Sheep Guarding Llama

I was really exhausted when I got up early this morning.  Almost no sleep last night.  I don’t even know when I am going to have a chance to do some catchup on my sleep either.  Not today and not this weekend.  I’ve got a lot of work to do before I get any chances to sleep.

I got right to work.  No chance for dad and I to go out to breakfast this morning.  Originally, when I had first planned to come out to dad’s place today, I was not aware that I was going to be working the early shift

I worked hard all morning and then around one I was able to sneak away and dad and I drove over to Geneseo to get lunch at the Omega Grill.  We both got the special of the day which was coconut shrimp.

It was warm out but there was a little cloud cover.  Oreo has been so nervous this week that we decided to take him along and to eat quickly.  It was fine.  A little warm but he didn’t even bother moving out of his snuggly car seat so he couldn’t have been very warm for very long.

After lunch it was straight back to work until almost seven in the evening.  At a quarter after six, my aunt Sharon and uncle Leo came up from Leicester.  Once I was done with work the four of us drove out to Pavilion to get a Friday night fish fry at BW’s at the Davis’ golf course on Perry Road.  I have never eaten there before and after my elementary school classmate, Larry Brown, from Pavilion Baptist School worked there for years as the manager I managed to finally get out there just several weeks after he left to go elsewhere.  The food was really good and we all quite enjoyed it.  I suspect that there will be many more BW’s fish fries in our future.

After dinner, Sharon and Leo went home and I did a little more work.  Then dad and I decided to watch a movie.  He has an AppleTV and rents movies on it because it is so quick and easy to do so.  Really a nice system for individual movie rentals (Netflix is far better for heavy movie renters, AppleTV is great for more casual renters.)  We spent about an hour trying to figure out what to watch and then, when we finally decided on something, we went to rent it and got a warning that we would be unable to view the rental because our system did not support HDCP which is a consumer rights removal system that the movie industry has pushed through to remove fair use rights from its customers.  How this is legal I have no idea.

To make a long story not quite as long as it might have been, here is what happened.  It turns out that Apple just pushed out a new firmware update to the AppleTV that caused it to start enforcing HDCP.  That is why dad never saw this before.  It also turns out that his HDCP monitor has a bad connector – the only connector that accepts 1080p video – and was causing the failure, but a second connector that only takes up to 1080i worked.  It took about half an hour just to switch the connectors in, what we though was, a futile attempt to test the second connector.  Both connectors were listed in the manual as accepting HDCP.  So our very first ever experience with this crippling technology (that’s its actually purpose – to cripple your content) was for it to completely fail and to almost make several very expensive purchases worthless through a very minor and unexplained glitch.

We had tried to start watching the movie at nine thirty but it was after ten thirty when we finally got the AppleTV working again (easy interface, ha, who is Apple kidding – an hour just to figure out the DRM software!!)  We opened up dad’s bottle of Talisker scotch and both had some and watched Inkheart with Brendan Fraser.  It was a light, childrens’ action adventure film with a big budget.  Fun and easy to enjoy.

It was way too late by the time that the movie was over.  Way past midnight.  It was around one in the morning by the time that Oreo and I finally managed to get into bed.  Tomorrow morning I don’t have to be up quite as early but I still need to be up by around seven or so so that I can finish up all of the work that I need to do before eleven when I have to be on the road to drive up to Rochester to go to SpiceCorps Upstate New York’s first even meeting.  Tony was supposed to car pool with me tomorrow but he cancelled this evening so I do not need to drive out to Avon before the meeting which is saving me at least half an hour.

I was pretty tired when I got up to do the early shift at six thirty this morning.  I do like the early morning productivity that I get doing this, though.  It is so much easier to keep up with everything all throughout the day.

Today is my last day with Liesl until Saturday evening 🙁  I had a lot of work to do today too so I did not have a lot of time to spend with her.  She did not nap today either and so was really upset much of the day.

Most of the day was really hot.  We’ve been having blown fuses in the house all week.  The main circuit in the house is overloaded because of the hot weather.  There are two air conditioners, the microwave, the computer, the main lights and the big upstairs fan all on a single circuit.  For some reason that one circuit is connected all over the house so that the biggest power-draw items in the kitchen, dining room, living room and upstairs bedroom are all connected together.  While the television and stereo in the living room, the other upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms are not on that circuit.  So the circuits are not in “regions” in the house but seem to be randomly assigned to individual outlets all over the house.  Because of that all of the major items in the house with the big motors, condensors or whatever are drawing from the same circuit.

During the day when everything is running the circuit breaker flips every several hours.  It seems to be around twice per day during the daytime when the kitchen air conditioner and the microwave are potentially in use although it often trips without any obvious trigger – most likely an air conditioner condensor kicking on from a thermostat.  There are several new appliances in the kitchen, any one or more of which may also be on this same circuit, which may have increased the regular draw on it causing the circuit to start flipping now really often compared to previously, but that is just a hypothesis.

I walked over to Big Willy’s to get myself some pizza before leaving this evening.  Probably my last chance to get their pizza for a month or so.  Hard to say.  I “stock up” when I am in town.

This morning the thunderstorms hit Toronto and were at dad’s place in Pavilion by early afternoon.  It was late afternoon when they came to Frankfort.  We were really thankful for the cooler air.  It was very much a relief.

When the rain finally came to Frankfort it was a nice, slow, warm rain.  Emily and I stood outside on the porch for a while holding Liesl watching the rain and distant lightning to the northwest.  It was nice to have some downtime to just spend enjoying time with Liesl in the rain.

When Emily went back inside Liesl and I went for a walk out in the rain.  This is her first time ever actually going out into the rain.  Dominica seems to think that water falling onto Liesl’s head isn’t good for her, but Liesl loved it.  It was a light and warm rain and the house has been so warm that she liked having the chance to cool off a little.  I carried her around and we looked at puddles and just enjoyed the nice weather.  I think that she is going to be a rain junky like her father and my father before me.

I worked in Frankfort until Liesl fell asleep which was around eight.  I didn’t want to leave while she was still awake as I won’t be seeing her at all tomorrow.  As soon as she went to bed I was out the door and on the road toward dad’s place.

The drive went fine.  No rain, no traffic.  I listened to a bit of “The Great Bridge” while I drove.  Great book.

I arrived at dad’s house around a quarter after eleven.  We stayed up talking until around two in the morning.  Tomorrow is going to be a rough day since I need to be up at six thirty! Oreo was very excited to be at his grandpa’s house with carpeting.  He just rolled and rolled around on the floor.  Clearly he was really itchy and unable to do anything about it this whole week being on hardwood and being around so much grass.  His allergies are really acting up and we have run out of his allergy medication for the time being!  That will be a top priority upon returning to Peekskill.

Oreo and I slept down in the basement on the futon mattress on the floor.

Oreo decided that he wanted to get up before five thirty this morning.  I got up with him and took him outside for a walk which is always smart as he normally only gets up early if there is an emergency.  Sometimes to scout out sunlight around the house but mostly just to go outside.

Since I was already up and about and downstairs I decided to just log in and get to work.  My “shift” starts at six thirty anyway so there was little point in trying to go back to bed after being completely awake and already in the dining room.  So Oreo staked out a prime spot beside me on the futon as he likes to do when I am working in the dining room and I got down to business.

It was a really productive day as I got started so early.  Really able to get a jump on things.

I discovered a small blister on my heal today.  Probably best not to do any more long walks until that goes away.  Don’t want it to be a problem.  Also probably time to switch to different shoes.  The grey New Balance tennis shoes that I am wearing are many years old and in horrible shape.  We actually bought another pair of shoes over a year ago while we were living in Newark to replace these but these kept on going so I just keep on using them day after day.  How they keep holding up I have no idea.  Pretty silly to have aging brand new shoes while wearing my old ones into the ground.

This evening everyone went out to West Schuyler to get ice cream at Dave’s Diner on motorcycle cruise night.  Dominica and Francesca took the kids and I drove Dominica’s parents and Joe.  The girls left a few minutes ahead of us.  We drove out of the parking lot and were just barely crossing the North Frankfort Bridge when I realized that the gas gauge was on empty.  Not close to empty – On empty.  So I hit the trip computer to ask it how many miles it was calculating were left before we ran completely out of gas and saw it go from two to one!!

It turns out that there is no gas station anywhere in the direction that we were headed so the only option was to turn around and return to town.  I immediately swung around to head back and the reacceleration process took us from one to zero on the gauge and before we were back across the North Frankfort Bridge and into town the gauge went from zero to “——” which seemed like a bad sign to me.

I drove as carefully as I could back trying to keep the speed as smooth as possible.  We went for the Sunoco station on main street.  Somehow we made it.  I am completely amazed that the car did not run out of gas completely leaving us to push it.  When I filled the tank I put in 16.92 gallons of gas.  Definitely a very low tank.

Dominica is always upset with me for allowing the tank to go below a quarter and having the light turn on and then having to look for gas stations in a “panic”.  But this is a new record for leaving the other driver with no gas.  Not even enough to make it to the nearest gas station without hitting “absolute zero”, if you will.  Dominica was all ready to call me an idiot when she found out about it until, she realized, that it was she and Francesca that had driven the car the last time and had taken it out shopping the other day.

So after filling up the tank we were able to head back over the bridge and out to get ice cream.

Nothing too much else to report today.  Lots of work.  Very long day.  Ended up working until around one in the morning.  SpiceWorks has been crazily busy this week.  I’ve never seen it like this before.  It started over the weekend and is continuing on into the week.  Really nuts.  The overall volume of traffic on the site must be double what it normally is.

I had a little bit of blistering this morning.  Nothing bad, but I think that I need to take today off from walking or else I might have a problem.

I was up nice and early this morning so that I could get downstairs and start work at six thirty.  Oreo decided that the bed was comfy so he stayed upstairs for several more hours while I worked.

It is pretty warm today.  Temperatures are way from what we have gotten used to and the sun is out today.  It was out most of yesterday as well but was still partially overcast.  Today it was just sunny here in Utica.

Dominica, Liesl, Oreo and I are still in Frankfort, New York today, for those of you not completely up on your SGL reading.

There was a lot of work to be done today.  I spent pretty much the entire day sitting at the computer in the dining room.  Not the most exciting way to spend the day.  I kind of like working from Frankfort, though, because I am in the middle of the action rather than being hidden away down in the basement corner where no one can see me or talk to me.  I am not used to having so many people around when I am working.

Lunch today was pizza from Big Willy’s around the corner.  The guys recognize me there which is funny since I do not live here.  They have such awesome pizza though.  I eat pizza there more often than I eat it from anywhere else or about the same as I eat it from Davis’ Pizza in Pavilion, New York.  But dad gets the pizza most of the time from Davis’ so they never see me.  We have yet to find anyplace in Peekskill with really amazing pizza.  That is something that we really miss.  However, not having really awesome pizza available just a phonecall away is not exactly a bad thing!  We have stopped eating pizza significantly and that is good for our health and pocketbooks.

I had a server die out in Peoria today.  What a pain.  Was pretty sure that nothing was going to be able to be done remotely so I started planning on driving out there after work today so that I could deal with it.  I was not planning on going out to dad’s house until Thursday night and was very sad that I was going to have to leave Liesl for five days!  I was going to take Oreo with me, of course.  Dominica even packed up my suitcase and CPAP while I was working so that I could leave promptly.

Fortunately the server ended up being repairable remotely.  Thank goodness for good virtualization technologies.  And thank goodness for Mozy backup that made me only have to worry about the inconvenience and not the safety of the data itself.  I don’t need that added stress.

So Dominica unpacked me and Liesl was happy.  It is bad enough that I will be away from her on Thursday night and all day Friday and much of Saturday.  Thursday night will be minimal as she goes to sleep early and I cannot leave until somewhat late.  So at most we will miss an hour of each other.  Saturday I expect to get back to Frankfort in the early evening so I will see her some.  So basically missing two days.

This evening I worked on getting Frank’s new iPod Nano 4th Generation hooked up and working with iTunes on the computer here so that he can use it to listen to Audible.  It turns out, however, that the computer does not have the power to run iTunes.  iTunes being one of the worst pieces of software known to man – it practically defines everything that you shouldn’t do with software.  Bloated, useless and the most confusing and pointless interface imaginable.  How anyone uses iTunes and iPods and thinks that Apple has the slightest clue about interfaces I will never understand.  iTunes runs so slowly on their 2.4GHz Celeron with 1.25GB of RAM that it could take thirty seconds to a full minute for the application to respond to a button click!  It was completely unable to transfer files.  I shut down the antivirus and everything else that was running to try to help it but nothing was going to make it function.  iTunes is barely functional on Dominica dual-core, 64bit laptop with 3GB of RAM so I suppose that we should have guessed that this would be a problem.  iTunes has been on here for a long time, though, and I thought that they were using it previously.  This means that their AppleTV is not functioning either.

So the iPod is being returned as it just doesn’t work.  Instead we found a Creative Zen Mozaic EZ300 that supports the same features and has the same capacity as the iPod for quite a bit less than half the price – and likely will work significantly better.  Apple just can’t get their software to work.  I can’t believe that a company so large that makes so much software can be so bad at it so consistently.  But, it isn’t like Apple users care if it works.  So why should Apple spend extra money making it good when they make more money leaving it as it is.  Oh well.  This money is going to Creative instead.

I worked most of the evening after Liesl went to bed early.  She has started getting really sleepy around dinner time.  I think that being away from home and having so much going on all day is wearing her out more quickly than normal.  People are going to think that she sleeps a lot more than she really does.

I managed to get an article written tonight that I have been wanting to get done for a while so I was happy about that.  Dominica went to bed around eleven and Oreo and I went to bed a little past midnight.

No big plans for tomorrow.  Just more normal work.

Summer arrived today.  Up until today it has been nice and cool.  Almost continuous rain.  Often in the sixties.  Today it is hot, sunny and humid.  I checked the forecast for the week and it is supposed to be hot and nasty all week.  And, of course, it is this week that we are without air conditioning.  That did not work out perfectly.  Now I am really glad that I turned on the air conditioning in the house before we left (I set it to eighty) just in case it got really warm.  It was hard to believe that it would having been so cold that we couldn’t keep all of the windows open up until the time that we left Peekskill.

This morning I learned that Eastman Kodak is discontinuing Kodachrome film.  It was announced today.  I started using Kodachrome 64 film, a standard for professional photographers, especially photojournalists, around 1989.  It was never my normal film which was almost always Ektachrome 100 during my chemical film days but I did use Kodachrome 64 and even Kodachrome 25 from time to time.  Kodachrome began being manufactured, in Rochester, in 1935.  Seventy-four years they have been making this classic film.  There is almost nowhere left where someone can even get the film processed.  It is truly the end of an era.

I am on early morning support this week.  It sounds bad but actually works out pretty well to be the week that I am out of town.

Liesl got up early with me this morning and then hung out with Francesca for a while while I was working and before Dominica got up.  Dominica slept in pretty late not coming down to join us until around ten or so!

Work and SpiceWorks were really busy this morning.  It was all that I could do to keep up with the pace of incoming emails.  Very crazy.

Around noonish, Dominica and Francesca took the youngins out to do some shopping.  They ended up being gone for pretty much the entire day.  They got home around four thirty in the evening.  That was a long day of shopping.

Tonight at dinner, Liesl was so exhausted that she fell asleep with her head down on the dining room table.  She was so adorable.  We ended up putting her to bed at seven – before we were even done with dinner.

After dinner, Frank and I walked the girl, Madeline and Emily, down to the Knight Spot for some ice cream.  We got back to the house and then, after dropping them off, I went out for an evening walk since Liesl was already asleep.

After work I set out on a nice, long walk.  Much longer than I did yesterday.  I have a great book on my iPod that I am listening to so I am really enjoying the time out walking.  And the exercise is great.  Today I walked from Frankfort to Mohawk which was 3.9 miles in each direction for a total of 7.8 miles.  I got back to the house at around eleven.  It was just cool enough to not be uncomfortable walking that much.  Here is my route.  Had I realized how close I was to Herkimer I would have just kept on going the extra little bit to go all of the way.

I worked for about an hour after returning to the house.  I was a little soar after all of that walking but I felt pretty good.  I am definitely glad that I went out for the walk.  I’ve missed my iPod time too.  I like to keep up with my reading but it is hard to do these days.  Both walks together today were easily over eight miles.

It was around midnight when I finally got a chance to head off to bed.