Where does dirt ... go?

Weed, California, Sunday June 8, 2008: About a week ago, Glenn the Magnificent and two of his beer-guzzling crew (Big Bob and Jesse the Bulldog) came and ran the water line into the shop.

They dug around in the yard until they found the water line, and then while I wasn't looking they somehow tapped into it, then dug a narrow trench across the yard and past the old rock walkway, and then connected it up with a line they'd put into the foundation last year.

But that's not my point. The point is this ...

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A Voice From the Past

July 1, 2003, San Jose, California: I was at my desk in San Anselmo, but right then in San Jose, hundreds of my 800-numbers were being fitted into a seven-foot cabinet inside the switching room of a long distance company.

It had been a very techno day; and to my shock I had just heard from my very techno friend Harvey, who died several years before.

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Dihydrogen Monoxide Alert

March 15, 2004, Aliso Viejo, CA: City officials of this small town (just north of San Clemente, CA) proposed legislation to ban foam cups from the town.

A city-government paralegal had uncovered evidence that foam cups were manufactured using a substance known as 'dihydrogen monoxide,' when he found a well-designed web site describing the dangerous properties of this chemical.

As it turns out, the online site about Dihydrogen Monoxide was created by 14-year-old Nathan Zohner, who was researching the gullibility of ninth grade students in his school.

And they said it couldn't happen here!

Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide

Flash! Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the water, new research reveals extensive use of a powerful chemical within many industry groups worldwide, suggesting a powerful effect upon our overall health.

For revelations about the now-widespread use of dihydrogen monixide in our world, see Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division (DMRD), located in Newark, Delaware.

Why aren't our governmental agencies on top of this?

The Lottery Winner

[From "Random Robert":] A man had won the lottery, several millions, and so the press beseiged his house, and when he came home from the bar, they caught him.

They ask him what he is going to do with all the money.

"Well," he said, "I guess the first thing I'll do is go and pay a few bills."

"And what about the rest?" the reporter asks.

The lucky winner shrugs. "Well, I guess they'll just have to wait."

Missing What We Didn't Used to Have

Mount Shasta: A couple of days ago, Adrienne (recovering from her deadly Komodo Kitty infection) and I were sitting at our dining room table. This table overlooks a shallow bay window above our front yard, which lies above the streetcorner.

The house diagonally across the corner -- what my mother called "Catty-Corner" -- has a couple with two children and a springy young black lab who was galloping wildly up the street, prancing like a playful pony. In their window, we could still just see their eight-foot Christmas tree, harvested up on the mountain, and still lit up.

"You know," Adrienne said. "I've been wondering what it would be like to be their kid."

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The Expanding Bloggiverse

Mount Shasta: I've tinkered with the layout of "Adventures of Bloggard", but the design is still flawed: If the browser is too narrow, the grey column on the right gets squeezed down to the bottom of the page, which is nigh on useless.

If you are a CSS-layout guru and think you could improve the stability of this layout, I'd love to hear from you. I keep saying I'll go study CSS some more, but I've become caught up in the challenge of writing a new story every day.

And here I'm clearly losing ground.

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Lost at the Ford

San Anselmo, California: Last weekend Adrienne and I had a hard talk. For us, talking about money is usually difficult. I've learned my lessons very slowly, and so only in recent years am I trying to be smarter, learning the lessons better learned at 30 than at 59. Adrienne, younger, seems even slower; and so we struggle.

She agreed, however, that the only possible way to have wealth is to (a) live below your means, however modest that might be, so that you can (b) siphon off some money, and (c) with these funds purchase assets which will bring you money without working.

For example, buying a rental house. Purchasing stocks or bonds paying dividends. Owning some sort of copyright or patent that can be leased. In other words, going from paying interest to collecting interest.

So then yesterday, after a mysterious 'going shopping' trip with daughter Lilah, she arrives home, having purchased a nice new car. I've now been physically ill for 24 hours.

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Life keeps Happening to Me!

My vision is impaired. Just recently, dark specks appeared before my eyes. Actually, only before one eye. Not the little odd things you sometimes see, dust motes floating, because when I blink they don't move. Inside the eye, then.

Good old Kaiser slid me into a 4:30 appointment with eyedrops and tests. Come to find out ...

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Wrestling with the Angel of Hack

Searching a method permitting BlogBoys users to edit their AboutMe, I was hunting a php programmer. A Nucleus forum visitor pointed me toward a free script to do the job, and once downloaded and installed, it's great and it's terrible.

It's great because I can copy the script anywhere into html space, then browse there, and presto I can see inside most any folder on the server. In any folder world-writable, I can copy files, make links to files, delete files, edit files. Neat.

It's terrible because, if I can do it, anybody can do it. Getting into a previously 'secured' folder and stealing the credit-card number proved way easy. If I can't throttle this boy into acting with some restraint, he's outta here!

Sunday Was Dreadful

Adrienne and I are sometimes just not on the same wavelength. We had a disagreement, regarding funds and moving costs, and it left us both in the dumps. While I feel clear about what needs to be done, it's also clear that the talk was damaging. I hate that, and don't know any better way of proceeding.

I'm quite concerned about our financing of our move, and maybe this is making me too edgy. I'm not sure. I wish I could be more loving. I'm just not quite sure how.

The Cyberworld is Taking Over my Life!

Help, help! Since engaging in this project to offer webservices on a dedicated server, I find that, every day, hours and hours get eaten up by the project, because ...

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