Toms Diary

Today’s Business: 2011-06-25

Saturday, June 25th, 2011

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

07:00 AM: I’m up.

08:30 AM: Beginning this week’s blog system backups.

09:00 AM: Installed the 32 bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium on my Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop. This machine does not support a 64 bit OS. So I’m stuck with 32 bit. Not bad though. It’s still quite fast.

09:30 AM: Blog system backups have finished. Details here.

01:00 PM: Carried several trips worth of junk and garbage out of the basement and placed them on the junk pile out back.

02:00 PM: Washed the business area of the basement floor with bleach; cat cleanup duty.

03:00 PM: Nap time. Back later.

04:10 PM: I’m awake again.

07:30 PM: Ordered a Dell XPS 8300 desktop computer for [Emmy]. We’re both getting new computers this year.

09:35 PM: iPodded for a couple hours with the new 6th generation Nano. Nice machine, but it’s very small. Not sure I like it. But perhaps I’ll get used to it. Admittedly, it’s easier to use than I had imagined when I first saw it in the store.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy]. Hmmm. Now I think I feel a summer cold coming on; the left side of my throat feels a bit irritated and scratchy. That’s the only symptom so far.

12:00 AM: Browsed around on the Internet, reading some of the Google blogs to which I subscribe.

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs. The monthly keyword hit count moved higher again this time, and now stands at 1608; up from 1592 yesterday. The new record high is now 1608 key phrases therefore. The next goal: 2000.

12:15 AM: Bed time. More tomorrow. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

Consumer Reports magazine; the 2011-06 edition.
Promo Only’s Urban Radio music series; the 2011-07 edition.
Promo Only’s Modern Rock Radio music series; the 2011-06 edition.
Senior Scope newsletter from Blair Senior Services; the 2011-3Q edition.
Mom’s monthly prescription summary from her medical insurance company. No suprises.
Misc. banking papers.
Misc. insurance advertisements.
Misc. and numerous medical bills for Mom.
Sewage bill.
PNC Flex VISA credit card offer. Not at this time, thanks.
MFJ ham radio catalog.
Gas bill.
Chase Freedom card offer. Not at this time, thanks.
Weekly coupon mailers (2).
Bank of America VISA credit card offer. No thanks.
Metlife auto insurance offer. No thanks.
Rubbish collection bill.
Mom’s Disney Rewards card. Hmm. I’ll have to cancel that account.
Notice of a fare increase from $2.90 to $3.00 for each one-way trip on the Blair Senior Services van. This will take effect on 2011-07-01.
Credit card offer from Citi. Not at this time, thanks.
Co-payment bill from eye specialists for Mom’s 2011-04 visit.
Grand opening for Planet Fitness gym in Altoona.
Co-payment medical bills from Mom’s primary care physician (2).
The Writer magazine; the 2011-06 edition.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

04:00 AM: I’m up, temporarily.

05:30 AM: Identified 61 more extra long posts to shorten and tighten up on the Tom’s Love Quest blog.

05:45 AM: Nap time. Back later.

07:00 AM: I’m awake again.

08:00 AM: Leaving now to visit mom and to perform the weekly grocery shopping. Back later.

01:00 PM: I’m back home. Notable purchases today: A 6th generation iPod Nano, and I found some iPod wall chargers for $5 apiece. Normally, these goe for north of $20.

02:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

03:30 PM: Ordered a Dell XPS 8300 desktop computer. Originally, I’d wanted to go with 16 GB of RAM. However, that would have added $360 to the total cost. So I decided to purchase the stock 8 GB instead, which did not raise the price at all.

04:30 PM: Unpacked my new iPod 6th generation Nano and added the Walking playlists to it. Man, it’s small; little bigger than a watch actually. I hope it’s not too hard to access.

05:20 PM: Skimmed today’s rerun episodes of Dr. Phil via the DVR.

08:00 PM: Watched the 2011-06-06, 2011-06-12, and 2011-06-19 episodes of the CBS news show Face The Nation via the DVR.

09:55 PM: Upgraded my primary DJ music computer from Windows Vista 32 bit Service Pack 2 to Windows 7 64 bit Service Pack 1. No issues or problems encountered. The upgrade went about a s smoothly as expected. This is the first I’ve ever used a 64 bit operating system at home. So I’m eager to see how much faster it is. Indeed there have been some noticeable speed improvements.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs. The monthly keyword hit count moved higher again this time, and now stands at 1592; up from 1580 yesterday. The new record high is now 1592 key phrases therefore. The next goal: 2000.

12:15 AM: Bed time. More tomorrow. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Wash (2) loads of pending laundry. DONE. 92 loads done in the washer now.

Log

05:30 AM: I’m up.

05:40 AM: Found that the CHKDSK operation I began on this computer last night also hung. So this hard drive is apparently beginning to fail, and CHKDSK cannot repair it. Thus, I’ll look into replacing it in the coming days. I think I’ll go SATA this time; this motherboard supports SATA but the current drive is still IDE. This faulty drive will likely be among the last IDE drives I employ for my computing.

05:50 AM: Got caught up on my blogging in the Tom’s Diary blog.

07:50 AM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> How Blind Men Find Women Attractive piece.

08:40 AM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Radio Shack NOAA Weather Radio Cube 12-500 (12500) Review piece.

09:35 AM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Radio Shack Composite AB Selector Switch 15-312 (15312) Review piece.

11:10 AM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Less Quid Pro Quo, More Unconditional Love, Please! piece.

11:55 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Against NFB’s Self Sufficiency Philosophy piece.

01.55 PM: Purchased a nine-year renewal for the wpsbc-alumni.org domain. Cost: $55.36.

04:00 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> What Is Sound Check in iTunes and iPods? piece.

04:30 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> How To Copy Songs From Multiple iPods Into iTunes Library piece.

05:00 PM: Baked some fish fillets for supper.

06:00 PM: Watched the 2011-06-10 and 2011-06 12 episodes of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

06:50 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

07:15 PM: Leaving for walk 25 of 100 for 2011, over to Logan Valley cemetery. Back later.

08:00 PM: I’m back home. Nice walk. Partly sunny and a bit hazy. Warm, but not overly so. Still, I broke a healthy sweat. Yep. At my age, walking indeed makes me break sweats.

08:45 PM: iPodded for a half-hour or so on the east porch.

08:50 PM: Ouch. Rocking perpendicular to those widely-spaced porch slats makes for quite the bumpy ride. Grrrrr. I feel like I just got off of a bull. Time to lay some plywood, for sure.

09:40 PM: Today and tomorrow are the longest days of the year. Yet it’s barely 9:30, and it’s almost dark here. Must be all those darn clouds. I remember when I lived in Dayton, at the extreme western edge of EST, that you could see the last remnants of daylight in the western skies as late as 10:30 PM. But I’m too far east for that here.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy] and we watched tonight’s rerun episode of Hawaii Five-0 live on CBS. In some cases, I enjoy the reruns more than the first runs.

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs. The monthly keyword hit count moved way up this time, and now stands at 1414; up from 1359 yesterday. The new record high is now 1414 key phrases therefore. Next goal: 1500.

01:00 AM: iPodded and Facebooked simultaneously. Hmmm. I guess that makes me a true multi-tasker.

01:05 AM: Bed time. More tomorrow. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None yet.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. Sister Jojo is taking care of my cats this week.

Log

09:00 AM: I’m up.

10:00 AM: Watched KDKA TV’s Pittsburgh Today Live variety and local information show with [Emmy].

11:15 AM: Access to my home computer via the Internet has for some reason been interrupted; I can no longer log into it from here in Pittsburgh. I expect that it probably blue-screened. I’ve noticed it doing that recently, and that’s a sure sign that yet another power supply is going bad. I’ll have to replace it when I return home. Hopefully I can get sister Jojo to reboot it sometime in the next day or two.

12:30 PM: Watched KDKA TV’s local news broadcast at noon.

01:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless, but without the DVR. No DVR here in Pittsburgh.

03:00 PM: Walked a few blocks to Centre and Millvale avenues, to get my hair cut. I got a buzz cut this time, with a #2 clipper all over my head. Haven’t gotten a crew cut like this in 40 years. So I wonder how Mom will react to seeing it. She hit the roof back then, when I stepped off the train one Friday night as I was returning from WPSBC. They used to give us students free monthly hair cuts, and the first time they offered one to me, I said, “take it all off.” Well, Mom was not too happy with that choice.

04:00 PM: Skipped today’s rerun episode of Dr. Phil.

07:00 PM: Watched KDKA TV’s local news broadcast with [Emmy].

10:00 PM: We listened to an hour’s worth of new music on the ipod.

11:00 PM: Watched tonight’s rerun episode of Hawaii Five-0.

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs. The monthly keyword hit count is up a little again, and now stands at 1324; up from 1300 yesterday. The record high is now 1324 key phrases. Next goal: 1500.

12:15 AM: Bed time. More tomorrow. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Wash (1) load of pending laundry for Mom. DONE. 83 loads done in the washer now.

Log

07:05 AM: I’m up.

11:00 AM: Finished adding all pending current music from Promo Only to my music library. I now have roughly 1000 songs from 2011.

12:00 PM: Synced all hard drives with the updated music library. Now, the library occupies 389 GB.

01:00 PM: Listened to some of the new music on my 3rd generation iPod Nano. Still sounds great.

01:05 PM: Today’s repeater song: You’re Not My Daddy by Eva (Featuring Baby Bash).

03:35 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Definition: Offensive Dating Double Standard piece.

05:15 PM: Power outage occurred due to strong thunderstorms in the area.

07:15 PM: Power just came back on. I spent the off-time journaling and iPodding.

09:25 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

09:55 PM: Check out the guitar strings on the Google home page today, in memory of Les Paul. Move the mouse over them, and they play! Neat.

10:00 PM: Losing my mind? Two keys on ring.One for south door, other for east. But I often forget which is which. Is the dull one east or south? Just when I got the pattern, the dull key would not open the right door. It turns out both keys have a shiny side and a dull side. I was just looking at the wrong sides when picking the key to use. Grrrrrrr. I’m not nuts, though perhaps most disagree.

10:45 PM: 2-hour power failure this afternoon from 5:15 to 7:15 PM. Almost two hours exactly. Lightning bolt knocked it out, and hit close enough that I heard it snap in the air conditioner here in the office, followed a quarter second later by a THUNDEROUS crash.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs. The monthly keyword hit count decreased a bit, and now stands at 1294; down from 1300 yesterday. Well, once I start posting again now that I’ve finished updating my music library, the hit count should resume its upward climb. Next goal: 1500.

12:10 AM: Bed time. More tomorrow. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Wash all (2) loads of pending laundry for Mom. DONE. 54 loads done in the washer now.

Log

06:45 AM: I’m up.

08:00 AM: Heading out shopping with sister Jojo and to visit Mom too. Back later.

09:15 AM: We finished up at Walmart, then stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts and the bank. Next, we’re heading over to visit Mom.

10:15 AM: We had a short visit with Mom, as she had to leave for a doctor’s appointment shortly after 10:00 AM. But she’s doing fine. Her mood is quite good this week. However, we noticed some red dots on her face. So we asked about her blood clotting values (blood thinness). They say that the readings are good but they’ll keep an eye on the dots, and let us know if any problems develop. Her left foot seems to be healing well, and she continues to do well in physical therapy. All in all, this week was on the good side of stable for Mom.

11:00 AM: I’m back home, and all groceries are put away.

11:45 AM: So, I’ve allowed my iPod Nanos (3rd and 4th gen) to run completely dead a few times now, and most of those incidents subsequently necessitated RESTORING the iPod. That’s a pain because upon restoration, one must recopy all desired music to it, which can take over a half-hour in my case. Moral: Recharge your iPod BEFORE it goes completely dead. Period.

12:10 PM: Ran the lamb’s wool duster around all ceilings and walls on the first floor, just to be sure that no cobwebs have formed around here since Mom’s been gone. So far, so good. None seen.

12:15 PM: Leaving now for walk 7 of 100 in 2011. Back later.

01:35 PM: I’m back. Cemetery walk again. Another spectacular clear and sunny day with a bit of late summer haze oddly enough. A bit cooler than yesterday’s walk, I did not become too overheated in my dark sweatshirt and blue jeans.

02:50 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

04:00 PM: Nap time. Back later.

05:00 PM: I’m awake again.

07:10 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Pressure To Mimic Parents’ Success piece.

10:00 PM: Listened to the 2nd playoff hockey game in the first round between the Penguins and the Bolts. The Tampa Bay Lightning won however, 40 to 1 this time. This best-of-five series is tied.

11:00 PM: Watched CNN’s AC 360 news show.

12:25 AM: Posted the Fun Fundraising Ideas piece.

01:00 AM: Read more of the Book: James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights.

01:05 AM: Bed time. Enjoy your weekend. But do come to visit during it, because I’ll be here, writing away. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None yet.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

08:30 AM: I’m up. Sunny this morning. So I’m up early.

08:45 AM: These cats are driving me crazy. They’ve learned to start this relentless meowing as soon as we come down to the kitchen. Our female cat yowed so incessantly that I had to get the spray water hose after her. This quite effectively shut her up. Hopefully, she won’t become immune to it. I don’t use it that often; just when she really acts spoiled and demanding.

09:15 AM Re-synced [Emmy's] iPod. She complained that her CBS RMT 1974-1975 playlist was sorted in the wrong order. She wanted the episodes to play earliest-to-latest. So I sorted the list this way in iTunes and re-synced. That fixed the order on her iPod.

09:25 AM: My main writing computer (this one) is still periodically locking up, even after disabling all add-onsin Internet Explorer. Perhaps I’ll try booting it into safe mode and see if it still freezes there. At any rate, I think I’ll copy my email files over to the backup machine and transfer all operations away from this one. I haven’t reformatted this one in going on three years. So I should do that too, just to rule out the possible presence of corrupt or rogue software.

10:30 AM: Repaired the CD player that a friend brought me to look at on Saturday. He said the CD door would not open, and he was correct. It would not. So I took the top off of the player and found that there was a data disc jammed inside. The hole in the center of this disc was a bit smaller than what is typically found on a music CD. I got it out and the door then opened and closed as it should. I notified the customer and he should come pick the unit up sometime early this week.

12:00 PM: Watched the Witnesses to 9/11 piece from the History Channel, that I recorded on the DVR this past Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This was a collection of more home videos taken in New York City on the morning of 2001-09-11.

12:15 PM: Wrote 400 more words into the Tom’s Views –> Acceptance and Equality Together piece.

12:30 PM: Performed final editing and then posted the Tom’s Views –> Acceptance and Equality Together piece.

01:25 PM: Mom’s nursing facility is to call me Thursday morning with an update on her condition as they see it. Okay, I’ve got the appointment on my calendar.

02:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR.

04:45 PM: Finished computing what people owe me as of the end of this month. Yippie! It’s worth spending the hours each month to figure that out, so I can get my money back.

07:00 PM: Cooked tonight’s supper; consisting of chuck steak, home-grown broccoli, and a salad featuring cucumber, an avocado, and several tomatoes.

10:20 PM: Watched The History Channel’s mini series: America: The Story of Us; Part One on the DVR. This one covered the early colonization of America, from the arrival of the Deliverance and the Mayflower ships from Europe, through the winning of the revolutionary war (war for independence) from around 1620 through 1789. Excellent show. I’m eager to see part two tomorrow.

12:00 AM: Debated more on Facebook about the proposed mosque at ground zero, and iPodded. Bed time now. Tomorrow’s another day. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

Balance transfer offer from Chase bank. Not at this time, thanks.
Credit monitoring update report. No fraudulent activity against me lately.
Promo Only’s Modern Rock Radio series; the 2010-09 issue.
Survey for Mom to fill out from her hospital in Pittsburgh and their cardiovascular institute.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

10:00 AM: I’m up. Fully sunny and warm so far.

10:15 AM: Sister Jojo called, offering to take [Emmy] and I to the park. However, since I’ve just gotten up, and [Emmy] is still sleeping, I had to decline, as we could not be ready by the time she wanted to depart. Oh well. Perhaps we’ll go tomorrow with one of the lions, when he drives there to work Bingo.

11:00 AM: Posted the Dear Susan Jacks piece to the Tom’s Love Quest blog.

02:00 PM: Heading to DelGrosso park to spend the afternoon sitting in the lounge chairs at the water park. We’ll also stroll over to the main concourse and ride the merry-go-round perhaps.

02:10 PM: We’re at the park and just paid $25.90 for admission for the two of us. Not bad for a whole day’s worth of fun.

03:00 PM: I took a little note pad and jotted some notes while people-watching. Well, to perfectly honest, I was girl-watching. I’ll write about the experience at some point, should inspiration to do so encourage me.

04:30 PM: Okay, we’ve spent two hours at the water park, enjoying our iPods and the music through the park PA systems. Now we’re headed across East Pleasant Valley Boulevard to where the rides are.

05:45 PM: Let’s see, we did indeed ride the merry-go-round, the Crazy Mouse, and the little train. Now, we’re grabbing a little supper at the outdoor restaurant close to game land.

065:00 PM: We enjoyed a couple of steak sandwiches at Murf’s Kitchen. Unfortunately however, I couldn’t get their free outdoor WiFi to work with my iPod Touch. I was able to connect to it, but could not access any of my favorite Internet radio stations. Something must be wrong with their Internet connection.

06:20 PM: We then met sister Jojo near the park’s main office for our ride home. She had come to pick up her daughter, who had come to the park with a friend for the day, and her younger son, who was working as a life guard at the park.

06:30 PM: We’re home again.

06:45 PM: After enjoying some cream cheese jello, we’re taking a nap. Being out in that bright sun this afternoon has really played me out.

08:45 PM: While dozing, we listened to the 2010-05-27 episode of KDKA’s local news at 5:00 PM on the DVR.

09:50 PM: Watched last night’s and tonight’s episodes of NBC’s Nightly News on the DVR.

12:35 AM: Watched the 2010-05-28 episode of Dr. Phil, and the 2010-05-23 episode of NBC’s Nightly News; both from the DVR.

12:40 AM: Going to bed now. Good night, take care, and see you tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

The 2010-05 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.
Notice that plastic and paper recycling is coming to our area.
TigerDirect catalog.
Invitation to nephew Trey’s graduation party. We’re going.
Balance transfer offer from Capital One bank. No thanks.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

07:30 AM: I’m up.

07:05 AM: Read more of the Happiness Now book overnight.

02:30 PM: All my sisters and some of their children just arrived for a Mother’s Day lunch. Mom’s making sandwiches, salad, and pork in the oven I believe. I showed my State College brother-in-law the iPod Touch. He was impressed with all the apps you can get for it and of all the diverse things these programs make it do.

03:15 PM: Sister Christine and I played around on Facebook; she wanted to figure out how to UN hide friends. We found one way; kludgy perhaps. But it works. I’ll seek a more elligant solution this week.

03:55 PM: [Emmy] surprised Mom by calling to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. We wish [Emmy] could have joined us today. But she’ll be visiting us a week from today for a couple weeks. I always like when she comes to visit, as she breaks up the monotony that I sometimes find myself in when I’ve written too many words in too short a time; I do need a break, as it’s been ten weeks since my last one. It’ll be good seeing [Emmy] again.

04:00 PM: Sister Mary Ann got what appears to be a 5th generation iPod Nano gift for Mothers Day from her daughters, and I’ve been contracted to populate it for her. She gave me a $25 gift card to buy music with, and she’ll let me know during the upcoming week which songs she wants to buy. She also supplied a couple CDs to rip onto it from Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts. She’ll pick it up on Friday.

06:00 PM: After the meal, the adults hung out in the living room, savoring our full bellies, and listening to the kids talking about school plays and proms, upcoming summer activities, and each other.

06:45 PM: The last of the family just left. Now, I’m taking a nap.

07:20 PM: Facebooked throughout the day. Some of what I wrote there, here.

09:15 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes news show on the DVR. They covered the heightening concern over home-grown terrorists and how foreign terrorist groups may now be targeting American citizens to kill Americans. They also showcased Hilary Clinton and her tireless efforts to negotiate with and assist the Pakistani government to capture Al Qaeda operatives hiding there. Then, for their last story, they covered people who, though they can afford to make their monthly mortgage payments, have nonetheless decided to walk away from their debt, and let their homes default back to the banks. Informative show.

09:45 PM: [Emmy] seemed a trifle depressed tonight. So we talked way shorter on the phone than is typical for us. But with the next Penguins game tomorrow night, we’ll make up for it then.

11:00 PM: Watched CNN news. The big story: Obama pics nominee for Supreme Court justice.

11:15 PM: Fog is descending on me. Yep. Time for bed, it is. So good night. It’s back to business as usual tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No mail on Sundays.

May 2012
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