Tom's Diary

Dear sister Diane,

Thanks for the wishes. It sure is great to be home, this time, more permanently.

Tom

Brothers-in-law Richard and Roger, and good friend Joe, drove here yesterday to load up my things and move me back to Altoona for the second time in as many years.  However, there isn’t enough room in the U-Haul truck for me to ride home with them.  So I’ll be   leaving Philadelphia   on  this morning’s Amtrak train, and they’ll meet me at Mom’s later today, to unload.  I’m here at the bus stop now, awaiting the 58, to take me to the Frankford Terminal.

I don’t want to be leaving Philadelphia.  It killed me to move away from here the last time, in January of 2000.  Even now, I’ve not yet accomplished what I came here to do; to form lasting and close friendships with one or more beautiful women.  But this apartment at Red Lion Road is simply too noisy for me, and I need to live a lot cheaper now, as my future as a software engineer contains dark clouds.  I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be working for my current employer.  But I sense that severance is coming fast, whether initiated by them or me.  So leaving Philladelphia is one big step I must take to prepare for that other departure, which will probably occur in the next few years.

I wish to write.  But I don’t know if I’ll ever make enough money at that to afford housing in which I can live comfortably here in southeastern Pennsylvania.   Certainly, I’ll be quite poor in the early years as an author.  So I’m returning home once again to live with Mom, until such time, if ever, that I can duplicate my current income, while working in my own writing business.

Tom Hesley

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Dear [Vanna],

Hi there.

Yes, I am indeed the same Tom Hesley.

I’ve been living here in Philly for the past few years, and about to relocate to Altoona, PA. I probably appeared on the Overbrook list because [Rick] had me helping out at your Alumni last summer, and he probably made me an associate member. In fact, last June, at the main meeting, I heard you when they were going around the room, having people say their names and their graduating class. I tried to find you after the meeting, but you had disappeared.

Last I knew about you, you were living in Warrendale? Still there?

Anyway, this is wonderful!!! Yes, let’s keep in touch. I still talk to [Tad], [Mentat], Richard Parker, [Joe], and a few others.

Happy holidays to you, and write again soon.

Tom Hesley

Dear Dean,

Sorry to hear that [you've not resolved the conflict issue with your scanner]. Not sure if I’ll have much time to work with you this week, as I am preparing for my move back to Altoona, this Sunday. If you’re still having problems after the holidays, let me know.

If you have specific questions about the BIOS, you’d do best to call the tech support number for the company who made your computer or motherboard. BIOSs are very specific, and each one is different, depending on the computer brand. I don’t know how much help I’d be, since I’ve never worked with your specific BIOS before.

Tom

Dear Dean,

Yep, they really don’t look like mobile homes anymore, especially if you get them dry-walled inside. Then, they look almost like a built-on-the-spot house.

Later.

Tom Hesley

Dear Scott,

Hey there. Great hearing from you after, what is it, about 31 years? [Your sister] said you were in Philly and then when she told me that you lived on Red Lion Road, my jaw hit the floor. And then when she said that you live in the xxx block, my whole body hit the floor, , because you’re only a couple blocks from me. I’m at xxx Red Lion, just west of Bustleton Ave.

Unfortunately, I’m leaving this apartment in a couple weeks. Moving back to Altoona. I have some noisy neighbors living above me here, that make peaceful and quiet enjoyment of these premises impossible.

I’ll be heading for home on December 16th. However, I plan on spending a week or two a month in Philly – I still love this city very much. I’m renting a room from friends out near the 69th Street terminal. My plan is to return to Philly, once I have enough saved up to buy a nice, single home, one that is not attached to anyone else’s home in any way, shape, or form.

Now then, to the business at hand. If you’d like to get together between now and December 16th, I’d like that. I’ll be away between tomorrow and Sunday, but should be around all other days through next Friday.

I’ll give you a call, early next week.

Tom Hesley

Dear Dean,

Yes, a top floor apartment would indeed help in some situations. However, when I lived in Frankford (Philadelphia, The Near Northeast), I lived in such a top-floor place. And I only shared one wall out of four with another apartment. Still was lousy. In fact, the noise was why I left THAT place, and came to THIS one. Now I have the same problem again.

I have both yours and Earl’s numbers in my database, and will use them next time I’m in Dayton. Not sure when that will be, but will definitely keep you posted as to my travel plans.

Your residence sounds spectacular. Yes, I’ve been a saver for the last 10 years. Hopefully within the next few years, I’ll be able to afford my dream house. I’ve been looking into today’s mobile homes. Some of them are quite impressive and aren’t very expensive at all. Since I don’t drive, I don’t need a garage for a car, although it would be nice for storage of old computers, records, and such.

Later.

Tom Hesley

Dear Dean,

Well, I’ve promised myself that I will never live in an apartment again in order to avoid   noisy neighbors. Hopefully I’ll remain as healthy as I have been for a long time, and can build a big enough nest egg to guarantee never having to live in a close-quarters apartment again.

As the drunks ruined your condo experience in Florida, so too, my noisy neighbors ruined my experience here. An otherwise beautiful apartment (this one) cannot be appreciated due to their racket. I’ve written them letters, talked to them, and had the landlord chat with them twice. However, nothing helped.

When I’m out and about, and I’m walking into the parking lot for this apartment, and I look up and see that the lights are on in the apartment above me, I’m filled with a sense of dread. It’s like, “Oh God, what noise am I going to have to deal with tonight?” That is certainly no way to live.

In all fairness however, I have to say that it’s not ENTIRELY their fault even though these noisy neighbors bear most of it. This building wasn’t constructed very well and the walls and ceiling, though made of concrete, aren’t soundproof at all. I can hear every word they say up there, when I’m in my bedroom, even when they’re obviously talking rather quietly. I must run a fan in there at night, to block the extraneous noise so I can sleep. Thus, I believe that the landlord bears some responsibility here.

That’s probably why they decided not to fight me when I told them I wanted out of my lease. They’ve no doubt profited immensely over the past 20 years from this cheaply constructed building, unfortunately, at the expense of the tenants who have lived here. But I didn’t have to use that argument. They were quite gracious and, apparently, understanding of my situation.

Needless to say, I cannot wait to get out of here and away from these noisy neighbors, although I do regret having to leave Philly for a second time. I love it here in the big city. But I just haven’t had much luck with the apartments I’ve chosen.  They were either too expensive, or too noisy.

Later.

Tom Hesley

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Dear Dean,

Right now, I live in Philly, but will be moving to Altoona later this month. Having some noisy-neighbor problems in this Philly apartment [again]. The land lord agreed to let me out of my lease if I leave by December 31st. So, it’s back to Altoona.

I’ve had such a rough time finding an acceptable place here in Philly, that I don’t think I’ll come back here until I can afford to buy a nice house, that isn’t attached in any way to anyone else’s. The plan is to live in Altoona for a year or so, saving every penny I can. Then, we’ll see. I’ve learned not to plan too far ahead (like beyond a year or two).

Anyway, to our discussion of home networks: The advantages of a home network are:

Any computer on the network can share resources (like printers, CD ROM drives, hard drives, and zip drives) with any other computer on the network. That is, if you wanted to print a file to a printer that’s attached to your Windows XP machine, from one of your Windows 98 SE machines, a network would eliminate the need to copy the file you want to print to a CD RW or Zip disk and physically transport the disk to the other computer. You could just configure a printer in the source computer, and point that printer to the print device (the hardware) on the computer to which the print device is attached.
This also means that if you have one modem connected to the Internet, that all computers can share that modem so that multiple people can surf the web or read email simultaneously.
Further, if you only have one computer with lots of hard drive space and you wanted to allow your other, more modest computers to access that drive for saving files to it, a home network would be just what you’d want to do.

To get a home network going, you need the following. You can purchase all this at someplace like Comp USA or other computer reseller:

• Network cards for each computer you want to include in your network.
• Network cables for each computer. Each cable is what they call Category 5, meaning that it can carry data at rates up to 100 MBPS (Mega Bits Per Second). Such cables come in a variety of lengths (3’, 6’, 14’, 25’, 50’, and 100’). The lengths you buy is determined by how far apart your computers are from each other.
• Finally, you need a network hub, which typically runs between $50 and $100. Hubs must be plugged into the AC house current. Most come with a small transformer-plug adapter. Popular hub brands are Netgear and E-Link. I use Netgear equipment myself and have been quite happy with it.
• You must then connect all your computers to the hub, using the network cables discussed above.

Once you have the physical connection of the hub and computers, each one requires a bit of configuration. No big deal.

Think it over.

Later.

Tom

Dear Dean,

Send whatever you wish to:

Thomas J. Hesley
RR 7 Box xxx
Altoona, PA 1660x

If you want to have some way of copying files between computers (assuming that this is what you used the LS-120 drive for), you might consider building a small home network and connect all your computers to it. I could assist you with doing that if you are so inclined. And, you could do it for under $200 in materials.

Tom