A few things

With Live Journal down again I am using this space to note a few things:
* Use this phrase when noting something a long time ago: "Back when apple was a fruit and google was a big number..."  Thanks Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber!
* Saw a Nissan Leaf (a nice car) in the company parking lot.  Well aware of the fact that it doesn't use gasoline and wanting to trumpet that fact, the owner got a personalized license plate that said "BYE OIL".
* In the same lot viewed a small bumper sticker that said something like this (I may not have an exact quote here): I drank my entire bottle of beer because there are sober children in India.

On again Off again

LJ is once down thanks to DDoS attacks.  Not much to say actually.
* My new flatbed scanner arrived Friday.  Unpacked the box in the box on Saturday and brought the inside box upstairs.  Not hooked up yet.
* Wrote my first article for Journeys of the Past.  I believe I only have a tip of the iceberg when it comes to C.S. "Woody" Woodruff.  He just sort of appears out of no where and then disappears...and I have no idea what he looks like!
* Saturday mostly was trying to live out a headache, so I was pretty useless.
* After 5 Marisa and I tried out the new buffet place on N. Lombard.  Didn't have a good entree for vegetarians but was reasonably priced ($15 each with tip) and I did manage to scrape together a meal with lots of vegetables...just not a lot of protein (no tofu, no peanuts, no beans).
* We looked around at the Goodwill across the street but found nothing of interest.

DDoS for LJ

Once again, LJ is down for the count thanks to those Denial of Service attacks.

WORK: Yesterday was frustrating and rewarding.  For about 6 hours I simply tried to get to the point where I could operate the software to test and fix a smaller piece of software. 

The last frustration in this exercise of peeling the onion came from Microsoft Outlook text cutting and pasting to a remote terminal where I did my work.  It LOOKED correct but the software program complained.  I finally had to type it in myself to get it to work.

Then, for the next 6 hours, I tested, diagnosed and fixed through several iterations  this sub-program and before I came home, sometime around 8 p.m., I got it working correctly!

However, really was tired and hungry...and dirty (need a shower).

Fixed a burger with tater tots and mixed vegetables...and a glass of juice...to watch an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation called "To Thine Own Self" from the 6th season.  Just as it was getting really interesting Delbert, one of our 3 cats, jumps up on the coffee table and knocks over the full glass of juice...all over him, my legs and the floor.

This really unnerved me.  I yelled.  Delbert ran away.  I pushed aside Sirius, another of our cats who was sitting next to me on the couch.

Marisa came down to help clean up.  I just sat, frozen, for a few minutes just trying to calm down.

Eventually we got it all cleaned up and I finished my food and the episode and went to bed.

I still need a shower before going to work.

LJ down again...

Live Journal is down again.  Discovered this with first a "Varnish" 503 error when trying to access LJ, then went to the LJ status page.  Apparently the website is under a "Denial of Service" attack.  Oh well.

I didn't have much to say anyway.  Woke at 5 a.m. today with the hope I can arrive at work early and leave work early.  I am trying to do this so I can build some regularity to my life again and create a clean house with decent meals.  There is even the possibility I might get a good parking place at work!


In theory waking at 6 a.m. should work, but it hasn't if I do the slow-wake procedure which involves feeding the cats, going online, and the rest.

So, rather than rush rush, I am now waking earlier.

We shall see how long this lasts!

The Story of a Lifetime 15a

Somehow, I believe, many of the characteristics of my mother's parents have rubbed off on me, but with less intensity.  I tend to be conservative in how I spend money, but can also lose that discipline.  One thing I can say is that I don't have religious affliations, so the whole thing about not dancing is just silly.  However, I have strong moral beliefs but for myself only.  Never do I want to tell others how to live their lives as often people with strong moral convictions are want to do.  Also I feel a strong tie to the land and to nature.  In other words, I am not a city person, although I do appreciate services and entertainment options that are in an urban area.

LJ down again--Updates

LJ is down again (temporary slowness they call it), so making updates here.
* My dental appliance is not a problem that I thought it might be.  I sleep well and there are no ill-effects from wearing it all night.It is easy to make it part of a routine as I already brush my teeth every night before bed.  I just clamp the guard over my bottom teeth after brushing.  When I wake I usually go to the bathroom which is where I now force the guard off the teeth, wash it off and put it in its plastic box.  Today Sirius preceded me into the bathroom and when I did that first he had to investigate, because he didn't expect that would be my first bathroom activity, so he jumped up on the sink right after I finished putting away the guard.
* I've got a discussion going regarding what I am doing at work.  I don't know where it will lead but I am happy that it is under way.  Mainly I feel overloaded and it prevents me from being very happy at work not to mention inefficient and less productive.
* Just got a two bike rack delivered.  This rack allows two bikes to hang on top of each other.  This will save some floor space in our front area once I remove the vanity and Ikea bed.
* After more than 30 years of banking and certainly more than 3000 checks written, a machine has misinterpreted a check incorrectly. This was a big mistake, too.  The check was written to pay off a credit card.  It was interpreted as 1/100th of what the check was written for: the machine (on the credit card bank's side) inserted a decimal point which wasn't there!  Unfortunately 1% of the total is less than the minimum payment due and the credit card people started calling.  We figured out what happened and my bank says they will straighten it out by early next week.  I suppose it could have been worse: the machine could have added two extra zeros and the check would have bounced.  Then I'd owe my bank money and the credit card company would again be steamed!  This would never have happened with a human being in the system: the words were very clear that I was sending a large amount of money...but the computers don't read that part of the check!  One of these days I will send myself a check with a value spelled out in words as "blah blah blah waddity wah" and the number as .01 and see what happens.

The Story of a Lifetime 14b

Just who were John and Mary Smick?  Really, I do not know.  I only had a brief encounter with Mary (Grandma) and John died when my mom was just a teenager.  Both were very young when they came to the United States, so they didn't relate to being Germans.  Mainly they grew up as farmers and did the best they could do to raise a family and pay the bills during the Great Depression. 

My mom, for instance, tells me she had hand-me-down clothes from her older sister Jean all of her life (the exception was a new coat she got when she graduated from high school).  She didn't get well-fitting shoes, either, which led to hammer toes for the rest of her life.  There is some possibility that John actually got in trouble with creditors and why the entire family hit the road during the 1930s, driving into Oregon, staying in Ashland, Oregon for a while and later rejoining the farming community in Colfax, Washington. 

Saving money was the watchword...but so was responsibility.  There was a strong work ethic in the Smick family and a certain religious discipline: they were Seventh Day Adventists which meant, among other things, that dancing was not allowed but going to the roller skating rink was fine.

The phrase "a woman's place is in the home" was probably something that was a given for the Smicks...until my mom rebelled, much to the chagrin of Mary.  However, Mary was also smart.  After all, she took on the day to day responsibilities of managing wheat farming or making financial deals eventually to get out of farming.  So, when she see not only how my Mom was doing important work for the U.S. Army as a nurse and what it meant to Mom, she decided to become a nurse herself!

So, Mary (Grandma) was opinionated and tried to get her own way...but also listened and learned.

Mary's obstinate ways rose to the surface late in her life when my mom looked for residential care facilities or nursing homes where Mary could stay.  My mom found that some places refused to take Grandma because of her behavior problems.