Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Oh, Well. . . Not Today

Made a lot of good “man glitter” yesterday with ye olde Husky. Lil 16” bar and chain did an excellent job w/25” diameter logs on down to smaller limbs and even twiggy stuff, chewing away at the wood mess in the back yard. Was a pooped puppy by the time the saw ran out of gas. Actually, that’s been the way it works pretty regularly: both the saw and I run out of gas at about the same time. *heh*

Today has been a disappointment on the “man glitter” and cleanup gig because of freezing rain (and near-freezing rain that’s even more chilling in some ways) on top of the bit of ice and snow dusting the ground. Ground varies between icy and slip-slidin’-sloppy. Not gonna do that to my back and knees, so the back yard gets a pass today.

Instead, I toodled on outa town and got some material I’ll need next week to effect a safe setup of a burn bin and also use a lil timber jig to trim some of the larger logs down to manageable size. Need to pick up a couple of large tarps as well to erect a sort of awning over where I plan to store logs/trimmings and even a few early cut planks, getting them at least mostly out of the weather.

I hope that I can have a clear path from my back yard to the large logs still laying on the periphery of our property, so that moving them into a place where I can work on them will be possible. We’ll see if the weather will let me get that done.

Not the day I had planned, but I’ve still gotten a little good prep work in.

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Well, It’s No “Instalaunch” But. . .

A comment I made on another forum got a “thumbs up” from The Puppy Blender–Glenn Reynolds.

Oh, the comment?

I rarely read or hear any critique of Trump’s policies that cannot be summed up as “Orangeman bad! Therefore, this (and everything else he does/has done) is bad!” Classic ad hominem fallacy: dismissing something because of the character or personal circumstances of the person who does/utters it. Or simply because of personal rancor. Oh, I have read/heard rationalizations that purport to be arguments against his policy decisions that attempt to throw enough manure over the ad hominem nature of the fundamental argument being made, but I have read few cogent, sound arguments against most of the things he has done.

To be clear, I voted for neither of the distasteful candidates in 2016, and I find Trump in many ways to be distasteful still (not someone I would, by personal preference, select to join me for a cuppa joe and conversation), but in November, I’ll most likely vote for him, because his actual policies are at least mostly mainstream, and some of them have been better than those of recent presidents–some much better.

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I Sometimes Wonder. . .

Whatever became of the lame man who was healed as recorded in Acts 3? He was 40 years old, and his entire livelihood had consisted of begging daily. Once his lameness was healed, what did he do for income?

Ah, he probably got a job with the First Church of Jerusalem. 🙂

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No More “Behinder I Get,” mmmK? ;-)

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” ~ The White Rabbit, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

No “New Years Resolutions,” no. I’ve made a start on getting on top of my “to-do” lists, and maybe a bit ahead of the curve on somethings; just a start, but it feels good. First of year Bible readings, for example, were sadly neglected. within one day of catching up there, and seeing myself anew, as verses both affirm on the one hand and convict on the other. Appreciate that.

Daily (daily) cleanup chores dealing with the trimmed sycamore wood is feeding a sense of slowly conquering that mess, with the goal of turning every part of it into useful products. It’s not just a dream but a real, attainable goal.

Other daily tasks dealing with the minutiae of life are surrendering to a journal of daily work, and I am almost on top of taking my daily multi-vitamins. *heh*

2020 “big gigs” for me are mostly focused on our home:

  • The wood products from the sycamores — new fencing and building products (deck repairs, additions, too)
  • Kitchen rehab advanced — new “coffee shrine” area, finish new island (add fold up/down area), tile kitchen floor; little things
  • New paint for living room/upstairs hallway; new trim for both
  • Finish work on basement rooms
  • Add storage upstairs
  • Purge closets

Those are some of the major task/project areas for out home for 2020, and I can already see progress in most of them. My “exercise program” (cutting up, moving, stacking, etc., all the downed limbs, etc. outside *heh*), rehab exercises (for lower back pain, right rotator cuff, right knee, strained brachioradialis, cervical pain), diet, and sleep mods are already showing progress, and I am developing habits to make that ongoing. Pleased with that.

All-in-all, scheduling and record keeping seems to be helping me be less hurried and more accomplished. We’ll have to see how things are going forward, eh?

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Sometimes (Actually, Quite Often) Problems Can Be Interesting

*headache* An “old” (more than a decade) Windows Vista computer ended up on my to-do list yesterday (NOT mine *heh* I’ve never had a computer with Vista installed.) It needed to be upgraded to Windows 10. Yeh, sure it could have just had a modern ‘nix OS installed, but the user wanted to see if he could use it once again for gaming (still quite a powerful machine with great graphics), so Win10 it was. But a direct upgrade path to Win10 from Vista just doesn’t work all that well, so. . .

Oh, wait. he couldn’t recall his password, either. Fixed that first.

So, as I was saying, burned a DVD with his desired data. Then. . . no, despite having it as an option in the BIOS, the USB image of Windows 10 for which I had a valid product key would not boot, so. . .

Burned a bootable image of the USB drive to a DVD R(DL)–the last one I had on hand (‘cos I just don’t use those much anymore *shrugs*). Got to 36% of files copied on the installation and. . . borked. Retried and. . . borked.

So, what now? Easy-peasy. Looked up an installation disk for Windows 7 Ultimate in my archives, copied down a valid license key and installed that. (I still have a few legitimate ones for Win7 and quite a few other M$ OSes and products, from “back in the day”)

As soon as it booted, I inserted the USB drive with a purchased copy of Win10 (with legit license) and Bob’s your uncle.

Coulda been a PITA, but was. . . doable. Now to use my bandwidth and data allowance to configure a desired software suite, make Win10 usable, disable all the “phone home” crap, and. . . will have a happy camper.

Fun.

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*smh* Too Much Stuff

A reminder that sometimes “too much stuff” can be “just enough stuff” hit me today. Really nice Asus router (just about all the features I want in a router, mid-range price, etc.) had one critical port–the WAN port–die Christmas Eve. Yeh, getting a replacement not happening, and as for contacting Asus support for warranty claim? Nope. And yesterday was taken up with too much to bother with either, so we’ve been down to swapping the ethernet connection to the cable “modem” between devices. . . that have ethernet adapters.

Started seeing my way clear of Xmas stuff (and a break in wood “waste” cleanup) today and was reorganizing some tech equipment. In the Asus router’s box, found a retired cable “modem” (using one that complies with newer standards) and. . . a lil Netgear router that has never been used, a “fell off the back of a truck store” purchase. (Nah, really overstocks and returns place.) Now, I am not a real fan of Netgear routers, and this one is relatively low end, though it does have multiple antennas and two-band radio, so it’s not all that bad.

So, two is one and one is. . . very close to none, but not quite there, yet, and the local network is now fully “WAN-ed up.”

Sometimes, too much stuff is juuuust enough stuff.

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Is There Room?

“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

. . .rendered as “inn” in Luke 2: 7, is – loosely – something like “a place to relax/rest,” and more likely referred to something more along the lines of places in private homes set aside to let out to travelers/visitors. So, the verse in the Christmas song,

Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room
For Thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.

“Home” is, in my opinion, more in tune with scripture than the usual translation of Luke 2:7, “inn”. Is there room in your home?

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“Oh the weather outside is frightful. . . “

Snow (actually, ice) day for schools in America’s Third World County™ (and surrounding areas, as well). While I admit I have submitted to the weather and not gotten on my wood waste cleanup project (yet) today, stew’s on and makin’ for tonight, and I’m-a fixin’ ta head out and work up a sweat, loosen up some of these aching muscles-n-joints. . . 😉

Meanwhile,