Information Technology, Birthdays, and Dusty Humor

I went to Alex today, partly to get a new router. This may resolve some of the issues we've had with using the Internet. Or, not. It was a good day for driving: overcast, so glare wasn't an issue. And the sky looked like rain, or something, was coming. Rain, as it turns out.

I got home a little before supper. While we were eating, my son left the room. Then returned. He'd swapped out routers, installing the new one.

Knocking my webcam offline in the process - temporarily. He explained that the service I use is very good at reestablishing connections. I checked - and sure enough, the webcam was back in service. With a notation in the log that it hadn't been able to get a signal out for a while. I'll be able to get the full report late tomorrow. If I'm interested: which I'm not, terribly.

I thanked him for doing the job. And told him that I want to be told when he does something like that. Before he does it.

We set the clocks forward Saturday night, in compliance with Daylight Saving time. Which may have made sense around 1920. Make that March 19, 1918: I did a little checking, and that's when this country jumped on the bandwagon.

It was all the rage in Europe: so dragging our schedules may have seemed like a very sophisticated idea at the time. I've gotten the impression that this country didn't really get over being a former colony until sometime around 1900. And car commercials were still talking about "European styling" recently. 'Recently' by my standards - say within the last decade or so. I'm getting off-topic.

There may, again at the time, have been some practical reason. I harangued about this in another blog. ("I'm Blaming Daylight Saving Time: or, Not," Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (March 17, 2010))

Whether or not the time change had anything to do with it, I was in a fog, mentally, from about Sunday to yesterday. I'll be catching up for a week. Or, deciding that some of the tasks can be dropped entirely for those days.

#1 daughter is up in the Red River Valley of the North now, visiting #2 daughter and my son-in-law. Also checking out a house or two, I understand. She's graduating this spring (assuming all goes well), and plans to move up there. Again, so I understand.

And, we celebrated #1 daughter's birthday while she was here on spring break. My wife got a candleholder/candle with a music chip in it. Twist it to the "on" position, and it plays "Happy Birthday to You." Over and over and over. #1 daughter, after about a dozen repetitions - maybe fewer - noted that it was getting monotonous.

My son will be turning 14 soon. I found a small pile of information technology trade magazines on the stairs a day or so ago. They didn't look familiar, so I checked the address block. I thought they might have been something my father had subscribed to: I got my taste for - eclectic? - unfocused? - knowledge from him. (For some online communities I'm in, where it says 'interests' I've said that I'm only interested in three things: What exists within the universe, what exists beyond, and what might exist.)

The magazines were addressed to my son. I'll want to ask him about them some time. Mostly to see if I may read them. Not to check up on him - those things are serious, business-oriented trade magazines. Yeah: he's that sharp. He's also 14, so I wouldn't count on his ability to make business decisions. Yet. No reflection on his abilities: at 13 going on 14, who is?

Something that doesn't happen very often: my father-in-law thought something I said was funny. He likes me just fine, but my humor tends to be dry. Dusty.

This time, my wife had told him about a discussion she and I had, about an extension of the garage. She received an inheritance, and bless her heart: she's spending in on (long overdue) replacement of the decades-old plumbing in the bathrooms. Also a patio (we've wanted it for over 2 decades - this time she has the money for it). Her choice.

Anyway, we were talking about adding to the garage so we could get two vehicles inside.

She was explaining the need to keep both vehicles inside, all good, practical, logical reasons. Then she added that it would also give her more room to practice tennis.

Then I said something like, 'Ah! The real reason.'