Daynotes On A Budget, V6.0

I glanced out the window a few days ago while working, and the memory of what I would do as a kid during summer days hit me like a brick.   The earliest that I remember my time as my own must have been when I was five or six.  We lived in a ranch-style house in what was then known as "Kutzman's Edition" - seriously, that was what the first sign said.  Out in the countryside north of Sartell, Minnesota, on what I knew as "The Great River Road".  Up where we lived, you could no longer see the Mississippi most days thanks to the larger yards and heavy trees.  We were probably a quarter-to-half mile from the river at that point, which was probably something of a relief to my mother, who was attempting to keep safe one boy and two or three girls. But there were days when I was released to the tender mercies of the neighborhood, where I found a bunch of other boys to hang out and play with.  The rather rural area was slowly succumbing to sprawling housing de...

My wife will insist to you that I do not like change.  Which is why for at least 25 years my chosen field was technology.  Because, you know, nothing at all changes in tech.  </Snark> I am not much of a fan of change that appears to be needless.  I mean, things like new clothes.  I like some of them if they're particularly funny tee shirts, or provide a spark to a memory that I value greatly.  Or, ya know, other stuff like that.  But there are some changes which are kind of hard. Locally, the television station which I watch regularly is about to go through one of those major upheavals.  Last fall, they celebrated their 70th anniversary, and earlier this year, Randy Shaver celebrated his 40th anniversary at the station.  Mr. Shaver joined the station back in the early 1980s as a sports reporter.  The staff around him was incredibly professional and very likeable through the years, as was he.  In fact, going back a chunk of tim...

Yup, two weeks ago I was out of town.  It's rather laughingly called "vacation". My wife found a nice resort up north that was well within our budget.  She'd gone for a few trips without me, because I had decided to spend time at home, rather than traveling.  This time, I went.  Still regretting it. The cabin was very nice, as was the weather.  We arrived on Saturday, unloaded the vehicle with two dogs and two people and stuff for the week.  After dinner from the resort's restaurant which was good we had our first night of ... well, chaos is probably the best way to explain it.  Cheyanne hopped herself up onto the double bed, which between my wife and her did not leave much in the way of room.  When combined with Freyja's patrolling the place, I got up and went into the living room to keep her company.   We ran into Fergus Falls the next day to pick up groceries and a few things, like a dog bed, which we apparently needed.  The seco...

I played baseball and football as organized team sports as a kid.  That is, I played the games in my neighborhood when the other kids were willing to do so.  When the chance came to play the sports in school, I got permission from my parents, and got dropped off the Monday morning after our parish "Fall Festival" which was always held on the third weekend of August, and helped clean up after that.  There were adults taking down the festival booths, we helped them, picked up garbage that had not been put into the trash barrels, and worked hard.  Come lunch time we got leftovers from the previous day's Turkey Festival Dinner - no pie left, but plenty of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy,   Then was the meeting which our coach held in the fifth-grade classroom, which had been my class room the previous year.  Coach explained what he expected, as far as showing up for practices and games, and ... well, there was the absolutely uncomfortable momen...

I do not recall the class in grade school, high school, college, or any post-school seminar educating people on how to Vacation.  I missed that.  I do not do well with "unstructured" vacation time.   For a number of years, as a family we visited Iowa, spending time with my mother-in-law in Iowa.  Aside from the cheap housing, we did end up developing a fair routine when it came to things to do.  We would end up at Wal-Mart, enjoying the prices often half, or less, than those at home, take grandma out to eat, visit friends, a winery or two, other nearby attractions, then head home.  When it came to my folks, we'd spend an afternoon with them, head out to visit some friends, then head home.   That was pretty much the extent of our "vacations" until the kids got a little older, then we started a 5 year tradition of camping on Memorial and Labor Day weekends.  The spring trip was usually rainy, at least in part, while the fall trips were oft...

I'm out of town on vacation, yet I still try to see what's going on in the world.   I am not a subscriber to the local Minneapolis Star Tribune, which means some of it's content is protected by a pretty pathetic subscriber block.  This means that while I can't see their layout or images, I can read the article simply by right-clicking and selecting "View Page Source" in my browser.   Which is how I managed to read yet another shameful piece of work by a former politician.  Seems Tony Jurgens is upset because of a family tragedy.  Not his, mind you, but by the events which occurred around another legislator's loss of her father.   This whole thing played out about a month before the recent end of the state legislative session.  Fortunately, even today in these "modern" times our state legislative sessions are limited to our winter months.  From January to May, our legislature has to meet and get their work done.  Much like a sch...

So locally, we have yet another kerfluffle with law enforcement and the public. The facts, as they have been presented in the news media for some months now, are that one Ricky Cobb was driving a motor vehicle when pulled over by Minnesota State Highway Patrol officers.  It was determined that Cobb had active felony warrants out for his arrest.  Cobb remained in his vehicle when the officers asked that he step out of the vehicle at least fifteen times.  He then tried to speed away with officers hanging on to the passenger and driver sides of the vehicle.  One of the officers fired his weapon into the car, ending Cobb's life and stopping the car. Now, when we get to the genius part, recently elected Hennepin County Attorney decides to hang her hat on a conviction of said officer, a white male, for shooting Mr. Cobb, a black male.  That is, she decided that the officer, who had a full year and a half on the job when this event occurred, had done wrong by ending th...

I suppose I am something of an outlier when it comes to cell phones.   Having consumed the Apple Koolaid for a few years and leaving that environment screaming, I am not, nor will I ever be, an IPhone Adopter.  I know they make good products, I find, however, that my mind is not suited for Apple in very many ways.  Back in the (dark?) Pre-OS 10 days, I was quite happy to work on/with Apple products.  I do remember migrating many users to new computers by simply insuring all of their current applications were installed on the new machines, then moving the contents (most of it, anyway) of the Preferences folder from the old machine to the new one.  Then open up each application to insure it opened, recognized the "new" old preferences - then move on. I've never used, or considered using, an iPhone.  I prefer my androids.  But this, too, is becoming a less ... usable environment. One of my favorite phones of the pre-smart phone age was one designed b...