Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
Trying to learn to like my neighborhood. I adored my old neighborhood. Absolutely and completely loved it. My new neighborhood, I barely tolerate. But, hey – this is my forever home so I might as well try to at least “like” it.
To that end, after I finished up a fine 6 hours of telecommuting, I went in search of “critters”. And this is what I found at the Long Branch Nature Center/Park about one mile from the Asylum.
Spring came blowing in today. It was too windy for photography – but I am not going to complain. It was warm and sunny.
I am doing some rather tedious work on “my” hospital system. So, I telecommuted today. It is VERY quiet in the Old Bat Cave. And the new speedy wifi service here is good enough to connect to the hospital system. So for about 6 hours today my Mac pretended to be a Windows 7 PC. Feel like I should rinse Forbin off or something!
Faithful readers may recall that my computer’s always have names and this one is Forbin after the human in Colossus: The Forbin Project, a 1970 sci-fi book and movie.
It wasn’t all work today. I did make it out for a few photographs. And a little warmness.
This really bad “starving artist sofa painting” appeared on the wall right outside my door. I open my door and there it is. It showed up while I was in Hawai’i. When I went to Hawai’i there was a door. But, the door was removed when the across the hall apartment was renovated. And, someone must have died and left this “art” behind. Well, at least it isn’t in the land fill.
So how is this “new improved” wifi network.
I switched over to the bad-old network and got this reading:
And then back to the new network:
Not earth shatteringly good like a couple of weeks ago. But, way better than the old 2.4 Gigahertz network.
Reminder from Carlton:
Avoid Beginnings. That was one of his little sayings. I need to avoid a beginning. I told someone that I would help convert a photo catalog from Aperture to Lightroom. I haven’t a clue how to do that. I will never need to know how to do that. It is only my ego that says “Sure I’ll help” Absolutely no good can come from going down that path. I said I would. But, I am going to bail before I mess something up.
Computer – which is what I call “Alexa”. Today I got the Echo and the Dot connected to the WPA2 Enterprise system using their MAC addresses. Life is a little less secure for the Asylum’s network. And a little harder for the IT Department … but I am good to go.
So, what do I use these toys for any how?
“Computer” isn’t as good as the one on Star Trek, but she is getting there. And I am really interested to see if Amazon, Google, Apple or someone else wins this race.
Today is the 4th anniversary of the worst day of my life. The day that I first heard and promptly googled Merkel Cell Carcinoma.
Took that shot on Saturday.
And a little post processing fun never hurts.
Just an ordinary day. No complaints. Well, except that spring is still MIA. And the “new improved” Asylum WiFi is a bitch to connect to – so for now – I still have good speed. Suspect that will come to a crashing halt when I have to share the bandwidth with 500 of my closest friends.
But, the deployment has been such a clusterfuck that I may well decamp to FIOS. I could be over reacting. Or not.
Went on a little field trip with 3 of the inmates to inspect the bluebells in Bull Run Regional Park. We were about 5-8 days too early for max bluebell viewing – but the sun was shining, there were very few people and there were bluebells.
Also a raccoon.
Which is about as good as my wild life photography ever gets.
An all around good way to spend Sunday after noon.
Cherry blossom fireworks tonight. But it was a bit too cloudy and I think there was a building in front of them. So, no pictures. But, I adore fireworks. Especially my own personal ones right out my window. Gotta say this apartment isn’t great for fireworks. Maybe I’ll have to move. Just kidding. This is my “forever” home.
Speaking of forever homes… I made it over to far distant Maryland for our dear friend’s funeral. No trouble at all until the last ½ mile. The on-foot part from the bus. Google walked me right into a construction zone. I had to get directions from a real live human person. The horror!
Carlton, you would have liked the service. His boys did good. Old friends said nice things. The preacher actually knew Cliff. Not from church – he is Becky and Charlie’s pastor and he knew Cliff more socially than spiritually. Did you know that Cliff was on the board of Wesley Theological Seminary? And, that Charlie is 51 years old? Doesn’t that make you feel old? Well, maybe it doesn’t – since you are past aging. What happens if I catch up to you? It didn’t seem right, being at a Kendall family event with neither you nor Cliff present.
Cliff and Camille have sent 250 kids to college. Our foundation will send their foundation a nice “in lieu of flowers” check. And I will have to make an effort to not lose the connection to the boys.
Suddenly taken GRUMPY today. I was walking across one of our lobbies today. The one that has an unfortunate echo effect. I had an almost uncontrollable desire to yell “I hate this funking place”. Which would have at best gotten me a visit from the social worker and at worse a transfer to the Terrarium where you are locked up and have no access to dangerous implements.
Before I committed social seppuku, I scuttled back up to my room. Locked my door. Made a pot of good coffee and watched a short film about AI. (Available for you viewing pleasure – free – for the next few days at Do You Trust This Computer
This link was sent by a friend along with the reminder that I am the warden of The Asylum and not an inmate.
By dinner, I recovered my sanity sufficiently to come to dinner and heartily enjoy a steak, baked potato and Guinness. Oh and something green. Spinach, I think.
And, I was told it was time to “make a gratitude list”. OK.
I am grateful for:
Nobody is promised tomorrow.
I worked a lot of hours today. And, I am tired. Had quesadilla and cheap red wine for dinner. Over dinner we had an animated conversation about colon cancer, surgery and treatment options. Only in an old folks asylum or at a medical convention would that be considered acceptable dinner table conversation.
And now, I am going to not think about connecting devices to WPA2 Enterprise Networks anymore today.
The day got off to a good start. Logged a couple of miles on the “dreadmill”. Took some pictures in RAW format to play with using the new improved Lightroom.
Went off to a “meeting” about our Asylum WiFi. I have no problems with it. But, I think I am in the minority. Did my estimated taxes. That was the primary task today.
And, this afternoon I went and took 146 photos at The Asylum Talent Show.
I selected 4 and turned them in. I did not turn the one above in.
But this one – I did turn in.
Anyhow, I will be glad to go to work tomorrow to get some rest!
Wonder if anything happened in the world today? Best fire up the BCC World News.
And this is what my wreckage of the future issue is: on Saturday afternoon I absolutely must make it around the beltway to a memorial service. Carlton hated memorial services. But, he always said “I will go to a service for Cliff or Camille but that is it”. We agreed that we would come back from Hawai’i for Cliff or Camille. So, I need to do this. For Carlton, for myself.
So, what the hell am I going to do about this snow-shit. Uber will be priced out of sight. Not to mention I am not too sure about Uber drivers and snow. I am not willing to ZipCar it in the snow. ZipCar was my “plan a”. Plan b was Uber. Plan c was bus/metro/bus. Plan c is looking bestest. Plan d – would be to get a hotel room near the location and just wait until Sunday to come home. Actually – just checked that is a doable plan and might just be the best idea. Take the bus/metro/bus over. Install myself in the Marriott half mile away. Walk to the service. Return to the Marriott. Call room service. And enjoy a nice evening of HBO. The next morning bus/metro/bus back to the Asylum.
There are no images of anything – because Lightroom – who is in charge of all of my images is currently doing this:
I think it is “stuck” – but I’ll let it run a while longer. So far – I am not a fan of this “update”.
On a positive note: had a fine dinner tonight. Yoga class was good. And, I made some headway on my current project at work.
It is just “wreckage of the future” – chances are it will not even snow.
I am so ready for spring.
Also ready for Trump to leave town and go back to NYC and “reality TV”.
Deacquisitioned today: nothing.