Tom's Diary

Today’s Chores

• Cat duty
• Shower
• Dispense Mom’s meds
• Deploy the remaining  storage baskets purchased on the   2009-12-08 shopping trip,   per the   Household Organization, 2009   project.
• Check with bank on obtaining a no-fees checking account status for the   WPSBC Alumni Association. 
• Also, for the   WPSBC Alumni Association,  call our investment firm and get them moving on the money transfer to our checking account that we requested some two months ago.
• Arrange transportation, to pick up  [Emmy] at the train station this weekend.

Log

06:45 AM: I’m up.

08:30 AM: Categorized posts in this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.  There are 598 left to go, before all posts here are categorized.

08:35 AM: Going back to bed for a bit.

08:40 AM: It’s sister Mary Ann’s birthday today.  Happy b-day Mary Ann!

10:10 AM: I’m back up again.  So, let’s get started.

11:30 AM: Put up our indoor Christmas tree today.  It’s an artificial one and it’s branches are a bit bent out of kilter from being packed in a tight box all year.  I’ll straighten some of high ones but I’ll let Mom do the res; she’s got the keen eye as well as the patience for this sort of thing.    Since the tree has lights, this comes under the   Christmas Lighting, 2009   project as well.

12:05 PM: Performed above-listed treasurer duties for the   WPSBC Alumni Association.   Click   here   for more details.

12:50 PM: Working the   Household Organization, 2009   effort.  Click   here   for details of today’s activities. 

02:10 PM: Added the following posts to this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog:

• WPSBC Bell Schedule: 1970-1971
• WPSBC Bell Schedule: 1978-1979

02:45 PM: I went out to get the mail, and brrrrrrr.  It’s quite cold, and with temperatures hovering at around 27 degrees at the moment, and with lots of ice and snow on the roof, it’s time once again to turn on the roof de-icers, which I just did. 

03:45 PM: Posted a piece about   today’s repeater songs.

04:00 PM: Put in a load of tea towels and dish cloths to soak in the washer overnight, with a cup of bleach.  Tomorrow, I’ll spin them out, then wash them normally.  This keeps them white and very clean-looking, though I must admit that the bleach weakens the cloth over time so that eventually, you can tear them as easily as you might rip a paper towel to shreds.  So the bleach definitely shortens the service life of these pieces.  But the sanitation provided by the bleach, along with the clean looks, I believe, justifies using it.  So we utilize great quantities of bleach around here; perhaps a gallon a week or so. 

04:10 PM: Mom’s making ham pot pie.  So I brought up the roaster from the basement for her.  It’s ready to go.  Plus, she’s cooking spare ribs for supper. 

06:15 PM: Sister Jojo arrived to take Mom to a students concert at the Bellwood high school.

06:15 PM:  Added a   Banking   category to this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

07:05 PM: Worked the   Christmas Lighting, 2009    project.  Cannibalized an old LED light string for parts.

08:30 PM: Called Garrett to see if he could drive me to pick up   [Emmy]   at the train station this weekend.  Unfortunately, he had already gone to bed.  But sister Christine and I had a nice chat, for around twenty minutes.  She said that she’ll mention my request to him tomorrow; I’ll call back tomorrow night to follow up.

09:15 PM: Worked the   Duplicate Title Tags   issue.  All duplicate titles have now been re-titled in this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.  The next step is to do the same in the   Tom’s Love Quest   and   Tom’s Views   blogs.

10:20 PM: Talked with   [Emmy].  The Penguins won as we gabbed, and this always puts [Emmy] in a good mood; she just loves those Pens.

10:55 PM: Continued categorizing posts in this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.  Only 550 uncategorized ones left to do.

11:10 PM: Posted the list of revised posts today   here   for the   Tom’s Diary   blog. 

11:30 PM: Washed the laundry I’d put in to soak last night.  Those towels look pretty white after 24 hours of soaking in bleach water. 

12:15 AM: Listened to the iPod again for a while.

01:45 AM: Posted the initial cut of the   Significant Dates   piece    here. 

02:00 AM: Headed for bed now.  Catch you all later on.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Banking Related Posts
• Christmas Lighting, 2009
• Diary Revisions: 2009-12-10
• Duplicate Title Tags
• Household Organization, 2009
• Mom’s Status: 2009-12-10
• Repeater Songs: 2009-12-10
• Roof Heaters On: 2009-12-08
• Shopping Trip: 2009-12-08
• Shopping Trip: 2009-12-10
• Significant Dates
• WPSBC Alumni Work: 2009-12-10
• WPSBC Bell Schedule: 1970-1971
• WPSBC Bell Schedule: 1978-1979

Today’s Chores

• Cat duty
• Gather up and take out the garbage (for pickup tomorrow)
• Showering
• Dispensing Mom’s meds
• Checking with our primary pharmacy about Mom’s Humulin insulin prescription to make sure they received the order for it.  They have not as of yesterday.  DONE.  They have it on file for when we need it, later this month.
• Activate my new bank card and update accounts with vendors that have my old card on file. 

Log

05:00 AM: Woke up prematurely this morning; no doubt due to too much pizza last night.  I got a lead ball in my stomach today.    Anyway, I may stay up here a bit and blog.  But perhaps not, as I’m still quite tired and could sleep another four hours easily.  *Yawn*  We’ll see.

05:55 AM: Created a  Deferred Projects   sub-heading in the sidebar for this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog, and moved some projects under that, which I’ll not be able to work until sometime in the new year.

06:00 AM: Headed back to bed for the few more hours that I missed in the first round of sleep.

10:15 AM Okay, I’m up for the day now. 

11:20 AM: Just talked with our primary pharmacy.  They’ve received Mom’s prespription for the long-acting insulin.  The lady gave me the prescription number so that we can use their automated phone system to order it as needed.

11:45 AM: Updated the address the phone company has on file for Mom, per the emergency-911 project, to our new one.

11:50 AM: I had done the same a month or so ago with my telephone.  However they keep sending my bills to the wrong zip code.  So, while I’m on the phone with this fellow, I’ll see if I can’t get him to fix the zip code on my own phone account,  as well as Mom’s.

11:55 AM: Just talked with Rich at our phone company.  He’s made the address changes to both Mom’s and my accounts.  We’ll have to see, in January, if they got the correct zip code.  I guess as long as we’re receiving the bills, the zip code doesn’t matter, really. 

01:30 PM: [Jack] called an hour or so ago, and we just got off the phone a few minutes ago.  We typically have at least one of these “marathon” talks a year, and one almost always happened during the Christmas holiday season, as this one did today.  He filled me in on the good time he had at the foot party last weekend, passed along regards from friends we both share from when I lived in Philadelphia, and he caught me up on the goings-on in his neck of the woods. 

03:25 PM: I’ve spent the past couple hours filing papers, receipts, bills, letters, and junk mail (filed to the trash can), here in the office.  Now I hadn’t planned on doing this today.  But I couldn’t find my new bank card, which I had planned on activating this afternoon.  So I had to plow through the “muck” to see if I could find it.  So while I was doing all that, it seemed like a small additional task to just file everything where it should be filed.  However, I’ve stil not located the card.  So I’ll give the search for it a few more minutes.  Then, I’ll have to call the bank for a replacement.  Indeed, I learned long ago not to look for lost items for too long; causes highly elevated stress levels.  If it’s easier to just replace them, I opt to do that where practical these days.

03:40 PM: The bank is sending me a new card.  I’m glad the agent was particularly understanding and polite, because he waived the normal $7.50 charge for a lost card.  I was lucky, indeed.  Yep, I really have to improve the filing system for cards and papers around here.  Perhaps this will inspire me to step up work on the   Household Organization, 2009    project.  In fact, I think I’ll finish filing all the rest of the loose papers here this afternoon.

04:45 PM: Debbie just arrived for her weekly visit, a day early.  She says that the weather’s supposed to get bad tonight and into tomorrow.  So she wanted to get our   shopping   out of the way before the snow arrives.

05:00 PM: Worked the   Christmas Lighting, 2009   project.  See today’s comments   there   for more details.

07:55 PM: Back from   tonight’s shopping trip.  It’s snowing pretty hard at the moment such that the drive down I-99 had low visibility.  Got a few Christmas gifts and groceries, which I’ll summarize later.

09:06 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

09:15 PM: Mom just got home from her Tuesday night trivia outing.  A couple inches of snow had accumulated on the ramp.  It’s really coming down.  So I shoveled and salted the ramp.  We can’t afford to have the walkway become slick, what with all our helpers coming in and out each day. 

10:40 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:25 PM: Posted the list of posts that I either added or revised today, here. 

12:50 AM: Posted the   Roof Heaters On: 2009-12-08   piece to this, the    Tom’s Diary   blog. 

12:55 AM: I’m now running low on steam.  So I’m off to bed, although I think I’ll look out my bedroom window at the falling snow for a bit before retiring.  Hmmmm.  I wish we had some floodlights on the north side of the house where my windows are, that would light up the snow flakes.  Might this possibly be another project for next summer?    See you tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Christmas Lighting, 2009
• Diary Revisions: 2009-12-08
• Household Organization, 2009
• Mom’s Status: 2009-12-08
• Roof Heaters On: 2009-12-08
• Shopping Trip: 2009-12-08

04:15 AM: I woke up prematurely this morning; probably due to eating too late with Mom and Jojo last night.  Can’t get back to sleep at the moment.  So I’m listening to some of my recent audio journal entries.

05:25 AM: Categorizing some previously uncategorized   Tom’s Diary   blog posts.

06:40 AM: Downloaded and installed the latest free version of the Avast antivirus software suite.  Click   here   to see details of my experience with doing this.

08:30 AM: I just finished categorizing 100 posts in the   Tom’s Diary   blog. 

8:40 AM: Just prepared the bandwidth stats report for November, 2009. See it   here.  Now, I believe I’ll head back to bed for a couple hours, to finish last night’s sleep cycle.  You’ll find me back out here later on today.

11:30 AM: I’m up again; this time, for the day.  I’m categorizing more posts in this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog. 

01:30 PM: I just finished categorizing 50 more posts in the   Tom’s Diary   blog.  Wow, the sun is actually shining in the office window.  With this latest and long string of dark, dreary days, I wasn’t sure when we’d see it again.  But seeing it lifts my spirits; particularly at this time of year when the landscape outside is so dark, so much of the time.

01:45 PM: My chores today include the following:

• Showering
• Cat duty (which involves feeding and cleaning up after the cats)
• Processing all mail
• Getting caught up with the book-keeping for all our   shopping trips   lately
• Dispensing Mom’s meds

05:05 PM: Worked the   Household Organization, 2009   project.   See today’s comments   there   for details.

05:35 PM: Worked the   Christmas Lighting, 2009   project.  See today’s comments    there   for more details.  I repaired another dim LED string outside.

05:55 PM: Supper tonight: Home-made vegetable soup (from the lady next door) and a slice of pumpernickel toast with butter.  Yum!

07:40 PM: I just finished categorizing 50 more posts in the   Tom’s Diary   blog.  That makes 200 today so far.  Actually, I think I’m done with that effort until tomorrow.    In fact, I think I’ll just take a little snooze, right now.  Later.

09:30 PM: Just woke up from the nap.  Calling [Emmy].

10:30 PM: Left   [Jack]  the list of models who will be attending this weekend’s foot party.

11:15 PM: Made Misc. revisions throughout the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

11:40 PM: Posted the list of added or modified posts I did today, to the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

12:30 AM Listened to   Today’s Repeater Song   numerous times.

01:45 AM: Okay, I’m off to bed.  That nap I took earlier has completely run out.  So good night to all, and I’ll be back out here in less than ten hours.  Take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Avast Update: 2009-12-04
• Bandwidth Usage: 2009-11
• Christmas Lighting, 2009
• Household Organization, 2009
• Mom’s Status: 2009-12-04
• Post Revisions: 2009-12-04
• Today’s Repeater Song: 2009-12-05

08:30 AM: I’m up.  [Emmy] is heading back to Pittsburgh today.  So she’ll be doing some last-minute packing, and I’ll be following her around, making sure she doesn’t leave anything behind. 

10:15 AM: Categorized nearly a hundred posts from this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

10:20 AM: [Tad] just wrote to confirm that the next   WPSBC Alumni Association   board meeting is a week from today, Wednesday December 9th, 2009, at 7:00 PM.  It’s on my calendar.

11:00 AM: Revved up the DVR for [Emmy].  She’s watching today’s episode of   Pittsburgh Today, Live   from KDKA TV 2.

12:25 PM: Categorized around fifty more  posts from this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

01:30 PM: Watched the following shows on the DVR:

• Yesterday’s episode of Dr. Phil, called: How to Get Along with Anyone.
• Today’s episode of The Young and the Restless.

03:20 PM: Just finished up our  lunch.

03:25 PM: [Emmy]   is finalizing her packing for her return trip home. 

05:25 PM: We experienced a drizzly, dreary, gray day, all day today, with temperatures hovering in the upper thirties to low forties.

05:30 PM: [Emmy]‘s on the train, speeding toward her home, and I’m here, getting ready for a nap, at mine

06:30 PM: Chatted with Debbie and Mom in the kitchen for around forty-five minutes.. 

08:00 PM: Watched the 2009-11-02 and 2009-11-03 editions of   NBC’s Nightly News   show on the DVR.

08:45 PM: [Emmy] made it home without any trouble.  She says that her computer speakers that I fixed last week work very well.

09:00 PM: Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer just finished playing on CBS. I got it on the DVR so [Emmy] and I can watch it when she comes for the Christmas holiday.

10:15 PM: Categorized all posts in   this   blog, back to early December, 2004. 

10:33 PM: Posted the list links to today’s revised posts,  here.

11:50 PM: Journaled for an hour or so.

01:20 AM: Posted the piece: Started Software Job Today. 

01:25 AM: Time for bed.  I’ll come back out here later today.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Emmy’s Speakers Hum
• Lunch from Sheetz: 2009-12-02
• Mom’s Status: 2009-12-02
• Post Revisions: 2009-12-02

Today, I either added or modified the following posts in this, the   Tom’s Diary    blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, appearance, indexing, and search-ability:

Tom Hesley

07:30 AM: I’m up.  Feeling somewhat woozy; probably from all those   Thanksgiving dinner, 2009     leftovers I consumed yesterday.

10:10 AM: Categorized and renamed the title sections of numerous posts over the past couple of hours.  Later today, I’ll publish a list of all updated posts.

11:40 AM: Just got up from a nap.  Back to post categorizing.

02:00 PM: Just got home from Mom’s doctors appointment.  All is well.

03:00 PM: I just did another hour of more post categorizing on this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

04:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.  However, we’ll have to catch the last fifteen minutes of it tonight, when it airs on Soap Net, because my DVR ran out of space.

04:30 PM: We skimmed through the programs recorded on the DVR, and discarded all the Dr. Phil episodes that pertain to the Dr. Phil family.  [Emmy] already saw them, and I didn’t care to see them.

05:15 PM: Worked the   Christmas lighting, 2009 project. 

09:00 PM: Categorized and de-duped titles of numerous posts in   this   blog. 

09:50 PM: Posted the list of   post revisions for today.

11:05 PM: Watched the 2009-11-24 episode of Dr. Phil, called:   The Biggest Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making.  Nothing too much to say about this really, except that Dr. Phil showed too little understanding for the woman who stole a neighbor’s dog  so she wouldn’t have to continue dealing with its relentless barking and peeing on her property.  Of course, dog napping was wrong.  But in her defense, the lady felt she’d been pushed into a corner by the legal system, which the judge in her case himself said, had failed her.  There was no legal remedy for the noise except for her to move.  I’ve been in similar situations with noisy neighbors and in my experience, the legal system favors the noisy perpetrators more than the folks who must live with the racket.  Dr. Phil’s position echoed the societal view, in my opinion.

12:00 AM: Bedtime.  Catch you tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Christmas lighting, 2009 project
• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-30
• LED String Fails: 2009-11-30
• Mom’s Status: 2009-11-30

Log

10:15 AM: I’m up.  [Tad] just called and I’ll probably be on the phone with him for a half-hour or so.  That’s how long we talk typically. He has scheduled a WPSBC alumni board meeting for December 9th, at 7:00 PM, and I put this on my calendar because I must prepare my treasurers reports for each of these gatherings.  He and [Morra] are on their way to Johnstown to see [Tad's] mom, and so that [Tad] can go deer hunting the day after tomorrow.

12:30 PM: Just added a few more tidbits to the    Snuff Memories   post, created yesterday.

01:50 PM: [Emmy] just finished giving me a wonderful back massage and combing my hair.  Now, she’s off for a nap and I’ll content myself writing stuff here.

03:25 PM: Added the   1984: Year in Review   post.

05:00 PM: I noticed today that I    earned my first writing dollar. 

06:00 PM: [Emmy] and I ate more leftovers from our   Thanksgiving dinner, 2009.

07:45 PM: We watched yesterday’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.

10:34 PM: Added posts for each day in November, 2009, that list all the URLs for the posts that were either added or revised on that day.  I did this to give people a more detailed account of my daily activities on the blogs, and to encourage search engines to index more of my documents.  Click   here   to see a list of these new posts.

11:55 PM: Posted the list of   post revisions for today.

12:40 AM: I just spent the past couple hours categorizing and re-writing duplicate titles in posts in   this   blog, and now, I’m ready for bed.  *yawn*  So take care, and I’ll again write at you tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-28
• First Writing Dollar Earned
• Weekly Backups: 2009-11-28

Weekly backups of all my blog sites completed. Total disk space backed up: 38.7 MB, which includes all databases, site code, and static pages. That’s an increase of 600 KB, from 38.1 MB last week.  The growth continues…

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-11-28

04:00 AM: Woke up way too early.  But I’m not tired. So I came here to blog for a while.

08:20 AM: Spent the past several hours categorizing posts in   this   blog.

08:30 AM: Working the   TTConvWavToMp4 Program Crashing   issue.  I must get this resolved quickly, so I may begin preparing for the upcoming    New Years Eve DJ Gig.

11:20 AM: The problem of the   TTConvWavToMp4 Program Crashing   has been resolved.  Now we can move forward with the New Years DJ gig preparations.

12:40 PM: Added the following categories to    this    blog: 

• Relationships->Romantic
• Relationships->Platonic
• Music->Repeater Songs
• Work Experience->Y2K

12:45 PM: Today’s   repeater song   I found on the week 1 issue for November, 2009, of Promo Only’s Express Audio DFF series.  The song is called   Tik Tok, and it’s by  Ke$ha.  Great dance tune. This woman reminds me a lot of Fergie though her voice to me is more sultry. 

04:10 PM: Wrote a little about my snuff-chewing days   here.

05:00 PM: Watched yesterday’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.

06:15 PM: We had left over   Thanksgiving dinner, 2009   tonight, that tasted almost as good as our initial offering of it yesterday.

06:45 PM: Worked the    Christmas lighting, 2009   project.

07:15 PM: Nap time.

09:00 PM: I’m up again, and just finished categorizing approximately 140 posts today on   this   blog.  There are still 1200 uncategorized posts left yet.  But my goal is to categorize a hundred of these per day until they’re all done, with high hopes that this effort will increase the percentage of the posts here that Google and other search engines make visible in their search results.

11:30 PM: I felt like writing about my thoughts on and experiences with smokeless tobacco.  So I created the post   here. 

01:00 AM: I listened to today’s   repeater song    several more times and hung out with   [Emmy]   for a bit.  But now it’s time once again for bed.  Busy days make me sleep very well and so I’m off to dream land for a well-deserved eight hours of slumber.    So take care and I’ll catch you back here again tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Christmas lighting, 2009
• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-27
• Mom’s Status: 2009-11-27
• New Years Eve DJ Gig
• Snuff Memories
• Thanksgiving dinner, 2009
• TTConvWavToMp4 Program Crashing

Log

06:05 AM: I’m up, after just only four and half hours of sleep. Second night in a row I’ve awakened too early, although the bedroom was not too hot this time.  No, this time, I think I consumed too many calories yesterday, too late in the day, and experience shows that over-stuffing the stomach indeed makes for restless nights.   I feel somewhat refreshed but still a bit groggy, and I’m yawning a lot. So, until either I fully awaken, or grow tired enough to head back to bed, I’ll just work here on the blogs, on the less creative, more mundane tasks like categorizing posts and checking usage stats.

08:45 AM: Categorized a hundred posts in this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog.

08:50 AM: Today’s chores include:

• Cat duty
• Showering
• Dispensing Mom’s meds
• Following up on mom’s month-long, pending order of diabetic testing supplies
• Putting out the garbage (tonight)
• Pay all pending bills

10:30 AM:  Worked the    Thanksgiving dinner, 2009   project while [Emmy] watched KDKA TV’s   Pittsburgh Today Live   show.

11:55 AM: Just head from Debbie.  She’ll be coming tonight to help out with Mom, instead of her usual day, which is tomorrow.  So, I’ll have to get a grocery list together this afternoon.

12:35 PM: Balanced my checking account as well as the WPSBC Alumni Association’s.

01:20 PM: Paid all five pending bills.

01:30 PM: Going to the drug store now to pick up Mom’s diabetic supplies. 

04:00 PM: Worked the   Compaq R3000 CMOS battery replacement project. So far, I’ve located instructions on how to take this laptop apart.  That’s a start. 

04:10 PM: Nap time.

04:45 PM: Debbie just arrived and so,  [Emmy] are heading out for a little   shopping trip    this evening.  

06:23 PM: We’ve finished the   shopping trip,   and upon returning home, discovered that Mom is not here.  However, some one’s red car is parked in the south lot.  She probably went out with someone and the red car’s owner, to dinner.  Hopefully, she didn’t forget that Debbie is here to help her.

07:30 PM:  Sister Christine says that it’s a go for the   New Years Eve party and DJ gig. 

08:00 PM: Deducted and processed all pending grocery receipts from the past few days.

10:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.

11:30 PM: Walked around outside, admiring the Christmas lights.  I already have the Christmas spirit, and Thanksgiving’s not even here yet.

01:05 AM: Added the following posts:

• My High School Graduation
• Leaving 623 North Third Street

These aren’t completely polished yet and the second one has some gaping blank spots that I’ll fill in later.  But I wanted to get these items out there, even if they lack some details at present, so that readers have a cursory if not complete view of some key elements of my life.  So, do enjoy.

01:25 AM: Okay, I’m sleepy once again.  So I’ll sign off for now and be back here in eight hours or less to add more history.  Good night friends, and sweet dreams. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Compaq CMOS Battery: 2009
• Diary Revisions: 2009-11-24
• Mom’s Status: 2009-11-24
• Shopping Trip: 2009-11-24
• R3000 CMOS Battery: 2009