Thursday, September 27, 2007

. . . And a Good Time Was Had By All

We took in the "John Williams Conducts John Williams" concert at The Ohio Theater Wednesday night. The four of us thoroughly enjoyed the show; In fact it's the only event in recent memory where all of us could honestly say it was the best thing we'd seen in a long time. It's rare to find something with such universal appeal. The crowd - which was sold out - was also very appreciative. Several minutes worth of standing ovations and three encores proved that.

The Columbus community is lucky to have such a fine symphony. We are blessed that we now have another wonderful family memory to cherish and share.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Physician - Heal Thyself

Well, it finally happened: I had a hard drive failure.

I've worked in IT for many years, and have helped folks deal with their own failed hardware many times. I frequently admonish them for not keeping adequate back up copies of their important files. It's always difficult for me to explain to folks that unless they can justify the thousands of dollars it costs to send the drive to a certified clean-room equipped lab, their data is gone. . .

Up to now I've avoided any of my own data loss by replacing a drive that starts to make noises that drives in good working order just don't make. In fact, this has never even been an issue on my home PCs. They've never started to make noise, and none ever have failed before now.

The irony? The drive that failed was my back up drive. There was no warning. It never made any sounds that I would interpret as a precursor of impending failure.

So what's the problem, you ask? It was only my back up drive - so all the original data is still on my main hard drive, right?

Yeah, if only . . .

My "back up drive" also happened to be the one place where I kept all of my digital photos!

I have no backup of them. . . After all, I back up things To that drive, not things already ON that drive.

Well, the drive is presently in the service department of a local computer retailer to see if any data can be recovered using non-invasive, software means. If that fails I stand to be out quite a few bucks. . .

Update. . .

The technician just called me about my hard drive. He said he was able to recover about 75 to 80 percent of my data! I'll let you know what that really means once I get my hands on the data.

Last Update . . .

Well, I know that some data was not recoverable, but I can not remember what is missing. I'm very happy with the results, and it only cost me $64.00!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

My commute extends

Ugh. Boy was I wrong.

As I ranted about before in this space, Our daughter doesn't have a bus to ride to school this year. We decided that it would probably be best for me to drive her to school every day as my schedule is somewhat lest restrictive than my wifes.

What was I thinking!

It was with great confidence that I volunteered for this duty. I really didn't mind that it would add about 30 minutes to my commute, especially since fully half of it would be in an Anti-Rush direction. In fact, the route that I take from our place to her school is along a rather pleasant two lane riverside road most of the way. Despite it mostly being one lane in each direction, it has a very predictable traffic load, and even on snowy days, moves very well. The scenery along this route is also nice. Fall foliage, snowy boughs, frozen river sunrises . . . So that coupled with my love of driving seemed like a no brainer.

Right - I didn't use my brain at all. . .

Day one of our commute I thought I would take the expressway - 'cause being the first day, I really wanted to get D3 to school right when her before-care opened, and we were running a bit late. Mind you, a few years ago my office used to be in the city and this expressway route was my daily norm - so no big deal.

Yeah! Right! When did I start getting so tense when driving in rush hour freeway traffic? Where does that a-hole think he's going! HEY! Do you see me here?!!! SHI--!!

I decided that I would stick with the scenic route from day two on. So the next day, I happily headed for the road along the river. Traffic was very light and we were making good time.

I must have really blocked out some things from a few years ago. (I drove both kids to school for several years before we found out that there was a bus.) I forgot about this intersection up here where a second lane exists long enough for folks to race you for the single lane on the other side . . . Ditchers! Why can't they just wait in line like us normal folks?

We got to school with plenty of time to spare. So I headed back from whence I came and then towards the office.

Dang, that sun is right in my face! And where did all these crappy drivers come from? Is the freeway backed up or closed or something I missed hearing about? Why are they messing up my commute here on the scenic route?

My clock tells me I'm making excellent time . . .

What the . . .! Does red no longer mean stop? Holy mother of god! - Is my side of the double yellow line really that much more nicer than theirs?!!

Boy was I wrong . . .