A bunch of useless crap
Just some bored ramblings
Published on February 19, 2010 By MasonM In Blogging

This morning I called the engine shop to get an update on the repairs to my truck. The news was by no means good. This morning they arre pulling the head. He told me they had received some of the needed parts but were still waiting for some of them and the truck would be in the shop at least until the early part of next week. Wonderful.

I'll be spending the weekend in this motel room. As I've already been here for two days, that's going to pretty much make a week of down time by the time my truck is ready to roll once again. This is going to seriously hurt my poor wallet's feelings.

I am glad that I thought to bring along several of my pipes as well as a good supply of pipe tobacco, along with my knitting and ebook reader. That will make the stay a little more tolerable.  Having some extra money in my pocket would help too as I could take a cab somewhere, but cash is pretty tight right now. Motel rooms are very boring you know.

I am going to have to call the office shortly and have some more cash transferred to me to cover the motel bill for the next few days. This place isn't exactly the Ritz but even a cheap motel runs into some real money if one has to stay for several days.

I had been thinking about shaving off my beard for several days now. It's not yet warm weather of course, but I was growing tired of having all that grey hanging on my face. Yesterday, perhaps out of sheer boredom, I bit the bullet and shaved it off. It does make me look less like I qualify for the senior citizen discount at Dennys. It's kind of funny, the hair on my head has very few grey hairs in it at all, but my beard grows more grey by the day.

Now I just have to get back into the habit of setting aside some exgtra time in the mornings to shave.

I noticed this morning that my testing copy of Windows 7 expires in 11 days so I am currently in the process of transferring what files I need from that partition over to my main partition, Slackware Linux, and setting up an API that will allow me to run the one Windows program that I need for work under Linux. It's a 32 bit program and I am running a 64 bit version of Linux. Until now I haven't needed to run any 32 bit programs in Linux and so haven't set it up as a multilib system. It's a bit of work but what the hell, it's not like I don't have the time at the moment.

When money allows I may spring for a copy of Windows 7. Most of what I do is in Linux but I have to admit there are a couple of Windows applications that do come in handy once in a while that simply won't run correctly in an emulator under Linux. Not many, but a couple.  And I also have to admit that Windows 7 is a great stride forward for Windows. There are still some things I dislike about it, but all in all I think it's the best Micro$oft has yet produced.

*******

I've just returned to my room after going down to the front desk to extend my stay through the weekend. Despite the shortage of funds I've called a taxi to take me to a nearby mall so I can wander around and kill some time. The only restaurant close to the motel is an IHOP and there is only so much of that I can take. I'll kill some time at the mall, grab a bite to eat, and then return here later. Beats sitting around the room all day.


Comments
on Feb 19, 2010

Sorry to hear about your engine troubles I hope that you will be able to get back on the road soon.

on Feb 19, 2010

Leinad0033
Sorry to hear about your engine troubles I hope that you will be able to get back on the road soon.

Thanks. Such is life on the road.

on Feb 20, 2010

What do you do with the things you knit? I mean you can never have too many warm socks, but still.. what kind of things do you knit besides pipeholders? Sweaters, shawls, hats, mittens or maybe some decorations for your truck (jk)

on Feb 20, 2010

utemia
What do you do with the things you knit? I mean you can never have too many warm socks, but still.. what kind of things do you knit besides pipeholders? Sweaters, shawls, hats, mittens or maybe some decorations for your truck (jk)

I knit socks, hats, scarves, and sweaters mostly. Some are for myself but most I give as gifts.

on Feb 23, 2010

Back about 13 years ago (when my beard was a perky 9 or 10), I got a job at a local School Division.  I was the first "engineer" they hired and my job was to staff up to support about 25k computers over 60 sites.  It was tough finding qualified people that would work for the little they were offering, but that is another story.

As luck woudl have it, most of the people I hired had a beard like mine, or soon grew one (boss worship??).  Soon, my entire staff of senior engineers (except one) had a beard, and so my boss decided to grow one to be "one of us".  He was in his mid 50s (where I am now), and had a fine crop of red hair.  But his beard came in snow white!  It was so bad, he started using grecian on it (it turned out well - he kept some white).  Kind of like you!

I will say that my beard just before I shave it - had more white than my head.  but not by much.  I think it has something to do with your hair color - red heads having an earlier white/gray beard.  By my calculation you have a few years before you are Santa Beard, but let's face it.  We are getting older.

on Feb 23, 2010

Getting older. Yeah, that happens. Dammit. While not a red-head I am mostly Irish so the grey doesn't surprise me too much. Hell, my Uncle Ray was totally grey at the age of 20. Ya just can't beat genetics. But then my grandpa was bald at the age of 25 so I've surpassed that (although steadily thining now). I guess my grandmother being Apache has aided me in those areas.