Visiting Old Neighborhoods

My wife, son, and #3 daughter, are at my father-in-law's place over on Main. I'm 'holding down the fort,' here on Ash: as usual on Wednesday mornings. So far, that's pretty much routine at the Gill household.

What's not so routine is that I'm borrowing my wife's laptop, doing a little online nosing around while letting cable programs wash over me. At the moment, that's a Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen nightmares rerun. The show's an occasionally-fascinating look at how smallish medium-to-high-end restaurants work. Also a reminder that I haven't plumbed the depths, when it comes to workplace conditions.

I decided to take a trip to the west coast: San Francisco downtown, to check out the places I lived there. I've just been on the 700 block of Bush Street, just off Powell, where I had a good-enough-for-a-bachelor set of rooms at the back of a building, a few floors above a French restaurant.

The restaurant is still there, although the swank place across the street is now another sort of business. Change is no surprise: I left that part of the world in the '70s.

The "Y" is still there, over the top of the hill north on Market, wrapped around the corner of Market and Sacramento. I had a room there, one floor over the lobby, overlooking an airwell/entry-level court. It's still called the YWCA. That neighborhood hasn't changed quite as much, although there's an acupuncture health center on one corner, and the British (style) pub is gone.

There's also a sign telling about a summer children's program in front of the Y, in English and Chinese. No surprises there. Although the 'tourist' Chinatown district is a couple blocks east, that part of San Francisco was part of the 'real' Chinatown when I lived there. My quarters weren't as nice as the Bush Street address, but I liked the neighborhood. I also noticed that folks there weren't as diffident as Euro-Americans tend to be, about using color on buildings. Especially red. And yellow.

I 'really ought to' get back to work now.

My Son, the Techie

My son set up and launched his website yesterday evening. 'First' website, I suspect. It's still a work in process, but what I've seen looks good. Granted, I'm biased.

Today he's tweaking the WordPress-powered blog on the website. I told him that I'd be using him as a technical consultant when/if I start hosting my blogs myself - which I might, although Blogger's served me very well.

And you can't beat the price.

In other developments, the flooring project is in process again this morning - and still going well.

I located the stove - also the washer and dryer. They're in an arc, starting west and a little south of my desk, mostly in the west part of the north room. Happily, it's a big room: although with the movable contents of the kitchen and laundry room in here, it doesn't feel like it so much.

I Almost Don't Have a Cold: Just in Time for Memorial Day Weekend

Tomorrow, for many Americans, is the practical start of Memorial Day weekend. If we've got the seniority, we're likely to take the afternoon off: and get a head start on the first marathon trip of the summer.

Or maybe not. That's the way it was, a few decades back: but times change.

I'm staying put: although I do plan to get out of the house at least once over the weekend.

If all goes well, our gas meter will get moved tomorrow. A dumpster arrived today. What that's for, I don't know: but it's probably connected with the gas meter move. I could ask my wife.

My son and I talked about water and oxygen on (and in) Jupiter's moon, Europa: and then read Garfield.

Me, #3 daughter, and my wife went to Soo Bahk Do class tonight. I plan to get involved in that - but have several years' worth of enforced inactivity to undo first. Or maybe I'm just procrastinating.

I spent quite a bit of today, re-organizing my Easy Griller website. The navigation is (or should be) a trifle less difficult now. At the rate I'm going, I'll have the last part of that makeover done in 24 hours - on time for my 'Memorial Day weekend' deadline. Next step: reviewing & rewriting - and adding photos and other graphics as needed.

That's it for today: Goodnight and may God bless.

Tuesday: and Monday, Too

It snowed yesterday. Big, beautiful, white flakes of snow came down, slowly, all day. It's melting again today, but we had a winter reprise for a while.

Our son brought fruit snacks to share at school, to celebrate his birthday. I'm told that some of the kids like them, some didn't.

I slept for much of the morning yesterday, catching up from a weekend of work and family get-together. I still feel rather, well, relaxed.

Today about the same, except I didn't oversleep. Our son went to school and returned, #3 daughter did her studies here at home, my wife talked with #2 daughter on the phone, I got a bulletin to the printers, helped that small publishing company I worked for with their website, picked up 2007 medication records for the April 15, and realized that I have to get the 2007 business expenses put together. I've got the information: it's just not organized.

On the positive side, I don't have to wonder what I'll be doing tomorrow morning.

One of our neighbors came over this afternoon. Apparently, I've got a fan or two. Her husband and mother like my "Brendan's Island" website: particularly "Sauk Centre Journal" and the webcam that looks out on the street. She wanted the URLs, so I wrote them down on the handiest thing around: a (clean) Styrofoam plate, left over from the family get-together.

There's a school referendum vote coming up later this month, and we got a call from someone, talking about the issue: one of these calling campaigns. She asked me how I would vote. I hemmed and hawed a bit, so she prompted me by suggesting that I might be undecided. I replied with something like, 'well, undecided sounds classier than clueless, so I'll go with that.'

Wednesday: of Computers, Sons, and Possible Security Risks

I got a surprise this morning, when I tried using the main computer.

It was running, of course, since it's the device I use to run my "outside" webcam.

It would have been, anyway, since our son gets up well before he needs to, and likes to use that computer. It's a great deal faster than his laptop.

When I sat down at the keyboard, the main computer was logged into our son's user and - more to the point - quite insistent about being given a particular DVD.

I finally convinced it that I wasn't putting the DVD in place, and tried to log out.

"Tried to log out." Twice. Each time, one of those little announcements went up that a DVD movie launcher wasn't shutting down.

I could have spent hours, trying to figure out exactly what caused the problem, or I could just cut power to the computer.

Simple choice: I cut off power, restarted the thing, and no more problem.

Some good came of the annoyance: I

• Got an opportunity to practice patience
• Had to look up potential security problems for this sort of situation
  • ...and as a result found something I could use for a post on another blog

I doubt that anything unpleasant has happened to the computer as a result of its use as a DVD player, but I'm going to have a chat with our son, when he comes home from school.

Monday: Martin Luther King Day, and Wal-Mart

My wife has been planning the next phase of her room-painting project. About half of the living room walls are painted now.

#3 daughter was feeling a bit under the weather in the morning, but seems to have perked up.

It's Martin Luther King Day: marked by flags downtown, and the "I have a dream" sound bite playing over and over on the radio. I lost track at about a half-dozen replays of the recording, and that was early in the day. I was tuned to Minnesota Public Radio: They had a rather enthusiastic program for this federal holiday.

Toward the end of the afternoon, my wife sent me to Wal-Mart for paint and vacuum cleaner bags. Our son went along, expressing the opinion that I'm fun to be around. Nice of him to say so.

We checked out where the Bionicles would be. There's shelf space cleared for the 2008 releases, but nothing in place aside from price tags. Then, our son and I found everything except of of the kinds of paint we'd been sent to get.

After supper, I went to the Fitness Guru: I'm trying to make exercise there part of the weekday routine. It'll take time to catch up from decades of relative inactivity, but I can already notice some improvement.

Finally, I read "Garfield" with our son.

My wife fielded a couple of calls from #2 daughter today, and I had an excuse to phone #1 daughter. Actually, she called me, and I made two return calls. My excuse was that she was helping me write a press release for some webcams I set up. (You'll see links to them in the sidebar.)

Monday: Swahili Song and Catholic Singles

Our son told me that he likes a song that the school choir is singing "Wakati Wa Amani" - I think that's close to the spelling. He explained that it means "Time of Peace" in Swahili. I hope I'll have a chance to hear that.

My wife's gotten started on re-painting the living room. She, our son, and #3 daughter got primer on about six feet of the wall. I knew she wanted to paint the wall some time: but hadn't expected the project to start this soon.

We got a call from #1 daughter last night: at about twenty minutes to midnight. Happily, I caught the phone before anyone got rousted out of bed. She was excited about a young man she met on avemariasingles.com, a website "for marriage-minded Catholic singles." She and #2 daughter signed up with the service recently, and have encountered some young men who look promising - and some that don't. It seems to be a very good system. The only down side, from my point of view, are the calls this household gets at odd hours, from our two oldest kids.

#1 daughter called again, at about 7:30 this morning. My wife reports that #1 daughter hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

Sunday: A Day of Rest and Grilling

I like Sundays. This one was a fairly routine example. We got up, got ready in a relatively leisurely fashion, went to church, and came home again.

Church wasn't strictly routine. Our Lady of the Angels, our parish church, has new vessels now. Three families got together and anonymously donated a new set. The timing is good: the existing set was due for some rather expensive repair.

#1 daughter had lunch with us, and later hung out with me and her brother. The three of us were clustered around the main computer, of course: and had a great time. Those two kids are the ones that are more like me, in terms of personality: #2 daughter and #3 daughter are more like my wife.

I fiddled with webcams this afternoon and evening. #1 daughter helped me focus and adjust the one that looks out on a corner north of us. (There's a link to it in the sidebar.) I'm not going to count that as "work:" we were having too much fun with the project.

My wife, our son, and #3 daughter went to Soo Bahk Do this evening. There was a test: they won't get the results for some time, which gives them a good opportunity for cultivating patience.

Monday: Catching Up

We're having a January thaw here in Minnesota: It got to almost 40 Fahrenheit, officially. It was almost 50 around the thermometer by our front door.

Judging from past experience, about two weeks from now, there's going to be a lot of sneezing and coughing on college campuses around here. Mid-winter thaws are a wonderful opportunity for kids to go out in their shorts, do some sunbathing, and (for some) begin a voyage of discovery in which they learn that 40 may be warmer than 20, and yet not be warm.

I went to Fitness Guru today, for the first time this year. That'll be a more common part of my routine - a sort of new year's resolution. F. G. is an odd name for a good exercise place on the south side of Sauk Centre.

Points that I meant to write during the last few days, but forgot:

• That 'Santa Claus' beard I had during Christmas is gone until next year's season. It took a while, last week, to get past the 'hit by a weed whacker' look.
• When I got back from visiting my dad and #2 daughter, my wife was chipping up part of the wood-look tile on the living room floor. She's been planning to replace the, ah, colorful carpeting there for years: ever since we moved here, I think.
• I got a flu shot about a week ago. The nurse who did the injection seemed apologetic when she explained that the Band-Aid® she used was the only kind left. It's got Tweety Birds on it.
• My wife found a new home for a weird little statue of a wizard on a motorcycle - shaped like a dragon. I noticed it in its new home this afternoon: on top of the main computer's monitor.

When I got back from Fitness Guru, the couch was moved into the middle of the room, and she was attacking the carpet with a utility knife. She's enlisted our son and #3 daughter in the campaign, too.

Meanwhile, I've set up a second webcam. It'll be keeping track of me, until I think of something better - which shouldn't be too hard.

I call the new webcam Little Brother. I think you can see why.

I think I see the nurse's point: I'm probably not the sort of person usually associated with Tweety Bird Band-Aids®.

Commenting on this little statue of a wizard and a (dragoncycle?), my family said, "it's you."

Thursday: Sledding, Writing, and Good News

#2 daughter and our son were out sledding this afternoon. I'm told that the slope they were on was a sort of 'dead man's curve,' where the sledders are airborne. Twice.

She and #1 daughter talked with me, in series and parallel, this afternoon. I was at the computer, getting a webcam ready. I think it's the first one in Sauk Centre that looks out on a street (www.brendans-island.com/smalltownamerica). Right now, it's looking out at a lot of dark, but when sunrise comes, I'll be bringing views a snowy intersection in Sauk Centre to the world.

The anesthetic from my medical experience this morning is still sloshing through my veins, so writing took a little more thinking than usual. At one point, #2 daughter said, "babble on, just like you usually do: People enjoy it." I hope she's right.

I'm hoping that all the doze-and-forget juice is out of my system by tomorrow morning. I seem to be focusing better now that it's evening: mentally and visually.

It looks like my wife gets to keep me a while longer. My colonoscopy didn't show anything to worry about, which is a load off my mind. I got photos, capturing highlights of the scope's expedition. When I talked about posting them, she said, "you would do that."

Saturday: Countdown to Christmas - 2 days

I overslept this morning, and so didn't go over to the in-town Grandpa's to visit with kinfolk who had come for a Christmas visit. They had a good time, and the kids enjoyed meeting two of their newest cousins.

It may be just as well that I didn't go. For one thing, I got some work done, and for another, this was my first day on my blood-sugar-control medication. It's metformin, a 20th-century addition to the west's official pharmacopoeia - derived from the French lilac, which has been used to treat diabetes for centuries. So far, I've got three of five major side effects: [blogger's advice - skip the rest of this paragraph if you've eaten recently] stomach upset, indigestion, and nausea. I wouldn't mind skipping the other two.

I'll keep taking those pills, though. Being aware of low blood sugar before I crash will involve a short learning curve. That's okay, though: I enjoy learning.

Happily, my wife, #2 daughter, #3 daughter, and our son came back in time for me to grill burgers for supper. The sun had set by then, so the neighbors' Christmas lights and the grill's flames looked very bright. #2 daughter kept me company for part of the time I spent out there, sensibly staying in the garage's open back door.

I had a 'shazam moment' this evening, talking with our son. He pointed out that he was looking forward to Monday because it was Christmas Eve, and that his Christmas vacation had started. Somehow, Christmas being on next Tuesday had slipped my mind yesterday.

My wife, #2 daughter, #3 daughter, and our son were with me in the family room this evening. The ladies occupied the couch, our son was on the floor with his laptop (a hand-me-down from #1 daughter). I was in the corner, twiddling with my laptop, completing this information-age equivalent of gathering around the family hearth.

They may have been talking about medical checkups, because my wife said something like 'You know how to really get the attention of a nurse? Go into a meditative state while they're taking your blood pressure.' #2 daughter agreed, adding that it's fun to lower your heart rate, too. Those two might have been joking, but I don't think so.

Later, our son and I went through our recently-resumed evening routine of reading comics. And, he reminded me that he'd told me about some web-cam-related software about two months ago. I'd brought it up as a new topic as we started the routine.

All in all, it's been a good day.

Through One Dad's Eye in the Big Blogosphere?

Maybe not, but I finally got around to creating a Technorati Profile. Technorati.com looks like a pretty good service for finding interesting and/or useful blogs.

Also, I'm going to see if Technorati can help more folks find this blog. We'll see how it goes.

Harassing Phone Calls from Dallas 3

Although I cannot condone the practice of cursing, a dandy one for spammers and those who hijack websites and forums came to mind today: "May the static discharge of a thousand dry woolen socks infest their motherboards!"

Some good has come of this colossal waste of time and effort: I've taken a good look at this family's credit card history, and re-acquainted myself with our credit card company's online information service. An email to a family member regarding a non-existent eBay purchase. Under the circumstances, I decided to do a credit check. We're okay, thankfully.

A new wrinkle: we got two bright yellow-and-red packages from DHL, a Florida shipping company I'd never heard of. The DHL address on the shipping labels was (from the point of view of someone who grew up on the edge of North Dakota) close to the "escort" services that share a number with whoever kept our phone ringing over the weekend.

And the sender was identified as "The Alliance." The same name that came up over the weekend.

I waited to open the packages until a police officer was present. On the remote chance that there was something of an extralegal nature inside, I wanted an outside witness to see that we hadn't broken the seals.

Someone had seen to it that we got about a hundred of those cardboard shipping envelopes, along with enough forms and laminating material to use each one, with some left over.

Judging from what's happened to date, my guess is that whatever person or persons is behind this is immature, malicious, and has entirely too much leisure time.

DHL has their material back now, following a cordial chat with someone at the office back in Florida. (If I need to ship something, I'm going to keep DHL in mind. Those yellow-and-red packages and envelopes are the most eye-catching containers I've seen in a long time.)

I had hoped that the unwanted calls had ended, but we got another today. I'm assuming it's the same outfit, since the tinny music was of the same execrable quality as we'd heard before.

At least now we know what to look for. I think that, with a little learning at this end, we can demote this annoyance to "trivial."