Planet TLLTS

For those who listen to TLLTS you will know that I got an inflatable kayak around the time of SELF. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for some time and even had dreams about paddling around waterways. I did some research and settled upon giving and inflatable kayak a try to see whether reality lives up to the dream. Well, it has been a month now and I must say I love it. Not only is it a great time, but I notice my moobs are shrinking very fast! Now my kids have less to poke fun at.

The first day I went out into the Chesepeake Bay proper, very close to the mouth and in sight of the Bay Bridge Tunnel. I was a quarter mile off shore and loving it. The waves were rolling but not too choppy. I paddled against the current thinking that if I started to get fatigued it would be a whole lot easier to paddle with the current back to my location. While this thinking proved to be correct there were two things I did not expect.

The first was paddling with the current is a very different feeling, that it is. Going against the current is like riding a bike in top gear. There is much more effort involved and with the water going past you actually appear to be going much faster and getting a lot farther than you really are. When you turn around and go with the current it is like shifting to a lower gear. There is far less resistance and it almost feels like you are not going anywhere. But, you are actually going a lot faster than you probably were before.

I was concerned when I turned around and it felt like I was getting no where on my path back to where I launched. So thinking I made a big mis-calculation I turned towards shore and that is when the next unexpected thing happened. About 10 yards out and a bit to my left a nice sized, trianglular dorsal fin broke the surface next to a floater. Now I have seen a lot of sharks growing up, mostly from the boats of fisherman coming in to the marina where we used to camp at Indian River Inlet, Deleware. So based upon the size of the fin I estimated the shark not too far from me was about 8 to 10 feet in length. Needless to say it produced an instant panic result that lasted for a good 5 minutes.

Shark sightings are pretty rare, shark encounters even rarer, and shark attacks: Statistically speaking I’ve a better chance getting struck by lightening. Anyway, that still was not a comforting thought. The Bay is home to a number of shark species including the infamous bull shark. Now what I saw was probably a sand shark but still, it did not temper the worry.

More than likely the shark knew I was there, probably checked me out even, but did not bother me at all. It did leave a lasting impression on me though. More than likely I figured the shark was probably feeding near a crab of bait fish trap so I figure I should probably stay away from those when rowing.

Since that day I have had the pleasure of rowing in Willoughby Spit, Northwest Branch Back River, and Harwood Mills Resevoire. The latter is fresh water and very calm. I was there for my first time today. I must say, I much prefer the bay to the resevoire and will probably prefer the open ocean to the bay when I get there.

The previous two days I went out Willoughby Spit Bay and it was extremely choppy. Storms have been blowing through and man was it a good time. Very strenuous, but a blast.

Oh and since the first day the only other sharks I have encountered have been 2 footers in Backwater. I saw three of them, and again, this was going near a crab or bait fish trap. In fact, I went right over top of one swimming perpendicular to me.

The kayak I have has been great, but being inflatable, it’s subject to punctures. I’ve had three on the bottom so far, pin hole punctures I belive were either caused by concreted boat ramps or maybe the claws of one of my cats. Not sure which. I did get two other holes near the seams where the body and seat come together. Those were a pain to patch.

The wife thinks I should get a hard shell, but that is going to cost a bit more money and require me to get a roof rack for the car. The inflatable is nice because it easily stores and transports and to inflate it takes under 5 minutes.

What I think I will look into next is getting a better paddle. The kayak came with a three piece paddle but the grip is not padded or comfortable and where it connects together has a tendency to rub against one’s thumbs making it uncomfortable.

Tomorrow it will be back out in the Chesepeake and soon I hope to hit the open ocean, maybe get to seem some purpoises! I cannot wait!

Today we put our cat Miroku down. The family was devistated but we were all there to send him off. He passed away from complications of a urinary blockage. On Monday I came home to find him a bit lethargic and bloated. He seemed uncomfortable and kept moving from place to place around the house. He threw up a bit but did not seem completely out of it. When I mentioned to the wife that he looked sick the kids had said he vomited upstairs the previous night. I thought it was just a hairball or something he ate. It’s not uncommon for one of our cats to have a digestive issue and appear unhappy.

Around 10:00 he took a turn for the worse and was almost completely down. He would not move and smelled awful. We rushed him to the vet. They kept him overnight with a cathater. The next morning we transferred him to our regular vet. He remained lethargic. His condition did not change much the next 24 hours and this morning they did some blood tests. The results were grave, there his levels for kidney functionality were off the charts and his potasium level at a lethal amount. She was surprised he lived this long.

We went in to say our goodbyes to Miroku. The Vet – Todd’s Lane Vetrinary Hospital was awesome. He was gently put to sleep and we brought him home for burial. Damn I am going to miss that cat!

Miroku was half Manx. At a time when we had three other cats, and Erin said no more, she came home with this kitten from a garage sale. He moved with us from Pennsylvania down here and has been a awesome cat the whole way. Miroku was always there to snuggle at night and I am going to miss that greatly. He did not deserve to die this way, it’s almost a pointless death. He was only 7 years old!

Urinary tract blockage is one of the number one killers of male cats. Its sudden onset is perplexing and cats typically die within 24 hours. I never knew of this killer and while we hoped to catch it in time with Miroku, ours was not the case. Stones form in the bladder and block the urethera; the cat cannot urinate. His bladder filled rapidly backed up into his kidneys causing irreversible damage. So male cat owners, be aware of this. It happens extremely fast!

We will miss Miroku so very, very much.

After a week of taking apart and putting it back together again I think I finally have the dryer fixed. It was a making this ear splitting squeal during the first third and beyond of the drying cycle. Some initial research indicated this was either the belt or the tumbler joint assembly needed greasing/replacement. Well a handful of hours later and just under $55 I have it all fixed again.

I replaced the belt to start with and this seemed to quell it a bit, but not enough. So I ordered the joint assembly and got around to replacing it this evening as it arrived today. Both the belt and the joint assembly were purchased through http://appliancepartspros.com. I ordered the belt Sunday it arrived on Tuesday and the joint assembly on Wednesday and had it Friday. Great service and speedy delivery.

I also found the service manual for $10 in pdf format. That was handy to have. So all-in-all it was under $55 total parts to repair. Consider that amount alone would probably not even cover the cost of a repair person to come out and even look at it.

It’s not that difficult to take appliances apart. Like a computer or laptop just pay attention to what you are doing and you find you may be able to save yourself a ton on money in the long run. Oh and do disconnect the power before tinkering!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For so long I have been hesitant to read this book let alone the series. When growing up I was into high adventure, sword and sorcery, the likes of Robert E Howard’s Conan and the many novels surrounding the various Dungeons and Dragons realms (i.e.; Dragon Lance, Lankmar, Forgotten Realms). The title alone did little to appeal to me. I had understood the concept of the story loosely and later heard it had some religious undertones. While it may have been instrumental in defining the role playing game atmosphere I so loved, still it just did not appeal to me for some reason.

Now my wife on the other hand read the entire series and proclaimed they were good books. Needless to say we went to see the first movie when it came out and while it was entertaining I felt it was not stellar. It paled compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and again, just was not “high adventure” enough for me.

Well I finally decided to sit down an read this series and alike most any other book that has a movie made of it I must say the book is much better. I regret having seen the movie before reading the book (much as I did the first Harry Potter movie and book). Still for how pleasant this book was I must say that it was not stellar. I feel that is because between the publishing of the book and now much in the realm of fantasy has been told (not all mind you). That this story, while it remains classic, has been told in some parts in other works I have read in my life. I guess that is to say for me it was not novel, but I say must it? Is it fair to judge a work on this when said work has come before most of the works I have read in the past?

Regardless, the story flowed well, it was a very quick read and one I feel my daughters would enjoy. I look forward to reading the rest of the series to see where it goes before the I see the movies.

Let me rethink something here. One criticism I had about the movie was that the whole story seemed to go too fast. They pop into Narnia, meet the Beavers, run for their lives, meet Aslan, (some stuff I don’t want to reveal and spoil), and big war. Peter goes from kid on summer holiday to warrior king fighting in the thick of it in what, days? The book did little to dispel this discontent I had but for some reason I was far more forgiving than the way it was presented in the movie.

As for the movie, I must say it remained pretty true to the book I have to give them credit on that.

Well I now start the second book. For some reason though, I have a hankering for Turkish Delight.



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Tonight our guinea pig Patches passed on. He was a vivacious little devil and always looking for food. We will miss him greatly!

Today was my second day back to running. I’m taking it easy with my back and all and I must way it’s not as smooth going yet as I would like it to be. So I am running East down West Mercury Boulevard, not too far from my house approaching two young men when I hear this screaming. But is it screaming? I cannot tell. I don’t see anything looking around. But then I hear it again; the traffic is still a bit heavy, it’s almost past rush hour. I see what looks to be a man from some utility company on the other side of the road and a mini-van oddly stopped in the left turn lane on the West bound side but nothing more. So I start to turn back to my run when I hear someone scream “Rape!” The mini-van is laying on the horn and that is when I see the utility man is not from any utility company as he is over top of someone in the grass across the highway. A few seconds later he is up but appears to be calm but the person on the ground looks distressed! What do I do?

I didn’t know, it was weird. The guy is calm, there are 6 lanes of busy road between us, a van laying on the horn, two guys approaching me and a man and a woman approaching the scene from the other side of the road. The guy was backed off a bit. I could not tell who was on the ground: A Man, a woman, a Kid. It looked like a kid. Was there an assault going on right on the side of this road in broad daylight? Was it some kid who was out of control and that was his father? Again, this guy did not look agitated, he looked calm. The man and woman approached and the guy backed off. The two men approached me and asked what was going on. I knew about as much as them; but all the while I kept thinking I should call the police.

We crossed the road and learned it was a woman who jumped out of this guys truck after he apparently became violent. She had proclaimed he had assaulted her a few days ago and was in jail for a bit but when he came home he continued the abuse. She came up from Georgia with him and had no family and he was preventing her from using a cellphone to call them.

The two guys I came across with contemplating throwing this guy a beat down but he sauntered off to his truck and left. We further assessed the situation trying to help this woman out when the guy returned. The two guys went to speak with him I hung back. He got out of the truck and was a bit verbal. At that point I’d had enough and called the cops (something I should have done from the beginning). He took off, the cops arrived a few minutes later and I gave my report.

It was a scary thing, that it was. Standing there trying to figure out what is going on, wondering if I should get involved. If nobody did, where would this woman have ended up? Afterwards I really felt bad for holding back, for not rushing to the scene sooner or calling the cops. But I have to admit, I was uncertain and a bit scared at the prospect of confrontation with this guy. I mean come on, if he is really assaulting a woman in broad daylight, around rush hour, on the side of one of the busiest roads in the area; what am I going to meet on the other side? Some guy with a knife? A gun? But what about the woman? If I hesitated too long what about her?

What I should have done immediately is called the police. Regardless the situation, better they arrive sooner than later. If things had taken a turn for the worst the police would have been on the way. Waiting could have proved fatal.

I love superheros, that I do. Comic books, movies, all that; but when it comes to real life it’s a scary choice to interfere in someone else’s tragedy; very scary. It would have been so easy to just turn away and keep running. No it wouldn’t have been, it would have haunted me.

She plans on pressing charges and I hope she does. I hope my report helps and I hope she gets the help she needs; maybe a lift home. I wish her well and I hope I am never in this situation again. But if I am, I will learn from today and make sure help is on the way from the start.

Congratulations to the wife, she just passed her Massage Therapist Certification exam. Now she is a $50 Virginia license away from going into business for herself. Hooray!

Now if only I could get her to give me a massage!

Yay! Happy birthday to Erin! Hope she has a great day!

Sunday after meeting we decided to do some Christmas shopping as the kids were not with us. We stopped by Wally World to see what we could check off the lists.

While there the wife took interest in the Wii Fit Plus. Now aparently she had wanted one for some time, unbeknownst to me. I, on the other hand had no interest in a Wii Fit. But as her birthday is the 21st and seeing an opportunity to not have to make multiple trips, I said hey, if that is what you want well then let’s get it. So we did. That along with a flat screen tv (we entered the 21st century) and a cheap dvd player. We had to buy a new one because we lost the remote and being a cheap player it was almost as expensive as buying a universal remote.

Now the wife and kids took to the Wii fit right off the bat. I on the other hand showed some vague interest but had server issues to deal with. When I finally got to try it out it changed my opinion and I was hooked. It’s a blast and very challenging!

To start you have to do a body test and it caclulates your bmi and gives you a Wii Fit age. I screwed up on mine the first time and ended up with a Wii fit age of 56. I was also fat as hell. This bummed me out a bit so the wife evenutally convinced me to do it again. Now my Wii fit age is 33, 4 years younger, but I am still a lard butt. Well, gotta get on the running more, hit the Wii fit on a regular basis and eat reasonably.

It has not been a good month in the Washko home for technology. First I slammed my new Sansa Clip in the car door. I bought a Fuze and lo while it works great, the hard case is on back order. Needless to say the screen is getting all scratched up. I purchased some Novus polish to get rid of as many scratches as possbile. That is some real arm busting work to buff out the nicks. I figure I will do this over time, especially when the case comes. For now I am very careful with it.

Over the weekend the server hard drive started crapping out. Monday morning I woke up and the server was down, but not the centos server hosting the virtual machines. Weird, I thought and started everything up and went to work. Prior to coming home the server went down again. I noticed smartd was throwing errors on the drive. This was not good. Over the next 24 hours it went down 3 more times and that was it. I had to order a new drive and throw in the spare that I had and hope for the best. Only the spare would not fit. The interface was about an 1/8 inch off and there was no wiggle room. Damn!

On the bright side I did notice that the server was full of dirt and dust bunnies. I did a thorough cleaning, put it all back together and crossed my fingers. Thus far it has not given me any more problems. Perhaps it was just over heating. Regardless, the new drive came today and I am going to put that in over the weekend.

Last night getting the audio setup off the ground for the show was hellish. I don’t know why things seemed to changed. While I managed to pull it off, we were 10 minutes late.

Today I came home to find the myth box down. There was no display on the screen. I had to drag out a monitor and hook everything up. Well, long story short, the s-video out on the card no longer works. Luckily the card in my workstation had an s-video out so I swapped them and ordered a newer video card.

I just hope this is the last of the dying equipment.

Lesson learned: Make sure you take care of cleaning your equipment to avoid heat and other related damages.