Eagle

September 24th, 2009 by michael


Here’s an eagle. Saw it on top of a tree in the Ketchikan harbor. During our Ketchikan harbor tour. It’s kind of zoomed way in, but I thought it was cool seeing so many baldies. Part of my famous Bird series.

There hasn’t been much content here lately. That doesn’t seem to have upset my Loyal Readers too much, but I do feel they need to get a little more for their money. What money? Well you may ask. The answer: none to speak of. But one or two of them may click on my advertisements and earn me a penny or two.

Anyway. I think the lack of content is largely due to the lack of anything interesting to write about. That wouldn’t normally be considered a problem on the Morrowlife blog, but still. So let’s think of something interesting going on in my life.

Plans for next summer are starting to firm up already. A little. We have Young Women camp during the week of July 15. And the family reunion for LRN4’s side of the family is also probably going to happen in July. Don’t know when yet. Don’t exactly know where yet either, but it appears to be narrowed down to a cruise to Catalina and Ensenada vs. a train trip to the Grand Canyon via the route taken in the pre-automotive days. We voted for the train ride, but we’d do either and be happy.

Nothing else is on the 2010 vacation itinerary at this point, but I imagine we might want to take our Spring Break campout, along with several other shorter camping trips. Don’t know where to go in the spring. This year’s trip to Mt. Madonna was way too cold to repeat. The previous two trips to Big Sur were beautiful, but you can only go back to the same campground so many times. Especially when it’s in the middle of nowhere and you’ve been to everything and seen everything around it as much as you really ever expect to want to. Admittedly, it’s a beautiful middle of nowhere, but still.

So do any of my Loyal Readers have a suggestion for next spring’s camping trip location? Here’s your chance to really make a difference in the world. Don’t blow it.

I had been having massive problems with the iPhone OS 3.1 update, like many, many other people. My most common problem was what people are calling Coma Mode. You put it to sleep and can’t ever wake it back up again without rebooting. It was happening one to two times a day, and was very annoying. I also had one instance of it locking up in the middle of a phone call. I read the blogs and Apple help groups, and lots of people are recommending pretty harsh treatments, mainly consisting of resetting the phone to factory settings and reinstalling everything, and then not upgrading to 3.1. One or two people, however, recommended turning off Push notifications and disabling Safari’s Fraud Warning function. I tried those things, along with deleting the one and only app I had that used Push, two days ago (or was it yesterday?) and haven’t had a single crash since. Of course, past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results, but I’m cautiously optimistic. It was getting tedious.

So for my iPhone-owning Loyal Readers who are having crashing problems with your OS 3.1 update, you’re welcome.

Many thanks to LRN1 and LRN4, who pointed out that yesterday’s Monkey news also qualified as Food Violence news. I appreciate your involvement.

That’s enough for today. Let’s end with today’s Toilet News: the ultimate running toilet.

See you tomorrow.

Automotive hammers

September 23rd, 2009 by michael


Here’s a wall full of automotive hammers. I want to know what that long, skinny one is for. Certainly no car I’ve ever owned.

Juggernaut update: I’m up to $14.78. I’m not sure whether that’s an improvement over the last time I looked. Click, Loyal Readers, click like the wind! And buy my sponsors’ products.

No post yesterday. Tuesday evening meetings went quite late and I was quite sleepy. Oh, the suffering my Loyal Readers put up with.

Extreme Short Shrift yet again tonight, too. My brother-in-law Ken was here on one of his periodic work-related visits. We had a nice time visiting and were delighted to see him. He’s always nice to visit with.

Otherwise, normal day. I spent it in meetings. Pretty much exclusively. I meet so my people don’t have to. The sacrifices I make for big-time engineering.

So I’ll leave you with this new, exciting job opportunity: shoving monkey. Stay out of court, though.

See you tomorrow.

Fire department

September 21st, 2009 by michael


Here’s LRN4 in front of the Port Chilkoot Volunteer Fire Department, in Haines, Alaska. Fortunately, they don’t have very many fires there.

Actually, they have a very nice fire department now, but I kind of like the old one.

No post on Friday. Thanks for Anon for noticing. It was my off day, which always seems like Saturday to me. So I forgot.

Fine weekend. Successfully worked on the Suburban’s brakes. Successful in the sense of it isn’t any worse now than it was before I started, that is. I don’t know what I’m going to do with that truck. Maybe professional help is needed. After I spent a couple hundred dollars. But at least I now have a really nifty pressurized bleeder.

Did some church stuff on Sunday. Also Saturday, come to think of it. The good thing on Saturday, though, was that LRN4 and I went to visit LRN5. We went out to dinner at a Mexican place near her house. LRN5’s meal was great. LRN4’s meal was mostly great. Mine was about 30% great. I loved my chile relleno. My chicken enchilada, chicken flauta, rice, and beans were just okay. Still, the company was great and I enjoyed my meal without overeating.

Normal day today. The trains ran on time and I got a few things done. Wasn’t watching the clock this afternoon and I left at about 4:23, while my previous late departure had been at 20 minutes after the hour. The traffic was light and the stoplights mostly fell in my favor, so I made it with plenty of time to spare. No complaints. I just have to remember to fill out my time tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, the situation is normal around here. I do have some fairly shocking food violence news: cow attack! I realize some of my more literal-minded Loyal Readers may think it’s a bit of a stretch to call this food-related news. But the guy was milking the cow. And he did get squished, intentionally or not. Violence can be unintentional. So I’m counting it.

See you tomorrow.

ATV lake

September 17th, 2009 by michael


Here’s a pretty little lake we stopped at on the way back to the ship from our ATV ride. We put the water to good use on our faces.

Another Extreme Short Shrift day today. I just got busy.

Fortunately, tomorrow’s my off Friday, so there will be time to get some things done, including possibly blogging more than a paragraph. Also, the Suburban’s brakes will be (re)done, two or more of the Sable’s tires will be replaced, the Sable will be aligned, and the Miata’s tires may or may not be replaced, depending on how worn out they look tomorrow morning. Plus, I have to write my talk for Sunday and do a few other church-related things.

Otherwise, not much on my plate.

I have more horrifying food violence news: the Big German Baked Bean Ripoff. The depravity continues.

See you tomorrow.

In port

September 16th, 2009 by michael


Here’s our cruise ship at the pier in Haines. Looks kind of lonely there, doesn’t it? Surprisingly, they don’t get many ships there. Most of them go a little further away to Skagway, which is also supposed to be a nice town. I’ll bet it’s a lot more touristy, though.

Yet another normal day. Sunny and warm. Worked and came home. The Loyal Readers did what they do. Nothing to see here folks; move along.

So we’ll end prematurely with the latest shocking food violence news: a chili heist! This may be worse than stealing a Big Boy statue.

See you tomorrow.