Another Opinion Among Many

The temperatures around here have gone up to around the freezing mark during the day and it looks like the week will be like this.  For those out on the sidewalks, be careful and watch for ice or “special treats” left by lazy and insensitive dog owners.  You who own dogs and don’t leave “treats” for our shoes know what I mean! Thanks for not being like the others.

Oh, and wish me luck on winning the lottery, of course.

Angela needed some more of the gum that keeps the cancer away and we needed milk and bread.  So, I walked to the drug store (open ’till midnight), drinking a can of Keiths on the way (yes, I know about the open Liquor laws, AKA stupidity for the sake of it) and got a few things (there was a sale on cheese and I do love a nice old nippy cheddar!).

I got my stuff and was heading out of the store.  I’d walked a lot today (Caleb to school, errands after work uptown, to the drug store) and I figured that I’d get a ride home, since there was a cab outside the drug store who seemed to be waiting for far too long.  So, I go out to his window and ask if he’s waiting for a fare.  He says that he has one inside but he could call for another one over the radio.  During our conversation, his vehicle was running quite unevenly.  I figured that maybe due to the cold weather, his car might be a bit out of time, as I had seen this happen to our Le Baron and the Horizon once (3 hour repair job on that beast).  By the way, this guy looks like the guy in the truck that picked up Stallone’s chracter in “Rhinestone”, saying “Git in….Ah Sayid GIT IN!”

He gets word back and tells me that he can take me.  So, I get in and he begins to back out of the parking space and pull out into the lot, without the fare he was waiting for.  I’m just figuring, “You snooze, you lose.” and think nothing much of it.  After all, he’s gotta make a living.

So then the car stalls.

Yep, I’m in a cab 1/2 way out into the main drag of the parking lot in a dead cab.  I’m thinking that I deserve this for being too lazy to walk back home.  Turns out that he ran out of gas.  The previous driver hadn’t topped up the tank before he turned in the car and the gas guage doesn’t work on that car so who’d know? After this fune event, the couple that he was waiting for finally mosey out of the store, looking for their ride.  So they get ito the stalled car as well.  The cabbie calls his dispatcher to get a can of gas sent over.

So, here we are.  Me, the 200 year old toothless, unshaven cabbie (from a company that I never use, ever), and the couple, comprised of moaning, whimpery morphine-doped she and protective, condescending he.  After about 7 or 8 minutes, another cab arrives with a can of gas and we’re on our way.  While the cabbie was out filling his gas tank, the guy asks if he was taking off on them.  I concur that he was indeed.  Guy says nothing much.  So, with a few gallons of gas in the tank, the cab starts and we’re off.

I tell the cabbie to take the couple home first, as she’s really wimpering and I feel bad for he, as I know he’s caring for her as for a small child (I went out with someone who reacted to illness and pain the same way she did - a TAD overboard).  Of course, its after they get there and she gets out to toss her cookies in the driveway that he says she’s had morphine at the hospital.  So the woozie actions have a bit of justification, I guess.  After they almost got left to fend for themselves and then had to wait for gas for their chariot, the cabbie charges them $10! The guy still takes it (do you think his ass is sore from the reaming?), forking over his credit card for the fare, as this cab company accepts debit and credit cards.

200 year old cabbie fumbles with the debit machine (a wireless job that’s kinda neat) and is not getting anywhere fast.  After the 7th or 8th try at swiping the card for the transaction, the guy paying looks at the display on the unit and says, “I thionk that you just have to push ‘OK’”.  So cabbie does and the transaction completes.  Guy gets out and “git in” cabbie finally drives me home.  The 10 minute walk home turned into the 45 minute blog material.

To think that if I’d have just brought another can of Keiths to walk home with, I’d have been home sooner!

Now, do you really think that I could have made that one up?

I am here, shamefully still in my pajamas, compiling more crap for my franken-toy. **BEGIN GEEKY PART** I tried to do the installation as wished through the Live-CD. Unfortunately, I had the 2006.1 CD, which is getting long in the tooth. Its 2007 now, and I should have started either with something a bit more recent or installed a more basic setup from the CD. To be truthful, I wanted to see what kind of trouble that I’d get in if I proceeded this way with such a fast-moving distro - and I did encounter trouble. After upgrading the whole system with the “emerge -u world” command, it broke and Gnome is nowhere to be found. Its there, but I cannot get into a graphical desktop. The first problem was a conflict with some of the newer parts of the X-window system, which I fixed. The next problem was to get Gnome to work again. This is the continuing reason why I don’t use Gnome as my desktop. At one point or another along the lifespan of the desktop, Gnome seems to totally crap out in a way I don’t know how to easily fix. Its not the lack of tools that seem to be more available and more intuitive in KDE. I live with that (especially since more thoughtful and powerful Gnome apps are being developed and included in the main installations of many distros). I just don’t feel the desire to tinker at fixing somebody’s bad hooks or buggy code. The advantage of Gnome is that its been “free” all along, which has attracted a lot of developers. This is also its disadvantage, as nobody seems to want to adhere to a common standard. Freedom and imprisonment all wrapped in one.

I’m not going to uninstall the Gnome parts, but its definitely going on the back burner for a while. KDE is compiling in the background, a la CCACHE, and I’ve fallen back to Window Maker to get to the GUI. From there, I installed the light and fast IceWM and am now using that. Strangely, Window Maker was developed as an enhanced branch of Afterstep, which was stagnating. Now, it seems that Window Maker is in that position and Afterstep is plowing all ahead full. **STOP GEEKY PART**

That picture above was taken shortly ago. We’ve got a bit of snow coming down. Its not a blizzard, but as dangerous as one here in town, as the plows have not been out at all since it started. This weather makes me think of good, warm, home cooked food, like sheppard’s pie. I had made one of those a few nights ago and it was browned to perfection, so I snapped a pic of it with Caleb’s little cheapo keychain camera (the pic of the snow was done with that one too). I usually don’t mess with the basic ingredients much when it comes to Sheppard’s Pie as its grea in its own simplicity. I’ve found the key to a good meal with this dish is to put enough potato in it. If its all meat, you’re not going to enjoy it nearly as much as you would otherwise. The key to getting it to brown well is to ensure that the top has some form of fat on it, be it margarine, butter, oil, or cooking spray. A lot of diet-consious people will forgo this step to avoid all fat in their diet, according to some Heart Association lobby inspired “Food Guide”, which makes us unnaturally pick food to eat that are similar to what livestock would (notice that they GAIN weight on this diet). If you leave out the butter on the top, you might as well leave out the dish, as you’re not going to enjoy it nearly as much. Live a little. If you like to have your portions to come out of the pan in nice “chunks”, then stir an egg into your ground beef (or pork) bottom. It’ll keep it all together. You can used creamed corn in your pie but make sure that your potato mixture is not too wet in this case, or your dish will be a bit sloppy (which is okay if you just want the good taste). If anyone really wants, I can write down how I make mine. I’ll try to quantify my “pinch of this” and “dash of that” cooking into real measurements. I may have more to meander about later, but I’ll devote a new post to it, as this one’s getting a bit long.

Today, I go to work for the last time this week and I can’t wait to get home. If you see the time stamp on this entry, you’ll see that’s its only 6am and I’ve not even left for work yet.

Yep, its a tiring week and time to recover from the mental bashing is needed. I’m just hoping that the weather co-operates, as I bought the kids each a kite and I wanted to go help them try them out this weekend. Who knows.

I’m going to get some brake parts and put them on the car as well. Then, I can go get a new inspection sticker for the new year. I got off easy. THe old car didn’t let me down. Unfortunately, I know that the exhaust system and the tires will also require replacing in the coming months, as they’re on their way. That’s what I love about my mechanic. Mike only fixes (orasks me to fix) what’s needed now and not what can wait for a bit. Of course, he also knows that I don’t want to drive a noisy or unsafe vehicle, so he doesn’t have to force repairs ontl me before they’re needed.

If you wanna know my mechanic so that you can use him too, email me and I’ll let you know how to reach him. He’s as busy as heck, but one more customer is always welcome.

Last night (so I found out this morning) my “presence” was requested for some online fun, by more than one party.  I apologize to those who perhaps missed me last night, but I was quite under the weather and turned the ringer off on the phone and didn’t even go on the computer.  I spent the evening in front of the TV with my pillow, as I was tired but didn’t want to sleep.  I know that I watched TV, but I can’t remember what it was, as I wasn’t really able to get into it.

Have you ever let let life’s stresses build up so much that it sucks every ounce of energy from your body and leaves nothing for basic movement? You know, when the very effort of sitting up is too much to bother with at the time? If you do, then you’re getting the picture of why I didn’t sit up at my computer chair or even open the possibility of a phone conversation.

I think that its the new pace that work is leading to.  I’ve been reassigned to a client whose busy season is now and the quadrupling in the number of calls that I receive, plus the added hours, is taking a bit to get used to.  I think that part if this is my own fault because I actually care, for the most part, for each caller that I speak with.  I don’t like ending a call with the person on the other end not being at least enlightened as to why they have a confusion or plight.  That kind of emotional investment does sap you.  You should always pay it forward, though.  You always get out what you put in.  It may not happen at the time, but later, when you need it (I know, that’s called hope).

So, I’m somewhat recharged and may show up online today, depending on my exhaust system on the car.

:-& :-& I’ve gone since my departure from the same cube farm as MacBros is employed at until now before getting sick. Now, with nicer weather finally arriving, I have been hit with the yuckies. I can’t talk without trying to shout, and that comes out like a loud (and painful) croak. My chest is full of something undesirable, and my head feels like its full of soaked cotton balls. This is not good! I hope that its a one day thing. I’m sick of getting sick. :-& :-&

update: went to work and tried, I mean tried, really hard to do my job.  Since I talk on hte phone for a living, the lack of voice really hampered things.  I got an hour in and couldn’t croak any more.  Perhaps tomorrow, I’ll have a voice.  Ah well, I can read up all the Solaris manuals (Microsoft could learn a few things from Sun - their OS has a 3 inch thick set of manuals).

So I go to work this afternoon and its nice out.  I’ve got a long sleeved shirt on, but I carry my coat in the building.  All’s cool, right? I stay in the building all night.

At the end of my shift, I go out to the car and its raining and its cold!  I have to get the snow brush out of the trunk, as its been snowing and freezing rain earlier! Yuck!

STOP THE INSANITY!