Sofa shopping adventure

Posted by Photonstopper on August 22, 2007
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This rainy Sunday we paid another visit to the La-Z-Boy store in Fairlawn (near Akron) to take another look at the candidate sofa. She Who Must Be Obeyed had found a sofa that pleased her … and I like it too. The hardest part was probably picking out the covering. On the floor it had one of those microfiber fabrics that looks and feels like suede leather. Right down to the cheek marks left after you've been sitting on the cushion for a while. After much consideration and comparison, we settled on a sort of ribbed camel-colored number. Not our first choice but our first choice wasn't available for the sofa we chose. So She made a 50 percent deposit and we departed believing all was well.

New Sofa
New Sofa

Monday dawned rainy and SWMBO reviewed the order paperwork. Oh-oh! The fabric indicated on the order form didn't match what we had decided to specify — it was an earlier choice, a sort of smooth, green fabric — not the ribbed tan color we asked for. So we make another trip to Fairlawn (still raining Monday night) to look it over and make sure the color was right. Charlie, our sales guy, said the mix-up was his fault. We told him that was okay, we were there to make certain we'd made the right choice. After looking at what we had ordered and what Charlie had written on the order form (again, an earlier candidate) we went with what Charlie had mistakenly written on the form. It is to arrive within about 60 days. Hopefully it will be a long, long time before we shop for another sofa but we have a very bad track record when it comes to sofas.

We stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream sundae on the way home. An interesting evening.

Tonight I tried out the La-Z-Boy Customize tool on their Web site: http://www.la-z-boy.com. That's where the picture (above) came from. Lots o' fun! You can get an idea of what any piece of covered furniture will look like with its available fabric coverings. We didn't know about this when we started shopping. Maybe it didn't matter much. I tried sitting on the computer monitor with the new sofa displayed and it was terribly uncomfortable … those flat panels have very pointy corners. The reclining feature didn't work, either; I couldn't find the release button on the monitor and by then it had collapsed beneath me. For now it's probably best to stick with the real deal in the brick-and-mortar store!

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Chipmunk fun

Posted by Photonstopper on August 18, 2007
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Chipmunk Fun
Chipmunk Fun

We stopped by the vet's office during our Saturday run-arounds. The cats are fine but we had a bunch of used insulin syringes to leave off for proper disposal. Dr. B. gets enjoyment from gardening around his hospital building and at the front door, among the flowers, stands a small statue. Perched on top of the statue was a chipmunk, holding very still, his cheeks full of food. I just happened to be carrying my camera so I hoped the critter would keep his position on the statue and would still be there as I left. Camera at the ready I opened the door to leave and found the little guy continuing to pretend he was a part of the statue. The chipmunk regarded me silently and motionlessly as I aimed and squeezed off several shots. Here's what I got! I love the way the stone dog and boy appear to be gazing lovingly upon their furry friend. We'll probably make a print of it for Dr. B. & Co.

We visited the La-Z-Boy store in Fairlawn this afternoon and found a sofa we both liked. This one has three cushions with those on either end set up as reclining chairs. Comfortable  for both of us to sit on and She Who Must be Obeyed can even stretch out on it for  an unscheduled snooze. She said she might even want to order one tomorrow.

It was mild and partly sunny for most of the day, growing increasingly cloudy as the evening came. Now it's 100 percent overcast and the rain chances are building. I won't be going to the observatory tonight, that's for sure, though we've got an open night scheduled for next Saturday and I like to get in some practice ahead of time.

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QotD: Passing The Drive Time

Posted by Photonstopper on August 17, 2007
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When driving alone, what do you do?  Sing along to the radio?  Think about your day?  Something else?
Submitted by carapiccoladiva.  

My commute is way longer than I'd ever have expected it to be and much longer than I'd like. Ideally I'd be able to walk to work. Circumstances sometimes dictate such things, so I try and make the best of it.

When I Woke
When I Woke
Rusted Root

Usually, when driving alone, there's a CD playing and it's usually something with a good beat for driving. One of my favorites is Dirty Vegas by, of course, Dirty Vegas. Another fave for driving and singing with is Fallen by Evanescence — a truly amazing first album. Rusted Root has some excellent driving numbers — listen to "Ecstasy" from When I Woke, some time when you're driving 65 mph (or faster) on the freeway! Those favorites that feature vocals I usually wind up singing along with. I sound pretty good, too, inside my head!

Then there are the podcasts: "The Tech Guy" by Leo Laporte, "Planetary Radio" by The Planetary Society, and "Are We Alone?" by The SETI Institute. Beyond that there are only a few local radio stations I listen to and never during drive time … bleh! Well, except for NPR and their "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" shows.

Other times the audio is off and I'm discussing things or lecturing someone or some group that isn't there. Nope, I'm not crazy (at least that's what the voices tell me). I'm working out interpersonal issues, personal feelings, or practicing a talk I'll be giving.

Once in a while it's quiet in the car and in my head. Oh, that's nice!

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No matter how you behold it

Posted by Photonstopper on August 14, 2007
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It's a beautiful night! The humidity and haze were down, it was nicely cool, and the sky was cloudless. Too bad it wasn't near as nice this weekend. I stepped outdoors at about 10:30, binoculars in hand, and decided to take a look around. The light-polluted sky was clear enough to display a good number of stars, Jupiter, with Antares nearby, shown brightly to the south, and, OH! a single bright meteor streaked north to south as I gazed skyward! Later I believe I spotted a very faint meteor headed in the same direction. Checking out the northeast sky with the binoculars, yes!, I was able to find the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) so we've got a shot at showing it off at the next observatory open house. In the binocular field of view the galaxy was a faint fuzz-ball, rather indistinct in the bright skyglow, but it was there! I was too tired to go to the club meeting tonight and too tired to haul myself out to actually observe.The sky, however, is a wonder to behold no matter how you behold it!

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Meteors, moms, and cooling off

Posted by Photonstopper on August 12, 2007
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This weekend was nice enough. We did the usual running around on Saturday –groceries, etc.– with a quick trip to the new La-Z-Boy store in North Olmsted for a look at some chairs. Saturday night was relatively clear, as predicted, so I ducked outdoors a few times to see how the Perseid meteor shower was going. I spent several minutes craning my neck and, within a couple of seconds of each other, saw two meteors. There's a possibility I saw a third, faint streak, running across the sky. Sky conditions here, south of Cleveland, are not the best on an excellent night and last night was not excellent — considerable haze and light pollution diminished the view. The shower peaks tonight (Sunday) but the weather forecast is for cloudy skies, at least until after midnight, and I must get a decent night's sleep for Monday's return to w-o-r-k. Oh well. I have to admit I'm a bit spoiled on meteor showers having witnessed the Leonids "storm" of a few years ago. Hard to beat a hundred or so bright meteors per hour for natural celestial fireworks. I am considering taking Tuesday, Aug. 28, off so that I can be up in the wee hours for the total lunar eclipse. Given clear skies and a good view to the west, the eclipse ought to be a very good show.

Mom-in-Law is comfortably recovering in the nursing home. We don't expect her to stay there for long but it's nice to have her in a facility she doesn't mind, where the staff likes her and she them, and where she likes the food.

Today we rode our bikes in southern Medina and northern Wayne Counties on a 32-mile circuit. Not long on distance but short on flat terrain. Heat and humidity added to the effort! The countryside out there is quite beautiful and the hills make for a lot of work but it's one of our favorite routes. Still, we're both glad to be indoors this afternoon, and cooling off.

P.S. 8/13/07 > The early weather forecasts were wrong and it was clear Sunday night. I stepped outside at about 11:30 for one last look to see how the meteor shower was going. Saw one moderately bright meteor. It may have been a good show under dark skies but here, in town, it was fairly lackluster during my casual look(s). My neck was sore from the aforementioned bike ride and I was very tired so went to bed a little late and without a great temptation to hop into the car and run out to the country. Just as well.

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Where she belongs

Posted by Photonstopper on August 8, 2007
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As I arrived at work the sky was darkening. Bright streaks of lightning connected clouds and ground. It was going to be an interesting morning! Soon after I entered the building the rains came. The intense downpour flooded the court garden and began to come into the building under the doors. We got about three inches of rain in around an hour! Then the lights clicked off and on… more than once… for about a second each time… deadly to computers! The recently-rebuilt server went down and stayed down twice — an indication that its backup power supply (UPS) had failed. After the second system stop I shut off the old UPS and moved the computer's power connections to a neighboring, known-good UPS. The usual glitches developed around the building; things that happen when the power is interrupted. There was only one PC fatality. Apparently the computer was booting up during one of the brief outages and a Windows file was corrupted. I hope I can repair the OS damage tomorrow without a full reinstall. Then Finance descended upon me: Inventory time! That led to a culling of obsolete and broken equipment for sale and disposal. Most of the stuff is of very little value and the costs associated with staff time will far exceed any money brought in by the sale of that crap. Policy rules, however: So it is written, so it shall be done.

Mom-in-Law needs more time in the hospital {duh!} and will be staying there a couple more days. She officially needs more time to recoup from the surgeries and be evaluated for post-hospital care {duh! and duh!}. Whew! I suppose even older folk vary as to how quickly they recover from any given medical procedure. But this sweet, frail elderly woman just showed no potential for going home the day after having her procedures. So good sense did prevail in the end and Mom-in-Law is staying in hospital where she belongs.

Late-Night P.S. — We had more storms tonight. While at home we had heavy rain around 8:30 or so with nearly constant lightning. Very impressive! As the storm (we were at the edge of a line of more powerful storms that swept through) passed, I looked out the west window. What should I see but clouds lit by occasional flashes of lightning and a large clearing at the fringes of the maelstrom. And in that clearing a star shown.

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A good one and a busy day

Posted by Photonstopper on August 6, 2007
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Mom-in-law's surgeries went very well. Cleveland Clinic surgeons used low-risk techniques to make repairs to prolapsed tissues. One of those surgeries is usually an outpatient procedure; the other was not. She'll spend the night at the hospital in recovery but they're expecting to discharge her tomorrow!! That fast discharge was not something spelled out prior to surgery. Mom-in-Law can't go home like that so an assisted-living place is quickly being sought. Sweetie said she visited her mother in recovery, touched her face and said, "my, you're warm!" To which Mom-in-Law replied, "I guess that means I'm still alive!" Good one, eh?

A fun day at work: A group of staff and, come to find out, others, were in on Sunday to inventory everything (tech and non-tech items). So the first thing I had to respond to, beginning as I walked in the door and for the first hour or so, was scattered reports of equipment not working. Mostly items had come unplugged: monitors, network connections, even a fiber-optic media converter. After "fixing" those that were out of service, I rapidly visited 'most every PC and monitor on the main floor of the building, checking, straightening, placing cables where they belong, etc. Whew! Then it was time for paper jams. And printers that think they have paper jams. I worked in a couple of hours hammering on an Web form and its underlying mailing scripts; getting closer to making it work but it isn't there just yet. No call back from Cisco but that's alright; I had plenty to do. Tomorrow I supervise inventory of the Server Room and a storage area — standing instruction: look but don't touch! All-in-all today was a busy day.

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Ahhh… a quiet, rainy Sunday!

Posted by Photonstopper on August 6, 2007
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Hiding in the Mirror...
Hiding in the Mirror…
Lawrence M. Krauss

Today was quiet. No work. No running errands. No bicycle riding. Not much of anything transpired. SWMBO and I took a walk of a couple of miles to breakfast with a round-about return and that was pretty much the extent activity today for me! It was a rainy day with several hours of light rainfall.  The rain was just what the ground so desperately needed. Exactly what I needed, too! Still, I felt a little guilty spending a good percentage of the day on the couch watching TV. I watched three episodes of Top Chef on Bravo! and was sorry I'd not been watching right along. We visited her mother this afternoon; surgical admission is tomorrow at 6:00 AM so Sweetie is staying over at her mother's. Mother-in-law seemed to be in excellent spirits and good condition so we've high hopes she'll tolerate the surgery just fine, even at age 88. I came home alone for a quiet evening. Nice dinner. A little wine. Perhaps some TV. A chapter or two reading from Hiding in the Mirror. Then off to bed. As I said… exactly what I needed: a quiet, rainy Sunday!

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Firewall damaged goods, weekend spoken for

Posted by Photonstopper on August 3, 2007
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Slipping out of the world of magic and wizards and into medical comparisons…  I was able to load the recommended new ASDM software provided by Cisco into flash memory on the ASA 5505. The security support engineer thought, perhaps, the image was corrupt and that was preventing it from working for me. Uh-uh! The morning after loading the new image I tried a simple change in the firewall's configuration and got the same error message(s). Maybe it needs a firmware update. Or maybe they need to send me a new 5505. I hope we can get this resolved Monday when the support engineer handling this case is back in the office. The surgery went well but the patient wasn't cured.

Today (Friday) was a busy day and very hot. Travels ranged from Southpark Mall to University Circle. I work Saturday (on rotation) but have Sunday off. It sounds like it may be cooler so, if She Who Must Be Obeyed wants to go on a bike ride, it should be tolerable. Her mother goes in for surgery Monday so that's on everyone's minds. The weekend is pretty well spoken for.

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No wizard in the box

Posted by Photonstopper on August 1, 2007
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Cisco ASA 5505
Cisco ASA 5505

As promised by CDW, the new Cisco ASA 5505 arrived via FedEX this morning. Knowing what I wanted to do and with the technical information in hand, I jumped right into configuration. The sooner that nasty NetGear FVS114 was off the network, the better! I ran through the configuration "wizard" once and it failed. Again, and it failed again. Once more… nada! The wizard had no magic and my morning's efforts were a total waste. I tried a couple of more times in the afternoon with no incantations or curses having an effect. Finally I called Cisco's technical support number. Rather than keep me on hold, they issued an incident number and a promise to call me back in 20 to 30 minutes. They kept their promise and, in less than 30 minutes, I picked up the phone and was speaking with a genuine Cisco security specialist ("wizard"). For those "muggles" not involved in the magical world of switches and routers, the instructions issued and the arcane syntax of that operating system –very similar to Cisco's IOS– can be bewildering. I can read it and make out most of what it says, but cannot write it out fresh… that's what the automated wizard was supposed to do and that's what Cisco engineers can do. However…. even with a trained and experienced live wizard on the case it took more than two hours to get the base configuration up and running and quite a bit more spell casting to get everything to work together — something I should have been able to accomplish in less than one hour's time had the wizard in the box any magic. The engineer wizard said he believed the software wizard was corrupt. I had more drastic opinions but kept them to myself. He's supposed to send me a replacement automated magician so that I can use the GUI to continue configuration of the 5505. Thank goodness for the real live wizard on the phone! The server is back online and available for public use, now better protected against miscreants. After putting in a 12-hour day yesterday tending the lousy FVS114 I need a rest. The NetGear box is now disconnected, powered down, and awaiting its fate. No wizard in (either) box!

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