Daynotes On A Budget, V6.0

Looks like I put my grumpy pants on this morning.  To be fair, they may in fact have been put on some 10-15 years ago, and never taken off.  Since they're apparently virtual, do not worry that I'm wearing smelly pants for something like a decade...  One can hope, anyway. Looks like it started with a little bit of carryover from yesterday.  Loaded one of my emails in my browser, and noticed down at the bottom of the screen that I was approaching 50% of the free space granted used.  So last night I started a cull through some of those folders.  For many years, I had relied on an email client - most recently Thunderbird.  I might go back to it some day when I get my dream machine with 16 or more Gigs of RAM.   Aside number one - yes, there is an entire tape in my head (yes, kids, us old folks are built on older technology) that starts with "my first computer was very cool to me when we got a gadget that allowed me to go from 3 to 8K..."  Ye...

I do not run a cable network.  I may have a chance, however, if things head the way they're going right now. Let's see.  Last week, Fox did NOT admit to lying to their viewers and the rest of the world.  They DID agree to pay out some $760 MILLION dollars to avoid going through a trial or admitting their own guilt.  They also promoted a full-on assault against Budweiser, an advertiser, because the advertiser dared to reach out to some people their constituency did not like.   This week, they fired their top-rated yap show host, Tucker Carlson.  Who, let's be honest, deserved a much harsher fate.  Perhaps he should be allowed to walk from Los Angeles to New York A) On his tongue, and B) The long-way around - that is, not via the North American Continent, but all of the others, and the oceans, too. But that would be cruel and unusual punishment.  I mean, it's not like he's chopped at the roots of our democracy alone.  He had a hell of a lo...

I know it will be utterly shocking to some folks, but hey, I just caught up on the news, including the whole Bud Light fiasco. I know, shocking that I'm not on top of all of the trends today.  I'm doing pretty damned good to remember my name by the end of my day, these days, but hey, we'll get there. As I understand it, The Artist Formerly Known As Kid Rock complained about Bud Light helping to sponsor someone's posts.  Now, I will grant you that I'm an old cranky curmudgeonly man, but I think we can agree that anyone over forty still calling themselves "Kid" anything need either therapy or adults monitoring their days - and their spending, social media uses, and probably the condition and contents of their pants, as they're likely incontinent at both ends. Seems TAFKAKR was upset by some of the sponsorship the Bud Light Folks did.  Mind you, this is coming from a man who admits to having smoked funny things in northern Michigan some time ago.  So we k...

I like to do woodworking.  It's no huge secret.  But I fear I have chosen poorly for my hobby. With my son and his wife now moved out of our upstairs bedroom, I get to move my work-from-home office from the basement upstairs.  My wife had moved up there several years ago (say 2019) when we were able to use a bonus she received to purchase an adjustable height (motorized) desk, which fit in my son's former bedroom.  His sister moved out, he chose to move into her room because his was on the warmer side of the house (the west), and he had pretty thoroughly filled it up.   So we took down the old computer desk which I had built for my own use back when we were still living in an apartment, which is essentially a pair of frames connected by some stock 2x4 lumber to provide a working surface of four-by-four feet square.  It works for me.  Or did when I originally built it, and worked well for him for a few years, then when he moved out of the room, we ...

So last week I looked out my back door at the pile of snow next to the school parking lot.  It was built on a strip of ground that is normally grassy and about twelve to fifteen feet wide.  It runs the width of the parking lot, so maybe a hundred feet or so.  And on it, the snow was piled a good twelve feet tall.  Next to it, the entire last row of the parking lot was down to perhaps a foot wide, as the rest of it was also piled rather deeply with snow. My wife and I had a chat, both of us expecting that the pile would remain several more weeks.  I figured May 12, she was a little more optimistic, saying May 1st.  This evening, our fourth day in a row of above-normal temperatures, and the coldest, reaching only 78, saw the end of Mount Snow.  It's all gone.  Granted, that's sort of what you expect when you have three days in a row with the high temperature over 80 degrees.  Two of those days set new high temperature records in the upper 80s (...

Today, we officially hit 60 degrees.  Which is pretty much the warning that there's a bumpy road ahead.   Minnesota is one of those places where the old saying "if you don't like the weather, wait a half-hour" is usually fairly accurate.  Spring weather, here, is usually something that's slipped loose from the chaos chain and rolls through.  I remember one year where we had a late April day with temperatures over 90 degrees - we cooked out.  Less than a week later, we got clobbered by snow.  About eight inches.  Yes.  It often happens like that.   This winter, I'm not prepared to say "it's over" for a while yet.  I've got a running bet with myself as to whether the front or back yard will be snow-free first.  Both will undoubtedly beat Mt. Everest across the street where the school piles their snow onto a patch of ground about ten feet wide running the width of the parking lot.  This winter, they've lost the last row ...

I suppose I should start with a couple of points, such as I was never any good at it, it never really interested me beyond the Harlem Globetrotters, and because, frankly, the few times I've watched men's professional basketball, it seems to be a game being played on a far too small court with baskets very much too low.  It seems to encourage stupidity, more than athleticism.   Mind you, the one women's professional basketball game I've gone to really impressed me.  The teamwork was exceptional, lots of passing and shooting - not galumphing down the court and banging the ball into the hoop.  Though frankly watching the last 2-3 minutes of a basketball game is all you really need.  You see who wins. I did see the last few minutes - of clock time - of the Women's NCAA championship.  More disclosure - my wife grew up in Iowa, and I've really grown rather fond of the place.  But to watch the end of the game was really a prime example of why I won't be ...