Random Thoughts
Clearing the brain so it keeps working
And the fog rolled in…
Aug 12th
Tonight/this morning I was ready to sit in my lawn chair and look for shooting stars. The Perseid meteor shower was to hit its maximum two days. The sky promised to be clear. The mosquitoes did not promise to stay away, but I have my bug suit. 
So, I drove the truck out into the field, had my chair sitting in the bed, and I watched the night sky.
I saw a couple of shooting stars, but no storm/shower. Kind of a sprinkle. I had a grand view of the summers stars. The sky was dark enough to see the Milky Way. For an hour I enjoyed kicking back and just watching the sky turn.
Then I noticed some of the horizon stars were not as bright as they had been. Passing clouds I thought, not a big deal. Then I noticed more and more of the stars were just that much harder to see. Dang too many clouds except I stood up and the sky was clear once again. The cloud had formed much lower as fog around my truck. I stood for a while in hopes to see one or two more meteors, but within 15 minutes the fog was at my head. No more star gazing.
I should have guessed with the heavy rain this afternoon, and the warm temperatures today that fog would form easily. I just wish it would have held out for an hour or two. I’m sure I could drive one way or another to get out of my little fog bank, but the bed and work are calling me. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Thinking of raw fish and family
Aug 5th
I got to sit down and enjoy some sushi with my oldest daughter and her husband last weekend. It was part of a great weekend. But this is about the raw fish.
Many years ago, when my oldest was the only child, our little family would go to a Japanese restaurant at least 1 time per month. It was there I first tried Sushi with my wife. As we grew to know the owners, they would let our little girl play with their daughter if the restaurant wasn’t that busy. I’m not sure what they fed her, but she was fed, and it never turned up on our bill. I’m wondering if she didn’t have sushi way back then. Unfortunately, that little Japanese restaurant closed, and there was not another place to get Sushi in the area for many years. We moved to the country and our choice were cut back even further. I went without sushi for a long time. While Japanese food was one of my wife’s favorites, the raw fish wasn’t on her top ten. I never pushed the matter, since there is other excellent food that we both enjoyed.
Fast forward a few years, and we are celebrating my oldest’s birthday. As was our custom, the birthday celebrant got to choose the restaurant. The younger sisters were not thrilled with the choice of restaurants, but the father was. I got to experience Sushi again. It seemed so much better than the last time I had it. Had my tastes changed, or was the preparation better? Or had time just dulled my memory? I’m not sure, but since that day, I’ve held Sushi as a special treat when having a meal.
As with the first time, and all other times I’ve had Sushi, the meal is more than just a time to eat food. Sushi seems to be a shared experience more than most meals. You try some of this, and a little of that. You find things you really enjoy and then some thing you may not care for as much. As time goes by, you learn what you like, and skip things you don’t. But it seems there is always room for something you don’t remember having before.
Different places serve different things. Sushi, like most dishes, varies from place to place. More than that it seems to vary from visit to visit more than most foods. Is it the freshness of the fish? The time of year it was caught? The way it was cut? I’m not sure what influences all of the variance but it seems real to me.
And finally it is sharing with family. Most of my daughters will still make a face or two if we invite them for sushi. They either don’t like fish at all, or would prefer it warm. But with my eldest and her husband, the experience is one I enjoy. Good natured fighting over that last bit of eel. Who took the most ginger? Trying to get my daughter to try the spicy roll. And, for some reason, always wanting just one more piece.
Family, friends, food and sharing these things make life a joy.
Early morning
Jul 30th
I woke up a little before my alarm this morning. Wide awake at 4:00 am. I realize this is because I went to sleep much earlier than normal, but still that was an hour of sleep I could have used.
Oh well.
Hard drive restore is going slowly, but is making progress. So far I’ve been able to restore 1 partition from the drive and I’m working on reading data off of the primary partition. It looks like all of my recent additions are completely corrupted. That just means more time spent doing what was just finished. So much for digitizing my CD collection.
I think, but I’m not positive yet, that I will be able to get most of the important stuff restored. The drive itself is on its last legs, so I’m not sure how long it will keep spinning. Most of the restore software I’ve been able to get my hands on are telling me the same thing. The drive is failing, and I should back it up. Unfortunately, the drive is failing and doesn’t like being ‘backed up’. Different software does allow me to restore different parts of the drive, so that is a plus.
For those interested, I’m now using some restore utilities on Ubuntu Linux to access the drive. After this is done, I’ll mount the drive in an external bay and see if Windows will see it better. It may take some time before the Linux is finished, because it stops when it doesn’t fix/copy a file. The more problems it runs up against, the more it stops. Unfortunately, when I am at work I can’t hit the button to make it continue. It does try to do multiple reads before saying it can’t copy it, so that is a plus. It also does a file compare after the check, to make sure it was a clean copy. That just takes forever when the drive being copied is failing.
Since I woke up early, I was able to continue the process 10 times, for files that could not be copied. Every one of those was something I can live without. I just have to wait until it is done before I can see what I got back.
I should know better…
Jul 27th
Why didn’t I back this drive up? I know it was the old machine. I didn’t really do that much on it. Surf the web, write a blog, catch up on a ball game. No I didn’t do much on this machine.
The hard drive crashed/failed. I think I will be able to get some of the pictures that were on this machine. I think I have duplicates of all of them, but I’m not sure yet. My daughters did their homework on this machine, and I think all the old reports are toast.
Some recent pictures that I took with the phone are gone. A new e-book list, vanished. Software updates poof. Some music became an electronic ghost.
Hmm… I do have another hard drive I can drop in this machine. I think I know where the windows install disk is. Maybe I can get the machine functioning again. I may drop in some other operating system. Who knows.
Then there is one other loss. I’ve never used it. It was there like a memorial for the past 6.5 years. Kept when I upgraded the computer. Disk imaged over when I got this drive. Gone are some web bookmarks. Little used since 2003, simply marked “Sarah’s Favorites”.
They have an app for that
Jul 24th
pThis is my first attempt at using the WordPress app to blog from my phone. The entry is tedious for a touch typest. I haven’t used the hunt and peck method for anything more than a few words in a very long time. /p
pIf I had found this before my trip to Cincinnati, I could have blogged during my down time. Never again will I miss a blogging opportunity. /p
pNot really, but I needed to try the tech. The nerd in me demands it. I also loaded the nook app, so I will rarely be without a book to read. Nerdy summer fun./p
