morrowlife

Here’s the attic of the oldest largest house in Ogallala, Nebraska. We enjoyed our tour there. They acted like they were glad to see us, and they let us look at, touch, and play with just about everything there. Quite an interesting and unusual museum. I had to do a little more retouching on this picture than normal (which is none). Hopefully, my Loyal Readers will enjoy it.

Finished the Special Management Training class today. The quality of the training was just about as good as it was yesterday. I’ll be glad to get back to work tomorrow. I drove again today and am looking forward to riding the train tomorrow. I certainly get the chance to listen to a lot of podcasts when I drive, but I’m looking forward to working on my current Gadget program, reading a little in my book (started a new one today, but more of that a little later), and maybe taking a quick nap here and there. I’m still toying with the idea of getting a cheap car to park at the station in Santa Clara, but I hate to spend that much money to save a little more than an hour every day. Maybe I just need to get more efficient during my shuttle bus time.

There was a court of honor at Young Men this evening. Unfortunately, we’re too new here for the boys to have won any awards, although Loyal Reader Number One was supposed to receive his first Eagle Palm. Need to figure out what went wrong there. Loyal Reader Number Two wasn’t able to attend summer camp this year, so he really missed out on a lot of merit badges, not to mention fun. Don’t worry, LRN2 – you’ll definitely get to go next year.

Loyal Reader Number Four has been working very hard on one room at a time to get the remaining things put away. So far, I know she’s attacked the family room and loft, and they both look great. She was also going to work on our bedroom. For all I know, she may have had brilliant success, but I haven’t been in there to find out yet. I’ll know shortly – I’m just about ready for bed.

Finished another Wodehouse book this afternoon during a break in the SMT. The Coming of BIll was anything but a rollicking comedy, but it was always entertaining and kept me very engaged. It had something to do with Upper Class Twits, of course. Look for it in the Recently Completed list. I’ve added my new current Morrowlife Book Club book over there on the right. Have a look! The Scientific American Boy is old. It’s real, real old. Amazon tells me it was published in 1905 and is “a collection of science and nature activities for boys told in a fictional story.” It’s available on gutenberg.org, of course. It ought to be a lot of fun. I’ll let you know.

Hasta manana.

Not much to say about this one except that I want to go camping. Soon.

Short shrift today. I have other things to do and need to get to bed at a human hour tonight.

The house people were in again today. They hooked up the ethernet line for the loft, which had been an irritant since we had to run a line across the hallway to connect in there. Loyal Readers One, Two, and Four went to Modesto to interview a possible piano teacher this afternoon. After visiting one they definitely don’t want to use the other day, they were relieved to discover that this one appears to be outstanding, and the price is right too. They have an appointment with one more teacher, but they’re wavering on whether it’s even worth keeping that appointment. LRN2 is even wavering on whether to continue organ lessons or switch back to the piano – this teacher is that good. He’s still going to talk with an organ teacher or two, though.

I went to the first day of a two-day Special Management Training class today. It’s supposed to change my life. I’m withholding judgment on that. I’ve been through so many management fads that I have a real hard time taking any of these things seriously anymore. They had a Motivational Speaker all afternoon. He was entertaining and did all the Motivational Speaker things – had us stand up, sit down, fight fight fight; paced back and forth in an excited way all afternoon, told Heartwarming True Stories, etc. They gave us a copy of his book. At the end of the day, he passed out boards and had us all break them with a karate chop. Hi-yaaa!

No more today. See you on Wednesday.

This was in our campground in Wyoming. I’ll put up the other side of the sign tomorrow. You’ll just have to wonder until then what other trails passed through that particular KOA.

I drove to work again today. Took two hours to get there and an hour and forty minutes to get home. That’s compared with a minimum of two and a half hours each way on the train. Of course, we have to temper that difference with the fact that there’s at least something to be gained by working on the train, riding the train costs less than the gas, and the twice-daily walk across campus is good exercise. On the other hand, I’d rather spend that hour or so of working time at the office in the morning and at home in the evening. Decision, decisions.

That’s about all that’s on my mind these days. Pretty simple life, huh? Worked like a sled dog on Saturday. We got all the rest of the blinds installed and a bunch of stuff moved around and organized. The house is gradually starting to look pretty good, although there’s still lots of stuff to find a home for. And don’t even get me started on my chances of getting the truck into the garage. Grim.

The Pool People are coming tomorrow to pour the deck. We’re getting closer. I’ll have to take a picture or two – should have been doing it all along, shouldn’t I? I think the only thing they have left after tomorrow is to put in the plaster. Oh, and install the pumps and heater and hook up all the electric stuff and gas and get the plumbing hooked up to inlets and outlets inside the pool and fill it up with water. Otherwise, we’re practically ready to swim.

The house people came today (finally) and fixed our laundry room sink and the bathtub faucet and promised to come back and fix the rest of our problems Real Soon Now. Nice to have them back on track after they fired the nice guy who was helping us before.

Time for dinner and Home Evening. Gotta run (link warning – it’s gross).

Here’s a pretty little stream in a Pennsylvania state park somewhere. They sure have some pretty state parks there. I’ll be featuring some more pictures I took on camping trips there Real Soon Now.

It was my off Friday today, so I only worked five hours. Drove the car today because I couldn’t live by the train’s schedule, and I was very pleased to discover that it took only about an hour and a half to get there, as opposed to two and a half hours from door to door on the train. Now I have a quandry – it appears to be quicker to drive, but I can’t put too many miles on my car. Maybe I’ll train it twice or three times a week and drive the other days. Or maybe something else.

Loyal Readers One, Two, and Four and I worked on the garage this afternoon and evening. There’s still a TON more to do, but it’s improving greatly. In spite of the fact that they brought the rest of our stuff today, we still have the two cars in the garage. I have a dream that one day my Suburban will be in the garage too, but I think that’s a little ways off yet.

They broke the music stand on the piano. We’re very sad, but assume an expert can repair it. In the meantime, the piano effectively can’t be played, and we can’t do anything to get it fixed until we finish our claim with the movers. Sadness reigns.

They also lost our RC cars. Or stole them. And they managed to slip them into the truck without tags, so they’re not on an inventory sheet. The bunch of thieves. We’re going to claim them, but I’m sure they’ll try to weasel out of paying. I may have to call on the corporate power of Lockheed Martin on this one.

On a happier note, LRN4 spoke on the phone with LRN3 this evening, and he and his family are doing fine. We’re looking forward to seeing them at Christmastime.

It’s late, I’m exhausted, and I’m going to bed. See you on Monday.

Time for another vacation picture. Here’s another view of Lake Ogallala. What a pretty place.

Another day, another thousand dollars. What a life. Sadly, my off Friday is pretty much shot tomorrow. I have meetings scheduled all morning. I’m going to drive in, though, and hope to be able to leave around noon. I don’t have my hopes too high, but they’re definitely there. It will be interesting to find out the truth about the traffic, too.

Loyal Readers Number One, Two, and Four went up to Sacramento today for the temple open house. They said it was a really meaningful experience, so I’m glad they went.

The rest of our stuff is in California and will be delivered tomorrow! At least we hope it will turn out to be the rest of our stuff. We’ll know sometime tomorrow. I’m personally hoping it will include my rolling briefcase, which I really want to use but haven’t been able to find yet. The only place left where there are still lots of boxes is the garage, and I spent quite a bit of time there last night looking for it and not finding it. I did manage to find some other briefcases and the pillows for the couch in the loft, though.

One of my colleagues told me today she’s getting ready to build a Linux box to use as a digital video recorder. I guess I could use the Computer on a Dime (Larry for short) for something like that, although we just got a DVR from Comcast, so there’s not much need. If it turns out I can’t record saved programs on my DVD player, though, I might change my mind. Another possible use for Larry is to get it working with my older Linux server (Moe) as a Linux cluster. My own supercomputer! Or at least a junior version of one. I don’t have any use in mind for it, but it would definitely be cool. Besides, we generally find that when equipment is made available, new uses appear. I can always count on that.

I want to finish here and get back to my book. As you can see way over there on the right, I’m currently reading The Coming of Bill, by P.G. Wodehouse. It’s not like his other work; there’s a lot more tension. There are rich people in New York, as with other stories, but things aren’t going well at all right now, and it’s not because of the comic idiocy of the main characters. The characters are much more complex than usual and I’m horrifyingly riveted. I’m loving the book, of course, and I highly recommend it, but it’s not light amusement. Grab a copy and see for yourself.

Time to go. See you tomorrow.