Saturday, 31 May 2008
 

Wakin' up cold and lovin' it (Multiple updates)

It'll take a day or two to figure out the appropriate night-time thermostat setting on my new air conditioner. In the mean time, it was nice to find out this morning that even when it's hot out there really is a "too cold" setting on the thing. This will be the first summer since I moved back to Illinois that I've had a cool enough place to get a good night's sleep in the summer.

I'm not sure we actually have enough juice available to run it but I just ordered my sister's son Scotty a 5200 BTU air conditioner. Right now his room and the hall bath are the only rooms we don't have the ability to keep reasonably cool in the summer. Putting an air conditioner in the bathroom will require running a new electrical circuit and cutting a hole in the wall; after Chad's disappearing act I'm not sure who I can get to do that, if anyone.

***

I just got back from walking up to the highway to get the mail. It may be good "sit under a shade tree" weather later but right now it's good weather for sitting near an air conditioner.

There are either some new survey stakes or some new flags on old ones down at the end of our field. If it cools off later I may walk down there for a closer look, but not right now.

***

I'm not sure what's going on here but I don't think it's anything to be alarmed about.

That steel post and the pink flags on it appeared sometime last fall. The green flags and the orange paint on the big wooden post are new. That wooden post has been there at least 51 years, I remember it already showing its age when I was just a wee thing, and I've always considered it to mark the northeast corner of our property. Maybe it was supposed to and whoever planted the steel post had more accurate survey equipment, or thought they did. At any rate they're both about 8 feet east of where I intend for the pasture to end when everything settles out; we decided last fall to let a boundary zone between our east fence and our actual east line go back to nature to eventually provide a better visual barrier between us and the new Wal-Mart (which you can see in the background; there's a garden center on this side of the building).

It looks like they have managed to drop the water level in that lake some. Compare the way that peninsula looks now with the way it looked in this shot, which I took yesterday afternoon. There are areas in that lake where the water's still a good 40 feet deep and I have my doubts they intend to pump it completely dry. The guy who owns that field supposedly plans to sell lakeside small business lots back there so I guess it's safe to assume it won't stay ugly forever but I still liked it better as a corn field.

***

I guess the heat even has Sunshine lazy. Here's the best I could do on getting him to hurry up to the fence for some grain:

Here's the YouTube version for those of you who can't play Photobucket vids.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 31, 2008 at 02:54 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 30 May 2008
 

The good, the bad, the so so, and the very good (Updated)

I'm not sure I trust the weather.com gurus to really know what's coming that far out but if they're right things are looking good for next weekend, when Fight4TheRight and Scottie are planning to be here. I may have to get Scottie to do some hauling for me, for reasons I'll explain in a minute, but even if he doesn't want to we can still have a productive weekend.

Update via Kyle: Brad has decided that with gas prices as high as they are it's not worth the drive up from Poseyville to just work a day or two at a time. I may or may not have enough fence left to build after F4TR and Scottie have been here to have him come up and help but between now and then I don't have enough that can be done without Chad's help to make it worth the trip. Brad hasn't talked to Chad either, which makes me lean even more toward thinking Chad lost his phone again. I'm pretty sure that was the only place he had a record of my phone number, which would make it tough to get in touch with me without driving over from Vincennes, which so far he hasn't chosen to do. I can get by without Chad if I have to -- Kyle says Taylor's available -- but I still had plans I was really counting on Chad's help with. I thought he was going to be the brains behind rewiring the house so we can air condition the hall bath and Scotty's room and I was counting on him to haul some more fencing material here from Vincennes for me. I can work around both problems if I have to but I'll admit to being a little torqued by his sudden disappearance. ---- F4TR, you might pass on the word to Scottie that if we're going to put pretty wooden rails on fences next week I'm going to need him to haul them here from Vincennes.

The arrangement with the notebook off to one side and an external monitor, keyboard and mouse in front of me is definitely going to work out just fine. It would be very easy to sit here and forget anything's changed.

***

One more thing to love about the laptop. We had a roughly two second power outage a little bit ago. My desktop would have shut down and had to be restarted. The impact on my notebook? My external monitor went dead for about a second longer than the lights were out. If the power had stayed off longer I could have set the notebook in front of the monitor on my desk and kept right on working for at least a couple of hours.

***

Bro-in-law Matt and Scotty's friend Kyle installed both of the air conditioners we picked up Saturday this afternoon. I'm glad I didn't buy anything bigger than I did for the front room; it was beginning to look doubtful for a while that the one I bought would fit the available opening. Putting the one in my room wasn't quite so challenging but I definitely don't need anything bigger in here either. My sister says the one in the front room is definitely doing a better job than the hand-me-down junker we've had in there and the one in my room could definitely chase me out of the room if I set the thermostat low enough. This is the first time in history this room has ever been air conditioned other than by what cool air drifts in from other rooms. I'm living in the lap of luxury, people. The one I bought for my room has more capacity than it would take just to cool my room but I hope that means I can keep this room cool enough to keep the kitchen and the hall bath from getting quite so miserable.

Apparently the people who dug that ugly hole in the ground in the field behind our place have decided they want part of the water out of it now. I have no idea where they're pumping the water to or how much they intend to pump out but that's definitely a pump with a large hose running off to the left and the water level has definitely dropped a foot or two since the last time I looked; that peninsula was under water except for one little island out near the end. I also saw some survey equipment just past our back fence this afternoon. I 'aven't the foggiest what comes next.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 30, 2008 at 01:20 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 29 May 2008
 

I think this is going to work out fine;
Updated: Another toy for my inner geek

The desktop I've been using since early January has been moved to the other end of the house and is now "the family machine." My new notebook is sitting next to my computer desk on a short but quite sturdy wooden chair that used to belong to my niece's  grandpa, with the lid closed. I'm sitting at the desk in front of the same 22" monitor I've been using for the last month or so and if I didn't look at the taskbar/systray area on the monitor I wouldn't even know I'd switched machines. I've seen some glitches in Vista that I presume sooner or later Microsoft will issue fixes for but nothing I can't live with. I need to buy a computer case sometime that's big enough  to hold the laptop, AC adapter, keyboard and mouse but that can wait a while. I guess the one complaint I have about the laptop is there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the touchpad sensitivity or turn off the tap-to-click feature. I can live with it, it just means I have to carry a separate keyboard and mouse when I'm on the road.

***

Aha! I just figured out where to turn off tap-to-click. I'll have to experiment a little but I think that means I now consider the notebook useable without an external mouse and keyboard. It'll probably still spend most of its time connected to an external mouse, keyboard and monitor anyway but the ability to use it standalone will still be nice.

***

Another toy for my inner geek.

I can't really think of any way to classify this one as something I need; it's just something I've been wanting, even before I was reminded a few days ago of a way it could benefit some little ones in my life. In general, I have hours of music on cassette tapes I don't have any good way to listen to any more. If I can copy the cassettes to my hard drive I can burn the music onto CDs to listen to in my blogging corner or in the car. In particular, my niece asked my sister a few days ago if she or I either one had a copy of a particular cassette I made 20 1/2 years ago and distributed copies of to all of the then-little people in my life, including said niece. Today I was looking for something else and ran across my master tape for the cassette in question. I couldn't begin to reproduce a list of everything that's on it any more but I know it starts off with Puff The Magic Dragon and proceeds on at some point along the way with Rockin' Robin, Guitarzan, Tennessee Birdwalk and Humphrey The Camel. All the old classics, in other words. Old classics that my grandson and my sister's grandkids have never heard. Making copies for them is top priority when my new toy gets here, followed by some rockabilly stuff I used to listen to to stay awake on the road, then my "lower your blood pressure by listening to some soothing music" tape, then about two dozen more of varying degrees of importance. I'll shoot for having the more important ones done before I hit the road for Ft Worth sometime in July.

After I get all my cassettes on disk, I also have some old 45s and LPs that I don't think ever even made it to cassette. Maybe that can be my next project.

***

Bobbi, Heather, I'll work on getting you good copies of that tape on CD but in the mean time did you know you can listen to some of what's on that tape at http://www.veteranssupportourtroops.org/EV3/music/Music%20for%20little%20boys.htm?

In other news:

Kyle hasn't had any luck locating Brad so far. He called to see if I wanted him to work today (I didn't  have the right change and paid him for longer than he worked yesterday) but I told him I didn't have anything I needed done real urgently and he admitted he'd rather be fishin'.

I decided I needed some "skinny me" jeans bad enough to check out the new Wal-Mart. Things were a lot calmer inside than I was afraid they might be but they need a better parking situation before I'm really going to like the place; work on tearing down the old building has already started and that area will eventually be parking space. As it is, I don't think I ended up walking any farther today than I usually do when I go to the Vincennes store; I'm just not used to having to walk that far in Lawrenceville. Anyway I bought myself some size 36 jeans as a reward for losing enough weight that 38s try to slide down over my hips.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 29, 2008 at 03:10 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 28 May 2008
 

Likin' the notebook more as I get to know it;
Update: Call it another "Lazy F" day.

I'm using it to post this. It's sort of awkward with it sitting on my computer desk in front of my big monitor but that's the best I can do till I'm ready to move my desktop to the other room. I poked around in the power settings and found some options I didn't expect; the most important one is the ability to tell the computer not to do anything when I close the cover. I set it so if I'm on battery power and close the cover the computer goes to sleep but if I'm on AC power nothing happens. If I'm going to set it to one side of my computer desk and use an external mouse, keyboard and monitor with kittens in the house that's important. I pretty much have everyone but the two youngest ones convinced to stay off my computer desk but I doubt that will carry over to a laptop sitting on a chair beside the desk. With the settings like I have them now I can close the lid and maybe even set something on top of the notebook to make a less tempting perch.

It also changed my attitude a lot when I was able to install Microsoft Photo Editor without losing Office 2007. Vista and Office '07 have some new editing features built in that I'll get some good out of too but Photo Editor still does some things they don't.

I'm having way too much fun playing around with my new toy. It's time to put it away and get some sleep.

***

Call this another "Lazy F" day, I guess. I still can't get a hold of Brad or Chad; Kyle's going to try his luck for me. My best guess right now is Chad lost his cell phone again and Brad's girlfriend (Kyle's sister) isn't answering my calls because she doesn't recognize my number and doesn't know anyone in Texas (where Caller ID says I'm calling from). Kyle spent about an hour smoothing dirt in the back yard this afternoon before we both agreed we had other things we'd rather be doing. I'm not sure if I'm so wrung out today from staying up to late last night or from sleeping cold and not realizing it. I turned off my window fan and closed the blinds well before bedtime but the wind was blowing from that side of the house and I think my room may have cooled off a lot more than I expected.

I think I wasted my time installing Microsoft Photo Editor on the notebook. The '07 version of Microsoft Office Picture Manager has some capabilities I don't remember the '03 version having and between those and the image editing features in Vista I don't feel any need for anything else.

F4TR, Scottie, this ones for you:

As you leave Lawrenceville headed toward Bridgeport drive past Wal-Mart then two houses on the left, and watch for an open field with a fence on the back side and maybe a horse where you can see him somewhere past the fence. Just west of that is a house partially hidden behind an overgrown hedge. I live in that house.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 28, 2008 at 02:12 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 27 May 2008
 

Slow day at the Circle F; more time for my inner geek

I haven't been able to get in touch with Brad or Chad since they left here Saturday; at this point I don't know whether to be angry or worried. With things as muddy as they are and me as tired as I am today really wasn't a bad day for just taking it easy inside but there are still things I need them to do around here sooner or later.

My sister woke up not feeling well and hasn't rearranged the files I need her to before the tower I'm using at the moment becomes the family machine. I don't guess the situation's really that urgent from my standpoint; I have the notebook all set up for blogging outside, on the road, etc and there's nothing I need a computer for that I can't keep right on doing on this one till she's ready for the big swap. Still, I'm a little anxious to get switched over just to start getting more familiar with what I bought. Maybe tomorrow.

I was a bit surprised that it worked but I installed an old copy of Office XP on the notebook without losing Front Page 2003 or my trial version of Office 2007. That means I now have Microsoft Photo Editor and Front Page 2003, neither of which there are newer replacements for available, on the same machine as Office 2007. I still have a copy of Office 2003 I could install if I wanted to but I don't see any need right now; maybe when the trial copy of Office 2007 expires.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 27, 2008 at 10:19 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 26 May 2008
 

Learning to love get along with the new machine
(Multiple updates)

I'll learn to get along with it and probably like it better as I get used to it but it's going to take some work to learn to love the new laptop. I'm using it to create this post; I copied all of my "Documents and Settings" info from the desktop I've been using the last 5 months and I guess I'm out of excuses not to switch to the notebook full time as soon as I get the desktop ready to move to the other end of the house. I knew all along I wasn't really going to love the laptop till I could make room to use it with an external monitor and I was right about that; I never should have given myself a taste of that 22" monitor when I knew the biggest display I could get in a reasonable size notebook was 17".

Idea!: How about if I buy a little stand of some sort to sit beside my computer desk so I can put the laptop on it and keep the big monitor where it is? By jove, I think I've got it! There's not really room to use a 22" monitor with the family machine anyway; I'll buy a 19 incher for in there and everyone will be happy.

***

I'm back on the desktop for now. Until I get around to rearranging some things there's not really any good place to set the laptop so I'm the right distance from the screen, etc. It sounds like we may be in for some strong enough storms later today to have to shut down everything but the notebook but if it doesn't I'll spend some more time getting the desktop ready to move.

*** 1:15 PM

It looks like we missed the storms at least for now; weather.com's radar still shows some stuff that might get here tonight. OTOH, I'm totally wasted physically from too much bending and squatting yesterday to do much of anything physical today and it makes more sense to actually do the desktop move when there are fewer people around anyway. I did just identify a chair I think will work well as a "laptop table;" I want something the cats are less likely to knock it over backwards off of than they would be a table. I'll put the chair between my computer desk and the dining room table where cables from my mouse, keyboard and monitor, can reach it easily, as well as the cable from the printer setting on the dining room table. Eventually, after I get the rest of my SSDI money, I want a fancier setup but that will do for now.

***

Woke up from a nap a little more energetic, finished up everything that needs to be done to my desktop machine before it becomes the family machine. There are still a few files on the current family machine that need to be copied to a drive I have shared on this machine before we give it to my sister's best friend and her daughter.

In other news on the "inner geek" front, I didn't have any trouble loading the software for my printer/scanner/copier on my new notebook. As many horror stories as I've heard about Vista I wasn't sure how easy it would or wouldn't be.

I ordered a 20 inch monitor just like my 22 incher only smaller this afternoon.  When it gets here it will replace the one currently connected to the family machine so the monitor that's in there now can go with the PC when we give it away.

Bobbi, that little wooden chair y'all left behind when you moved is going to end up being my "notebook table" for a while. I can set it on the floor sort of east of the dining room table and north of my computer desk and run cables to it from my printer, monitor, keyboard and mouse . That way when I want to I can keep right on using the monitor I am now but I'll have the option of disconnecting things and using the notebook at the picnic table, in Texas, etc. I like the fact that chair's lower to the floor than the others we have around here because I currently have a window fan, soon to be replaced by an air conditioner, in my south window and don't want to do anything that would block the airflow from them.

It's muddy enough out, with more rain predicted between now and morning, that I don't know if I'm going to have Brad et al work tomorrow or not. Eventually I want to have them put the air conditioner we picked up Saturday in my window but the ground under the window is muddy enough that may have to wait. I didn't see anyone act excited about installing the new air conditioner I bought for the front room this weekend so they may end up installing that one too.

***

I forgot to mention earlier that Fight4TheRight's friend Scottie from Terre Haute -- They're both planning to spend the first full weekend in June helping out around here -- says he's confident he can do the water line hookup I was afraid to let Brad and Chad try. I'd have ended up hiring a plumber this fall otherwise.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 26, 2008 at 01:39 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Sunday, 25 May 2008
 

Feeding my inner geek, feeling like a fool

Big hint, kiddies: When you remove the C: drive -- You know, the one with Windows on it? -- from a PC and replace it with a shiny new 500 GB megadrive, Windows does not start right up when you turn the computer on. It does not start, got that? No matter how much you cuss and how many IDE and power cables you rearrange, it doesn't start. The only solutions are to buy a new computer, which I almost ended up doing, or pull your head out for some air and figure out what you did wrong (How's come there's a 80 GB drive over here when the one I replaced was a 60? WTF? Duh-oh!). Anyhoo, this computer, soon to become the family machine, now contains 1024 MB more RAM and  440 (500 - 60) GB more hard drive space than it did this morning. It also now contains a DVD burner which I assume will work OK once I install the software that came with it; all I'm sure of at the moment is that the little coffee cup holder pops out when I push the button. One of these days I'll put the CD burner and 60 Gig drive I took out of this machine in the machine I gave my nephew last month.

Right now this machine's busy copying my docs, music, pictures etc to that 500 GB USB drive I bought a couple of months ago. Sometime after that process completes I'll connect the USB drive to my new notebook and copy things to it, then I'll be about out of reasons not to give the family this machine and start using the notebook full time.

***

The burner at least seems to function right as a CD reader. The setup program for the burner is running as I type this. I don't have any blank CDs or DVDs lying around and will probably leave the first burn for my sister.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 25, 2008 at 06:31 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 24 May 2008
 

Lazy Saturday at the Circle F

I had Brad and Chad meet me at the Vincennes Wal-Mart to pick up two air conditioners I'd had sent to the Site-to-Store desk there but other than that I declared a long weekend from having them working around here.

I'm not sure how long it had been since Sunshine wore a saddle but putting one on him turned out to be totally uneventful; I think he's figured out everyone here loves him and we aren't going to do bad things to him.

Utter panic, as you can see. If the Photobucket video won't run on your machine click here to watch the YouTube version.

A casual stroll around the pasture:

I'm not sure what has our attention here but we're sure studying something intently. That's the first time I've seen the "bird dog on point" thing but isn't he beautiful?

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 24, 2008 at 06:43 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 23 May 2008
 

Slowin' down some at the Circle F

Brad had some things he needed to take care of so he and Chad only worked four hours today, which suited me fine since I've been draggin' for three days. Ace doesn't rent garden tillers but the place we rented that bobcat yesterday does so I had them rent one there. We tilled up part of the pasture that was so hard we'd never have gotten grass started there otherwise and the worst of the muddy areas in the yard, raked the ground to eliminate most of the high and low spots, then reseeded everything we tilled. Here's hoping.

New neighbors! I hope they were moving in and not just passing through.

There are places in the new pasture we just opened up this spring where the grass is 2 feet high, so where does Sunshine decide to graze today? In the little pasture I'm hoping will be almost reestablished before it gets cold this fall:

I'm meeting Chad at the Vincennes Wal-Mart in the morning to pick up some air conditioners I ordered but except for that we're taking the long weekend off to give me some time to pamper my inner geek and them time to go to the lake, etc.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 23, 2008 at 10:35 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sorry about the yard, mama

The more I look at that yard, the more disgusted with myself I get. In the first place, the hydrant project could have waited several months; what everyone was anxious to see happen was the driveway repairs. What I should have done after we got gravel hauled in was rent one of these, got the gravel spread, and let it go at that for now. Instead I rented one of these because that's what the Ace Hardware right up the hill had available, then let Brad convince me that while it was here I should have him use the backhoe end of it to dig the trench for the water line to the hydrant. Now this is what our back yard looks like and the part of the yard between the house and pasture is worse:

If Ace has one availabe tomorrow later today I'll send the guys to rent a garden tiller to break up the ground in all the muddy areas into little rakeable pieces, smooth things out as well as we can with a garden rake, then spread grass seed and hope things heal eventually.

I need to slow down and get some rest before I do anything else stupid. I've already told Brad and Chad (and Kyle, who got out of jail yesterday on that DUI) that I'm probably taking most of the three day weekend off to get some rest and pamper my inner geek a little. I have a 500 GB hard drive, a DVD burner and a RAM upgrade to install in this computer and a RAM upgrade to install in my new notebook. After that's done I need to spend a bunch of time copying files from this machine to the notebook and from the current family machine to this machine so this machine can become the family machine.

One piece of good news is that Front Page 2003 activated OK on the notebook. I was pretty sure I was allowed to have it on one desktop and one notebook but I wasn't absolutely positive till I installed it and didn't have trouble activating it. That also tells me that if I need to I can install my copy of Office 2003 on the notebook; for now I'm going to see what I think of the trial version of Office 2007 that came with it then decide later whether to buy a permanent license for it or just go back to the '03 version. Mainly that may depend on what sort of image editing software is built into Vista and what I can find cheap if there isn't any. I'm used to using Microsoft Photo Editor but I know it's old and there may be something that works better available now.

***

I just googled up some info about the photo editing built into Vista. Between what's built into Vista and what's been added to Photobucket recently I don't think I'll miss Photo Editor enough to matter.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 23, 2008 at 12:56 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 21 May 2008
 

First post from my notebook

Basically just seeing if I can. I still have software to install, files to transfer, etc, before I'm ready to switch to this machine full time.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 21, 2008 at 11:34 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A more cautious day at the Circle F

Can't get anything done right without proper supervision. Are we getting it like you want it big buddy?

We still have a lot of backfilling to do but we now have the freeze-proof hydrant in its final location out by the barnlot. I ended up having Brad and Chad run pipe from the hydrant to about 6 inches from where I want to tie into a water line under the side of the house and cap it off; I'll have a professional plumber make the actual connection later. Before we capped it off we used a gender bender to attach the male end of a garden hose to it and run water through it backwards to make sure there were no obstructions, then after we capped it off we turned the water back on to check for leaks.

We finally got our other load of gravel, the one we'd have gotten Monday if that kid hadn't gotten hung up in our yard. The rented Terramite we used before won't be available till some time next week but the guys know a place in Vincennes they think they can rent something similar. If they're right they'll be here with it about noon tomorrow to spread gravel in the lane, shove dirt into the trench we dug to lay pipe in, and spread some of the topsoil that came Monday in the barnlot and pasture.

A view of our place from roughly where the east end of the north fence (the one running away from you in the picture) will be when we get done. We measured today and we need to extend the north fence about another 64 feet and the back fence about 100.  That will make the distance between the ends of them about 40 feet. As you can see below there's an awful lot of good grass going to waste down there right now; actually I think the grass in the area we have fenced now is already growing faster than Sunshine can eat it but the new area will be important if it gets dry later in the year, or next fall after the grass quits growing.

I don't know when I'll be able to make some time to pamper my inner geek; sometime after that ugly trench in the yard is filled in, anyway. I have a 500 MB hard drive and DVD burner to install in the machine I'm using now, RAM upgrades for this machine and my notebook, and Firewire cables for connecting them both to my new camcorder so I can see if I'm smart enough to move videos from it to a computer. All on hand here in my room; just a matter of finding time. Vista finally got done installing automatic updates on the notebook, so now when I have time I can start transferring things from this machine to it.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 21, 2008 at 08:30 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 20 May 2008
 

Doesn't look like much of a swingset yet, does it? (Updates)

Here's what one of these looks like before the "some assembly required" happens. Anyway, it's here.

Ian, which of these things is not like the others?

***

We've gone as far on the hydrant project as we can without turning the water to the house off for a little bit; we'll put that off till a reasonable time tomorrow morning so there's plenty of time to react if something goes wrong. On the other end of the line we can't install the hydrant without gravel to pour in around it, which now we aren't expecting to have till morning.

I just realized a few minutes ago that there's room on the retractable keyboard shelf built into my computer desk to slide the keyboard and mouse I'm using right now back out of the way and set another set in front of me. There's also room between my big monitor and the front of the desk to set my laptop there. Right now I need some downtime but a little later I may spend some time playing around with the notebook. 

***

I got the drivers for my new Intellimouse installed on on my laptop OK -- that'll make navigating Vista a lot easier -- and installed the drivers for the extra function buttons on my new keyboard. When I gave the setup program for the keyboard permission to reboot Windows I found out Microsoft had downloaded 37 Vista updates when I wasn't looking and automatically started installing them when I said to reboot. Right now I'm waiting to see if I'm going to get control of the laptop back any time before my bedtime.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 20, 2008 at 03:55 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Monday, 19 May 2008
 

A special birthday treat

It was wonderful to get a call from my daughter and grandson a little bit ago. I knew I could count on Heather to call but I was very pleasantly surprised at what a conversationalist Ian has become. The last time he and I spoke on the phone his side of the conversation basically consisted of "Hi. I love you. Bye." Tonight we discussed everything from "Thank you for taking good care of Sunshine for me" to the fact he and the kitten they took home with them the last time they were up have been playing tag, taking turns chasing each other. He and my ex will be up this way in just over a month, then I'm headed for Texas in late July, then he and his parents will be up Labor Day weekend. I'm definitely looking forward to getting to spend more time with him than I could when money was really tight.

Heather says Ian's reading just about everything in sight now. Ian, are you reading this? I love you bunches!!!

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 19, 2008 at 11:14 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Older than Yoda feels this one; when comes wise?

58 years and still making stupid mistakes. The more I look at that back yard the angrier I am at myself:

It sounded like such a great idea when the guys suggested that since we were going to have that Terramite here anyway to spread gravel in the drive we might as well use the backhoe on it to dig the rest of the trench for the line to the freeze-proof hydrant. If I could back up and start over I'd have them use the backhoe to dig the 4' deep hole for the hydrant, then take it back and rent a trencher the next day so we ended up with a trench just wide enough to lay pipe in. I'd also route the trench a lot farther from that tree in the corner of the yard. When comes smart?

Look what they did to my yard, ma!

Dumbass kid about 25 or so says "Sure, it's plenty solid enough to dump your dirt back there." Dumbass birthday boy takes his word for it. Kid nearly buries gravel truck trying to pull away from the load he just dumped, calls his 92 year old grandpa (who still runs the family business he started 70+ years ago) for help. Grandpa shows up with another truck, hooks a chain to the first one, pretty soon they're both hung.

Finally they call someone with some good sense and the proper equipment:

Nothing left now but the ruts in the yard, and I still don't have the other load of gravel I expected the kid to bring after he brought the topsoil. Tomorrow for that, it looks like. We'll rent the Terramite again in a few days to spread more gravel in the drive, fill in the water-line trench, and fix the ruts in the yard. Maybe if I last another 58 years I'll get smart somewhere along the way.

The keyboard and mouse I ordered to use with my new laptop came this morning. If the gravel truck thing hadn't ended up taking up so much of my day it would have been a good day to start learning my way around Vista better; maybe I could even have found a place to adjust the touchpad sensitivity.  Maybe another time. I'm still waiting for the RAM upgrade I ordered anyway and have a hunch I'll like Vista better after I install it.

On a brighter note, if they ever get around to landscaping properly around it that lake they dug to get dirt for under the new Wal-Mart has the potential to be sorta pretty eventually. That picnic table is sitting more or less where I'd eventually like to have a small gazebo built for when my sister decides it's time to roast weenies over an open fire out back.

When I think how close we came to selling the guy who dug that lake part of our place it's downright scary. He offered us money at a time we really could have found a use for it but I for one am a whole lot happier having a pasture with a horse in it out beside the house and our own private little park out back.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 19, 2008 at 06:57 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 18 May 2008
 

The things you learn if you read the fine print

Random factoid. The electrical potential across a good Alkaline battery, a Duracell for instance, is 1.5 volts. The potential across a rechargeable NiMH battery is 1.2 volts. Does that matter? To your Maglite? Not really. To some other electrical/electronic devices (for instance my new camera I like so well)? Big time. I even have a hunch right now that the HP camera I replaced and gave to my nephew because it needed the batteries replaced almost daily doesn't have a thing wrong with it that a nice set of Duracells wouldn't fix, and I'm wondering if my daughter and her husband didn't retire a perfectly good (if not super modern) digital camera a while back for the same reason. Live and learn, I guess, even if you're old and worn out like me.

The new camera still shoots better still shots and videos than the one it replaced and it's still small enough to carry in my shirt pocket. So it's going to cost a little more to run than I expected. I still love it and I'm still glad I bought it.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 18, 2008 at 10:13 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A slower day at the Circle F

Did I mention I'm lovin' the new camera so much I ordered my sister one like it as an early birthday present? Great pictures from something I can carry in my shirt pocket so it's with me a lot.

These are mainly for Fight4TheRight and his friend who'll be here the first weekend in June. Here's a look at our 2nd project, right after assembling the swingset that will be here sometime this week. In the foreground on the right you see a gate post with an 8' gate on it, folded back against the fence in the open position. Farther away, near the center of the picture, is a roll of fence wire still attached to the post it's sitting next to from when we tore down the fence between "Pasture 1" and "Pasture 2." We'll be planting another gate post about 16' from the one that's there now and hanging another gate on it so the two gates close nose-to-nose to close the opening between the posts. Then we'll drive steel posts at appropriate intervals between the new gate post and the post the wire's attached to and roll the wire out to complete the fence between the barnlot, on the right, and the pasture, on the left.

Here's our next project if time and weather permit. If you look close (it's easier to see if you click the pic to see it bigger) just to the left of that bush in front of the power pole you'll see some pink flags on a post marking the corner of our property. As you can see, it's still somewhere between 80 and 100 feet from the current east fence (running left to right in the picture) and that corner. What we'll be doing is extending the north fence (the one with the wooden posts) almost down to those flags and the back fence to a point straight south of the new end of the north fence. Then we'll build a new east fence and tear the existing one down.

If time and my budget permit after those two projects are done we can start adding rails to the north fence.

I think we may have set a new record in short-distance phone calls when Brad and Chad decided they were ready for a lunch break. I was sitting at my computer in the bedroom and Chad called me from maybe 20' away to tell me they were leaving for a little bit. Does anyone but me remember life before electronics?

***

I guess I'm still not much of a botanist. This is new growth about 3 feet from the trunk of my favorite tree and I have no idea what prompted it to grow there. Not complainin', just wonderin':

Brad had family obligations so he and Chad only worked about 5 hours today, which suited me fine. I feel like I got enough "out and about" yesterday to last me about three days.

I wish I'd realized how many roots the guys were messing up with that backhoe sooner and routed the trench for the freeze-proof hydrant farther from the big tree in the corner of the yard. I don't think there's any danger of it dying from what we did but if it blows over in a big wind storm anytime in the next 10 years everyone, including me, will consider it my fault.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 18, 2008 at 03:21 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Saturday, 17 May 2008
 

An OK day at the circle F, could have been better

I bought about half as much gravel yesterday as it's going to take to fix the drive to my satisfaction. Call that a $145.00 mistake; that's what it's going to cost to rent this thing for another day sometime soon:

We got the drive in a lot better shape than it was but there's still work to be done.

I changed my mind again and decided to put the freeze-proof hydrant out by the barnlot after all but now that I see what a mess we made in the back yard trenching for the water line to it I wonder if I should have scratched my head a little harder. I looked at how the thing is supposed to work -- when you turn it off it drains itself into a gravel bed below the frost line -- and decided I didn't trust it to work right with a hose attached.

Brad and Chad are coming over in the morning to clean up the Terramite and take it back to Ace. I guess when we take it back we'll go ahead and buy the hydrant and at least part of the pipe to hook it up. I really don't have a full days work for them to do but after I've had some sleep I may think of something. For now color this old dog wore out.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 17, 2008 at 11:29 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 16 May 2008
 

Still lovin' the new toy (Updated, twice)

Did a little more playing around with the new laptop. It definitely needs an external mouse and keyboard before it becomes my primary machine but I'll go ahead and get some use out of it between now and when the ones I ordered arrive. So far it hasn't taken too much work to make Vista look enough like XP to satisfy me.

We supposedly have a load of gravel coming at 8:00 AM. I really would have preferred to do it later in the day but I was afraid if we didn't grab our chance at "first thing in the morning" we might get bumped altogether and end up having to wait till next week. I talked to Brad on the phone and I think he and Chad may wait till tomorrow to come over and spread it. He has to schedule around his girlfriend's babysitting needs and we didn't want to make any firm plans till the gravel's actually out here. I'm thinking as I write this it might make more sense from the babysitting standpoint for him and Chad to wait and come Monday but I'll leave that up to them.

***

Doesn't the little calico (Look close; she really is a calico.) look terrified? She's Rainbow's daughter and this is her first day to come out from under the dresser and explore the house. The big bad tomcat is Sheba's grandson; he's about two thirds grown.

And here's why I had 10 tons of gravel dumped right in front of the garage this morning:

We have a small rented backhoe/end loader lined up for tomorrow afternoon and Sunday morning to fill those holes in the drive and dig the rest of the trench for the freeze-proof hydrant.

I finally heard back this morning from the lady in the Vincennes Social Security office whom I've been trying to reach for almost two weeks. The good news is everyone agrees I still have another big back settlement check coming; the bad news is it will be another 30 to 60 days before I get it. I'll still sleep better when it's actually in my bank account.

The freight company that will be delivering the swingset I ordered for the back yard called for directions this afternoon and will be delivering it next Tuesday or Wednesday, in plenty of time for Fight4TheRight and his friend from Terre Haute to put it together when they're here in June. If we get rained out or something I'll have Brad and Chad put it together so it's ready when my grandson's here later in the month.

I wasn't expecting it this soon but the 500 GB drive I ordered for this machine came this morning. I'll put off pulling the machine out from under the desk to do anything to it till the RAM I ordered for it gets here. Once I'm sure the upgrades took OK this machine becomes the family machine and the new notebook becomes my primary machine. I'd need a shadier place to use it to use it outside very much but I did verify this morning that I can surf the web from the picnic table out by the drive, which I'm pretty sure means I can blog from the back yard if I ever get the urge.

***

I didn't do a very good job of holding the camera steady but here's my best attempt at a panoramic view of the pasture. At the beginning of the clip you're looking at the northwest corner, then the view sweeps down the west fence, ahead left along the back fence, etc, till we're back where we started:

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 16, 2008 at 12:03 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Thursday, 15 May 2008
 

Does that hydrant really need to be clear out by the barnlot?;
Update: Another new toy for my inner geek

The more I sit under my favorite Red Maple and think about it, the more I think the best reason to put it where I've been planning to is to piss off Matt. I can detour around the trees he's worried about easily enough but whether I do that or go in a straight line, either way there's going to be a muddy scar across the back yard that takes all summer to heal. So, what is it I really need?

• I need a hose-compatible faucet somewhere outside the house that doesn't quit working when it gets cold this winter.

• I need the end of the faucet to be far enough from the ground to make it easy to walk the water out of the hose attached to it so the hose doesn't freeze.

I can meet both needs with a hydrant right next to the back door of the garage. Putting it there will save about 50' of digging, as well as saving me the price of that much pipe compared to where I was planning to put it. It means stringing a water hose across the back yard and it means in cold weather I need to remember to walk the water out of the hose when I'm done with it but over all I think it's the right answer. 

***

FedEx finally figured out where we live and brought me one of these this afternoon. It's definitely a keeper but it's going to be a few days till I'm ready to switch over to it as my primary machine. The touchpad on the thing is way too sensitive for my liking (I'll have to look later to see if that's adjustable) and I never did really learn to like touchpads, even when I used to do tech support on notebooks, so I need to order another mouse to have enough to go around. I also want to add some memory to it before I start trying to do anything serious with it. On the plus side, it doesn't look like getting it online wirelessly is going to be a challenge; it sniffed around and detected my wireless router with no trouble. I haven't tried to tie into the rest of our home network yet but I don't expect that to be any big deal either.

To have a good place for the notebook I need to get the computer I'm using now out of the way and I don't want to do that till I've installed some upgrades I have on order, specifically a larger 2nd hard drive and some RAM, and fired the beast back up to make sure everything works. I also need to copy all of my "Documents and Settings" stuff to my USB hard drive, then from there to the notebook. Once I've done that I'll replace "the family machine" with this one and we'll give the family machine to my sister's best friend's little girl.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 15, 2008 at 10:25 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 14 May 2008
 

Slow day at the Circle F (Twice updated)

Brad beat me to the punch and called to say he didn't feel like working today before I'd gotten around to calling him to say I felt under the weather. I needed some time to just not do much of anything. I have gravel and topsoil coming tomorrow morning, then if someone doesn't beat us to the little backhoe at Ace Hardware the guys can fix the drive and fill some low spots in the barnlot and pasture Friday.

I don't know how we became so hard to find suddenly but the FedEx driver gave up this morning and took my new laptop back to Effingham. I called and gave them directions for getting here and it should come tomorrow.

UPS did finally figure out where we live and brought my new camera today. I'd say it takes pretty good still shots. Those fence posts just past the horse are a good 200' from where I was standing:

It also does pretty decent videos but I'm not too impressed with what YouTube does with them:

Actually, I think I like the way it worked out with Photobucket better:

I didn't think this turned out too bad considering the lighting conditions. That ferocious beast doing the chewing is a 5 week old Shiranian pup (who'll be for sale in about another 3 weeks):

The new camcorder that came Monday takes great videos that look fine on the TV but I need a cable that didn't come with it to copy them to my hard drive. I went to the Wal-Mart right past the end of the pasture this morning with the intention buying a cable and some SD cards but everything in that section of the store has already been moved to the new store that's scheduled to open a week from today. I guess I could have gone on to Vincennes but I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for the idea. I'll check prices on Wal-Mart's and CompUSA's web sites and order what I need.

***

Chow time big buddy! You comin'?

I guess another one of those assumptions I was naive to make was that a camcorder that accepts miniDV tapes and SD memory cards would record video to either. Wrong. The only thing the SD slot in my new camcorder is good for is still pics; since I have a very nice digital still camera now I'm not sure there's even any reason to buy an SD card for the camcorder. I guess the game plan at this point is to use the new still camera for still shots and spur of the moment videos and the camcorder for videos I have more time to plan for. I'm not sorry I bought either one, just disappointed the camcorder isn't quite everything I was expecting.

***

Coises! Foiled again! Cordell's Wii can access my blog and view still shots and YouTube vids but not Photobucket vids. Why? I 'aven't the foggiest. Anyway, here's that last vid as a YouTube upload so Mom can sit on the couch and watch it and for the benefit of anyone else who does their web surfing on a Wii. I like the Photobucket version better:

***

I just ordered a bigger 2nd hard drive for the computer I'm using now, which will soon become the family machine, from CompUSA. When I get around to it I'll put the 2nd drive that's in this machine now in the machine I gave Scotty. With that much internal storage on the family machine I'll probably keep the USB drive I bought last month for myself. The notebook I have on order has enough internal hard drive space that I shouldn't have any space problems but having two copies of my music, pictures etc won't hurt anything. ... Actually, it probably makes more sense to leave the external drive connected to this machine when it moves and just leave it shared over the network like it is now. That way it will be available as backup storage for all three computers in the house and won't disappear off the network when I'm blogging in the back yard, in Texas, etc.

While I was on CompUSA's site I also ordered a couple of SD cards but I went to Wal-Mart's site for a Firewire cable since I wasn't sure I was ordering the right thing and I know if I didn't Wal-Mart will buy it back.

I hope I don't get a load of gravel dumped in the drive tomorrow then have to wait several days for the backhoe we're going to rent to be available. After the gravel is actually here I think I'll go over to Ace Hardware and find out if there's any way short of paying for an extra day's rent to reserve the backhoe.

My brother in law pointed out earlier, in very undiplomatic terms to which I responded in kind, that we need to be careful not to do major damage to the root system of my favorite Red Maple digging the trench for that freeze-proof hydrant. He has some valid points at times but he's also has a hard time dealing with the fact he's not in charge around here and I'm not going to put up with the tone of voice he's prone to use when he forgets that fact. After I'd had time to cool down and think about the matter I realized it makes sense to detour around that tree's root system, even if it does cost me a little extra for pipe. I spend too much time sitting under it relaxing to screw around and kill it.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 14, 2008 at 04:51 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 13 May 2008
 

I gotta start sleeping more; Update: Some time to think?

It soaked in about half way through my second cup of coffee this morning that maybe I should take a closer look at the computer I'm using now. Lo and behold, it does have a Firewire port! I still need to track down an appropriate cable, probably just a matter of going to the Wal-Mart right past the end of our pasture, but except for that we should be in business. I'll still make sure I end up with a laptop with a Firewire port but at least I should be able to start uploading videos before I get the laptop up and running (I expect to have to order some RAM to be happy with Vista and it may take me a few minutes to figure out wireless networking).

Brad and Chad are in Vincennes doing some shopping for me, then they'll be here to get back to work on the trench for the freeze-proof hydrant. I probably won't do much more blogging till later today.

***

Some time to think, maybe? I need some and it looks like maybe the weather's going to give me some. Brad and Chad are both good workers and I know they need the money they earn working for me but I may have let trying to keep them busy affect my thinking more than it should have a time or two. I don't want to start making wasteful mistakes because of not taking time to think things through.

I think all the manual digging that needs done for the freeze-proof hydrant is done now. The guys stopped by Ace Hardware for nails and discovered we can rent a small backhoe, with an end loader scoop on the other end, for $140.00/day. There's over $140 worth of digging to be done, if I have them do it the hard way, just to get the pipe in the ground for the hydrant, not to mention spreading a load of gravel in the drive and some topsoil out in the barnlot. My plan at this point is to get some gravel and topsoil hauled in ASAP, then rent the backhoe for a day. They've assured me they can fix the drive, spread the topsoil, and dig the rest of the trench for the hydrant all in one day. Between hearing problems and lung problems I'm not good on the phone but I'll try to get my sister started on tracking down gravel and top soil first thing tomorrow.

I'm not sure if we had a new driver or just a sub but the UPS driver who should have delivered my camera this afternoon decided I'd moved and took the camera back to the terminal in Olney. We called the national number, someone from Olney called us back, and I should have it tomorrow.

FedEx's web site says my laptop left Champaign at 9:06 PM but I don't know where it was headed from there; I have a lot more experience with UPS than FedEx. I don't know whether to expect the laptop to get here tomorrow or not till Thursday.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 13, 2008 at 10:26 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 12 May 2008
 

The best laid plans, and all that (Updated)

I'm going to have to rethink my plans for rewiring the house and maybe give up part of what I wanted all together. Here's to the nice Lowe's employee who struck up a conversation with Brad and Chad and pointed out what was wrong with the way we thought we were going to do things. Chad had suggested, and I liked the idea, adding another 100 amp breaker to the outside breaker box between the meter and the main breaker box in the house, running wire from there around the house just under the eves and into a small breaker box in my room, then running wire from that box for new outlets in my room, the bathroom, and Scotty's room. Problem is, the breaker box just downwind from the meter is only rated for 120 amps. I need some time to sit back and think before I decide on an alternate plan; I'm not up to it tonight. I still want to add a new circuit or two so I can air condition my room and we can air condition the bathroom but I'm not sure how to go at the job right now.

I called the bank this morning and didn't have any trouble getting my ATM/debit card turned back on. I now have a new air conditioner for the front room on order and one for my room. I'll put off ordering one for the bathroom till I'm sure where we can plug it in. The smaller of the two we used in the front room last year can go to Scotty's room if I can figure out how to provide power for it.

The lady I need to talk to in the Vincennes Social Security office is out of the office till Thursday. I tried to call her and got her voice mail a couple of times last week but didn't work real hard at catching up with her because of the kids being here. I'm still confident the Social Security administration owes me quite a bit more money but I'll rest a little easier when I have some reassurance getting it isn't going to turn into a major hassle.

After I realized we need to rethink the wiring plans I started the guys on digging a trench for the water line to the freeze-proof hydrant I want back by the barnlot. That's one thing I definitely want done sometime before winter, even if not as urgently as adding the air conditioners. I can take some time to think about the wiring situation while they work on that.

***

The best laid plans, indeed.

The camcorder I ordered came today but I'm just now getting around to learning anything about it. I assigned my sister the task of figuring out how to shoot videos with it and teaching me later. In return she gets half ownership; it's unlikely we'll both have a critical need for it at the same time. I also told her if she'd figure out how to shoot videos and play them back on the TV I'd figure out how to transfer them to a computer and upload them to YouTube so people in Texas and Alabama and other places can watch them. I hope I didn't let my mouth overload my arse when I said I could do that. Silly me naively assumed when I saw in the description on Wal-Mart's web site that the beast would interface with a computer via USB that that meant I could transfer videos that way. Not so, apparently, just still pictures. As near as I can tell without being properly equipped to experiment, transferring videos requires an IEEE 1394 ("Firewire") interface, which none of our current computers has. On the other hand, I think the laptop I ordered does. Wal-Mart has good prices and a great return policy but sometimes it's hard to figure out just from their website what it is they're trying to sell you. I think the computer I ordered is pretty much the same animal as this one on CompUSA's web site; if it isn't I'll return it to the local store and order the one I know what is from CompUSA. It wasn't something I specifically looked for when I was shopping for a notebook but the one on CompUSA's site, and I'm guessing the one I ordered from Wal-Mart, has an IEEE 1394 port. If the one I ordered doesn't, I'll consider that reason enough to return it and buy the CompUSA version so I can transfer videos. Either that or just order a 1394 card for the laptop I bought from Wal-Mart. I'll have to see what I actually bought before I can decide anything for sure, but at this point I'm pretty confident there is a way to transfer videos from the camcorder to the web, it's just a matter of working out the details.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 12, 2008 at 09:56 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Changing plans already

A minor change in priorities, more reason to send the guys to Vincennes during the day tomorrow. I just got email from Wal-Mart saying my new laptop had been shipped via FedEx and should arrive Wed 5/14. That's great but past experience says FedEx has trouble finding our place, partly because the mailbox at the end of the lane is old and rusty and doesn't have our address on it. So what does that move to the top of my priority list? A new mailbox, with our address plainly visible on the side. I had the guys buy one last week but the one they bought is bigger than the one we've always had and my sister wants a smaller one. I'd already been planning on having the guys take the one they bought back to Lowe's and get one the right size but now it's higher on my list.

Looks like I'll have my camcorder later today, the still camera I ordered Tuesday, and my laptop Wednesday. I may wait for a rainy day to do anything with any of them or I may wear out later in the week and take a day off to rest up and play with my new toys. Right now it's time to get some sleep.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 12, 2008 at 12:37 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 11 May 2008
 

A good day for sleeping, maybe (Updated, twice thrice)

Not much good for anything else. Wet and windy; I made the right choice by telling Brad and Chad not to plan on working. I sat in a lawn chair in the garage for a few minutes, looking out toward the woods, but it's too cool for even that to be pleasant. I called Brad a few minutes ago and I guess he and Chad will be here tomorrow morning at an as yet to be determined time.

I'd thought yesterday today might be a good day to go to Wal-Mart after some "skinnier me" jeans -- I've managed to lose enough weight (deliberately) to need some -- but that's going to have to wait till I get the bank to unlock my debit card. I tried to order some air conditioners off walmart.com yesterday and the charge wouldn't go through, then today I tried to get cash out of an ATM and couldn't. I'm sure it's just a matter of using the card enough recently to make something in the bank's computer suspicious but I won't be able to discuss it with a human being until tomorrow. There must be some corollary to Murphy's Law that says things like that always happen on a weekend to maximize the hassle.

Just checked the radar on weather.com and it looks like it might actually quit raining sometime before sundown. I think I may grab a nap and hope for some back yard time when I wake up.

***

Grabbed a nice nap but woke up to find it's either still raining or raindrops are blowing off the trees fast enough to do a good imitation. Still not back yard weather.

My sister was able to make a small purchase on her debit card (on my account) with no trouble. I've charged more to my card in the last week than any previous year and I guess it's reasonable for the bank to wonder if something fishy's going on. Probably nothing I can't fix with a phone call. Just inconvenient that I can't go ahead and get those air conditioner's on order.

***

10:00P and the moon's finally peaking through holes in the clouds now and then.

I should have taken a closer look earlier at the paper the ATM spat out when I tried to get money this morning. It says right on it the bank thinks my card's been lost or stolen. I'll call tomorrow and find out what it's going to take to straighten the matter out. If it's going to take very long I'll have my sister order those air conditioners I tried to order yesterday using her card.

We're thinking (just thinking, Daniel!) hard about offering Daniel, Bobbi's 13-year-old, a summer in Illinois as an 8th Grade graduation present. I know from things he said while they were here he'd enjoy it and I think it would also be a good thing for Cordell, my sister's 10-year-old who'll otherwise spend way to much of his summer in front of the TV and PC. If Daniel does come up it has to be understood it's a reward for graduating and doesn't mean we owe his siblings their "turns." It's one thing to talk about driving down and back early in the summer to bring Daniel here and later to take him back, quite another to talk about doing it often enough for everyone to get a turn. We'll talk about their turns when they're his age if I'm still healthy enough to consider making the drive.

***

11:30P and the moon and stars are out steady, 'cept the moon's behind the woods west of the house.

Been sitting outside trying to get my thoughts together about what to have the guys do in what order tomorrow. I've been trying to avoid having them do any shopping for me except mornings before they head this way but I may make an exception tomorrow. My top priority at this point is getting the house rewired before it gets hot. When they get here tomorrow I'm going to have them do some measuring, put together a shopping list and tell me how much money they need to have with them to go to Lowe's and buy wire, outlets, a breaker box, etc. After they come up with a number it probably makes sense to have them go after what they need instead of trying to find other less important things to keep them occupied for the rest of the day and have them go shopping Tuesday morning.

Does anyone know whether it's possible/legal/stupid to run electrical wire underground? I'm thinking I'd like to have them run wire in the same trench as the water pipe for the freeze-proof hydrant so I can have an outlet to plug a trough heater into. I know the conventional way to do things is to run wire up in the air but there are tree limbs involved.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 11, 2008 at 03:55 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 10 May 2008
 

No tears this time

The kids headed back to Alabama a little after noon. There were some long faces as they left but, unlike when they left in late January, no tears. I think everyone involved needed a demonstration that the road to Dothan runs both ways. It cost me some money in the short term -- I'll get it back out of Stimulus payments people don't have yet -- but it was worth it.

I'm assuming for right now that my bank must have some sort of limit on how much I can charge to my debit card in a certain amount of time. I just tried to order a couple of air conditioners so they'd be here before it gets too hot and the bank wouldn't let me. I checked the bank's web site and I have plenty of money left so maybe they're just objecting to the fact I ordered a new laptop last night and tried to make another major purchase this soon. Right now I'm awaiting delivery on a swing set, a camcorder, a digital still camera and a laptop so maybe it really is time to let the card cool off for a day or two.

I still have the head cold and a major headache to go with it. My sister bought me some Coricidin HBP (as in safe for people with blood pressure problems) yesterday and it seems to be helping some but if things drag on too much longer I may break down and try out my new Medicare card; I don't really want to drive to Evansville over a simple cold.

I checked the forecast this afternoon and told Brad and Chad it's going to be at least Monday before I have them do anything else around here. I can use a day of rest but I'm also anxious to see some things done around here, like some new electrical wiring and a freeze-proof hydrant. Some of the other things, like adding a Dining Room and getting my sister a car are still on hold waiting till I get the rest of my SSDI money.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 10, 2008 at 07:08 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 09 May 2008
 

Must, slow, down. (Updated)

[I wrote this a little after midnight, then spaced out and didn't publish it. Guess maybe I really am tired.]

I've got to reach some reasonable compromise between the fact I have gazillion things I'm anxious to get done and the fact that if I don't start getting more down time -- not necessarily sleep, but time to sit and think -- I'm going to start making stupid mistakes. I went to CompUSA's web site a little bit ago with the intention of familiarizing myself with the current market in laptops and narrowing my choices down to just a few to study closer later. I got as far as finding out the biggest screen I can get on an XP laptop is 15.4", then my mind turned to jelly. I'm just not up to deciding what I want tonight.

Tech bleg: Is Vista really as bad as I've heard? Does my theory that the horror stories are coming from people trying to run it in too little memory have any merit? (Heather, does Ryan know anything about Vista?)

It did finally soak in a few minutes ago that when "my" tower becomes "the family computer" my big external hard drive needs to move to the other end of the house with it. Otherwise any time my laptop's in Texas, or just the new dining room or the back yard, that drive won't be accessible.

Chad's been trying to tell me I should plan on renting a Ditch Witch to dig the trench for the water line to that freeze-proof hydrant. It finally soaked in this afternoon that the way to look at that trench is as a 6" x 100' post hole. I think we need to start with a normal post hole the right depth, then expand it sideways with a post hole digger and a spade till it reaches from under the hall bath to out by the barnlot. If Brad and Chad don't want to put the effort in to do it that way I'm pretty sure I can get Taylor to, and probably another one or two of Scotty's friends. I'll go for using a rented BobCat to fix the lane but I don't like the idea of digging with power equipment and maybe screwing up a drain line or something. If doing it the hard way costs me money, which I'm not at all certain it will, so be it.

***

I might should've waited till I wasn't so tired but I ordered one of these this afternoon. In the very unlikely event that I decide I shouldn't have I can take it to the local store and get my money back. Once I'm sure it's communicating with my wireless router properly the machine I'm using now will become "the family PC" and the laptop will become my primary machine.

The kids need to head south early enough tomorrow that we had to give up on an open fire weenie roast and settle for charcoal grilling; the garden's too muddy for doing anything out there tonight. Maybe another time. Two of the boys are staying at Danny's sister's tonight; Daniel, Madysson and Noah are staying here.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 9, 2008 at 09:28 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 08 May 2008
 

Rain, rain, go away

Actually it did for a little bit -- long enough for the kids to go out and pet Sunshine for a few minutes -- If I'd known they were going I'd have had my camera ready -- and for me to get in some lawn chair time -- but the weather guru's are still saying getting a weenie roast and cookout in while the kids are here may be sorta iffy. They have to leave here before too late Saturday evening, which makes tomorrow night the ideal night to cook out and the forecast right now says it may be raining.

I went ahead and ordered a smaller camera to compliment the camcorder I ordered yesterday. I'm sure there will be times it's easier to grab the little camera in a hurry than the camcorder. 

We had all 5 of Bobbi and Danny's kids last night, now they're all at Danny's dad's till sometime tomorrow, after which they'll all be spending tomorrow night here. It seems to me it would have made more sense to spread the fun out a little all three nights but no one asked my opinion.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 8, 2008 at 08:07 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 07 May 2008
 

Goin' crazy at the Circle F, but in a good way (Updated)

Bobbi and Danny and their kids got here a little after 10 this morning; they moved to Alabama in late January and this is the first time they've made it home. It's good having them here, I think. It's apparently going to rain most of the day today and all of tomorrow and I'd probably enjoy having them here even more if they could play outside instead of being stuck in the house. At least the weather looks good for Friday and Saturday and they don't have to start home till sometime Sunday.

Brad and Chad know someone here in town who's letting them use his/her garage to assemble the picnic tables I had them buy for me. They'll bring them here when that's done then that's probably the last thing I'll have them do for me till the kids leave. I don't have anything that needs doing urgently enough to ask them to try to work with that many kids around; Cordell's good at watching without interfering and Bobbi's oldest two could probably handle that OK but Noah and Little Miss Madysson, and possibly Coltyn, might be a different matter. 

***

I just ordered one of these. I didn't have enough notice to have one here for this weekend but having the kids here made me realize how much I wished I had one. The one I ordered is the least expensive thing I could find that has both A/V and a USB connectors and uses either tape or flash memory cards depending on your mood. I wish I'd been able to afford something like that when Ian was little; actually, for all of the kids I guess. I'll end up with a lot better record of Ian's little brother or sister than I have of him but at least now I can start getting a better record of him as he grows up. I may or may not decide I need another still camera after I see how well the camcorder does snapshots and how convenient or inconvenient it is to carry around.

***

I don't know how I could be so damned tired no more than I've done today. Still tired from yesterday, the noise level in the house today, being shut in all day, all of the above, something else?

Anyhoo, we now have two of these out back, one in the back yard near where Matt grills and one in the garden near where Vicki roasts weenies. They look just as good up close as they do on the web and we'll put them to use this weekend, then many weekends to come.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 7, 2008 at 01:07 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 06 May 2008
 

A minor disappointment at the Circle F (Updated)

The best laid plans ...

I had Brad, who lives about 20 miles north of Evansville, meet me at a truck stop we both know where is on my way back from my medical appointments, then we met Chad at the Vincennes Wal-Mart, my game plan being to buy a swingset like I've been admiring on Wal-Mart's web site and have them spend some time tonight and tomorrow putting it together so my sister's grandkids could enjoy it this weekend. We got as far as the "Do you have any swingsets like the one in this picture in stock?" stage, at which point my plan fell apart. I'm too tired to trust myself to do it right tonight but I'll order one off the web and have it here by the time my grandson's here in late June.

I sent the guys to Lowe's, where they bought a mailbox my sister doesn't like, while I went to TSC after a couple of things, then we came here so I could figure out what to have them do to justify Brad's having made the trip up here. I ended up having them straighten a gate post that was leaning bad enough to really bother me, move some firewood from beyond the temporary east fence to the garden and build a proper wood fence around the fire hydrant in the pasture so Sunshine (who you'll recall is partially blind) won't trip over it, and sent them on their way. They'll be back tomorrow morning with a couple of picnic tables I like the looks of on Lowe's web site, then after those are assembled I'll be back to making things up as I go.

***

I went ahead and ordered that swingset. I checked Wal-Mart's web site to refresh my memory about shipping options (I was wondering specifically about doing a Site to Store to the Vincennes store) and found out the only option available is to have it shipped directly here, and that I only had a couple of days to do that and be reasonably confident of having it here by the time Fight4TheRight and his friend plan to be here in June.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 6, 2008 at 10:56 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack