Sturm Und Drang

[dr_phil_physics]

12:30 am -- Early Friday Morning

Big flash outside. WTF? Peek outside blinds. Hear long rumbling rumble. It's 33degF and snowing -- and we're getting thunder and lightning? Cool.

"Heather, It's Still Snowing."

Sorry, you have to have been in Chicago in 1978-79 to get that reference. (grin)

But it's snowed almost every day in December or even since Thanksgiving, it seems, and we're not even to the "official" start to winter. Mostly the storms have avoided us and with two 4WD vehicles, we've bulled our way down the 240-foot driveway most days rather than moving any of the snow.

The funny thing today was that stopping by the Allendale Post Office, it was the first time I saw serious piles of plowed snow in parking lots this winter. Guess it's getting serious.

"You Can't Fire Me -- I Quit!"

Half of my job ended today. I am no long the STEP Program Director or Project Manager or whatever it was that I was supposed to be. Typed up a letter of resignation, copied all my files on one of our WMU-STEP flash drives and turned it in. Sigh.

"Don't Cry For Me, Argentina"

Though I still absolutely believe in the program's goals -- to improve the first-year for science and engineering majors -- as does my (now) former boss, it's not so bad that I am leaving the program now. I still have my part-time Physics teaching and I get a chunk of my writing time back. It seems like I've had very little time to write in months.

Besides, I really need to write and write super well so that I can make some sales. (double-grin) Only need to make five or six dozen SF short story sales at pro rates to make up the income... (triple-word-score-grin)

"Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there?"

Wednesday night, I had just updated this LiveJournal blog and clicked on dr_phil_physics to check to make sure it "took" and... nothing. Stopping and restarting the 802.11b adapter and rebooting the PC didn't change things. The 802.11b wireless router was there, but no DSL connection. I figured I might have to reboot the router and shut down down for the night -- the boxes are in the bedroom and I didn't want to disturb Mrs. Dr. Phil's sleep.

Thursday evening, Mrs. Dr. Phil said she couldn't get her HP PDA to connect over the 802.11g router to the DSL. When I checked the DSL modem, it didn't have five green lights. I switched it off -- count to twenty -- and back on, and the DSL light just kept blinking and the Internet light stayed dark. The DSL modem wasn't connecting to Allendale Telephone Co. (grumble-grumble)

Late at night, I tried calling AlTelCo's 24/7 tech support number -- and after twenty minutes on hold, hung up. Actually, in between bits of music, I gotta hand it to the little local phone company, their hold messages certainly were (a) upbeat and (b) covered most of the sins which could cause trouble with dial-ups, e-mail, web surfing, web hosting and DSL. All I wanted them to do was just to make sure their DSL server was up and waiting for me, since I figured it looked to be on their end.

Friday morning I could get the DSL light to come on, but not the Internet light. By tonight, I came home to five glowing LEDS (power-DSL-Internet-OldRouter-NewRouter) and a happy Mrs. Dr. Phil whose PDA happily could surf the web again. (yay)

I'll forever wonder they noted the CallerID number of the guy who waited for twenty minutes and then didn't stay on the line, checked his account and said, "huh, DSL connection, better reboot the server." Or was the line on hold because their DSL server was down? (quadruple-lutz-grin)

Dr. Phil

Comments

[redwill.livejournal.com]

i want to see a quad axel, baby; those are way cooler. :)

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

I know it sounds shallow, but once every four years my wife and I join millions of others in an orgy of (piss-poor) Olympics television coverage, becoming instant experts in all manner of strange events which we won't think about for another four years (two years if you count the alternating of the seasonal festivals). Sigh -- when we lived in the U.P. of Michigan and could get Canadian TV, we were so much more impressed with non-partisan covereage that CBC or CTV did, especially the year they hosted in the Calgary Games.

But even if I have complaints, I still shan't miss the Olympics!

Dr. Phil

[redwill.livejournal.com]

i only get to see coverage on NBC's local weak-and-snowywavy-signal broadcast affiliate. if that weren't bad enough, NBC's coverage is of much lesser quality than that of the old ABC. odd, since back then ABC always seemed the most crassly careless of the public and least caring about artforart'ssake of the big three. but not when it came to the Olympics. but the IOC charged less money then. possibly a factor, hm?

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

What? You think that evil, venal money has anything to do with the Olympics? The greatest amateur sports competition in the world is as pure as the driven snow -- which we get a lot of here, so I'm an expert.

Dr. Phil

[redwill.livejournal.com]

amateurs. pfft. why would i spend my time on watching less than the best? :D


[oops, i think we blew up the sarcasm meters, Doc. i wonder if there's a professional competition for that. :) ]

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

You can never have too much sarcasm...

Dr. Phil

"I intend to be a curmudgeon when I grow up, but I'll have to get nicer first."