Blog Number 274

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well another year has snuck by me and this Saturday is the 11th anniversary of my wedding day.  My anniversary is kind of easy to remember since it is on my brother's birthday.  I usually call him and wish him a Happy Birthday to which he replies with wishing me a Happy Anniversary.  That is pretty much the entire conversation as we do not have a lot in common (other than blood and our last name).  Either way, it is easy to remember.  We originally planned to be wed a week later but the pastor suggested we move it forward or backward one week since Easter Sunday was the same weekend.  We opted for moving it forward since we were eager to be married.

The traditional 11th wedding anniversary gift is steel.  I do not know what I am supposed to buy that is romantic and steel at the same time.  I think I will opt for dinner and a movie.  My mother is in town this week so we don't have to put out the extra dough for a babysitter.  Since she is leaving on the day of our anniversary we will likely go out tomorrow night which is fine by me as I do not like to eat out on the weekends due to the crowds.

This morning the wife and I were sitting on one of our chairs together.  She looked into my eyes and said something like, "You know, I can't think of anything else that I have liked for 7 years."  There was then an awkward silence until she realized her mistake and she quickly added, "Eleven, I meant eleven years!"  I am hoping this is not a Freudian slip.  We had a good laugh over it but I have reminded here several times of her mistake during the rest of the day and probably will each anniversary from now on (as is my custom when someone makes a mistake).

Well it is about the kid's bedtime so I better go spend some more time with them while I have the chance.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 273

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I just finished reading "Cell" by Stephen King.  What a great story.  King has this knack of writing horror stories that keep you thinking, "Man, this could actually happen!"  I had started reading this book about 6 months ago but did not get much past page 100 before it was due back at the library.  I contemplated buying a copy of it so I could read it at my normal slow pace (a few pages a day) but gave up on the idea.  With the wife being sick all last week, I had plenty of time to myself each evening as she slept and I got through the entire book in about 8 days.

Along with that book, I had also started on a non fiction book called "Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps" by Peter Galison.  I was reading about the whole Daylight Saving Time thing the other day and found a list of books about the subjects of time and the calendar and was really looking for something like that (in the 520 range of the Dewey Decimal System) but instead came upon this book.  I think I half wanted to read it and half wanted someone to see me reading it and be impressed.  Either way, I am only about 60 pages into it.  It is not exactly a page turner but early on in the book Galison describes something that troubled Einstein early in his career.  He was very concerned with synchrony.

You see, he wanted to know what it really meant for 2 things to happen at the exact same time.  He was trying to account for the difference between time and how we perceived events happening.  An example was this.  Suppose that there are 2 people with high powered flashlights that are positioned away from each other exactly the distance it takes light to travel in one second.  Suppose then also that you are 1/4th of the way between them.  This would mean that you are 3 times as far away from one person as the other.  Now, if both persons turned on their flashlights and you saw both lights (assuming you could look in both directions at once) and it if appears to you that they turned them on at the exact same time then you would say with some certainty that the lights were turned on at the same time.  You would be wrong since it took 1/4 second for the person's closest to you light to reach you and 3/4 second for the second person's light to reach you.  In reality, they did not happen at the same time, they just appeared to happen at the same time.  This is exaggerated to prove a point since in order to have things set up this way, the 2 people with lights would need to be 300,000 km apart and you would need to be able to see light that far away as well.  But this illustrates the point.

A friend of mine works for Cerulean (makers of Trillian).  As such he was able to let me test the newest version of their instant messaging software.  Not much works at the time other than basic chat and a few other things but we were able to test the ability to use your microphone and speakers to talk to each other.  Since this was an early version of the software, it did not work perfectly.  In fact, the longer we spoke, the greater the delay of our conversation.  We wondered how much of a delay there was so we decided that if one of us started saying, "one, two, three" and the other would chime in on the "three" then we could tell how much of a delay there was.  After the test we concluded that there was a 2 second delay.  After thinking for a moment I deduced that there was only a one second delay actually.  You see it took one second for me to hear the word "three" and one second for my "three" to reach his ears.  This is about the same kind of thinking Einstein used for his sync issues.  In an small way, my thinking is like Einstein (an extremely small way).  It makes me feel better anyway and helps me to press on in the book (secretly hoping that I think like the other genius Poincaré).  I will have to let you know.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 272

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Dearest Wife,

     I am glad that you are feeling better from the flu bug that has made you sick these past 7 days.  I wanted you to know that I did not mind doing the extra work while you rested.  I also wanted to thank you for all the helpful hints and suggestions on improvements on my cleaning methods, cooking techniques, dog training approach, my time management skills, and my child rearing habits.  Your advice is well received and I tried to put it to good use.  Today though you are feeling better and are eager to take your responsibilities back over again but rest assured that those precious nuggets of wisdom will not be forgotten.  I love you.

Jon

Dear Faithful Blog Reader,

    Sorry for the week long hiatus from blogging.  I was very busy.  Let me tell you about my week.  The wife decided it was a good time to ruin her 4+ year run of not being sick.  And ruin it she did, with vigor!  The flu bug hit her hard and she spent most of the last 7 days in bed or on the couch.  She was like a slow moving migratory animal that moved twice a day.  I could follow her tracks from the bed to the couch (in the morning) and from the couch to the bed (at night).  While she was on the couch, she would bellow out commands like a field general managing her subordinate troops into the battle of life.  So for the last 7 days I have pretty much cooked every meal, bathed the daughter every night, done laundry, made beds, ran the son to and from school, kept the daughter entertained and during all this have tried to do my normal job by working from home.  Speaking of work, this week (for the first time ever) it was Global Casual Work Week.  Whenever our company signs a large contract, they usually celebrate by letting all the workers worldwide wear jeans on Friday.  Well we signed a huge contract recently and they celebrated by making the whole work week casual.  Me though, well I worked from home (though I did dress casually each day).  Also, my group at work had a quarterly meeting where all the various managers get up and discuss the previous results and put forth new goals.  During this meeting, not only was the application that I manage mentioned by name, but so was I, by not one but two managers.  I have worked on this application for 7 years, 2 months and 3 weeks and have never received any formal mention for it, ever.  But this week I was, and I missed it since I was at home taking care of General "Hey You're Doing That Wrong".

     And then there is the whining.  Man!  Worse than hearing the constant, rasping cough that about drove me crazy around day 4, there is the talking about how tired and bad she felt.  I get it, OK?  You feel bad.  I would point this out very often, "Hey honey, you know what really helps you to feel better?  Talking about how bad you feel.  Yes, if you talk about it every 45 minutes or so, every day, for a week, then yes, you will feel better."  Man!

    And then there's the dog.  Now for whatever reason, the dog can't get enough of me.  Even before this last week.  I try to avoid the dog but that does not work.  When I was trying to get some work done this week on the computer, she would invariably be in my computer room bugging me with the rope bone in her mouth and that "Wanna Play?" look in her eyes.  Either that or she was scratching at the back door.  I would estimate that she goes in and out that back door 20 times a day.  She just gets bored and wants to run around and I can't blame her for that but man that is a lot of heat escaping every time that door is opened and closed.  I don't have the numbers in front of me but I bet my heating bill is up a noticeable percentage since we got Gabbi 5 months ago.

    The kids did great as expected since it was like a vacation for them to have daddy (the entertainer) home all week.  The daughter really enjoyed it.  Since I have a video camera hooked up to my company laptop, I would hook up a video conference (mostly one way since not many people have web cams) and she would wave and say hi to my coworkers.  She greeted people in Argentina, Egypt, Hungary, England, Australia and New Zealand and had a blast doing so.  I would always tell her the first name of the person she was waving too and she would look at me in disbelief since she had never heard of some of the very foreign first names.

     The cat was really screwed up over all this.  Typically I arrive home from work around 5:30 and he knows that it is time for his dinner when I come home.  Well this week I would arrive home at about 3:20 from picking the son up from school.  So he could not figure out why I would ignore his hungry meows for 2 hours every day.  He almost looked hurt or offended that I would neglect him in this way.  I also think he is still messed up from Daylight Saving Time.  Poor cat indeed.

    Anyway, thanks to all my coworkers for understating why I was slow in responding to their needs.  Thanks to my daughter for being a good nurse to her mother during this time.  Thanks to my dog for reinforcing the fact that I do not like dogs and thanks to you faithful reader for understanding the lack of blogs.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 271

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well we are almost through Season 2 of Little House On The Prairie and the whole family is still excited whenever we sit down of an evening and watch and episode together.  We already have the Season 3 DVD set ready and waiting.  It was a Christmas gift this past year.  As the wife and I watch these with our children, we remember almost every episode.  In fact, I have only seen one or two that I cannot remember.  I hope to get Seasons 4 through 9 eventually before they sell out (assuming the kids don't grow too old and stop enjoying them).

I have abandoned my quest to finish the Mission Earth Dekalogy.  Specifically I stopped on page 218 of the 3rd novel (The Enemy Within).  I tried, I really did, to continue on but man this book is boring and Hubbard appears to invent plot twists that have nothing to do with the story.  I am mildly surprised at the amount of sex and violence used (the main alien character is living at a warehouse and has tied into the mob).  Since Hubbard created Scientology and since Scientology is a religion, I had thought that it would remain on the moral high ground.  I am not sure why I was thinking this given that Scientology is not your run of the mill religion but at any rate, I have given up on finishing the series.  The library has sent me auto phone call messages a few times now on this 3rd book since I have had it checked out for over a month now.

Out house was supposed to host a ladies brunch today but the wife went to bed and woke up sick this morning so it is postponed.  To me it means that I do not have to vacate the house (with children in tow) for a few hours.  For the daughter, it means she can eat all those scrumptious strawberries that she had been eyeing in the fridge.  It is the first time in about 4 years that the wife has been ill so she had a good run.  I have turned on the gas fireplace for her and in general been her beck and call boy whenever she has wanted anything.

We did find out that the minivan has $2,300 worth of damage from the hail.  Subtracting the $500 deductible and adding in the $3,100 we are getting from the Buick damage, we are almost clearing $5,000 in checks for the hail.  As I told my wife, we are now about a 1/3 of the way to that Mini Cooper that we have wanted.

Well the kids are watching a Season 1 episode of Little House so I think I will grab some of those biscotti that were supposed to be for the brunch and go enjoy the fire with my wife.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 270

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

My wife and I both had the same dream last night.  Actually, we both had the same nightmare.  We dreamt that we woke up and we were in Indiana...

 

We woke up to about 3 inches of snow.  This is nothing for us former Hoosiers but based on my drive to work I am thinking that most Texans do not know how to drive on snow and ice.  It was not that bad actually and only took me an extra 10 minutes to get to work.  The men's Bible study at church this morning was a little sparse as well and we actually spent the first 15 minutes or so drinking coffee and trading snowbound stories.  I listened and then chimed in with the time about 15 years ago when we lost electricity for 10 days.  There was a really bad ice storm and the 5 story tall power lines that ran in the field behind our house were crushed under the weight of the ice.  I mean it looked like Godzilla had come and stepped on them.  I have never seen metal that thick twisted that bad.  Ironically, we were only 2 1/2 miles from the main power station that served most of our half of our county.  But for whatever reason, our road was serviced last and for 10 days we heated our house with our wood burning stove (this was not a change as it was the sole source of heat before the power went out).  I still drove to work each day, I just headed in a little early and stopped in at my grandmother's house to shower as she was lucky enough to get power back quickly.  When I came home late at night (I worked afternoons at the bowling alley) and my mom left a candle lit for me so I could see around the house when I came home.  We baked some cookie dough that was left in the fridge on the stove and melted snow for water to flush the toilet.  I really cannot think of any bad memories from those 10 days.  I even remember that the pastor had comically divided the left and right pews at church on Sunday and marked them as "clean" and "unclean".

Anyway, by the time I drove home today all the snow was gone and it was in the 50's and tomorrow it will be in the 60's so maybe winter is over.  From the hail storm 2 weeks ago and the snow last night our family is ready for the promised mild Texas winter to be over.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 269

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well the video never materialized yesterday but I have a few things to tell you about nonetheless.  For starters, I just got back from getting a much needed hair cut.  I always go way too long between haircuts.  The computer at Great Clips keeps track of my haircut history and the looks on the faces of the stylist are kind of funny when the look at the "last cut" date and then at my hair.  Then they seem somewhat relieved in that I am still faithful to them for my hair cutting needs.  Like I was sneaking around behind their back and getting trims from other discount hair cut places.  Typically the lady will talk to me during my cut and tell me that I should come back more often than every 4 months or so.  I lie and promise that I will and they lie and say that they believe me (after all, the computer tells them I am a 2-3 hair cut / year dude).  Anyway $16 (with tip) later and I can see my forehead again.  We will see if anyone notices at work tomorrow.

2 weeks ago yesterday, we were hit with a bad hail storm (as opposed to a good hail storm).  The hail was literally golf ball sized...

It all happened around 6 in the morning and while the wife was trying to get the kids up and into the bathroom located in the center of our house, I was trying to drag the son out to the back porch to see the show.  I mean, how many times do you get to watch hail this size coming down?  Anyway, the kids were freaking out something fierce but once I got them calmed down and focusing on the awesome display in the yard they thought it was pretty cool.  The above picture is the son's hand (he is 9).  Once it was over, the daughter put on her shoes and got a bowl from the kitchen and filled it up with hail pieces.  2 weeks later and that bowl is still in the freezer as she will not let us throw it away for some reason.

One thing that was not safe inside the house was the car and the van.  I inspected them and there were plenty (about 50 or so) small dents all over both vehicles.  I didn't think anything about it and was not even going to turn the damage into my insurance as I really do not mind driving a multi-dented car around.  But last weekend the wife pointed out that the windshield was cracked in the Buick on the passenger side so I filed a claim (online, gotta love GEICO).  The insurance folks were all real nice and set us up with an appointment at a GEICO approved repair shop.  This past Friday was the appointment and the wife called me after the appointment to tell me that the damage totaled more than $3,600.00!  We have a $500 deductible so this means that GEICO is cutting me a check for $3100.  I figure in $200 max to fix the windshield and that leaves me with a net profit of $2,900.00.  Not bad for doing nothing and since the car only blue books at $5,500.00 there is no way I am spending more than 1/2 the worth of the car to fix dents.  Nothing is wrong with the paint so we are going to drive it as is.  Also, I figure that since golf balls travel farther with little dimples in them, maybe the dents will increase my gas mileage.

Tomorrow morning we have an appointment to get an estimate on the van, wish us luck!

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 268

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well today was a day I was dreading a little.  The wife and I were going to go over the budget and make some changes.  Not making changes was an option however the consequence would be eventual bankruptcy.  Having that in mind we put our heads together.  I am a number cruncher.  At work I look at statistics all the time, try to see trends and then plan or alter the course accordingly.  The budget should be no different.

I downloaded the last 4 months banking and credit card statements.  I then threw every transaction into a category.  It was at this point in time that we discovered that we blow a lot of money and spent a lot more on gasoline and groceries than we thought we did.  Gasoline is not something we can change as the price keeps going up and we do not make that many needless trips.  Groceries and eating out is something we can change.  Normal things though like the gas/electric bill, water/trash bill, rent, etc. have to be what they are.  Anyway, after 2 pots of coffee and a few hours, we had our changes mapped out.  We are halving our eating out expense and are writing our planned dining out days on the calendar so everyone (especially the kids) can look forward to the next planned outing.  Hopefully this will remove the temptation to go out on the spur of the moment.  We are also budgeting the kids extracurricular activities as those always seem to come up and bite us at the wrong time.  As for gasoline, well we are going to keep a log of mileage in each vehicle and see what we come up with in a few weeks.  This would only help us in deciding where we will live next (assuming we do not renew our lease in our current house).

The wife is heading back to Costco (we went last weekend too) to compare prices and see if the $50 annual fee will be worth it.  The kids are opting to stay home with dear old dad (what a shocker) so we will need to plan out our weekly video we make for our YouTube account so I gotta get going so I can outline the storyboard.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon