RETIRED WARRANT

Skype has been up and down

Last night when I got home I found that Skype was still having problems and there was a statement on the net about how they had a software problem and would be back up as soon as possible.

We went ahead and did everything via chat until I think about 8:30 – 9 PM when it finally game up, though it was still a bit iffy and kept dropping from time to time.

This morning when I got up it was down again and their site had an updated message saying it should be up sometime today. So hopefully when I get off work it will be back up.

Laila and I have been using it for so long that I forgot how to configure some of the others so I hope they have it fixed. It seemed odd playing the game without discussing what was going on while making our moves and all. Also it means having additional chat windows open which for me is distracting.

Last night again I was so tired. I almost fell asleep a few times before 11 PM rolled around and I went to bed. Then when I did go to bed about 12:15 AM the dogs started barking and going wild. I went ahead to make sure no one was trying to break into the house or the next door neighbor’s house but it turned out that they were barking at the neighbor’s cat that we are currently cat sitting for. She has finally gotten brave and now ventures around the house checking things out and is now starting to play with the other cats and all. I guess she just had to get used to things.

Anyway I guess that is about it for now. I will try to blog over the weekend if I am not tied up with stuff.

Well I am back with a little time before getting out of here for the weekend. Earlier today I saw something that brought back some bad memories. As I was on my way in to work this morning I heard a ship’s whistle sound one long blast which either meant they were testing it or they were getting underway.

Later while looking for someone I went to the break area and sure enough someone got underway as well as a few others. It seems they will go out and play with the Marines next week so they will pull out and head up the coast over the weekend to pick up Marines at Camp Pendleton. The only one I saw pull out was USS Tarawa (LHA-1) but some of the amphibious ships I saw on the accompanying piers were gone too, so they must have pulled out earlier.

I used to hate that, pulling out on a Friday and pulling in on a Monday. When you are on a ship at sea every day but Sunday is a work day. If something is broke Sunday is also a work day. Also every day you have to stand your watches and all. So pulling out on a Friday when you were looking forward to the weekend is always a bummer. The same can be said with pulling in on a Monday, because you have already missed the weekend and have the full work week to look forward too.

Then of course local operations are the pits because most of the time you are located right off the coast. You can see San Diego, Oceanside and all from at sea and sometimes it can be hard to be so close but yet so far.

At night though on all the ships I was on we usually went out to do what we call “Pump and Dump”. That is where you go out greater than 50 miles from the coast to pump bilges and dump trash. We would usually pick a grid or to on the charts and do what we call, steaming in the box, where you would go ahead and just try and keep 5 miles away from and contacts while staying in your box.

So anyway, I just remembered having those feelings of losing a weekend and kind of felt sorry for the sailors on those ships.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will try to have a great weekend myself.

Busy times at work

Well I have to say that yesterday afternoon and last night were very entertaining. In the afternoon after the class left for the day Petty Officer Kelly probably the one guy at work I am tightest with, was taking care of a problem which needed to be done with one of our two antenna systems. It consisted of replacing an antenna control cable. When he first took the cannon plug off the cable we didn’t have the proper pin removal tools and so the connector was destroyed, but we had spare connectors so he decided to replace it.

When he first started placing the pins in the cannon plug he used the little plastic pin insertion tools that came with the connector, but the plastic pin tools are junk and they get chewed up fairly easy, and that was what happened. He remembered seeing a high quality tool kit for replacing pins in one of the old classrooms where they are removing equipment and getting ready to install new stuff, so he asked Senior Chief if we could have the kit as they were just going to dispose of all the stuff in the room. Senior of course said yes, so we got the kit and he installed the pins and we test operated the antenna. Everything worked great, and then he had to put the backplane on the connector and dress everything up.

That was where the trouble began. The new connector didn’t come with a new backplane and he assumed since it was the same connector that he could just use the old backplane. Well the two pieces were threaded differently and so all that work was wasted. This morning he went from lab to lab and finally found the right backplane for the connector and then did all the work. Anyway yesterday when eh was trying to get the old backplane to fit Senior Chief and one of the other Chiefs were giving him a hard time and it was really funny watching them get on his case. Everyone knew it was all in fun so no feelings were hurt.

Anyway after that I went home, but on the way I had to get a book of stamps at the post office and they sold me this really gay looking stamp with a heart and love written on it. Well as long as the bills get paid I guess it is all cool.

Then the next order of business was that we were asked by our next door neighbor to cat sit while they are on vacation. Judy has two female cats and this one is a female so no problem, or that’s what I thought. The first thing that happened was the cat attacked Judy and scratched the heck out of her. Then the cat would not move away from the front door so that we could close it. I reached down to pet her and get her settled down and she scratched the heck out of me. I finally got a broom and kind of pushed her away from the door gently and then she went into the down stairs bathroom and would not come out. Judy went ahead and put her cat box and some food and water in there for her and we hope that she will get over being frightened soon.

This morning was interesting. I was starting to teach my favorite area, when all of a sudden it was time to fill out what we call dream sheets so that took up some class time. A dream sheet is what the students fill out to send to the detailer. The detailer uses the dream sheet to assign the students to their first permanent duty station so it is a very big deal for them.

They have to select what is most important to them, Shore Duty, Sea Duty, or Overseas Duty. They will rank these 1, 2, and 3 with the most desired being 1. After that each section gives them three choices for type of duty and three choices for location again prioritized. So we had them fill them out, and then take them home with them to think about where they want to go and discuss it with family and all. Then we will collect them tomorrow and send them off. The students will receive their orders in the first part of October.

After that I taught antennas for a while, but then got word that the class has to go to some safety brief at 11 AM, so I finished up the topic I was teaching and sent them off to the brief. My boss then had a meeting with us during lunch to set up evaluations and iron out leave schedules and all. I already have my evaluations done and we had already agreed that I would carry over the vacation days for the good of the job. After that I did some maintenance on a transceiver and now I will be entering grades next because someone accidentally eraser the grade sheet. And no it was not me. Actually somehow the grades for the last class are showing up with the names from this class. I will just keep a separate file and copy it via zip drive vice doing it on the grade drive. This is not the first time something has happened to the grades data base, so I will just keep mine here and backed up.

Well speaking of that time to get moving on it.

Sticker shock

This morning after going to bed pretty late, I still got up fairly early to chat with Laila.

Laila was playing Rose Online last night for most of the evening and there wasn’t much on in the way of TV until I managed to find the “Revenge of the Nerds” on I think the Fox Movie Channel. It has been a while since I saw it and David wanted to watch it, so I figured why not, as it is a pretty funny movie.

Laila heard it in the background so I set up the webcam and she watched it too. Anyway when that went off, I tuned into “Cat People” but Laila doesn’t like horror films so I channel surfed and saw “The Unforgiven” which is the old one starring Burt Lancaster, but I wanted to watch “Unforgiven” starring Clint Eastwood. I had it on video tape so I put that on and we watched that.

After that I went to bed and got up at 8 AM and I watched the Atlantis launch and chatted with Laila, until she went to bed about 10:30 AM my time. David was still in bed so I went and took a shower and then I went to the post office to check the mail. While there I noticed that the barber shop I usually go to was empty, so I got my haircut, without having to wait. I then swung by the car wash and washer the car, then I went to Ralph’s to get a few items.

I went ahead and got some fruit, chips and looked at some meat. I can’t believe how high the prices have been going up on food. I guess in addition to a few lawsuits Ralph’s have had to settle and the rising fuel prices has caused the prices to go up.

Anyway, I guess I might checkout the Navy Commissary next time I have to get groceries. I just use Ralph’s for it’s convenient location and the fact that it is not really crowded.

When I got home David was up and after we unloaded the car he went out with his mother and her boyfriend for the weekend. Since I already cleaned the house up all I have left to do for the weekend is laundry, so I guess I will start getting busy with that.

The dogs are pretty quiet today. I spoiled them by buying a big bag of pigs ears. They love them and I haven’t gotten them any for a while, so they are pretty content.

I suppose I will get started on the laundry so I can get that done. I just hope I don’t get side tracked like I did last week and wind up having to iron everything.

So it is off to the garage to get started on that.

Missing post?

Wow, I was getting ready to blog and noticed that yesterday’s post is missing. Humm, I wonder what happened.

Anyway all I did as far as blogging yesterday was complain about my sore ribs, my dental appointment, and looked at laptops at Circuit City after purchasing a video amplifier for my TV.

Today was pretty hectic at work and I did quite a bit of bending and twisting which really has me hurting after this rib injury. I am glad the weekend is here so I can rest the ribs and keep them taped up. I was checking a few medical sites and this is going to take a while to heal.

I am glad David is home as he has been very helpful. We had to do some grocery shopping today and he voluntarily loaded and unloaded the car, which he seldom does. We bought some already made fried chicken, macaroni casserole and macaroni salad. The casserole wasn’t that good but the chicken hit the spot. It was good to eat solid food today after the dental trip yesterday.

And hey Laila, I got a new tip for my electric toothbrush when I went to the store. It was a little thing we had talked about, that I was always forgetting to get from the store when I go there.

I also had a $9 coupon for pet food, so I bought the dogs a bunch of snack foods. They will like that. They love Beggin Strips and Chewies, so I stocked up with those as well as Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy. I think I have been spoiling them too much.

I should finish the Hong Kong entry tonight. I also want to post some pictures on last night’s entry of Eric’s family and ours together.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend. I have to blog the Hong Kong entry and then I will be all caught up.

The cross is saved

I heard some great news last night before I went to bed. The cross on Mt. Soledad will be saved. The Senate voted unanimously to make it a federal landmark. It now goes to the President for his signature, which is pretty much automatic and the whole lawsuit thing will be over.

Last night Laila and I didn’t get to chat all night like we usually do. She was busy most of the evening with the phone representatives from Bayantel getting her new ISP and telephone agreements all worked out. They will have everything set up by the 6th and she is really happy about that.

Dennis is really excited about an upcoming competition on Level Up but was worried that the PLDT high speed Internet bandwidth of 2 Megabytes (really 40 kilobytes) might affect his game play.

This morning when I got up Laila and I were chatting about the new service and I found something she said funny, now that I have woke up and am more alert. Usually after she would log a complaint PLDT would call her and ask her about her Internet. With no phone (dial tone) they can’t even do that.

When she gets her new service I hope she will blog about her dissatisfaction with PLDT. Since many folks from the Philippines read her blog they should be warned of the poor customer service and incompetence exhibited by that company. Of course if her readers have PLDT it may be a few weeks before they are able to read her post.

Yesterday Judy got a picture on her cell phone of all the dogs sleeping together on the couch. She is going to post it on her site today and I will of course steal it and post it here.

Well it is time to earn my paycheck so I had better get to work. Have a great day everyone.

Fun having the daughter here

It sure is cool to have the daughter home as one thing I have been miserable with is trimming the dogs hair and she has been doing a dog a day. They don’t like it so much but they are looking a lot better.

Yesterday her mother and her boyfriend took her out to one of the Indian casino’s and she won $2,500, awesome. Today after church she wants me to take her to Wal-mart to pick up a few items.

I got all the laundry done yesterday even though I messed up and flooded the garage in the process. It was an easy cleanup, I just had to sweep the water out.

Then last night I was able to attend Laila’s family reunion via web cam which was a lot of fun. Her sister also attended from Saudi Arabia via web cam. She had about 35 – 45 people there and it looked like everyone was having a great time. Wish I could have been there in person, but this was the next best thing.

Anyway, time to get ready to go to church, so I guess that is about it for now. Have a nice weekend.

RIP, Snowy

For Snowy

Well Snowy, my daughter’s dog passed away during the night and though I am very sad about it.  At least I when I went to bed she had a full stomach and was sleeping peacefully.  I hope she did not feel much pain.  I will bury her when I get home today.

We have had her for a while, as my ex got her for a companion for Philippe during my first deployment on the Elliot in 1998.  She has always been a little sickly and was always getting abscesses in her throat.  I really don’t know how much we have spent over the years in vet bills but it has been pretty expensive over the years.  The latest was another abscess that we were taking care of, but she also seemed to have been bitten by something.  The area that swelled up was not near where her latest abscess was, and cleaning, antibiotic treatment, and children’s Tylenol didn’t save her.

She is also the mother of all the dogs we have, and though they do not seem to know what happened to her they have been looking for her.  I have been told in the past that dogs do not understand death.  Mine seem to but then I could be wrong.

I have been taking care of the 1 month old puppy as best as I can.  I know he is used to eating at his leisure, but I do have to go to work and so I fed him this morning before I left and he will have to fend for himself, and I will go home for lunch today to make sure he is fed.

Another thing that is sad is that my daughter will be coming home next Wednesday for a visit.  Snowy was her dog and I know she will be sad.  I did let her know about Snowy’s condition last night when she called.  I also left her a note to let her know Snowy passed away.

As the dogs get older I know that this is not the last time I will have to go through this.  Since I live pretty much alone these day’s, my only companionship is the dogs, so losing one is particularly hard.

I will hit the candle site today and light a candle for her and Laila and I will again add her to our prayers for today.  For now though I will just say rest in peace Snowy and have fun in doggie heaven.  I have to stop writing now as I am tearing up.

OK, I am back home now for lunch.  I stopped off at the pet store to get the special milk formula for dogs and after a bit of sticker shock I bought it and a pet baby bottle.  I got home and mixed up the formula but he didn’t like the bottle so I put it in a bowl.  He ate most of it and I guess I am supposed to feed it to him warm every four hours.  He is also very messy with it and I am all covered in milk.  The guys at work were pretty cool today and since my class is ahead they let me take the afternoon off to bury Snowy and all so I am soaking down the area where I will bury her.

Anyway I guess that is about it for now.  Everyone take care.

Daughter’s dog is sick

Well yesterday my bad day didn’t go away even after I got home. Our mother dog looks like she had been bitten by something and was really ill. She has always been a bit sickly and back when we were a two-income household I could always afford to shell out the costs of a vet. Now though money has been a little tight so my son and I are taking care of her the best we can.

The last time we had to take her to the vet they told us it would be better just to put her to sleep and that was not an option so we all nursed her back to health. She is about 7 years old and poodles have a lifespan of 8 to 12 years so she is hitting that old age for her breed.

Anyway we took care of her last night and she seemed a little better this morning though she was a little slow and lethargic. I just hope and pray she gets better. Especially since she is my daughter’s dog and my daughter will be coming in from Maryland for a visit next week.

Meanwhile, today has been a little bit better as the performance tests are going very well and the equipment has stayed operational. No headaches like yesterday, so I am thankful for that. I was still pretty busy though running around the lab.

Just before lunch one of the guys said he was making a food run but since I didn’t have any cash on me (I gave it to my son for the dog milk) I told them I wasn’t hungry. He got back just before I let the class out for lunch and watching the others eat made me really hungry so when I dismissed the class for lunch I ran out, drove to an ATM and got some cash. I then went to Popeye’s and instead of my usual two-piece or three-piece meal I went big and bought the four pieces with cole slaw. And I actually ate it all this time. It sure was good.

Well almost time to get out of here for today and go home for the night. I am just waiting for the class to finish their cleanup chores. Then it is head for the house time.

The dogs are done

Well I finally got the last of the dogs washed and treated with advantage. Now I am bushed. I also cleaned up the mess, though I still have to wash the sink, but that is due to the son, not the dogs.

I guess it would have been so bad except it is 80 degrees out and I was upstairs. Also I was on my knees and fighting to keep the dogs in the tub.

Some of them were pretty good while the worst one was Mr. Wiggles, my dog. He didn’t like it a bit, but at least he did not bite. The easiest one was Philippe, the ex’s who even let me cut some of his hair without growling. That was a surprise.

I cut a lot of mats off all of them but She she, and the rest I will have to do with the hair clippers. We bought a really good set for the dogs about a year ago but I have not seen them since my daughter left for Maryland, though I have 2 other sets that I can use.

Since it is warming up, they should be fine if I shave them all the way down for the summer. They all seem to be really happy now that they have been washed.

I will now get ready to say the rosary when Laila comes online, and I will also get ready to swap ideas and blogs with her.

But for the next little while I am just going to sit back and relax.

Olympics are over

Well the Olympics are over so television will start getting back to normal I hope. I do realize that NBC has moved some stuff around and so I may have to change a few things that I watch.

I think my biggest disappointment though is with FOX and American Idol. I love watching House and Bones, but now that American Idol is getting such huge ratings it is on all the time. Pretty soon I expect FOX to become the 24 hours American Idol network the way things are going. I guess since it is second in ratings behind only the Super Bowl, I can only expect to see the shows I like on when Idol has finished it’s season.

The Naval Station had started something I think is great. They will be ticketing people who drive on base while talking on cell phones. I am glad to see that someone is doing something about cell phones and driving and would like to see the City and State follow suit.

Today we are supposed to get a huge winter storm with lots of rain and flash flood warnings. We can really use the rain, but I don’t know if we need it all at once like this storm is supposed to do. I am glad I do not live in an area that floods, as I live on a hill and the ground is stable. I just hope the rain holds off until I get home from work, as people here just cannot drive in the rain. It is lunchtime now and when I went out to look the clouds are rolling in. I hope it can hold off for a few more hours. I know that driving on the freeways will be a nightmare if it starts drizzling before I get home.

Also the dogs will be upset as they do not like the rain and will have to be penned up in the family room. They don’t like the rain, and especially hate lightning and thunder if we get some of that. Anyway time to get ready to get back to work. Lunchtime is over and I must get back to my classroom.