Home office day

Today for the first time in a few weeks I am working in the Indiana Home Office.  It feels good and relaxing to do this.  From the previous blogs you know I have been on the road all over Indiana doing site surveys.  This week was spent compiling data and making data tables and constructing a executive summary for the client.  Thursday I presented my data to the client, et. al.  I was sleepy driving the I-80/90  from one side of the state to the other.  Below is a picture from the bucket truck 40′ above the ground.

When I arrived at home my eBay cellular phone purchase was there so I charged the battery and downloaded the 2 year old contact list.  Today I imported portions of my Outlook Contact information.  Now I am back in business with the 668-6657 number.

Also awaiting my attention was the new fan for the Dell 2400 so I installed that and now it is quiet again.  The Sony DVD HDMI player arrived with the component video cable and I installed that on the 1080i TV.  Naturally, I wanted to see what the video looked like so I rented a cheap video that did not demonstrate anythig but the 480p function.  Also, for some reason the audio is not going through the stereo amp.  The cable audio does but the dvd audio does not.  Why?  By the end of the evening I had all the chores done but went to bed at 2300 hrs  (which is late for me).

Rainy Veterans Day Sunday

The beautiful fall weather has turned into the more normal overcast, grey rainy days and today is not exception.  Yesterday was the same but the rain held off.  We have mulched and disposed of about 10-12 loads of leaves so it appears we are half way through the annual ordeal.

I met up with Bill M and Jerry M to look at Jerry’s new twin engine boat.  It is a trailerable 32′ with a 11+ ft beam and came with the tri-axle trailer.  It is a very nice boat but I liked his trawler better.  This one is a planing hull that goes a lot faster.  I guess his last trip down the Great Circle route was too slow.

I met up with Tommy who used to go flying with Dwight and myself.  He is out of university now and working for GE.  We had a good lunch and I gave him Dwight and my Jepp binders.  With everything going electronic I suppose these old paper Jepp sets have no value but he seemed to appreciate the thought.

Cellular Phones

I think I reported that I lost my personal cellular phone Wednesday while climbing into and out of the bucket truck – at least that is my best guess.  In any case they suspended the phone but I just called back and had they forward calls to my business cell phone.  It will be transparent to the caller now so that should suffice until my phone arrives next week from an ebay seller.

I only use basic features anyway as SMS is good enough for me for any text that may come my way.  I would use the advanced features if the cost was the same but the way Verizon charges the bill would be significantly higher.  What I cannot really figure out is that they give unlimited voice calls but for text and internet they charge higher prices even though the amount of time a given repeater has to be on line is less. 

Pleasant Lake – Home again

I arrived in P.L. around noon and had to re-arrange my schedule some what because we finished a little bit early.  After writing this episode of my life, I will enter some of the data collected this week.  The Country Inns & Suites HSI is anything but that.  They must be on the very far end of a DSL connection.  In any case it was not too easy to work from there.

We finished about 3:30 PM yesterday and I called Jess.  I gave the address and we met at the hotel to go out for dinner.  What a pleasure that was.  I received all the latest from how it was going at work to what furniture.  We are at a Lebanonese place known to Jess.  It was good.  All too soon it was over and we went to our seperate ways.

Traffic is very congested in the I-80/94 I-65 area due to construction.  There was a very long line to enter the I-80/94 EB interchange and it took over a half hour to go 1/4 mile.    came back on the toll road and they are doing a lot of construction projects at the entry/exit points.  I saw at least one speed trap but I go the speed limit plus 3 so I never worry too much if I am on cruise.  I got off at Howe and went through Howe on SR120 to Brighton and then through Mongo to see the colors.  It is shorter but a little slower.

I lost my cell phone somewhere on the 7th and so I went on eBay and bought another old antiquated Samsung SCH-A650 for $21.50 including shipping and insurance.  It says it will have a new battery and a home charger.  I would like to think that the battery is new and we will see how honest they are about that.

Late this afternoon I went to Dell ONline and bought a replacement fan for the CPU.  The original one is making that bad grinding sound.  The cost was $32.81 and the shipping is higher that the price of the fan, housing and tunneling plastic part.

After that was the meditation and a canned stew dinner.  SAM is working 2nd so I did dishes and clothes.  I guess I better get used to it and it is the future for a retired me.

Gary, IN

We finished Gary today with the help of Dimitry & Sam.  We had a pretty good flow going and finished the last 7 DMS.  I also lost my personal cell phone somewhere along the line so I had the number temporarly suspended.

 Jess & I went to a Middle Eastern resturant for dinner and it was pretty good & the price was more than OK.  I had stuffed grape leaves and Jess had Falfil (very good taste).  It was too late for me to travel after dark throught all the construction zones so I am staying the night in Merrillville and expect to leave early for Indiana.

I continue to work on the 4tokheim blog and expect to release it in a week or so and as soon as the Editor is comfortable with its capabilities.  These will be on more permanent servers and I can shutdown my Linux experiment.  I want to go to Ubantu and just run Samba and File Servers.

Amazing Grace – the words

This is my favorite song.  I cannot remember why it is but from a very young age I have always love it.  Maybe my Grandfather had sung it some time:  he had a very deep bass voice.  I wish I had a voice like that but unfortunately is is run of the mill and not on key.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me….
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

    T’was Grace that taught…
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear…
the hour I first believed.

    Through many dangers, toils and snares…
we have already come.
T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far…
and Grace will lead us home.

    The Lord has promised good to me…
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be…
as long as life endures.

    When we’ve been here ten thousand years…
bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise…
then when we’ve first begun.

    “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,   
That saved a wretch like me….
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

Another beautiful day

We started a little late this morning but made up for it by doing 8 sites.  Mind you all but two required BE positioning the bucket truck, taking a dozen or so ground pictures, my jumping in the bucket and elevating myself to the sign and doing the inspection plus taking a few more pictures and then lowering myself gracefully to the ground.  All this time TR is writing in all the data we find at the local site.  We even had time for a short lunch today – a first.

The weather all week is what someone from Indiana dreams of for perfect fall weather.  Clear skies, low 70’s and light winds.  I am staying in Indy tonight as we did not check out of the hotel and it was way past time to even think about drinving another 3 hours North.  Tonight I downloaded the new pictures and cut a CD just in case of something bad happening to the notebook.

After we got back to the hotel around 1800 hrs local I did my meditation for about 40 minutes and felt much refreshed and relaxed.  For the second time in two days I walked to Bob Evans next door for dinner.  I must say that I do not find much redeeming value in Bob Evans dinners.  I guess they are ok but I can get OK anywhaere for less.  For example, last night I ordered Pot Roast.  What came out? Dark gravy slathered over two pieces of hard bread that was covered with mashed potatos.   Now when I want Pot Roast it is minus the bread and mashed potatos but with lots of veggies, meat and a little gravy that has not been thickened very much.

I received this emails that deserves attention – It came fron a UTube film and it is a good one:

This film was made by a 15 year old girl.

Watch all of it…….and, pass it on!!

http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1