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24 Dec 08
This year we did Christmas on Christmas Eve again at the ranch. Nothing elaborate. Got a new(er) laptop for Mom as the one she’s been playing solitaire on has just about crumped. Got the desk PC sharing internet and connected to a new Cisco wireless router so we now have wi-fi at the ranch (albeit through dial up connection). This was to accommodate the internal wi-fi in the new laptop (as well as mine when I’m out here like right now). Wasn’t as much to set up as I was expecting. Now to see if Mom will attempt the internet, but she’s back on-line with solitaire. Kind of low key but a good Christmas. I guess in my last blog entry I posted around Thanksgiving I sort of failed to mention all of which I am thankful and grateful for. Let’s just say a bunch of things. So I offer all my wishes for peace in the world and a Merry Christmas at this point. Later.
23 Nov 07
Damn, not quite the 28th of this month yet, so this blog isn't quite monthly here. I guess somebody will get over it. Anyway, Thanksgiving went well. On Wednesday our office had its annual potluck Thanksgiving lunch. I contributed my usual mashed potatoes, which were about entirely consumed. No leftovers this time to make potato soup. Thanksgiving day was spent at Nancy's, helping with a meal for us, her parents and one Pakistani student whom Nancy had invited. We were expecting one other student who was a no-show. Turned out this person had to go to work. So much for keeping us in the loop. A great meal was had by all. Today I went down to Menard to check in on the parents and help with yesterday's leftovers from the ham they had. I guess that wouldn't work with the Pakistani student. My dad met our Pakistani student before and knocked the dust off some long unused Urdu. Anyway it was quite interesting hearing this guy's spin on the current situation with the president of Pakistan. One point he cites is the age of his country and where the United States was at a similar age. Anyway he seems to support the Pakistani president's actions, asking what else can the guy do. I hope he's right. Maybe it'll settle down for the winter like things do in Afghanistan. For some reason we're hearing news about things settling down in Iraq. I hope that's for real and not just the spin coming from shills with the administration. It would be good to see things quiesce for awhile regarding this year anyway. Personally it has been a bit rough as well. During trying times when I'm asked how things are going, my standard reply is "could be better, could be worse". It's all relative. Stay tuned.
28 Oct 07
These blogs are turning into a sort of monthly thing for me. Time to do something about the placeholder blog I stuck in here when I archived the previous quarter's blogs. So to catch things up in no certain order, here goes. I bid my co-worker a tearful farewell earlier this month as our company basically forced him to quit because of his medical condition. I considered resigning out of protest due to the way this was handled. But I'm still there so far and have a new person on board 20 years my junior, who is sharp and enthusiastic but lacking in the medical background. It shouldn't be too much getting him up to speed, at least on the basics. But it will take years to learn all the stuff. Our office held an 'appreciation luncheon' for my former co-worker, which went well. The biggest crowd response during the luncheon was when my former co-worker told the crowd that he wasn't ready to quit. Made for a lot of applause and a few tears. Now on to someone else who said he is not going to quit. Our Chief of Police and fearless band leader/drummer was no billed by a grand jury last week regarding the mostly BS politically motivated charges. It was good to have that out from underfoot. He says he has actually slept the last few nights. This almost restores the faith. Damned politics though. Speaking of other things getting better, my dad was in to see the doc last week and the doc says he can put full weight back on that leg now. The walker is now parked somewhere and he's getting around with a cane that he occasionally forgets to use. As for things that aren't getting well yet, the situation with loss of funding for United Campus Ministries at ASU is applicable. Nancy is probably without a job as of the end of the year. What a crock. That's both the worst of religion and politics there. An observation regarding politics I've made is that I think I've figured out how the right wing will win the battle over all us progressives. They will get us on a plethora of mailing lists (snail and E-mail) for leftist organizations. We will become so flooded with requests for donations (moveon.org is a particularly bad offender) that we really won't care about donating to anybody; thus taking us out of action. Next subject. While I was on break during gig last night, I ran into a former boss I worked for at Town & Country Food Stores corporate office many years ago. That's another story about my employ with him. Given the choice I'd never work for the guy again, but it was good to catch up on things. My pertinent question was a 'WTF' about the place being sold to some big convenience store chain out of Houston. That was a hell of a shock to me, but my former boss said that basically someone offered them enough money. Looks like the store reports and accounting system will be migrated to the new owner's system. From our conversation last night, it sounds like the current system is somewhat unchanged from my time there. It still resides on a Unix platform and is maintained in-house. That should make it an effort to get it migrated. I'll keep my present job, thank you. Now for the AISK very-mini reunion in Kabul. A whopping six people made it. I'm not sure if I should feel better or worse about not making it myself, but they had a great time and we all look forward to the pictures on the AISK website. It's been good to see what they've posted so far. More later.
3 Oct 07
This is a placeholder blog as I archive the previous quarter. Stay tuned Y hasta la taco.
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