August 2004 Notebook Entries

Notebook entry, August 30, 2004

Well, I'm in California now spending time with my daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law, and grandson-in-law. The distraction of playing with my granddaughter is proving to be a major one (how can playing with your future genes be considered a distraction?) and find that after three days, this is the only writing that I have created. Well, that's not entirely true; I'm creating a large personal video collection of Robin, Michala, Randy, and Kyle. So, what!!! Evolution took billions of years to evolve, and not having me comment on it's state and condition to the common people can wait a few days. Trust me, Mother Nature will not miss my thoughts and comments as it evolves.

Notebook entry, August 26, 2004.

Received an email from Griet in Belgium telling me that someone told her that I was placing our email (less her personal entries) and that she wanted them removed. I told her that information was correct, that I did the listing as mainly as a convenient method of archiving. I also wrote that I realized that I should have asked her permission first and begged her forgiveness. I told her to blame my lack of social skills on the error of my ways.

I removed the emails from this notebook section and printing them out into a hard copy. They will remain as part of my hard copy archives.

Notebook entry, August 19, 2004

Well, here it is, more than two weeks from my last entry, and I have to report that little progress is being made with my studies and writing. Besides the ignoble task of reporting to work at my day job for 42 hours a week, I now have workmen tearing down walls and rewiring electrical circuits in the new house. This has been going on since July 18th. Today, I have someone installing a garage door opener, and one guy working down stairs finishing on the furnace and air conditioner. I was looking forward to the end of all this construction and longing for quite days off to focus on writing -- but now my dear wife, Diana has informed me that she wants more light in the living room and wants to tear out the south wall and put in a bay window. Perhaps, I would not object if the southern view were of a beautiful mountain or ocean view and because it would add value to the house, but the across the street on the south, some poor bastard has decided to open a auto repair shop on his lawn and currently there are four old and decaying autos attempting to be repaired. Diana tells me that a nice curtain will hide the ugliness. Since we are closing on the condo on August 23rd and we will have some spare change in our pockets and for the first time in a long time, I am begriming to think that my wife has begun to lose her good common senses. She will not budge, and I can't seem to convince her to try alternatives such as a tubular skylight. I will try to plead my case with her daughter and see where that leads us.

On another note, I want to apologize to anyone who may have been reading my archived notebook entries. I seem to be missing at least four or five entries. I believe that was because I was in a hurry; I was tired, and did not double check my work. Working in this electrical medium is really cool, but making stupid mistakes like that makes me realize that they is no way to retrieve the work. They have been zapped into thin air and will not return. I promise never to rush my efforts again; haste does make waste.

Notebook entry, August 2nd, 2004

Well, I survived the return to work just fine, but the aches and pains of middle age are creeping up on me and it seems harder and harder to recover from each return. I do take the anti-inflammatory drug, Naproxen for my lower back, but it is only a matter of time before the degenerative disk disease takes command of my life. Oh well, I suppose it is nature's way of getting rid of the old and useless flesh and replacing it with newer recruits. My mind however, is sharper then ever, and can't wait for retirement to spend more time on study and writing.

The replacement of the furnace is almost done -- or at least the hard part of tearing apart the old ceiling and replacing the old air ducts with new ones -- and soon the specialist will start on the installation of the air conditioner. The final cost has yet to be determined. Pray for me.

Received a nice, chatty email from Griet about the HBES conference in Berlin