February 01 W-3
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February 01 W-3
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Tuesday February 12, 2001Presidents day so the kids are home, Monica is having a bit if a bout with Asthma, she has been out playing in the cold and rain... why didn't I keep her in you ask? Because she is Monica... she sneaks out... why don't I punish her? "How?" She is Christy went shopping... I took the kids to the Children's Library in Palmdale. Mike was a hand-full lat night, he was off his medication schedule and acting pretty weird... It was a crappy day weather for me. Tuesday February 13, 2001 Christy felt an Earthquake last night...she thinks... checking the Earthquake Site... There was a small one over toward Big Bear. There was a Power outage too at about 1330 last night... Snow, about 4 inches... I can see down the hill to where the snow line is about a 1/4 mile down Crown Valley Road... They canceled school today... SNOW Day!...Oh Joyful feelings of unbounded ... dread... it is a case of teachers not being able to get in to town and busses not being able to get to the kids... I think about 90% of the kids could have gotten to school... I will head out in a while if the snow lets up... Looking out the window I see it is still snowing a little... now it's a lot... it is 4 inches of slush... yuch... I went out to check the dogs... they are all huddled in the shed... they are fine. I worked on the door to the utility room, it needed to be re-hung and have the doorknob replaced. I also blocked some of the vents under the house... cold air is leaking in all over this place... The runoff from the slush storm is tearing up the road... the water gets into the tire tracks and carves ruts... some places they are almost a foot deep... it's an exciting drive, I thought the van would tip over in a rut down where the road narrows. Wednesday February 14, 2001 Autumn and I went to Lancaster for her therapy... Myra will be gone for 2 weeks, she's getting married...
I was actually just taking a picture of the valley where I live and the snow on the hills behind my house... but that's irrelevant. I am wracking my brain to try to come up with a scenario that would warrant banning camera from schools... It is against the law to photograph and publish pictures of Foster Children... but nobody pays any attention to that. I can't imagine anyone being so mean as to either ban Foster Children from Yearbooks and Award ceremonies or banning them altogether. I guess if some of the children on the campus had been kidnapped the kidnappers would be a little put out if I photographed them... There are at least a hundred cameras at every class show presentation and award ceremony put on by the school, are they going to ban them too? I don't know why something so small, petty and paranoid should upset me so much... it's just another instance where small, petty and paranoid people are telling us how to live our lives... telling me I can't take a picture of my own daughter is just carrying YUPPIE paranoia too far... I will take my camera to school tomorrow... I hope someone tries to stop me... I really do. Thursday February 15, 2001 It was in the high twenties this morning but it worked up into the 60's by noon... it was a nice day... Christy took Mokie to Dr. Dillard because she isn't getting better, her asthma is really giving her fits. The treatments work but only for a short time. Autumn is sick too, runny nose, low fever... Christy got home about 11:00 with Monica and got ready for Christian's IEP, I was going to go to but I opted to stay home with Autumn and Monica... Christy is the warrior when it comes to dealing with bureaucracies, she goes through them like Sherman through Georgia... Christian is smart enough to get straight "A"s but he's getting straight "F"s because he is not doing his homework... the school is offering to let him stay for an hour after school to finish his homework... we are going to give him a week to get his homework done at home and if he can't do it we will take them up on their offer. Friday February 16, 2001
Going to a movie tonight... I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? It was probably the best movie I have seen in a year... I was laughing all most all the way through it... It is based loosely on Homer's "The Odyssey" the story is 2800 years old but translates hilariously to the rural South in the 1930's ... The Oracle, The Sirens, The Cyclops, Dragon... the Busby Berkley KKK extravaganza. George Clooney is amazing ... the music was great, the cinematography was beautiful, I highly recommend this flick... I was going to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but I got there too late... I had considered seeing it after O Brother but decided not to spoil the moment. I will try to see it Sunday afternoon... "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" Charles Darwin Saturday February 17, 2001 I had a pretty nice morning kids were with Chris and I just played around with the PC cleaning out all the old junk, I had noticed that I went from about 4gig of storage on my "C" drive to less than 2, almost over night... While I was digging into that I noticed that I had Quake 1 and 2 and Doom on the PC twice... I deduced that Mike had been screwing around on the PC... I can't convince him he is not an ace on the PC... every time he wants to play a game he loads it... Quake is over 500 MB... cleared off a bunch of other stuff too... I used Norton System Works to clean up all the loose ends... it is a pretty slick program...except for Clean Sweep. The front page of the Business Section of the LA Times had a bumper sticker saying: Say No to Monopolies BOYCOTT MICRO$OFT Support Competition, Free Markets and Innovation. I tried to find a copy of the sticker on the Net but when I typed in Boycott Microsoft I found a ton of vitriolic bile from folks... Microsoft haters with an axe to grind... Mac users, Linux users, UNIX users... ad infinitum... OK... I really get jacked when I hear this crap... I remember what computers were like back in the 80's... Before Hard Drives and the Mouse. Computers were all unique, every manufacturer had their own operating system, anyone willing to commit themselves to years of study and constant tinkering could use one... there was a Word Processor for every Manufacturer no two Word processors could exchange files with each other except in ASCI and then the formatting was completely lost... then came DOS then Windows (Which was primarily just a fancy menu utility with some more nice utilities and Accessories)... then came WORD and EXCEL... a word Processor that really worked with pull down menus and all of a sudden the rest of the industry caught on... first of all it was imperative that the program worked in DOS, then it had to be compatible with Windows next all the programs had to operate the same and look the same and then... anyone could use them... Microsoft made that happen... it displeased the Nerds because now that Non-Nerds could use PC's they were no longer "Special" now they spend all their time bashing Microsoft. I understand that there are more streamlined and powerful Operating Systems, there are lots of people out there who have been displaced by Microsoft in it's drive to dominate the Computer Industry... Mac's are easier to use and in some respects more powerful but the Software is very expensive and there is virtually no competition, Linux is wide open computer code and very slick in many respects but it is geared toward "Computer People" Guys who like to tinker and are more interested in what makes it tick than in producing something with it... I have a couple friends who are real hardcore Nerds... they tinker and tinker until they have their PC's screaming flawlessly then they get bored and take it one that one step too far and crash it thoroughly. Computers are a passion with them... for me too but I like what a computer can do and I am not the least bit interested in what I can do to a computer...I guess all I am saying is that without Microsoft we would not be where we are today... the Computer People have a legitimate gripe but they miss the point too, PC's and what ever comes next are going to revolutionize the world... they already have... someone has to set the standard, and right now that's Microsoft. Microsoft made the commitment and they stepped up to the plate and did what thy had to do... they were rewarded handsomely and now they are taking the heat... I hope everything settles down and I hope when the legal wars are over that Microsoft is still setting the standard... Or someone is... I don't want another free-for-all the stakes are too high and the stakes have nothing to do with who wins the Software War... it has everything to do with the Internet and with Compatibility and with Integration and with Communication...I don't care how slick the hardware and software is if I can't communicate with it it's of no use to me. Sunday February 18, 2001Donut Day... we didn't make it to Donut Day... maybe tomorrow, Christy's sister Karen called and said that Suzie was driving in from Henderson Nevada... I stayed home, I wanted to watch Daytona 500, wish I hadn't ... Dale Earnhardt died from injuries received in a crash... very sad... He helped his team win the race and was killed in the last lap. His son Dale Earnhardt came in second to Michael Waltrip who was driving one of Earnhardt cars... I can't imagine what sort of turmoil in in their minds tonight... I went out to work on the heater on my truck, I made up my mind that I wasn't going to spend any more money on it. I managed to remove enough stuff from under the dashboard to reach in and find the problem... I had to take off my watch and damn near on my head but I managed to dig out a pen that had fallen down and jammed the door that directs the heat... Christy was still in Riverside so I decided to go see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... it was as beautifully filmed as the critics said it was. The story was interesting enough to keep my attention even with sub-titles but the ending was pretty harsh and hard for me to understand or justify...
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Busted for photographing Autumn at school... really pissed me off. Apparently one of the parents saw me taking pictures on the Meadowlark School grounds and went to Mrs. Gondar and complained. I asked her who complained... she wouldn't tell me, I asked her if there were regulations about photographing my own child on the campus... she said ... I don't remember what she said... I will ask her tomorrow when I pick up Autumn and Monica. 
Christy had to go to Pasadena to give a disposition in a lawsuit we are not involved except peripherally. I took Autumn to therapy, she did well, her OT, Myra, is going to be gone for two weeks so I will only be taking Autumn in on Fridays until she gets back. Myra is getting married, she is a very nice looking girl, she will be a beautiful bride. 
