Friday
- Concerned about the amount of rain in the last storm I went down to
Ventura to check on the boat. The concern was justified - there was
7-8" of water above the floorboards. That's a lot of water - it took
ten or fifteen minutes for the bilge pump to empty it all. The
anti-condensation gizmo had been sitting on the floorboards and had
flooded, which tripped the AGI breaker on the 110VAC circuit. For the
most part there wasn't anything of real importance flooded. I reset the
breakers, let the boat dry for several hours, and will dry out it more
next week.
I believe I have the bilge pump set to automatic now, and taped the
lazarette hatch closed, and thereby making it somewhat waterproof.
Further storms are predicted, so this should help with water ingress.
It's all a bit depressing.
I stopped by a friends for a late lunch, then headed back to Lancaster in moderate to heavy traffic in the late afternoon.
Thursday 23 December 2010
Thursday
- The weather has finally cleared. This had been one of the longest
& steadiest rains that I can remember in Lancaster, but last night
about 3am I noticed stars and a bright planet outside my window. The
weather held, and it was a nice day.
I took the opportunity to CLEAN, vacuuming and dusting and picking up
and throwing away. Mopping, all sorts of stuff. It sorely needed it,and
needs more - I didn't even get to the upstairs.
The careful reader has probably already noted the missing President:
Harrison. I haven't found any good biographies locally, but Mr. Jefferson's Hammer or Old Tippecanoe
would probably do, if I can find them through interlibrary loan or
something. There seem to be a number of decent Polk biographies, but of
course the war with Mexico accounts for a lot of the interest.
One annoying side effect of the rain is the repeated loss of internet
connectivity. As least, I think it's the rain. I have cable internet,
and though I don't lose the TV signal the digital modem goes off line a
couple of times a day. Very annoying. You can wait hours for it to come
back on it's own, or turn it and the router off and then on again with
about an 80% chance of reconnection. I suppose I need to call Time
Warner.
One entertaining incident earlier this week was seeing someone find the
silver lining in the flood conditions. A huge portion of the Lowe's
parking lot was coned off because of flooding. One imaginative fellow
brought his waters and an R/C boat, much to the amusement of shoppers!
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Wednesday 22
December 2010
Wednesday
- I did a bit more Christmas shopping, but to be honest, I don't have
that many people locally to shop for, and nephews and nieces are getting gift cards. I did go out to lunch with some friends,
at a Thai place. I even had a doggie bag to take home for dinner...but
left it out on the counter for hours. Gah. Soup again.
One thing I did was to go to See's with my friends and pick out my own box of
chocolates - I've never done that. Since I didn't really know what
stuff tastes like (terrible memory for that) I just got an assortment.
But it was a fresh
assortment, right? Not a stale box of stuff left over from last year.
Book #89 was John
Tyler, The Accidental President, by Edward P. Crapol (...P. Crapol.
Dude, your parents hated you: change your name). Tyler of course, ascended to presidency as the country's 10th president after
the death of William Henry Harrison, who was only President for about a month
before succumbing. He was the first Vice President to do so, and got a
lot of static about it. "His
Accidentcy" was a favorite of the press, this being a riff on
the "His Excellency" that
George Washington had liked. Tyler was embroiled with a who's who of American figures: Daniel
Webster, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay,William Hart Benson, Edward Everett, John C. Calhoun and a
host of others, good and bad.
Tyler is considered one of the least of
the presidents, yet a lot happened in his presidency. We almost got
into a war, again, with Great Britain. We recognized the Hawaiian
Islands and talked the British into doing the same. We instituted trade
with China, annexed Texas ( in a rather funky way - failing to get a
2/3rds majority in the Senate Tyler simply took the fact that a simple
majority of the Senate & the House each approved as a
constitutional "good enough"), avoided a war over Oregon, pretty
much
started a war with Mexico (over Texas), and didn't
have a civil war between North and South. That came two decades later,
but slavery was already THE issue dividing North and South, and was the
big stumbling block for the annexation of Texas.
In another first, twenty years later John Tyler also became the Traitor President, when he chose the side of Virginia
in the Civil War, and died a member of that states delegation to the
Confederate Congress in 1862.
Tuesday 21 December
2010
Tuesday
- another 8 hours on the database scripting stuff, tracking down a
fairly subtle bug. Bah.
I did get out and do some Christmas shopping. I even ventured down to
the mall in Palmdale, early. Stuff wasn't too crazy at 10am.
Phoebe and Riley, wanting in from the rain....
Monday
20
December
2010
Monday
- about 8 hours on the database stuff.
Sunday 19 December_2010
Sunday
- not much to say, still feeling a bit unwell. I did get a bit of
Christmas shopping done.
Picture of
the Week
Photo
Notes: Parade of
Lights, Channel Island Harbor, Dec 2010.
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