Catch Up Cafe Pt. 3

Thank you! I needed that. The weather in NJ is the pits this year and I was getting depressed. We are going on our 8th snowstorm in a month this week. There is so much snow it is almost waist deep in my yard. I hope this isn't the new normal. :O

AV

But this summer has been one of the wettest I've seen in a long time. There's been flooding in both Queensland and Victoria (that I have heard of).

At least they won't be complaining about a drought.

they would send out all the snowplows anytime it snowed and cover the road in sand. Usually we'd get about an inch of the white stuff which would be melted by the next day, leaving a ton of sand on the road. The sand sometimes was slipperier than the snow! [i](I know...I'm a klutz and very likely to slip on whatever is even remotely possible to be slipped on)[/i] Being Midwesterners at heart, we laughed at NJ.

In the 4 years I lived there, I only remember one really big snowstorm that left enough snow to play in and build snowmen.

It doesn't normally get really cold in Nova Scotia. Normal daily temps for this time of year are around -2 to -5C during the day and around -10C or so in the evening, anything below that is below the average norm. I was chatting with a friend that lives in Ft. McMurray, Alberta on Saturday and it was -39C at the time....brrrr...that's just indecent :| . I've read in the news that the American midwest was getting a bit of a beating up this winter. Hopefully it passes soon and with few complications.

Good luck with your business venture too, I'll be crossing my fingers for ya :) !

Here in southwest Missouri, they're talking about ice, then snow. It all depends on timing and about 20 miles that will determine how much we get. If it starts on time, and is 20 miles in one direction, then we get sleet, and over 6 inches of snow. If it starts at a different time, and 20 miles in the other direction, we get blasted with an ice storm and a foot or more of snow.

Either way, they're predicting thunder snow, and when that happens, we get dumped on. I can handle the snow, but that ice is something that I just don't deal with. And to top it off, we're supposed to get down to 10 below 0 farenheit, actual temperatures. That's unheard of down here.

I thought it was too early for that. We don't get them in NJ until the end of March.

Love the pic.

AV

We have St Swithun to predict our Summer. July 15th is his day.

'St. Swithun's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mare.'

:)

I guess technically they're Elk around here...
They're very long legged, so a car will hit the legs out from under it, timed just right to send two hundred kilos of gamey meat crashing down on top of the "crew compartment"... flattens it out pretty consistently.
They say the difference between life and death is the difference between 80 kmph (life) and 100 kmph (not so much life).

The damages were almost $3000: bumper, grill, fender, mirror, windshield, door panel, and trim. Three days after I got the car out of the shop from that one, I had a skirmish with another deer. That damage is still on the Escort; I couldn't afford the $500 deductible again so soon after the first time.

I'm firmly convinced that deer are the most stupid animals in the world. Squirrels at least try to run away; deer just keep coming.

In Toronto area, there is a huge amount of salt put on the roads in the winter.

It helps accelerate cars rusting and eats away at concrete bridges.

I've even seen a business where a guy goes down to Georgia to buy salt free car body panels from wreckers and sells them up here to meet the demand. I bought a truck lid from him 20 years back.

But in Northern Ontario, and the prairie provinces like Alberta, they use sand, because it often gets too cold for salt to work.

So we often get ads for "Alberta" used cars that have never seen salt. Of course now we have ways of electronically verifying these things (obligatory technology reference) so we can know the truth of the matter.

I heard Chicago could get a couple of feet of snow. Its kind of impossible to travel in that. Hopefully, work won't expect you to show up and you can have a snow day.

AV

We are expecting 6 inches this afternoon, and more tonite/early tomorrow.

Should be a fun drive.

Does that mean you can't travel across networks because of the snow?
Or perhaps Virtual Servers cannot make the 10 minute drive down to the shops?

;)

When I was getting a speeding ticket near Algonquin park. The speed limit was 80 kph, I was doing 100 kph (about 62 MPH), totally clear and dry winter country roads with no traffic.

And the risk of hitting a moose in winter is less, they tend to not travel as much.

But I took his warning seriously, as I had about 80 kms of park to go through.

I slowed down.

I love the Spring flowers. Especially the Bluebells and Daffodils. I can't wait until the weather gets warmer. I planted 100 different Daffodil bulbs last fall and they will be making their debut (I hope) this Spring.

I am counting the days until Spring.

AV

General Beauregard Lee (his friends call him Beau), and he too did not see his shadow;
http://www.yellowrivergameranch.com/11groundhogday.htm

And the knowledge that I have four- count them, FOUR cats that aren't fond of rodents... especially rodents that LIE about WEATHER!!! Phil (and Beau) had better hope they're right or there will be a road trip in my future... and driving with cats is NOT on my list of favorite things to do!

It needs to be Spring now...

It was -1 when I got up this morning. The "high" was 7 (Fahrenheit for those keeping score). They are calling snow every day this week but our weather guys don't always get it right.

I really NEED it to be Spring. Or at least for the snow to melt. Hubby is still home on his computer.

Anyone who does will have earned my opprobrium.

Your sovereignty is not subject to vote.

I can tell you, if you search far back enough, you will find numerous and damned-near identical posts by Chad in which [i]santeewelding[/i] stands in for your own name. At the time, like now, he argued and debated his boyhood points about the subject of "communication". Trouble being, I didn't. I still don't.

And, I still don't think Chad has a clue why I didn't and still don't.

God just does.

For different reasons.

Own your choices. Period. If you do, you will be far happier with any outcome.

I quit posting here for a long period of time. Quit entirely at one point. At the time, I thought that those choices were driven by others. I was wrong.

At a very realistic level, I quit because my life was spinning in a hundred directions. My husband was terminally ill. I was a little too busy to post anywhere- even a site that I moderate. I maybe felt a bit better because I told myself I had quit because of someone else- but that was intellectually dishonest.

YOU choose. Just YOU and no one else. Like Santee, I refuse to vote. I don't have a say, really. I *might* have an opinion, but it is MY decision to voice it or not.

I will say this...

If you decide to walk away, consider WELL what you do. Only you know the truth so don't try to hide from yourself the real reasons you choose to leave. Having to confront yourself later with intellectual dishonesty is not fun. Take my word on this.

As I rebuild my identity on this site, I have had to confront times that I have been terribly embarrassed. I have been extremely grateful for those who have understood my circumstances at the time, and have been willing to let go of those who have refused to do so. It hasn't been easy. At the end of the day, I have discovered that those who are worthwhile to have in my life are worthwhile. Those who aren't, aren't... and I don't regret "losing" them, even if it means losing some level of "popularity" (whatever [b]that[/b] is). I guess what I am saying is that you need to be your funky self, regardless of who approves.

What finally glued my thoughts together on this was the fact that no matter who else gave a solid d*mn, my husband loved me. The people who are worth holding on to do too. I don't care about the rest.

You have to do what is RIGHT for you- and only you- regardless of any other opinion on the matter.

Edit: tense- past, present, future.

So big deal. Apotheon didn't like something you said somewhere along the line. I guess you didn't agree with him and he never got over it. I don't think his post was appropriate at all.

AV

I've been through other things... you know there's no comparing grief, it just is what it is.
Recovery is another strange word. First it feels impossible, then it feels inappropriate - but somewhere along the line it becomes a tribute to - and a continuation of - that which was lost.
The thing is that recovery is a natural process, it's best not to think about it much, one cannot *try* to recover, and one shouldn't fight it either.

Our lives are a bigger part of us than we are, ourselves...

if it hibernates in stead of sleeps?

And, I'd have thought hibernate is fast enough to defeat the "fast wake" argument too...

And gods' sake, carrying that many periferals would kill me; fumbling with all the boxes would be bad enough, but I'd also get all the wires in a jumble, and that certainly wouldn't reduce de facto "wake time"...

Wow Nick! Sounds like "corporate" didn't spec out the needs for the netbooks prior to purchase. I bought each of my older teens one a couple of years ago, those little Acer Aspire One w/ WinXP...they have been functioning pretty well...only problem is step-daughter's sometimes stutters on music. Acer put
full keyboard functionality into them, even little keys for brightness, volume as
well as full "F" key functionality. Anyway, guess all I can offer is sympathy...
along with a lot of "been there, done that"! Did they (corporate) let you keep your laptop carrying case? If so, that may help with all the peripherals.
Good luck!
<{;-)

There IS no point.

It is a corporate decision made for corporate reasons (which are both unknown and unknowable).

If you are even marginally still capable of doing your job using this tool, consider yourself lucky.

(((hugs)))

Its an HP and doesn't have the LCD brightness problem. It doesn't have almost instant-on either. I don't like that you need to have external USB CD drives or floppy drives and the bag that comes with it is too small to carry those things anyway.

I'd rather have a laptop any day. Everything you need is built in. Corporate should have applied the fix you need before they gave it to you if they don't want to give you the right to do it.

AV

High end! :-bd It's a clamshell (with a loft ;-) ) that holds the pc in one compartment and has room for the power supply and cables in the other. I may dig out my old wireless travel mouse, too, just so I don't have to use the touch :-& pad.

As for a fix, it's been a continuing issue since the first netbooks were issued. But, since it can be fixed with a reboot... Damned IT! :^0

Ain't nobody commented yet because they all be doubled over in laughter!

I just forwarded it to my brother, the cop.

Say! That explains all the potholes in the roadways! Hehe...
<{;-)

We've been laughing at those signs since the Wright Brothers. Now I guess the joke's on us.

I'm going to start driving in neutral.

If not the b1rd, the wing pod would suffice...

:^0 :^0 :^0 :^0 :^0

Good one! Thanks for the laugh.

AV :^0

Its going to be about 5 degrees F tonight here. I guess thats about -15C. I hate it. Its awful. Its grueling. This is just a brutal winter.

I have a lot of company this year, I think. I try to count my blessings. At least it isn't snowing.

The good thing is, the Old Farmer's Almanac says we will only get one more snowstorm around the 17th - 20th of February and then it will get warmer. The thought of more snow makes me ill, but I can handle it if its only one more time. The Old Farmer's Almanac was right-on with their predictions this year.

Its really funny, sort of, but I like to feed the birds, poor things, and that means walking in the yard through a 3-foot snow pack to fill up the feeders. Its like walking on the moon or in piles of sand. Very hard to do.

AV

They got a couple of inches of snow in Atlanta, but all we got was rain. The clouds were clearing by 10 this morning, and the rest of the day was nice.

I actually got stuff done today, after only closing one call yesterday, and that one a task. If it could go wrong yesterday, it did. But there was one bright spot: the netbook died, so I unpacked the laptop (glad I hadn't shipped it yet) and fired it back up. B-)

loging each move, check in when you get there, check in when you fixed it, check in when you get to the next call?

Seems kinda cumbersome, but it gives them their metrics real time.

As for getting it back I would bet on defaults.