Daynotes On A Budget, V6.0

 It is extremely strange when you see national guard helicopters flying around and over your town.  I don't suppose that it gets normal for anyone, but this past year has been extremely ... sad, strange, frustrating, and enlightening.  And I know more things now that I wish I didn't have to know, but as the days go by, that is also something I have the privilege not to deal with, thanks to my skin color. Which is what is driving most of the change, unfortunately.  I used to think that maybe we'd gotten past the racism that was prevalent in the world, but it seems it's just gotten far more deadly and insidious.  On 05/25/2020, George Floyd walked out of a convenience store in his neighborhood and the police ... well, they killed him.  We've had one trial so far completed, and it determined that yes, Derek Chauvin did kneel on his back until Mr. Floyd was no longer breathing. I was sitting in a pediatrician's office with my son a number of years ago.  He...

Been a long week.  But it's over.   We've been working in a new-to-us system this week.  Previously we used one system to find out what work needed to be done, it was done in another system, where we had a third we had to look to for documents that might not have been attached to the first system, and then there's the inevitable part of the job where we ask for approval of our request, which some insurance companies provide through a phone call, some use faxing back and forth, and some have their own web sites that you submit your request to and receive your approval. Before you snort too much about the faxing, it's secure.  I cannot email requests because of the design of the email system. Back in 1998, I was working as the IT guy for a medium-sized company.  We were privately owned, so we didn't show up on any sort of list, including Fortune.  We were a fairly hot company on some lists, so we kept growing.  But that also made us a target and ......

 As a young boy, I did not get the chance to watch much television.  The first home I remember with my family was what today is a fairly standard "ranch" home.  Our "ranch" consisted of a yard which was, in total, about half an acre.  A good chunk of it out front was taken up by the road that went past, and so we got to put the septic tank in that fringe.  The side yard to the south of the house was wide open, and the back yard had large flat spots, and a slight ridge about 15" tall that raised the rear fifteen feet or so - which was where my mother's garden was, therefore we were not permitted back there. Inside, the main door in and out of the house ran through the garage.  We very rarely used the front door.  But the "back" door entered into the kitchen, which opened into the dining room.  Down the center of the house, with one eight foot wide gap, was a bearing wall.  It separated the kitchen from the front living room, where the Televisi...

 Yeah, it's been like that. Got told last week that we needed to do more, thus more overtime was required.  Yeah, right.  What I need is an uncrispy-fried brain, but that's my problem, not my employer's.   So we launch into this week with what I hope is an un-fried brain.  The youngest fellow in the family is heading out tomorrow morning to do battle with the 35W Traffic monster, who will eat him for the first few weeks, until he gets comfortable.  But he's starting a new job at a high-end auto dealer's shop, where he will work on fancy-schmancy cars.  Fancier than I will ever own.   So he got that going for him, which should be good.  Me?  I'm really enjoying the green and the leaves that are finally beginning to shade the yard.  Next step is to see if I should build a semi-permanent pergola, or something a little more sheltery for peace in the yard.  We're off an extremely busy street which is, apparently, where all...

 Would that I could. It has become fairly clear to me over the past few days that while I am respected and valued as a member of my team at my current employer, my own mental health has suffered.  I know I did much of it to myself.  Working long hours without any sort of reset or reboot is pretty difficult when the rewards, if any, are invisible. I do know I was spoiled when I joined the company, ending up working for a great supervisor and an excellent manager.  My supervisor has left the company, and that great manager has been ... laterally moved into a new position which does not place her over me.  And as I have learned over the years, that excellent manager was a top flight spectacular communicator.  We got daily messages letting us know where we stood and how things were going - and most importantly, what her expectations where and how we would be able to meet them. And then in a few months they replaced all of those supervisors with new ones, and .....

It once again smacks me in the forehead that some people just are not fit for public exposure.  As in any at all. It's the 21st Century, folks, and that means we're looking into a pit of despair we've mostly created all on our own. The last three major threats to overall planetary safety from falling space debris has come from the fledgling Chinese Space program, which recently proclaimed it had launched the first part of it's own space station.  This most recent entry in the space debris sweepstake came with a 20-ton rocket booster, it's own entry, and it fell back to the earth this morning.  Somewhere over the Indian Ocean, thus missing the thirty percent of the planet which is dry land, and where the people are mostly thinly spread. But it does require a certain amount of arrogance and stupidity to lob something into orbit without considering ALL of the consequences.  As in where is the stuff that isn't going to stay up there go?  I mean, if we look at it in ...

 I do not expect I am going to be long or well remembered outside my family when I do pass away, but I can pretty much guarantee that the names of those people currently working to restrict voting will be long remembered. If it is through history books on how to really damage a democracy which recovered and survived, I'm fine with that.  If it's in vague terms as they are remembered as the real engineers who destroyed America, I'd be pretty bummed.  But they don't seem to understand how fragile and delicate a democracy is.  And I suppose it wouldn't occur to those sorts of people who only see the power in the system and their greedy desire to control it. Because it's pretty painfully obvious to someone like me - any system of government is going to be as strong and as supported as the people who are invested in it.  That is, if a majority of your citizens have the opportunity to vote, and to share the control of that system, that system will remain strong. ...

I do miss the back-and-forth we used to have in the old Daynoter group.  Far too many of those gentlemen have passed away, while others, I've just flat out lost contact. And to be fair, it's not like we were lifelong deeply involved friends.  We had some back and forth chitchat on line, and ... well, yeah. I do hope they're all doing as well as possible.  I owe many of them a great debt of thanks for accepting and tolerating my ... well, stupidity, generally. Beyond that, not much else going on around here.   We did go out to dinner on Saturday evening for the first time in ... well, pretty much over a year.  We've had takeout many times over the past fourteen months, but the food just isn't the same.  This time, we went out to have dinner again with my son's fiancee's parents.  They are good people, really good, decent folks.  And her father has hit his goal and is retiring, and moving - and so they're packing up and loading up and getting r...