A Jaunty Little Blog – Page 5 – No-wax, easy maintenance, bacteriostatic, and anti-slip.

January 8, 2020January 9, 2020

A Most Wonderful Time

Friends,

The holidays took a busy turn this year. As in previous years, our trip started in the mountains, dropping our elderly pups at the Damp Dog Lodge so they don’t get under foot and drop our elderly parents at their home in the desert.

With the puppy dogs safely napping in front of the fireplace, we headed down the hill for the day.

We had snacks and ate too much…

…then settled into dinner and ate far too much.

Gifts were exchanged in our gift exchange wherein I arbitrarily raised the spending limit this year, which elicited an audible gasp from my Mom.

When we returned, the snow wasn’t terribly deep. When we left on Boxing Day, the berm created by the snow plows was an obstacle that the definitely-not-designed-for-the-snow Michelin tires could not handle.

I’d say that we had a delightful time over the three days. It was nice to see the family, the hill was resplendent in its winter garb, and except for nearly crashing the Jeep, it was pretty relaxing.

The next week was a little less relaxing. More on that in a bit…

Your pal,

– bob

August 12, 2019August 14, 2019

What Are You Doing? Irwin Allen Edition

Friends,

It’s been a while since I checked in, and the universe has dealt one punch in the face after another after another. Rather than work in chronological order, it might be better to work in order of impact and import.

We went on something of a summer holiday to Southern Oregon towards the beginning of July. At first, when the trip was planned, we were going to go see the in-laws and stay at a little fly fishing resort on the Umpqua River to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. This sounded great and presented a wonderful opportunity to try out the new camera. The updated plan had us spend a couple days at the in-laws’ house first, divvying up their possessions to prepare for their move to a retirement community near our house. More on the retirement community in a bit, but this haggling led to a talons-extended wariness that would filter into the time spent in the forest.

So we ate the meals and slept in the cabin and hiked around a bit, but it felt like the last half of the third sequel. Going through motions. That was until we started hiking out of the trail leading to the largest falls we would visit. I spun my ankle on a trail-colored rock, and spent the next week hopping around and complaining to whoever would listen.

Did my complaining matter? Not one wit.

Once we arrived back home, where complaining continued to not matter, I noticed that the leak under the Wrangler hadn’t got any worse in our absence. I put in a new serpentine belt to replace the one that was starting to go before we left, and headed off to bed. My first day back to work would be in Temecula, so I wanted to make sure I was good to go.

The drive was uneventful the next day. The arrival in the parking lot was not. I knew that thrip-thwap-thwip noise was another belt flying apart. Time to consult experts…

Well, it should have been time to consult experts, but I consulted gifted psychics instead. How do psychics become gifted? They cheat, of course. In this case, the mechanics at the nearby service center had seen this before and knew what to look for. Excessive runout of the thrust bearing causing the crankshaft to move in and out too much. The pulleys go out of alignment and cut the new belt to pieces. Plus, the crankshaft seal is damaged in the process, thus the oil leak I couldn’t identify. The motor was cooked save for the seizing, the smoke and the fires. I still had time to find this old dog a new home and the local Jeep dealer gave me a reasonable price. An auction price, but that’s okay. I’d rather not see it driving around town.

I cast around for a replacement while driving around a rental from Avis and was reminded that a) Avis sells their cars after a while at pretty decent prices, and b) I still have a Grand Cherokee that isn’t running, and c) I miss the interior room and utility of a midsize SUV like the Grand Cherokee. So I bought one that’s a year and a couple months old from them in the weirdest sales transaction I’ve ever conducted (and I once bought a Volkswagen Beetle in the dark).

So much for not having a car payment, eh?

All this time, something’s been wrong with the dogs since we brought them home from the kennel/spa/cages. Food’s not staying down, or not getting consumed at all. Lots of pacing. Lots of trips outside overnight. The puppy pad bill is going to break the bank and after coming home after work to a couple mortifying shitstorms, it was time for the little one to go to the vet.

She hadn’t eaten in a few days, even though we tried to coax her with the most expensive ground up things in tins we could find. The veterinarian drew some blood and took an exceedingly lengthy time to call us with the results. Extraordinary because her health continued to deteriorate over the long weekend. Finally, we took her in to maybe get a feeding tube or something, but the prognosis was grim and final: pancreatic cancer. Looking back, I should’ve kept her head in my hand as the drugs were administered that would end her life. As she stopped controlling her neck, her head flopped over, giving Teresa a start, “Oh god! That’s horrible,” she gasped through the tears.

Mocha was the littlest one, the bravest one, the one who had been through the most. She was a one-doggy puppy mill and had been put through the ringer. She had the scars from being tied up all day and the nervous demeanor of a dog who’d never been socialized. I had an affinity for her that I can’t really describe. She’d been through a lot and deserved to have a nice safe life. I’d like to think that she enjoyed her last three years with us. And just like that, she was gone.

So, how’ve you been?

Your pal,

– bob

UPDATE: Here’s a better picture of the little dog. She’s pictured here on her preferred tower, where a girl can get away from it all, like another dog seven times her size who’s constantly menacing her.

Mocha and her tower of throw pillows

June 4, 2019

Filling In The Blanks – Dark Mode Edition

Friends,

I know I’ve been awfully quiet lately and I’d like to be able to tell you there’s a good reason for the silence. I almost dropped the cliché “life got in the way” nonsense, but really it’s been a result of me changing up the editorial stance here. (not so fast, buster. there’s only one editor here. -ed That’s not what I meant.) When you find out that the boss is reading, one might think it’s time to tone it down a bit. I’ll leave it to you to decide if I’ve actually toned down much of anything.

A brief, but very important note: My nephew just got his first car. It’s one of those Toyota Camry wagon things and he’s pretty excited about it. Despite its official name, it has little or nothing to do with Scotland, and nothing at all to do with this. Also it’s should be mentioned at this juncture that this development makes me feel very old.

If you look in the right middle 2/5ths of this shot, I’ve since cut a bunch of that down. You see, the Idyllwild Fire Protection District folks stopped by and observed that the weeds were too high and the branches were too low and all that had to go. I filled up four 5’x9′ trailer’s worth of leaves and pine needles and branches to haul to the dump. It took all weekend and I was left feeling like a human-sized cramp. Or a bruise. Or maybe an enormous scrape.

We headed to the desert a couple weeks ago for my uncle’s 80th birthday. If you had told me he would’ve hit his 70th, I would’ve been surprised. The party was fine, but everybody’s looking pretty frail nowadays.

More later, like trip planning, cheese graters, tiny cars, and maybe a little something about organ music!

Now how excited are you?

Very. Right?

Your pal,

– bob

May 7, 2019May 7, 2019

Filling In The Blanks – Signs Of Affection Edition

Friends,

It’s been a little over a year since I got married again. We survived the Wedding Industrial Complex which surprised me, and we came out the other side a happy couple, which surprised exactly no one.

We’re doing other things too, like writing wills and redoing life insurance riders and mingling finances. We’ve even revisited the year-old frozen cake topper with no ill effects. After half a century on this rock spinning around an enormous fireball, I guess it’s about damn time to grow up.

Your pal,

– bob

May 6, 2019May 6, 2019

What Are You Doing? Digging Through The Photos Edition

Friends,

One of the big reasons I’ve started taking a lot more photos is to be able to have something for every post here. Recently, it’s been the reverse. I find that I’m digging through albums to find something interesting to write about.

This is not one of those times. I just saw this glassware in a resale shop lit with a black light and snapped a quick shot.

Oh! This here Internet fever dream received a nice endorsement today from my boss…

“https://www.bobtherieau.com/ is good blog to go to if you want a fun read.”

Granted, it was mentioned to me in a private direct message and apropos of nothing, but I appreciate the sentiment. You know, you can actually like this thing too. Comments are open, or you can go old school and send links this way.

Keep doing that thing you’re doing. It’s really working for you.

Your pal,

– bob

April 30, 2019May 7, 2019

What Are You Doing? Calculator Edition (update)

Friends,

It’s been a little while since I wrote about the pretty dead and not alive Toshiba T1000. I think that there’s probably somebody who wants the bits that remain, like the display, case and floppy drive, so I was thinking about selling. There’s a lot of other stuff to sell as well, like clamshell iBook batteries, Powerbook G3 pieces, and other computer stuff.

What I’ve turned my attention to at the moment is completing the handheld calculator wing of Musée de l’Informatique Anciens. Sure, I’ve got Rockwell four-bangers, Casio melody calculators, and a model that didn’t feel the need to include a decimal point. They’ve got red LEDs, LCD displays, and the collection includes my very first calculator—a green LED Casio four-function. It’s my favorite, but the next one was a gem that was extremely popular…

The Texas Instruments TI-30 digital slide rule. Yeah, that’s right. They used that marketing to differentiate this student-focused model from the pro-level “scientific” models. Mine came in a package with a great book that I read over and over again, The Great International Math On Keys Book. I went from junior high pre-algebra failure to college math major by paying attention to the processes in this book (and a few others).

I still have the book, but I don’t know where the calculator went. Time to find a replacement, I think.

They made a bazillion of them, so it should be easy to find another one.

Your pal,

– bob

UPDATE: Replacement TI-30 has been ordered and is on its way! Very exciting.

April 9, 2019April 9, 2019

Old Friends: Bad News For The Toshiba

Friends,

It’s been real bad news for les ordinateurs anciens around here lately. For one, I purchased a replacement battery pack from a Florida Man and spliced it into the power system of one of the older machines here—a Toshiba T1000 laptop.

Why get this particular machine running again? The concept is brilliant: A PC-compatible laptop that boots almost instantly to MS-DOS 2.11 and runs for nearly six hours on a charge. The keyboard is a delight to type on, the non-backlit LCD screen crisp and reasonably responsive. It’s got a serial port, a parallel port, a 1.44 MB floppy drive and a 2400-baud modem. It’s still a great writing machine and deserves another shot.

After putting the machine back together, I left it on the charger and went to bed.

11:38 PM: “Honey, it smells like plastic burning in the kitchen.”

I shot up out of bed and padded into the kitchen to take in smells like blown 35-year old capacitors. After disconnecting the power adapter, but ever the optimist, I flicked the power switch to see if despite all of the smells, it would still turn on. No lights, no sounds, all the smells. Placing the machine on the granite countertop, I figure that at least I wouldn’t burn down the dining room table if it burst into flames.

1:35PM: Burning smell getting worse. Noticeable from the bedroom.

Laptop is still warm to the touch and rubber feet are stuck to the counter. Move the poor burnt laptop outside into the barbecue. If things go very badly, at least the flames will be contained. She asks me as I walk back in the kitchen, “Hi honey, what are you up to?” “Oh, nothing,” I lied.

I didn’t have time to take the thing apart this morning, so it had to wait until this afternoon. The damage was much worse than I imagined. Bad capacitors weren’t the problem. The real issue was a bad (or incorrectly wired) battery pack. I connected my red wires to the red wires in the battery pack, but the damage sure looks like a dead short that caused a little bit of fire inside the case…

So the motherboard is burnt. The add-on 2400-baud modem is burnt. The battery carrier and harness is burnt.

It’s beginning to look like the machine can’t be fixed!

Aw, c’mon. You know that’s not true.

Your pal,

– bob

March 22, 2019

Toddler Watch: The Mueller Report Has Been Filed

Friends,

Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who has been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, has submitted his report this evening. What’s in it? Only a few people know. Many more people are speculating about what might be in it. Many more still are filled with hope that its contents will lead to a septuagenarian carnival barker being hauled out of our White House in manacles.

Magical thinking on my part, certainly.

We should be patient and see what’s in it before rushing to judgement. That’s way easier to say than actually do.

Breathe…

Your pal,

– bob

March 18, 2019

I See You – Telescope Thing

Friends,

I saw this fun gizmo at B&H Photo a few weeks ago at a steep discount, so I grabbed one. It connects to an eyepiece on your telescope and lets you clamp your smartphone camera over the lens. I just started playing with it, but I can see the potential.

There might be a little editing involved, though.

Your pal,

– bob

March 12, 2019March 12, 2019

Filling In The Blanks: What Are You Doing For Fun?

Friends,

I’ve been having a good time taking a lot of pictures to fill out this hot mess of a blog, but lately I’ve been taking it a little more seriously. By serious, I mean that it is my intention to figure out what all of the Fs are stopping and the ISOs are in search of. I’m also very keen to get out to take trips specifically to take photos. The new DSLR (Dark Salad Lettuce, Romaine) camera is complicated but fun to use. Expect a lot more of shots once I get a little more comfortable with the thing.

This shot, however, is of a new Hot Wheels Jeepster that was taken with a macro lens clipped onto my phone. Also fun.

Your pal,

– bob

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019

Filling In The Blanks: What Do You Do All Day?

Friends,

I used to dream about what I would do for a living. Long before viewers fell in love with the 60s misogyny and lung cancer glamorized by Mad Men, I wanted to be a copywriter. I wanted to sit in a bullpen with a group of writers to craft the perfect pitch and build marketing campaigns that resonate. My goal was to use language to convince people to reward my clients with their business. Pretty straightforward.

When I first cultivated this dream, I was monkeying around with 8-bit computers, but I really thought my future looked like a family in New Rochelle, New York.

Some of that happened. Most of it didn’t.

I married the sweet girl. That part worked great. What didn’t was the professional writer part. During my hiatus from this bloggy trash fire, I worked for a global publisher, a county, and a medical device manufacturer. And imagine how surprised I was to find myself eventually working at a university. But not writing. I’ve been spending my time trying to convince users—mostly callers—that they’re not dumb. That the computer problems they’re facing aren’t their fault.

In some of these places, I’ve spent enough time to make friends. Some of these places have only served as waypoints on the way to the next thing. Some didn’t know what the job should be. And some of these places made the job as ridiculous as possible. Couldn’t get hired for the job I dreamt about though, so I’m just going to keep doing this.

Right?

Your pal,

– bob

February 26, 2019

Filling In The Blanks: Castle Edition

Friends,

When you say to your fiancé that you’re not so much interested in making the event into a spectacle as much as something grand, the obvious reaction is, “Yeah? Like what?” Better have something in your pocket ready to go.

“How about a big outdoor wedding? Something big, like a castle,” I think I said. Then it was time to find a castle.

Scotland? Ireland? A destination wedding was voted down. I tried to stick with something grand somewhere close, but local wineries and other venues in the Wedding Industrial Complex just weren’t doing it for me. Then I found this place—a real castle! Who knew?

The upside is that the company that manages the venue also provides catering and other services. The downside is that they’re very firm about who else can provide services on your wedding day. This meant that my dear friend and talented photographer had to jump through hoops. That meant no ponies, pets, or piglets. This also meant that we had to use the approved disc jockey. An affable fellow with an unfortunate middle-aged dude ponytail afforded us the opportunity to create our own playlists. We used a food-themed jazz playlist for dinner, then one filled with dance tunes for the reception.

We chose a cake and flowers and dresses and suits and colors and entrees and liquor and quotes and vows and got married on a beautiful spring day. How about that?

As the one year anniversary approaches, it’s hard to believe it didn’t happen last week.

A lot happened between then and now. It should keep us both busy for a while.

See you tomorrow.

Your pal,

– bob

February 25, 2019February 26, 2019

So, Where Was I?

Dear friends,

It’s been a little while since I added something to this mess. How long? To me, it seems like I last wrote a lifetime ago. You’ll have to bear with me here, since I haven’t written anything longer than a Twitter post or a cover letter for a resume for ages.

A resume, you ask? You sound surprised, but I’ll explain.

You may recall that I was working for McGraw-Hill answering phone calls from their salespeople to fix computer problems, reset a password, connect to the Internet, and hook up a printer. Sometimes this was a tough job when the caller was crying or when the systems causing the problems should have been out of my reach. Luckily, people don’t change their router passwords like they should, and sometimes they try to connect to hotel WiFi networks that are actually well documented. Given a bit of time, it’s easy to look stuff up and appear to be a genius. This wasn’t rocket surgery, as the kids say.

As jobs go, it wasn’t all that difficult. Sure, it meant not living full time in the mountains, mostly abandoning my piney paradise, but my colleagues were great and it represented a steady paycheck. It meant that I could finally dig out of the financial hole I’d wallowed in since leaving the Festival of Dirt<™> during my largely unsuccessful attempt to build a private computer repair practice. With the very notable exception of developing great friendships, starting an independent business in a small mountain resort town seems doomed to failure.

The downside of working for a book publisher in 2018 and an academic publisher in the age of Republican ascendancy, is that these fortunes are tenuous and education of the populace is not as cherished. That’s probably why they closed our office in California and off-shored our work to a ~~third-world country~~ right to work state that pays minimum wage for the same work—Ohio.

The upside of working in Northern San Diego County is moving in with my lovely sweetheart. We’ve been dating for over a decade and she’s been waiting and waiting and waiting for me to settle down and take a moment to think about what’s really important—sitting in a cold cabin, broke and sulking, or spending sunny days with a sweet girl. That’s when I called up the courage to propose marriage.

And that’s exactly what we did.

We got married at a real, bona fide castle and made up our minds to live happily ever after. Being as non-committal as ever, I made clear my intention to review this whole marriage thing on our 50th anniversary to see if things were working out as planned. This seems like a fair compromise and should serve to keep both of us on our very best behavior.

I subsequently got a new forever job working for a California state university. One of them. It’s up to you to guess which one.

There’s an awful lot of stuff in the middle of all of this that I’ll get to in a little while. What’s also coming is, essentially, me figuring out how to work a new camera. I hope it’ll be worth your time, but it’s pretty important to note that it may not be.

Let’s waste your precious time together, shall we?

Yes, lets.

Your pal,

– bob