morrowlife

Here are some of the intrepid canoeists from this summer’s scout trip, participated in by Loyal Readers Numbers One and Two, and supported by Loyal Reader Number Four and me. Part of my famous Camping series.

Greetings from the train. Drove the Ranger back to Sunnyvale this morning – traffic was extremely heavy, not to mention slow. Friday afternoons and Monday mornings are not good commuting times. Sadly, when the pickup has to go home, that’s when it has to be on the road. No matter how crowded the train gets, it has really become my preferred transit mode.

Which is a good thing. After today’s trip, I still have fourteen paid-for round trips as well as a transit check for another ten days. That will take me partway into November, by which time I’ll have received transit checks in the mail for ten trips in October and ten more in November. Those will take me well into December, by which time I’ll have received ten more trips, which will take me into January, by which time I’ll have ten more rides, which ought to take me into late January before I need to actually pay for a ticket with after-tax dollars.

Anyway. How boring. Must . . . come . . . up . . . with . . . better . . . content.

The weekend was fine. It was really hot and clear both days. Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve came over for the weekend, as predicted Friday, which was nice. LRN12 looks like she’s coming down with a cold, and it made her just a tiny bit grumpy – didn’t sleep well and wouldn’t go to church with us. Get well soon, LRN12!

LRN6 spent his entire Saturday helping LRN2 and me detail the exterior of the Ranger. It started the day out with hazy paint and filthy wheels with years’ worth of cooked-on brake dust. It now has beautiful, shiny black paint and perfect, shiny chrome wheels. Great work, LRN6! And thanks for a great, relaxing day. Although it was a bit warm.

After the detailing work was done, LRN6 and I jacuzzified for an hour or so. I got in the pool briefly. It was pretty cool, but would have been swimmable if I had really wanted to stay in. But I didn’t. Got back in the jacuzzi instead.

Loyal Reader Number Four spent all day Saturday at a training session for Science Olympiad coaches, of which she is one.

I was greatly saddened this afternoon to learn of the sudden, unexpected death of my friend John Reddoch. Apparently, he died last night in his sleep. If you have to go, that’s the way to do it, but it was way too early for John. My sincerest condolences to his wife and family.

LRN4 told me we had a brief rain shower in Lardville today. Freak occurrence in September around here. Fortunately, nobody appears to have been harmed by this terrible natural disaster.

Maybe we should start naming rainstorms that happen here in the summer. That might give them that highly desirable hurricane/cyclone/tropical storm cachet. Maybe I’ll call today’s shower Rainstorm Achilles. What do you think?

Today’s Morrowlife controversy: No controversy today. Nothing happened.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Half Dome.

Yet another night of Extreme Short Shrift, only this time I really mean it. The Treo arrived tonight, along with its separately-shipped 2GB SD card, and I’ve been very busy playing with it getting it carefully set up. It’s getting close, but I need to get to bed and finish tomorrow.

Good things about the Treo: It’s comfortable to hold, I don’t miss Graffiti much, I like the keyboard in spite of its tiny size, the screen resolution is great, all my old applications work on it, it comes with a much better version of Documents To Go, for which I was able to download both the Mac and PC desktop software, and my Bluetooth headset works with it (after messing around with it for quite a while, but I suspect that to be the headset’s fault).

Bad things: You can’t voice dial without spending more money, and there doesn’t seem to be a solution that allows you to push the button on your headset and voice dial without taking the phone out of your pocket. That is hugely bad. That is totally inexcusable. Sigh. Otherwise, I have no complaints.

Took the truck home because I talked Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve into coming over for the weekend, and LRN6 is going to help me detail the Ranger’s exterior tomorrow. The drive was just as long as taking the train would have been. I’m enjoying the train more and more, I tell you.

That’s it for tonight. See you Monday.

Here’s the City Creek Inn in beautiful downtown Salt Lake City. The first of my famous Motel Sign series.

Seriously. I’ve been thinking of going around the country, photographing old motel signs, and putting them in a coffee table book. I think it would sell a million copies. Well, maybe one copy. To my mother. If I give it to her for free. Anybody else want a nice motel sign coffee table book?

Oops. It’s already been done. And they’ve only sold one copy. Well, mine will be much better. Place your order now! Christmas gift-giving idea!

No Treo yet. Sigh. I was sad to read in yesterday’s comments about Loyal Reader Number One’s unfortunate Treo holster accident, though. Note to self: refrain from jumping on an inflatable jousting arena while wearing new Treo holster. Thanks for the tip, LRN1!

Slept in and took the very late (9:45-ish) train. I spent enough hours on the road yesterday to make up for the lateness. There was plenty to do when I got there. A few personnel troubles, some lab problems, and a little bit of everything in between. On top of that, I got about 165 new emails the last two days. I never need to complain about not having enough to do.

I’ve never taken the very late train, although I did ride its counterpart once – the very early coming-home train. There are only two cars, and neither one is very crowded. It’s nice to have it as an option, though. There were a whole bunch of senior-type citizens getting on here in Lardville this morning. I wonder where they were going. Never saw them getting off. The mystery will remain. Perhaps forever.

Today’s controversy: Should this be required wear for people who jump on inflatable jousting arenas?

Apologies to Loyal Reader Number One for mocking him. I’m sure he had an excellent reason for doing whatever it was he was doing on that inflatable jousting arena. Didn’t you, LRN1? See, I told you so.

Today’s real Morrowlife controversy: Would you buy one of these? My answer: Yes. It would be perfect for writing, not to mention Palm and other low-powered platform programming. And it’s the ideal size for the train. Christmas gift-giving idea! Of course, I’d rather have a MacBook Air. Even better Christmas gift-giving idea! Chip in, Loyal Readers! Maybe we can use the profits from the Elvis Is Alive Museum to buy one for each of us.

Keep checking out LRN1’s blog, Loyal Readers. He’s had several comments already, only some of which were from me. He’s keeping it up so far.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the view outside the Miata’s window this evening.

Welcome to Morrowlife Post 585. I should be hitting six hundred exactly three weeks from today. Wow.

Speaking of blogs, here’s a shoutout to Loyal Reader Number One’s new blog. He appears to be chronicling his experiences at BYU, which ought to be interesting. Check it out, Loyal Readers.

I’m back from Lancaster. The meeting finished almost exactly on time, and it took almost exactly five hours to get here. The Miata ran perfectly again, this time with the air conditioning on. I realized this evening that today was the first time I had ever used the A/C with the top up. It works great. Fortunately.

Speaking of Lancaster, thanks to A Different Chris (was it Loyal Reader Number Twenty Three or really a different Chris?) for the cool musical road video link. Now I’m really sorry I didn’t get to try it out. They’ll have to make another one somewhere. Maybe right here in Lardville! We could put it on the mile-long private driveway to the Elvis Is Alive Museum.

I got word last night that the Treo has already shipped. The case arrived today (AT&T is so prompt!) and the SD card should be here in a day or two also. I’m on pins and needles! Or something!

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here’s the view from my hotel room. Better than a parking lot. We’ll have to accept it as Great Art, since it’s the only picture I have on this computer today.

Greetings from Lancaster, California! It was warm and sunny today. I had a pleasant ride up here (the Miata did end up getting the nod, and ran perfectly) and today’s meeting went well. And tonight’s sushi was outstanding – much better than usual for my favorite Lancaster-area Japanese place.

Important Tonsil Update: Loyal Reader Number Two’s doctor is out on a family emergency all week, so Thursday’s surgery is off. It’s rescheduled for October 6th. Put those Morrowlife sympathy rays on ice for another week and a half, Loyal Readers.

Important Morrowlife Financial Juggernaut Update: I now have $4.77! Nothing can stop me now! I checked after Loyal Reader Number One’s Juggernaut-related question the other day, which I forgot to answer. Here’s my answer: Click away!

I believe that Loyal Readers located at the same IP address as me are prohibited from clicking. Anybody else is fair game. I certainly encourage my Loyal Readers and their friends to check out and purchase the fine products advertised on this fine blog. At least I encourage them to follow the links, anyway.

Enforced Short Shrift tonight. I forgot my computer’s power cord, so this is a self-limiting activity tonight. Fortunately, I also forgot my VPN key, so I can’t get into my work email anyway. Blogging will be my only computer-oriented activity today.

Well, not exactly. I also have some computer-oriented reading to do. I’ve started rereading the Pocket C Architect manual. I’m thinking it’s essentially as easy to use as the Pocket C/Ccontrols combination, and it’s way more useful, so I’ll start Sudoku Solver over with it. Special question for Loyal Reader Number One: Does Pocket C Architect produce code that’s usable on the Treo?

Anyway. I have plenty to read tonight, and then I hope to get to bed early. We’re starting tomorrow’s session at 7:00 tomorrow morning, so I need to get up no later than 5:15, which will allow me to get cleaned up, dressed up, packed up, breakfasted up, and onto the base in plenty of time for the meeting. I was a little late today, and I don’t want to repeat tomorrow.

As all my Loyal Readers know, I’m a fan of museums, including some of the smaller, more offbeat ones. Well, I’ve found a great career opportunity! Of course, I’ll need to have all my Loyal Readers chip in to be able to afford it, but I’ll definitely make it worth your while – discounted admission and free parking for one year for all Loyal Readers who contribute at least $1000. And they’ll be first in line to become docents (unpaid, of course). Who will be the first to contribute?

I missed this by mere hours! I just read about this cool stretch of pavement, I’m currently staying in Lancaster, and they paved over it today. Sigh. I would love to have driven on it, and I would have taken the opportunity tomorrow afternoon after my meeting ends. Double sigh.

Time to get reading. See you tomorrow.