Tom's Diary

Dear sister Christine,

WONDERFUL!!! Perhaps you and Rich should mix up some Martinis. You must be thrilled to death. [She just learned that she gets to keep her current teaching position and that she won't have to move to a different grade of students.]

All is well here. Got my TV stand. Finally. Haven’t put it together yet. But hopefully, all the parts are there and I won’t have to talk to the store again on this issue.

Talk to you later.

Tom

Dear   [Mentat],

Good deal on the money order. I’ll look for it. [He's paying me for the network card I ordered for him a couple weeks earlier.]

Yes, checks are rather antiquated in this age of electronic banking. But they still serve a useful purpose – they make it harder to steal someone’s identity.

If you run the system maintenance tasks every one to three days, then, yes, your hard drive will be defragmented and rearranged so that the programs START executing faster, when loaded. This may be contributing to the faster operation that you are observing. And, as you indicate, you’ve probably gotten used to the slow-downs and so they are less noticeable today.

Enjoy your week, and will talk to you again soon.

Tom

Dear sister Jojo,

You’re welcome, on the birthday wishes that is. [She thanked me for wishing her a happy birthday.]

No further updates yet on the TV stand. Having trouble getting that store manager to return my calls. Will try again today.

Mom mentioned that you didn’t make it to Candi and Joe’s because the kids were so sick. Wow. Sounds like you’re running a sanitarium there, like they used to have at the beginning of the 20th century, for people with tuberculosis. Hopefully, no sickness is THAT serious there.

Yep, I’m ready for spring to arrive. The extreme cold this year sure made this winter inconvenient.  

I did go out with my friends, yes. A good time was had, as usual. I would like to expand my social circle though, a bit more, to include people who are in my field, and other scientific disciplines. Hope to resume work on that once I get this apartment in order. Glued the CD case together this weekend. So once it dries, and the CDs loaded onto it, that will be one less bit of clutter around here.  The older I get, the more like [sister] Diane I become. Can’t stand clutter, yet my place is quite cluttered at the moment.

Don’t forget to move my dental cleaning appointment. I’ll be in Altoona for sure the week of March 26th through March 30th. Schedule it for any time during this period and I’ll be able to come in.

Well, have to get to work. Have a good week, and will talk to you later.

Tom

Dear   [Mentat],

Hey there.

Don’t know how the involuntary spending spree happened. However, no one got hold of my card, as I still have it. They just learned the number somehow. I’m told it was probably an isolated incident and would not happen again for decades. This is the first time I’ve ever been defrauded, and I’ve had an ATM card for 22 years now. So, hopefully this prediction is correct, and I won’t have to deal with this again for a very long time.

Well, gotta go for now, and get ready for a small product release tonight. So take care. Hope you’re doing well. And will talk to you later on.

Tom

Dear   [Mentat],

Good to hear that the network card is working out for you. You know, I saw a wireless network card recently. It occurred to me that you might be able to utilize that to advantage in your situation with the laptop. It just plugs into the PC Card slot as your card now does. But it has no cable hanging off of it. Not sure what you would plug into the DSL modem so it could send its signals “wirelessly”. But it might be worth looking into, especially if you start having trouble with this card.

Tom

Dear   [Mentat],

Email readers can be configured in online, offline, or hybrid mode of operation. This determines how they handle connections to your email server, and when they up- and download mail. Online mode relies on a constant connection to the server, and since you’re now on DSL, this mode probably makes the most sense for you, especially if you do not do much email when you are NOT connected to DSL. In this mode, you probably wouldn’t have experienced the dropped connection problem. Of course, if the mail server at the other end times out and kicks you off, try contacting the system admin at Telocity and see if they can’t raise the timeout value.

Tom

Dear   [Mentat],

Good evening, sir.

Well, Bush was in your area this past weekend, meeting with house democrats in an effort to foster bipartisanship. Looks like he realizes that the democrats are a very powerful minority in the current congress, and wants to get bipartisan support for his agenda. And he got it with the Ashcroft confirmation. 8 democrats also voted to confirm the new attorney general.

I’ve not yet ordered those Sony headphones. I really wish I could listen to them before forking over $300 for them. But I’ve had my last pair of Sony’s for 9 years now. Very happy with them. Those I paid $170 for in 1992. So this pair for $300 today is probably of similar quality to those old reliables.

To other tid-bits: Someone got hold of my ATM credit card number and charged several items, which totaled around $500. Fortunately, I’ll not have to pay for any of it. It’s been a pain though, because my ATM card I use very heavily here in Philly, and I’ve been without it for about a week now. The bank sent me a new card, but it went to my Mom’s house. So, when it arrives there, she’s going to send it here. In fact, going to call her tonight to see if it got there yet.

Anyway, just sipping some green tea with mint. A very appropriate beverage for these snowy winter times. We got about 3 inches of snow this afternoon outside my door here. And it’s supposed to freeze overnight. Hectic travel tomorrow for anyone driving to work. Glad that’s not me. *grin*

Okay, going to get out of here. Hope you’re doing well, and we’ll talk again soon.

Later.

Tom

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Dear [Emeebee],

Garrett is getting a deep voice now, and has grown quite big. Aaaah time marches on.

Tom Hesley