Let me re-phrase that

My little aches and pains are nothing right now. It is pouring a cold, steely rain outside and I feel just fine. A little ache here and there is nothing to mention. My Mom said her grandmother (the lady that raised her) was bedridden for the last 7 to 8 years of her life with painful arthritis. She kept a bottle of Four Roses under her bed. That was the only medicine they knew of back then and in her part of the country, I suppose.

So, I can get out of bed just fine. I do not want to sound like a baby. It may be starting but we have great advances in medicine and I realize that certain exercises can keep that pain at bay.

This poor lady did not have anything but a decent and friendly neighbor lady who took care of her and her bottle of whiskey. I think I will count my blessings!

Along the road

Taking a snapshot of the treeline on the other side of the road from where I was taking pictures of the lake. Whew. That was a long sentence.

Arthritis runs in my family. My doctor told me to take magnesium daily. It ain't workin', doc! My left elbow kills. It is my "picking up my coffee cup" elbow. I have to use two hands now to sip my coffee if I don't want much pain.

But, not every day. Today there is a big weather front moving in. Hmmm. Well, I can't complain about headaches anymore - so  you get some arthritis. I'll take the arthritis any day!

More pics

Another photo. I didn't even take the time to touch this one up to try to get rid of all that shade at the bottom. Bear with me as something goofy or funny is bound to happen with me or around me so I can share. It is the nature of my life.  If nothing eventful happens, I will conjure up a funny memory or life experience to tell you all.

Simple clover

I've seen it everywhere. Mostly the white. I consider this pink, not red. I just read that the world record for the most clover leaves is 56.  I can't even find a four leaf clover, let alone 56.  I read it on wikipedia.

A post for a post

Taken at the lake a week ago. My week started off horrible at work. I hope I do not have a repeat of yesterday. The ugly horns on the top of my head may just re-appear.

Oh, Ohio in Autumn

From my drive five days ago.

What happens when I read the news

Seems "Big Tex" caught fire. I didn't even know this structure existed. I guess I need to get out more. Well, I bet that most of the folks in Texas don't know that Ohio has a huge basket that is what --- 8 stories high or so? Yeah.

Well, anyway - they said the fire is still a mystery - they do not know what caused it.

I do.

He certainly must have applied this brand of sunscreen. 

"The maker of Banana Boat sunscreen is recalling some half-million bottles of spray-on lotion after reports that a handful of people have caught on fire..."

And, I am so sorry but I actually laughed when I read that headline. Before the seriousness registered with me of course. But it was so absurd and caught me as funny. 

Well, then when I read about poor Big Tex...well, you see how my mind works.

OH Autumn!

I snapped this one with my phone while driving back from my sister's house on Tuesday afternoon. The sun was bright  - the foliage was brilliant. Later that evening I went to the lake but should not have wasted the two hours resting because then I may have ones at the lake that look like this taken with a real camera. :) Click that photo to big it - you won't be sorry.

Let me throw a scenario at you.

You have two 21 year old people. One male, one female. The female has been to rehab for heroin use. In fact her baby needed to be in a rehab also because he was born addicted to the drug. The boy is almost two.

The male drove the female to a nearby city to purchase heroin.  Two days later she overdosed and died.

Is he:

a. Totally responsible for her death
b. Partially responsible
c. Not at all responsible - she would have found another way to get it

Now, think about that and chose your answer. Let me add this, now. The 21 year old guy is a regular dealer. He knew the place in Canton to go (she may have also, I don't know for certain) to obtain the drug. Does this change your answer if you chose b or c?

Lake view

I had an unexpected appointment yesterday  morning that caused me to take the day off from work. It was one of those drives home that said "Must go home, get camera and go to the lake to take pictures."

After a couple hours of rest, I did just that. The setting sun was casting long shadows but it was still quite wonderful to behold.

They grow up fast

Not my photo. One of my sisters took this one.I keep a copy of all family photos posted on facebook for myself - but also just in case some body's PC blows up and they do not have a back up. In fact, I think I will remind each of them to copy their pictures to a back up drive or a DVD this month.

An update to an earlier post that I removed. The district that paid all that money for software and was unable to use it. Come to find out - it will work on some equipment. So the school tech must have wanted to vent or make the curriculum director look bad. Some techs get high and mighty and do not like it when they are not consulted on purchases and then they go and tell everybody "It won't work. You should have talked to me first!" 

Cute but stupid

19 toddlers in your car lady, really? She is a nursery school teacher.

"We're really a very cute school".  Cute doesn't cut it - you dignbat.

http://www.citizen.co.za/citizen/content/en/citizen/local-news?oid=328732&sn=Detail&pid=146826&Teacher-crams-19-toddlers-into-Clio

Towards the dock

This is the opposite view from the Lighthouse photo from yesterday. The sun was setting quickly and I did not have much time left.

Here is what I have been dealing with this week. Tweaked a paragraph from a Micr0$0ft training course (some poetic license has been used on my part):

The name of the GPT folder is the GUID of the
GPO that you created. It is identical to the GUID
that AD uses to identify the GPO in the GPC. The
path to the GPT on a DC is a PITA.

Seriously? The verbiage is not too far off. This is how they write the course.

On a funny note, I heard this in the move "Think Like a Man". Three rings in a relationship. Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffeRING. LOL!

The Lighthouse

I had dinner here last evening with the ladies from my work building. Our "Girls Night Out". I had the loaded baked potato soup and a chicken gyro with a tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, cucumber, onions, lettuce and grape tomatoes. I asked for black olives to be added, but either they did not have any or the preparer did not get the message. No worries. I did not like the soup which is very rare for me. The huge ham chunks in the soup had a bite to them, maybe allspice or nutmeg?

Another pic

Sorry. Too busy or too lazy to post any words. Just another photo of the tyke. One year old this Friday.

Hair

LOL! My little grand nephew seems to be jealous of the birds with their full heads of hair. He is pointing. Or, maybe he is counting. Either way, I thought it made an adorable picture. Photo courtesy of his Mom (my niece by marriage).

Oh, just for the record. I spoke to a principal of an elementary school yesterday. I was helping her with the filter since the district's tech person had left. She was so sweet and so thankful for my help. It made me feel so much better after dealing with the teacher I spoke to last week. What is that saying about 'one bad apple...' eh?

I'm tellin' ya. It is quite obvious to me how different districts are. I can only hope that your children or grand children are in one of the good ones. There are some unhappy teachers out there because their administration just does not give a damn. And I don't want to put all the blame on the administration. I know it takes two and goes both ways and all of that. It is just a sad thing when the anger and the animosity starts and it just has to have an effect on the children's learning.

Glowing

My niece is travelling this month. She captured this shot of the Gateway Arch. I remember driving past it years ago. My memory was in the daylight, though. I do recall hating the traffic in St. Louis at that time. A madhouse. Pure madness. I hope her experience was much better.

Another world

I had my head stuck in subnetting at work yesterday. It took my mind off all the other problems I was having. When dealing with this it is like you stick your head into this big tree that is full of leaves and you can see nothing else around you until you pull your head out of that tree. That was how it was for me. Very intense.Four long hours with one bathroom break.

The tech on the other end of the phone was super fantastic. We started off slow because I did not know what to expect and neither did he. By the time we were done he and I had shared dog stories and we were laughing and calling each other awesome.

I actually only had him on the phone for maybe two and a half hours. The first hour was prep work on my part. The last half hour was pack up and get out of there.

Yes, my head hurt by the time I was done. It may have been from no lunch. This tech is on the west coast so we began at 11 a.m. my time and finished at 3. I did have a helper - he ran and bought me a bottle of water during the marathon.

I was not "properly" trained. I have never been to formal schooling or training for computers. I have been to a few week-long classes - mostly two to three day classes. I did learn the hexadecimal numbering system - on my own. I  did not need it for work - for some reason that one just clicked with me.

As for subnetting, I did write a paper on it back in 1997 or 1998. I understand it, I just cheat and use an online calculator. I do not know how to figure it out in my head. Yet. I may learn, still.

In high school I was the artist or the short story writer. I managed B's in math but I only took as much as I would need to get into college. First level algebra and geometry. Nothing higher. It made me sick to my stomach. So did the teachers. Then, I did not even go to college. To this day I have not come across a math teacher that I liked. I did pick up a college refresher course (when I thought I would go to college back in 1992). His name was Lovejoy Das. I sort of liked him. He was from India. He said as a boy they used to do math problems in the dirt with a stick. WTF? I would have drawn pictures in the dirt.

Anyway, the day (yesterday) ended with a huge success.  I (we) pulled off a minor miracle as far as I was concerned. I had no idea how to set this unit onto the network and we did it. It required the wonderful world of subnetting, but I did not give up. I figured out the necessary changes and they worked. By god - they worked. It certainly made me feel better than the last few days of holy horror I have been through with another district. I have another job today and I am going to try my hardest to be successful with that also. Then tomorrow - back to the horror mess. Who knows? Maybe I will hit them out of the park all week. LOL!

My headache. I did take some Advil. By the "bewitching" hour of 9 p.m. it was completely gone. I have mentioned before that strangely, a lot of my headaches seem to dissipate by 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. By the time I went to bed I felt wonderful. I had taken a sinus Advil maybe that was the ticket.

Still fuming

You know how you get an e-mail or a message or something and it makes you so angry you see red. I posted about that last week. Right?

Well, today I was cleaning out e-mail and came across the e-mail again. Now, I don't re-read this type of e-mail because I am SO upset the first time, I do not add fuel to the fire by reading and re-reading the message.

I guess I had not seen it all. Down at the bottom were more points that the tech guy at the school had made and now I am back to angry.

I worked with him on Wednesday and Thursday (not know that he had said these things).  That may have been a good thing.

To backtrack a little, I talked to my manager. He was all like "Do not let this upset you, we know how this tech is, blah, blah".  He made me feel a lot better by letting me know he was totally on my side.

I spoke to the superintendent of this school district. After all, I had worked with this guy for over 10 years. He made me feel better by telling me that he had only read the first line of the e-mail from this irate teacher and deleted it. Now, I don't know if that is true or not, but I know he was trying to make me feel better. I would hope that he read the entire message, but I think he was telling me the truth. He said that this teacher is a whiner, etc...  

Which brings up the fact that - if this is the way a superintendent treats complaints from his teachers - does he really care about his staff? There is the remote possibility that he told his principal to handle it. That the superintendent does not need to be bothered with this sort of complaint. I don't know.

Sigh. The issues that started this mess have NOT been resolved. I am trying. It is complicated. The problem does not happen every time. I am trying to prove it is NOT my filter. Sometimes it is more than one problem causing the issues. Things like this take time.

Meanwhile, this tech keeps slamming my filter. You may as well bad-mouth my daughter. I take my job very seriously and I have worked very hard to get this filter to bend to what everybody wants it to do. 

To give you a little background, the filter is designed to work for one school district. We have it covering 45. To save the schools money we are trying to provide this service but we know how big business is. They would love for each school to purchase their hardware for each district, and here we are purchasing the biggest unit they have and trying to make 45 districts happy. 

Maybe it is impossible. But this tech needs to get off my back. Most of the "points" he brings up he has not properly re-searched. He has somebody's ear and he keeps beating this drum. Funny thing is - out of 45 districts nobody else is complaining. They complain but not in the manner that this guy does. 99 % of my techs out there lavish praise on me. This one guy - what? Does he have a vendetta against me? I know, I know. I am not supposed to take it personally. But, really. Working with this guy I am finding out that he has not taken the time to even learn the basics of this filter setup. That gets my goat!