The Day That Was

A Rainy Day In Redding

Driving in the rain on Pine Street. 4/12/10

We had a pretty good storm last night with howling wind and sideways rain, like gravel thrown against the windows, but by this morning it had calmed down to a series of medium showers. It seemed to me, around 4 o'clock, that there was a break during which I could go to the library and check out what new books they might have. As soon as I got on the road, there was a significant downpour that continued all the way to the library.

I managed to get from the car, into the building without getting too wet, and I headed for the new books display. I found three new books that I hadn't read and took them to the automated check out device. I waved my library card under the card scanner, set the books on the flat, frosted glass of the book scanner, tapped the touchscreen monitor a few times, grabbed the receipt that spun out of the little printer, picked up the books and headed for the door.

The girl at the front desk said; "Wow, it's really coming down out there". I looked outside the glassed-in foyer, and had to agree. She offered to get me a bag to keep the books dry and I said, 'Thanks'. I held the plastic bag of books in one hand and headed out into the deluge.

I was surprised at how wet I got in such a short distance. My pants were soaked, and my sneakers were filled with water by the time I walked to the, (right in front), handicapped parking spot. Once inside the Buick, I turned on the defroster to clear away the thick coating of fog that obscured the view through the windshield. I had to sit with the car running for a few minutes to clear the window while the rain and hail pounded down with ferocity and vigor. (My apologies to those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan for that petroleum I was wastefully burning, while going nowhere.)

I was still soaking wet when I got home. I changed clothes and warmed up dinner.

Star Wars and lasagna...Life is good. 4/12/10

The bookmark I used for the Star Wars book is a card advertising job openings for census workers. It reminded me of an article I read last night about Americas economic future. It seems that, by 2018, there are going to be 5,000,000 new jobs available for qualified workers. Most of these jobs will be related to health care and 'green' technologies. There is some concern that there wont be enough Americans to fill the positions because the baby boomer's will have retired before then. That should be interesting.

Lasagna eating Phil. 4/12/10

I increased my Macbook hard drive by 75 Gb's!

Macbook and 250Gb WD passport USB drive. 4/12/10

I discovered that I had 6,850 iPhoto items stored in my Macbook. That was 60 gigabytes worth of data. In addition, I had 15 gigabytes of data in my Picasa image files. I knew it was time to back that stuff up and remove it from the laptop.

The Picasa backup program, indicated that it would take 63 CD's, or 11 DVD's to back up the 15 Gb of image files. Right! I hooked up one of my Passport USB drives to the Macbook, dragged the picasa images folders onto the passport icon, and let it copy the lot. It took about 15 min. Then I did the same with the iPhoto files, (60 Gb). That took about an hour.

Once the folders were copied into the Passport drive, I deleted the ones on the Macbook, and presto!...75 more gigabytes of space available on the Macbook. (It even feels lighter without all that extra data.)

It is amazing when I look at the iMac that Chrissy and I got in 1999. It uses a mouse and keyboard, (how quaint), and it came with a whopping 30Gb hard drive. I was just using it today to print covers and burn disks for a few more LMP Trio CD's.

It still works fine for the things that were part of the technology it was designed to use. As long as there are things to be printed, CD's to burn, music to be played, and an internet to browse, it will still be doing it.

I am so blessed. I have the abilities, and some great instruments, to express myself through art, literature, music, journalism, video and photography. I live in this gloriously inspiring universe, and I have 117 gigabytes of free space on my Macbook for more expressions. :)

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Key Largo - Bertie Higgins

Life Is Good