The other day I saw a car with the vanity plate: "MOONLT"
Yes, the car was a Hyundai Sonata.
Ha! Ha! I get it! But what will they do when they get another car?
There's a car I sometimes see on my commute with a vanity plate something like "68 MSTG". And yes, the car is a... Mazda. Or Toyota-- in any event, not a Mustang. Perhaps it's shorthand for a bumper sticker reading, "My Other Car Is A...", or perhaps he's recalling a past glory. Or maybe he's too cheap to trade in plates he's already paid for.
Current events, nit-picks, cats, and other important things.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Halloween
A very good evening. I live in a quiet development with only one entrance: no through traffic. People from other neighborhoods bring their kids here to trick-or-treat. On nice Halloween nights as last night was, I sit on the steps with the bowl of candy, so I don't have to hide behind the door and let the bugs in with each opening. It also affords me the opportunity to watch the folks in the streets.
This time I remembered the soreness in certain parts of my anatomy from several hours on concrete steps, and brought out a chair and a small table for the bowls. I also had my stuffed (toy) cat on my lap; it fooled many kids and quite a few adults even when they were standing right in front of me. Last year I removed the bushes that had flanked the stairs and so had a nice view. The neighbors on either side were also staked outside. Across the street they were, too, with a fire going in one of those patio fireplace bowl-on-a-stand things.
I get a kick out of watching all the kids, from the first-timers to the older kids. There were a lot of good costumes-- Dorothy from "The Wizard Of Oz" was big-- and even the older kids had made the effort. The roving bands of mid-teenagers were fun to see as they kidded around in the street, and then politely said "Thank you," as I gave them their treats. Everyone had a good time. First caller just after 6PM, and I packed it in, lights out, at 8:40.
This time I remembered the soreness in certain parts of my anatomy from several hours on concrete steps, and brought out a chair and a small table for the bowls. I also had my stuffed (toy) cat on my lap; it fooled many kids and quite a few adults even when they were standing right in front of me. Last year I removed the bushes that had flanked the stairs and so had a nice view. The neighbors on either side were also staked outside. Across the street they were, too, with a fire going in one of those patio fireplace bowl-on-a-stand things.
I get a kick out of watching all the kids, from the first-timers to the older kids. There were a lot of good costumes-- Dorothy from "The Wizard Of Oz" was big-- and even the older kids had made the effort. The roving bands of mid-teenagers were fun to see as they kidded around in the street, and then politely said "Thank you," as I gave them their treats. Everyone had a good time. First caller just after 6PM, and I packed it in, lights out, at 8:40.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Unexpected Visitors
I have (finally!) cleared out the brush and leaves from the stone wall that backs my property; on the other side is a chain-link fence and some woods, city property lining a "military access highway" that, I'm told, can't be developed. Nice for us: we have a nice woods to look into rather than someone else's yard, and I can dump my leaves and brush over the fence.
The remaining "messy" corner had vines overgrowing saplings and bushes, with dead leaves and fallen stones from the wall interspersed. I went in with rake and clippers, and cleared it all out. I was pulling vines 12 feet long out of the trees, and pulling up roots another ten feet long from the ground. Piled them all into garbage cans and over the fence. I cut down one sapling to make room for another to grow, and cleared away the mountain laurel shrub (the state flower!) so it gets some sun.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered some of the vines were poison ivy. This was several days later, when I broke out in a massive rash. Now, three weeks later, the last of it is fading. There are still some clumps of poison ivy about, and I'll remove them today, being a bit more careful this time.
I also discovered a gap in the chain link fence; there's a small hole underneath the fence at one point I knew about: it's how the neighborhood cats get through. This one, though, is a large gap that's pulled away from the post. Perhaps that's how the coyote came in.
We suspected there were coyotes in the woods, with the deer and what-have-you; each winter some neighborhood cats would disappear without a trace. One morning this summer, though, Sue calls me to the window: "Whose dog is that?" No dog: a coyote in our yard, trying to find a way back into the woods. I called the police, not with any expectation that they could do anything but just to serve notice that there was a wild carnivore roaming the neighborhood.
One of the missing cats is Vern, who is pictured in an earlier post. He made a habit of hanging around my yard, thanks to the woods access and my bird feeder.
With him gone, and the wall cleared away, residents of the wall are coming out to avail themselves of the seed. The pictured chipmunk (with a couple of tufted titmouses) is one of two; this one figured out that he is too light to trigger the spring on my squirrel-proof feeder. I have also seen a field mouse, a big ol' fat one, chowing down at the base of the tree. I was more concerned about snakes in the stone wall, but there can't be any if the rodents are running around like that.
There's a cat from down the street that's discovered our woods access, and if he continues to come around perhaps the situation will take care of itself. Circle of life, and all that. In the meantime, the tree is going hollow, so I'll have to cover up the hole to keep the animals out.
The remaining "messy" corner had vines overgrowing saplings and bushes, with dead leaves and fallen stones from the wall interspersed. I went in with rake and clippers, and cleared it all out. I was pulling vines 12 feet long out of the trees, and pulling up roots another ten feet long from the ground. Piled them all into garbage cans and over the fence. I cut down one sapling to make room for another to grow, and cleared away the mountain laurel shrub (the state flower!) so it gets some sun.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered some of the vines were poison ivy. This was several days later, when I broke out in a massive rash. Now, three weeks later, the last of it is fading. There are still some clumps of poison ivy about, and I'll remove them today, being a bit more careful this time.
I also discovered a gap in the chain link fence; there's a small hole underneath the fence at one point I knew about: it's how the neighborhood cats get through. This one, though, is a large gap that's pulled away from the post. Perhaps that's how the coyote came in.
We suspected there were coyotes in the woods, with the deer and what-have-you; each winter some neighborhood cats would disappear without a trace. One morning this summer, though, Sue calls me to the window: "Whose dog is that?" No dog: a coyote in our yard, trying to find a way back into the woods. I called the police, not with any expectation that they could do anything but just to serve notice that there was a wild carnivore roaming the neighborhood.
One of the missing cats is Vern, who is pictured in an earlier post. He made a habit of hanging around my yard, thanks to the woods access and my bird feeder.
With him gone, and the wall cleared away, residents of the wall are coming out to avail themselves of the seed. The pictured chipmunk (with a couple of tufted titmouses) is one of two; this one figured out that he is too light to trigger the spring on my squirrel-proof feeder. I have also seen a field mouse, a big ol' fat one, chowing down at the base of the tree. I was more concerned about snakes in the stone wall, but there can't be any if the rodents are running around like that.
There's a cat from down the street that's discovered our woods access, and if he continues to come around perhaps the situation will take care of itself. Circle of life, and all that. In the meantime, the tree is going hollow, so I'll have to cover up the hole to keep the animals out.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The YouTube Trap
I was caught again-- someone sent me a link to a YouTube video, which led to another, and another. It started with a Muppet Show link, which led me to viewing a couple of favorites, such as Rowlf the Dog and Sam the American Eagle singing Gilbert and Sullivan's "Tit Willow". Which led, of course, to Victor Borge. Then Steve Allen hosting the original Tonight Show. Then the Marx Brothers, and Groucho singing "Lydia The Tattooed Lady."
An hour or so later, I was finally able to stagger off to bed.
An hour or so later, I was finally able to stagger off to bed.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Re: Gummitch
I used to comment (sparingly) on the various blogs I read as "Gummitch." Lately there has been another established gummitch posting, and so I switched to "steverino."
I've tried to change my name here, but with no success; so, Gummitch I remain here, and steverino elsewhere.
I've tried to change my name here, but with no success; so, Gummitch I remain here, and steverino elsewhere.
Beer
Over at The Washington Monthly, there is a discussion about beer and the possible hostile takeover of Anheuser-Busch by a Belgian company. The discussion mentions the various quality of Belgian beer vs. Budweiser, and someone throws in a comment about Dutch beer.
Which reminds me of the last annual "Oktoberfest" I attended at the Submarine Base here in Groton. Someone was apparently disturbed at the potential negative connotations of the word, because it was now called "Autumnfest". While it did still have a beer stand, the beers served were Heineken and Amstel Light. Two Dutch beers.
Which reminds me of the last annual "Oktoberfest" I attended at the Submarine Base here in Groton. Someone was apparently disturbed at the potential negative connotations of the word, because it was now called "Autumnfest". While it did still have a beer stand, the beers served were Heineken and Amstel Light. Two Dutch beers.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Royal Flush
An interesting train of thought: balancing my glasses on the edge of the sink the other morning led me to remember the cautionary tale my mother told me: as a child she had put her glasses on the rounded top of the toilet tank, they slipped off, and broke on the floor. I grew up in that same house, with that same toilet, and so I have been careful evermore, even now when glasses are so much more robust, and toilets tank lids are flat and (in my house) covered with magazines and Sudoku books.
Which could lead me down one path, of thinking how these little anecdotes survive in a family; everyone is familiar with family sayings and phrases that outsiders don't understand. Deep thoughts, indeed. Instead, I thought of low-flush toilets.
The family that now lives in the house in which my mother and I (and her mother, too, now that I think of it) grew up made extensive renovations to it: it needed them, being built in 1910. They added some rooms, opened up my pathetically small bedroom into the next one and made it the master bedroom, and so on. And renovated the bathroom. New toilet (flat tank lid). I was thinking, then, of how silly they were to get rid of that old toilet, despite the danger posed by the rounded top; it was sturdy, reliable, and was definitely not low-flow. I had heard how people were bidding up the price on old toilets because of how poorly the new mandated low-flow toilets worked. I have encountered a few bad toilets myself. And, despite the decent operation of my current unit, I persisted in my prejudice against them.
Uncle Cecil to the rescue: that same day, the topic du jour: Do low-flush toilets actually save water? The answer: yes they do. And they work better than ever.
As a matter of fact, as mentioned, I have had very little problem with the flushing aspect of my unit, despite my best efforts. The only issue I have with the thing is with the guts; I must replace the flapper every other year, and the float assembly every four. Never had to do that with Mom's toilet. Hmmph. I've gotten pretty good at it; and I have finally gotten the downstairs toilet adjusted so I get a full flush every time: it's a small tank and a tight squeeze, but I've gotten every inch out of it. I finally realized that the inside of the tank lid isn't level with the top of the tank itself, which means the float unit can extend out a bit more. I even replaced the wax seal on the upstairs toilet, taking the whole thing out. The stuff you do when you're a homeowner.
Which could lead me down one path, of thinking how these little anecdotes survive in a family; everyone is familiar with family sayings and phrases that outsiders don't understand. Deep thoughts, indeed. Instead, I thought of low-flush toilets.
The family that now lives in the house in which my mother and I (and her mother, too, now that I think of it) grew up made extensive renovations to it: it needed them, being built in 1910. They added some rooms, opened up my pathetically small bedroom into the next one and made it the master bedroom, and so on. And renovated the bathroom. New toilet (flat tank lid). I was thinking, then, of how silly they were to get rid of that old toilet, despite the danger posed by the rounded top; it was sturdy, reliable, and was definitely not low-flow. I had heard how people were bidding up the price on old toilets because of how poorly the new mandated low-flow toilets worked. I have encountered a few bad toilets myself. And, despite the decent operation of my current unit, I persisted in my prejudice against them.
Uncle Cecil to the rescue: that same day, the topic du jour: Do low-flush toilets actually save water? The answer: yes they do. And they work better than ever.
As a matter of fact, as mentioned, I have had very little problem with the flushing aspect of my unit, despite my best efforts. The only issue I have with the thing is with the guts; I must replace the flapper every other year, and the float assembly every four. Never had to do that with Mom's toilet. Hmmph. I've gotten pretty good at it; and I have finally gotten the downstairs toilet adjusted so I get a full flush every time: it's a small tank and a tight squeeze, but I've gotten every inch out of it. I finally realized that the inside of the tank lid isn't level with the top of the tank itself, which means the float unit can extend out a bit more. I even replaced the wax seal on the upstairs toilet, taking the whole thing out. The stuff you do when you're a homeowner.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Do Serial Killers Carry Umbrellas?
A few days ago I gave a ride to a hitchhiker. It was 40 degrees and raining, and he looked OK. And had an umbrella. He was headed to New London from Groton, so I was able to at least get him over the river.
Curiously, thinking of the "serial killer" angle, I never took a good look at him. Round-faced, darkish skin was the impression I got; but I couldn't tell you if he was black or Hispanic, or white and tanned, for that matter. I guess I should re-read my "Hardy Boys Detective Handbook" on how to be observant.
Sue goes ballistic if I say I picked up a hitcher, but at some point being paranoid has to defer to being human.
Curiously, thinking of the "serial killer" angle, I never took a good look at him. Round-faced, darkish skin was the impression I got; but I couldn't tell you if he was black or Hispanic, or white and tanned, for that matter. I guess I should re-read my "Hardy Boys Detective Handbook" on how to be observant.
Sue goes ballistic if I say I picked up a hitcher, but at some point being paranoid has to defer to being human.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Lethal Injection
I just don't get the problem here. I am opposed to the death penalty altogether; I don't deny there are people whom we are better off without, but because there are major problems with identifying such people, and the risk so high of wrongly executing somebody, better to not execute anyone at all.
But that's not the issue here. Setting aside the death penalty issue, it should be readily agreed that the method employed should be humane. That is the ostensible reason for the electric chair, the gas chamber, and lethal injection itself. Given that there is reasonable doubt that the chemical "cocktail" used in the injection is pain-free, what is the problem with changing it? Isn't it a no-brainer?
Ah. There's the problem.
But that's not the issue here. Setting aside the death penalty issue, it should be readily agreed that the method employed should be humane. That is the ostensible reason for the electric chair, the gas chamber, and lethal injection itself. Given that there is reasonable doubt that the chemical "cocktail" used in the injection is pain-free, what is the problem with changing it? Isn't it a no-brainer?
Ah. There's the problem.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Looking Back
No, not looking back on the year past; looking way back.
In 2004 there was a reunion of my first sub, USS Kamehameha (SSBN 642), across the river in New London. I dug out some of my old photos and put them in an album, identifying the people I knew and supplying stickies and a pen so anyone could add notes. It went over well, and I promised to scan the photos and burn them to CD to distribute.
Three years later, I finally got around to it. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, instead of burning to CD I posted them to a Picasa web album (thanks, Google!). Here they are.
I have been corresponding with some old shipmates, and we've been trying to figure out just when that first patrol, in which we of the Gold crew brought the ship from the US to Scotland, took place. We have narrowed it down to 1983, since we did our Poseidon missile test launch (DASO) from Florida before we went over. We watched a Space Shuttle launch while in Florida, and, matching a list of DASO launches with Shuttle launches, that has to be Challenger, STS-6, April 4, 1983.
Fun getting back in touch with old shipmates.
In 2004 there was a reunion of my first sub, USS Kamehameha (SSBN 642), across the river in New London. I dug out some of my old photos and put them in an album, identifying the people I knew and supplying stickies and a pen so anyone could add notes. It went over well, and I promised to scan the photos and burn them to CD to distribute.
Three years later, I finally got around to it. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, instead of burning to CD I posted them to a Picasa web album (thanks, Google!). Here they are.
I have been corresponding with some old shipmates, and we've been trying to figure out just when that first patrol, in which we of the Gold crew brought the ship from the US to Scotland, took place. We have narrowed it down to 1983, since we did our Poseidon missile test launch (DASO) from Florida before we went over. We watched a Space Shuttle launch while in Florida, and, matching a list of DASO launches with Shuttle launches, that has to be Challenger, STS-6, April 4, 1983.
Fun getting back in touch with old shipmates.
So I have a Mac
As promised long ago, my Mac post.
My PC at work died; an old, slow machine, to which I had added (out-of-pocket) a 256K DIMM to bring it to a whopping 512K RAM. Not really missed, to say the least. I was able to salvage the contents of the hard drive, so no problem there. My supervisor, your typical Anything But Microsoft geek, preferred that I get a Mac. So he ordered me a Mac Mini with 1GB Ram and an 80GB HD. Sure, fine.
All I really use the computer for, at work, is a web browser, email, and a terminal window; and since I had just shifted all my email to Gmail (a browser-based email), even that was reduced. Even so, while not an MS-lover, I had at least beaten XP into submission; I had it set up the way I liked, I had bought (again, out-of-pocket) an SSH client (SecureCRT) that I preferred, and various test apps and utilities. Now I had to do the same for the Mac.
First, the SSH client: with SecureCRT I can open a separate window to each of 5-6 servers, each in a different color scheme: this allows me to easily keep track of which server I'm on. The latest version I bought added a tabbed interface, so now I can have one window, with a tab for each session. Not possible with the Mac; but since OS X is Unix-based, the ssh client is built in; and I found a free utility, JellyfiSSH, that "bookmarks" terminal sessions, so I can use that to open multiple color-coded sessions, at least. The new OS version, Leopard, seems to offer a tabbed terminal built-in. Hunh.
The browser is not an issue, really; I use Opera, and there is a Mac version available; but gmail doesn't work as well with the Mac version. I found a browser that uses the Mozilla Gecko engine, called Camino, and it does the gmail for me, as well as interfaces with some firewall devices we use that don't like Opera (on the PC, I used Internet Explorer for those). I also have to use Safari, which I don't care for, just to access my Sirius Satellite Radio streaming broadcast: the plug-in only works on it. So I'm running three separate browsers.
I found a free text editor, TextWrangler, that I use instead of the standard TextEdit. I just like it better. And I had to find a wrap-the-cursor around the screen utility, because I use a trackball and that sort of thing makes sense for trackballs (and touchpads). And so on. A utility that locks the screen for when I am away from my desk, without me having to log out, or hibernate, or anything: just lock the screen and input devices: thank you.
Printing: we have a Canon multipurpose device. It uses a parallel cable. The Mac is USB-only. Got a USB-to-parallel cable, and it don't work: the cable does, but there are no drivers for this thing. I am using my sup's personal USB printer, and we're working on getting a new one from the company.
The worst part of the whole deal is Windows: there are one or two apps, particularly our billing/service-order management app, that are Windows-only. With the Mac I got Parallels, an app that lets me load Windows XP (any OS, actually) within a virtual machine running on the Mac (sort of like Apple's own BootCamp, without the reboot). It takes 512K of my 1GB RAM (any less and Windows would suck wind), and I can forget about doing anything else while it loads. When I am careful, I have no problems running Windows apps within it; setting up the networking to connect to the office network over a VPN was tricky, but it is working okay now. Point being it would all be unnecessary if I had just been given a PC in the first place.
All that said, the Mac isn't too bad. Nice wide-screen monitor, the CPU is zippy, and I can work on it with no problems. It just brings its own set of frustrations with it, after I had gotten used to the ones that come with XP. In addition, the keyboard (using the Apple key and so on) is different than what I am using at home: the key strokes, anyway, since I am using the same type of keyboard, not a Mac keyboard (and my own Logitech MarbleMouse trackball). And the close button for the window being in the upper left rather than the upper right. It's the shifting back and forth, work to home, that generates the (mild) confusion.
And thus endeth my Mac post.
My PC at work died; an old, slow machine, to which I had added (out-of-pocket) a 256K DIMM to bring it to a whopping 512K RAM. Not really missed, to say the least. I was able to salvage the contents of the hard drive, so no problem there. My supervisor, your typical Anything But Microsoft geek, preferred that I get a Mac. So he ordered me a Mac Mini with 1GB Ram and an 80GB HD. Sure, fine.
All I really use the computer for, at work, is a web browser, email, and a terminal window; and since I had just shifted all my email to Gmail (a browser-based email), even that was reduced. Even so, while not an MS-lover, I had at least beaten XP into submission; I had it set up the way I liked, I had bought (again, out-of-pocket) an SSH client (SecureCRT) that I preferred, and various test apps and utilities. Now I had to do the same for the Mac.
First, the SSH client: with SecureCRT I can open a separate window to each of 5-6 servers, each in a different color scheme: this allows me to easily keep track of which server I'm on. The latest version I bought added a tabbed interface, so now I can have one window, with a tab for each session. Not possible with the Mac; but since OS X is Unix-based, the ssh client is built in; and I found a free utility, JellyfiSSH, that "bookmarks" terminal sessions, so I can use that to open multiple color-coded sessions, at least. The new OS version, Leopard, seems to offer a tabbed terminal built-in. Hunh.
The browser is not an issue, really; I use Opera, and there is a Mac version available; but gmail doesn't work as well with the Mac version. I found a browser that uses the Mozilla Gecko engine, called Camino, and it does the gmail for me, as well as interfaces with some firewall devices we use that don't like Opera (on the PC, I used Internet Explorer for those). I also have to use Safari, which I don't care for, just to access my Sirius Satellite Radio streaming broadcast: the plug-in only works on it. So I'm running three separate browsers.
I found a free text editor, TextWrangler, that I use instead of the standard TextEdit. I just like it better. And I had to find a wrap-the-cursor around the screen utility, because I use a trackball and that sort of thing makes sense for trackballs (and touchpads). And so on. A utility that locks the screen for when I am away from my desk, without me having to log out, or hibernate, or anything: just lock the screen and input devices: thank you.
Printing: we have a Canon multipurpose device. It uses a parallel cable. The Mac is USB-only. Got a USB-to-parallel cable, and it don't work: the cable does, but there are no drivers for this thing. I am using my sup's personal USB printer, and we're working on getting a new one from the company.
The worst part of the whole deal is Windows: there are one or two apps, particularly our billing/service-order management app, that are Windows-only. With the Mac I got Parallels, an app that lets me load Windows XP (any OS, actually) within a virtual machine running on the Mac (sort of like Apple's own BootCamp, without the reboot). It takes 512K of my 1GB RAM (any less and Windows would suck wind), and I can forget about doing anything else while it loads. When I am careful, I have no problems running Windows apps within it; setting up the networking to connect to the office network over a VPN was tricky, but it is working okay now. Point being it would all be unnecessary if I had just been given a PC in the first place.
All that said, the Mac isn't too bad. Nice wide-screen monitor, the CPU is zippy, and I can work on it with no problems. It just brings its own set of frustrations with it, after I had gotten used to the ones that come with XP. In addition, the keyboard (using the Apple key and so on) is different than what I am using at home: the key strokes, anyway, since I am using the same type of keyboard, not a Mac keyboard (and my own Logitech MarbleMouse trackball). And the close button for the window being in the upper left rather than the upper right. It's the shifting back and forth, work to home, that generates the (mild) confusion.
And thus endeth my Mac post.
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