morrowlife

Here’s the ice cream guy at Greenfield Village handing out an extra-large. Lactaid time.

Took a sick day today – my back is absolutely killing me and I needed to lie around.

Therefore, there’s nothing new. I spent the day lying around.

So we’ll go on to today’s Morrowlife controversy: Should they crack down on space littering? My answer: Yes, but only if they deliver the summons in person.

Oh, I did manage to get to the library today. I had finished the book mentioned yesterday (it turned out fine – I’m giving it a provisional recommendation) and picked up a few new ones, including three by Dave Barry and Save the Males, by Kathleen Parker. I heard an interview with her and got interested, so I’m looking forward to reading it. After Dave, of course.

Still can’t sit in this chair too long, so I’m off. See you tomorrow.

Here’s the apple-bobbing booth at the recent ward Halloween party. Spooky.

No post last Friday. We had a little party and were busy. Happy Halloween.

Thanks to the many Loyal Readers who kept the blog going with their comments. Especially good old Anon.

We had a nice party, although few people attended. It was lots of fun – we played games, ate snacks, and gave candy to the moderately small number of trick-or-treaters. No costumes, good cheer.

With the notable exception of Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve. They were a cat, the Grim Reaper, and the Devil, respectively. All excellent costumes. LRN6 also did a bang-up job decorating the exterior of our house for us, including carving the pumpkins and cleaning it all up when Halloween was over. Really made it nice for us – thanks, LRN6!

He even had a bottle o’ blood to pour on his Grim Reaper Hook. It’s the little touches that make holiday fun so entertaining.

Otherwise the weekend was, umm, fine. I worked on the trailer brakes and didn’t fix them, but I did discover a very badly worn out bearing that I replaced, so it wasn’t a total loss. Plus, I have an appointment to take it to somebody who will fix it in a couple of Fridays.

Let’s see what else I accomplished over the weekend. Hmmm. There must be something. Oh yeah, I prepared and taught a Priesthood lesson. I thought it went pretty well, although there wasn’t enough time to really get to my point. On the upside, there wasn’t any time because I got so much participation. So I’m satisfied.

Otherwise, it was quiet. I’m suffering a little bit this evening from a sore back, so it’s still quiet.

I’ve spent many of my spare hours the last two days – including about three hours on the train today – reading Truck: A Love Story, by Michael Perry. I borrowed it several weeks ago from the library and hadn’t bothered picking it up until yesterday. I got it right after I bought my pickup, and thought it might be entertaining to read about somebody’s adventure restoring an old truck. While that’s certainly a large part of the book, it’s really about a year in the guy’s life. I’m quite enjoying it and recommend it to my Loyal Readers as a deep insight into the Guy Psyche. Plus, there’s a truck.

Here’s something I’ve never realized I needed until today: the CatCam. In fact, I’m still not sure I need it. I don’t think I want to know what my pet’s doing when I’m not around. Might be too disturbing.

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here are two Bailey computers. I have no idea what Bailey computers are. Or, rather, were. Wikipedia doesn’t seem to know either. They sure look businesslike, circa 1980, though. Picture taken this summer at the Henry Ford Museum.

I’m feeling much better today; thanks for asking. Don’t know what brought me down yesterday, but 11 hours of sleep last night took care of it, I guess. Or my recent flu shot. Or my naturally robust constitution. Or Ghost Miners.

Got Office:mac 2008 in the mail today and installed it. First impression: as with the previous version, it’s exactly what the latest Windows-based version (in this case, Office 2007) should have been. Of course, I need some time with it to really get a feel for the changes. The reviewers have been fairly kind, though.

One typical Microsoft annoyance, though – I had just finished installing the bloated (over 1 GB!) software fresh out of the box that arrived directly from Microsoft today and never sat on a retail shelf, and the updater ran and told me I needed to install nearly half a gigabyte of updates. Already. Why can’t they ship the Really Latest Version? Anybody? Anybody? I didn’t think so – they have no excuse.

We certainly do seem to have had commenting problems since I enabled Blogger’s new “inline” feature. Loyal Reader Number Five couldn’t get it to take her name. Nobody could comment on older posts. Et cetera. I’ve written a stern note to Blogger and gone back to the old system. Things appear to be back to normal. And I was so excited about the new system – I was sure it would increase the quantity and the quality of the comments. Sigh.

Not that there was anything wrong with the quality before, of course.

Rainy day in Lardville today, and the local Loyal Readers tell me there was thunder and lightning to go along with it. Trick-or-treating is threatened, although a quick check at weather.com tells me the probably of Halloween rain has gone down to 30% and the high temperature prediction has gone up to 72 degrees. So it’s not all bad news.

Today’s Morrowlife controversy: Where did this guy come from? And what would you do with him if you could get him? My answers: I think he’s the result of a secret Danish government experiment gone horribly wrong. And I would definitely use him to get on the carpool lane.

Special bonus controversy: Does the picture look photoshopped to you too?

Tomorrow I fix the trailer’s brakes. Unless I get rained out. Wish me luck.

See you then.

Here’s one of my favorite vintage drag racers – Ohio George’s famous Ohio Gasser. Photographed in the Henry Ford Museum. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Not feeling well this afternoon. It came on me suddenly, so I’m hoping it leaves just as suddenly. Some coworkers have told me about a bug going around – it’s apparently nasty and lasts three very uncomfortable days. I’m hoping that’s not it for me. I’m hoping my stomach is just going through a phase.

Otherwise a fairly normal day. Got up, got ready, commuted, etc. Came home on an earlier train than normal due to the aforementioned discomfort.

Tomorrow’s work schedule is amazingly not meeting-strewn. I’m looking forward to it. Don’t quite know what I’ll do with myself, though.

I take that back. I do know. I have an exceptionally long list of fascinating and incomplete tasks. No problem.

Today’s Morrowlife controversy: Did Loyal Reader Number One’s friend capture a Ghost Miner in the picture attached to this post? My answer: Of course. Well, probably. Possibly, anyway. Maybe. I have no idea. Probably not. If it’s not a ghost, though, what is it?

Perfect controversy for two days before Halloween, no?

By the way, can ghosts be photographed? If so, can they choose to make themselves visible to the camera? If so, why would the Ghost Miner have chosen to be in that picture? If they can’t choose, wouldn’t that make ghosts improbably rare? After all, people take a lot of pictures and Ghost Miners very rarely show up. Either way, the possibilities are staggering. At the very least, they trip a little.

Time to contemplate those Deep Thoughts. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a bird. Picture taken Summer 2008 at the Detroit Zoo. In a rare twofer, part of both my Statue series and my Bird series.

Today was a great day to be in Northern California. During a telecon this morning, I learned that it was snowing at our old home in Gardenville, Pennsylvania. We had a few clouds yesterday and again today, but the snow has stayed away. In fact, it’s stayed away since we got here. I enjoy some cool weather now and again, but I don’t like commuting in it.

Loyal Reader Number Three is really struggling with the near-term plan. I have lots of ideas, but none of them is probably right for him. Keep praying for him, Loyal Readers.

Busy day at work. I was in meetings the entire day except from noon to 1:00. The meetings were all necessary, but it’s tough to get all the other necessary things done. Fortunately, Tuesdays are usually meetingier than the rest of the week.

There’s good news from Redmond today! The Windows of the Future will be less annoying!

No controversy today. There is absolutely nothing strange going on anywhere in the world. I know. I’ve checked. Maybe tomorrow.

See you then.