I've been away from blogging for awhile. It was a nice break for me to do some non-virtual things for a change....cleaning, painting, butchering wood (my version of carpentry). I hung a simple wooden screen door and I thought I was going to have to demolish and rebuild the house to get the darn thing to hang right.
Why is it that Bob Villa or whoever those guys are on TV can have such an easy time? I'd like to see a reality show...."here's our homeowner 7 hours later after 4 trips to the hardware store, sweating and cussing because the pipe he was going to remove to clear the sink drain was old and corroded and broke when he tried to undo it..."
One time I had a plugged up sewer (because the city backhoe operator cut the line in the alley it turned out). Anyway I had a rescue rooter guy at my house on Sunday. He charged me 300 bucks or something to put a camera in the sewer and tell me he couldn't figure out what was wrong. He did put a clean-out in the new inside sewer pipe we'd had put in a few months earlier.
He asked me if we had a clean-out near where the sewer left the basement. I wasn't sure so I decided to use a power saw to cut though some sheet rock to see if one was hidden. I'm not sure why I thought anyone would put such a thing inside a wall . You would have had to have been there to appreciate the humor I see in this now. The whole house was sort of in a panic mode. I forget what the event was that everyone was getting ready for but we can't use the toilets, the sinks, showers...There's sewer water backing up into the basement and I took a power-saw to the wall in front of this guy. There's dust all over the place and a bigger mess by the minute. No clean-out. Now that I'm older an wiser I probably won't start cutting into walls at random to help solve a plumbing problem. It seemed like a good idea at the time though.
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I have a Fujitsu Lifebook laptop that's old now but I have grown to really like it. The power supply jack got broken from too many hard pulls on the power cord. It was an educational experience trying to fix that. I learned (a) laptops are really hard to open (b) laptops are very expensive to repair...depending on how you define expensive I guess and (c) the people at Seattle Laptops are good to work with.
The power supply jack on this laptop is soldered to the motherboard. When I called Fujitsu they told me they don't repair motherboards but would replace mine for 600 something. Seattle Laptops told me they would try to replace the jack and make it better with some special glue for under 300. Sounded good to me. I was actually just about ready to go the hacksaw, solder and duct tape route but my wife convinced me to shell out the 300.
You can remove every screw from the case of a laptop and it won't open. You can pry around the edges and see it start to separate but you get the feeling that if and when it does something is going to break or pieces are going to start to pop out and you won't have a chance of reassembling the thing.
I enjoyed talking to the guys at Seattle Laptop, and it's a nice drive down there from my house. It's near the old Chubby and Tubby's hardware store on Aurora, across I-5 from Greenlake.
While I was in there an older lady was in and was not happy about her laptop (not sure if she'd bought a used one there or had hers fixed). I think the tech was telling her that she had downloaded some version of Microsoft software (Internet Explorer?, Media Player?) that was screwing up her system. She was saying something like, "all I see now is big dots." That got me thinking how hard it would be to work in a place like that when you have to deal with the poor folks who want to use computers but don't have the time or inclination or ability to understand the oddities of PC's.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Those z's are a symbol of how boring discussions of computer problems can be.
My main philosophy of computer troubleshooting, upgrades, fixes etc. is; do it, then forget how you did it and clear your brain for something else. No one is going to be able to keep their eyes open long enough to listen or read about how you changed the registry or got some new codecs or whatever. Well I shouldn't say no one...obviously a fair number of people love that sort of discussion, just not my cup of tea. Not that I don't enjoy screwing around with machines...just not into reading or talking about it unless I have to or someone is paying me.
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I have what I think are some pretty good pictures of Montana that I want to scan and put up. I was surprised at how peaceful and beautiful I found areas that in my younger days would have been boring empty space.
Montana is really dry. This is the 6 or 7th year of drought. I think seven year cycles may be somewhat common? I think sunspot activity and maybe other natural phenomena run on that sort of schedule. I sure hope they get some rain and snow in the higher elevations next year. Otherwise I might have to start thinking more about this whole global warming thing. I guess we city slickers can enjoy the sun...not sure about the people and animals that need that moisture to survive.
I saw deer, elk, moose, buffalo, a grizzly (from a distance), antelope, coyote and maybe some wolves (I couldn't tell they were too far away...might have been a pack of coyotes.
Went to the hot springs at the 45th parallel. It was cool! It was cold! It was hot. It was fun. Saw my kids and their friends at Chico. They floated the Yellowstone from Gardiner. I think they had a ball. There at an age where dad is not really needed. That's fine with me. I think my job as a parent is to raise kids to be independent. I'm just glad my kids are so much less foolish than I was at their age.
Drew some pictures, read, wrote a little...met some nice people at my hotel, the Yellowstone Village Inn (there motto is "where Elk stay free"). It's a family run operation. They had a pre-Easter egg hunt in the days before I arrived for some of the little ones. A girl about seven was helping her mom (one of the daughters I think) the day I came. I found a dyed easter egg in the ice chute of the ice machine. She told me "you can eat that...it's okay." That was nice of her but I wasn't sure eating a hard boiled egg that was out for a few days would be good on the old stomach. I located a few more easter eggs during my stay. Had a nice conversation with the Grandma/mom about Montana and how it snows a lot of times on Easter Sunday (that's why she had the pre-Easter easter egg hunt). Unfortunately they didn't get a big Easter snow this year...they could really use the water.
Saw a little boy playing with an elk near a trailer in town. He was hitting rocks with a big plastic bat in the general direction of some elk (he was within 20 feet or so of them). The elk were just looking at him, sort of bored with the game.
I caught a nice rainbow near the slip and slide area on the Yellowstone river. Actually I had a nice rainbow on my line for enough time to see it jump a few times and get close enough to see how beautiful those wild creatures are. It was just enough.
Stopped in at the Four Winds Cafe across from the Church Universal Triumphant. I think that cafe might be associated with the Church (based on the religious stuff for sale in the gift shop). They had great soups and sandwiches. The girl running it was really nice (she reopened a little after closing when I stopped back in to get some more bee pollen candy to take home).
There's been a fair amount of controversy about that Church with the locals over the years. I think it's subsided nowadays. I say live and let live. On the other hand I would be afraid to actually drive onto the Church property because of some of the things I've read. I'm happy to leave those people alone. I don't think they are hurting anybody. I did see a little boy about 7 getting off the school bus in front of the church property and he was dressed in camo clothes. If you haven't read about that church they have some ideas about building underground shelters in preparation for something bad that may happen. I think they patrol the area to be on the lookout for something bad too. Even though I'm a peaceful fisherman I wouldn't want to test my luck by infringing on their space so I elected to not take the road through their property to get to the other side of the river.
I brought home a big bunch of grass, sagebrush, willow branches, and stuff to put in the house for a reminder. Actually I talked one of my daughters friends to carry it in the back of his vehicle...since I was pretty sure it wouldn't be allowed on the airplane.
It was a nice time of year to be there. The main roads in the park aren't open so Gardiner is still in the off-season mode. No traffic, few people and lots of sun, mountains, rivers and animals.
Just one quick note on my flight there. I had brought a journal to write in and some blue ink pens. During the flight I thought I'd jot down a few things in my journal. I'm feeling kind of cocky with my new journal, and cool bag I borrowed from my daughter. People around me are working on their laptops...and stuff and I'm thinking, "Yeah they'll see what a sophisticated gent I am..writing in journal."
Pulled out my blue ink pen and when I took the cap off I discovered a fair amount of ink had leaked out into the cap and over the pen (something to do with pressurization/depressurization of the airplane I guess). I got ink all over my hands, journal and I imagine scared the hell out of the people around me wondering what the nut finger-painting in seat 14C was up to ;-)
The good thing was I avoided smearing it on my face and clothes or I'm afraid they might have brought out the restraint kit. he he he. I still had some of that ink on my hands a week later.
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Going to Montana for a wedding next month. One of my nephews is getting married. He's originally from Minnesota but he loves fishing and loves Montana. He's teaching Spanish at the U of M in Missoula nowadays. He's getting married in Bozeman at a chapel that has a view of the mountains behind the altar (I think that's the deal anyway).
He came to visit us once in Bozeman about 20 years ago with his mom, dad and sister. I think he really liked riding in the back of my brothers 63 Chevy pickup and seeing a herd of cattle with people on horses herding them on the road up to Bridger Bowl.
I think maybe what he really like though was going bowling. This is a typical kid story...
Here's the deal. You get the kids in the car and spend a couple of days on the road. You get to your destination and ask them what they would really like to do now that you are in _________.
They say something like, "I'd really like to go swimming, read a comic, fight with my sister, and watch TV." You think, but you could do that at home why did we just spend 14 hours in the car?
Anyway Andrew at age 5 or 6 thought one of the best things he could do in Montana would be to go bowling. More power to him. Actually that sounds kind of fun to me too come to think of it.
Hope you have a great Friday and an enjoyable relaxing weekend.
