Going Home

Today we will attempt to get back safely home. Gigi is still quite sick. I figure around 10 AM or so she’ll get the energy to crawl back in the truck.

I must say I very much miss my Internet connection very much. I do not find any comfort being separated from the knowledge and news of the world.

I had a dial up connection that failed to login. I made one broad band connection at Gigi’s cousin’s home. It was wonderful.

Without the Internet I can’t do banking, look at my business, keep up with current events and analysis, can’t keep up with sports scores, can’t read my favorite blogs, can’t live in Second Life, can’t send and receive email, can’t shop, can’t have instant reference, can’t check the weather, can’t check the TV schedule, can’t IM, can’t check my favorite webcams, and generally my creative juices are shut down because I can’t post my blog.

One thing I have noticed this week is that my right index finger no longer hurts. For months my right index finger has hurt from where my index finger connects to my hand all the way up the back of my hand to my wrist. The pain was at the point that I was going to schedule a visit to the hand doctor. Now I know the problem…I have mouse finger or something.

Traveling Sick

Gigi has been fighting a cold or something for the past week. It started with a sore throat, then a head cold, now she has flu symptoms with fever and nausea. All this 9 hours from the comfort of home in the bedroom of a travel trailer.

So it is traveling day and dressed in her pajamas Gigi managed to get in the back seat of the truck with a box of tissue, a can of Canada Dry ginger ale. We drove to the halfway point and she crawled back in bed.

Cedie our 3 legged wonder dog does not tolerate anyone coughing. Gigi has been coughing a lot and Cedie is disgusted with her.

Maple Leaf?

I need to comment on a very strange observation. Peaches my elder border collie had ACL surgery last spring on her right rear knee. They shaved Peaches from her waste to her feet.

In retrospect I think this was vast shaving was completely unnecessary. She has looked kind of mangy for the past year.

What is weird is that the hair did not just gradually grow back all over, but it grew in from the outside. It is still filling in until it has reached a life sized maple leaf shape just above her tail.

I must find a digital camera to record this phenomenon.

Supper vs Dinner

The visits with the relatives continue and we are having fun. It seems though that there is a great deal of posture and puffery going on this year. I have witnessed more posturing and puffery than the average stock broker conventions that I have attended in the past.

We visited Gigi’s cousin’s new home last night and had supper. It home was huge and beautiful. The house is about what you’d expect a very successful attorney would own. It was well decorated and filled with new furniture. I have worked in many restaurants in my youth and I’d estimated you could serve 250 people per hour out of her kitchen. The main rooms were lofty and cavernous.

By the way, notice I said supper and not dinner. In the old south dinner is lunch and they pronounce it “deener”. They mean lunch. The evening meal is never referred to as dinner, it is supper. They’ll quickly quote that Jesus was at the Last Supper and not the Last Dinner.

Traveling

I guess it’s now safe to come out and blog. Christmas was great as usual.

The day after (oh by the way happy Boxing Day to all my Canadian and European buddies) Gigi and I and the four dogs headed to Alabama in the RV to visit relatives. We decided to break the drive in two days and stopped the first night at Lake Hartwell State Park at the border of South Carolina and Georgia. We arrived safely after a 4 ½ hour drive

Everything was going just fine and then crisis struck. I couldn’t get a satellite signal no matter how hard I tried. Then we come to find out Gigi’s Tivo remote was left behind in a bag that contained not only the remote, but her makeup, two pairs of boots, her unmentionables (underwear) and her back up jewelry.

Like the true campers were, we discovered that the connection to the living room TV was bad, and eventually I could hone in a strong signal from 25,000 miles in space after I reconnected the cable. Likewise Gigi roughed it but discovered that the TIVO can actually operate manually in the bedroom if you lean forward and push some buttons on the front of the box. How novel!

So we headed down the road following day and pulled in safely at Gigi’s Aunt and Uncles home.

I have to tell you that driving through Atlanta at 65 MPH in 8 crowded lanes towing a 32 foot travel trailer with four curious dogs that block your mirrors can be quite nerve racking. Atlanta traffic starts about 50 north of the city and eventually clears about 40 miles south of the city.

Uncle Wendell has made RV visiting very nice at his home. He provides water, power and sewer hookups right beside his home. That way everyone has their privacy while visiting. Plus we take the dirty sheets back with us when we leave.

So we have spent the past few days, eating and talking, and eating and shopping, and eating and napping.

I have been without the Internet altogether. It seems Microsoft kindly gave me a security upgrade KR911280 that disabled my ability to us a dialup connection. I called tech support back home to my broad band provider and they informed me of this problem. I thought I was using the wrong password. Now I don’t know what the true password is so I am going to have to find a free Wi-Fi connection somewhere to post a blog, bank, check email and basically live a small bit of time in my virtual life.

The weather here has been so warm here that the flowers are blooming. I plan to play golf tomorrow with temperatures near 70.

So I’ll try and post later when I can. I hope you all are well.

Victor

Life is full of strange turns of events isn’t it?

A fellow named Victor is at my home now working on stuff I should do and used to do but I always hated to do. Now I can hire someone to hang lights and stuff and get full credit from the spouse. I am not sure how a woman’s brain works but I like this.

Victor is from Honduras. For most of his life he worked on a banana plantation. Then one night a hurricane destroyed the entire plantation and the company decided not to rebuild and replant.

So what does a fellow do to provide for his family? He came to the US and became a carpenter. His family is back home and he sends money to them that he earns here.

Last year his modest car full of tools was stolen. So Victor had no way to get to work and no tools to work with.

Now he does odd jobs and is at the mercy of public transportation and anyone that will give him a ride.

So Victor asked to work Monday and I said okay. He will join us for Christmas dinner.

I may be able to get him an old family car for free and that would get him back on his feet.

It was nice to meet Victor today.

Vacation Plans

Just now I am basking in the extra minute of sunlight as we all hurl toward summertime. Can’t you just feel it?

So I picked up the phone and made my summer vacation reservations. 9 days at Jekyll Island campground with all the dogs and family. I was able to get my favorite site too. Site E-7 allows me to put up the satellite dish and it picks up great wireless phone and wireless Internet. How could camping be more fun?

So God willing I’ll roll in with the travel trailer June 29 and spend some good old summertime in South Georgia riding bikes, golfing, eating, etc.

What A Fantastic Day!

Boy do I have the important job today. I am sitting here at my desk, surfing the Internet and catching a very few phone calls that are coming in. The office is empty.

I took the occasion to defrost the freezer compartment and clean out the refrigerator. That is always a blast. Why did I buy a cheap office frig that get all the ice buildup?

Wow there is some old stuff in there. I can’t help but open old containers and sniff. I don’t have a clue about what some stuff is. There was a box of something embedded in the freezer ice.

I better unplug the Bunn coffee pot too.

See how board I am? But not to fear the captain must stay with the ship.

Oh I have something exciting. One of the dogs pooped in the living room last night. It was a neat tidy package so the cleanup was easy.

It was easy detective work even though Cedie and Duke both acted guilty. You see Duke is a shit walker and leaves a trail of poop so it was easy to pin the crime on old Duke. Why didn’t he wake me up?

Gigi is quite the dog poop forensic person. She came up with that term shit walker and it makes me laugh.

Jive Translation

Here is a jive translation of my blog.

Yep....It Got Cold

As expected it turned seasonably cold here today. Now it is at a normal high of 50 degrees and I shake like a leaf when I first get in my car. Yesterday as you may recall it was 73. Oh for the good old days.

So tonight we make Gigi’s favorite cold weather treat, oyster stew with the coveted Chesapeake oysters.

Maybe I’ll find another pearl.

A Correction

delima - a type of fruit with a thick skin and many seeds.

dilemma - a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.

Thank you Don....Mr. perfect.

Fleas Navidad!!!


Merry Christmas to you all. I know you may be winding down or up for the holiday and will put blog reading on the back burner. I just wanted to wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas from me, Gigi and all my animals.

A Little Yard Work

I took advantage of the last scheduled warm day to………rake leaves. You thought I was going to say I played golf. No, I did something constructive and cleaned the roofs, gutters, flower beds and yard.

It is 73 degrees right now at 4 PM on December 19. The trees are naked as a picked chicken and it is unusually dry. It feels like a warm day in October.

So I rented this monster blower that you push around and blew two acres of leaves on the other 6 acres of forest and pasture. My “compound” including the house, guest house, and barn is about 2 acres I would guess. The pasture is about 2 ½ acres which I mow about 4 times a year. The rest is forested and natural.

I rediscovered that the front of my house is rotting on one portion. My house is 32 years old and is in bad need of renovation and updating. I say rediscovered because I knew it was a matter of time before it needed repair. It has a design flaw that allows rain water to run down the exterior wall. I repaired it 15 years ago and here we go again.

This time I need to fix the roof line and I know this will be expensive. Plus new windows, an exterior wall, etc.

I would move but I love our land so much. It is a lot of work to keep up but I just love the privacy and beauty of the setting. At least for now while I am able I plan to stay.

So back to work tomorrow and back to normal December temperatures.

Hope for Spring

We are basking in unusual balmy temperatures even for North Carolina. Regardless it still feels like winter when it gets dark at 5 PM and daylight reappears after 7 AM. So I dream about spring with the ever increasing daytime hours and naturally warm temperatures.

One sure sign of spring here in the South is The Masters golf tournament. This event is steeped in tradition and is always held the first weekend in April in Augusta, GA. I watched the Masters as a kid with my father and even watched the tournament as an adult before I played golf myself. The tradition is part of being a Southern man.

Yesterday the invitations were sent for the tournament in April 2007. I know this is a stretch but at least there is some official acknowledgment that Spring will come and I am hanging onto it for now.

The Tape is Gone!

It appears that someone just this past weekend removed my yellow tape on the light post at the Christiansted Harbor. I applied the yellow reflective automotive tape last May when I was there. I felt sure that it would stay there since it kind of bonds after a few days in the heat. Perhaps they painted over the tape? The post does look darker now.

Not to worry, I’ll be there in six weeks with a new color of tape.

Sunglasses

I was at Subway today having lunch and saw a guy with his sunglasses hung around his neck is a way that looked cool to me. I have never been able to do cool things with my sunglass and I wish I could.

People stick sunglasses on their head, hat, and even on their necks and it looks cool. I’ve tried this too and I feel like an idiot and usually the sunglasses just fall off.

The sunglasses I like to wear are the old aviator Ray Bans and they aren’t conducive to sticking them on body parts. I have found you need light springy sunglasses for the head or hat thing to work.

Ty calls my aviator sunglasses my birth control sunglasses. I guess he means they are ugly and outdated so I definitely would not be a chick magnet with them on. Good for me since I am married and Gigi would poke my eyes out and I would not need sunglasses if they were a chick magnet.

Still I wish I could coolly wear sunglasses on my head.

Gigi gave me a pair of sunglasses recently to try and wear on something besides my eyes. They were the amber colored glasses and they gave me an instant headache if I actually used them as sunglasses. They just hang on my visor in my truck now.

I guess I’ll just stick to my old gold ray bans and accept that I can’t adorn my body with sunglasses like other folks.

A Delima

I despise throwing away money. I waste enough money anyway without squandering more money away with bad decisions.

Here’s the story, I booked a round trip to New York back in the summer for both of us. The tickets were $500ish for both of us. I had to cancel the trip because Gigi had a suspicious result from a breast exam that needed a retest. So we canceled the trip and got a $200 voucher for both tickets. The net loss was $300.

I booked a trip down for both of us to St Croix using air miles on another airline using 60,000 mile for a one way trip down.

Gigi didn’t like the return so we booked a round trip on US Airways from Charlotte for both of us for $1000 less $200 from the New York voucher.

I still have the 2 one way tickets to St Croix and American Airlines wants $200 to return the 60,000 air miles back to my account.

So do I pay the $200 to return my 60,000 miles to my account that cost me $60,000 in credit card charges? Or do I just relax and let the seats go unfilled and then let some stranger relax and sprawl out in my seats?

Time Person of the Year

I knew I would make the cover of Time one day. It’s me alright, and all of you bloggers out there. Congratulations on making the cover with me.

Meanwhile back in real life….. Gigi and I are getting sure enough elderly. Gigi made a pie Friday night to take to my sister’s house on Saturday. We both fell asleep. I awoke to hear the timer going off and fortunately the pie didn’t burn.

Then we got home last night from Durham and let all the dogs out to do their business. I didn’t do a proper head count and left Duke out all night in the cold. He looked hurt this morning; fortunately it wasn’t very cold last night.

In Second Life I have found the only golf and country club. It is a nice course and great club. Now I have to figure out how to play in Second Life.

In real life our pipes at the barn have busted from the cold. My FIL must have neglected to drain the pipes one night, so I have my morning cut out for me replacing plumbing.

Crime in Charlotte, NC

I am still mad about my car break-in three weeks ago. Everywhere I park now I cover and hide anything of value. I am so paranoid now that I feel like some old helpless elderly lady.

People here are sick of the crime. It rivals a third world country or any Caribbean island. The murder rate here is set to break another yearly record. Charlotte, NC was recently listed as a top 10 city for violent crime. Only Detroit and a few other bigger cities beat our statistics.

It turns out that the person who broke into my car used force to my drivers side lock to gain entry. All told with the repairs and replacements I should get a check for $3250 in a few days. I would rather have my stuff.

This is the fifth time I have I been a crime victim since living in Charlotte, NC. For me that is about one crime every 5 ½ years. And people wonder why I carry a concealed weapon.

In the 80’s I was shoved and accosted by an aggressive street person demanding money from me as I waited for a bus. I ended up having to thrash him with my umbrella.

I have had two break-ins at my business and two break-ins on my vehicle.

I’ll certainly get over this most recent theft but I always remain prepared and ready with a plan of action for any violent crime.

This is Bad...Real Bad...

Click here.

Its Beginning To Look A lot Like Peaches

Check out this freaky weather we are having. 40% chance of golf today, increasing to 60% chance tomorrow and almost 100% chance of golf by Sunday.

I am not one who misses the cold just because it’s Christmas time. My ONLY concern is for the peaches. We grow fantastic peaches here in NC and especially in SC. Forget what you heard about Georgia peaches, South Carolina peaches are top shelf.

Well, peaches need a certain number of nights of freezing temperatures before they will set blooms in the spring and make baby peaches.

Peach trees must be very smart I guess and count the number of cold nights and produce fruit only if they have exceeded this number.

I like peaches and therefore will tolerate enough cold nights to set fruit, anything more is a waste of cold.
I love them so much that I have a dog named Peaches

Body Image

I have been having this body image problem lately. Soon I will be in the sunny Caribbean exposing skin to the world. While I know I’m not 25 anymore I’d like to sure up what little I have left as far as body image.

So my chest hair has started looking like Aristotle Onassis. For those too young to remember, he was a very rich Greek shipping tycoon that married Jacquelyn Kennedy. You would always see them on his yacht in the Mediterranean Sea. He would be bare chested and long strands of white chest hair would be blowing in the wind. That grossed me out so much as a child that I have been on alert ever since.

So the other day I took out the clippers and got far too carried away trimming. My chest looked like a shaved dogs butt in the summer. It was itchy and rashy from trimming too close. So much for the Aristotle look.

Gigi scolded and reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry got carried away shaving his chest.

So I have learned a lesson.

Second Life Update

I thought I would update you on my encounters in Second Life. I am a tanned Caucasian fellow in my late 20’s wearing a gray pinned stripe suit and a tie. Believe it or not this appearance commands respect much more than my previous tie dye shirt with jeans.

I plan to age myself to a more realistic age as soon as I can figure out how to do that.

I have met two interesting fellows recently. One person was Morris Vig, who is a paunchy balding middle aged white man that spends his time tweaking his home on a beautiful beach. What kills me is Morris can look like anything he wants but chooses the body of an old university professor.

Morris is more than willing to share his creations and beautiful views that he has from his home. Morris took me down to an underwater observatory he built. It is fascinating to see all the fish that live there. He said the fish we there when he arrived. Wow what attention to detail this place has.

Morris asked that I not smoke my cigar in his house which I kindly obliged. I don’t smoke in real life but I choose to smoke a fine cigar in second life.

Another fellow I met was a distinguished black gentleman who was in the process of building a nice home himself. He was standing in a vacant lot looking surprised to find that his neighbor’s house was completely gone and only dirt was left. It was concluded that he must have not paid his real-estate taxes owed and therefore he was evicted.

He is planning an open house party when his home is completed.

Like real life, second life has it nice people and its seedy people. I am fascinated by the beautiful views, the ability to fly and teleport, and the efforts put in to the homes and stores.

In real life Gigi thinks I am crazy to go to second life. I have pointed out to her that several people have become millionaires in second life….yes real money buying and selling real estate in a fake world.

I plan to take a few classes in second life to learn some of the tricks and scripting required to build a nice place there. Party to follow!

Whoa There Big Fella

I hate gobbledy goop corporate talk. What the heck is an enterprise solution? Huh??? I don’t want a plain old solution either. Sell me something that will fix my problem and give it a name. I don’t want a home version of a waffle solution. Sell me a cheap and effective waffle iron. Mmmmmmmmm, waffles, I haven’t had one in I don’t know when. I wonder if I still have a waffle iron. I’ll bet if I do it’s all caked up with nasty burnt grease and stuff.

Complex Man Day

I am on a rather complex man mission today, much like my brethren that took off in the space shuttle last night.

The Carolina Panthers Play the New York Giants here in Charlotte today. Normally I would collect all my tailgating stuff, cook some brats, meet my buddies and go to the game.

Today however our back up quarterback is starting in place of the regular guy and the weather here is marginal enough for a round of golf. So we plan to play golf and then watch the rest of the game on the big plasma TV at the club. But there are conditions to winter golf.

Right now as I type it is 23 degrees and the greens are frozen. You cannot play on frozen greens because it will seriously damage the grass. So you delay until it is warm enough to play. They estimate that the greens will be ready to play by 11:00 AM. That barely gives you enough daylight to play a leisurely round not to mention everyone else that wants to play besides me.

So at 11:00 AM they will load up as many holes as they can and everyone will start at the same time, just on different holes. This is called a shot gun start and it maximizes the number of players that can get on the course at once.

Shotgun starts slow play by maybe 15 minutes, plus we are playing cart path only. This means you can ride a cart but it must remain on the paved cart path and you have to walk across the fairway to hit the ball. Staying off the fairway helps the grass too but slows play time additionally to the shotgun start.

But to play in cold weather you need warm equipment and more clothing. All of my golf balls and clubs stayed here in the warm house last night instead of the cold garage.

I have my super duper expensive Under Amour man leotards long underwear and various layers of stuff I can peal off during the day.

Hopefully we can wrap up a round in time for seeing most of the second half of the game.

Yes this mission is complex, but forward planning and timing will be the key to our success. Now let me check on the current greens conditions.

Christmas In Christiansted


The boat parade through Christiansted Harbor is an annual holiday event. Sail boats, power boats, even a few dinghys get dressed up in holiday lights and decor and strut their stuff through the Christainsted harbor.

This year is bigger and better than ever with more on shore events to accomodate the large crowds! Mocko Jumbies will be dancing the night away startng at 5:30pm.

The crowd chooses the best boats based on how loud they cheer.

New Travel Item

Deep Question About Weather.......

We are now experiencing “cold Canadian air” as the weatherman calls it. We never get warm Canadian air, only cold Canadian air.

We don’t get any Mexican air of any kind. We do get tropical moisture and gulf moisture so I assume this is Cuban air or other nearby warm land mass.

And of course there is lake effect snow up north. I think you can blame this somewhat on the Canadians too. It’s their wind blowing over our jointly owned lakes that makes the bad weather.

Do Canadians get United States air? Are we blamed for any particular weather?

My Neighborhood

I swear, I don’t make this stuff up.

We have a non specified neighbor around here that drive a vehicle without any noise suppression what so ever. He (or she) leaves the neighborhood promptly every morning at 6:40 AM and returns and leaves numerous times during the day. You can hear the White Wrangle Jeep with out a muffler from great distances. Oh, I didn’t mean to get that specific, but I’ll have to live with my words because you can’t take them back. We have considered taking up a love offering among the neighbors so that he (or she) can buy a shinny new muffler for Christmas.

Another neighbor up the street called me last night in the middle of a Walt Disney World first class fire works display just overhead of the neighborhood. It was about 10 PM and I was sound asleep. Gigi was on the phone calling the authorities to find out who was celebrating and who gave the permit for a professional pyrotechnics show in the neighborhood. The authorities had no idea what was going on.

By now I was awake to the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air. The dogs were going nuts and the phone was ringing. The neighbor up the street wanted to know what was going on. I guess he though I had gone nuclear with the potato cannon thing. All of the sudden the fireworks show stopped and the conversation drifted to the lack of noise suppression on the other neighbors White Wrangler Jeep.

Duke and Peaches ended up sleeping with us in the bed all night. Boy Duke does snore.

My Screen Saver


This is the view from the Divi Resort in St Croix, USVI just outside of my sister's room. A predawn shower had just passed and the clouds were clearing as sun began to rise. A few moments later a man came and harvested the coconuts from this tree. It was 80 degrees and windy in early February. Feel free to use the picture. Judy took it and painted the man harvesting the coconuts.

My Peanuts (Not Oranges)

Oh I love peanuts, but not just any peanuts. They have to be Hampton Roasted Virginia peanuts salted and in the shell from North Carolina.

I have no idea how they salt these peanuts in the shell. Gigi loves them, my dogs love them and I adore them. I buy a bag whenever I travel so I will have them no matter what.

I just ate five big old delicious peanuts for breakfast and I am satisfied.

I keep my peanuts by my chair in a Folgers plastic coffee can and have a wicker basket for the shells. After a day or so my area is covered in crumbs and peanut skins. Then I vacuum the area and start over.

I just ate another and that is enough for now. I need another bag too.

Let The Dry Days Begin

Gigi and I are spend much more time now moisturizing. It happens in the winter and it happens with age. This morning she was rubbing on Chap Stick all the while fantasizing about soaking in mineral oil. My legs are so dry that they look powdery.

I’m convinced that dry legs lead to hairless legs and that is not what a guy wants, at least this guy. But I guess this too is part of the great hair migration that a man goes through with ageing. Hair disappears from traditional places like the head and legs only to move to the back and ears. The cruelty of it all is I can’t get to my back and I can’t really see my ears head on. So I’m at the mercy of someone else to assist me in personal grooming to avoid the caveman look.

Gosh this paints an ugly picture, powdery slick legs with a dry hairy back. I’m sorry I brought this up. At least I don’t have any problems with insects crawling into my ears.

Normal Life Please

Finally….I have my computer rebuilt and my life may be returning back to normal. Well, not really. Yesterday I locked myself out of my truck. So I crawled under the truck to look for the hidden key. Boy did I do a good job hiding it; it took forever to find that nasty, greasy box that contained the key. While under the truck I noticed some diesel fuel leaking.

So I went to unlock the truck with the key and I was unable to insert the key. The idiot that broke into my truck last week completely destroyed the key lock when he or she broke in. I hadn’t noticed because I use the electronic button to lock and unlock. Plus it’s dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home so I never noticed the lock was damaged.

I drove the truck to the lube mechanic and he thought he fixed the problem. Today I called a wrecker to tow it to the mechanic.

Gigi spent all of last week not sleeping and I got used to getting up at least to look to see what she was doing. Now she is sleeping great and I am still waking up hourly. This morning I woke up to her hand groping my face to see if I was there. I was having the freaky dream and I thought a squirrel had jumped on my face so I bolted up when she started groping.

Gigi is on a big salt kick now so she asked for some Doritos with her morning coffee.

Then Duke the newest Border Collie started yodeling from the other room when he heard I was awake. That is his signal that he needs to go out and do business. This dog does not bark, just yodels.

Hopefully I’ll get my truck back soon and life will return to normal.

I've Been Poisoned

I feel kind of poisoned this morning. I like beef but the big time prime beef you get at fine steak houses is about too rich for me. I was determined to get a steak last night at the office Christmas dinner instead of a lighter seafood fare. So I ordered a 13 ounce New York Strip and ate maybe 6 ounces. That along with these "to die for" mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes, Cesar salad with fried oysters, a few glasses of wine, a piece of apple pie (eaten by three of us) that tasted like a cinnabon. Now I feel like a big over served blob.

Then I rushed home to watch the home team play on Monday Night football. I fell sound asleep by half time. Gigi said she went into the living room to check on me and I was propped up staring at the TV with no emotion. She thought, "whatever, he's having fun I suppose".

So I woke up about 12:30 and asked her who won. She didn't know and I was too lazy to go back in the living room to look up the score on the PC. So all night I thought about whether or not we won.

I got up, poisoned and all to look. We lost.

I need to hit the gym big time today.

More Monday

I am at home this morning and I am not sick and I am not dodging work. I have to wait for a FedEx package and Gigi is at her doctor. So my calls are being forwarded to me and I hope the dogs don't bark when I answer.

Having a PC, TV news channel, fax and phone allows me to work about anywhere. With the webcam I can be seen and look back all while looking out my front widow of my house over the curious ears of my senior border collie Peaches. She is the boss around here. Man I have to get these leaves up out of my yard soon.

My PC troubles continue. I brought my MIL's PC back to clean all the spyware and viruses off and the hard drive crashed just when I finished. I'm not going to tell her and just put in a new drive and operating system. She'll never know the difference, she is very PC illiterate.

I have a small server at work that has been acting up for a good while. It's actually a stand alone slave drive that has two internal drives that mirror each other. We'll I just discovered that the backup drive has failed. Oh joy.

I went to McDonalds again for lunch the other day and attempted to order the All American Meal. They had no idea what I was talking about. An All Canadian meal didn't work either. I ended up with another happy meal and toy with a small drink upgrade. The toy was a rat with a gold tooth and gold chain around his neck. It was cool.

Waiting.......

Ah Monday. We have the office Christmas dinner tonight at McIntosh's Steak and Seafood. It is a top shelf place and it's always a treat. Like last year I found someone else willing to pay for the event so I can relax too.

My real estate broker emailed me last night and told me the balance is due on the St Croix vacation condo. Time is nearing and I am ready. Ready for everything but the return trip home. I have the flight booked going down on air miles. The return flight was so bad (18 hours) that I have been waiting to see if anything opens up that is better. Otherwise I'll just buy the ticket home directly from St Croix to Charlotte and be home in 4 hours back to cold and drizzly weather.

I started blogging last year in February when I went to St Croix as a way to share my Winter vacation with friends back home. I became addicted to the daily journal and have continued the trend steadily since the spring. I loved flashing back pictures and video of summertime in the winter. You can see the old blog beginnings here. I switched to blogger for ease of formatting.

My college team won in playoffs Saturday. That was exciting. They won it all last year in NCAA Division I football. I hope they can do it again.

A Lesson Learned

I am in a winter funk of sorts. I don't embrace the season like Zig. I suffer from light deprivation depression and have for years. Chemicals help me some and the upcoming winter vacation will help more. I just reserved the Wrangler Jeep (oh sweet little convertible) last night.

Just yesterday I looked at the NASCAR schedule to see when Daytona 500 will run, it's the first race of the season and a sure sign spring is eminent.

So the countdown to Winter solstice has begun and then I can start adding minutes of light to each day that passes.

Now let me tell you what happened to my new notebook computer. I have a hard time living without being connected to the world via the Internet. I am not ashamed of this, I thrive on the information and communication. Typically I sit in "my chair" with my notebook desk in front of me wirelessly connected to the world. If I am watching news or sports on the High Definition TV I follow along on the Internet for more information. I spent quiet hours in the morning with Duke and blog. My computer is a vital part of my life.

So I spent 3 days restoring my PC with all the programs and features that I wanted, less all the junk programs they put on new PCs. The little pop up window kept bugging me to make a set of rescue discs. I figured out how to disable that annoying pop up. Finally I was going to install encryption software that was just mandated by my company. So I followed a rather lengthy instruction procedure and began the encryption never to see my PC again. The software completely scrambled my precious PCs brains. It even scramble the system down to the bios so I couldn't recover no matter what.

I called HP support and they concluded the only way to recover was from the rescue disc. They asked, "You did make the rescue discs, right?"

"No", I said.

So for $29 I should get my rescue discs for what I could have had for free if I had only taken the time to make them. And then I'll have a new PC that I will have to spend three days rebuilding.
So I'll continue to type away on my wife's computer for a few more days. Thank you Gigi.