...you uncover almost an entire computer you didn't know was in there.

After jmaynard left for the airport yesterday, I got somewhat ambitious and started cleaning up bits of the house. It might be hard to tell, but I did make a dent in a few things. The machine room got the most treatment when I got sick of tripping over stuff. The various keyboards are all in one box now (KVM switches are nice things) and I think I've separated my stuff from Jay's stuff but won't toss anything until we've both looked through things, lest I toss something that's not junk.

The result of the machine room cleaning, so far, is that my Apple //e is once more accessible and there's nothing piled on the floor in front of it. I also found not one, but two socket-7 motherboards (one is disturbingly new looking and even has the manual with it - how come it never got used?), three small bags of memory (168, 72, and even 30 pin), a few 486s and a couple socket-7 CPUs, including a Cyrix 686 PR200+. There was also a disturbingly new looking sound card. I didn't find any socket-7 CPU heat sinks or fans, but I suspect there might be some lurking in a particular box I haven't gone through yet. I didn't swap anything out of vector as by the time I got that far I'd had enough.

We could use a tape rack for storing for 9-track mainframe tapes. Unfortunately there seems to be no good place for such a thing. I haven't really looked at the machine room ("McGee, don't open that...") closet yet. It may be best that I don't for a while.

[Addendum: Lest anyone get the wrong impression, I knew about the //e. It was the other stuff that was rather surprising.]

Current Mood: surprised

Friday: Cleaned up the dining room some. Various boxes and packing material are now taking up much less room and the boxes can be picked up on the next recycling day. The table is still strewn various bits of computers, but that's not likely to change until the office is sorted out - and that won't be for a while, mainly due to furniture requirements.

Saturday: De-cluttered, cleaned, and re-arranged the living room. jmaynard wired up the speakers he'd brought back from Houston this Summer. A clock, a mirror my grandmother had, and a picture that my grandmother had painted were also hung on the wall. Actually the mirror isn't quite in the living room, but in the front entryway. It fits well there. While the living room isn't anything likely to make Better Homes & Gardens, it now looks much more like a normal living room.

After all that was done, we relaxed and watched History of the World - Part I which I had not seen before. I recognized many bits that I'd seen in clips, but this was the first time I'd seen the whole thing.

Sunday: Jay and I went to Sioux Falls and, since Nap's had closed (a column [See: Surprise endings] in the Argus Leader mentioned they'd lost their lease and hadn't found a new location yet - we both hope they re-open soon) we went to Famous Dave's. Verdict: Acceptable, but not great. We want Nap's back! We also did a bit of Christmas shopping and have more of that out of the way. Yay! I'd like to be done with it before Thanksgiving and avoid the madd(en)ing crowds of December. I expect I can, with one probable exception.

As Jay mentioned we saw the aurora borealis Sunday night. From southern Minnesota it seemed not to change too fast and was rather monochrome. It was both intense and not intense. While it was intense enough to be seen here and be visible south of the zenith, it wasn't 'active' with fast shimmering or much color. It was, if anything, a dull reddish, looking rather like the glow from a large city - only there wasn't one. From my father's description, it seems that a couple degrees north there was a better show.

Current Mood: accomplished

Though Jay may be off to California to be on a TV show and is still getting requests for radio interviews, other things do go on. If problems come in threes, hopefully we have the set now and aren't due another installment somewhere along the line.

A week or two ago there were a couple storms. One Saturday evening pelted the are with hail. The one hailstone I measured was an inch across the major axis (it was not spherical). Sunday night there was storm with high winds. Unusually high wind, even for the Plains. There was no major damage, but there are a few spots on the roof where shingles used to be. Someone was called, but as far I know it hasn't even been looked at yet. Hopefully a quick patch job is all that will be needed. While the roof will need replacement in a couple years, I'd like to be able to wait that couple years.

Last Thursday I noticed that the tab on the mailbox felt mushy, which is not a good way for metal to feel. Sure enough, it broke off on Friday. Friday evening was spent removing the old mailbox, fixing up the post and such that it and the neighbor's boxes are mounted on, and putting the new box in place. It was a typical project: A few too many bent nails and two trips to the hardware store. One positive side effect was that I discovered a rattling in my car was probably due to the migration of tools in the trunk. After putting the toolkit back as it ought to be, things should be quiet again, but I haven't really listened hard yet. I might have caught that sooner, but it's been a few years since I've had use the toolkit I carry in the car.

This Saturday I went into the basement for something and found water on the floor. Fortunately it was not all that much water and only in the unfinished part of the basement. I followed the water to the prime suspect: the aging water heater. I just took four hours off work to be around while that was replaced and to see the inspector who signed off on the installation. To cap it all off, the installer pointed out that who ever installed that old water heater had connected it backwards, which would result in running out of hot water quickly. The new installation is much cleaner, without cross-ways piping. Whoever put in the old heater wasn't just lazy, but evidently actively stupid.

Current Mood: relieved

The last 18 hours or so went better than those before them (as described in the previous post). The server could boot from a CD, and with the right CD and a bit of guided prodding it was in a condition such that jmaynard could patch it up remotely.

While he did that, I looked at the furnace. It wasn't the motor that circulates air through the ductwork. It was the motor that blows exhaust gasses outside ("high efficiency" furnace - no chimney as such). There wasn't anything I could do but clean up a bit and make things easy for the repairman.

Once the server was back, conmicro.cx wasn't resolving, but it was reachable by numeric IP. I didn't do anything there, at least not beyond answer a phone call from someone wondering where Hercules went.

Without the furnace working, it was a night of thick quilts, an electric heating pad, and a Santa hat as a nightcap - hey, it works. The temperature in the living room had dropped to 55 F when I checked it this morning. It was a bit warmer upstairs. At least this happened in late March and not January.

There's heat on in the house again, and not just the blinds open to the south. It didn't take long for the repairman to replace that motor.

Current Mood: relieved

Or why last night was the start of one of those days.

( Bad sound, bad smell )

( Preserved comment(s) )

Current Mood: stressed

By now KinkyTurtle should be well underway, travelling to Lawrence, KS today, and from there to Fairmont, MN tomorrow as he mentions here. Jay and I looking forward to his visit. We have a couple things roughly planned, showing KT around the extended area and such. Stuff that there isn't time for in shorter visits, or those with more people, like the Taurmanias of a few years back.

Jay and I are already curious as to how things will appear in KT's cartoon diary about the trip. Hopefully there'll be enough free time for his sketching so that the days leading to MFF will be ready for scanning and uploading soon after KT returns home. That way all those at MFF won't be muttering about not getting to the bits they were at, or wanted to be at. Time will tell. And eventually KT will tell as well.

Also, I've been using the impending visit as a reason to get the house in order, though it might well be just so I feel better about things. The place looks better than it did not all that long ago, and I do feel better. Whether that's from things looking better, the effort expended to get things looking better, or something else I'm not sure. I just like the results, whatever the reason.

( Preserved comments. )

Current Mood: happy

( Sleep, Ron Babb, Harvest Feast, housework )

Weather. We had snow overnight. Enough that the grass is covered or mostly so and the roads were more interesting than desired this morning. It's odd, but even machine exhaust seems a bit nice in the crispness. Perhaps it's an odor from pleasant times, or maybe just knowing how good it is to have a machine (whatever it may be) running when there's snow on the ground. There is a certain satisfaction in having something start and run in colder weather. Though today isn't all that cold (Yes, Jay, I know it's freezing out. It's November. It'll do that.) as it is still in the thirties, and that's above zero.

Current Mood: good

It's now been a year that I've been using LJ. I was reading it before that. And once again it's time for the annual flu shot, which I just got. And my knee, which became a problem for a while around this time last year, is acting up a bit again. Nothing big, just a low-grade soreness that I'd prefer to do without but it doesn't really get in the way of anything. It just makes me a bit uneasy.

Since a year ago I've done a couple things I hadn't expected. Going to AnthroCon, while planned, wasn't something I was thinking about then. The trip to NYC was even more of a surprise. I don't regret either trip, but am in no hurry to repeat them either.

Jay and I spent Christmas and Easter at my folk's place. And we spent Thanksgiving in the Ozarks and saw the Rockettes with his family.

I met more faire folks, including a couple that I probably should have met years ago but somehow didn't. And also realized I had my first encounter (though that started last September) with a faire merchant who I will not be doing business with again.

I (finally) paid off the car. And I finally set up a couple accounts so I will hopefully have less to worry about in the future. The amount in them is still small, but at least I've started on the way. Another thing I should've done several years earlier. Also, Jay and I got the mortgage refinanced to take advantage of low interest rates we don't expect to see again.

There's more, of course, but that's all I'm putting here just now.

The trip to Sioux Falls was nicely uneventful. Comic books acquired. Dinner ordered and eaten. On the way back into Fairmont we stopped to look for a power strip so that the new wireless access point and a couple other things could share an outlet. While looking, we picked up a replacement switch as some (not all) of the lights in the basement weren't being switched on reliably.

I removed the old switch. I connected the new switch. We verified it worked, and then I finished the installation proper.

Then we looked at the old switch. No wonder the lights weren't being switched on properly. The casing of the switch was broken, and couldn't properly hold the contacts in place. It's amazing that it had been working at all. The replacement is, of course, working nice and reliably.

Current Mood: relieved