Wreaths Away!

November 9, 2008 – 7:00 pm

With the ordering of multiple units of QVCs item #H95000, our Christmas shopping is done for family, and those considered in exactly the same way as family. You know who you are. Watch for the big ol’ UPS truck the week of 12/7.

The tradition of the wreath is still somewhat bittersweet; when we got back from burying Buddy 11 years ago, we had holes in our hearts that we thought would never heal. I don’t remember Thanksgiving that year, and my little bride and I were definitely not in the Christmas spirit a few weeks later. Then, someone gave us a wreath. Fresh and piney it was, gracing our front door with its beauty. We were still sad, still hurting, but inspired.

Since then, we send wreaths to our family and considered-as-family members. And I hope it brings them a little joy, and a bit of solace. And I hope that somehow it expresses our love for them.

That’s the Tradition of the Wreath.

-k-

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Flowers for the Girls

November 9, 2008 – 4:58 pm


My little bride and Elder Daughter received bouquets like this one yesterday. Somehow, it’s become a tradition that I send them flowers on the anniversary of Buddy’s death.

I’m delighted to be able to send them. I enjoy their sincere thanks for their beautiful flowers.

And, as long as I draw breath, and can afford it, the tradition will continue. I just wish that the circumstances that gave rise to this annual ritual were totally different.

Remembering Buddy again. Too much potential, gone too soon.

We soldier on.

-k-

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Four Day Weekends

November 9, 2008 – 4:31 pm

Loving me some November. Veteran’s Day is on Tuesday this year, so I’m taking off tomorrow. Bing! A four day weekend.

And, the Friday after Thanksgiving has been a traditional day off since the early 80’s, when my job involved 100% travel. The post Turkey Day holiday was then spent, ahem, Doing paperwork. In all honesty, the “paperwork” in those days consisted of peeling off labels from Rhinelander long necks. After the first year of that, I dropped the pretense, and just said “I’m off”. And I’ve taken Black Friday off since then.

Ahh, November, the month of two four-day weekends.

-k-

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Lugging the Brick of Humility Again

November 9, 2008 – 12:24 pm

Yesterday, like most Saturdays of late, was spent in front of my Fedora 10 laptop, while the teevee was tuned in to NASCAR and/or NCAA Football. And both activities are enhanced by a cold one or two.

Yesterday, the cold and within reach brew got a little too close to the laptop; I glanced up from the keyboard, looked out of the wrong half of my bifocals, and knocked the can over. Instantly, the right 20% or so of the keyboard was awash in Original Coors. I quickly powered the system down, yelled at my little bride to bring down some paper towels - stat. I mopped off the keyboard and the surface of the table. I then sprayed under the impacted key caps with canned air. This forced the malt beverage from under the keys, and I used a paper towel to swab up the liquid. I powered the laptop up briefly, so I could open the cdrom drive. A little canned air in and around that area, and I then took a hairdryer, set on low, and went over all the impacted areas yet again.

So, now it was time to see if I’d bricked the entire machine. I powered it up, no smoke, no sparks, no frying. Good. Next, make sure keys work. Most of them do, except for backspace, “|”, and “\”. Well, crap. Unix systems need the pipe. So, more canned air under those keycaps, followed by a little repeated pressing, and they were OK.

This morning, all seems well, except for “Home”, “PgUp”, “Pause/Break”, and that funny little winders-logo key, all of which either don’t function or are sporadic in their functioning. I use a very minimalistic keyboard at work1; it doesn’t even have such keys, so the loss of them shouldn’t impact me on the laptop. It does bother me, though; the fact that even a key I never use doesn’t work, just grates on me. A quick search for a replacement keyboard reveals they cost $80. It’s beginning to grate a little less.

So, I’ll keep on with the limbering up of those keys; hopefully, they’ll come around. Man, this whole episode was dumb. On the bright side, I at least didn’t spill a Shiner’s. That would have doubled the tragedy.

-k-

1 The Happy Hacker keyboard

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No YouTube Audio in Fedora 10?

November 9, 2008 – 11:18 am

I had that problem. This worked for me:

  1. yum install libflashsupport

  2. Restart Firefox.

And, to test it out, I played this little toe-tapper:

Your choice of music is up to you.

-k-

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I Can be Big and Strong on my Own, Thanks

November 4, 2008 – 8:48 pm

Washington Post Editorial Headline:

Vote!
‘It will make you feel big and strong.’

And, then, I came across this post referencing the WaPo piece, written with passion and eloquence that I can only dream of:

This attitude reflects the myth that political action is as noble, or even nobler, than private actions. Much more so than if I vote, I feel big and strong when I act consistently to be a loving father, husband, son, and brother - when I help my friends and neighbors - when I perform my job well - when I pay my bills - when I save for my retirement — in short, when I take responsibility for matters that are within my control.

And then:

If Mr. Schieffer, newspaper editorialists, or anyone else really wants to give me the opportunity to feel big and strong, they ought to speak out first and foremost against government policies that treat adults as irresponsible children. I am perfectly capable of saving for my own retirement, of choosing whether or not to patronize a restaurant that permits smoking, of choosing which elements to ingest into my own body, of providing for the education of my son, of deciding what degree of driver and passenger safety I want in my automobile — indeed, of doing a great number of things that government today presumes me to be too gullible or too irresponsible or too childish to do. And what is true of me, an ordinary adult, is true of nearly every other adult.

Government treats me as if I’m small and weak. This fact disgusts me.

Amen. And Amen.

-k-

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Early Post-election wrap up

November 4, 2008 – 8:15 pm

Just one more day, and the government can go back to screwing us quietly instead of auditioning for the job of screwing us.

Indeed.
-k-

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Election Thought for the Day

November 4, 2008 – 6:37 am

From the comment thread on this post from Anarchy in Your Head, this:

A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. — Lysander Spooner

If someone attempts to crowd ahead of you in line at the polls today, it wasn’t me.

-k-

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Search for America Tour, 2009 Trip 1

November 2, 2008 – 2:29 pm

It’s never too early to plan a Search for America Tour. And my little bride and I plan to hit the highways running driving in January. Destination: Hot Springs AR. Details, road blogging, fuel economy numbers, and Cracker Barrel reports are in your future.

And now, to the Wizard of Avis, to rent an appropriate conveyance.

-k-

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Who’d a’ Thunk It?

November 2, 2008 – 1:34 pm

While visiting the Lawrence(KS) Journal-World website to get the link for the previous gridiron post, I paused for a moment on the story on the front page: Obama has received more contributions from Kansans than McCain. The Google map on that link shows a lot of blue; I take it that these are the areas where Obama outraised McCain. What I found interesting was the number of blue dots in the western part of the state. When I lived there, Republicans generally ran unopposed in the local and state races, and counties there were proud of the fact that they turned out the highest percentage of Republican votes at all levels. While no one expects Obama to carry Kansas, it’s still an amazing map, and I was surprised to see it.

-k-

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