life in the old lane

And

Took the camera out on the terrace for a few evening snap shots.

Today, I got in a snit with Giant Grocery. After I had waited thru five people checking out and I am in the “next” slot. The checkout clerk decided that it was time to go on break – so she took her cash drawer and left. No one showed up to checkout. So, I left. Left my cart – with ice cream and raw chicken – were it stood – #2 in line. It will be a while before I shop at Giant again. Customer service counts.

Got the “workstation” all setup. The hardest thing was getting the wires all hidden. I am not bothered my wires. But, Carlton, who paid for, picked up, and assembled the furniture hates wires. Figured the least I could do was do some serious cable wrangling.

Next, I have to be sure the little Fujitsu is up to handling the Windows and Ubuntu tasks. And, I have to fire up the Big Gray Dell one more time to get some essential files. I might just pop the drive out and install it in a housing. It is a little rude to donate a hard-drive-less computer. But, I am sure it is not unheard of…

A sweet little Japanese travel idea thing: Check it out.

Here it is – the $407 some assembly required “work station”. Carlton paid for it, picked it up, and helped put it together. My Hero!

My real “work station”, the kitchen, is just over the counter-top.

I lost a bunch of money in BP stock when the well blew-out. I fear that my monetary loss is pale in comparison with the environmental loss. We need an underwater “Boots and Coots”.

Hawai’i elected a Republican to the US Congress over the weekend. Because the Democrats couldn’t get their act together. One Republican can defeat two Democrats.

I am sure doing my part towards getting the world economy going again.

Today, I went downtown to buy Japan Rail Passes for the trip to Japan. We have to each ride the rails $33.50 worth everyday. Two 28 day passes cost $1,876.

The cheap-ass spotting scope arrived today. It works really nicely with a clunky old tripod that I  had laying around.

Went over to lunch with Carlton’s old boss. A bunch of folk from the old company were there. Most everyone still works. Heck, Carlton and I haven’t worked (or rather, been employed) in decades. We may not be as rich – but we had a heck of a lot of fun along the way.

Stock market continued diving today. In honor of the sagging market, I cooked a mess of turkey legs and rice. Good cheap eats!

Testing – will this “outfit” work for Japan?

The technology do over. For less than $400 I can get a perfectly fine Windows 7 laptop with optical drive. That should take care of my Windows requirement. I’ll get one that  runs Ubuntu. For my inner geek.

That will allow me to ditch the tiny Fujitsu and the big Dell box.

My elderly printer/scanner might be an issue. The Airness will not drive the scanner part of the printer/scanner. And, I am not sure that Windows 7 will either. But, Ubuntu 10.4 ran the scanner nicely. And, if all fails – I can get a new printer/scanner.

There will still be money left over for an iPad and a little roll around laptop tray. I can put the printer on a bookcase. That is better than spending over $1,000 on a wood box to stash the old gear in.

I have been “enjoying poor health” today. Think I have an old fashioned cold.

Been rethinking my technology. I am happy with The Airness and the iPods. The Airness is not a work horse. It’s disk is small. It has no optical drive.

The Dell is a big gray work horse box that runs Ubuntu and Windows XP fine. It does not have wireless. And, it is slow. And, it takes up a lot of space. It doesn’t taxes and copies DVD. And, in the old setup – it was a file/print server.

The tiny Fujitsu is just too tiny. It can be connected to a keyboard and monitor and mouse. Then it is not too tiny.

The printer/scanner has never been happy with The Airness. Well, it prints. But, it will not scan.

I have a dog’s breakfast of ill matched equipment. I need a do over.

I was trying to solve the wrong problem. Carlton told me that he would pay for what ever “workstation” I wanted. Seemed fair to him since he has a whole room and balcony with a view of DC all his own.

Also, note the term “workstation”. That is surely a management term.  Anyhow, I hunted, searched, measured and finally settled on a way too expensive wooden cube thing from Crate and Barrel. I was having a really hard time spending Carlton’s thousand dollars on a wood box.

And why do I need a one thousand dollar wood box. That is what I asked myself while walking to the farm market this morning. I need a one thousand dollar wood box to hide all my computer crap was the answer. So, the problem is not the $1,000 wood box. The problem is all the computer crap.

What I need is something to put the printer on. Somewhere to store some paper, the DVD drive and a couple of USB disk drives. I don’t need the big ass Dell computer that I bought used last year when the HP Vista Whore machine melted. I don’t need keyboard and mice. I DO need something to run Windows because I do my taxes in Windows and Windows is a lot better if you have a mind to make a copy of a DVD. A cheap laptop from the Dell or Fujitsu outlet should do the trick. Or maybe, the old Fujitsu which is too small to be really serviceable – maybe it will do the job.

So, I was trying to solve the wrong problem. The problem is not finding something to hide the gear in. The problem is the gear. And, it will be cheaper to get new gear. And not a new $1,000 wood box.

I don’t want a “workstation”. I NEVER wanted a “workstation”.

Ten years ago, we went up to Skagway for the summer. I am trying really really hard to finish my photo album from our two summers in Alaska before the end of the month.

As geeky as I am – I still like hard copy photo albums. Generated by Shutterfly. And, somehow, I think that when I get to be a really old woman – I’ll enjoy sitting in the sun on the porch of the old ladies home and “remembering when”.

When will I ever learn to pay attention. Got a new credit card today. I duly called the 800-number and got the card going. I listened to the sales spiel for ad-ons and features that I neither need nor want. I signed the card. Did I sign it in the signature spot? Noooo, I signed the magnetic strip. Don’t think it will matter – but still… How hard would it be to watch what I am doing? And maybe consider reading the directions?

Starting to get interested in the trip to Japan. I have us booked into world class big $$$ hotels for about 1/2 the trip. Time to get so hostel/budget options mixed in.

Life is not all Four Seasons.