housekeeping – A Jaunty Little Blog

April 24, 2025

Things that matter

Friends,

I lied to a nun.

I was asked to lie and I went along with the lie. My pal Bruce, the schnoodle entrusted to my care by those caring for a beloved centenarian, was killed on my watch but I couldn’t bring myself to share that news. I danced around the issue at the Idyllwild Indivisible rally where we spoke. Protest rallies are a thing now that the country is descending into authoritarian rule. We meet and we chat and we wonder how to best use our voices to help those who can’t defend themselves. We hugged and she asked me how he was doing. Why was one dog here but not our little boy.

“We had to leave him at home.”

The nuns are lovely and I just can’t break their hearts. They know loss, but do they need more loss? More grief?

We’ve got work to do. We’ve got marching to do, and letter writing to do, and we’re not going to stop the kneecapping of our institutions by crying. We’ve got work to do.

And for that, I lied to a nun. I spent hours working on her computer for free later that day to try and atone, but it still feels wrong. I spared her feelings, but she deserved to know.

Your pal,

– bob

January 1, 2025January 1, 2025

There’s Never A Better Time Than Now

Friends,

I was excited. I’ll freely admit that I found the prospect of a female president exhilarating. Dudes have had their shot, so it seemed that a fresh perspective would electrify an electorate in deep malaise and a large minority of the country agreed with me.

But it was still a minority.

That means that it’s time for a psychological reset. It’s also time to acknowledge that a majority of the electorate has a short memory and couldn’t be bothered to read or think or look out for their fellows. That’s the product of a half-century long Republican project working as planned, but also the subject of a later post.

My plan for this first post of the new year is to think about how to proceed and what I can do to contribute (you’re probably going to share something about taking better care of yourself, too. – ed Don’t be silly. I’m a paragon of good health and virtuous living.). Here’s a first draft of a list of thoughts that I’m considering to firm up at some point to create something of a plan…

Things to do to make 2025 better

Stop giving artificial intelligence your thoughts for free

The suits consider me a “content creator”, which is as far as I can tell, anybody who fills blank spots on empty pages with words or pictures. Those words or pictures don’t have to be pretty or insightful or memorable or meaningful. They just have to fill the space.

What we need to do first, is stop being “content creators” and return to being writers and authors and artists and photographers and philosophers and scientists. And yes, pundits and cranks and rabble-rousers too. It’s not “content,” it’s perspective and we need more of it. That said, there are better places to do that than social media sites. They have more traffic, but I’m not comfortable with Meta and Bluesky and Google owning what I share on the Internet. That’s why there’ll be more here and that’s why it’s behind a robots.txt file that seeks to block their crawlers.

Also, I thought it’d be fun, even though I don’t know how long it’ll be fun, to just post photos taken on a Handspring Visor with a first generation eyemodule. They’re really awful and it’s a pain to get them from the device to here, but I love how they’re turning out. Lo-Fi pixel slurry that’s sort of a cross between Super 8 and a Fisher-Price PXL2000.

Stop obeying in advance

Yes, the good guys lost the election, but that doesn’t mean we need to kneel in front of a deranged kakistocracy even before it has been installed. They can’t tell you what to do or how to act or how to spend your money or when and how to enforce your laws. Even when their clown car has disgorged its passengers in the District of Columbia, there is every indication that there will be a wide gulf between the evils they want to do and the evils they’ll actually be able to implement.

You can’t build concentration camps and run a mass deportation regime if Congress can’t agree on how to fund it.

Of course, they probably can’t fund the government either, so that’s a different hardship. One thing at a time.

Make somebody’s life easier

Here’s my plan. I know a few things about a lot of things. In the past, I didn’t think too much about this. Everybody has the capacity to learn about stuff and figure things out. Intellectual curiosity is baked in, isn’t it?

Nope!

As the election taught me, sometimes people need more help. That’s a good reason to share more of what I’ve been working on and maybe drop some tips that may have been missing for somebody else. The people who contribute to archive.org are famous for this, scanning old documentation for obscure things or uploading drivers for ancient tech. Speaking of that…

Cut down on buying new stuff

The oligarchs have plenty of dough and don’t need any more of mine. I’m trying to be mindful of where my dollars go since the California insurance market is crushing my finances. I’m patronizing local businesses first, then far-flung small business. Only when neither of them carry what I’m looking for will I resort to Amazon or, well, Amazon.

By the way, now that Fry’s Electronics is gone, where are you sourcing your electronic parts?

Back up your stuff

This sounds paranoid, but I’m seeing a lot of people I trust online recommend full, offline, or air-gapped backups. The US Treasury just got hacked by China, so my Javelin pictures may seem like small potatoes, but they’re my potatoes and I’d like to keep them safe.

Does that mean journaling on a typewriter to keep my memories of this time safe? No, but that seems like fun. I might have to get back to that.

So there it is. The first day of 2025 in the books. I think we’re going to okay, but we’ll need to look out for each other. It’s going to be a rocky few years.

Your pal,

– bob

August 14, 2024

What, Another Computer Post?

Friends,

A lot of years ago, when I used to work at the Omnipresent Charitable Organization, we got a donation of broken PowerBooks. I wanted to use one of them as my work machine, so I sent them out to Powerbook Medic for diagnosis. The doctor did not have good news: One had a bad logic board and the other had a bad power board. No way the charity would pay for repairs, so they had to go.

I bought them for next to nothing to see what I could do with them, and they spent a little time with my sister. Bad logic board machine charging batteries that would run the machine with the bad power board. That got tiresome (of course it did!) and they ended up on a shelf.

Fast forward ten years, and my interest was renewed. Why? A sale on PowerBook power boards showed up and I bought one. Old board out, new one in. Then the hard drive packed up and I gave up.

Another few years forward and a member on the 68kmla site asks if anybody has a line on Pismo parts. I was pretty sure one of the two was a Pismo, but wasn’t sure which. I pulled out the bronze keyboard big boys and discovered that the dead one was a Lombard, and the good one, the one I have now fitted with an SSD, is a Pismo.

Our 68kmla friend still wanted the Lombard, so we arranged for shipping and it went out the other day.

A working Pismo was not in my plans, but here it is. The keyboard is very good and it’s pretty responsive despite the small amount of RAM. I’m kinda digging it.

Your pal,

– bob

April 20, 2024

No, YOU need to cool down

Friends,

It’s been a while and the wet paper bag of events has finally managed to drop its load on my keyboard. In other, less pale mauve terms, a lot has happened and it’s time to share some of it with you, dearest reader.

The structure of this post is kinda up in the air, so let’s bookend the thing with good news. Nothing here is particularly bad or concerning, but a sort of positivity sandwich seems like the way to go, so let’s get started!

I’m still gainfully employed in my chosen profession! If you’ve been following the advertising and marketing industry, this is quite a feat. There have been massive layoffs—if not actual agency failures—here in the States and in Europe. Clients seem to be taking advantage of this by forcing rates down into the basement, but that’s probably not a great idea if they’re hoping to retain talent for their future projects. It works to bolster their quarterly results, sure, but skittish creatives are going to jump ship or change industries entirely. I’m not that easily spooked, so I’m sticking with it.

With that in mind, we were pretty excited when the call came in to get ready to come to London this summer. My sweetheart and I have been musing about our first European trip together, so a free ticket for me meant half-priced travel for both of us. England? Great. We can get a free trial for Babbel to learn the language, and we can get plug adapters for our chargers. Let’s go!

needle scratch.wav

The call today was postponing the trip. We bought non-refundable plane tickets, which added some complication, but there’s a happy resolution for that on the horizon. I’m not entirely sure what it is at the moment, but it’s gonna be amazing. Probably.

Before this happened, we moved my mother in-law out of her retirement apartment and into a great memory care facility. “Is there such a thing?” I hear you ask. What I know is this: she’s happier, healthier, and is more engaged. I think it’s very reasonable to say that it’s a great facility.

My illustrious writing partner was scheduled to have a hip replacement months ago. She’s SOOO much older than I am (eight months, friend. maybe cool it. – ed It’s a running gag. Relax.) but it really doesn’t seem like the hardware should pack up this early, and I don’t envy her having to wait another few months to get the procedure done. Also, I missed commemorating her birthday, so I’m a bad friend and feel terrible.

Speaking of repairs, and I know that she has, if you’ve heard of P0456, that’s a small leak of your car’s evaporative emissions system. Without a smoke machine it’s hard to find those small leaks, so I acted on a hunch and replaced the evaporative system sensor based on a bunch of YouTube videos. It seems to have worked so far, but I can’t be sure because, well, I’ve stopped smoking.

audience light applause.wav

Since you asked, I got the extra parts to install the Gotek floppy eliminator I picked up at VCF SoCal in my Kaypro 2x. Have I done it yet, no. I’m looking forward to not relying on 5 1/4″ floppies to make things happen on the machine which admittedly can’t do too much, but I still want to plop the machine on a table at the local Panera and start working.

In case you were wondering, the fans in my 2019 Intel Macbook Air are going nuts right now. Is it because I’m dropping so much truth (i’m not feeling very well right now. -ed Me neither, dog. um, gross. -ed). I think the problem is that this machine is underpowered, unloved for its zero-travel keyboard with the dodgy zero key, and ready to be retired. UPDATE: Or mail.app crashed. Why? No idea.

Remember how the Republican tax cuts from 2018 benefitted the very wealthy and threw the middle class a bone for a couple years to keep “the people” from revolting? It turns out that whatever enticement we had to not storm the Bastille has ended this year. Will low-information middle class voters blame the Biden administration for the tax increase or understand that this was a deliberate sabotage of our system by a bunch of cynical finks who are only in it for themselves? It’s hard to know!

Well, that’s about it for now. More soon.

Your pal,

– bob

December 31, 2023February 5, 2024

The Fates

Friends,

The end of 2023 is fast approaching. Even though the calendar year is an artificial construct, I’ll be glad to see the last hateful, hurtful, and mournful 365 days go away. Just to give you a taste, my father in-law died on the day before Christmas Eve and his widow fell and hit her head later that evening. We spent Christmas Eve morning in the Emergency Room, which led to her admission for a brain bleed. We made our way home and got a few hours of sleep before she was discharged (“I’m not sure why she’s here,” said the attending physician.) so we picked her up and took her to her apartment. Did she fall again that night?

Of course she did.

This time, we asked if she was in pain or bleeding, then asked the attending staff not to send her back to the hospital. This bought us a day to see Mom in the desert.

2023 has been an expensive year, a sad year, a dumb year, a hate-filled year, a violence-choked year, and a year that we must not forget. Remember 2022? It was pretty terrible and sad and dumb. 2021? Not great! Previously, I filled these pages with scratchy-eyed moping about how awful things had become and maybe we should simply stay in bed ¹. Not this year.

This year I’ve had it with the defeatism and dour predictions.

I’m just not having it from me or from you. This is our year to punch real-life nazis. The bad guys, who mostly identify as Republicans here in the United States, but not always, are trying to take away our rights so that their masters make more money and accrue more power. in 2024, we’ve got a job to do, vote them out and reinforce structures originally designed to keep thugs and autocrats away from power. Using the plain language of the Constitution’s Article 3 is a good start if we hope to keep insurrectionist off of the ballot.

It’s taken us 150 years to finish Reconstruction, but it looks like the time for half-measures and appeasement is over. Whatever we do is going to have to happen this year.

Yes, I’d rather lick my wounds and feel sorry and mourn and regroup, and I honestly hope that we have time for that soon, but this is going to be messy. The bad guys won’t respond to reason. Maybe they’ll respond to a solid pasting at the polls. That’s going to require all of us getting out there again.

Your pal,

– bob

¹ My Mom’s mother had suggested that if things got too rough or scary, the best solution was probably to stay in bed with the covers pulled up. That might not be the best advice these days (or even in those days, to be fair).

June 30, 2023

Creeping fascism, alarms, and the tyranny of zero

Friends,

Let’s dispense with the apologia and get right to it. (good luck with that. you’re feeling terrible right now, aren’t you? -ed Okay, I’m not feeling great about the time that’s passed since the last post, but I simply wanted to get on with it. Is that so wrong?)

I work for a company based in London, as do a half dozen other charming individuals here in the States. Most are on the Atlantic coast, while only three of us are here on the left side of the continent. Because several of my colleagues live in Florida, I take a moment from my work day to give them grief about their current governor. This person is also a presidential candidate, and is working very hard to be more cruel, more inhuman, more opposed to human life on this planet than his opponents. Essentially, the Republican party game plan. Here’s a data point:

Florida bill allowing radioactive roads made of potentially cancer-causing mining waste signed by DeSantis

Because I don’t understand messianic Christians and their deal, I don’t get the destruction of the planet in service of their belief in some sort of redemption by fire or apocalypse or whatever. I don’t get it. Further, while I have shifted my worldview to allow for people’s religions as a fun fandom that we should probably not subject to our scorn, I’m not nearly as sanguine about the hard-right Catholics on the US Supreme Court. They’ve issued opinions this week to take away rights from a large swath of the population. This week, at the end of their nutso decision-making and making up stuff, they let us know that we shouldn’t criticize them for their highly partisan decisions.

In my country, we have a saying; “You need to go fuck yourselves.”

The modest proposals to fix this, to add four more justices—with 13 justices to coincide with the 13 circuit courts—still hasn’t gained the support of the president. Madness.

Maybe he’d prefer my plan, adding 50 justices, selecting a baker’s dozen for each case via lottery. It’s reasonable, which is why they won’t do it.

What’s left? The destruction of this democracy through the machinations of fascists and would-be fascists in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, and too many other places. It’s hard to be encouraged here. The only thing we can do is to keep them out of power.

That’s it.

Let’s go!

Your pal,

– bob

January 10, 2023January 11, 2023

It’s The Little Things and The Big Things

Friends,

I haven’t been ignoring this here endeavor as much as I’ve been actively putting off updates. You’ll quietly wonder why and I’ll go ahead and tell you.

It’s all been too much.

Holidays, houseguests, dealing with other people’s illnesses, staying busy at work in spite of the year-end lull, and getting a new roof installed on two houses has all done a number on my psyche.

What’s one to do but let things settle down and wait for some inspiration to come. Well, that inspiration has arrived and it’s a real mess.

We’ve known each other for a while now, so it won’t shock you to learn that I try to know at least a little something about a lot of things. I also try to know a lot of things about a couple things so that I can gain some expertise in a subject, but also because constantly referring to reference materials makes me lose focus. Trap the facts in the buffer, get the job done quickly, and everybody’s happy.

I’ve recently started, due to lower ad spending at the end of this year, reading more about this here copywriting craft. I’m trying to learn more about who’s good, who’s not, why they’re considered good or not, and things I can do to get better. One of the paths to writing better copy (if you believe the current thinking) is not to write at all, but use an artificially-intelligent bot instead.

Mme. Puppy Dog and I both agree that using an AI is a remarkably bad idea unless I have an aching desire to appear redundant. Since this would impact the steady flow of kibble from the store to Madame’s belly, she disapproves.

Social Media (plural)

The world record holder for losing the most personal wealth in history has some abhorrent views and some abhorrent friends. I thought it’d be neat to move off of his bird service and migrate my social media attentions to some of the other services that aren’t Facebook or Instagram. The problem is that I can’t seem to settle on one that feels like a good fit.

I wanted to like Mastodon, but their web interface is pretty hectic. Tapbots is beta testing a client and I’ll look into that when it’s baked, but it’s not happening for me yet.

I’m also on Post.news and cohost.org in addition to my existing ello account. They’re really not scratching that itch of having a mass of fun people, delivering the latest news, and rapid updates. Maybe I’ll split my time between here and Substack.

As always, I appreciate your thoughts (unless they’re mean, spam, mean spam, or spam in a foreign language, then they’re deleted).

Your pal,

– bob

September 29, 2022September 29, 2022

What’s All Dat?

Friends,

It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? Since we last convened, I have injured my back rather severely, gone on a three-day work trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, adopted and brought back to life a very slow and very charming old computer, and I’m getting ready to put a roof on The Secret Alpine Laboratory. I also have very bad news about the Idyllwild Weather Clam that I can no longer suppress. Sufficiently teased? Great!

Remember to stretch

I thought that storm waters were flowing under the stem wall into the crawlspace under the cabin. Add some dirt, and the resulting mud flow had swamped some stacked drywall and lumber. Their stinky and moldy corpses were immediately punted to the landfill. However, it wasn’t local flooding at all. The problem was a perforated iron drain pipe from the kitchen sink. I cut it out, removed the mud, and jammed everything back into the garage.

Now, when I need to move equipment out, I’m navigating over a couple welders, around dead batteries, and through a narrow passage before I get them through the door. It’s tight and the obstacles are stabby. I grabbed the miter saw to chop the new custom threshold that was the wrong size. The first injury must’ve made a cartoon “sproing!” noise inside my back somewhere in the neighborhood of T10 or T11. The second part, where I turned the wrong way while still carrying the saw surely sounded like a Spanish galleon running aground on the rocky shores of L5-S1. I wouldn’t know because all I could see was white and all I could smell was pain.

That was on Labor Day.

Economy class

Three days later, I was on a plane headed for New Orleans to meet my coworkers in person for the first time. It’s hard to fault United Airlines for wanting to crowd as many people in each plane as possible. After all, the industry has received billions of dollars in loans and relief from American taxpayers over the last decade. They’re hurting for cash!

I haven’t been on a plane since our honeymoon before the pandemic. Since then, the seats have been moved even closer together, the cushions replaced with ones that are much thinner. Would the pain meds kick in soon? Maybe they already had and the pain from the back injury, plus the seats, plus the knees belonging to the woman seated behind me, was actually much greater than this.

This was the theme for the entire trip, unfortunately.

I had to plan ahead for every walking adventure. Is it too far? Can I make it back to the hotel on foot or will I have to call for a ride? After checking in at the hotel, I left to meet everyone who had arrived first and it was like old friends picking up where we’d left off. Except we’d never met in person. It’s a good group and we had a lot of laughs.

Even the next day, when we ventured out to hit a particular tourist spot, everybody had a great time.

Team building exercises, cajun bánh mì for lunch (You didn’t know that was a thing, did you?), then dinner at The Roosevelt. A packed schedule, for sure. The next day was just as packed. Vegetarian eggs benedict (Cajun style, ‘natch), quality time in an escape room, then off to the return trip home.

A funny thing happened on the way back. Same planes, but they were only half full. It took two planes to get home and both flights had a lot of empty seats, including the middle seat. I could spread out, stretch, and stop whimpering about the persistent back pain which had not relented.

It wasn’t until 10:30 or so that evening that I finally got home and was greeted by the welcoming committee.

Is this the party to which I am speaking?

Before I left on my trip, I won an auction for this little nugget…

Yes, that’s right. It’s an Apple Newton eMate 300 portable computer, from your childhood. This one seems to be in remarkably good shape, even though the battery was as flat as can be. It ran for about five minutes after a full charge, complaining about imminent automatic shutdown after two. Back to ebay for a five dollar nickel-metal hydride battery pack intended for a baby monitor. It’s the right shape, I just transferred the temp sensor so the charging circuit can detect if it’s overheating.

It’s that thing under the tape in the center of the batteries. Peel it off, cut the power leads and solder on the new ones. Stick the sensor down on the new pack and tape everything back together. Not only easy, but also peasy.

Now there’s the small problem of getting the thing to talk to any of the modern computers around here. Modern like the Clamshell iBook, or the 12-inch G4 Stuntbook. I installed the software and adapted the adapters, but still get a “can’t communicate with this computer” message. I’m stumped.

Cement pond

You know the old chestnut about how the cobbler’s children go barefoot? I never truly believed it, myself. Who’s going to raise a family with a fruit crumble? Absurd. (unless it’s peach. i love a peach cobbler. -ed)

Even though my Dad built pools for a living, he did next to nothing to repair the swimming pool at the family home. The tile was falling off, plaster cracked, diverter valves frozen in place, wiring strapped to piece of plywood held up by a single rusty nail. It was a real mess, but he was unwilling and later unable to do anything about it.

Since his passing, Mom has taken on the big projects, like rehabbing the pool. I have to say that it looks great.

An added bonus is that I’m the first person to actually go for a swim since its rehabilitation. I’m happy to report that it’s great. Wouldn’t change a thing.

The Sad and Tragic Demise of Big Fine Salty Mountain Tide Pool

As you know, we’ve been dealing with a longstanding drought here in California brought about by climate change. I’ve been doing my part to solve the problem, but not enough, apparently. Our gal, the Idyllwild Weather Clam was nowhere to be found when I arrived at my Secret Alpine Laboratory to have the roof replaced. Her tidepool was a dry and desolate place, since we’ve had next to no rain this summer and she has apparently packed up and left. Yet another climate refugee, I fear.

If you hear from her, please ask her to call and let her know that I put more minutes on her prepaid phone.

If only she had waited

Why am I still here at the Lab, you ask? The gigantic and very expensive roofing job had to be postponed for most of this week due to torrential downpours. A inch and a half of rain on Sunday and another inch yesterday. It’s enough to spook a roofer, so we start tomorrow, and by “we” I mean “they” start tomorrow. My involvement is to keep a fire extinguisher nearby and to see if my noise-cancelling headphones are good for anything beyond plane travel.

Whew! That was a lot. I’ve been having trouble with my web host, so this may not post correctly. Cross your things for good luck.

Your pal,

– bob

June 15, 2022June 15, 2022

A Roof Over Our Heads

Friends,

This is the story of two houses. One built in a tract of single family homes during the early 1970s suburban speculation boom. The other built as a vacation getaway in a small mountain resort town during the late 1940s post-war construction boom. Both houses need a new roof.

The 50-year old house needed its red asphalt composite shingle roof replaced 20 years ago and the owners did what any self-respecting cheapskate did in the 90s—cover the red shingles with gray shingles. Now that those shingles have failed (curling, tabs breaking off, whole sections breaking off and flying away), we needed to do something.

The 75-year old house has, apparently, only had its issues addressed once (omg). At that time, the cedar shingles were covered with asphalt composite shingles. I suspect that this wasn’t necessarily to address leaks, but to satisfy a nervous insurance agent trying to justify renewing a policy deep in the urban/wilderness interface. Well, it leaks now, so we need to do something.

There are a lot of roofing contractors servicing the area surrounding the 50-year old house. We read good recommendations for a fellow named Ray. We had a chat, and he agreed to do the work for ten and a half thousand dollars, give or take. Okay, that’s not entirely true. There’s no take, and after the additional carpentry that needed to be done, we gave up a couple thousand more, and after maybe 12 hours of work, they were packed up and gone. The results are just right too. Right color, right amount of fuss (none). If you need a roof, call Ray.

If you’ve taken this cue to stand in your front yard yelling, “RAY!” He’s probably not going to answer. Send me an email instead, and I’ll give you his contact information.

The problem with the 75-year old house, which you might remember as my Secret Alpine Laboratory, is that there’s nothing under the cedar shingles. They’re nailed to thin wood stringers spanning the roof joists, and that’s it.

To put on a new roof, the asphalt shingles, the tar paper, the cedar shingles, whatever paper is underneath that, and the stringers come down. Then, the new roofer who is not Ray will do all of the math and cover the steep pitches and deep valleys with plywood. Although the square footage is nearly identical to the younger structure, the cost is estimated to be over double.

That job hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve sent a very large deposit. This adult stuff is nerve-wracking.

Your very best pal,

– bob

April 26, 2022April 26, 2022

A Tree Grows There

Friends,

My Dad took warnings about the drought pretty seriously. Actually, he took the price increases imposed by the local water district seriously and he decided that he should allow the landscaping in the front of his house to go fallow. Sure, the city threatened to fine my parents for failing to landscape the front yard. Dad’s answer was a mix of, “dirt is desert landscaping,” but more often that he would get around to it soon enough.

When Mom called asking for suggestions on what to do with the front yard, I suggested a fruit tree. A grapefruit tree would be ideal for the shade they provide, but enjoying the fruit is a no-go. Maybe an orange or tangelo? Something full-grown, so we won’t have to worry about maintenance from a distance. I even offered to pay for a tree to be delivered and planted.

So Mom picked out a Palo Verde, which is not a fruit tree.

I still paid for it and tried to make planting day into an event, which didn’t happen. A neighbor suggested that the tree be a memorial to my Dad. I’ll leave a determination on that to your best judgement.

Your best pal,

bob

April 5, 2022June 8, 2022

Get A Long, Little Doggie

Friends,

I’ve been struggling lately. This pandemic has been wearing heavily on everybody, so much so that some individuals have decided on their very own that it’s over. Of course, the pandemic isn’t over, but a more liberated fiction is appealing. It’s dumb and dangerous, but appealing.

I thought that it’d be nice to travel this summer and get away for a little while from the sadness of losing parents and pets over a short few months. My sweet bride’s suggestion to go see Giant Sequoias and Redwoods was very appealing and easier to envision without having to mind a fleet of furry ding-a-lings.

But Phoebe happened.

We’re her fourth home (perhaps, maybe more) and she’s had a bunch of puppies. She’s now enjoying a new comfortable home, a couple squares a day, and all the attention she can stand. In return, she’s ready to offer her belly in case you’d missed the opportunity to give her a rub only minutes before. Free of charge, she will chase away neighborhood cats with a serious, but understated growl.

Now let’s see how she travels.

Your pal,

– bob

UPDATE: Here’s the right song to listen to while you enjoy this post.

July 4, 2021July 6, 2021

The Boss Says, Swapping Aerosolized Body Fluids Promotes Productivity!

Friends,

Since we last grabbed each other in this little do-si-do, I have obtained employment, enjoyed some weird boosterism, put a family member in the hospital, stared into the maw of despair, and have come across a remarkable discovery. That’s right, it’s a housekeeping post.

Let’s box this gnat!

I’ve been applying for copywriting jobs for over a year with no success. I’m a tough sell on paper: out of the agency business for decades, and in-house samples from non-profit don’t obviously transfer to sales jobs. The other problem is I don’t know the jargon. This shuts a lot of doors for recruiters and HR people who are ticking boxes. As you’ve learned after any time browsing posts here, I hate jargon. I’ve spent an awful lot of time removing jargon. I’m good at it. I’ve always felt that if you hide behind industry buzzwords, you either don’t know what you’re talking about or you’re gatekeeping. I’ll keep applying until I find a kindred spirit, but in the meanwhile, it’s tech support.

Tech support is cleaning up other people’s messes. Usually, those messes are created by software engineers on a deadline who ship product before it’s complete, completely vetted, tested, and reworked. I understand why they do it, but that makes you, dearest reader, an unofficial software tester. You get to figure out why Outlook can’t handle that many deleted items and Excel can’t open your friend’s spreadsheet because it’s Tuesday. I get to fix it.

My current gig isn’t awful. The half-hour commute takes me to a biotech shop on the coast. Good start! The place is staffed with a lot of adults, which is a refreshing change. They just want to do a good job and go home. No real politics that I can discern. The downside is that it’s a temporary position on a contract. They may hire me, which is an idea it seems like they’re thinking about, but as far as I know now, it’s a no-benefits/onsite position all summer.

Speaking of onsite, the bosses have decided that all employees will return to the office this Tuesday after working from home since March of last year. There’s a lot of grumbling and management haven’t handled it well. Like businesses across the country, they started with the first rationale: that in-person work leads to greater collaboration and productivity. This is an assertion that really hasn’t been proven. There are no workplace studies. Nothing to back it up except hearsay and absurd commercial property values. This was quickly followed up by, “Because I say so.” Playing this card is so very popular with the rank and file workers who know that zero work has been done on ventilation systems, vaccination validation, and that very little effort has been put into revising sanitation protocols. Folks love it.

The boosterism comes from the bosses and human resources folks sending out bulk emails about how are super excited to see everyone! All you precious little knowledge workers with the tops of your adorable noggins poking over the tops of low cubicle walls fill our hearts with glee.

The knowledge workers I’ve spoken with aren’t feeling it. They’ve built home offices, rearranged schedules, taken on childcare and eldercare commitments, and now they’re being asked to chuck it in the bin. Folks feel like they’re doing the work and building premium products without needing to warm a company-issued chair.

The nature of work has changed. People aren’t just working for a paycheck anymore. Okay, I am actually working for a paycheck at the moment, and there are millions out there like me. My goal, and suspect the goal of the rest is a simple one: Work to live, don’t live to work. Enjoy what you do. Make a difference. Make it count.

Keep a kind thought for my father-in-law who was admitted to the hospital a week ago with pneumonia. He’s as weak as a very puny and out of shape kitten, so he’s going to need a lot of rehab to get back to full strength.

Also, Stinko brought some daughters to the desert and I fed them enchiladas at my parents’ house. He was subdued, but seemed to enjoy the visit and the attention. Please do what you can to cheer him up by spending outrageous amounts of money at his shop, won’t you?

We’re keeping gluten-free at my house for reasons (Celiac Disease can be pretty rough. I don’t have it, but I’m an ally in the struggle. Also, did you know that Celiac Disease is considered a disability when you’re applying for jobs? Let’s have a chat about why that’s case sometime later. Not now.) and we’ve been able to find gluten-free puff pastry dough. We made spanikopita with the stuff and it’s amazing. Light, flaky, and very tasty. If you find it in the freezer section, stock up. You never know when it’ll be back.

Thanks for passing through. Now it’s time to separate and go home.

Your best pal,

– bob

UPDATE: The original version of this post was a grammatical mess. I fixed a bunch of stuff, but if you see some glaring error, please let me know. Thanks!

May 2, 2021May 2, 2021

Hibernation Ended

Friends,

It’s been a little while since I last checked in, so consider this A STATUS UPDATE!

First, here’s the song you should be listening to while reading. You’re welcome.

Now! To the business at hand. I’m now two weeks out from the second Moderna jab and we’re getting out into the world again. I don’t really remember how to act around people, so I’m going with the default for all of the amazing delivery drivers who have sacrificed their safety to keep me isolated during the last year: slobbering gratitude. If my side effects from the second Moderna shot were only a fraction as bad as getting Covid-19, I would’ve been terrified to be out in the world. This pandemic is not a joke and I’m concerned that we’re not nearly prepared for the next one, or the one after that. As my late grandmother admonished, maybe we should just stay in bed and pull up the covers.

While it’s great advice, it doesn’t pay the bills.

I have a few live job opportunities in the pipeline at the moment. Of course I can’t tell you about them because I do not wish to invoke the jinx. What I can say is that there are a couple tech support gigs and a couple copywriting gigs. Each one has things to recommend it. Employee discounts, big pay, and neat perks. It’ll be fun to see which one makes an offer first.

My sweet wife has started to believe that my piney paradise is a nice place to spend time, so she has encouraged me to fix up the place a bit. I find it hard to disagree with this.

We went furniture shopping today to pick up a couple larger pieces that should add a more adult feel to the cabin. Bookshelves and end tables and even a dresser made the list. This, however, did not make the cut…

Woof. The headboard lights up.

Your best pal,

– bob

January 29, 2021

File Under: Stormy Storms

Friends,

It’s been a little while since I’ve checked in here, so let’s catch up!

The Idyllwild Weather Clam

Our gal has been warning us for weeks from her tidepool that there were several arctic storms queing up over the Pacific Ocean and they’ve dumped their payload. It looks like we’re going to receive nearly two feet of snow by the time this is over later this evening.

That’s a better showing than last year.

Speaking of things that are better than last year…

We’re Not Dead!

Despite the slow rollout of the various COVID-19 vaccines, and the fact that we haven’t received our shots, we’re still alive! By “we” I also mean my entire extended family. This is remarkable and I’m tremendously grateful that everybody’s listening to the science instead of politically-motivated dopes.

Hey! Speaking of the intellectually unencumbered…

The Orange President Lost The Election!

In the middle of a global pandemic, he broke the Post Office, which made it tough on those of us relying on things to be shipped to our homes to avoid crowds in malls. Online retailers and pharmacies couldn’t get goods and medications to customers on time. He warned that absentee voting was a rife with fraud, despite the evidence against that lie. We held the safest and most corruption-free election in modern history, yet he claimed that the counting was rigged and his obvious victory was stolen.

When that didn’t work, he replaced the Secretary of Defense with a sycophant who ordered the District of Columbia National Guard to stand down, then he held a little rally. In his presidential remarks, he managed to whip up his supporters, sociopaths, and other dead-enders into a froth, encouraging them to storm the United States Capitol. While there, they managed to get five people killed and over 100 injured.

Despite all of this, his supporters, sycophants, supplicants and other Republican senators can’t seem to find anything wrong with the 45th president’s behavior. They can’t even seem to bring themselves to admit that Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the popular vote and the electoral collage votes to become the 46th President of the United States.

There’s a word for this. It begins with the letter T.

Speaking of insincerity…

Electric Cars For You and You and You

No really. General Motors has announced that they will stop manufacturing internal combustion engines in the next decade. They’ve said this before and walked it back, so there’s no reason to believe them this time except they may be looking for government R&D funding this time. They’ll probably get it, too.

Speaking of funding…

The Stimulus Debit Card

Is it me, or does the stimulus debit card feel like a weird Steve Mnuchin grift? Have you ever heard of that bank? Did you take the time to register on their site so you could transfer the funds to your bank? Shady.

My Birthday Holiday Season Has Begun!

I received the first birthday card for this upcoming momentous birthday today, thus kicking off this year’s Birthday Holiday Season. In case you don’t know the rules, it begins when you receive your first birthday gift and ends when the last candle is blown out. Some years, it has lasted for months.

No, I’m not complaining.

Yes, I am going to buy a replacement cell phone and invoke a discount that is available to people who reach this arbitrary number.

Yes, I will also try to get discounts based on an AARP membership, because I am a cheapskate.

Yes, I feel fine.

No, I don’t think I’ll keep going.

I hope you’re doing well. Take care of yourself.

More later.

Your best pal in the world,

– bob