Missing Skeeter

Today is the 5th anniversary of Skeeter's death.  Losing him still hurts.  But all things fade with time, and I almost didn't remember today was "The Day" until this afternoon.  I was actually looking at regular daily pictures of the current cats to decide which to use for today's Mark's Mews cat blog post when I glanced at the date on the computer and changed my planned post.

As the years have passed, I have posted less personal and detailed memories of his passing.  It is good to remember those gone, with love, but more important to attend to the living. 

That is not to say that I can read the early posts of the cat blog without a catch in my throat about those happy years with him (and most of our years together were before I started the blog), and I still can't read the posts and comments about his death without tears.

But there was a surprise.  I finished the brief post recognizing the day, and hit "publish".  The time on the post was 3:45 pm EST.  That was the very moment of his death 5 years ago.  It was a complete coincidence...

I am not one who pays much attention to coincidences.  I find them more "interesting" than "meaningful".  But it sure was a surprise when I noticed the blogpost time!

Some of it may not be very odd.  I often post in mid-afternoon, and after 2500 posts, I'm sure there have been others posted at the same time.  But I would be surprised if there were 2 other posts at the exact same time of day about such a singular event unintentionally.  I think (without checking) that I did deliberately post at that exact time on this date previously.  This was not one of those times.

A VERY Unusual Day

It was a dark and winter-stormy morning.  In spite of that, I pulled on my "viscious-winter coat", and went into the garage, where the sled awaited.  Then, I pulled off the "viscious-winter-coat", tossed it in the front seat, and luxuriated in the medium-green Elven(ish) cloak cleverly colored to blend in with medium-green grass, medium-green rocks, and medium-green rivers.

Leaving the animals of the house to fend for themselves, off I went on an ADVENTURE.  And none like I had ever done before.  THIS adventure was to meet with a tribe of CATWOMEN, partake of their strange rituals, talking ceremonies, and eat unaccustomed foods.  I myself chose a strange meal of burned bread, tomato, and crisped bacon.  It was so thick, I could barely open me mouth widely enow to bite on it.  But it WAS raucously fare vittle!

The first part of the adventure was getting to the ship.  Amazingly, there was snow, sleet, and freezing rain.  It was a hard slog, mateys!  Snow beat hard on the mainsails and the nearly came to brittle freezing...  Lost a few good men there on the upper sails I did.

Fortunately, there was some underground traveling through tunnels.  Dark they were and we met some strange travellers along the way.  Eventually, we surfaced through the dark.  The longest staircase I ever saw in me life appeared before me.  To my relief, the STAIRCASE itself moved me upwards (the crew stayed behind and ya will hear no more of them as they was all eaten by dinosaurs or somethin else happened ta them, but don't worry about them).  The staircase called "The Bethesda Escalator" took hours.  Verily, a "stairway to heaven".  Or so I thought.  It landed me in "a parking garage"...

In discussion with some natives, I found an entranceway ta the HUGE building above the cavernous passageway, and entered cautiously.  The room was FILLED with obsequious servents.  I inquired of one where there might be the designated "lobby" wherein I might meet the fabled Catwomen, but all the poor wretch could do was point around the very room I be standing on...

So I explored around a bit and noticed a room with the name Daily Grill.  That WAS the place we would be to eating in later, so I inquired about the foodstuffs offered therein.  Fine stuff; serious meats variously cooked for the men-types, and daintier foods fer the wenches (er Catwomen).

I happened ta mention I was there fer a meetin with the Catwomen, and the servent there said my name out loud.  I was shocked!  Apperently, the Sisterhood of the Catwomen was already gathered inside!  And I had arrived EARLY to scout out the place first.  A sad day when a scouter arrives last...

I immediately made my acquiantance to them all and I tell you, it was such a fine greeting from all.  I knew them all by reputation, of course, and they me.  It was a grand round of hugs all.  I haven't been hugged like that much if a decade!  It did me good.  I immediately cast off the "viscious winter coat" and sat meself down at the table, happier than a lost kitten finding his littermates.

OK, enough of that, LOL!

I found the ladies and was glad it wasn't difficult.  I had had visions of walking around the hotel carrying the Flat Mews overhead hoping that someone somewhere would recognize what they were. 

We had a wonderful lunch, sparkling conversation, discussions about cat-blogging, some sharing of personal thoughts about "the universe and everything",  memories of "cats-who-came-before",  and (as the King of Siam said in Anna And The King of Siam), "etc, etc, etc.

I was astonished at the Flat Cats in attendance.  I had made a quick version of The Mews (best picture I could find that I printed on cardstock glued to cardboard) the night before (thinking it was pretty good), but you wouldn't believe THEM!  Three times as big, and not a bad cut edge in the bunch.  I gotta work on that, and I learned a lot just by seeing the Good ones (ALL the others).  But they all admired the poorly done Mews annyway.  Talk about "kind"...

We had a GREAT waitress!  Maybe it was a "tiny" bit because it was a really slow day (bad weather and the local Pro football team having a home game), but she really liked us!  We found out at the end of the meal that she had supported feral cats at her previous house and really liked that we were all "cat-people".  She even used all our cameras to take group pictures!

Memo to self, check Bethesda Hyatt Regency Daily Grill site and see if there is an "I love This Server" option...

 And we gave her a 33% tip... 

Now, I have to say that I am really inexperienced at meeting new people in groups after so many years living by myself.  There were Gifts.  I didn't bring any... Dang, and I "considered" at least bringing fresh Nip leafs for the kitties and Truffles for the ladies.  I decided "it was just lunch".  And Ayla even told me to bring some things.  I SHOULD have listened to her...

Well, you live and learn.

But all good things must come to an end.  We had to part eventually, after a great lunch and great conversation.  I had a WONDERFUL time, more than well-worth the trip in the bad weather.  I got on the MetroRail, had an easy trip from Bethesda to Branch Avenue (about 10 miles straight under Washington DC), had a few fun minutes scraping frozen rain off the car windows, and driving home.

There WAS a slight scare.  My "low tire inflation" light came on 7 miles from home.  Thankfully, I had no problems, but I sure with bring the air pump into the garage later today to make sure all the tires are inflated properly.  Could be a problem though.  I had the car at the dealership for regular maintenence last Thursday, and I thought tire pressure was one of the things they checked.  Not that I don't know how the check it myself, but since I thought THEY just had, I didn't bother before going out on (what was to ME) a major trip.

Now for some pictures (and you thought there wouldn't be any LOL after all these words)...

I take a picture...

Teri takes a picture with my camera...

 Group picture by the Wonderful Waitress...

All the Flat Cats (see The Mews tiny in the front?).

Cat swag...

Me swag...

I haven't had a BETTER day in years.  Glad I braved the weather...

Political Season

Just a note to say that, as the 2014 political season develops, I will be getting more political here on this blog.  I hope you all will put up with it (and especially not blame the cats at THEIR blog).

I am an unabashed Progressive (former Progressive Republican until purged in the "Reagan Revolution".  Relatively non-ideological "what works, works", mostly looking for what helps construct a financially-healthy middle-class (with upward mobility to all, but reasonable rewards for abilty and effort), and some balance on top incomes for the basic benefit of society.

In other words, I regret that TODAY'S Republicans are trying to eliminate the middle class, destroy fair voting, and suborn the functionality of general governance.

I don't say that lightly.  I majored in Political Science and specialized in Political Behavioralism (essentially Political Psychology; why voters vote as they do and why politicians act as they do).

So, part of me hopes certain politicians with certain stated goals will win; part of me realizes that those stated goals will not entirely determine the election results; and part of me sees the deeper crass strategies, lies, and dirty tricks that have nothing to do with truth and reality.

I'll be discussing all of those as the 2014 election develops.

Today's observation?  The establishment House Republicans have refused to act on any legislation for the last few months and won't until late February 2014...

Due to highly partisan re-districting (changing the borders of House districts to assure a majority for one party Gerrymandering), the House of Representatives will stay Republican for several election cycles  (The Senate is not subject to "Gerrymandering" because State borders are not changeable as in-State House Districts are).   So the "safe" Republicans House Districts mean that the winner of the party primary is nearly always the winner of the general election in November.  And THAT means that the only danger to a Republican House Member is from a more conservative challenger in the party primary election.

The incumbent Representatives don't want that kind of primary challenge, of course.  So they are playing a waiting game right now.  The deadlines for primary challenges will end in January/February in most places.  So if the incumbents actively do NOTHING for several months now to avoid a more conservative primary challenge, they are home free in November for another 2 years.

So...  When the House Republicans do nothing NOW, they aren't upsetting the more conservative base and encouraging a primary challenge.

Look for establishment Republicans to become more active and (slightly) less partisan starting in March when they are free of Tea Party party Primary challenges...

Now aren't you glad you majored in something less weird?  Like engineering or 14th century French poetry?  In politics, what they SAY never matters.  Its WHY they say it.  Words within wheels around goals, surrounded by campaign funding!

I'll try to explain most of what goes on as the election cycle progresses.

Car Troubles Resolved, Sort Of...

Well, as I expected, the dealership found no problems with the battery OR the charging system.  They also said their tests showed no "parasitic battery draw".  I guess that means they found no short-circuit using up the battery.  I thought it HAD to be one or the other, but those folks always know SOME way to explain problems away non-professionals won't think of. 

I don't drive enough!  They swear!  They say I do only local errands and that I'm just NOT driving it often enough.  I sure hadn't expected THAT as a cause, but they MAY be right.  Its a 2005 car and I've only driven it 23,300 miles.  And fewer than 2,000 miles/year the last few years. 

Basically, (they say) I am draining the battery through starting it several times in short errands and not driving it long enough to recharge the battery.  They suggested several ways to prevent similar future problems (several of them idiotic from my point of view). 

1.  I could just drive the car to nowhere and back twice a week for at least 15 minutes. 
2.  I could leave the car idling in the driveway 15 minutes twice a week.
3.  I could drive longer routes to my errands.

Do those also seem idiotic to you?

4.  They suggest I slap on a battery charger in "trickle mode".  That means recharging the battery after the usual short multi-stop errand trips and giving the battery a slow auto-shut-off charging.  But that means that twice a week, I need to find the hood opening lever in the car, prop the hood up, attach the charger to the battery, and then undo all that each time I want to use the car.  For the life of the car (which, quite frankly, I expect to last 20 years at the rate I use it). 

Doesn't THAT seem a bit idiotic to you also?

What I NEED is a plug-in car.  Oh wait, that's called a hybrid.  And I expect that is what I really need.  An electric usage for the usual very local errand-shopping where I can just plug it in each time after use; and a gas engine for the longer 2 hour trips to family events and or towing the boat on 1 hour fishing trips. 

Lifestyle choices do cause some specific demands.  But (and mine are admittedly not the routine car-usage demands), one has to adapt equipment to them.  I love my Toyota Highlander, but it WILL be 10 years old next year.  And I've read that the Highlander Hybrid will be redesigned and improved next year.  It may be time to replace it then.  I can deal with a weekly routine of keeping the battery charged up properly for a year I guess.  Not happily, but I'll consider it something like getting routine haircuts, brushing teeth, cleaning house, etc, until then.

But I'm still ticked off about the entire situation...

AND: To 'Sometimes Cats Herd You', thanks for the url to the neat gadget that cuts off battery drain.  It COULD have solved me problem if there was a short (apparently, not the problem).  I'm going to get it anyway "just in case" that solves the problem.  I'm also looking for some battery charger I can just plug into the cigarette lighter to make trickle charging easier as a backup.

Car Troubles

I'm getting tired of the battery problems!  For the past 2 years, the battery will simply and suddenly go dead.  OK, twice I left the back hatch up overnight, and once the regular door wasn't firmly closed.  Last year it happened several other times for no reason and I had the battery replaced even though the dealer said it was OK and I had no problems until this August. 

Then it happened several times again for no reason and they checked it again finding no problem.  I started keeping a boat battery in the car.   Now it has happened again 3 times in 2 weeks.  But it's always when its been sitting in the garage for 2-5 days!  A battery shouldn't discharge sitting in a garage for that short a time.

I usually need to go somewhere immediately, so I've previously jump-started it from the boat battery.  Yesterday I put my good battery-charger on it.  The charger as a display that shows the percent recharged.  It started at 13% and got up to 70% in a few hours.  And it stayed there for the next several hours!

I turned it off overnight and started charging it again this morning.  It was down to 50% already!  And it stayed there.  There HAS to be something wrong with the battery.  OR something wrong with the charging system.  Yet it seems to charge up when I drive it, because I never have a problem starting the car after a shopping trip.  I drove the car to the dealer today for a battery check and a charging system diagnosis.  I'll bet both check out OK.

I FEAR there is an intermittent short causing the battery to discharge.  Those are miserably difficult to find!  I KNOW I'm not leaving a door ajar, because for months, I've been standing there until the interior lights go out, showing that everything is shut tight.

Well, I should find out something tomorrow when the dealer calls.

Movie Thoughts

I sometimes talk about awkward subjects (more often in the past then lately).  Things that might upset some people.   So recent readers may be a bit surprised at this.

I don't watch many movies and the ones I do are usually old.  Not OLD old like 'Wizard Of Oz' but not "new" like the newest movies on HBO.  I watched 'Red Dawn' (1984, I think) tonight.  Well, sometimes the nature and science CDs start to feel repetitive, you know?

The movie is about WWIII when some collection of Soviet-based countries decide to attack the US in the "near future" *hey it was 1984 at the time of the movie*.  It had a decent explanation, not about the reasons, but about the methods. Some Coloradans decide to fight back. 

So some older teenagers/young adults were away from home hunting in the countryside when the attack hit.  With typical hollywood bravado and skill, they fought back.  They got better at it with experience.

No deaths were glorified (much), some of it was difficult, some was sad.  A person had to kill his brother after a betrayal; a young mortally-wounded woman saved her last grenade to take an enemy soldier with her; a sacrifice was made for honor...  One of the best things about 'Red Dawn' was that it ended ambiguously; no resolution to the war is provided. 

 What struck me was the practical lethality. And this is what causing me to write about this tonight. And let me state upfront that I was never a soldier and never had to face that choice of killing another human being.  But if there is something abhorrent about killing someone who is trying to kill you for no really good reason, I don't know it.

The deaths were mostly long-distance rifles and machine-guns and anonymous.  Bombs set off at distances, grenades dropped into tanks, simple ambushes.

I do not like death.  I stopped hunting deer when I killed a lactating doe with an arrow, realizing that there must be a fawn somewhere that would die of starvation slowly.  I cried about that.  I cry when I read of a cat who dies, even though all such deaths are inevitable.   I weep for the innocent...

But I just can't feel the same for those who attack other people.  One of the lines in the movie was something like Enemy: "Why are you killing us"; and the response from the US partisan was "Because this land is mine".  I understand THAT!

Killing in that situation wouldn't cause a single tear from MY eyes...  I wouldn't know the enemy's family (or beloved cats).  My conclusion after watching the movie was "I could do that easily".

Having said that, I am taking some time to decide whether or not to post this.  8:56 pm  Post or not, hmmm...  Could be a lot of objections; could be angry responses from veterans who say I don't know what killing a person is like; could be angry replies from anti-hunting people.  I'll think on it a few hours...

OK post it.  I'll be interested in the responses, if any.

An Unusually Productive Day

I have to admit, most days are spent preparing lunch and eating it while reading the newspaper, doing general daily things (blogging and helping the cats visit their friends' blogs, cleaning litter boxes, letting the cats in and out, playing with them, watching science/nature/politic news...  I do a few errands once per week (groceries, hardware, and odds&ends).  At this time of year, there is nothing to be done in the garden.  I often sleep late ( a pleasure earned by retirement - I got up at 5 AM and returned home at 6 PM for 35 years, so I plan to sleep late for 35 years to catch up) .

So today was a good day.  I was up an hour early, ate lunch faster than usual and took a look at the basement.  Oh boy, there's a year's worth of work.  But I got a good start on it...

First, I collected all the plastic 6-packs I grow plants from seeds in, filled up the laundry tub, added some bleach, and set them all in to soak old dirt loose for 4 hours.  All the damaged ones went into a bag for disposal or recycling. 

Second, took the two 35 pound tubs of new kitty litter and divided them among 7 smaller 12 pound plastic containers from a previous brand (easier to pour from). 

Third, my car battery dies randomly every few months (dealer says the battery is good and I must be leaving a door slightly unlatched to keep the internal lights on.  *I* say I have learned to watch the car EVERY TIME until the internal lights go out AND I check every door every time) - but I can't PROVE that).  So I keep a marine battery in the back of the car.  I used it yesterday, so I recharged it.

Fourth, had some caladium bulbs in planters and they needed to be removed from soil and dried out in cool (but above 50 degree temps).  I have more of them in lager planters I brought into the basement, but they need to dry out more.  Washed soil off the saved ones and set them to dry.

Fifth, shook the soil out of the soaked plastic planting cells in the laundry tub, rinsed them carefully,  and stacked them up in rotation to dry over a heavy towel on the top of the washing machine.  Next laundry day is 10 days, so they will be thoroughly dried to be stack together tightly for storage until January (when the whole planting season starts again - cant wait).

Sixth, collected all used dry potting soil into a big trash barrel for use with established houseplants and transplanted vegetables.

Studied the whole-house humidifier again.  It seems too dry in the bedroom at night.  I don't get static shocks like I once did (there was a time when I could get the fluorescent lamp on my headboard to glow when I touched it and stroking cat fur caused sparks).  But I'm on my 2nd humidifier.  The first was a sponge drum that rotated through a water tray and worked great.  But it (grungily) fell apart after 3 years.  But it worked great, (45% humidity)  The current one drips water down a honeycomb  panel and isn't worth a bowl of water on a heating vent for 3 years.  The highest relative humidity I can get with this one is 25%.  I need to get a drum-type again.  But the opening to the airflow it wants is leess than the current one, so I need to srew some sheet metal over the existing opening and then cut it to size.    It would be nice if there were standard sizes for those things.

Seventh, pumped up bicycle tires, wheelbarrow tires, mower tires, and handtruck tires.  I have an air compressor, but the darn thing is too big to move around conventiently.  I only use that on the car tires and I've never used it as intended. with impact wrenches and spay painting.  Sad.

Eighth, swept most of the basement floor.  I hate the noise of the shop-vac.  Plus it tends to sucky-stick flat on the cement floor.  I tried to epoxy some 1/8" wood spacers under the wide nozzle corners once but it didn't work.  Must try a new way. 

Ninth, took off the sprayer on the watering tripod I made a few years ago.  The round spray doesn't allow as mush water as a different kind I have  (more horizontal) that works better for my flowerbeds.  Measured the size hold-down clamps I needed.    Have a good list of stuff I need from Home Depot.

I decided that was enough for one day...

Remembering John F Kennedy

I spent all of Friday watching specials on TV.  And I was still too worked up to write yesterday.  On this 50th anniversary of his assassination, maybe I'm ready...  I'll try...

I was 13 when JFK was killed in Dallas.  Home life was good, private life was good (as good as it could be for a 13 yer old boy trying to "figure out things").

But, as they say, everyone of a certain age remembers that day. I do too, generally.

But what struck me as I watched the various TV shows detailing the events, I do not remember them as accurately as I thought.  Over 50 years, some recollections are just plain wrong and some are "iffy" at best.

The major details are accurate, the ones we all know from history.  Date, time, place, shooter, etc.  But my specific personal recollections are in doubt.  Things that I thought were factual, aren't (and I'm not talking about conspiracy theories here.

I have the clearest recollection of looking at the school "public address" (PA) box at the top of the cinder block wall above the teacher suddenly announcing that the President had been shot and killed in Dallas Texas.  The PA box was light wood colored, square with rounded corners, black cloth behind a open wooden grid.  It was angled slightly downward.  We were told that those of us who walked or rode our bikes to school should immediately return home.  Those who took busses should line up at our usual spots and wait for the buses to arrive.

I rode a bike to school, so I went straight home. 

And yet, my memory has the time and location wrong in some way.  In November 1963, I lived in Maryland.  When my memory looks out the classroom windows when I hear the announcement, I am seeing the previous year-before Virginia school I attended then (we moved around every few years).  I can't have been in Virginia in November 1963.

And the time is wrong.  My memory says we got the announcement just after lunch, about 12:30.  That was Eastern Time.  That isn't possible.  JFK died at 1 PM Central Time, 2 PM Eastern Time.  It took a while to get the news spread, and the school administrators could not have reacted immediately  (needing to arrange buses, plan students leaving, etc).  It had to be at least 3 PM before the announcement came over the PA system.

That's a shock to my memory.  Wrong place, wrong time.

The other memory problem is that I recall being at my grandparants house watching the funerial ceremonies for several days.  The memories are VERY clear.  My gramma was crying, my grampa was watching intently (but not crying), my dad was not very interested (at least not watching the small TV).

But wait, how did I get from Maryland to New England?  I'm not sure I was really there.  Would my parents have taken me out of school to go watch the funeral services in New England?  That was a very serious trip in 1963!  But the personal memories are SO strong.  Maybe we did go to New England for family grieving.  But how can I know?

Gramma and Grampa are long gone, Mom is dead, Dad can't remember where he lived last year.  I'm the eldest child; my younger siblings can't know (at 11 and 7).  Its not like there are any records I can check now.  My parents never kept a journal of events.  The only thing I have are old photographs and no photos I have show anything about that time at home or on travel.

I have clear memories of there being nothing on TV for several days except JFK's death and funeral march.  That has to come from somewhere, but whether from Maryland or New England, I cannot tell.

It bothers me greatly that I can't determine the accuracy of my memories of the events then.  Some MUST be false, some MAY be false, some are accurate.  But there comes a time when you can't know which are which.

And I don't mean to say that my memory is failing exactly.  Its more that the ongoing historical shows over the years have caused some "adjustments" to my memories.  I do understand how that works.  But it is sad to see the proof of that the past few days.  It is a shock to me.

And one of the TV shows about JFK's death was about personal recollections of "Where You Were".  I have to wonder about the accuracy of THEIR recollections.  Some of them were my age or younger.

I DO know that, even at age 13, I knew something horrible had happened and that history had changed (I was big into history at a young age and also reading alternate universe fiction).  JFK's death probably had some major part of why I studied "Government and Politics" in college.

Its odd to think that, had Oswald missed his target, I might have majored in history and had an entirely different career.  But I was considering mechanical engineering too.  Maybe I'd be designing a Tesla car today...

Maybe JFK is why I love alternate history stories.  Just think of a world where he wasn't killed and a story starts "The visit to Dallas was a great success, won him Texas, and led to the second Kennedy term..."

But I'm wandering.  JFK's assassination was a major event in my young life that has had serious repercussions through the years, and I have found I misremember parts of those personal recollections.  It's disturbing, possible inevitable, and maybe important or not.

Are YOUR memories of the event (should you be of that age) as accurate as you think they are?

Suddenness

Wow, the "10% chance of rain tonight suddenly became pounding on the window! 

And I MEAN "suddenly".  And "pounding".  From nothing it went from not raining to nearly beating the windows in!  Weird!

Computer Room Rearrangement

After falling over in the chair slipping off the plywood base onto the carpet, I decided to rearrange things. 

First rule, make the newer Mac computer table and the older PC be in swivel-range of the computer chair! without getting the chair wheels on the carpet.

1.  Move the 4-drawer file cabinet out of the way.
2.  Move the stored folding chairs out of the way to another room.
3.  Move the old PC table into the way.

I'm glad I have a hand-truck.  That allowed we to move the heavy file cabinet awy from the current spot.  Keep in mind that I was moving stuff around IN the room, so space was tight. 

I moved the 4 drawer file cabinet out of the way.  Then I vacuumed that spot.  Hint:  Rub/Twist  your shoes over the spots where the carpet is crushed down and it raises the pile back up rather well.

Vaccuumed that spot again with the vaccuum-brusher on.  Can hardly see the impressions of the file cabinet.  Connected a multi-plug outlet to the unused battery back-up plug fr the Mac.  Stuffed the wire into the the edge of the carpet to keep from tripping on it.  C0nnected that to another surge supressor to add protection AND reach the new PC table.

I know have the Mac and the old PC set up on tables so that all I need to do is swivel in he chair on the same base.  The least likely thing was that my 4'x4' plywood base would work for both the Mac and PC computer tables but it has.

The old big file cabinet and the chairs used to be opposite my Mac.  The chairs are now in the cat room (they like to walk on the tops of the chairs) .  The big file cabinet is now next to the door.  The little file cabinet is now next to the PC for the boom box to sit on (and the spacing of the little 2 drawer file cabinet next to the wall with the card table with the PC means that both computers are exactly opposite.

I think I'm pretty safe from the chair tipping over when it hits the carpet now.  I should have done this before.  It wasn't the chair's fault that it tipped.  It was that the small wheels were hitting carpet becausr my Mac and PC tables were not aligned.

"Its a poor mechanic who blames his tools".  I was wrong to blame the chair.  But when you make mistakes, you just figure out the problem and fix them.  So I've fixed it. 

The "fix" was to get the computers connected in chair support base and that I could just swivel 180 from Mac to PC.. 

Pictures...

Note the new unclawed chair!  It "only" took an hour to assemble.  The second arm took half the time because the hole in the arm didn't match up to the  hole in the back.  I had to loosen almost all the screws in the bottom to give "just enough" slack to get it finished.  Instructions on everything is awful...

And now that I moved the tall file cabinet to the doorway, I need to decorate it it in some way.  Suggestions?  I'm thinking "flatcats", but I'm not locked into that.  A fancy towel might be good, or a poster.  Or other...

Fun With Monitors

Soooo, I bought this new monitor for the old PC I use only to play Civilization 2 (and maybe retrieve some old files and photos from AND it has MS Paint which I've always liked for creating greeting cards).  At 19.5" diagonal, and 16:9 aspect, its bigger than the monitor on my "real" computer (the fast internet one).  But I needed one that had the older-style connections (male, D, 15 pin plug, so I didn't have a lot of choices). 

Opening the box, I found warranties in several languages, a page of disclaimers, a page of warnings, and a CD.  No set up instructions...  Those were on the CD.  Um, how do you read a CD if you dont have a working monitor?  How often do YOU replace a working monitor with a new one?  Plus there was a page that said if the monitor did not receive a working video input it would turn on.  I had to think about that later...

Fortunately, the monitor was good for both PCs and Macs, so I could load the CD in the Mac while I set up the monitor on the CD.  The CD PDF manual was pretty pathetic.  Even though I could choose among languages to read it in, there were mostly just pictogram instructions.  One instruction said to repeatedly press the f8 button while booting up to get to a "safe screen" and and a page of possible ways to get to setting up the monitor.

Nothing happened...  Which could either mean the plugs weren't connecting, the monitor wasn't compatible, I had a "too old" version of Windows (and how can you find out if there is no monitor to click on the Windows icon to see what Windows version you have?), and how do you know the electrical cable is working if the monitor won't even light up?

BLEH!  It was a real Catch-22*

Fortunately I saw a PFD-manual reference to a small LED light that would show a working connection to the computer.  I didn't find one, but feeling around the bottom of the monitor frame I found a  pinhead-sized plastic button hidden about as well as possible.  I pressed it.  The monitor lit up (HOUSTON, WE HAVE LIFT-OFF).

The brief printed guidelines were COMPLETELY false.  NONE of the setup instructions had anything functional about them.  The manufacturer probably fired the person who wrote the instructions for the 3-generation previous version and never had them rewritten.

The instructions DID have some useful guidelines for setting the screen resolution and aspect choices.  IF you figured out that they were in the wrong order.  If I was new to this stuff, I would have returned the monitor to the store as "non-functioning"...

Then I turned on the Civilization 2 game I use the PC for.  The colors were HORRIBLE!  Dark, blurry, and the text was unreadable.  OK, little habit here.  I often just squat in front of the computer rather than bother with a chair.  I often did my computer work at the office and home squatting, standing, etc because I am restless and hate to just SIT.  But when you stand or sit a lot, squatting  puts a different tension on the leg muscles that can be relaxing.

So image my surprise when I stood up and the computer colors suddenly became perfect, then "too light".  This monitor is apparently very direct "square-on" to be color-correct".  I was angry!  I went to the Mac and loaded up a full screen color photo and tried the same "from squatting to standing" examination.

I was shocked!  It did the same thing.  Then, with some testing, I realized that the situations where I squatted to use the Mac were for reading email and that is in black and white.  When I am doing lengthier work, I sit.  Try it yourself; with a full color photo on the screen look at it from below to middle to above.  Do the colors change severely?  Mine do.

So, when I use the old PC to play the Civilization 2 game, I will be sitting in a chair with the monitor aimed directly at me for proper colors.

It shouldn't have been that hard.  Of all the parts of a desktop computer, the one part that OUGHT to be utterly "plug and play" is the monitor.  If it doesn't just "come on" automatically, its really frustrating,  And useless.


*  If you don't know what a "Catch-22" is, its a situation where one is trapped between conflicting rules from which there is no escape.  Catch-22 is a novel by Joseph Heller about absurd situations in WWII.  The title was originally Catch-18 but was changed because of a then-recently published book Mila 18, then changed from Catch-11 because of a movie Ocean's Eleven, then changed from Catch-17 because of the movie Stalag 17, then not Catch-14 because "14" wasn't considered a "funny number", finally landing on Catch-22 for the duplication of "2" which seemed to fit the duplication concept AND "2" standing for the deja vu situations in the book.  I knew some of that, but got more from Wikipedia...  Didn't want to do a "Rand Paul" here.