Toms Diary

Today’s Business: 2010-07-22

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Make train reservation for the WPSBC Alumni Association convention next month. DONE.

Log

07:15 AM: I’m up. No doctors appointments today but I think I just woke up early because it’s so pretty outside and I did get to bed relatively early last night. So, here we go with another day…

08:20 AM: Read a bit more of the Frankenstein book overnight.

10:10 AM: Added 700 words to the Be Yourself section of the How to Attract Women post on the Tom’s Love Quest blog.

11:45 AM: Headed to sister Christine’s for swimming today. Back later.

12:10 PM: On the way over, I stopped at Sheets for a mini shopping trip for lunch items.

06:30 PM: Worked the Laptop Shuts Off: 2010-07-15 project.

06:35 PM: Ordered a round-trip train ticket to Pittsburgh for the WPSBC Alumni Association convention in August. Total cost: $32.30.

07:00 PM: We’re home. Wonderful afternoon. The sun was neither too hot nor bright and the temperatures were just right; in the mid eighties. We listened to some 1960s tunes, floated around in the pool, basked in the hot tub, and enjoyed some Papa John’s pizza. I also had a chicken sub from Sheetz. I had to challenge nephew Garrett on his strong support of the death penalty a little, and some comments were made with a disparaging air about immigrants that we had to nip in the bud. That made for a slightly charged atmosphere for a little while. But we all left the gathering just as we entered it this morning, as friends, and I think people definitely learned a thing or two from the conversations. That’s good.

09:00 PM: Watched CNN’s Rick’s List In Prime Time news show. So far, so good. I think Rick will do quite well in prime time; just what the news-seeking audience needs to balance out the opinion-casting of Bill O’Reilly and Fox News. Boy, Fox sure screwed up that Shirley Sherrod thing, didn’t they?

10:00 PM: I must schedule a dentist appointment tomorrow. I’ve got some pain and sensitivity to resolve.

10:15 PM: Facebooked and blogged since we finished viewing Rick’s List. Now, we’re off to watch The Young and the Restless.

11:00 PM: All TV viewing done for today. Bed time now. So check back in here tomorrow for more drivel. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

TigerDirect catalog.
$10 reward certificate from CJ Banks.
American Express card offer. Not at this time, thanks.
Notice of expenses paid by Mom’s medical insurance company.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Balance all checking accounts.

Log

05:30 AM: I’m up. Looks to be a sunny day coming up.

07:00 AM: [Emmy] just boarded the train to Lancaster, PA. Neither of us slept well overnight; she because she’s worried about the visit home, and me because I ate at nephew Trey’s graduation party too late last night. But she’ll nap on the train, and I’ll nap here in my bed once the cable company comes and goes this afternoon. Mom scheduled a visit from them to check out our phones. Some calls are garbled, and they want to rule out any equipment failures in the house here before they investigate the external network.

11:30 AM: Wrote an additional 2000 words into the Last Time With Emeebee piece on the Tom’s Love Quest blog. Again, this work is still under construction. But you’re welcome to check it out while it’s still in progress if you wish.

12:20 PM: [Emmy's] train is almost to Harrisburg. She called to say that she’s getting more nervous by the mile as her reunion with her ex foster parents grows nearer. She’s not seen them in a few years, ans is likely anxious over what might have changed there and how she’ll get along in the new environment. I comforted her as best I could, remembering how Dad used to calm me down when I got nervous over traveling to Pittsburgh forty years ago.

03:30 PM: The cable guy came this afternoon to further investigate the garbled calls problem on our phones. While he found nothing specific that, when removed actually fixed the issue, he did shorten the cable run from the pole into the house by 20 to 30 feet by rerouting. This gave us a few more DB of both up- and downstream signals, which may improve picture quality on our televisions. Some Misc. tid bits he shared with me during the work were:

At no point during any call do our phone signals go over the Internet. In fact, our system differs from companies like Vonage and Magic Jack in just this way. This, he said, is why our phones can sound so much better than theirs.
This company has dedicated fiber lines that connect them to Verizon, AT&T, and other big-name carriers. So they do not need the Internet to route calls to people on other phone systems.
This phone system uses an upstream channel and a downstream channel.
The upstream channel, AKA the return channel is lower in frequency than analog television channel two.
When the signal on the return channel is compromised, such as happens with loose cable connections, faulty coax, and so on, this can cause people we talk to, to hear garbled audio. However, they may sound fine to us.
The garbling may be due to an extremely busy phone network. However, he informed me that this company just purchased a new switch at a cost of 2 million dollars. Once they bring it online and “re fence” some customers, network contention will be markedly reduced.

04:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR.

05:00 PM: I learned a few moments ago that [Mom] loaned out my roofing ladder, again, without my approval. She did this last fall and I waited over a month to get it back; and its return came only after my placing several calls to the borrower. After that incident, I’d asked her never to loan my stuff again to anyone without my express permission. But she’s gone and done it again. I’m not sure what leverage I actually have to make her stop short of moving away from here. I guess I could put all my tools under lock and key. Hmmm. Perhaps that makes the most sense; for it’s not as drastic as moving; for I know that if I was forced to leave, once gone I doubt I would speak to her much anymore. So, I’ll get a big chain and lock and secure the ladder with it, and hopefully, this will nip this problem in the bud.

08:20 PM: Worked the Lawn Maintenance: 2010 project. Grass cutting #4 for this year is complete.

10:20 PM: Talked to brother-in-law Rich. He needs an Ethernet cable. I placed a 50 footer in the kitchen for him, should he decide to stop by on the morrow.

10:25 PM: Bed time. Take care. I’m beat. So catch you tomorrow? I hope. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Do two loads of laundry. IN PROGRESS.

Log

05:30 AM: I’m up. [Emmy's] hands are bothering her and so, she could not sleep. When she returns in July, we’re going to visit a new hand surgeon for a second opinion on al this chronic wrist and palm pain she’s been experiencing. Unfortunately, he does not take her medical insurance. So I may have to write him a letter and plead her as a hard-luck case. We’ll see.

07:30 AM: *Yawn* I blogged for a bit; sending out several friend requests to some ex-coworkers, and I wrote 600 words into an upcoming post as well. But I didn’t get enough sleep yet, and now that [Emmy] has gone back to sleep, that’s where I’m headed too. More later.

10:15 AM: I’m up. Fully sunny and 80 degrees so far. The skies are a hazy blue, and the sun is blazing.

01:30 PM: [Emmy] watched today’s episode of Pittsburgh Today Live on KDKA from the DVR, while I wrote a couple hundred more words and organized the office here a little.

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

03:50 PM: Mom drove us to DelGrosso park to drop nephew Tyler off at work, and to grab some Texas hot dogs for lunch. Mmmmmm. We’re back home.

04:20 PM: Now, leaving to take [Emmy] to her train home. The southern skies look dark; a storm is coming. Not to worry though, as the train station provides ample shelter, even at train-side for boarding passengers. Mom’s driving us there; her first time doing so since her foot problems developed last fall. I hope therefore, that riding with her is a sound choice. Back later.

05:10 PM: The train arrived a few minutes late, after the worst of the thunderstorm passed. In fact, no rain was falling when [Emmy] boarded the train.

05:50 PM: I’m back home again, and [Emmy] is on her way. Crowded train today (being a holiday). So the only seat available in the car they directed us to, was the one closest to the bathroom of any of them; I guess that’s why it was the only seat available. But hopefully, they cleaned out the facilities well in Harrisburg so that [Emmy] won’t have any nasty odors to cope with throughout her trip.

Mom drove very well this trip. It’s good that she’s able to get around town again because she won’t be here as much, and so she and I will likely not butt heads as often. But the downside is that she’ll likely spend more money; making her financial affairs more difficult to manage. Indeed, she’s already started spending; new glasses here, a thousand-dollar dental bill there. So I’m bracing. But if she overspends, I can worry about it no more. We’ve tried everything we know to save her from herself to no avail. It’s her life, and if she does spend too much, she’ll have to deal with the results. So I feel good.

08:30 PM: Spent the past couple hours writing some upcoming posts.

09:45 PM: [Emmy] made it home safe and sound, and says that her Internet is working well once again; you’ll remember that two weeks ago, it had failed, and the failure was not resolved before she left to come here.

10:15 PM: Recorded audio journal episode AJE-2010-05-31-21-52.

12:30 AM: Watched the 2010-05-31 episode of NBC’s Nightly News on the DVR.

01:30 AM: Watched the 2010-05-31 episode of Dr. Phil on the DVR.

01:35 AM: Headed to bed, so happy Memorial Day, and we’ll catch you again tomorrow. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No deliveries on this Memorial Day holiday.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Do 4 loads of laundry. DONE.

Log

09:45 AM: I’m up. Sunny outside so far with deep blue skies. Looks promising.

09:50 AM: Called [Emmy]. She’s ready to begin her trip to here, which is starting off with a couple of her friends taking her to breakfast. They’ll then drive her to the train station after that. Nephew Garrett and I will pick her up in Altoona later this afternoon. She mentioned that her Internet is still out. Wow. I’ve never had an Internet outage here that lasted more than a few seconds — well, once, a connector went bad in the basement, that took it down for an hour or so. But service to the house here has been always available in the entire eight years I’ve subscribed. My cable company’s got the idea of reliable Internet infrastructure down pat.

12:33 PM: Transcribed audio journal episode AJE-2010-05-06-11-12. Now, I’m working the notes into a piece for Tom’s Love Quest.

01:05 PM: Posted the Facebook Update: 2010-05-06 piece to the Tom’s Love Quest blog.

02:45 Watched today’s episodes of CBS’s Face The Nation and NBC’s Meet The Press news shows on the DVR.

03:00 PM: Nephew Garrett arrived. He’ll hang out until 3:30, when we’ll go to the train station to pick up [Emmy].

03:30 PM: Leaving now.

04:05 PM: [Emmy's] train just arrived, and she said that she saw [Mentat] on it, apparently coming back home from his girlfriend’s place. Coincidence. They did not sit together however, but [Emmy] heard him talking at the ticket counter. Then, once on the train, she did briefly say hi. But we don’t know if he recognized her. But he was very polite just the same.

04:30 PM: We’re back home, and we have [Emmy] here now for the next couple weeks. Nice to see her again. Nap time.

08:00 PM: We’re awake again. Going to eat a light supper of Kashi cereal and organic skim milk.

08:40 PM: Watching TV now.

10:10 PM: Watched Friday’s episode of The Young and the Restless, and I deleted it this time, so I would not view it a fourth time. Now, [Emmy] is watching Friday’s episode of Dr. Phil, and I’m here in the office, blogging.

11:50 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News.

11:55 PM: Writing will be sparser than usual the next couple weeks, as I’ll be entertaining [Emmy]. But I’ll still peck out some lines just the same. I don’t want to lose my momentum, which is why vacations scare me. Often times, it takes me much longer than just the duration of the vacation, to fully get back into the swing of writing. So I don’t take many; at least, not many full-fledged ones, where I’m totally away from the computer. I need to write some to keep the creative juices flowing; even on vacation.

11:55 PM: Now, we’re heading to bed. So good night.

Received Mail and Shipments

No mail delivered on Sundays.

Tom Hesley

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

07:00 AM: I’m up.

07:03 AM: Read more of the Grapes of Wrath book overnight.

07:05 AM: Weight’s up a pound from yesterday. It’s now 174.5 Lbs. Sugary items are still my big downfall when it comes to these diets See here for a summary of the progress on this goal so far in 2010.

07:45 AM: All items for [Emmy] are ready to go. As soon as Debbie gets here, we’ll load them up and head to Pittsburgh. I’ll fill you in on the detail of the trip when we return, later today. Who knows, I may even get a little blogging in at [Emmy's].

08:15 AM: We got on the road for Pittsburgh.

08:45 AM: We visited Lowe’s home improvement center (it’s so nice that they’re open so early on Saturday mornings) to purchase a step ladder for [Emmy]. They just installed several new cabinets at [Emmy's] kitchen, and some of them are too high for her to reach without a ladder. So we found her a three-step Rubbermaid ladder with a high handle that she can hold onto, even when she’s standing on the highest step.

01:00 PM: We set up [Emmy's] new Panasonic microwave oven. Looks to be a nice large-sized unit with lots of power (1250 watts). I tested it out with a cup of water, large mug of water (12 to 14 ounces of liquid) and it heated it to near boiling in under three minutes.

01:30 PM: The guy who takes [Emmy] grocery shopping stopped by to meet us, and to help her place some tactile stickers (bump dots) on the various buttons on the new microwave oven. With these, [Emmy] can work the oven easily, without being able to see the control panel.

02:30 PM: We drove out to Mom’s high school friend’s place (Martha). Then, Martha, Mom, [Emmy], Debbie, and I went to Olive Garden for lunch. Yum!

04:30 PM: Next, we headed back to Martha’s for a little more visiting, where we met her youngest grandson. Cute baby, but he had a cough and wasn’t feeling very well. However, Mom managed to bring a smile to his face by singing several children’s songs to him.

06:30 PM: Then, we drove back to Oakland from Baldwin, and Mom and Debbie waited in the car while [Emmy] and I shopped for groceries for [Emmy]. This time we bought lots of non perishables ( hand soap, dish soap, paper products), and we topped off her supply of milk, yogurt, and raisins. Busy day!

06:45 PM: Then, we said good-bye to [Emmy] and headed for route 376 east, and home.

07:30 PM: Stopped at Sheetz and I bought a bag of Welch’s fruit snacks; the Berries and Cherries flavor. These things are amazingly good, although I’m sure that is just because they’ve managed to get lots of extra sugar into them.

09:00 PM: The trip continued as the skies in the Laurel mountain range darkened. Then we got into a political discussion; two democrats and one republican in the car. I can definitely see how uncontrolled discussions like these can lead to the destruction of long-time friendships. But still, I’m glad that none of us shied away from debating. Debates do accomplish good things at times, though it may not appear at the time that we’re getting anywhere.

09:50 PM: We’re back home. Wow, we did a little bit of shopping today.

10:30 PM: Talked with [Emmy]. She’s thrilled to be completely restocked with groceries, and she again has WiFi. I hooked up an access point for her. I brought her Westel DSL modem home here to reconfigure as a straight access point. Then in June, I’ll take it back to here and bring the one I left there yesterday back home. Unfortunately, her IRIS WiFi Web Radio did not work with the new access point any better than it did when I first bought the radio. So if there were any firmware updates issued for the IRIS, they don’t appear to have helped very much to address the reliability issues for the WiFi.

10:35 PM: Bed time once more. So I’ll see you right back here tomorrow. Take care, thus, and good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010.

Log

07:20 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday. It’s still 177.0 Lbs.

08:30 AM: Ate breakfast.

10:30 AM: I’m packed for the return journey home. Spoke with Mom. Debbie will pick me up in Altoona this afternoon.

11:40 AM: The cab just arrived. I’m now on my way to the train station.

11:50 AM: I’m here at the train station in downtown Pittsburgh now, with the bright sun warming my back as I’m standing on the concrete platform near the train.

12:50 PM: I’m now on the train. They just told us that it’s a sold-out train this afternoon. So far though, no one has claimed the aisle seat beside me.

01:19 PM: We’re pulling out of the station now. Still, the seat beside me is empty. I’m listening to the iPod Touch.

02:20 PM: I grabbed lunch in the cafe’ car, that consisted of a bag of M & M’s and two garden burgers.

02:40 PM: Lunch is done. Now I’m going to nap a bit.

02:50 PM: We just pulled into the Johnstown, PA stop. I called Debbie too, and she says that she, Mom, and sister Christine are finishing up lunch in Ebensburg, and that they’ll be at the Altoona stop when I get there.

03:47 PM: I just got off in Altoona. The weather here is as sunny as it was in Pittsburgh three hours ago. Debbie and family were waiting for me as they promised when I crossed over to the other side of the tracks from the platform, to where they were.

04:20 PM: I’m home once again. My bedroom is chilly; Debbie did not sleep up here after all while I was gone, opting instead to sleep in Mom’s bedroom so she could hear better if Mom needed her during the night.

04:30 PM: Replaced three of the sixteen fluorescent bulbs here in the office. Uncanny that so many of them would burn out while I was away. Fortunately however, only the oldest bulbs failed. All the newer ones are fine.

05:00 PM: I received the blank cartridges for the NLS DTB player, the mailers, and the cables to populate them that I ordered at [Emmy's] last week. I copied some of my journal entries to one of them and they played fine in the player, although it did not speak the individual file names. Then, I plugged in one of the DTB cartridges from the library and found that it had many files on it, besides the 3gp audio files. Apparently these others have time codes for announcements of the various parts of the book such as the title, part and chapter headings, and so on. At first glance, this data appears in XML and DTD files that are part of the book package. Hmmmmm. Perhaps someone has written software to facilitate creating cartridges for these players.

05:15 PM: All but my suitcase is unpacked now. I think I’ll read a bit.

08:00 PM: Read chapter six of the Team of Rivals book.

10:15 PM: Talked with [Emmy] on the phone. We miss each other already, and it’s been less than twelve hours since we enjoyed the other’s physical presence.

11:00 PM: Read chapter seven of the Team of Rivals book.

11:10 PM: Okay, I’m going to bed. Perhaps I’ll read another chapter in the Team of Rivals book. But the formal part of my day ends right here, right now. So good nght, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Take care.

Tom Hesley

May 2012
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