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Thursday, August 24, 2006

 

Quiet preparation

I got a couple of belated birthday calls last night, from more of my brothers. Yesterday was more or less a quiet day; I got some groceries, worked on my knowledge base, and did some cleaning up of the living rooom and filing paperwork. I also spent a good part of the afternoon monitoring the process of checking the hard drive on my computer for errors: I wanted a thorough scan, since it's been two years since I did used it. No errors reported, so next I'm going to defragment the disk to see if I can improve its performance. There are still a few glitches in the system's operation, but fixing them is beyond my knowledge.

I went to the dentist this morning and had another tooth pulled, in preparation for a temporary partial upper plate that I'm going to have fitted next week.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

 

Still here

I got permission to continue using the borrowed monitor until I can get it replaced, which is a huge relief. I also, instead of canceling the DSL, signed up for an account that has a slower data transfer rate and a one year's contract, but costs half as much, which makes it a better fit for my budget.

Yesterday was my birthday, making me 4 dozen years old. I got calls from my mother & two brothers, ex-wife and oldest son, and the Significant Other, plus 3 e-cards. One of them was the funniest and liveliest birthday celebration I've had in years. I made myself a root beer float for dessert.

I've been pondering on the topic of words spoken in anger, and I'm thinking about drafting an article on the subject.

Monday, August 21, 2006

 

Offline again

I mentioned that I'd reached a rather serious financial pinch. In order to accomodate necessities, I'm having to cut expenses back. Back in May, I'd been lent a computer system which I was trying to get connected to the Internet. I signed up for DSL, and purchased an ethernet card which I was trying to install. It runs out that I needed a Windows 98 SE CD in order to install the card. Before I found one, I headed out to Arizona and was gone until the end of June. By that time, I had brought my old computer (still in working order), from Nebraska. I finally got a proper disk around the end of July, and instead of using the borrowed system, I took the ethernet card and installed it instead in my own, and finally got connected to the DSL service I had signed up for earlier. Then last week my old monitor died the death, so I began using the borrowed one.
However, tomorrow I have to return the borrowed system, so that means I will be without a monitor and the funds to replace it. That means that my DSL is useless to me. Given that the bill has been accumulating and is now more than I can really afford and other debts are pressing, it appears that I'll have to cancel it and go to dial-up, perhaps in a month or two. I might still be able to keep library access to the net, although I'm not certain of it.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

 

Balance

I've been fairly stressed and discouraged this week over overdue bills and other stuff. The travel I've done has wreaked havoc on my budget and payment schedule, and I'm having an awful time trying to keep to my basic daily routines, as well as taking care of necessary chores instead of procrastinating them. It's an old cycle...depression leading to poor performance, which leads to failure, which leads back to depression. I'm trying to break the cycle, but it's hard.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

 

Me oh my

Has it really been almost a week since I updated? I didn't mention, in my account of the summer, that I took a couple of trips to Washington, DC; saw the White House and took a couple of trips up and down the National Mall, from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, back up to the Capitol, and back to the Washington Monument again. We saw the National Archives, and Air and Space Museum, and a few other sites. The second trip was a bit shorter, we rode the Metro from Pentagon City into the downtown area and back, and spent most of the day in the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum.

on Monday, we drove into the Baltimore-Washington Airport, and put my son back on the plane to Utah, where he will be going to school starting next week. I've been working on developing my web site, and resuming other activities such as getting glasses and dental work done. I'm just making forward progress, a little at a time.

Friday, August 11, 2006

 

Summer break

As one of my readers pointed out to me, it's been another long while since I wrote here. I've been occupied with two trips to Virgina, largely to see the Significant Other. I took the opportunity to show my son who has been with me a number of things, such as some Civil War sites, a reenactment of the 1775 Virginia Convention where Patrick Henry gave his "Give me Liberty or give me death" speech, a day at the Atlantic Ocean (Virginia Beach), and a trip to Jamestown on the one trip.

The second trip involved a couple of days at the Great Wolf Lodge, which is a resort hotel with a large water part, a trip to the Virginia Historical Society Museum and a Richmond or Virginia Science Museum, where we saw Superman Returns at the IMAX Theater.

We've also taken advantage of the local library to do some reading, and I FINALLY at long last have an internet connection at home. It's been a busy summer.

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