morrowlife

Here’s the view from the ship during our last Hawaii cruise, taken just as we were arriving in Ensenada.  Get a load of that flag.  We were only in port for a few hours and LRN4 and I didn’t get off the ship, but it was nice to see land again after five days at sea.  As discussed in this space before, we’re less than a month away from taking the same ship on the same trip.  I’m getting excited to go.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Cruise, Vacation, and Machinery series.

Disaster strikes!  My beloved pickup is in critical condition in the automotive hospital!  I spoke with them today and discovered that the misfire isn’t due to spark and isn’t due to fuel.  That leaves only one cause – the dreaded compression.  That means one thing and one thing only: either a valve job, a complete engine rebuild, or a new engine.

Okay, that’s three things.  But they’re really just different manifestations of the same thing, and that spells cubic dollars.  I don’t know which option I’ll choose, but it’ll be one of them.  Probably either a complete rebuild or a new (actually factory rebuilt) engine.  The beloved pickup will live to drive another day.

Fortunately, I received my big severance check from Lockheed today.  Although I would have preferred the engine rebuild money to be put to work as living expenses for a month.  But you can’t have everything, can you?  For one thing, where would you put it?

Thank you, you’re a great crowd.  Don’t forget to tip your server.  Or your blogger.  Speaking of which, should I put a tip jar on the blog?  Nah – I’d rather have my Loyal Readers just click through to Amazon from my blog, buy something nice for themselves, and let me collect a nice little commission.  Try it, Loyal Readers – it’s easy!  So much better than a plain old tip jar.  Although feel free to send me money too.  The juggernaut must be fed.

LRN4’s sister Melanie came over for dinner and conversation this evening.  We had a great meal and she brought us a delicious chocolate pie to top it off.  What a nice evening!  Happy Valentine’s Day to Melanie.  And to LRN4.  Especially to LRN4.

Also get-well-soon wishes to LRN4.  She’s still quite miserable.  She talked to her highly-trained medical staff this afternoon and told them she’s still not feeling so hot and wondered aloud whether she should come back for stronger measures.  They said as long as she’s not feeling worse than when she started, she should stay the course.  She’s been very sick for what seems like a very long time – sicker than I’ve ever seen her.  I’m worried.  Also missing her normal self.  It won’t be long now, I’m sure.

Work continues on my project to learn Visual Studio.  I’m not at all happy with the book I’m using, but it appeared to be the best available book covering VS 2005 (which is generally the version still in use for the projects I’m thinking of taking on – fortunately, it’s also the one I happen to already have).  So under the circumstances, it’ll have to do.  The problem is that it tries to teach you C++ at a very basic level first and then it gets into the Visual Studio part of Visual Studio.  I don’t mind a refresher course on C++, but this thing is going into minute details, which I don’t feel a need for right now.  But I can’t skip any of it, because it sprinkles random essential information in the middle of the minutia.  So it’s a bit slow going.  But I’m making progress and can feel that I’m right on the verge of gaining the knowledge I came for.  Any minute now.

My [amazon asin=B009OWLPM2&text=new shoelaces] arrived in the mail today.  They look great – I’ll have the coolest shoes in the gym tomorrow morning.  However, they also came with a velcro strap – the kind you typically use to bundle wires together or some other such thing.  I have no idea why it was shipped with five pairs of shoelaces.  Maybe just to keep the spare laces together?  Or is there something the cool kids are doing with velcro straps and athletic shoes?

And that’s about it for tonight.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: astronaut food taster!

See you tomorrow.

Here are a few of the fountains at Longwood Gardens.  Great Art taken last summer courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Statue series.  Seriously, I’m sure there’s a statue in there somewhere.

Speaking of beautiful botanic gardens, we went to the Springs Preserve over the weekend to check out their more desert-related landscaping there.  Not quite the spectacle that Longwood Gardens is, but it’s nice.  We bought a membership and plan to go back several times.  There are hiking trails, sample desert gardens, and lots of classes on how to make your yard here beautiful.  Recommended.

Speaking of which.  The big news: we’ve ordered the backyard landscaping!  Also the backyard hot tub!  It’s going to be great!  They start work in a week or two.  We’re getting pavers, rocks (regular and river!), trees (including the lemon tree I wanted and the palo verde tree LRN4 wanted!), bushes, cacti (including a fencepost AND a few barrels!), walls, lights (up-facing AND down-facing!), raised beds, a watering system, and … wait for it … four (count ’em – four!) boulders!

We already submitted our proposal to the HOA and Gabriel the Landscaping Guy is ordering stuff.  Also, we ordered the hot tub today.  Yea for us!  Come hang out in our backyard in a few weeks, Loyal Readers!

Actually, I’m not quite sure how we’re going to fit all that cool stuff into our teeny tiny yard.  But if anyone can do it, Gabriel can.  I’m pretty sure of that.  Oh, and we only went about 20% over our total house fixing-up budget.  Which is pretty good when you get right down to it.  So I don’t feel bad about that at all.

On the negative side, my Beloved Pickup is in the truck hospital.  We went to get it smogged to get Nevada plates on it, and it picked that time to turn on its Check Engine light.  Sigh.  So my non-loyal-reader brother-in-law gave me the name of his shop.  I called them and they said to come right over, seeing as how it was a Beloved Pickup Emergency.  Haven’t heard back from them yet.  Cross your fingers for my Beloved Pickup, Loyal Readers.  Also for my checking account.

On the positive side, LRN4 and I now have Nevada Driver’s licenses, my car now has Nevada license plates, and I now have both Nevada and Clark County business licenses.  My business can now officially do business!  More to the point, my business can now make money!  Now to actually do it…

I’m making a tiny bit of progress along those lines too.  I’ve decided to take a stab at creating a few little Windows programs, for which I’m busily educating myself.  It’ll take a little while longer before I’m completely comfortable with Visual Studio, but I’m getting there.  It’s looking like it’ll be a reasonable transition from Objective C and Xcode to C++ and Visual Studio.

In the meantime, my existing plans to work on iOS and Android software are also moving forward.  In the good news part of that equation, my little Morse Trainer app finally seems to be catching some people’s attention.  In the bad news part of that equation, the app is free.  Still, there ought to be a way to build on that little bit of momentum and find a way to monetize my participation in the morse code community while still contributing valuable free content.  Just need to work on that a bit.

The best news of the day is that LRN4’s nasty case of strep throat appears to be marginally better.  On the bad side, she’s been taking the penicillin since Saturday and she’s not as improved as we expected.  So we’re only cautiously optimistic at best.  She’s really had a tough time of it.  Get well soon, LRN4!

We’re less than a month away from our cruise to Hawaii!  I’m looking forward to being at sea again and to seeing our friends Doug and Connie from California.  Can’t wait for the fun to start!

Made a few exotic purchases at Amazon today.  Check out these [amazon asin=B009OWLPM2&text=sporting goods]!  And these fantastic [amazon asin=B001F4TVD2&text=home furnishing accessories]! What a glamorous life I lead.

And it’s just about bedtime, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: gingerbread house arson!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN4 enjoying the beauties of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  It was a perfect early fall day, we had a great tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Those Canadians really know how to have fun.  Great Art taken last September with the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Vacation and Cruise series.

Progress!  At least on the business front, anyway.  I am now the proud owner of Business Casual Software LLC, a Nevada corporation.  To celebrate, I created a Facebook Page, which already has three fans, not including myself.  So I guess it actually has four fans.  Because I’m its biggest fan.  Definitely its biggest fan.  So far, LRN3 is my only Loyal Reader who also likes my business page, but I’m hoping to boost that number by a bit.

Now that I know how to do it, I’m planning to create a page for LRN4’s blog.  Maybe I’ll work a deal with her: I’ll like her page if she likes mine.  I think she just might go for it.  One thing I can guarantee – she’ll have a whole lot more likes on her page immediately than I’m getting on mine.

Spent some time last night learning Visual Studio 2005, which is the version required for some work I’m contemplating doing.  I’ve pretty much kept my development work up till now in the Mac/Linux/Unix/embedded processor domains, so there’s a bit of a learning curve with Windows.  Luckily, the concepts pretty much all translate from one system to another, so I expect I’ll pick it up well enough to become dangerous within a very short time.  The development environment seems pretty impressive so far, and I have a good book to guide me, so I’m optimistic.

Also spent a little time corresponding with one of the users of my Morse Trainer app.  I’m delighted to report that I have about 2,000 downloads of that app in the past six months.  Of course, I expect to beat that handily with other work in the near future, but that’s not too shabby for my second app.  My arm is now just a little bit sore from all this patting myself on the back.  What a guy!

Speaking of soreness, LRN4 continues to be pretty sick.  It still appears that she has nothing more serious than cold symptoms, but it’s settled in her throat and ears, causing quite a bit of discomfort and a practically nonexistent voice.  I miss being able to talk with her!  It’s been eerily quiet around the New Fortress of Solitude.  A bit too much solitude, even for me.  Get well soon, LRN4!

We’re going to the Springs Preserve tomorrow to see the raptor show.  Should be good fun and the weather looks to be somewhat cool (maybe mid-40’s to 50 during the hours we expect to be there) but sunny.  I’m excited to see the place.

And it’s time to retire for the evening.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: fake escaping rhino!

See you on Monday.

Here’s the new Fortress of Solitude.  Great Art taken before we moved in and started ruining it.  Also before winter reared its ugly head and turned a few leaves slightly brown.  Oh, the horrors of winter in the desert.

That’s right, we’re in Las Vegas!  Also, I’ve retired from Lockheed Martin!  Also, LRN2 has moved in with us!  Also, umm . . . nothing else.  But isn’t that enough, Loyal Readers?  Cut me a little slack here.

We’re enjoying our new life, I believe it’s safe to say.  I haven’t missed going to the office every day, although I’m already getting to the point where I’m ready to start actually working again.  I’m excited to be working out of my house.  My commute has shrunk from two hours each way in California to fifteen minutes each way in Pennsylvania to ten seconds each way here.  That’s the direction I like to see it taking!  I guess the only way to shorten it would be to just stay in bed all day, and that might get a bit old after a while.  So I’ll keep walking down the hall to my office.

Been pretty busy getting things in ship-shape shape around here.  So far, I have installed the following:

• One water softener
• One garage door opener, with all its appurtenances
• Five ceiling fans
• Twelve blinds
• Three bathroom light fixtures
• One fish-shaped key hanger

Still to go: a whole bunch of towel racks.  That’ll happen tomorrow.  Also, one more blind, which has to wait until LRN4 finds the time to paint the master bathroom.

Which may be delayed a bit longer than expected.  LRN4 has been feeling pretty sick for a few days now.  Yesterday seems to have been the worst, but she’s nowhere near healed up yet.  Looks like a particularly nasty cold.  Right now, it’s pretty much confined to her throat and her usual splitting headache.  She can’t talk, which has made for a couple of uncomfortably silent days.  I guess I’ll have to start taking up the slack in that department.

Shortly after we got here, we paid a bunch of money to the local rec center to use their exercise room.  The rec centers here are unbelievably nice – they have beautiful new equipment (treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines, weight machines, a few free weights, etc.); they run frequent classes, both exercise-related and not; they have a very nice basketball gym; they have very nice racquetball courts; they have various meeting rooms; and they have amazing indoor and outdoor pools.  Unfortunately, our membership pretty much only gets us access to the exercise room, but it was quite reasonably priced and everything else is essentially as cheap as free.  For example, the indoor pool is a buck to use and the outdoor pool (open only during the summer) is two bucks.  Racquetball and basketball are similarly priced.  Not too shabby.  We’re going over there weekday mornings in our continuing effort to shrink the gut and grow the muscles.

Not much newly-purchased from Amazon lately.  Did I mention this cool [amazon asin=B000NZ5QG0&text=tool set] I bought myself for Christmas?  Perfect for working on computers and other electronics.

Much more going on, but it’s time for dinner.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: frozen sauerkraut chaos!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a statue of some beavers.  In the middle of a fountain.  Somewhere in Canada.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Statue and Cruise series.

Lots going on.  Biggest thing first – our stay in Pennsylvania is almost over!  We’re scheduled to fly back to San Francisco one week from today.  We’ll stay with LRN5 the rest of that day and Saturday and then head for Las Vegas on Sunday morning.  I’ll work remotely from Las Vegas  on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Then I fly back to California Wednesday night, go to work in Sunnyvale on Thursday to check out of the company and have lunch with friends, and fly back on Thursday evening as a free man.

That’s right, I’m leaving the giant aerospace company after more than 27 years.  It’s been my dream to retire early and start working on iPhone programming for fun and profit, and it looks like I’ll be living the dream very soon.  The best part is that all signs are pointing to a layoff for me.  That’s a great thing because it means I receive a nice little going away present of more than six months’ worth of salary.  Quite a nice sendoff.

While we’re in California, we’ll stop in Lardville long enough to pick up the Taurus and LRN4’s new pair of glasses and then say goodbye to our little town forever.  It was a pretty good place to live, but we’re excited to be moving on.  Las Vegas is a pretty good place to live too, I’m led to believe.

Lots of things still have to happen before we can leave, of course.  They’re coming on Wednesday to pack us and then they load us on Thursday.  LRN4’s car is being picked up on Wednesday.  We move out of the apartment and into the Residence Inn for a night on Thursday and get up early Friday morning to head for the airport.  In the meantime, I have pretty full days planned at work Monday through Thursday, so LRN4 will have to boss the workers around all week on her own.

And that’s pretty much where we are right now.  We spent part of the day today going through the closets and various electronics and generally getting things ready to be packed.  I still need to unwire all the computers and televisions, but I’m waiting until Monday and Tuesday evenings to get that done.  Also need to make a packing list, check it twice, and pack my bags.  I can’t wait!

And that’s about it for tonight.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: apple-pie-bomb bank robbery!

See you tomorrow