Mom's and Dad's PCs

Every time I swap or upgrade one of my computers, I give the swap-out to a family member.  My mom has been the recipient twice.  She currently has a Dell desktop that is more than powerful enough for her needs.  She likes to play Solitaire and the other games that came with the installation; she also listens to CDs and looks at photos on occasion.  The oddest and coolest thing is that she has no desire to use the Internet.  Mom is well-educated, well-read, and quite alert, so I know she is well aware of the internetworking juggernaut, and I bet that some of her friends use the 'Net regularly.  But Mom gets along quite nicely without it, thank you very much.

My dad (RIP) and I were the only two in the family who were really bitten by the PC bug.  When Dad passed in 1985, my brother Owen and I cleared his apartment of his belongings.  He had a Radio Shack TRS-80, one of the first computers made available to the mass market.  I was fascinated by it but couldn't figure out what to do with it.  I wrote a program that picked Lotto numbers at random and quickly lost interest.  I have no idea what I did with it; I probably moved away from it at some point.  It wouldn't command that much on the open market today, as these were quite popular -- but it would look really sweet hooked up to my Dell XPS410.

A Few Observations

The only limitations in life are the ones that are self-imposed.

It’s interesting how I spent much of my life trying to destroy myself, and will spend whatever time I have left preserving and restoring the remnants.

When I was on hemodialysis, i had to work dialysis into my life.  Now that I am in the initial stage of PD where I'm doing four or five manual exchanges a day, I have to work my life into dialysis. and it isn't easy.  But it’s worth it!

City Boy Haiku

is that a pigeon?

biggest one I've ever seen

no, wait -- it's a duck!

Moonlight Haiku

It peeks out shyly

from behind a cloud curtain

Moonlight pierces through

Winter Haiku

Snowflakes fall gently

and transform a grey landscape

into my daydream

RAMBLINGS VOL XVI

Exercising has come full circle.  18 months ago, I had to push myself to work out as much as I could.  Recently, I had to force myself to take days off!  My schedule is down to 3 days a week, and my body seems to like it.

This Monday I spend the day at Georgetown Hospital Transplant Center getting evaluated for a kidney transplant.  I have prepared as well as I can for this moment; my fingers are crossed.

I would have had a lot more fun in life if I didn’t spend so much time worrying about what other people thought.

Okay, so I spent yesterday at G’town Hospital Transplant Center doing the kidney evaluation thing.  It was the usual outpatient hospital stay with a lot of “first-time orientation” thrown in for good measure.  At a couple of key junctures (the group presentation and my meeting with the nephrologist) I said to myself “this smells a lot like Orientation Day at Mayer Brown” (the law firm where I cut my corporate teeth and managed networks for a decade or so).  I couldn’t help but note that I used to be the person doing the spiel in the other seat, especially with the nephrologist, who was a pretty young foreigner (Brazilian? Could I be so lucky? I couldn’t nail her accent).  She furiously took notes and drove her points home.  I did the same thing every Monday with new hires for years (without taking notes).

I am daunted and energized, doubtful and confident, discouraged yet grateful that I am healthy enough to consider this option.  Whether or not I go forward with the transplant, just being able to consider it is empowering and makes me feel better.

Keep studying.  Keep exercising.  Keep praying.  It is working!

I’m watching “Are You Being Served” again!  My favorite actor/character is Mollie Sugden/Mrs. Slocombe!  Second favorite is Mr. Humphries and his outrageous costumes!

There are 88 constellations out there.  (Obviously there are zillions of constellations out there, but only 88 on record.)  The Southern Cross is the smallest.  It is only seen in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia?).

Being good at EVERYTHING is tough!

Stop wasting time watching stuff that isn’t funny or educational.  Or sports-oriented.  Or zombie-oriented.

RAMBLINGS VOL. XV

Don’t wait for your ship to come in.  Go out and meet it.

The six official U.N. languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

Last week I met with a representative from the Maryland Department of Education to create my Individualized Plan of Employment.  My job goal is Computer Support – Help Desk – a less-than-exciting objective.  I was hoping for a more ambitious objective like Programmer.  My next step is to meet with a job developer who can get me in the door for some job interviews, which should be all that I need.  In the meantime, I continue studying for Windows 7 certification.  I just finished the chapter on TCP/IP, which is how the world will communicate in the future.  I know a lot more about the topic than I did six weeks ago – ‘nuff said.

Update -- I missed my appointment with the job developer because the paratransit van could not/did not/would not wait for me to walk down and meet it.  I actually saw it pull away.  Needless to say, I was way beyond pissed off at the time.  I went back up to the apartment and registered a complaint, then called the job developer to cancel and apologize.  It’s been a week since this occurred, and I haven’t yet called back to reschedule.  I’ll do this tomorrow.  Man’s inhumanity to man is starting to get to me.

Second update – I’ve called the job developer back a couple of times and left messages, and have not yet received a response.  On my next call I will politely question their professionalism.

A couple months ago I did a two-mile run on the Southwest Waterfront on a particularly hazy/hot day – not the best day to go running, but it had to be done.  While I was stretching after the run, I was approached by a young white kid (no more than seven) who was delightfully open-minded and curious.  He asked me where I lived, how I got to the Waterfront, and stuff like that there.  His older brother (a couple years older, no more) was about 30 feet away behind a monument to the people who perished when the Titanic sank, totally engrossed in whatever – I mean, dirt, air and water:  what else does a nine-year-old kid need for entertainment?  I was somewhat concerned about where their parents or guardians were, but I was much more concerned about what any other adult who witnessed this conversation would have thought.  I didn’t even ask the kid his name or where his parents were; I just finished my stretches and high-tailed it out of there.

Hope and pray for the best, but prepare for the worst.

I’m casually preparing my next online grocery order, and I notice that so far two categories have far more entries than any other – cookies and candy.  To be fair, I haven’t gone to the meat section yet, and I’m sure that dairy has a huge selection as well.  In the meantime, my cookie selections have been weaned down to ginger snaps and vanilla wafers (the off-brand wafers, not the pricey ones).

I was accosted by a member of the church across the way while I was stretching for my run.  He was kind enough to correct my stretching technique, and then launched into his spiel.  I happily answered his questions until he basically told me that I wasn’t going to get into heaven if I didn’t go to church.  Sorry, but that is precisely where I draw the line.  Looking back, I thank the gentleman for helping me to figure this out.

Back at St. Catherine of Siena in St. Albans, Queens, the rainy day PA announcement that “recess will be held in the cafeteria due to inclement weather” always made me wonder (a) who “Clement” was and (b) how did he get so much sway over the weather….

Crazy thing to try:  Smile at the first person you see when you leave the house.  And, of course, where you’re in the house!  J_