Last year, I carved a pumpkin and put it out on our front doorstep with some others. They looked pretty good, if I do say so myself, and they lasted about a week and a half before the squirrels started munching on them. Fast forward eight months. One of them critters musta buried one of the seeds, because Jen pointed out a strange vine growing from beneath the cedar tree in the side yard. We couldn’t identify it, so we left it to see what would happen. Imagine our surprise when it continued to grow exponentially and start to bloom! Todd identified it as a pumpkin, and that’s what we’re going with unless it starts sprouting rutebegas or something. Two weeks ago, it had grown around the side of the house and out onto the front lawn—we had to wind it back on itself so I could mow—and I’d guess it’s probably about twenty feet long when stretched out. I hope it begins producing soon…
Meanwhile, I got another coat of paint on the front and east side of the house (the sides that got rolled, not sprayed) which means that next weekend I should be able to start on the windows. We, for better or for worse, have the original wooden double-hung sashes, and they are all showing wear from several years of neglect. Hopefully with new glazing, caulking and a coat of paint, they’ll last us another twenty years.
It’s Your Shift. Saturday evening I drove down to Georgetown to take an overnight shift with Jen’s Mom, who has been making slow, steady progress since her unscheduled helicopter delivery two weeks ago. Besides looking better, Mrs. Lockard is coherent, able to respond to questions, and her memory is improving. She’s still battling the aftereffects of the chemotherapy, but the difference in her condition since last weekend is remarkable.
The accomodations for visitors are pretty decent on the bone cancer ward. They have provided a lopsided, squeaky pull-out bed for the family which guarantees the need for a chiropractor. The coffee from the vending machine in the basement seems to be brewed from pure cane sugar (but man, that’ll wake your ass up for the drive home) and the selection of sugary treats is a welcome relief after the circuitous route through the hospital from the single unlocked entrance door to the ward.
However, I have to put all these minor complaints aside and give thanks to the hospital for letting the family stay with her at all. I think having company in that lonely place has brightened (and probably shortened) the recovery period for Mrs. Lockard, and that’s a small price to pay.
I took Jen out to dinner on Wednesday not only because we had nothing to eat in the house, but because we needed to debrief over alcoholic beverages after a week of absurdity featuring various family members. Last night the hilarity continued, to the point where my blood pressure rose above stroke level. Suffice it to say that some people need to work on their own responsibility, accountability, and consistency issues before they start lecturing other people. Got that, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman?
Airport Update. Because I like to tinker with stuff and take it apart, I cracked the case on my Base Station this morning to troubleshoot the problem. Apparently there are three main causes for failure: blown capacitors in the power supply (by most accounts the most prevalent), corrupted firmware, or a bad WaveLan Card. (Essentially the Base Station is a tiny computer motherboard with a PCMCIA wireless card soldered on.) From what the troubleshooting information says, I don’t have blown capacitors, and the reset should have taken care of bad firmware, so my thinking is that it’s the card. I’m going to ask a coworker with a laptop to help me run a diagnostic on the card (Lucent never made a diagnostic for OSX and their support is spotty) this afternoon, and we’ll see if we can figure out what the story is.
The iTunes problem I talked about yesterday, which has been giving me fits, is still a problem. The script I ran to fix the problem only works on about 30% of the missing tracks, so it’s back to manually updating each file, which is a load of fun.
Song Of The Day: Manic Depression, Stevie Ray Vaughn. A fellow coworker hooked me up with a pile of good live SRV, which is sort of like trying a little crystal meth: you’re immediately hooked. Absolutely good stuff.
Last night Jen and I walked down the street to Matthew’s 1600, the recently refurbished restaurant within spitting distance from the house, for a drink and some dinner. While the work they did on the place is high-quality, the atmosphere is distinctly Airport Hotel. There’s a lack of any sort of personality to the place, and the way the layout of the bar side is arranged, it’s too wide-open for any kind of cozy gathering. We had a drink at the bar (Bass on tap, thank God) and then settled into a booth for some dinner. The menu is pretty uninspired, and while I was in the mood for comfort food, I’d expect a plate of meatloaf to have some more spice to it, or at least some kind of zing in the mashed potatoes. Jen’s steak and crabcake was much better—the beef was tender and flavorful, and the crab was real. Overall it wasn’t too bad- the service was first-class and very attentive, but the food needs more help. (The proximity of the bar to our front door is going to be very dangerous, however.)
It’s Worse Than That. He’s Dead, Jim.I brought our Airport Base Station in to work this morning to test it out in a different environment. Yesterday it began to drop out on us, and this morning it was giving us intermittent connectivity. Hopefully I won’t have to replace it, but I’m not confident that it can be revived. (Sound of more money flying out the window) Helpful links: Reset a Graphite Base Station | Graphite LED Behavior | General troubleshooting. (Update: Looks like it’s D.O.A. I reset the Base Station, uploaded the new software, and restarted it. It lights, but it doesn’t send any signal. *sigh*)
Suddenly, one day a few months ago, about 10% of the tracks in my iTunes library suddenly went missing (The little “!” circle showed up in the left column.) I opened up one of the missing tracks, iTunes asked me if I wanted to find it, and I opened the folder to find the track right where it was supposed to be—iTunes had simply “forgotten” it. I searched for a month for a fix for this problem, until I found the solution on an iTunes scripting site: Run Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Repair and choose Repair Permissions. (Close iTunes first.) Problem solved. Not solved. I had to run a script called iTunes Track CPR to fix a lot of the busted track info. I’ll update you more as I clean up the directory.
Today is Jen’s birthday. She spent the night at the hospital with her mother, who is still doing poorly, and is heading home today for a much-needed break. Throw her some love today—she could use it.
Song Of The Day: Shake Your Blood, Probot & Lemmy Kilmeister. This song makes me want to go out and drive fast all over somebody else’s lawn.
That Big Bag Of Money. Because I live to torture myself, I went looking online for Scout parts today. The expensive list goes something like this:
| Body Tub – fiberglas | $3,100 |
| Front fenders (outer) fiberglas | $560 |
| Front fenders (inner) fiberglas | $580 |
| Hood – fiberglas | $410 |
| Doors – Fiberglas | $1,700 |
| Tailgate – Fiberglas | $410 |
| Windshield – Fiberglas | $460 |
| TOTAL (gulp) | $7220 |
I’d like to buy fiberglas because it’s going to last much longer than steel ever would, and repairs would be easy as well. There is a chance I could salvage and repair my doors, hood, and the spare windshield sitting in my garage, but all that work is out of the question until I can repair/replace the garage and start fresh again. I’m also increasingly afraid that I’m not going to be able to get a new Scout tub much longer, given their relative scarcity. In the meantime, I need to find a dry place to store Chewbacca out of the elements while I gather the parts. So the main job will be to save up for the tub and have it delivered. Then, if the rebuilding program is still in effect, I’ll send out the 304 for an overhaul.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Jen got back from the hospital late last night, after spending most of the day with her mother. Mrs. Lockard is in a holding pattern right now, alternately being fed intravenously and pumped full of antibiotics to stave off the infection in her intestines. She’s horribly photosensitive right now, which means all the lights in her room are off and visitors sit in the dark, and she’s in and out of lucidity from the pain medication—which means she’s often hallucinating or talking nonsense. I fixed my wife a big tall drink and she decompressed over a bowl of fresh guacamole, which seemed to make her belly happy and put her mind at ease. We both hit the rack at midnight and slept through the first two hours of the alarm clock this morning.
Review, Part Deux. I’m into chapter two of the CSS book, and I’m finding it slower going. My previous comment on having a strong CSS background holds twice as firm now—there’s a lot of good information here, but you’d better know your stuff before you sit down. There’s a lot of stuff I was aware of but had not used yet, such as descendant selectors, which is going to take time to learn. I’m thinking that a companion book is in order for more of the basic-level stuff.
Yesterday Jen and I traveled to Georgetown Hospital to see her mother, who has been moved to the bone marrow ward (although she has no bone marrow of her own, nor white blood cells, this is the best place for her to be right now) and is still touch-and-go. She looks small, and pale, and very tired, but still has a funny sense of humor about a very bleak situation.
before/after, catonsville, 8.8.04
Today I stuck around the house to catch up on yardwork; the place had a run-down air to it after two weeks of neglected mowing. I tried out our $5 weed whacker and my $.25 clippers, taking all the trees in my reach to task. One massive pile of brush later, the yard looks much better. I also got the fourth side of the house painted, which makes the place look complete.
Jen drove to the LP City last night after work to see her Mom, and got about ten minutes in with her before they threw her on a medevac chopper to Georgetown University Hospital. Mrs. Lockard is resting now, but things continue to seesaw between Bad and Nearly As Bad.
I bought the Eric Meyer book at Border’s this morning, paying the extra $15 just to have it now (quite a penalty, when Amazon is throwing in free shipping), but so far it’s pretty decent. I’d recommend having a good grasp of CSS before you start, as there’s stuff in the first chapter he’s hitting you with that you may or may not be familiar with. (The book assumes you have a working grasp of CSS and its properties, but haven’t really made the leap to CSS layout.) I’m halfway through the first chapter, and it’s a good study so far.
Unable to join Jen for what was planned as an overnight stay, I accepted the invitation of a couple guys at work to mountain bike last night, which meant I had to dust off Andre The Giant and try to locate all of my biking gear. We rode a reasonably easy trail up at Loch Raven, which predictably kicked my out-of-shape butt three ways to Sunday. (not to mention it feels like I’ve been kicked by a horse back there.) But it did feel good to get outside and ride again.
In preparation for a CSS overhaul of this humble site, I waded through the HTML code and removed about 5kb of gunk from the style sheets, script includes, and other areas. Consolidating the style sheets has changed around the look a little bit, but overall it’s not much different. I’m heading to the B&N tonight to peek at a couple of books before I buy anything. I also updated the music links on the right with some new tasty stuff. I’ve been playing two tracks over and over: Xtal, by Aphex Twin, and Man Research by Spacemonkeyz vs. Gorillaz.
Baby News. Nate and Kristen had a 6 lb. 4oz. baby boy (name yet to be determined) yesterday at 2:45pm. Mother, baby, and stressed dad are doing well, from what we hear.
Thursday Fun Links. Fish! | Origins of the IMDB. Disclosure: I spend at least 5 minutes each day on that site. Genius! (via metafilter)
dry cleaners, catonsville, 7.28.04 (soon to be demolished)
Things with Jen’s Mom don’t look good. Given that she’s battled back against cancer for 10 years, we’ll wait to see what actually happens, but I’ve been told by all parties this is the worst it’s ever been. Then again, getting a straight answer out of any Lockard besides the one I married is sort of like trying to find water in the desert, so who knows what’s happening.
The List. (The wednesday edition.)
- A New Mattress. (Our current big-people mattress ties Jen’s back into knots. Somewhere around a grand, most likely.)
- A dishwasher. (Because it’s 2004, and contemplating a lifetime of dirty dishes requires gallons of vodka. $300, plus kitchen-wrangling)
- A dehumidifier. (Our basement is possibly the second largest swamp on the east coast besides Florida. $130, give or take.)
- Air Conditioning. (Summer in Maryland is ok. Until August, when it becomes the Ninth Circle Of Hell. $3,000+, depending on the size of the unit.)
- Floor refinishing in the living room. (It would be great to have this done before next summer.)
- Fixing Jen’s iPod. (Somewhere around $70, I think.)
As with everything else, this list is in a state of constant flux. I’ll just keep adding to and amending it as life keeps throwing curveballs at us.
No word on Jen’s Mom yet, but our friends Nate and Kristen are at the hospital right now, hopefully having success with the birth of their first child. So send some love out their way as well.