lots of very important data on it.

And then the hard drive died.

And I wasn't yet into the habit of making backups.

Ever since then, besides becoming a fanatic about making backups, I've become increasingly annoyed at the relative delicacy of electronic data equipment. "Frailty, they name is Computer" -- which is from Shakespeare or someone, I believe. And so true!

Over the years, I've gone through at least twenty desktop computers and four or five laptops (and still have most of the motherboards to prove it), along with various small computing devices (cell phones, electronic readers, etc.) which have provided ample evidence that none of them are to be trusted.

And if it isn't the hardware that fails, it's the software that goes bad.

Back in the early days of CP/M and DOS (70s - 80s), it was relatively easy to fix an issue, because the software wasn't that complicated. Then they introduced Windows 3.0 (1990 - onward!) and things got a bit more complicated. And from that point it's been nothing but trouble.

I'm not even going to discuss Apple. That's an entirely different topic.

==

Dell Latitude - with Attitude!

I'd been having trouble with my "go-to" laptop, the Dell Latitude I got from the Re-PC store a few years ago. It has all the bells and whistles I need, and other than running a bit hot sometimes, it's been very reliable.

I also have a docking station for it, which has allowed me to expand its capabilities quite a bit, with extra USB hubs and video connectors.

But the other day when I turned it on, it refused to boot up. I panicked, thinking something was wrong with the computer. Then, on a whim, I unplugged it from the docking station -- and it worked just fine.

Docking Station

So now I was worried about the docking station, thinking there was something seriously wrong with it, until a few hours later when I realized that the laptop battery was not being charged (I'd switched the power adapter from the docking station directly to the laptop). Then it became obvious that it was the power adapter and not the docking station that was at fault.

Luckily, I have a good supply of those around, so I swapped a different one in, and the laptop worked fine for awhile.

Until the next day when I booted it up again.

Boot Process Lock-Up

This time, it hung up during the boot process. I didn't panic ... yet. It's done this before.

But after about 45 minutes with still no boot completion, I cycled power on it.

And now it was able to get to the Log In prompt. So I entered my login information and hit the Enter key and ...

Login Process Lock-Up

It sat there spinning for another 45 minutes.

Now what?

Being the impetuous geek engineer, I did the obvious thing - type Control-Alt-Delete to bring up the login menu again. 

And selected 'Task Manager'. Which brought up the Task Manager so that I could see what was keeping the computer from booting up.

Turns out It was the stupid Microsoft Update application, the one that tries to keep your Windows 11 operating system up-to-date with the latest and greatest security fixes and application updates.

It was taking far too long for my tastes. And when I checked further into it, instead of being a simple minor update, it was updating a TON of files. And somewhere along the line, it was having trouble getting rid of the OLD files.

Oddly enough, rebooting the machine (not powering down this time) did the trick. Somehow it kicked the machine hard enough that it was able to delete the old files and install the new ones, and then finally boot up so that I could get some work/play done.

Only took a couple hours.

Stupid computer.

**

This isn't a particularly novel experience. After working in the computer engineering industry for over 35 years, it's par for the course. But it reminded me that, for the most part, I've never had a computer that didn't have issues either with the hardware, the software, or both.

Right now I have eight on or near my work desk (not counting my actual work laptop), and each one has a peculiar limitation or quirk or failure point which keep its from being a perfectly functional machine. Some examples:

• Cheryl's ancient laptop - only one core CPU, runs very slow, plus none of the USB ports on the right-hand side work.
• Cheryl's newer laptop - the power port connector broke inside so I fixed it, but now some of the USB ports don't work. And the plastic case is just falling apart.
• An old laptop from Mom which will not boot up in Windows but runs OK in Linux -- except that the audio hardware is screwed up so it only works intermittently.
• An old Mac laptop from Mom which runs very slow even though I stuffed it with more memory. It's about as fast as it's going to get, which is slow.
• Two tiny sub-laptops which I got from church because they were just not powerful enough to keep up with the applications used in the Children's Ministry. They are incredibly slow.
• The old Vista desktop which we got way back in 2007. It was awesome back then, with two CPU cores, but over time became very, very slow. Runs fine as a Linux server, and is my testbed for random desktop hardware like full-size hard drives, PCI cards, etc.
• An old desktop I got from my father-in-law which still runs so I'm converting into a Linux server.
• An even older desktop which I use just for fun. Got rid of the case a long time ago because it was more fun to build my own out of wood. I was originally using it to test old power supplies, but those were discarded in a purge a couple years ago, so now its just waiting patiently on the shelf.

This reminds me of my cars. They're all old, each with quirks and foibles, but they work good enough for us. And these days, who can afford a new car anyway?

And I love working on cars.

 

Weird Al

There is a huge list of goals for this year. I'll be surprised if any of them actually are met, but it's fun to dream.

Garage

Ladder to Loft, Looking Towards Future Wall

Alternate Workbench with Paint Shelf

Lawn Mower pre-Winterization

Top of Table Saw Covered with Saw

Snow Blower Chassis

Snow Blower Engine

Primary Workbench with Tool Bag

Electrical Workbench with Batteries

• Pack up and store all the Christmas materials (tree, ornaments, etc.) in the loft.
• Finish the front wall in the 3rd bay so that I can insulate it and use it as my "winter shop".
• Clean & rebuild the snow blower.
• Clean & winterize the lawn mower.

Cars

• Check all car brakes, fix if necessary.
• Check Corolla transmission because it's acting funny.
• Check Rav engine because it has an odd low-frequency noise.
• Fix/Adjust the Rav brakes, including the parking brake.
• Finish sealing Sonata paint patch on rear wheel well.
• Assist Mary in getting her check to a Transmission shop for a check-up.
• Rewire the Camry (to fix the intermittent trouble indications).
• Prep the Camry for the frame rail de-rusting/re-welding in the spring.

House

• Winter deep-clean (vacuuming, mopping, dusting, paint touch-up).
• Finish patching the wall near the mud room door.
• Re-caulk the master bath.
• Rearrange the front room to be an office space for family/guests.
• Check the attic for possible air gaps, leaks, missing insulation.
• Continue the work started last spring to install flooring in the attic space.
• Finish the basement baseboard & drop-ceiling (when it becomes vacant).

Gardening

• Turn over the outside compost every week.
• Mount the GrowLight near the houseplants so they don't die.
• Start the new seedlings to plant in spring.
• Rebuild/re-organize the garden tool workbench/shelf in front of the third bay of the garage.

That's just the list off the top of my head. There are so many others that I lost count! Meanwhile, there are many other long-term projects on my mind that don't have any specific schedule or timetable, but they are items I'd like to get started as soon as possible.

Digitize all our photos & videos

We started this activity this summer, as a friend of ours started a company to perform this vital service. It's not cheap, but it is something we'd really like to have someone else do because we just don't have the time. I dropped the ball on this one at the beginning of winter due to work deadlines and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year holiday events.

Complete the porch winterization

I have a plan for closing in the front porch in order to prevent the wind and rain and snow and ice from getting onto it, something along the lines of that screened-in porch we had on our house in Richmond, so that we could even hang out there and be relatively warm even when the weather is cold. So far, I've put together some prototype framing with covers, but it's going to take a lot more work and I'm running out of time.

Re-organize the office

The office is a mess right now because I've had it all to myself, and it got completely trashed when I was trying to put together Christmas cards - I don't multi-task well, and there really wasn't much time between panics at work - so I'd like to optimize the space such that other people can use it as well. We're still keeping Mary's room as the guest room, so we're trying to set up the front room as the alternate office -- but because it's open to the rest of the house and has no doors, there's not much in the way of privacy, so it's difficult to concentrate on work there. But if I can manage to make just a little bit more room in the office I'm using now, it might be more conducive to sharing.

That's all I have for now. I'll think of more later, if I have any time to think about it. Which is not likely, as time just keeps slipping away...

2023 Begins

 

The new year has begun. I wasn't done with the old one; there are still far too many unfinished projects around here.

But that's the way time works, isn't it? We never have enough time to complete all the things we want to.

If I dwell too long on that thought, I'm paralyzed, and that makes it worse.

We started going through our possessions last year in an attempt to purge the clutter, starting in the garage loft and attic which contains some items unseen since we moved to this house over eighteen years ago. We didn't get very far. In the end, we threw out a lot of junk only to make room for more junk.

Where does it all come from?

But it isn't just the junk that needs to go; it's also the dreams and aspirations. There just isn't enough time in life to pursue them all.

Perhaps I should clarify: there isn't enough time in my life to pursue all my goals. And that is primarily because I am not a person of Action so much as I am a person of Thought & Imagination.

When I walk into a room that needs to be uncluttered, for example, nothing happens for a long time. Because it takes me a long time to figure out what I'm doing, where I'm even going to start. My imagination kicks into high gear and catalogs and sorts and moves things virtually before my hand touches anything. Far too often, this process runs into a complete mental lock-up because there are simply too many things to handle, or too many prerequisite steps that must be performed, or both.

And when I finally start doing something, most of the available time is gone, and only a small amount of actual uncluttering gets done before I have to stop and move on to the next priority/emergency.

My brain is my worst enemy.

I overthink everything.

And underperform everything.

(And Time is a thief!)

I'd like to purge my brain this year -- removing the goals and dreams that are, at this point in my life, pointless or unreachable, in order to focus on the attainable ones.

If I could just figure out what they are.

One day at a time, I suppose.

Today, my goal is to get in a good day's work at my job, enjoy being with my lovely wife, and not get stressed out.

Wish me luck!