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!

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 . . .

As September 11th Approaches . . .

I learned something important about myself the other day. The events of 9/11/01 still have a very dramatic effect on me.

We happened to turn to a National Geographic Channel program about the events of that fateful day and over the course of the show I found myself growing very Angry.

Anger they say is just other emotions expressed in a way that feels less vulnerable to us - even though it's really when we are most vulnerable because we are not in control or being honest with ourselves about the true emotions we are experiencing.

Well my frustration, horror, pride, empathy, and sadness over the events of that day (emotions I recognize now) combined into a rumbling mass that roared out of me as anger - Right at my poor wife.

I guess I'm not over 9/11 - but watching shows about it is for me.

Another Facet of Fatherhood

Yesterday I found myself first in line in a left turn lane from a residential street onto a very busy main thoroughfare. Despite the busy cross street, there is no left turn light so one must await oncoming traffic when the light turns green.

Fortunately there are crosswalks and functioning walk lights at this particular intersection, for on the corner was a preteen girl very impatiently waiting to cross that very busy street. (She repeatedly leaned hard on the button making it obvious she was not wanting to wait.)

She would be crossing in the same direction I was facing, and so I would cross her path as I turned left. I found myself worrying for this child's safety. Would any traffic coming at me from the opposite side and turning right see her? I was happy when, probably for the first time that I've observed, no cars came up on the straight/right lane towards us. When the light changed, I pulled out into the intersection and turned ever so slightly left so as to see around the opposite left turning traffic. And as I expected, the child hesitated, started across the street, hesitated again, then broke out in a dead run for the far side.

I knew that It was a good thing I was there, for I was sure that the dude in the BMW behind me yapping on the phone probably would have zipped on around the corner - he very nearly ran me over when I stopped - and could have run the girl over. At the very least scared her as he crossed right in front of her. . .

Thing is, before I had my own kids, I probably would have zipped around the corner myself. Being a father has really opened my eyes to the phrase "It takes a village. . ."

Bathroom humor of a different kind.

- OK, if you don't like to read about gross bathroom stuff, you may not want to continue reading this post. -

The office building where I work is relatively new, maybe not even 10 years old. I've been working in it for just over two years and have hated the men's rest-rooms since day one.

It's not because they are too small, or too busy or too far away. They're not even all that dirty usually. It's because of something that was decided long before the building first became occupied. Something that no one who works there is responsible for, nothing that the architect or plumbers who worked on the building can be blamed for, Heck, even the person who chose the fixtures can not be blamed fully for this abomination. The fault lies wholly on whatever idiot it was at @meric@n St@nd@rd who designed the urinals we're now stuck with!. These urinals suck!

There is one simple reason for my intense dislike: Flat Surfaces. That's it. Be they horizontal or vertical, flat surfaces in a urinal are splash inducing, embarrassing trouser spot creating, puddle on the floor causing, shoe dampening. neatness preventing crimes against male peers everywhere!

OK, you ladies who might be reading this may not get the full understanding of why flat surfaces are such a problem - You see, Instead of wide, flat horizontal and vertical pieces joined by too small curves, there needs to be a nice big, gentle curve to aim at, and a nicely angled-in edge around the front of the bowl to properly deflect drips. Even flat walls in the back that are angled toward the center are better than a flat back wall. All of the curves and appropriate angles allow for splash free peeing, and helps those stray drips find their way into the bowl rather than all over your pants leg or on the floor. The results of flat surfaces on a urinal lead to a situation kinda like this: Imagine walking into your bathroom at home and finding that one of the males in the household didn't put the seat up when they peed and left you a wet seat. You're faced with grossness you have to clean up before you can go. Well, guys get grossed out at the pee all over the flat surfaces of the urinals and on the floor too. But we don't really have a way to clean up first: There's no such thing as a toilet paper holder for the urinals - heck, I doubt you could flush any paper down a urinal to start with - Anyway, we just stand back a little farther then we should, and end up contributing to the mess.

I wonder if that idiot at @meric@n St@nd@rd was a practical joker - Or just clueless?

Sometimes You Can Call 'em . . .But Often You're Way Off Base

Our son finally received his first paycheck yesterday! You may recall that it was a month ago when I first reported the momentous occasion when he got the job.

There evidentially was some kind of SNAFU at the main office. The trouble his supervisor had to go through was extensive - I'm really glad for our son's sake that she's someone that will go to bat for her employees - she even "threatened" to go downtown to the home office to try and pry the check from the bureaucracy herself! All I can say is it's a good thing he wasn't depending on that check to pay bills last month!

Anyway, when he opened the check it was not at all like what I had imagined. It went something like this:

D1: Walks in the door - "Hi dad!"
Me: "Hey!" "You got some mail today." Thinking he would immediately know what I meant.
D1: "More college stuff?"
Me: (A tad surprised he didn't get the hint) "Yeah, there's some of that"
D1 "Oh! Did I get my paycheck?" Finds the envelope and opens it. "Wow!"
Me: "Heh heh!"
D1: "The Government didn't get all that much!"
Me: (Incredulous) "Huh?" "What?"

That's not at all what I expected him to say. Maybe we had over prepared him for the effect taxes would have on his pay. . . Oh well. I guess he's happier this way.

Our Tax Dollars at Work

We recently became aware, quite by accident, that our local school district has radically changed their bus routes on us. With frustration and dismay we learned that D1 will no longer be picked up in front of our house - his bus will make a stop instead at the middle school over 8 blocks away - and D3 now has no bus to ride at all!

OK, so our kids do attend private schools some distance out of our local school district, and we were fortunate that they ever had bus rides at all. But the manner in which these changes were communicated leaves much to be desired. Well, actually everything to be desired - they never told us!

It was my wife who discovered the mess. Because she is such the consummate scheduler, she contacted our school district's transportation office more than a month ago to ask how soon we could hope to learn what the bus schedule might be for the upcoming school year. The courteous yet unhelpful government employee at the other end of the phone seemed to think that there were no buses for us this year, and if so we should have received a communication stating as such by now. A transferred phone call later, and the news was mostly confirmed: No bus for D3, and a really ugly schedule for D1. Also, we were promised a copy of the communication as we apparently had somehow not receive it as we should have.

This really got my wife in a lather - and boy did I hear about it! Now, I can be just as hot headed as she, but most of the time I jump into problem solving mode and effectively bypass the emotional responses she so often has. This was the case here - and as usual, that was also the wrong response on my part, for she just thought I was being insensitive.. . . Anyway, that's another story.

So I decided I would relieve her of the frustration and run the gauntlet myself to find out what I could do to get to the bottom of this fiasco, and to make the situation as workable as possible. I'll spare you the ugly details, but suffice it to say it took several phone calls to learn the following:

• Communications about the bus changes were e-mailed to the Schools affected, not the families affected.
• The principal at D1s school (who answered her own phone when I called - I like that!) said she remembered forwarding the mail to one of her secretaries - who never contacted us, as the assumption was that they were only being copied as a curtesey. They believed we would have been contacted directly. (As we should have!)
  
• There were not enough kids on the route to D3s school and so it was cut to save money. This despite the fact that we just voted in a tax increase for the school district.
• Because there is no school bus alternitive, we can apply for a credit from the state to offset our additional expenses due to having to drive our daughter to school.
  
• Before school care for D3 is 20 dollars a week. This is at her school - and there was an opening - thank goodness.
  
• D1s bus route has been combined with another route to his school. Due to state laws limiting the amount of time children may be on a bus, there would be centralized pickup locations so the route would be quick enough to conform to the law. D1 would have to be at the centralized location - 8 blocks away- at 6:50 AM
• It's too late for D1 to apply for an assigned parking spot at school. As a Junior he probably would not have received one anyway without a carpool arrangement. I called the teacher in charge of the parking spot assignments to see what could be done - my message has yet to be returned.

Such a shining example of our local school district's bureaucracy.

We have yet to iron out a final transportation schedule but it looks like we are back in the school transportation business for a while. . .