Truer Words - A Journal

Another Wedding Reception for Jed and Alycia

seth@macrobyte.net — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 03:09:19 GMT

Since hardly anyone from the East coast made it to their wedding, we put on a wedding receiption for Jed and Alycia this afternoon. Jed showed lots of slides. (Strangely, Eric didn't mock him all the way through it like he did me when I showed many of the same slides four months ago.) After the slide show, food. Lots and lots of food.

Corinne did most of the cooking (of course). I was frustrated when packing all the food into the Blazer because I was sure there was way too much. (There was more than we needed, but it wasn't "way too much" like has happened before.) The most popular item was, without any doubt, the seafood chowder-like soup. Others cooked also: Mandi, Mom, Dee... maybe Angi? Ellyn? I don't know. Corinne cooked a LOT. She and my Mom both did a lot of work in the planning and preparation for this party… and it really did go off beautifully.

(Brietta Harper will be happy to read...) Feeling inspired after the reception, I've finally uploaded a lot more photos from the trip out to BC in June for the wedding. About 140 more, in fact. I still have another 92 that need to be reviewed, cleaned up and tagged, but this made a huge dent in the pile.

Originally, I didn't upload them because I wanted to make a nice book of photos for their wedding present. We haven't had the money for that kind of thing, so the photos just sat on my drive. Better to share them, so there they are.

I took another big "roll" today. Hopefully I'll find motivation to upload them soon. Believe it or not, there are even pictures of Lauren in there! (No, really!!)

Update: Here they are.

Jed and Alycia Are In Town

seth@macrobyte.net — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:39:36 GMT

My brother and his wife are out here visiting for a couple of weeks. Haven't seen him (or really even spoken with him) since the wedding back in June (which I'm surprised to discover I wrote NOTHING about, so I can't link to it!), so it's great to see both of them. They're staying at Mom's and Dad's house, but yesterday morning they came over for a few hours and had lunch, and then we all went to Gary's and Ellyn's house last night for dinner.

The biggest thing for me was Lauren meeting Jed... but in the end seemed to be much more impressed with Alycia than with him. Alycia can make a "clicking" sound with her mouth that makes Lauren smile every time.

Had a great time at the Schlag's last night. In attendance: Jed and Alycia, Mom and Dad, Corinne, Lauren and Myself, Ben and Mandi, Stan and Windy (Ben's parents, up for two weeks from Houston), Carrie, Mark and Tory (friends of Ellyn), and of course our hosts Katie, Tom, Gary and Ellyn. Food was good, conversation and "play" was even better.

Unfortunately, Lauren has a cold so Corinne took her home early. After a long conversation with Stan and Dad, I went downstairs (their basement is set up a bit like a 50's diner) and had another good chat about some fairly lofty subjects (spiritual life vs. religion, evolution, etc.). Then we made up for it by playing "spin the quarter" for at least 45 minutes.

Later, Dad drove me home.

Jed Has Finally Entered Canada!

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:00:15 GMT

Jed just called me. He's finally in Canada... more than three months after he left our house!

(You may recall that a driving violation, years ago, had prevented him from crossing the border back in December, and he's been stuck in Seattle ever since.)

On March 10th he let us all know that he was finally free to enter Canada. He called me a few times today... his paperwork had arrived, and everything was ready to go. Then he needed directions to the closest Post Office on his way out of Bellingham, and promised he'd call again either after he crossed or was bounced yet again.

The funny (or amazing) thing is that this time they didn't even care who he was. They didn't ask for any paperwork, never ran his plates. They didn't ask to look inside his camper trailer. They never even asked him to step out of the truck!

Next up: Mister and Missus. I can't wait!

Look Out, Canada!

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:12:08 GMT

Look out, Canada! My brother's new fiancé is on your side of the fence, and he's coming through!

So I am going to try to cross the border tomorrow about mid day here. I will be going to the Peace Arch crossing, just South of Vancouver.

He's done everything he could think of, satisfied all of their paperwork requirements. I think he's finally reached his limit.

Heh. [Insert old addage about unstoppable forces and immovable objects, here.]

Happy New Year, One and All

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 16:22:11 GMT

2006 was a good year for me and mine, in many ways.

To all of my family near and far, to my ecclesia here and worldwide, to all of my friends new and old, close or distant:

Happy
New Year!

Hoping 2007 will be even better, for all of us...

A Sense of Family

seth@macrobyte.net — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 02:44:31 GMT

Jed moved in with us at the end of July, 2005. His bedroom was in the back corner of our finished basement, right off the incomplete kitchen. My office is down here also, at the other end of the house.

I've always worked long hours — being self employed makes that almost unavoidable — but having Jed down here changed something for me: I regained a sense of family that (I'm ashamed to admit) I'd lost at some point in the years since Corinne and I were first married.

It's not that there was any trouble in our marriage. Not even close. We still felt like a couple, and we've always been in love with each other. We just weren't a family. Maybe it was related to losing Shane, I don't know.

Children aren't a required element of a family: I believe you can be a family of two. Plenty of parents-and-children "units" aren't very family-like. So, to my mind, children aren't the key.

Having Jed around provided me, at least, with that sense of family. The moment he left (Dec 6th), I was instantly aware of the loss of that feeling. I felt family-less.

At the same time, I became keenly aware of Corinne, upstairs, going about her day. She's home more now that she's not working, and her “office” (the bird room) is still having the drywall repaired and repainted, so she spends most of her time in her “new” office (the livingroom right above my head), or in the kitchen which is just one room over. I hear her movements, puttering around the house, talking to the animals or on the phone (or to herself!)

So what of it? I've found my lost sense of family by doing the obvious: spending more time upstairs, with the person (and critters) that make my family unique. I've totally stopped watching TV (for a couple of weeks, now), too, so when I'm upstairs I'm able to pay more attention.

Aside

Related to this — though I'm not quite sure how — is another change. I've been going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, every single day. Going to bed by 11 and getting up by 7 when everyone else is still sleeping, then having my breakfast and doing the readings out on the deck as the sun comes up.

Nothing earth shattering, but it's weird that this happened without my making a conscious decision to do it. For months I had been going to sleep extremely late, and then was too tired to get up at any decent hour.

Again, it changed when Jed left, but I think this is just one effect in a long chain of causes-and-effects.

I can't over-stress what a big deal this is for me. A lot of things in my life feel more “right,” now, than they have in a long time. And of course, this “sense of family” is stronger than it was when Jed was here (brother versus wife...). Plus, work has been more challenging and rewarding than it has been in years.

Questions

What will happen when the “bird room” is finished (possibly Friday, with a couple more days to move all the stuff back in there) and Corinne's office is no longer in the living room? There's no room for me to park in the bird room in the evenings, so it looks like we're going to replace Corinne's eMac with a used (or cheap and new) laptop so that we can BOTH be in the living room (or wherever).

If we're going to do it, I'm hoping we can pick it up before MacWorld SF. It'll be handy for her to have her own machine, so she can still check her email after mine is stolen from the show floor. ;-)

(Oh, hey, I hadn't yet mentioned that we're going to MacWorld...)
With all of these changes, all this new-found sense of family and rightness, will things get even better (or just “differenter?”) when we have the brand new baby girl here in the house?

(Oh, hey, I guess I hadn't mentioned that yet, either!)

Stuck in Spokane

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:47:24 GMT

The transmission in Jed's Durango bit the dust last night, just as he exited the highway in Spokane, Washington. That was supposed to be his last night in the US for awhile, but now he's stuck there in Spokane for at least another day.

He sent out an email to lots of friends and family this morning, and called me a few minutes ago. "I'm so close I can taste it!" were the first words he said on the phone.

The transmission is completely gone, so whatever service station he's stuck with is completely replacing it with a factory rebuilt.

We both knew his transmission was risky before he left, as it would slip once or twice when cold. Little issues like that were most certainly not going to keep him here for a few more days, though.

I'm glad that it worked fine all the way through the mountains and at least two snow storms, and waited to die until he was in a relatively safe and populated area. (In fact, we're all happy about that.)

Jed's Progress

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 22:51:16 GMT

Jed is making some real progress in his move out to British Columbia. He just called (I think mainly because he was bored) a few minutes ago.

He had a flat tire today on the trailer which cost him a full four hours in Ohio. It would have been just 30 minutes, but before leaving he joined A Better World Club instead of AAA, and apparently they're restricted in Ohio. I'm not sure what that means or why it would be so, but that's what he said. He was at a service station for 3 ½ hours while waiting for his tires and then actually had to install them himself.

There were various other problems with the trailer that cost him a full day, but they're all sorted out now.

He'll be in Indiana tonight. When we spoke, he was coming up on Toledo, OH.

He's not enjoying this trip, but at least he's ok and making progress.

One More Change

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 21:56:43 GMT

Corinne's office/workspace has been what we call "the bird room" for the last eight years. It's just her, four parrots, her eMac, and a couple of cats vying for her attention. :-)

Tomorrow morning a "drywall contractor" will be here to rip out all the drywall and window trimming in the room, replace it all, and repaint. A couple of years ago that room developed a leak in the skylights. The leak has been fixed, but the drywall is beyond repair.

I moved all of the furniture from the living room into the dining room, then Jed and I moved all four cages into the living room. And Corinne's desk. And her big filing cabinet. And the bookcase. And the Tupperware cabinet. And the cat tree. And...

There are still a few odds and ends to be moved out, but basically it's all ready for him to start working tomorrow morning. That room really needed a good cleaning, so moving everything out of there was a great way to force it.

For now, her space is all set up in the living room. The birds will have stay in their cages until the work is done and they can go back into their own room. Then I'm going to have to figure out some way to protect the (new) window trim from the beak of AJ the Wood Chipper. I'm seriously considering some sort of plexiglass frame, but I haven't really thought it through yet. (Maybe I can talk Corinne into re-joining some of her old bird lists to see if anybody has any ideas, or maybe Google knows...)

Oh, yeah, I guess it's clear that Jed is still here. The title history report for his camper trailer didn't show up until Saturday at 2:30, which is two hours after the CT DMV closed for the weekend. They open again on Tuesday morning at 8:30, and he's planning to be the first in line. In other words, barring yet another unforeseen complication, he'll be leaving for British Columbia sometime Tuesday morning (probably while I'm having breakfast with Rich!).

(Even though he sent his request for the Title History Report via Priority Mail, and included a pre-paid Priority Mail envelope which they used to send it back, it still took 12 days round trip between Mystic, CT and Boston. Stupid governments.)

Changing Seasons (Update)

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:23:21 GMT

Two things have continued to keep me from my site in the last week:

Jed's just about ready to leave. He's just waiting for some paperwork so he can register his camper-trailer... which is already packed pretty tightly with most of his stuff. In the last week we've had an ecclesial "going away party," a family dinner, and a great 'guys night' with Mark, Darren, Jed and myself (great food, the readings, and my first ever "after 9:00" victory at Big Boggle).

A lot of people are very happy for him, but we're all going to miss him. As Eric said, "Don't think of it as losing a Jed. We're gaining a hole!" Yeah.
(This one will only make sense to the true geeks...)

I'm NeX deep in TeX, and I can honestly say that last night it gave me a serious HeaDaXe. I'm really not jOXinG, even if it seems lixe I am.

In faxt, I've spent so much time in TeX lately that it has affexted my speech. I've lost the ability to pronounce words like "ConTeXt" in a way that maxes sense to normal people.

If I'm good, luxy or both, today will be the last full day of this TeX-induced HeaDaXe.

I'll explain that last one if anybody asks, and if anybody still reads this stuff. ;-)

Season of Change

seth@macrobyte.net — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 21:38:20 GMT

I'm not afraid of change, generally, but that doesn't mean I'm immune to the stress it brings. Right now so much around me is changing that there seems to be another source of stress no matter where I look.

Macrobyte has been doing fairly well this year... enough that Corinne put in her notice and is finally staying home again. It's been a long, long time. She still has some healing to do. Hopefully being able to focus on some other areas of her life will help with that. (Plus, I never wanted her to have to work in the first place.)
Our plans for Thanksgiving this year have been pretty messy. Corinne thought she was going to have to be working so she didn't sign up to serve the shelter. That was a disappointment. Then she gave her notice. I believe things have worked out and we know where we're going, but it hasn't yet been finalized. Wherever we end up, they'd better allow us to bring some food! :-D

Seriously, I can't imagine going to a big dinner like that, with Corinne, without at least a few pans/dishes in the back of the Blazer.
Jed (my brother) has lived with us since late July, 2005. Despite the obvious stuff like space issues, (occasional) fraternal friction, and some loss of privacy, I have truly loved having him here.

Unfortunately, he's not just moving out, he's moving away, putting an entire continent between us. It's for the best of reasons: he has found true love, but Alycia lives in British Columbia. Logistics were such that it made more sense for him to go there than for her to come here, at least for now.

So there's a trailer-full of mixed emotions over this one. I couldn't be happier that he found her, but I'm selfishly sad that his find is our loss. Plus there's a hint of jealousy, because he's moving to my favorite place, somewhere I haven't even managed to visit since Corinne and I went to BC on our honeymoon in '97.
Jed has been our ecclesial secretary for years. Him leaving is a bit like throwing all the cards up in the air. While I think it's good to shuffle things around, it's most definitely a source of stress.
Mark & Michelle are pregnant! This is officially 'super cool,' the only downside to it is that Mark isn't willing to be the secretary in Jed's place because he's going to have a new baby to care for. I don't blame him, but it's too bad because he was the obvious choice.
As long as I'm listing stuff that's changing... my Mom and Dad are moving their 'warehouse' to a completely different facility. This isn't a real big deal for me, but it's one more happening in a family that's a little overloaded at the moment.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Isn't that enough?

Tuesday's Grab Bag of Highs and Lows

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:57:47 GMT

Tuesday was an intense day, with some very high highs and very low lows. I'm just going to brain-dump it all.

Low and High:

Perry died. This is very sad for all of us, but he lived a long, full life and had plenty of time to know even his great grandchildren. I had to call this both a high and a low... it's hard to attach anything "all bad" to Perry Lanphear.

High:

Breakfast at Snoopy's Diner with a friend and client. The business side of the meeting went well, as plans were made and progress reviewed. The friendly side of the meeting was even better. Best of all were the pancakes! Mama mia. Must take Corinne there so she can replicate those Apple-slice-filled beauties. (Oh wait, I gave up food. Nuts!)

High:

After my gigantic breakfast, I drove up to see Steve Davis in MA so we could go for a ride. He had a basketball game the night before, so was worried that he'd be too tired for my pace. I promised that I would ride super hard the day before and then eat a huge breakfast to weigh me down. I did both, but neither were necessary: he kept me talking the whole time! It's hard to push the pace when you're talking so much that you can't breathe heavily. Sneaky, Steve.

This was ride #103. Stats: 36.4 miles (58.60 km) in 1h 59' 37" for an average speed of 18.25 mph (29.39 kph).

Low:

Our average speed for that ride. (Sorry Steve, couldn't resist.)

High & Low, Again:

After I left Steve's place, I went straight to Gary's & Ellyn's house in Westerly. Ellyn had invited the whole family for a "send off dinner" for Gramma and Grampa. They were up here in New England for much longer this year than previous years, because of Mandi's wedding, but now they're heading home and last night was our last chance to see them this year. I was about 90 minutes early because the alternative was driving all the way home, finding something to do for 30 minutes, then driving back again.

I had a chance to watch Grampa cut down a whole Pineapple into rings. He'd never done it before, and definitely did not like the fact that there's so much waste. Rather than just slice a little more deeply as he "skinned" it, he made shallow cuts and then worked with a paring knife to dig out the bits of rind that were left. After slicing it down, he carefully cut the inedible core out of every piece. This was all both highly amusing and rather painful to witness, but he didn't cut *himself* so all's well that ends well. :-)

Almost everybody made it to the dinner. Corinne had to work until 6:30 so she was late, but wanted to be there so she could say goodbye. Dad was there until 6:45, but had to leave to teach a class. Gary worked late but made a quiet appearance while we were still eating (spaghetti and meatballs). Katie's in Colorado so couldn't be there at all. Mandi, just back from her honeymoon for a day, showed up just before G&G were about to give up and go back to their rental for the night. (She had to work late, also.) Sarah was there but left a little early because Art, who couldn't make it due to work, needed some dinner. Everybody else in the family (Mom, Jed, Ellyn, Gramma and Grampa, Tom, and Rusty) was there, too.

Quite a day.

I'm Done Eating.

seth@macrobyte.net — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:28:23 GMT

Yesterday Corinne and Jed pooled their talents to cater the wedding rehearsal dinner for my cousin Mandi and her fiancé Ben Isbell.

I don't want to eat any more. Period. I'm done. NO MORE FOOD.

Last night undid six months of trying to lose weight and get in shape.

I don't have the worst of it, though. At least I don't have to try to shoehorn myself into wedding garments.

The evening started with enough hors d'oeuvres to nearly fill the fifty people that *may* have been there (only about 35 showed, I think). Then came the tenderloin steaks (with Bernaise sauce!), the grilled swordfish, the chicken asiago, the twice baked potatoes, the corn, and at least a dozen other items I haven't remembered.

When everyone was completely stuffed, with buttons popping left and right and quiet whimpers of "please, no more!"... only then did the bread pudding make its appearance.

The pudding was alive, and had telekinesis. It looked into our stomachs and pushed the food down (Jed said it pushed it down into his leg). Suddenly we all had "just a little" more room.

The pudding was wily, though. It expands to triple — nay, quadruple — its original volume AFTER you eat it. A few of the guests actually exploded.

So, I'm done. No more food. I've eaten enough, and don't plan on being hungry anymore.

Except maybe one more bite of that bread pudding. But then I'm really done.

Machine Gun Fire!?

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 29 May 2006 03:15:03 GMT

After i returned from my ride, today, I sat in my office to complete some work. Jed's at Mark & Michelle Drake's house for the evening and Corinne is cooking so this is a nice, quiet time to work.

I'd been sitting here working quietly for over an hour when suddenly... a machine gun started shooting at me! Seriously!

Ok, maybe not seriously. But it sounded like one, and I don't want to guess how many years this took off my life. Scared the … whatever … out of me. Seriously.

What was it? Took me a few seconds to figure it out, too, so bear with me.

We're rebuilding our deck this weekend. Jed (my little brother, the chef-turned-carpenter) is running the show.

At night, he puts many of his tools in my office, which is just inside the sliding doors near the deck.

Apparently, he “forgot” to shut off the big air compressor — which runs his nail gun — when he was done working for the day. With nobody using the nail gun, the pressure leaked out of the tank very slowly. Eventually, the motor kicked on to re-pressurize the tanks.

That sucker's loud, and I hadn't even noticed that it was in the room!

Now I need to “accidentally” leave a jet engine under his bed tonight, and then “accidentally” turn it on after he's asleep. ;-)

He Broke His Thumb

seth@macrobyte.net — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 14:45:52 GMT

Jed underestimated the damage to his thumb. At work -- he's a carpenter -- yesterday, he dropped a 2x4 of ipé on it. (ipé is a super-dense hardwood from Brazil. An eight foot board weighs approximately a million pounds.)

I won't go into too much detail, so here are the highlights: lots of blood, thumbnail popped out from under the cuticle but remained attached at the top, pain (lots of pain), more blood, and one big-and-annoyed Dillingham.

His boss took him to a walk-in clinic and covered all the costs. Very cool, Jed has a good boss.

X-rays show that he fractured *the tip* of his thumb (the distal phalanx of his left thumb).

The doctor had no problem with him drilling a hole in his nail to relieve the pressure. If he'd gone to the emergency room, they would have done something similar but with something very hot instead of a drill bit.

He has the day off, today. I guess he doesn't want to risk dropping any more Brazilian trees on his thumb until he's a little more healed up.

Someday, I'm going to have to enumerate all of the injuries he's had. This latest one isn't a very big deal: he's jumped off of a roof (nothing suicidal) and been blown up! (We joked the other day that his list of injuries make him sound more like an international spy than a chef-turned-carpenter!)

Update: In case it wasn't clear, the thumb on which he dropped the 2x4 is the very same thumb which he smashed-and-drilled a few days ago.

Holy Smashed Fingernails, Batman, that Boy's Just Not Right

seth@macrobyte.net — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 02:18:31 GMT

The log basket in the bottom of the fireplace in our (finished) basement has been screwy since we moved in here. It's a cheapo, and apparently warped from the heat so that the back legs stuck straight out of the back of the basket instead of pointing down. Result: they don't hold the wood up off of the bricks, so there's no airflow and thus more smoke.

It used to drive Shane nuts... but not enough for him to spend the money to replace the basket (or even ask me to do it).

Now it's driving Jed nuts... but his rope is a little shorter ;-) so he decided to try to "fix it" today. He brought the basket outside, and used my twenty pound maul to 'coax' the legs back into the right shape. A temporary fix at best, but better than no fix at all.

Except... he held the (cast iron) basket with one hand, and tried to whack it with the other. One of his strikes caused the basket to bounce harshly, and jammed the thumbnail of the hand that held it. Violently. By the time he came back down here, the base of his nail was turning purple and throbbing badly.

His solution? (Look away if you're squeamish...) Drill a hole in his thumbnail to relieve the pressure.

I kid you not. He did this with a drill bit out of my toolbox, and his cordless drill.

The first hole missed the spot, and nothing came out. A little later, when he could no longer take the pain and blood was oozing out through his cuticle due to the pressure behind the nail, he drilled a second hole closer to the base. The blood-spotted napkin(s) near his chair attest to the success of his second attempt.

Ew.

On the other hand (actually, the same hand!), he says it stopped hurting, which was the whole point.

Jed's New-to-Him Computer

seth@macrobyte.net — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:49:04 GMT

Jed (my brother) is not happy with Apple right now. His laptop (a tiBook 500) is dying a slow and painful death. Last week, he ordered a refurbished iBook from the Apple Store. He ordered it over the phone, and they told him it would ship out within one or two days.

That was Wednesday. Saturday morning, it still hadn't shipped, and the order status page now said it would ship on the 17th! He called them, they said it would ship out on Monday. Monday it didn't ship, and they told him it would ship in 12 to 24 hours. Next day, still hadn't shipped. More phone calls. They finally said they'd ship it overnight for free. He checked the order status, it shipped by Fed-Ex Ground. Another phone call, they apologized and said they would refund the shipping costs and give him and extra $30... which still hasn't happened (but it may, it's only been a day).

The customer service person actually admitted that Apple gave him "the runaround."

Now he's sending them a four page, hand-written letter to describe the experience from his side. I hope they don't just blow it off.

Jed has been using Macs for as long as I have (since our first 512KE in the mid-80's), but this is the first time he's bought anything directly from Apple. It was a really bad experience, and I'm afraid they've convinced him to find other means of purchasing his hardware from now on.

I'm sure they could make up for it by giving me a huge discount on a MacBook Pro, though. Really. Jed would feel much better about them if his big brother got a great deal. Honest!!

Thanksgiving Day at the WARM Shelter

seth@macrobyte.net — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 15:21:09 GMT

(OK, I'm a little late with this...)

Thanksgiving day was fantastic. I've always loved this day, but this year it was completely different and better than ever.

Corinne organized a huge donation of prepared dishes from her coworkers at the bank, and brought it all to the Westerly WARM Shelter (a homeless shelter and halfway house) on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning, Jed barbecued two turkeys, and Corinne drove to the shelter to start setting up. Dad met me there at 10 so we could set up the slushy machine (we were expecting about 80 people between lunch and supper), and he took two more turkeys home to cook on their grills for the supper.

At noon, I delivered the turkeys that Jed had grilled and carved to the shelter, helped set the tables and then left. Two girls from the bank helped her serve lunch for a little less than twenty people (I would have been in the way, it's a small kitchen).

I went to Mom's and Dad's to hang out (and wait for the turkeys) instead of going home. They were going to have dinner with Art and Sarah, and invited me to join them, so I got to spend a couple hours with all of them and my nieces Allison and Talia. Art and Sarah made most of the dinner, and it was quite good (especially the mashed garlic with a hint of potato!).

While I was there I tried to use my Dad's Compaq laptop. It's a 1.7 Ghz P4... it should be fairly responsive but instead is insanely, painfully slow. Appaerently 256 MB isn't enough RAM for the dozen or so virus, trojan, worm, and adware blockers he's running! We ordered another 256 (from datamem.com, of course).

The turkeys went on the grill a little late, and it took Mom and Dad a little while to figure out how to tie up the bird so that the legs wouldn't fall off in the grill... because Jed had injected a honey/mustard/orange mixture and broken the skin, they were worried it would fall apart. This whole situation was hilarious, with Dad trying to get Mom to say it was ok to use wire to tie it up, Mom finally giving in, Dad saying he didn't have any (!), Mom wanting to use a big rubber band (on the grill!!), and me panicking at the thought of rubberized turkey.

Forty-five minutes before I had to be at the shelter with the turkeys, we took them off the grill to start carving... but they weren't done. The joints (knees?) at the fat end of the legs were still somewhat raw. The carved meat would have to go in the oven at the shelter for a little while before anybody could eat it (not a problem, there were leftovers from lunch that could get the meal started, if necessary).

Next problem: we didn't have any pans in which to put the meat. We chose a couple of stew pots for transport, and I called Jed to ask him to meet me at the shelter with some foil pans from home.

Jed showed up, we transferred the meat into the fail serving pans and into the oven, with time to spare. He stuck around to help serve so Corinne could take a break (she'd been at it all day).

The shelter is very nice, it's a very friendly and, uh, "warm" atmosphere. Most of the people there are full-time residents (rather than transients), on their way to full recovery from alcoholism and returning to normal lives (that's not to say that they're all fully recovered and functional, but they're all improving).

Supper was served from 5:30 to 6:30. We started packing up, Dad showed up at 7 to get the slushy machine, and we were out the door by 7:30.

That's a fairly dry recounting of what happened, but let me tell you what I learned this year. As odd as it may sound, Thanksgiving is a pretty selfish holiday. Most of us spend the day stuffing ourselves, trying to be perfect hosts, watching football games and parades, and trying to be thankful for whatever good things we have in our lives.

My thankfulness, my thanksgiving, was always legitimate. I've always had something for which I felt thankful.

Last year Thanksgiving Day was hard for me. A thirty-plus year tradition of celebrating the day with a big family gathering died with Shane (March '04), and it wasn't easy for me to let it go. 2004 was a transitional year.

This year I learned how much better it feels to put aside the 'feeling good' about the blessings in your own life, and instead put yourself out there to *do* some good in someone else's life; giving someone else a little something to be thankful for.

At the end of the day, after being on her feet in that kitchen almost non-stop, Corinne said, "my body aches but my heart feels good."

Amen, baby.

(One last note: the day went so well that Laura, the volunteer coordinator, has asked Corinne to handle the Christmas meal.)

Birthday Lunches

seth@macrobyte.net — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 21:47:05 GMT

Mom and Dad took Corinne, Jed and me to a newish Indian restaurant in Groton for my birthday lunch today. Mom and Dad have never been to an Indian restaurant, but it's my favorite and one of Corinne's favorites (second only to pizza?). Very nice place, and they have a lunch buffet every day of the week! (Dad got three DWD peppers in their spicy dish, the rest of us didn't get any. I'm glad I had just warned him to watch out for them.)

Mom and Dad brought Corinne home, and I ran over to the other side of town to get my hair cut... but the barber shop was too crowded so I just came home again. (Same problem this morning.)

Brad Powell (long-term client, for years now) called a little after I got home. I'd been trying to reach him all morning. Why hadn't he been available? His wife had taken him to NYC for his birthday lunch! He almost didn't believe me when I said that I had just gotten home from my own. Happy Birthday, Brad!

Oh, and Corinne likes that I'm 33 now, because it's symmetrical. :-)

Displacement

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 15:11:16 GMT

You can't pour a gallon of life into a pint-sized glass without losing something. That's an awkward way of saying that the last week has been really busy, but I finally have a few minutes to explain how and why.

Things I haven't written about as I should have, simply for lack of time (or priority):

Wednesday night, Corinne and I had dinner with the Rudds, on the Atlantia. Good time, beautiful boat, lovely family.
Thursday I sailed with the Rudds from Mystic Seaport to Old Lyme. Driving by car takes 30 minutes, max. Sailing takes more than five hours, as it's straight into the wind. I have a partially written story and lots of pictures...
Saturday, Mom and Dad moved. This took almost the entire day, even with lots of help from the ecclesia.
In October, ~~2004~~ 1994, I rented an apartment in Ashaway, RI for Mark Drake, Dave Bilello, and myself. $550 / month!!! I even paid to have some structural work done to the place, because it was otherwise such a bargain.

I lived there for about a year and a half before moving down to Niantic, CT. Jed (my brother) moved in. Dave died of cancer. Andrew Ellison moved in. Mark married Michelle Shaw. Ben Isbell moved in. Now the remaining three (Jed, Andrew, Ben) have been evicted because the landlords have decided that they want to spread out a little (some of their family is moving out of the first floor into the second floor apt.).

Rentals around here are pretty expensive for such a rural area. That place was a fluke, they couldn't find anything similar for less than $1200. So, Andrew is moving into his parents' basement, Ben into Ellyn's & Gary's, and Jed into mine. This is all temporary, until everyone is sure they have solid employment and can find a place they can afford (together or not). All that to say that Jed's been moving in here, and his entrance is right through my office.

There's more. Lots more. A significant PMC update, an important ride story, etc., but I'll save those for separate updates.

Unfortunately, with so many things happening, I had to choose between writing about life and actually living it. That's no exaggeration: if I'd taken time out to write about all this stuff in the last week, something would have been skipped, or I'd have slept even less than I did. This bulk update is a compromise, but it's better than nothing.

Sunday Picnic, Chess, and Frisbee

seth@macrobyte.net — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:53:58 GMT

Sunday afternoon, Corinne took a nice, long nap, and I went over to Gary & Ellyn's for a cookout with "whoever wants to show up with some food." (I brought a half-dozen jalapeño hamburgers, and some tortellini salad, all made by Corinne.)

A bunch of us sacked out in the living room in front of the Red Sox game while we waited for the food to cook. Thankfully, that didn't take long: watching regular season baseball on the tube is painfully boring.

After we ate, Darren challenged me to a game of chess at the table by the pool. I haven't played in a couple of years, but the only person I may have played against more often than Darren was Simon. (Simon and I played many games per day for a couple of months, Darren and I have been playing since we were teens.)

I started off well, capturing some of his key pieces and a number of pawns. He made a strong comeback, and had me on the ropes for awhile, even predicting (numerous times!) that I'd be in checkmate within two or four moves. We were frequently interrupted by people asking incredulously if we were "still playing the same game!?" My patient and completely fallacious response was that Darren takes a really long time to move. :-D Actually, in the old days I would take so long to move that he would either play another game with someone else (concurrently), or read a book!

In spite of his bold predictions, I staged my own strong comeback and nearly had the game sewn up... until I made a completely stupid move that resulted in instant checkmate. I should have used Darren's magical "undo" feature to make my bad move go away (ahem!), but instead I just conceded defeat.

After the game, Jed joined us for some frisbee in the front yard for about 45 minutes. Then we had supper, followed by more frisbee with three of the young'uns (Tommy, Tamar, and Autumn) doing very good imitations of Monkeys in the Middle. The festivities didn't end until it was almost too dark to see the frisbee about to hit you between the eyes.

All that throwing and chasing of the frisbee resulted in some really stiff, sore muscles. Monday morning, my right pec was on fire, and my right ankle hurt enough to make me wince just going down stairs. :-) It was worth it.

(Added an hour later: I'm so forgetful! One of the reasons I posted this was because Darren-the-lefty told me this morning (in an email) that his left arm was so sore he had to drive with his right.)

It's too bad we only have one vehicle. I didn't find out until later that Corinne wanted to go to the picnic after her nap, but didn't want to ask me to come get her. (There's another one, same place, next weekend...)

Server Retirement

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 15:54:07 GMT

Macrobyte's original Free-Conversant server was retired from the ISP a couple of weeks ago, and replaced with a much faster machine (which was another of our servers, whose position was filled by a brand new crazy-fast machine).

This is a machine I built from the ground up, in late 1999 (I think my brother-in-law Art helped some, but I can't remember for sure...).

Until yesterday, the plan was to sell it on eBay for whatever we could get. Instead, it's now in service as my brother's eBay slave. I guess eBay has some software (turbo lister) that only runs on Windows, so Jed's slummin'.

This is a sort of trade, though. He's going to list some of my remaining machines for me. I have way too many functional-but-unused computers around here that need to go.

Happy Birthday Jed

seth@macrobyte.net — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:13:54 GMT

My brother turns 30 today. Happy Birthday!

Just Add Water

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 23:05:23 GMT

Last year, Jed (my brother) sold his Grand National models on eBay and did pretty well.

Now he's selling the real thing. If you like a lot of muscle in your car, check it out. The GN doesn't look like a racer, but... well, it is. Cult classic, too. (In 1987 it was the fastest production car, outperforming even the Corvette.)

Back to Logan Again

seth@macrobyte.net — Wed, 31 Dec 2003 13:55:38 GMT

Jed's flying back into Logan Airport this afternoon at 5, so I'm driving back up to Boston again to pick him up. We're hoping to make it back in time for the devotional and festivities, but it'll depend on the (never very good) Boston traffic, and his flight arriving on time.

Happy New Year, everybody! See you in 2004!