morrowlife

Here’s some Great Art I took at the Victorian Christmas house a few months back. I think the exclusive Treo-cam’s fuzziness heightens the effect, don’t you?

Greetings from the train. This week’s posts have all been mercifully short, a situation which must not stand. So I’m taking a little time tonight.

Although there’s quite little about which to discourse. My strict policy prohibits detailed discussion of work, and there’s precious little else going on. So this might be short.

Loyal Reader Number Four spent much of her day in training at the Family History Library. She didn’t get quite as much training as she will ultimately need, but she did report that a pleasant time was had by all.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Loyal Reader Number Two has completed the literary part of his Driver’s Training course and now has an appointment to get his driving permit early next week. Then he’s off to on-road (mainly) training, followed by several months of driving us around. I think he’s looking forward to it. He’ll have to weigh in on that topic himself, though.

I have a bunch of emails to send and phone calls to make tonight. Need to get a bunch of people called to serve. Ought to be a busy night.

Today’s Morrowlife controversy: When will this guy stop unleashing obnoxious bugs on the world?

Well, it turned out to be short anyway. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number One studying in his dorm room. Late at night. In the dark. They apparently used a long-duration exposure. Or something. Okay, I don’t remember what the point was, but I do know it’s LRN1. And he’s . . . thinking.

Another Short Shrift blog night. No meetings tonight, but Loyal Reader Number Four hosted a Relief Society event tonight. Only one other person showed up. So I sat and talked with them instead of blogging or high counciling. There’s always tomorrow, and I’ll need to take advantage of it if I’m going to get my huge girls camp callings list done.

Saw a motorhome on in company’s online ad site today. It looked pretty good – it’s a 2001 31-footer with only 16,000 miles on it. Has a slide-out (but only one) and all the standard goodies, including hydraulic jacks and a backup camera. Went over to check it out and discovered the downside. It hasn’t been driven because the owner has been living in it in a trailer park for the past year. It’s not exactly in bad shape, but it’s not in the kind of shape you’d expect it to be in with so few miles. So I’m passing.

Besides, my trailer is still in great shape.

On the upside, I also saw an ad for free shrink-wrapped copies of FileMaker Pro and FastTrack Schedule for Macintosh. I don’t know why the guy is getting rid of them, and I don’t know what I’ll do with them, but he’ll be giving them to me tomorrow. Cool.

Thanks to LRN1 for his comments on dumping cable TV. I’ve been looking into Boxee. In fact, I downloaded the OS X version this very evening. There’s still not a Windows version, which it pains me to say I’m using as my media server OS, but it’s coming soon. When it’s here, I’ll install it.

The other good news I read this evening is that my beta license for Windows 7 is good for up to three machines. I have it installed in a virtual machine on my Mac, and I think I’ll add it to Larry. I also have plans to get two more PCs (for free, of course!) to be used as media servers on the two other main TVs. Thanks to Loyal Reader Number Five for one of them, and a valued colleague for the other.

No toilet news today. But this pretty much explains itself. Those Loyal Readers who see too much of themselves in that comic should consider going off the grid for a little while.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number One’s plan for getting out of the mine. I hope he brought a swimming suit. Photo courtesy of LRN1, of course.

Fine weekend. I worked on church things quite a lot of the time, interspersed with playing with Loyal Reader Number Twelve, who was here with Loyal Reader Number Five, while Loyal Reader Number Six was in Southern California picking up his truck and visiting with family and friends. A nice time was had by all.

Extreme Short Shrift tonight. It’s already almost 10:00 and I’ve been exhausted since at least 3:00. So not much blogging.

In fact, just a couple of things. I saw this interesting article today, and I’m thinking harder than ever of eliminating cable TV. You can get all the entertainment you want for little to no money. And the Comcast people are absolute thieves, aren’t they? What do my Loyal Readers think about the idea?

Today’s toilet news: They’re starting younger all the time. I believe LRN12 needs one of those babies.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the view inside yesterday’s mine. Once again, photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number One.

Yet another perfect day, weatherwise. Not a cloud in the sky, cool in the morning, and warm in the afternoon. Makes a man wish he had an office with a window. Or a nice-sized retirement check coming in. Better yet, a large inheritance. Or something.

Some good, some bad today.

First the good: I don’t remember whether I mentioned that I’ve lost my very cool ABL mug. I believe I left it on a shelf in the restroom, where it had gone for washing. When I noticed it was gone and went back, the room was under construction and the shelf no longer existed. As far as I could tell, neither did the mug. Sigh.

So the good thing is that one of my retiring colleagues deeded me hers this afternoon. I’m delighted to have it.

Now the bad: I learned this morning that my former colleague and mentor Al Wilmot passed away Thursday evening. Al was a great software engineer and, more important, a fine man. He was a little eccentric and kind of a funny holdover from the ’60s space program, which made him all the more likeable. He suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last few years, which was presumably the cause of his death. Al will be missed.

Intensely busy weekend in the offing. Tonight is the sole exception, so far. I plan to do a bunch of high-council-related organizing and emailing. I also hope to get my weekly dose of Monk and Psych. Maybe also hang around with the Loyal Readers.

Saturday morning, I’m helping prepare and serve a fancy luncheon for the stake Relief Society. Then home to work on getting some callings made. There will probably be some work around the house to do. Also need to prepare a priesthood lesson for Sunday. Also need to do some research and preliminary structuring for my talk on the eighth.

Sunday will be meetings, callings, and more meetings and callings. Followed by dessert and bed. Loyal Reader Number Six gets home sometime on Sunday, so I imagine Loyal Readers Numbers Five and Twelve will be heading out at about the same time.

Sunday evening may be quiet.

No toilet news today. In the meantime, we can attend the funeral.

See you Monday.

Here’s the entrance to an abandoned mine somewhere in Utah. Loyal Reader Number One has been in there a couple of times with his mine exploration group. Looks cold. Photo courtesy of LRN1.

Unfortunate day on the train. We were delayed for about twenty minutes by a defective signal in the morning, and by about another twenty minutes in the afternoon by a late shuttle bus full of anxious riders. Most unfortunate.

However, life goes on. Pretty good day at work. I attended a highly expensive retirement luncheon at a fancy restaurant on a golf course. The place is apparently well known to the locals – and well respected. The food was served buffet-style and was very good. My retiring colleague gave a fine speech, which I quote here in its entirety: “Bye.”

It was very warmly received by all present.

Visited one of my home teaching families yesterday evening. They’re an interesting couple. He’s retired from the Army, and they live in their fifth wheel camping trailer. They belong to a membership camping place and travel around from one of their facilities to another. Their home base is pretty much here in Lardville, though, so they belong to our ward. I enjoyed my visit.

Highly important toilet news: there’s a memorial service coming up. I won’t be able to attend, so I plan to observe a moment of silent contemplation.

See you tomorrow.