Thankful for Thanksgiving.

It's nice to have a holiday like Thanksgiving where we are reminded
to be thankful for everything.

Well, here's a strange little story.  Vicki and I went to the Wellness
center for turkey lunch on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving.
Well, later that night i heard a rumor about a big turkey feed at the
Fairgrounds.  Well, not knowing who to call i called the Santa Rosa
Police Department.  Talked to a nice lady there and asked her about
the big turkey feed, she told me it was tomorrow (Thursday) from
11:30 to 6:30.  Well, we drove down to the fairgrounds and circled
the place there wasn't a car or a person to be seen.  We didn't know
what had happened, it was very strange and eerie like right out of
the Twilight Zone.  So we went home and later that night at food
group (that's right on Thanksgiving)...  A kind lady said that she read
in the paper that the big turkey feed was the day before Thanksgiving.
That's it, mystery solved.

Oh another person asked me if i want to sell the car.  That's a big
ego boost.  It gets me to thinking.  I saw a Dodge Minivan at a lot
a week or two ago for $ 695.  That was pretty shocking.  I don't
know what kind of shape the mechanicals would be in with that kind
of low price.  A mini van would be a nice step up from the Buick.

We'll see,

Goodnight Diary

Printing out the manual for the Yaesu FT-101

I have the Manual for the Yaesu FT-101 saved on my USB Drive.
The plan that I have concocted for it is to take it into computer
class at Corinne Camp Wellness and Advocacy Center.  I'll print
it there on their printer, saving toner/ink for my printer and saving
paper as well.  In fact, I'm not even sure that my printer will handle
43 pages of paper, that's apparently how many pages are in the
manual.  It's a Service Manual.  Service Manuals are always bigger
and more detailed.  Which is a good thing.

Wish me luck in my endeavor.

Steve Jobs, has died, he was 56 years old.

I'll be brief, i'm sure there are a lot of people who are grieving tonight.

Steve Jobs was one of the worlds greatest innovators.  Without his
guidance I will feel like a ship without a rudder.  These visionaries
don't just come along every day, there can only be a few for each
generation, and Steve definitely was that an innovator and a visionary.

I know that my family will miss him dearly.  Thanks Steve and RIP.

-marcus

I happened upon a Yaesu FT-101

Dave my buddy gave me a Yaesu FT-101.  And I like it a lot.  It has 
potential


I'm asking you dear reader, would you fix up an old Yaesu FT 101 if 
you had one?  Or, would you just call it too old and be too busy to 
mess with it?

It has an AC? cord that has had the wall plug end cut off.  I under-

stand that some people do this because they don't want someone 

to burn down their shack or let the smoke out.  I don't think they are 

DC wires because it's uniform brown stuck together wire just like 

you would find in an AC extension cord (not industrial).  My intuition 

tells me that if it were a DC harness it would be black and red with 

fuses inline.  

I really don't want to let the smoke out.  I see no way to tell the radio 

that it is getting either AC or DC.  It may have some internal way of 

sensing that.  It's heavy. 30 LBS and built like a tank. 

Tomorrow i'm going to test the tubes.  I hope there's a schematic on 
the underside of the top panel. I should get some steel wool, and start 
dabbing at it with rubbing alcohol and vaseline.  I'll get it shined up 
nicely.  Maybe put some Mink Oil on the leather handle. 

You know, it's the same with computers.  I can hardly bear to throw 

them away, John KD6PAG came by and we took about six computers 

to the Computer Recycling Center.  I just look at an old computer 

and i think there's life in there, it talks to me.  I guess i'm the same 

about old radios.  There's magic in there, and the glowing tubes 

and lighted meters talk to me.

 I still have 5 computers mostly pretty old in my little apartment 
and one in the trunk of the car and a couple in storage.   

I should try to interface one with the TV one of these days.

I think the next sign will be leaves blowing all over the place.

Yep, that's right; it's Fall.  I wonder what kind of winter we will
have.  Might be mild, then again it might be crazy.  Well Pesto
is about 6 or so now.  She's a real trooper.

Damn Damn Damn.  I lost the whole message.  I was fooling
around with something and clicked and then boom it was gone.

Anyway, I made some comment about Pesto getting older and
that since she's not skinny anymore; i could have some
houseplants.  I've had luck with Geraniums, Spider Plants and
Aloe Vera.

Also, might pick up a couple of Parakeets to keep my Cockatiel
happy.  He's great, sings to me and stuff, but i just can't help
but wonder how it would be with a few more birds.  Parakeets
are soooo, beautiful.

Oh yeah, the lady in 508 is going to let me take her little terrier
out for a walk, we'll see how that works out, she seems like a
nice lady.  She wears big thick spectacles and seems a little
befuddled.

anyway that's the 2nd edit, bye for now.

Computer studies at Corrine Camp

I started this tutorial on Friday.  I'm 1/3rd of the way thru.

I'll redo the first segment again on Monday, because I 

didn't understand one segment of the process.  I went 

back and filled in some cells with hand built formulae, 

when the tutorial intended me to use a 'sum' 'function'.

Anyway, the fact that i was able to tweak it manually is 

actually very empowering.  It means that it's not so rigid 

that a little thought will break it.

If you're wondering about the 'What' Excell is the 

Microsoft version of a Spreadsheet and the 'Where" 

is the Corrine Camp Wellness and Advocacy Center.

They have a small network of up to date computers.

Their printer is a little 'blotchy' but oh well, nobody is 

going to look at my work anyway.

I'm also going to start working my way thru a self help

workshop in print.  A lot of writing about me and my 

head, nobody will grade it or correct it.  It's just for me.

We sold Vicki's bike, it's okay we can get a new one.

Danny across the hall is getting a little behind in his 

payments, but Vicki is real easy going.  I'll probably 

have to remind him next month before he buys a 

carton of smokes or whatever he does with his money.

I did quit chewing something like 4 months ago, don't 

expect much, i've fallen off that bandwagon more 

times than i want to think about.  But feel really good.

It's time to look at my diet, include fiber and antioxidants.

I'll probably take 6,000 IU of Fish Oil as soon as I 

finish this note.

Well, i've been drinking Iced Tea for a while and it's a 

better hydrator than some of the other stuff i drink namely 

diet soda pop. I did buy a big jug of Lime Juice to add to 

ice water for a little extra umph.

Added oil and coolant to the Buick the other day, checked 

them again they are good.  Washed the windshield with 

Windex.  Need to stock the windshield washer reservoir 

with Windex one of these days.

Anyway, that's it, planning a campout soon, but not sure 

when.

Gloria's Birthday the 25th of August.

Try to remember Gloria's birthday, Marcus.  It's the 25th of this month.

Well, I helped the GF type out some resumes today.  I should make a
resume.  Surely, I must have some marketable skills.

I want to learn how to operate a forklift. Either that or be a Bank Teller.

Goodnight Internet.

Wow, Doyle Park again

Well, dear diary

Vicki and I picked up Danny and we all went to Doyle Park together.
We stopped at Rite Aid first to pick up briquettes and ice.  Let's see
what all did we bring, well first off we forgot cups.  We did bring lighter
fluid, meat (hot links and hamburgers), ketchup, mustard, and Mayo.
No Condiments like tomato and lettuce cause i just didn't have any and
it was the last thing i was thinking about when i was packing up.  So,
anyway, I brought along 4 hamburger buns, and 4 hot dog buns, little
did i know that I didn't bring enough hot dog buns.  :( I also brought
along a nice big knife, a meat fork, and a spatula. Also, Vicki brought
paper plates, paper towels and other stuff i can't remember right now.
The biggest problem was no glasses.  Danny tried to cut the spout off
a small soda pop bottle of which many were floating around in my car.
I'm always thinking i'm going to take water with me on a hike.  That is
why I've been hoarding plastic bottles.  So we 'sawed' the spouts off 3
bottles and filled em up with ice and had pepsi, until the2 liter bottle
was gone.

Well, that's my little story about BBQ in Doyle Park.  What next?
I'm looking forward to camping and getting some use out of the new
tent.  i would like to get that in this season.  Gosh, i would like to go
fishing and to shoot some arrows too.  Things are starting to pile up
on me. I need to mop the kitchen and bathroom, kitchen again, doh.

Anyway, back to the BBQ, the Hot Links i found were at Grocery
Outlet, and they were just delicious, not too spicy nice sausage taste
and the skin is kinda tough, but that's okay.  If you go to Grocery
Outlet look for James brand Hot Links, very good sausage.

I sure would like to get out and ride my bike.  Maybe i'll start with baby
steps and ride down to Doyle Park which is big and flat. There i could
work on some stamina

-marcus

bamarcus77@gmail.com

Sebastopol in the summer

I just got back from NBLUG at O'Reilly in Sebastaopol.  The topic was
virtual remote servers.  i slipped in a few questions that were pertinent to me.
Frank gave the talk, Kyle told us about a giveaway at O'Reilly.  Saw Walter
(Gandalf) it was good to see him again.  He rode in on a motorcycle.

Kicked the Buick up to 55 for a mile or two along Hwy 12.

I ran the 10:00 PM Chicken Net tonight, only one chicken, Flan.  He's always
friendly and optomistic.

Well, short post tonight.  I'll try and check in tomorrow.

Goodnight Internet

The Radiator Blues

Vicki and I went out to the stores today.  We went to CVS, right next to
Safeway on 4th St., then to Rite Aid on Farmers Lane, then to Lucky's in
Montgomery Village.  I was a little dissapointed that Rite Aid didn't have ice
cream cones. It would seem that the old Rite Aid stores that took over Thrifty
Drug Stores have the ice cream counters and the ones that were built new as
Rite Aid do not.

While Vicki was getting safety pins at Rite Aid (more later), I was picking
up auto parts at the Auto Parts store there.  I picked up 2 gallons of generic
coolant, a thermostat and a gasket.  The generic coolant was less than 1/2
the price of the branded coolant.  I figured this was a good place to try and
save a few bucks.  Now, about the safety pins.  The headliner is drooping in
the Buick.  So i called around and the only people who do that kind of work
are the automobile appolstery shop, yes, I checked Auto Detail shops and
just asked the guys at the gas station.  I miss spelled 'appolstery' after
checking Merriam Webster online but i couldn't find the word.  So, anyway
the auto appolstery shop told me that it would cost $ 250 to do the work.

I'm going to get some elmers glue and just see if i can stick it up there with
that...  Anyway, now about the safety pins, the head liner was drooping so
low that i was having trouble peering out my rear view mirror.  So, i took
a safety pin and rolled up some of the loose headliner into a tight roll, and
safety pinned it up.  Now I can see out my rear view mirror.

Hopefully, this thermostat will save me some money on gas.  Seems like a
10 minute warmup is probably burning up a lot of gas.  I can only begin to
tell you how much cutting that warm-up time in half would mean to me.
While Dave is under the hood, i'll have him check the freeze plugs.
He's going to do a cooling system back flush and install the new thermostat.

I've just been thinking about getting a playmate for Pesto.  Another cat
wouldn't be that bad.  They don't eat much. Heh, hey, the cutest thing
happened here earlier today.  Pesto managed to sneak into the bathroom
and go all postal on a roll of toilet paper, i had to toss it in the trash cause
it was shredded.  I guess it's worth it, just as long as she was having fun.

Also thought about getting a rat.  Rats are sweet little mamals, i had one that
would actually purr if i scratched it long enough.  I have 2 spare cages, so if
anybody wants a starter cage for either a bird a cockatiel (like i have) or a
pretty little parakeet, or just a rat, let me know.

Well, Vicki is waiting on a new pair of orthopedic shoes and if they fit well,
we'll resume walking.  I need to check around the building and see if there
are any people with dogs that i could take with me on walks. Back when
we were walking regularly we had a little Jack Russel that would come
along with us.  He was a great little guy, but he and his people moved out.

I checked with the maintenance man the other day and asked him if we could
get a community cork board set back up.  It's nice to be able to communicate
with the other people via a cork board.  I am going to push for that.  I think it's
essential.  For instance, i could put up an ad on the cork board, 'I walk daily,
can i take your dog with me?'  I like the MP3 player that Aunt Bonnie sent me
a few years ago, i think it really makes me look forward to our walks.

Okay, ta ta for now (ttfn)  God Bless Everyone

Couple of sunny days

String together a couple of sunny days and what happens?


Last time i posted i was talking about a fair spring day, well it's less
than a month later and i think it's summer.  I don't expect much more
in the way of rain.  This rainy season is almost over.  I did notice that
there was a hurricane off the Baja peninsula.

Went to St. Vincent De Paul for a food giveaway on Wednesday,
you sign up and they let you get food once every 90 days, i got some
corn bread, some brie, a crab salad, a frozen chicken, and some cereal.

Then Friday the building food giveaway which is once a month.  I got
a roast there.  I cooked the roast today.  I cooked it in the crock pot
on low for about 8 hours unfortunately, it was dry.  I don't know what
i did wrong.  Kinda disappointing.

The Buick is doing something strange.  It seems to be using water
somehow.  I don't think it's a leak, and i don't smell steam.  It has
me worried.  Going to buy coolant on Sunday.

It is currently 5:00 on Saturday morning.

I'll have to check the calendar because, NBLUG will be happening
here pretty soon.  That would be the 2nd Tuesday of the month.
I really like NBLUG. I met a guy there called Eric Chu, and he
was very nice.  I still need RAM for my Laptop.  I need a 256
MB chip to stick in the backside of the laptop.  I also want to
find my KVM switch so that I can run at least one BSD machine.
There are some things that Gimp does that other things can't.
I can do good art with Gimp. The only problem is, i haven't the
foggiest where the KVM is located.  KVM stands for (K)eyboard
(V)ideo (M)ouse and it lets you share 2 computers while using
the same keyboard, mouse, and monitor.  This way you can have
2 computers running, but you don't have to deal with 2 keyboards,
mice or monitors.  Handy little device really.

Oh and there is Field Day again this year.  Amateur Radio Field Day,
the point is to get out to places that are off the grid and operate radios
as if, there were some kind of emergency.  It's practice.  We'll be
running off of Car Batteries for 12 Volts DC and topping the batteries
off with a generator (jenny)!  The get together this time around like
the last 2 years in a row, will be held at Lake Pillsbury which is kinda
remote, it's east of Ukiah, in the hills.  Lots of friends will be there,
Alan (N6VUD), Cody (K6MEU), Paul (KG6ABC), Ed (AG7D)!
Alan and Cody will be bringing their families with them.

I found my mummy bag and had Vicki sew up a rip in it.  I have
the tent but I still need to practice setting it up.  I think the problem
i was having was not extending the poles completely before trying
to feed them through the loops.

Anyhoo, i'll proofread this and post it.  We'll see if anything else
comes to mind.  Oh yeah, if you're reading this, you might as well
say 'hello' in the comments section at the bottom.  I need the
feedback.  Who knows, maybe I could help you set up your own
blog someday!

Goodnight Internet

Nice Spring day at Doyle Park.

I got up at 11:00 AM, Vicki and I went to Lucky's and picked up some charcoal lighter fluid. Then stopped at CVS for some diet soda pop.

Then we went to Franklin Park, there we saw that it was a little crowded and the picnic tables were all taken, so we headed on down to Doyle Park.  Doyle Park is beautiful, it's right on Santa Rosa Creek, and there are a lot of big oaks there.

We brought 4 chicken quarters, legs and thighs.  I saved some old used briquettes from previous users, added about 10 of my own briquettes, i made a little mountain of this stuff and then i added a lot of charcoal lighter fluid.  Whoosh, flames...

Added the chicken straight on the grill.  This is where i learned a lesson.
A.) I didn't bring a squirt bottle.  B.) BBQ Sauce is quite flamable.  When the
sauce drips on the coals it causes flames.   Normally you would quench the
occasional flames with a squirt bottle but i didn't have one.  So, adding A.)
plus B.) together we come to the following conclusion.  It is appropriate to
wrap chicken in foil before cooking, and let it steep in it's own juices.

Now the reason for going to the park in the first place was that i need practice setting up my tent.  I got the pieces out and looked at everything, gave a half hearted attempt to raise the thing and was unsuccessful.  So, tomorrow, i'm thinking about going back over there and putting some chicken in foil and cooking it that way, while the chicken is cooking, i want to enlist Vicki's help to set up the tent.  I feel reasonably assured that between the
two of us we can set this tent up.  If we can't well i'm just a sorry excuse for a man.

The park was real nice.  A gentle breeze was blowing. The sun was shining. The group next to us was celebrating a birthday.  There were probably 20 of them.  They were kind and even let me borrow a bic lighter to ignite my charcoal.  What kind of boyscout am i, not bringing a pack of matches to a BBQ?

Oh yeah, as a kicker, i forgot to mention, Vicki bought a pint of Macaroni Salad, and boy was it good with all those spanish olives in it!

Mid May!

I think that all the signs are pointing to a good summer.  The Buick is behaving reasonably nice.  I've been giving her good gas.  The higher octane seems to make her ping less.  I haven't been out to the River in a long time.  Back when I had the Dodge, I used to
make the loop, up Fulton, out River Road, all the way to the Coast road., south down the Coast road, and turn back inland at Bodega Bay.  The Dodge used to like it when I opened her up heading out River road.  Then there were the ess turns on the Coast road on the way back home, barely doing 20 MPH on the esses. These days, i get car sick on the Coast rd.  Fortunately, this isn't so bad when I'm the driver.  I remember a trip with Zack, we
had to pull over a few times so that i could barf.  This was in his new Toyota and it may have been the new car smell that made me sick.  I remember touring the wine country in his VW bus.  Anyway, his VW Microbus was an altogether slicker ride. There was plenty of room to stretch out and stuff.

I'm thinking with the prices of gas guzzlers coming down i might be able to trade up to a Van.  Van would be nice cuz I could carry stuff around out of the elements.  Then there is camping, picnicking, and DX (Distance) work with Ham Radio.

Meditation:  Meditation is a quiet state of mind and a stillness of the body.  I notice that my breathing slows down considerably when i'm meditating.  I really wish i had some control over my heart muscle.  It seems to beat 2x per second.  Pulse rate of 120 per minute is not
that unusual for me.  You would think, that if one could calm their mind and slow their breathing that naturally one could slow their heartbeat as well.

I think this is called a cold front.  It's dropped considerably in temp over the last few days.  I have friends who live in Alaska and I hate to be such a whimp, but it's 70 degrees in here and i'm freezing cold.  To make it worse our forced air system only has two modes and they both won't work at the same time.  So once we get a few warm days, the management switches the forced air from "Heat" to "Cool".  There's nothing i can do with the thermostat
that will make things better at this point.  I'm relegated to using the hand crocheted afghan that Gloria knitted for me. I still have it, and it is nice and long, so i can double it up
and cover myself nicely.

Oh that reminds me, i sent out a letter the other day and I addressed it to myself, and i put the destination address in the return address area.  Wasted 2 good stamps and felt like such a fool.

Wow, I've typed and surfed my way thru another evening. Pesto just reached up and tapped me on the shoulder.  That means in kittenese, 'It's time to start thinking about breakfast bub.'

Thanks to NBLUG, Make Magazine, Community Bicycle, O'Reilly Publishing, The Chicken Net, and Ham Radio in general,  for providing some focus and direction in
my life.

Thanks to John, Mark, Mark and Blake, Family, and Friends, and my sweet Vicki, it's been a sweet ride and i surely wasn't alone.

Don't forget about slashdot.com and wired.com!

PS:  Still looking for a good Volunteer Position that won't cross too many boundaries.  Something without real high expectations.  Let me know if you need my help.

PS:  If you know anybody who wants to let go of a big gas guzzling van, please let me know.  lots of windows are a big plus for me.

Stay safe and god bless, brr it's chilly, goodnight

April is gone!

I'll miss April's short showers and rainbows. I plan on getting two
new tires.  I'm replacing the front tires.  I think 215/65/r14 should work.

This year i'll have to smog.  The oxygen sensor that they put in so many
years ago sure is holding up nicely.  Let's see, headlights, oxygen
sensor, trying to think of any other work that has been done to the Buick.

I ran all over the place yesterday.  I finally got down to Wal-Mart and
found myself six pair of sox, three pairs of underwear and four pocket tee
shirts.  Not bad, but my first tee shirt didn't last one day, i got pizza sauce
on it.  I swear i really should wear a bib.

As usual, i've been helping Vicki with her computer.  i scanned her
computer twice last night.  Both scans came up empty handed.  We
deleted a lot of fluff out of her Resume folder, and hid a few icons. The
biggest problem is that her power button is sticking.  I honestly don't
know how to fix it short of taking the switch apart and maybe sanding
some rough edges down a bit.  So, keep the karma flowing, maybe we
can source Vicki a better computer.  I'll take her to CRC (C)omputer
(R)ecycle (C)enter next Saturday.  See if anything pops out at her.
Maybe a new laptop!

Had Amy over to help with some cleaning.

I can only be full of glee when i think of the work that
we accomplished today, I am seeing stuff i haven't seen
in years, it was buried under that much muck.

Amy did the carpets while i did the kitchen, we got all
the recyclables out and i think that was 6 trips down to
the dumpster.

So, if you're out there Amy, thanks ever so much!  I'm
really happy.  Only thing we forgot was the grate for the
forced air system, i'll have to do that myself later.

The new master cylinder seems to be holding up nicely.
I haven't seen the brake light come on since the
replacement was installed.  A big KUDOS goes out to
Roy Blinn at Calvary Tire & Brake on Highway 12.

On a sadder note, we dropped Microsoft Word 2007,
i'll probably take it in the summer if they are still offering
it then.

anyways, folks, goodnight and god bless

-marcus

Pickles

I got a big jug of pickles today and some coffee.

Getting ready to visit Reno, Nevada

Saving up moolah for my trip.  It'll be nice, i haven't been out of town
in years.

Not much to say, maybe next time.

Oh, boy what a happy new year.

Happy New Year!!!

I think this one is going to be great.  Still can't find Dave
wanted a tune up, but oh well, the replaced Vacuum lines
have helped a lot, but i think it would all come together
nicely with a real tuneup

I'll keep it short, don't have a lot on my mind right now.

-marcus