Thursday, March 18, 2010

Life goes on



It's been about a month, so I guess it's time to check in here.

Yay! I finally, thru the efforts of our local Geek Squad, have my inherited lap top on wireless. This is a good thing. I will now be able to be online at the same time as my wife or son, without going through complex negotiations or feeling guilty about wrestling the desk top away from one of them.

I can also recline on sofa or the "Dad chair", which is what we sometimes call our old leather recliner at our house, and simultaneoulsy be on the lap top and vaguely watching t.v.
That's probably about as close to conciously multi-tasking as I try to do.
Ok, I'm notorious for not being able to talk and drive at the same time.



One really anoying thing about this lap top is that as I'm typing, the cursor is jumping back through the previous text. Several times per line. Sometimes halfway back through the previous word, sometimes a whole line or so. I suspect that it may be somthing I'm inadvertantly doing on this unfamiliar keyboard, or perhaps I'm just hoping that's it and that I'll soon figure it out, without having to call Geek Squad back for a tune up.

Health continues to be an issue. I.B.S. is not going well. more tests going on, blood work, upcoming colonoscopy(oh, That'll be fun), etc. I was not aware that one can take daily vitamins and still be "seriously" deficient in vitamin D, or that they can/will write a prescription for weekly mega-doses of same. As you might expect, all that can put a serious damper on one's self employed earning ability, as well as one's ability to make obligatory work deadlines.
Hey, it's not like a single proprietor in a service industry needs a positive reputation for time-reliability, right?

The rest of this spring is set to be rediculously busy, hectic, a little scary, um, you know life.

Yesterday, I spent four and a half hours leaning into an aft cock pit deck hatch, attempting to fix a vacuum leak in a marine head system. It was less than totaly successful. The toilet will indeed flush, however the vacuum generator refuses to hold a vacuum, so the pump continually restarts every minute or so. What that means is that none of that time and painful effort is billable, and I still need to finish the job.
Imagine, if you will,(spoken in Rod Serling voice) lying on a boat deck, supporting your weight with your chest on the fiberglass edge of a long narrow hatch, stretching across about fourteen inches, down about a foot, over a flat topped square water heater, bracing your arms at about bicep level against the under side of the opposite edge of the hatchway , down about another foot, behind the water heater to work on water heater type hoses and a human waste pump system where you can sort of see about the top half of the system and get one, sometimes two hands on the work precariously, and with little leverage....for about four and a half hours. Oh, and all the while one is doing this, there is the pervasive oyfactory ambiance of well aged human poo, requiring serious hot showering IMMEDIATELY upon home arrival. I've got one line of welts(okay, bruises) all the way across my chest, two more across both biceps, more on my inner fore arms and wrists, and yes, they are pretty damn sore. And oh, did I mention I've still got to go back and fix the system, or - wait for it....switch the whole system over to a different type of electric system. NOW WE'RE HAVING FUN! It's good to have work, It's good to have work, It's good to have work.
Took AAron & his mom for new tennis shoes the other day. He is ecstastic with his new Sketchers light up "racing" shoes. He went out to the patio in the dark last night and did a little tap dancing type light show. It was actually kinda psychodelic. Kids get to actually display how adults sometimes feel about our new shoes.
Now I've gotta go talk to the boat head factory tech guy, then probably start researching ways and costs of changing to a new system.