Doesn’t Seem Like It, But I Have Been Busy.

Setting up and learning new programs. PHP scripts really. Set up a "Ad" site I’m hoping the folks at church will start using to let other folks know about any items they have laying around the house that they really don’t want and will give away free, or any Needs they might have (like older folks needing yard work done, etc). Then I set up a TikiWiki site to experiment with. Then a WikkaWiki site to experiment with. Hoping to make both (or the one I settle on) Disaster Preparedness sites. Then there’s all the stuff I’ve installed on my Localhost server to experiment with. I have so many sites that I’m working on or maintaining! I need to get a job!

Then there’s the regular stuff I do around the house. Then there’s the irregular stuff I have to do. One thing I’m noticing is that I really need to focus. Make plans for the day and stick to them. Aside from converting all my movies to .avi files to store on a server I have a butt-ton of pictures and ’papers’ I need to scan and store on a disc somewhere. Get rid of some of this clutter. Have a couple of old monitors and an old (shorted out) tv that I need to take to the dump too. Not to mention the big box of papers I already have that I need to get rid of. Maybe I ought to start one of those little green ’to do’ books like I used in the Navy?

Man! I just spent a totally wasted 45 minutes trying to deal with the Military’s MyPay site trying to print a copy of my 1099r. What a complete travesty of a site. I think I clicked on every link available and still never found anything actually pertaining to me or my retired pay. When I first logged in it showed my 1099r but the thing wouldn’t print anything but the lines of the form. No data. And of course the site doesn’t mention that it requires IE6+ until after nothing works. And why a site would require an unsafe insecure browser is beyond me anyway.

Took my lovely young bride out to dinner tonight cause I spent too damned much time online at the MyPay site trying to get back to my 1099r. Went to the Teriyaki place up by Albertson’s, then to Target for a ’ear warmer thingie’, then to Home Depot for light switch cover plates. It’s cold and damp out there!

Smallville was Killer tonight. Chloe telling Jimmy about her meteor infection (and showing him). Grant a clone (Season 1 (?) did establish that Julian died by suffocation). Clark flying to rescue Chloe & Jimmy but turning out to be the Bizarro Clark; the real Clark frozen in a crystal. Too cool! I still think that Clark & Chloe should get together. Lois and Grant should NOT break up. Jimmy should hang with Kara. Lana, well, I don’t know. Lex needs to team up with someone like ’Catwoman’.:shock: (I know I’m mixing my comics but she was also a part of the DC Comics world.)


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What An Interesting Day!

Yesterday, Friday, was a pretty normal Friday. SWMBO and I went out to Family Pancake House for brunch. I had the Halibut burger and it was pretty good. Then we went to Costco and bought $230 bucks of stuff! Actually, a large part of that was a heating blanket and a set of sheets for the new bed. (Damn Sheets Are Expensive!!) That was probably half of what we spent. The rest was for stuff to feed "The Mouth" living out back! (:grin: Just Kidding!) The rest of the evening was spent as usual. Except…

One of the sisters called me and said that a bunch of folks from church were getting together Saturday morning (@ 0530!) to drive down to Chehalis, WA and help folks that were flooded out. At first I said NO; but got to feeling kind of guilty about it as we came through the storm fairly well off. So I called her back and said I’d be there. Then I spent the rest of the night getting stuff together to take. Both my shovels, rake, water, sammiches and snacks, hammer, ladder, pry bar. All the usual stuff. Then I took my sleepies (Great Night Sleep herbal sleep aid) and crashed around 2200.

Got to the Gig Harbor Stake Center at 0515 and, of course, I was the only one there. Luckily by 0550 or so another 12 people showed up. We had a nice little caravan down to Chehalis. Met at the Stake Center there, was issued bright yellow shirts, given our area and turned loose. When we got to our assigned area, the guy that was "in charge" had us help a couple of folks move the gravel in their yards around; which I thought was not what we were there for. I’m thinking we need to help the people that have quality of life issues. So I learned where folks might REALLY need help and took off. I saw a lady with a bunch of stuff piled up next to her porch (where the city won’t pick it up!) so I stopped. By the time I got out of my truck the other guys stopped behind me. I asked the lady if me and some friends of mine could move all that stuff out to the curb for her and she almost started crying. So we moved the stuff out to the curb. Went fairly quickly with 10 of us doing the work!

Around the corner from this place was a whole street of houses that had been flooded. We started at the first home ripping out carpet and piling it outside and moving soaked furniture and stuff outside and worked our way down the street. Lots of shoveling mud! Lots of furniture moving out. Lots of work. Almost everyone was really appreciative and emotional about 12-20 strangers stopping to help them with whatever needed to be done and not asking to be paid. Cool!

The first folks (old folks) we helped around the corner told us about standing chest deep in water and being picked up by a helicopter. The lady said "Yeah, I climbed into the basket and it kept going up and down and up and down and dipping back into the water and the wind was blowing and it was raining like crazy and that SOB made me put out my cigarette before he’d let me in his helicopter!"

My throat got really raw and I was soaked to the skin by 1300 so I called it quits and drove the hour+ back to the house. Got home, restarted a fire to warm the place up, stripped the wet muddy clothes off and climbed into a shower. ’Bout a half hour later I was starting to feel warm! Layed down on our new bed until SWMBO got home from the genealogy library. She’s making dinner tonight. Making me some fish! Cool!

It was a hassle; going to bed early (and missing Dogfights), getting up early and driving an hour+ before zero dark thirty, shoveling mud and lifting soaked furniture and stuff; but it was kind of nice. You see a house with water marks just above the bottom of its windows and you know you need to stop and help.


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