Journal Entry

Jan. 1, 2003 Wednesday

Last year at this time I was enduring a stomach flu, and in an effort to preserve a new year's tradition, I've got it again this year, though not quite as serious. Still, this makes two years in a row that New Year's Eve has been just another day (which is very unlike us - we plan get-togethers around any and all occasions). But even if I hadn't felt crappy I don't think I woulda been up to any celebrating the changing of the year. Work has been nuts for both of us for the last coupla weeks and we kinda welcomed the down time.

We both fell asleep before 8 pm while watching Hollywood Squares, and being that neither of us is whatcha call "morning people," we found communication upon awakening around 9:30 pm to be something akin to a stammering mumble, so we didn't even try. However, that early-evening nap was probably the only thing that kept us both awake 'til the ball dropped in Times Square.

So the new year has begun with everybody being well, and that's always worth a brief celebration.

Hurray.

Things are still nuts at work, but they are winding down. And there is still the remnants of Christmas to pack up and put away for another year, but that's not as daunting as it once seemed either. Stress levels are way down (having a purring cat in one's lap goes a long way in that direction). I had planned to spend today either taking down Christmas decorations or answering e-mail.

I may actually do both.

Happy New Year!

Jan. 7, 2003 Tuesday

We had snow on Sunday. Three inches worth. The temperatures were right at the freezing mark, so the roads stayed warm and the snow didn't stick, but it was thick and wet enough to apply itself elsewhere (didja notice the pix on the Today page on your way here?). None of this had been forecast.

And yesterday was Monday. As if that wasn't bad enough by itself, it was also the start of the first full workweek in three weeks. Ugh. And work is still the same hassle it's been for the past month; it's our busiest time of the year and we've had 25% of our workforce out on maternity leave (that's one person). We've been playing catch-up ever since and we're finally making some progress.

We took the Christmas tree down this weekend (before the snow arrived), just to have some room in the living room (it was a pretty big tree). And the branches were drooping so much that the tree was starting to undecorate itself.

We're both starting to use the new treadmill now. I used to take a one-mile walk around the neighborhood, which I found preferable to "working out" (a very unnatural way to maintain health), but I've gotten to like the idea of walking while watching television instead of watching out for traffic, and the weather conditions are unimportant. I'll probably go back to neighborhood walking on weekends, but for now the treadmill seems to be a good idea. It's not quite the same as walking around; different muscles get exercised (the muscles on the outside of my thighs ache more from the treadmill than from the neighborhood walk).

I managed to get through another year at work with no sick time. That gets me gift certificates to restaurants and stores of my choice worth about $125. So far, this year is going well. Stay tuned.

Jan. 13, 2003 Monday

We've been running about a day behind at work for the past month (everything was getting done a day late and we had to put a lot of effort into just maintaining that), so we decided to work Saturday, to get caught up and relieve some of the daily stress, and we agreed to forego overtime pay and to take a day off instead, at some point in the future when things aren't so nuts.

I didn't have anything to do Saturday anyway.

Well, we could have packed away more Christmas stuff, but we didn't. And there is an annoying leak in the toilet that I fully intended to fix this weekend, but didn't. In short, I didn't feel like doing anything, so I didn't.

That's not true. The rear seat belts in the Wife's Bronco had been trapped somewhere under the seats the last time they were folded down, and I had promised to fish them out (her nieces and nephews do not travel without seat belts, so she hasn't been able to take them anywhere). So I did that. That seemed to qualify the weekend as being productive.

I did do some research on DVD burners, and having gotten several gift cards to a local electronics superstore for Christmas, I am considering the purchase of one. Of course that means prices will drop drastically shortly thereafter as newer, faster, better versions are introduced. So that'll be my good deed for the rest of the world awaiting faster, cheaper, better DVD burners.

Your welcome.

Jan. 19, 2003 Sunday

Things were lightening up at work, so I took Thursday and Friday off; I had a doctor's appointment in the middle of each day - it seemed the easiest way to handle it. Except Friday it snowed, and my Friday doc cancelled appointments. Which was okay, because he wasn't my regular doc; he was subbing. So I rescheduled that appointment for two weeks from now (eye exam). I've developed floaters - gray shadowy wisps that dart arount one's field of vision. I was a bit concerned and called to make an immediate appointment, only to learn that my regular doc was outa town, so I scheduled with the sub. Then I learned that everyone but me knew about floaters and had experienced them. So after the sub cancelled I just rescheduled with my regular eye doc upon his return.

The Thursday appointment was my quarterly diabetes check-up, and I'm doing well (despite gaining six pounds). All my numbers were good. Except my "good" cholesterol, which had been running low for quite a while, so he finally put me on a new drug that just raises the good cholesterol and lowers fat in the blood. It's not the stuff advertised in the pharmaceutical commercials that changes the way your liver works; it's much less of a hassle, so there shouldn't be any side effects. It says here.

We shall see.

I am now taking 180 pills every month, along with sixty doses of insulin, all so I can say I'm healthy.

Beats the alternative :)

Jan. 26, 2003 Sunday

There's an old stereotype about marriage - the wife cooks and the husband fixes things. There isn't must that's stereotypical about this marriage, but that happens to be one of them. The Wife promises not to fix anything, and I promise not to cook anything.

So when I repaired a gurgling toilet last weekend, it was all in a day's work. Which was about how long the repair lasted.

So I purchased a complete toilet repair kit from the nearby home center (for about half the price of just having a plumber show up), which included all the working parts of your average toilet, and made that my project for the weekend. Fortunately the kit included thorough instructions (fortunate because I'd never done this before), and the project proceeded smoothly. Until it came time to hook up the water supply again. Y'see, while the complete toilet repair kit included everything necessary to fix the toilet, it did not address the issue of the 20-year-old nearly disintegrated rubber washer that joined the water supply to the toilet itself. It was held together strictly by the tightness of the coupling bolt. Once that was removed, the washer turned into a rather slimy grit.

So it was back to the home center. And do you think they had that particular washer on their huge wall of plumbling supplies? Nooooo. I ended up buying an entire new pipe and fitting.

But that did solve the problem. I inspected everything for functionality and watertightness, and the project was declared a success.

Uh, better check back in a week, just to be sure.

Feb. 1, 2003 Saturday

Greetings to Lyle and Opie from Ohio (Lyle is a human; Opie is feline and has joined the Foo Gallery); welcome to the silliness.

For the third straight Saturday, today is Toilet Repair Day, and it's wearing thin. It's not that the repairs are no good; it's a different problem each week. Two weeks ago it was a leaky fill valve. Last week it was a leaky drain seal. Today it's the seal in the base of the toilet (which means totally dismantle the toilet and remove it from the site to fit a new seal). At least this week I'll have help; my father-in-law, who is experienced in matters of household plumbing. That will occupy most of today.

Yesterday, I visited the eye doctor. The appearance of "floaters" (shadowy swirls that dart around one's field of vision) had me concerned. Diabetics are supposed to have any changes in vision checked out. So I did. The doc's conclusion was that they were just something I was predisposed to have. They're not uncommon, especially in OLD people. He was 90% sure they were not serious.

You know what my next question was, don't you?

What about that 10%? Floaters are sometimes a symptom of retinal damage, and although he couldn't find any damage (after several minutes of probing with the world's brightest light), he wanted a retinal specialist to sign off on that other 10%, just to be safe.

So I'm to see a retinal specialist in six weeks, but not to worry in the meantime. Yeah, okay. But if I see any increase in the floaters, or any flashes of light, I'm to call him immediately, because a delay of just 24 hours can mean permanent damage. In the meantime, don't worry about it. Yeah, okay.

So for the next six weeks I'm just to do the normal stuff like dismantle toilets and try to avoid boxing matches and other head injuries.

*Sigh*

Feb. 7, 2003 Friday

Another weekend ahead, and the toilet is not on the to-do list for the first time in four weeks. After last weekend's major overhaul (with an invaluable assist from my father-in-law), the toilet is finally functioning as it should.

However, the tv isn't.

Before getting married, I was an apartment dweller who had to rely on rabbit ears for reception. So when we bought an actual house, I got the biggest antenna I could find and wired it to almost every room therein, with no less than three (count 'em - 3) signal amplifiers placed every fifty feet to maintain excellent reception.

It worked.

But after almost twenty years, the main amplifier failed. That's simple enough to replace, but I have chosen to replace the cable as well, and to cut down on the total number of connections, and basically upgrade the whole mess.

So that would be this weekend. If it wasn't going to SNOW AGAIN! Sixth storm in six weeks. And there's s'posed to be six inches of the stuff. Makes hooking up a roof antenna somewhat of a challenge.

If the felines knew about weather forecasts, they would be miffed. And a miffed kitty is no treat. Especially after six weeks of cabin fever and cold feet.

Hey it's starting to snow. How 'bout that?

Feb. 13, 2003 Thursday

The near-record snow that fell last weekend is still with us, and will continue to be with us for at least three more days. The roads are all clear, but the lawns are still under several inches of cold and wet, which dismays the cats no end. They follow me outdoors when I go, as though I'm out there strictly for the purpose of clearing away the snow for them. Then they get annoyed and meow to go back in when I don't.

Realizing that the snow wasn't going anywhere any time soon, I cleared a path for them from the front steps to the bushes, then along the side of the house and back to their door at the back of the house. This gives them the freedom of going out the front door, selecting the bathroom bush of their choosing, then returning through the cat door with a minimum of fuss. But they're even getting tired of that routine. Frankly, I am too. Enough snow awready.

Apparently fed up with the snow, c.c. did venture out across the lawn recently, sinking up to her neck on a couple occasions, but she did make it to the sidewalk (she coulda walked down the shoveled driveway and achieved the same result), and then proceeded to head down the sidewalk 'til she reached the creek. She paused for a moment, then headed back again. She did use the driveway for the return trip and bounded up the front steps and awaited the opportunity to be let in. She was quite pleased with herself for having ventured out into her little patch of Antarctica.

Guess what they're predicting for the weekend? Yep. But they're hedging their bets just a bit this time. There's the possibility that it will be rain if it warms up enough.

We can only hope.

Feb. 18, 2003 Tuesday

Apparently the snow storms we've had every week this year weren't sufficient; we had two more this weekend. The one on Saturday departed leaving three inches of snow behind. Then there was a separate storm on Sunday that continued into Monday, changed to sleet, then to blizzard conditions, and back to snow. Its final numbers are still being calculated, but it's somewhere between twenty and thirty inches. If they consider both storms as one, this could be a record-breaker. It'll be in the top three anyway.

The worst was over by Monday noon. I had a snow day; very few businesses were open. Our neighboring state of Delaware closed down its roads entirely. There was a $500 fine for driving anywhere in the state.

So shortly after noon on Monday I dragged out the snowblower to make quick work of the accumulation and make the neighbors with shovels jealous. Except that it wouldn't start. I think it got a look at all that snow and shut down completely. After several minutes of yanking its rope starter to no avail, I gave up and broke out the shovel. *Sigh*

There is now a barely-wide-enough path to the street with five-foot mounds of snow on either side of the driveway. Of course, the plows will be coming through before morning to make one last pass, and they will leave a wall of snow at the end of the driveway that I will have to clear before I can leave for work.

After a break in the shoveling chores, c.c. followed me out through the garage and observed from the fringe. Eventually she came out onto the shoveled area and began batting small bits of snow around. They flew quickly over the smooth surface, like they were trying to escape, which c.c. wasn't going to allow. She was engaged in joyous pursuit while I continued to strain my back. Fortunately we were both ready for the warmth of the indoors at the same time, and she willingly followed me back into the house.

Once the driveway was cleared, I tried starting the snowblower again. I was prepared to be really annoyed if it started, but it didn't. What a relief.

The temperatures are supposed to get into the forties by the end of the week (where they've only been four days all winter), which should make a dent in the snow. We had four inches of snow all of last year and we've had over fifty inches so far this year.

And we've still got a good six weeks of the snow season remaining. Better be getting that snowblower fixed.

Feb. 24, 2003 Monday

The Wife and I are in the midst of a mini-vacation. Saturday we visited some friends in Lancaster PA that we hadn't seen in a while, and that was fun. They used to live next door, many years ago, and we visit as much as we can. It was pouring rain all the way out there (100 miles), but at least it wasn't snowing. Their kids have the same problem as all the rest of our friends' kids - they're becoming adults. But they're doing it well.

Fortunately the rain ended before our return to NJ, and it was a long, dark, cold, but dry trip home. We arrived just past midnight, and were sleeping soundly shortly thereafter.

Sunday the Wife attended a fashion show for kids and their dolls. Really. She went with her nieces. I wanted to get up on the roof and fix the tv antenna, but it was raining again, so it looks like another week with crappy reception before I can get up there.

Today we both took a vacation day; we're making a day trip to the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The centerpiece of the revamped harbor area is the Baltimore Aquarium (in addition to upgraded shopping areas and restaurants) . We've been there once before, and we always wanted to return, so today was the day.

This was prompted by Diane, a very creative person I met on the 'net five years ago. She helped me get this website started. We correspond regularly, but it was almost four years before we met (she lives in North Carolina). We'll be meeting for a second time today - she's attending some kind of conference in Baltimore, and we'll be having dinner together.

And there's no snow anywhere in the forecast.

Mar. 2, 2003 Sunday

Finally, a weekend without precipitation. Although it was supposed to be another snowbound weekend. We were supposed to get six to twelve inches of snow. We didn't. We got maybe an inch. But it was just enough to break the all-time record for snow in February in NJ (30"). Yeah, I know you folks in Rochester and Batavia and Syracuse and Buffalo are all smirking right now, but to us, snow is something that disrupts the morning commute to work, then goes away. Last year we had four inches of snow, total. I've had enough.

A month ago the signal amplifier on our tv antenna failed. I bought a new one, but every opportunity to get on the roof to replace it was thwarted by Mother Nature and her snow curse. So we've endured crappy reception for a month.

No more. Saturday was dry, with temperatures above freezing. Mother Nature was giving me a clear path to the roof.

Well, not quite.

The easiest and safest way to the roof is from the second floor deck, but it was in the shade and still ice covered. Not a good spot to plant a ladder. Undeterred, I hauled the extension ladder up to the deck and nailed it to the frozen boards. It was then a simple matter of scampering up to the roof, replacing the amplifier, and attaching the cable (I ran all new cable to the antenna, just to be safe). Simple but chilly. Didja ever try breaking loose a wing nut while standing on a sloping roof in a freezing wind? Fortunately it was not a lengthy process and I was back inside before frostbite set in.

It was a lengthier process connecting all the components to the new cabling, but it was indoors, and everything is working beautifully.

Appropriately enough, it's beginning to rain. Guess I'll go watch television :)

Mar. 8, 2003 Saturday

Another weekend, and it's supposed to be a nice one with mild temps and sunshine. And I have no plans. I should have plans for nice days. There's still snow out there, and the ground is soggy, so yard work is (fortunately) out of the question. I'll probably end up changing the oil in my truck and in the Wife's Bronco. Not a big deal, but I'll feel like I've made use of a nice day.

The cats have definitely been taking advantage of the improvements in the weather. So far they're employing the Buddy System as they get used to outdoors again. Even after dark I can locate their two pairs of eyes at the edge of the woods.

And while Opie is enjoying the outdoors again, he's also getting in extra naptime during the day. I dunno if it's outa habit from being cooped up by the snow for so long, or if he's just getting old and tired. But whenever he's had enough of the outdoors, there is a lap awaiting him, and he purrs his appreciation.

Today is the Wife's youngest sister's birthday. Normally there would be a large celebration, but the older sister will be home from Colorado next weekend, so everything has been postponed until then. And we will be visiting the older sister in a couple months, after she returns home to Colorado. We just got the tickets, and they were pretty cheap for a direct flight to Colorado. It'll be our first serious vacation since we visited Alaska three years ago.

But that's all ahead. This weekend will be oil changes. Whoopee.

Mar. 14, 2003 Friday

Time to gamble.

The Wife's company is sponsoring another bus trip to Atlantic City tonight, which leaves right after work. From her work. Which means I hafta hustle over there right after I get outa work. Actually, I'll probably leave a little early, stop at home to feed the loyal kitties, and still get there on time.

The bus trip itself is just over an hour, and it's as much fun as the casinos themselves. We play various games on the way, some with cash prizes, just to get us in the mood. When we arrive we get ten dollars in quarters to blow in the slot machines.

The Wife and I, and a few select friends, have dinner first in one the the many great restaurants there, before making our way to the gambling floor. I forgot to ask which casino we were going to this time. I always forget to ask. Subconsciously, I guess I want to be surprised.

I plan to lose fifty bucks each time, and if done right, the fifty bucks can last all night - it's just the cost of the evening's entertainment. If done wrong, it can vanish in less than an hour, but we've both learned how to play gracefully. The Wife actually came out $120 ahead once. We both like to play roulette - we're good enough to play one table all evening. The problem is that the cheap tables ($5 minimum bet) are disappearing, and even the $10 tables are crowded. The money disappears faster into a slot machine, but the Wife solves that by playing the nickel slots. It's not the payoff; it's the thrill of winning, says she. I, on the other hand, spend a lotta time wandering around, observing the gamblers, which is entertainment in itself, while always looking out for the slot machine that's whispering my name. There's always one.

We usually get home between one and two a.m., poorer but happier.

Mar. 21, 2003 Friday

The new reality show premiered on all the major networks Wednesday night. Operation Iraqi Freedom is its official title, but it's also known as Gulf War, Part II. It's facing fierce competition from the basketball playoffs, and it's not all that entertaining, but you hafta watch it just the same. We're hoping it's a short-run mini-series. When I was much younger (and more idealistic and optimistic), I opposed the Viet Nam war as the patriotic thing to do, and I still believe I was right. But I am not a political person; I think that all politics is necessarily unsavory, and war, in general, sucks. So I leave this war and its politics to the professionals, and watch their results on tv in shock and awe.

As if an omen of war, the balmy weather turned chilly and damp, with a steady cold rain. However, by tomorrow it's s'posed to warm up again to balmy temperatures. Hopefully, that's another omen. Oddly enough, the felines have not issued their usual complaints about the suddenly crappy weather. They just staked out their respective padded furnishing and curled up thereon. But as soon as the sun shines in the morning, they'll be back checking out the woods and other outdoor environs.

Work is approaching hectic status for both the Wife and I, but it is a brief spurt for me, and I'm looking forward to an upcoming slow period (slow periods are becoming fewer and farther between, which is good, I guess). Spring is a time of renewal, and I'm ready to be renewed. There's nothing like the warmth of a spring day to put a spring in your step.

A final thought: Online bill-paying is cool.

Mar. 27, 2003 Thursday

Opie's most recent entry turned out to be prophetic. He had anticipated an incursion of wildlife with the warmer weather, all courtesy of c.c. the frenetic mouser. And while a mouse that c.c. had brought in was captured and released yesterday, it was a mouse that had been living behind our stove all winter. He would come out at night, nibble from Opie's dry food dish, grab a few swallows from the water dish, and retreat back to safety. But yesterday morning, we found him waiting in the trap. He was immediately released to the compost heap. Then, last night around midnight, we heard the trap snap shut again, and there was another. We hurried him out to join his buddy .

It's been a few months since a critter has been captured and released, so we'll review the procedure for the newcomers.

Upon evidence of a resident mouse (usually droppings and/or noises from behind the stove), a few pieces of dry cat food are placed near the stove and checked periodically. If they disappear, mouse presence is confirmed. Next the humane trap (a plastic box with a spring-loaded door that captures its subject unharmed) is placed in the vicinity with dry food at its entrance. A few days later the dry food is placed in the trap. Not every mouse takes the bait. They deem it less risky to run to the cat food dish and back than crawl into a plastic box. At that point we upgrade the bait to cheese or peanut butter. A clever mouse can pull the cheese out without setting off the trap, but not the peanut butter. So once they tire of dry food and cheese, the craving for peanut butter lures them in. That's where we find them waiting in the morning, boxed in. We kinda put the trap on hold during all the snow (not a kind environment to release a mouse into), but spring is here and it's catch-and-release time.

At the edge of the Hundredth Acre Wood we have a compost heap of pine boughs and decaying organic matter, covered with grass clipping. It provides pockets of space for the released critters, and the decaying matter generates heat and provides food. It also attracts small bugs that are a food source of rodents. Moisture is also trapped in the heap, making the whole place a mouse paradise. We counted seventeen separate mouse burrows in the grass clippings one winter.

So all the mice we capture are released to the compost heap. Mice can recognize their own kin after being separated, so we give them a chance to find each other again at "the heap."

The compost heap now has two new residents. And a half a loaf of stale bread to get them started.

Apr. 2, 2003 Wednesday

I was supposed to be outa debt by now. But I'm not. Although I'm close - I owe but $100 in credit card debt. Simple enough, huh? But I've been close before, only to end up backsliding. And it looks like I'm headed that way again.

I have to renew my cell phone contract for another year, and I pay the whole year in advance. Ditto with my website hosting (which is also due). And Opie's annual check-up and shots are due (a most worthwhile expense), and we've got a week's vacation coming up in Colorado. So that remaining $100 is not going to go away. Or even remain the same.

And I still have my old truck to sell (you have surely noticed that the ad banner is still flying on the home page) - its water pump gave up the ghost, and even if I didn't mind paying to have it fixed, I would never recoup the cost. I will most likely tackle that project myself, then make one more attempt to find a new home for it. But I want to get one more summer out of my rather unique creation for myself, before I otherwise have to deconstruct it to the Ranger from whence it came and donate it to a worthy charity.

So even though that $100 is close, it'll never be close enough.

U.S. Airways and American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy this week. They had been billions in debt.

I can sympathize.

Apr. 8, 2003 Tuesday

It snowed again. And we caught yet another mouse within 24 hours. The snow was not that bad - maybe an inch of wet, slushy stuff that fell throughout Monday, then turned to rain. Oddly enough, we all ignored it. It wasn't real because this was April and spring had arrived weeks ago. It was just some weird rain. The roads were wet, but not terribly slippery, and there was a coating of white on the ground, but nobody paid any attention. It was a huge collective denial, driven by one of the snowiest winters ever. Even the local news coverage (which treats every snowstorm as a killer blizzard) was half-hearted. This morning it was pretty much gone, and by tonight it will have vanished altogether (washed away by the predicted rains). And even though temperatures will be above freezing, there are a few more crappy days ahead.

But next week will be sunny and spring-like with balmy temps.

I felt bad for the mouse I released Monday in the early hours - I didn't know there was snow coming. But there's plenty of shelter out in the compost heap, and mice are amazingly adaptable to their surroundings. Which is fortunate, because I sent another mouse to join him last night (the snow had stopped by then and temperatures were above freezing). I'm pretty sure there will be more to come. And probably pretty soon.

The cats can see them behind the stove by peeking underneath or through the spaces between the cabinets, and we have frequently seen them hunkered down motionless in front of the stove, staring intently. But lately they don't seem to care. They'd rather curl up with us on the couch or join us on the big bed. So the kitchen remains unpatrolled in the wee hours, and that's when the rodents venture out to steal the feline's dry food.

It's a very symbiotic relationship.

Apr. 14, 2003 Monday

The Opie Project has undergone a major change, and hopefully you haven't noticed. Over the weekend we switched to a new web host. We now have ten times the web space as before, and we will find a way to use it. Before, the Opie Project was located on three different servers; now all 300 pages are combined on one server. That necessitated updating a lot of links, so if you happen to find a broken link along the way, please let us know - you will get an honorable mention with the next update :)

We plan to add a video page, with easy-to-view streaming video clips of the fabulous felines in action (when they're not sleeping, i.e.). That'll be a while yet though. We just got the necessary hardware and software to accomplish this, and there is a learning curve involved. Its primary function was to convert all our old analog home videos (70+ hours worth) to digital files to be burned on dvd's to be viewed from the dvd player. That should take forever. I have learned that the quality of regular video tape does not require full dvd resolution. In fact, in most cases they can be burned on cd's (as video cd's) without any loss of quality. I have succeeded in converting several of the tapes to the video cd format, and they're just as good as the originals, so we're making progress. I'll reserve the dvd format for the important videos (like our Alaska trip).

I'm having lesser success with streaming video, which was designed for web use. The quality isn't there, but then it's not really a quality format. Streaming video plays back as it downloads, so there's not a lot of waiting, but the quality has to match download speeds or it gets jerky. There are half a dozen recording formats to choose from, and I just have to experiment 'til I find the right one.

Practice, practice, practice.

Last week at this time it was snowing. Last year at this time it was 90 degrees F. Diversity rocks.

Apr. 20, 2003 Easter Sunday

I just learned recently that Easter is not a Christian celebration. Not originally, anyway. It was a day to celebrate the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eastere (or Estere, depending on your source material), who was the goddess of fertility. Her day was celebrated during the first full moon of spring, considered to be the most fertile days of the year (I dunno how they derived that, but just the same, be careful).

Eastere's spiritual symbol was the egg, the universal symbol for fertility (hence the Easter Egg - although there was no mention of where the practice of decorating them came from).

Eastere's Earth symbol was the rabbit, considered by the Anglo-Saxons to be the most fertile of animals (and they probably got that right - rabbits can conceive again less than an hour after giving birth). Hence the Easter Bunny.

Speakin' o' which, that rabbit that c.c. brought in Wednesday night and went into hiding did not take advantage of the open door policy on Thursday ( as described in Opie's notes). Or Friday. We could still hear him scuttling around. Saturday afternoon he came hopping into the small room where the Wife was working on her computer. She summoned me quietly and together we managed to corner it and herd it into a box. He was released to the woods on Easter eve, and happy to be back in familiar surroundings.

The Wife and I will be exchanging our usual Easter gifts today - dvd's. We gave up the tradition of giving each other chocolates years ago, especially now that we're both diabetics. But our dvd collection is doing well.

Only once did we end up giving each other the same dvd, and that was last Easter. This year I got her a chick flick; I would be awfully surprised if she got me the same thing :)

Happy Easter.

Apr. 26, 2003 Saturday

Last week I tuned up the lawn mower (that consists of changing the oil, spark plug and air filter - a Rite of Spring). I considered that an accomplishment unto itself and proceeded no further with matters of lawn, mowers, or any related activities. Which, of course, is back to haunt me this weekend.

Typical of April, it's been sufficiently rainy to produce sporadic uneven growth throughout our meager lawn, and requiring some serious mowing (the neighbors did all that last weekend). There was the threat of rain this weekend, and nobody wants to mow a wet lawn, so as soon as I got home Friday night I changed into my grubby lawn-mowing uniform (pathetically grass-stained jeans, unredeemable dirty t-shirt and morbidly decrepit sneakers that were trashworthy years ago), and dragged the lawn mower from the warmth of its shed.

The lawn mower is going on its tenth, and possibly last, year (although I said that last year). The deck is more rust than anything else, the wheels wobble, and the handle droops so low you'd have to mow stooped over to avoid having to hold the handle up. It was, at one time, self-propelled, but the various pulleys that supported the drive belt disintegrated years ago. I used to replace the parts as needed, but it was a losing battle. It's a Catch-22 - if you hose off the mower after using it, the moisture promotes rust. If you don't, the moisture in the grass stuck to it promotes rust. If you hose it off, then hand-dry it, you have a fighting chance. Yeah, right. Lawn mowing adversely affects all the muscles necessary to clean and dry the mower, making it physically impossible to mow, hose and dry in the same concurrent time span.

But I do that at the end of the season, so the mower is clean and dry at the beginning of the next season. Which was yesterday.

Storing a clean and dry mower for the winter, then changing the oil, spark plug and air filter in the spring, in no way guarantees that the ten-year-old rust bucket is gonna start. But it did, as it has every spring for a decade. I pushed it around the yard for an hour, making the lawn look almost nice ('til the next April showers produce fresh weeds).

I then hobbled in to take a shower of my own. Have a verdant weekend.

May 2, 2003 Friday

The lawn got its first mowing of the season last weekend. And its second last night. In between those events, the dandelions took over and grew to surprising heights in just five days. So I had to drag out the ailing mower sooner than expected to avoid evil stares from the neighbors.

I don't think I ever mowed the lawn twice in the same week. I hope this doesn't portend things to come. Did I mention that I'm allergic to freshly-cut grass? It doesn't get terrible 'til the end of the month. After that I can be seen (as infrequently as possible) mowing the lawn while wearing a mask over my nose and mouth.

Ah, spring.

On the plus side are the convertible days. The Wife is getting a new top for her convertible, while I'm dusting off my 15-year-old homebuilt convertible truck to drive to work on the sunny days. It's been for sale for over a year (with no reasonable offers forthcoming) and I didn't expect to have it this year, but on the warm and sunny days, I'm glad I still do.

And of course the Fabulous Felines can be found lounging about the yard/deck/steps/trees enjoying the sun. Even when they're indoors they are usually stretched out on the windowsill of an open window (c.c. thinks window screens are the ... uh ... cat's meow).

With the departure of April, theoretically the April showers depart with it. We'll hope so. Convertible days trump lawn mowing :)

Gesundheit.

May 8, 2003 Thursday

You may have (or have not) noticed the absence of that yellow advertising banner that flew over the splash page on your way in, that had been there almost a year, providing links to my unique handbuilt (the body, anyway) motor vehicle.

No, the vehicle was not sold. I had no real offers for it in that time, so I am hereby removing it from the market and enjoying it myself for the remainder of the summer, when every sunny day will find me taking full advantage of the top-down head turner.

And when this season in the sun wraps up, I will be dismantling the homemade creation and returning it to its everyday alter ego of a Ford Ranger, to be donated to a worthy charity (in return for a tax deduction, of course).

The fifteen-year-old machine still starts right up and runs beautifully. It's sad that something that reliable goes unwanted. Kind of a commentary on life, dontcha think?

It does have a leaky water pump and power steering pump, and I was going to replace the water pump myself in a last effort to sell the thing for what it is (a lotta fun and decidedly unique), but I've decided no one can appreciate it as much as I can, so I will nurse it along on its ailing water and power steering pumps 'til the end of summer, at which time it will move on to whatever awaits its remaining miles.

Today was a convertible day if there ever was one, and the ol' truck and I made use of it.

Have a sunny day!

May 14, 2003 Wednesday

Opie has been long overdue for his various shots, including rabies, so we finally made an appointment for last night. With the Wife working longer hours, it is left to me to get Opie into the cat carrier and off to the vet with a minimum of trauma and fuss (for both me and Opie). Opie knows what it means when I bring the carrier upstairs, and he does his best to disappear (though 19-lb. cats don't vanish easily).

But I managed and was about to tote Opie off to the vet, when I remembered that I had pretty much emptied my checking account the day before paying bills (our vet doesn't believe in credit cards). I checked to find a mere $15 remaining, and I had only $10 in cash. So I quickly called the Wife to see if she was any better off. No answer. I grabbed one of her checks anyway and headed for the cat doc.

The Wife called while I was en route, and her account was pretty much depleted also, but I figured we should have enough between us to cover Opie's health care costs. Turns out we did. Just barely. It took everything in her account, my account, plus my cash to bail out Opie (but of course he's worth it). We both get paid today, so we're not stuck for living expenses.

Opie was pronounced a healthy cat, although his teeth are wearing out. The vet recommended a complete dental exam sometime in the coming year (which requires aenesthesia) to clean off the years of tartar and removal of any questionable teeth, and treating the gums where necessary. Yuck!

But for now he's back home, and has forgiven me for the rude interruption of his after-dinner nap and the indignity of the cat carrier. He's napping two feet away and purring loudly. All is well.

May 20, 2003 Tuesday

We made it! I bought a book to read on the plane (Holes by Louis Sachar - now a major motion picture), and it was the perfect length. I started reading it just after takeoff and finished as we descended into Denver. And we've been busy ever since - Sunday we toured downtown Denver, walking more than 5 miles. Monday we drove out to Vail to look around. It was a rather cool day, but the scenery was great :) Vail attracts lots of celebrities during the ski season.

This morning, we leave for South Dakota (an 8-hour road trip), primarily to visit Mount Rushmore, but we will also check out Cheyenne, Custer State Park (where the buffalo roam), Deadwood (where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane lived and died), and Devil's Tower (the alien landing site in "Close Encounters ...").

Which, if we manage to upload successfully from there, you will hear all about :)

May 27, 2003 Tuesday

We're home.

The flight home was uneventful (as all flights should be), and we pretty much covered the highlights of our trip last week, but there was an unusual sidelight we didn't touch on.

Moths.

It seems hordes of moths migrate from the plains to the mountains at the beginning of summer (i.e., now). The moths are followed by hordes of swallows, for which they are a dietary mainstay. But that's not the unusual part. For some reason, the moths congregate at high-traffic intersections, and the swallows do too. So you'll be stopped at a traffic light, and dozens of swallows will swoop in and out among the cars, scooping up moths. Very weird.

The moths also get into the houses. I went into the bathroom one night and flipped on the light, and at least a dozen moths went into their lightbulb frenzy. You know how annoying a buzzing fly can be. Well, imagine a dozen of them, then imagine they're moths. By next morning all but two were gone.

An added perk to our trip - the great moth migration.

c.c. woulda loved that one.

Jun 2, 2003 Monday

I'm human, and humans screw up. But I shoulda realized it before this.

We switched to a new web host on May 1st, which included mailboxes for the opieproject.com domain. I presumptuously assumed that it was an automatic process. Heh. Each of the mailboxes had to be configured, each with its own password so it could be accessed over the web from anywhere. That was a perk I didn't figure I needed, so I did nothing. Which means no e-mail was getting through. You'd think after a month I would catch on. But we were busy planning our first real touristy vacation in three years and didn't notice the absence of e-mail 'til we returned.

Everything's working now (I'm pretty sure). Apologies to anyone patiently awaiting our usual prompt response. If you sent anything in the past month, please do so again. Thanks.

There is also a string of vacation photos posted, if you're so inclined to be interested in that sorta thing. We had a fun time, and we got to spend it with the Wife's sister, whom we don't get to see as often as the rest of her family.

And to note another milestone, my new truck is one year old today, and still goin' strong. I still have the old truck, and tomorrow being a sunny day, I'm going to treat it to some top-down driving, 'cause despite its age and frailities, it's still a lotta fun :)

Jun 8, 2003 Sunday

Celebrations are a way of life among the Wife's family. No event is too small to require a celebratory party. Which means birthdays are high on the list. They usually occur on the weekend closest to the celebrant's actual birthdate. In my case, that woulda been this weekend. But sometimes extenuating circumstances necessitate a schedule change.

Yesterday was excluded from consideration because some friends' first-born was graduating from high school, and we wanted to join in the celebration, even if it was a hundred miles away in Pennsylvania Dutch country. We shook lotsa hands belonging to people whose names had escaped us, offered congratulations, ate too much snack food, and observed (but did not participate) as all-knowing older and wiser adults offered sage advice to the Graduate.

Today is also excluded because our two youngest nieces have their annual dance recital, which is also followed by a party honoring their abilities and acheivements. That means waiting through the program for the less-talented kids to get off the stage so the nieces can receive their due adulation. It also means more snack food afterwards.

So I can wait 'til next weekend for my turn. Except next Saturday is my company's annual picnic (which we always attend because it's fun - we won a Smoothie machine one year playing bingo). There's always lots to do, and, of course, lots of snack food.

And then next Sunday is Father's Day, and the entire clan will gather at their patriarch's home to celebrate the occasion. Brothers-in-law will also be acknowledged for their fatherly responsibilities, and I'll probably receive some sort of token recognition from Opie and c.c. And there will be lots of snack food.

So two weeks from now there will be a belated party to celebrate my birthday. Unless someone decides we should celebrate the Summer Solstice.

Jun 14, 2003 Saturday

The Wife's Bronco still sits at work. She's talking the resident mechanic into patching the leaky hose so she can drive it home so I can fix it permantly. I could just go over there and do it myself, which I might this weekend. But we don't desparately need the Bronco right now. It's not like it's air conditioning or anything.

It's suddenly gotten very hot 'n humid with a comfort index approaching absolute yuk. Not a day to be crawling around under trucks. But even so, I could finish up and dash back into the air conditioning, except we have none. I clicked on the air conditioner Friday night and settled down finally to do some serious video editing on the computer. I was really getting into it when I realized I wasn't getting any cooler. Eventually, I checked the thermostat and there was a red "check light" that I had never even noticed before, and it was just glowing away. I had no idea what that meant.

I went outside and checked the heat pump - it wasn't running. I came back in, shut off the AC and tried it again. No red light this time. I went back out and the pump was trying to work, humming away like crazy, but the fan wasn't turning. I poked it with a stick but it wouldn't budge. It finally shut itself off - some kinda built-in safety feature, I guess. And the red light was back on inside. To sum up - no AC. Ugh. Now I can look forward to humidity AND expense.

Today is my company picnic. Plans are either hot with stifling humidity or steady rain with intermittent thunderstorms. Or a mixture of all that.

The cats are now in humidity mode - virtually motionless, stretched out to their fullest length on the cool vinyl tiles of the kitchen floor, or inconveniently across a doorway enjoying some cross ventilation.

Me, I'm back to my video editing, with a fan next to the computer, and ignoring everything temporarily. It's one a.m. with wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

But it's cooler :)

Jun 20, 2003 Friday

This weekend celebrates the first five years of the Opie Project. The original pages were uploaded on that weekend five years ago, and the rest, as they say, is history. Who'da thunk we'd still be doing this after five years? But next week begins Year Six online, and the fabulous felines are still providing loads of source material.

Sometimes the material is provided by other sources. F'rinstance, about a week ago our air conditioning pooped out (this is required to happen on the ickiest day of the year, humidity-wise). The weather had suddenly turned humid and summer-ish, and demanded air conditioning, so we fired it up. Eventually we realized we weren't getting any cooler. A red light on the thermostat suggested that we check the equipment. We did, and it wasn't operating. At all. So we broke out the fans and consulted our air-conditioning repair funds. Both were lacking. But it has cooled off considerably since then, so it hasn't been too unbearable.

The repair guy spent about an hour dismantling and examining its individual parts and officially pronounced the fan motor dead - not a terribly expensive part (yay!) when compared to the other components.

Since the onslaught of humid and icky weather was so sudden, all air conditioning units that were destined for failure would have all failed simultaneously, on the first humid, icky day. The same day ours died. This puts air conditioning repair persons at a premium. Fortunately, we know a guy who does this stuff. That doesn't mean he wasn't busy. His instance of phone calls rose proportionately with the humidity.

So our air conditioner sits dismantled, awaiting a new motor to power the the fan that cools the Freon-filled coils of tubing that draws the hot air away and replaces it with the more comfortable cooler air so we can actually stand up without perspiring.

Soon.

Jun 25, 2003 Wednesday

A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.

A shrimp's heart is in its head.

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

Horses can't vomit.

If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out.

Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Life can be wacky and wonderful. Celebrate it.

Jul 1, 2003 Tuesday

We had hoped that today the felines would once again be joining us upstairs in a cool air-conditioned environment. But it was not to be.

The AC repair person did return yesterday evening to reassemble the AC unit with the appropriate new part, and the operation was a success. We turned it on and everything worked. After some packing up and cleaning up, we retired to the living room to chat (the AC guy is also a social acquaintance) and in the midst of catching up on old news, the AC just decided to shut off. Completely. So we all trotted outside to stare at the unit, as if scowling would shame it into restarting. The AC guy consulted the operations manual and found that there is an automatic reset switch in the thermostat - the instructions state "turn the unit off then back on."

Having no other course of action, we tried that. It worked again. We returned to our conversation. Five minutes later it was off again. There is an automatic shutdown switch is the unit overheats, but there was no sign of overheating. The AC guy though possibly it was low on Freon that may affect the sensors, or it could be a bad switch. He is returning tonight with some testing equipment and Freon, and the assurance that the problem will be resolved. We remain optimistic. But warm.

Opie and c.c., meanwhile, have found a shady spot in a downstairs hallway that is cooler than anywhere else in the house, and in lieu of joining us in the living room or the bedroom, they now spend all their nap time there, and will continue to do so for at least another day.

We miss them.

Jul 7, 2003 Monday

You're probably tired of hearing about our non-functioning air conditioner by now. But not as much as we are. Either the new motor is defective (it overheats quickly and shuts down), or the capacitor that controls it is defective (although it seems to test out okay). Today, I'm going to try to find a new capacitor (didn't have much luck on a holiday weekend) - they're relatively cheap, and that will either solve the problem, or identify the motor as the problem. No further comment.

We have a new problem to deal with. It's not quite as pressing as getting the air conditioner fixed, but it can quickly become as annoying. Our front steps (eight of 'em leading up to the front door) are disintegrating. They are brick and mortar, and the mortar is crumbling away, loosening the bricks, and creating a hazard for anyone using them. Fortunately, nobody visits us any more since the air conditioner broke, so the urgency is reduced.

I've been doing some research on repair and replacement, but I haven't been liking what I find.

Plan one: The cheapest arrangement involves building a wooden deck-like structure over the exciting brick and mortar, but we have learned from experience (our deck at the rear of the house) that the pressure-treated lumber generally used in deck construction will, over time, crack, warp and look dirty. The Wife doesn't want the front steps to suffer that fate.

Plan two: Same plan using vinyl decking. No cracking, no warp, no discoloring, no maintenance, and not cheap.

Plan three: Pay someone to tear it all out and rebuild it from scratch, only to have it return to its present state in our later years. Most expensive and least favored choice of the three.

Plan two is in the lead by default, but no decision has yet been made.

And probably won't be 'til there is air conditioning once again to help clear the thought processes.

Jul 13, 2003 Sunday

The Wife left for the Jersey shore for a week. She does this every year with her sisters; they rent a house as close to the beach as they can afford and unwind. Their families usually join them, with one notable exception - me. There are two reasons for that:

1. It's the busiest time of year at work and vacations are not permitted.

2. I'm not that crazy about crowds, humidity, jellyfish and sand.

In previous years I've always managed to join them on a weekend, and sometimes I'd manage to get one day off during the week to head for the shore. We usually would hike the boardwalk, watch a DVD movie and have dinner out. At no time does sand have any opportunity to get into my shoes.

But this year the busy season is busier than usual. I've put in several hours of overtime last week, and I worked all day Saturday (yesterday). I may put in a couple hours today, just to diminish Monday's load a bit- the whole week ahead doesn't show any sign of lightening up. This will likely continue until August.

The lawn hasn't been mowed in almost two weeks, and though it's been relatively dry and the grass hasn't grown that much, the weeds have, and they're poking up in sporadic profusion yardwide. If Hell had a yard, it would look like this. I was going to mow it when I got home yesterday, but I was so beat I fell asleep. When I awoke, it was raining.

So today will be yard mowing, laundry (more neglected than the yard, if that's possible), and a couple hours at work.

Hope your having as much fun this weekend :)

Jul 21, 2003 Monday

Domain names typically end in .com, .org or .net - there are also specialty designations such as .gov, .mil and .edu - and lately there have been added .biz and .info - and there have always been two-letter designations that are country-specific domains (such as .us or .uk).

One of those countries - a small island nation in the South Pacific called Tuvalu - begin licensing its two-letter designation (.tv) for domains worldwide (web.tv probably being its most well known) and it caught on. Other countries began trying the same thing. Belize had a seemingly business related designation (.bz) and began licensing it as such. And another island group in the Indian Ocean - The Cocos - joined in because they thought their designation (.cc) to be more business-related.

.cc? Wait a minute. Don't we have a feline in residence named c.c.?

I thought about this momentarily and checked to see if opie.cc was available as a domain name. It was! How prodigious! And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I waited until it was taken, I would kick myself periodically for years for letting it get away.

So I got it. Now I don't know what to do with it.

Right now it's serving double duty with opieproject.com. Typing opie.cc will take you directly to the Opie Project (don't try it now, you're already there!). You don't even need the http:// or the www. How compact is that? The old opieproject.com will remain in place so if you've bookmarked this site (bless you!) there's no need to change anything. Mail addresses also do double duty - any mail sent to @opieproject.com (e.g. husband@opieproject.com or foo@opieproject.com) could also be sent to @opie.cc (e.g. husband@opie.cc or foo@opie.cc) - they would end up in the same places. There is also a mailbox specific to the domain - mail@opie.cc.

This new domain does nothing to enhance the Opie Project. In fact, just put it out of your head - it changes nothing. I just thought it was cool.

Still do.

Jul 28, 2003 Monday

Firstly, let's say hello to Daisy, the newest foo, hailing from down Jawja way (many people think the correct spelling is Georgia, but just ask any local from there - they'll tell you). She's just a young 'un, but she's already practicing Opie's capture-and-release technique, albeit with inanimate objects.

And a word of apology to Gabrielle and Rosie (a feline and a parrot) who had inexplicably vanished from the foo site for the last few months (a blunder on my part), but they are back and appreciably so - Rosie is the only parrot foo on the site :)

And one final word on foo - we have had a request from a dial-up modem user (we sometimes forget that there are still lots of you out there) to place the newest foos at the beginning of the gallery, rather than the end, since it takes so long for all those pictures to download by modem. We aim to please, so the foo pix will now appear in reverse order - newest first, oldest last. So drop in and see Daisy first, then Gabrielle and Rosie, all the way down to Leroy.

We have about eighty Beta tapes and one old Beta vcr that hasn't been used in years. Saturday I dragged it out, dusted it off and copied a Beta tape to dvd with no fuss. I was rather pleased with myself. In a couple more years I may copy another one.

Not the most exciting weekend of my life, but at least I wasn't working :)

Aug 1, 2003 Friday

We have air conditioning.

It took seven weeks, but we're once again able to move about the house without having to be within six feet of a fan. The felines haven't figured out why yet, but they're happier too. They used to spend their time on the front steps when they were in the shade, or lounge out on the deck when the shade was on that side of the house. Now they just stretch out in the living room, because that's where they're comfortable.

The bad news is that our entire heating/cooling system is in its final stages. The air conditioning guy recommended replacing the whole thing sooner rather than later. It's not gonna get any cheaper by waiting, and we could end up in the middle of winter with no heat. However, it's not a cheap proposition. A decision will be forthcoming. Meanwhile, we're keeping our cool, once again.

Opie began bugging us to let him out, rather than using his cat door. We thought maybe our pudgy cat was getting too wide for the opening. But then c.c. began doing the same thing. She has always followed Opie's lead, so maybe she figured she'd begin meowing to be let out also.

The cat door is right next to the air conditioning unit, and while we were out there with the a/c guy, we discovered a very thorny weed across the cat door opening. And the thorns were quite sharp, and the weed did not give way easily. It was certainly an impediment to cat door usage. But a few snips with the weed clippers solved everything.

We assume the cats are using the door again, but it's hard to tell - since the air conditioner was fixed, they prefer the living room couch.

Aug 7, 2003 Thursday

Frustration.

Last Sunday my hard drive crashed. Fortunately I have most of it backed up (I did lose the digital video of our vacation that I'd been working on for MONTHS). But since then I bought a newer, bigger hard drive (160 Gb) and Windows XP (seemed like a good time for an upgrade), but I have yet to get it working. The automatic setup that came with the new drive didn't partition the drive correctly, so I reverted to the ol' standby DOS utility, fdisk. It didn't work either. Couldn't handle a drive that size. For the last four days I've been trying everything I could think of.

So now I have a humongous hard drive and the most up-to-date operating system and a dismantled computer littering the dining room table. I'm stuck using my ancient laptop and a dial-up modem connection for website updates and e-mail retrievals. I can't download pix from my digicam or use my scanner.

I don't wanna talk about it any more.

Frustration.

Aug 13, 2003 Wednesday

Almost back to normal (which is an anomaly around here), computerwise (if you just came in, my hard drive crashed). Still can't get connected to the Wife's computer via our home network, but I'm working on it. Everything else appears to be functional. Amazingly, the only data lost were several dozen pictures of Opie and c.c. (I only have a few thousand left!). It pays to back up.

To summarize: When the hard drive crashed I suddenly knew what to do with the $100 gift certificate that I had gotten for my birthday. There was a 160 Gb drive on sale for $99 (after rebate - an annoying retail practice), but upon arriving I discovered that it was an Ultra ASA drive requiring Windows XP or a special adapter card. The card was $50; Windows XP Upgrade was $89. I opted for the Windows Upgrade. However, the installation of XP over the existing Windows ME did not progress without frustration. I got a litany of error messages, all saying roughly the same - please uninstall previous version of (software name here) first. I went through the uninstall process repeatedly for two more days and got nowhere.

So I said what the hey (I paraphrase - it was more defined than that) and found a 40 Gb drive for $39.95 (after another rebate) but since the version of XP was an upgrade only, I had to install Windows ME first, which meant I had to buy that adapter card after all to format the big drive (another $50 - no rebate), so I could then install XP and wouldn't need the adapter card any more - brilliant system. Then there was the formatting and partitioning, followed by the installation of everything that I had on the machine previously. Even all that wasn't so bad. The problem was getting everything set up so it worked the way it used to (more daunting a prospect than I had imagined). I'm still trying to remember everything I bookmarked from the web, and my address book is totally gone. And I'm sure I've forgotten stuff I don't know I've forgotten.

And then there's the rat's nest of cables behind the computer that had to be sorted through every time I removed the computer to install another device (I still have a leftover cable - I'm sure I'll find out what it's for at some inopportune moment). But ten days later, I think I have everything reinstalled. A mere two days ago I learned about the LovSan worm that's making the rounds of XP-driven computers, so I downloaded the patch for that, and just in time - it struck heartily yesterday, but the Wife and I were spared.

The odd thing is that I enjoyed all this to some extent, despite the week-plus of aggravation. Ten days of steady computer-tinkering is not all bad. Opie and c.c. stayed near, ready to offer purring therapy as needed. And now that it's (almost) done, I have a faster machine with twice the storage capacity. And it only cost $300 (after rebates).

Aug 19, 2003 Tuesday

Mars is presently as close to Earth as it has ever been or ever will be (hopefully). It has a wide orbit compared to Earth - the distance between the two planets varies from 35 million miles to 148 million miles. This month its the smaller number, which means it's easier to see with even a dinky telescope.

I'm not a hard-core astronomy geek, but I do like to keep up with the goings-on in the cosmos. I was pleasantly surprised when the Wife presented me with a small reflector telescope several years ago, and I have made frequent use of it on starry nights, making a point of finding five of the eight (not counting Earth) planets, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's four largest moons, binary stars, several nebulae and numerous moon craters. I even managed to locate the site of the first moon landing (not that there's anything visible to mark the spot), and another galaxy, Andromeda.

But Mars has never been more than a spot of bright light - surface details were always elusive. Until last night, that is. I managed to locate a dark patch on the surface (a cluster of volcanoes) and the faintest hint of a polar ice cap (although everything I've read said the polar ice caps will be too small to detect since it's also summer on Mars and they shrink). But it sure looked like an ice cap.

So I'm kinda pleased I got to see that. I get a perverse pleasure outa reminding myself how insignificant we all are in the grand scheme of things.

It's you're universe - take care of it.

Aug 25, 2003 Monday

The music I like is determined entirely by the music. I almost never pay attention to the lyrics. To me, most lyrics are shallow at best, stupid at worst. They have no depth; they're just formulated to sell records. Country music is the worst; stupid AND shallow. And repetitive.

Like most people, I gravitate toward the music of my teens and twenties. That means I have to go back to the sixties to find lyrics with depth, but they were so esoteric then as to be almost unfathomable. The Beatles and Bob Dylan were exceptions.

There are present-day exceptions too. Tori Amos is lyric-intensive, as is (was) the Ben Folds Five, both very creative, deep and soulful. I have cd's by both, and listen to both frequently. So imagine my surprise to find that Tori Amos and Ben Folds are touring together. And they're arriving here tomorrow.

My problem is the venue - a large outdoor (read: not air-conditioned) amphitheater. I moaned about getting crappy seats in the summer heat. The Wife moaned about me being an old fart. So I went online and got tickets - 13th row - not bad! I just hafta hope for cool breezes.

The interesting thing about online tickets is that you can print out the tickets on your printer (which I did). They seem - fake. But they have a bar code which is scanned upon our arrival. I'm about to enter the Brave New World of concertgoing.

The Wife will be reporting on how that went :)

Sep 7, 2003 Sunday

Almost six years ago, I met a woman on the internet who was a web page designer. She taught me the finer points of html and helped me build the Opie Project website (where you are now). We continued to chat on a regular basis, but four years passed before we met face-to-face. We have met twice since then. And next weekend our paths will cross once again, as the Wife and I will be attending her wedding in Syracuse NY.

Today is also Diane's birthday. She has a busy week ahead :)

We also have a niece at Syracuse University whom we will be visiting. We learned that this coming weekend is Syracuse's first home football game, and football is no small item at this institution, so it should be a fairly crazy weekend.

Upon learning of the projected influx of alumnae for said game, we figured hotel reservations were in order, as soon as possible, and the local Ramada Inn was willing to accommodate us.

It should be a fun/interesting weekend. I have selected an appropriate wedding gift, mowed the lawn and changed the oil in my vehicle. I am ready.

Sep 13, 2003 Saturday

Today is my nephew's twelfth birthday. But his party isn't 'til next weekend. Which is fortunate, because in a few hours the Wife and I are leaving to attend a wedding in Syracuse NY (I spelled out the details last week in this space's previous entry, so I won't bore you with them now). Aside from the wedding, we also plan on a brief visit with my niece at Syracuse University.

It's happened a coupla times that we've planned a trip somewhere, and a week or two before that, the local paper's Sunday travel section featured something about our planned destination. It happened the first time we went to the Outer Banks in NC, again before visiting Maine and Colorado, and last Sunday there was an article on an American Indian Gambling Casino outside Syracuse. The Wife wants to throw away some money there.

My impossible work schedule has finally lightened up, and I'm working normal hours again. That means I'll finally start answering my e-mail :) Thanks for your patience (you know who you are).

I hafta wrap a wedding present.

Sep 20, 2003 Saturday

This past week there has been much in the news about Hurricane Isabel (at least on the East Coast of the U.S.). Predictions of torrential rain, flooding, high winds and all the attendant damage that lets us know that Mother Nature can pretty much do what she wants has been a windfall (pardon the pun) for tv news. Nothing pulls in viewers like the promise of destruction.

Not to be left out, the local news was also predicting high winds, flooding and, naturally (pardon the pun), destruction. So we tied up the deck furniture and brought in the potted plants. I even covered up the old convertible truck with heavy plastic (its efforts to seal out weather are minimalist at best).

Then we sat back to watch the power of nature, as interpreted by broadcast journalism. The Outer Banks of NC (where we spent our honeymoon) definitely took a beating (there was even a live report from the parking lot of "our" hotel), and Virginia's coast didn't fare much better. And just fifty miles west of here were downed trees and power outages galore.

But here it was a dud. There was wind, but it didn't howl. There was rain, but it was not torrential. And our electricity went uninterrupted (although there was disruption elsewhere in the county). We had more wind and rain than that last Monday evening. Last night I put the potted plants back out on the deck and removed the unslightly plastic from the old truck. I'll get around to unlashing the deck furniture sometime before spring.

Today there will be sunshine, like Isabel never happened. And we will jointly celebrate our nephew and his dad's birthdays (both of which occured in the last seven days) with lots of food I should avoid.

And Tuesday is autumn. Enjoy nature.

Sep 26, 2003 Friday

About eight years ago I wanted to do something different with my aging Ford Ranger pickup. Conventionally "something different" usually means bolting on every after-market accessory available to arrive at the acceptable "different" vehicle. Not good enough. I wanted to turn it into something I'd always wanted since I was a kid - a long and low 50's custom land yacht.

I spent four summers finding, purchasing and/or making the necessary parts to achieve my goal. Once completed, I spent the next four years cruising around, turning heads and generally enjoying myself wherever I went with it. Pix here.

I bought a new truck last year, but kept the old Ranger. I did try to sell it, and there was lots of interest, but no offers. In the meantime, whenever a sunny day came along, the Ranger and I made the most of it.

One recent sunny morning, driving to work, top down, enjoying the breeze, the water pump gasket gave out. I was two miles from work. I waited for it to cool down, then refilled the radiator with water I had with me (be prepared) and managed to limp to work. It sat there cooling off all day. Then I stocked up on 5 gallons of water and attemped to get home. I almost made it. Had to stop once to cool off and refill.

A new water pump gasket is hundreds of dollars at a dealership, or $5 and lotsa dirt, grime and knuckle-busting if I do it myself. Neither thought appeals to me. Insurance and registration are due at the end of November. More hundreds of dollars. I think it's time to say goodbye to a fun 8-year project.

In the next few weeks I will be taking lots of pictures of it, then dismantling the custom parts and returning it to its regular Ranger configuration before donating it to a charity that's willing to do the knuckle-busting repairs.

In the meantime, I can still cruise top down to the convenience store for milk before it overheats :)

Oct 1, 2003 Thursday

Hi to the ageless lady in Sydney, Australia, who recently re-discovered the Opie Project after a coupla years away. Welcome back!

It's the new tv season, and each year it serves to remind me that I'm not getting any younger - I'm not part of the key demographic any more. It used to be that I knew from the first viewing whether a tv show would make it or not. Not so much any more. Which is just as well, it's a younger generation's turn to make the life-and-death decisions regarding tv shows.

Nevertheless, I am prepared to make my own predictions regarding the success or failure of the coming tv season:

They're all going to fail.

Okay, maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. But I haven't seen much that beckons me back for a second look - they're all rehashes of other shows that have enjoyed success. But there are two exceptions that are actually something new - Joan of Arcadia, which has potential, and The Brotherhood of Poland NH, a product of David Kelley (Picket Fences, Ally McBeal, the Practice). The latter probably won't make it - weak storyline for such strong characters - but I'll enjoy its subtleties while it lasts.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas there are lots of Christmas specials that preempt a lotta shows, after which the schedule is rearranged, and half the new shows will have disappeared. The networks hope we won't notice. And judging from the caliber of half the shows, it's not likely that we will :)

Pleasant tv viewing - I'll be on the 'net.

Oct 8, 2003 Wednesday

I was feeling cold and achy Friday at work, but I shrugged it off. However, that night I had the greatest urge to crawl into bed and ignore all else. The cold became chills, and the aches became soreness and stiffness.

The Wife was participating in an Altzheimers "Walk for a Cure" this weekend in Atlantic City. She collected over $600 for charity as a result. She was also doing her turn taking care of her grandmother while her father was visiting her sister in Colorado. It's okay if you didn't follow that. The point is that the Wife was gone for three days.

So for three days (I took a sick day on Monday) Opie, c.c. and I occupied the big bed in a darkened room. I would gobble down some Advil every few hours. I tried watching "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" on dvd, but I kept falling asleep. It took all weekend to get through the whole thing (including the bonus features). There were brief periods when we would venture into the kitchen for food. None of us left the house though (well, c.c. might have gone out at night). Both cats were purring most of the time - it was very therapeutic.

I finally got out of bed Monday night. The cold and fluish feelings were gone, but the aches remained. And still remain. Neck, shoulders and back. Instead of blaming some viral strain for my recent discomfort, I've decided a lifetime of poor posture is at fault (Mom's admonition to "sit up straight" fell on deaf ears). A chiropractor may be in my future (depending on degree of insurance coverage).

Or tomorrow the aches may vanish entirely, and I'll forget about the whole thing :)

Oct 14, 2003 Tuesday

My aches haven't vanished entirely, but they're tolerable. Today they will be put to the test. I have made the decision to deconstruct my vehicular art project. The underlying machinery is failing fast - the water pump gasket has blown, and now the automatic choke isn't so automatic. It's not even a choke. Small things by themselves, but added to the leaky power steering, non-functioning air conditioner, dysfunctional gas gauge, broken tape player, leaky exhaust, non-working parking brake, bad shocks and other niggling distractions that I have put out of my memory, it's time to say g'bye.

I've already replaced the convertible top with the original steel top I cut off five years ago. I'll be using vacation days randomly over the next two weeks to complete the task. Today I'm removing and boxing the smaller parts so I'll be ready to attack the fenders and panels on my next random day off. The old Ford Ranger still exists just beneath the surface. Once it has been returned to Ranger status, it will be offered to a worthy charity.

I plan to take pictures of the dismantling and include them on the truck's web page along with the pictures of the original construction process. The progress of the deconstruction will be posted on the days each step takes place. Meaning tomorrow, for starters.

We ordered that new electric range for our anniversary. It'll arrive November 1. My unique truck/work of art will no longer exist by then.

*sigh*

Oct 20, 2003 Monday

Saturday I did something I had always wanted to do. I got up, had breakfast and watched a movie. Then another movie. And another. I didn't quit until 11:00 pm. A full day on the couch with wide screen tv and 5.1 surround sound. Idolatry at its finest.

They were all movies that I had not seen previously. Some we just got last week for our anniversary, some were left over from my birthday (four months ago) and one was from last Christmas. They were, in the order that they were viewed, Panic Room, The Road to Perdition, Holes, the 2-hour bonus disk from the Doors (the Oliver Stone biopic, which I had seen, but not the bonus features), Phone Booth, and the Ring. They were all pretty good (The Ring not so much), and it was a full-day escape from reality. Kinda fun.

The Wife was not about. She and friends stayed at a hotel near the airport Friday night and left early Saturday morning for a week in Aruba. They took off just before I began watching Panic Room and landed on the Caribbean Island right around the end of the Road to Perdition.

Sunday I cleaned up the garage after the 3-day dismantling of my old truck. That project is now complete. I have a very heavy-duty week ahead at work that's probably going to involve more overtime.

The Wife will probably be having more fun than I will.

Oct 26, 2003 Sunday

Last night I retrieved the Wife from the airport, after a week's stay in Aruba with friends. She loved it - she talked gushingly about it all the way home (a one-hour trip). She repeated certain parts (like not wanting to come home).

c.c. was happy to see her - she had been looking around the house for her all week. But once c.c. was satisfied that she actually was home again, she took off.

The Wife's friends have a timeshare and they invited her along. They spent many days on the beach, a day sightseeing the island, and another day snorkeling. In between was shopping and photographing. While the American dollar was not the official monetary unit, you wouldn't know it. Everything was priced both in U.S. dollars and the local currency.

The timeshare is a one-bedroom housekeeping unit with a kitchenette and a living room sofa that converts to a queen size bed. The balcony off the living room looked out on the beautifully-landscaped 5-star resort.

And there were pelicans, parrots and iguanas. And gambling casinos. And duty-free shopping. The Wife was enjoying herself from morning 'til night.

So when she found out that the timeshare next door (a small studio apartment) was available for the same week as her friends, she put in a bid for it.

Let me repeat that - she made an offer on a timeshare in Aruba.

Details to follow :)

Nov 1, 2003 Saturday

First of all, a happy belated birthday to Artur in Lisbon, whose request to be included on the birthday list arrived too late to make it onto the October 28 posting, so we make amends here. Welcome to the Opie Project, Artur.

Halloween has come and gone, and so have all the little trick'r treaters. We only had sixty this year, just beating out our all-time low of 56, and way down from 78 last year. But there were very few store-bought costumes this year. People actually went to the trouble of creating original costumes :)

Opie and c.c. staked out some sheltered spots with a clear view of the front door, to take it all in. The nieces and nephews showed up and brought us pizza! That was unexpected and very nice.

Today our new electric range with smooth radiant cooktop and self-cleaning oven is being delivered and installed. Since the old one was still in perfect working order, we figured we'd donate it to a charity. Except nobody wanted it. Something about storage and handling negating the value of any donation. Seems sad, doesn't it? Somewhere, someone needs an electric range, but we can't get it to them.

We have ten days to find that person (major appliance trash pickup is in ten days. It'll be tossed into a trash truck and crushed). We still have a few leads to follow.

Hope your Halloween was filled with your favorite goodies.

Nov 9, 2003 Sunday

Six days ago the temperature rose to a record 80 degrees farenheit here in our little corner of New Jersey. And last night, said temperatures dropped to below freezing. Nice change of pace.

The old Ranger still sits out front, awaiting donation to a worthy cause. It has had a leaky water pump for almost a year that has gotten progressively worse. I had been refilling the cooling system with plain water all summer, which meant there was approximately zero anti-freeze protection remaining. So yesterday morning, after learning that there would be a freeze that night, I found myself in line at the local auto parts store with a dozen other people, all buying anti-freeze (I purchased the non-toxic, pet-safe kind, since I was sure a portion of it would leak out onto the ground eventually).

With a pan beneath to catch the leakage, I poured the whole gallon of anti-freeze, undiluted, into the radiator. It took it all. I ran the engine for a while to mix it up with the little water that was still in there. Some did leak into the pan, but not much (it mostly leaks after being driven, when it heats up under pressure). And once it stopped I removed the pan and poured the leaked fluid back into its jug.

The other demanding chore this weekend was raking leaves - they were pretty much gone from the trees, and the township's big vacuum truck (the Suck-O-Matic) would be along any day to suck 'em up. But only if they're waiting by the curb. So I spent half the day herding thousands of leaves to the curb (the occasional gusts of wind were always in the wrong direction). c.c. spent much of that time sitting in a tree watching me and meowing out helpful advice.

Normally, accomplishing two separate chores in one weekend is satisfactory, but I also did three loads of laundry.

Which means I can spend today goofing off :)

Nov 13, 2003 Thursday

It's cold.

And it's too soon for cold. I'm not ready for cold. Cold is for the Yukon. I'm a suburbanite with a brown yard and leaves to rake. I should have more than the two weeks of fall weather to prepare for cold. But that was it. Two weeks ago it was summer. Now it's winter. And it's cold.

Opie and c.c. don't really like it either. But they blame me for it. They seem to think I can do something about the weather. At least c.c. does. She'll stand by the front door and meow, and when I open it, she'll sit there and complain loudly, as if to say "Whatsa matter, you dense or somethin' -- fix that!"

Opie will just go out to use the bathroom bush, and if it's too cold, he'll come back in. Nothing complicated there. But he gets less tolerant of the cold each year (don't we all?) and finds that being indoors isn't all that bad (he's 12 years old now).

But once c.c. does go out (which is still every morning, despite complaints), she tends to stay out, doing all her feline things (snooping curiously behind every tree in the woods) and enjoying her natural, albeit cold, surroundings. She is spending more nights indoors however.

It will get to a point where their time outdoors in the cold is measured in minutes, and the two of them will find ways to amuse themselves while cooped up in the house. They were practicing that discipline just last night, taking turns chasing each other back and forth between the kitchen and the bedrooms (Opie still enjoys being kittenish for brief periods).

But I still have leaves to rake. And it ain't gonna be getting any warmer.

Nov 19, 2003 Wednesday

The Wife and I took today off from work so we can pursue such diversified interests as having our eyes checked, purchasing bulky items from the local home center, and test-driving cars in another state.

Here's how it works: the Wife and I always get our annual eye exams together (one of us gets eye drops while the other completes the non-eyedrop portion, then we switch - very efficient). Now is the time. That's early in the morning (9 am). Then we visit the Home Depot. The Wife has a coupon for 10% off one entire purchase, so she's going to make the most of it. She wants a new kitchen and a new bathroom, which includes new hardwood laminate floors, new countertops and sinks and new plumbing fixtures (bathroom). She plans to purchase all that today while her pupils are still dilated from the eyedrops. Getting it all home will be interesting.

After all that (and hopefully the eyedrops will have worn off by then), we will proceed over to Pennsylvania to test-drive a Jeep Liberty (the Wife wants one with a stick shift, and the only place within a hundred miles with a manual-shifting 4-wheel-drive Jeep Liberty is fifteen miles away, over a toll bridge). Hopefully this will just be a formality, to confirm that the vehicle is satisfactory to her. There is no backup plan if it's not.

Then we'll be tired and somewhere in the early