Average Tuesday

Ah good day everyone!

I hope that you are doing well and that you are safe. There has been some recent pandemonium with people protesting stay at home orders (here in the US). I know people are eager to get back to work and to a state of normal. That will happen eventually. I know that I am fortunate in that I can work from home. I do feel for those people who don’t have the same ability and have no income. I’ve been in a situation where I had no job, little money and a ton of debt. It’s scary. Creditors are more understanding right now given the pandemic vs when I was unemployed and life for the rest of the world was normal. We will get through this, somehow, someway. Just stay strong and have faith.

I got a call late this morning from my co-worker who told me that his dog (who has heart problems, like Momma had) was rushed to the emergency vet last night. He is running on very little sleep as it was a long night. Things sound rocky but the dog is stable as of the last update I got. It sounds like they are getting closer to the end but that they might have a little more time left. The dog had fluid on her lungs and breathing was way off. They used Lasix to get the fluid out and placed the dog on Oxygen for the night. I hope that things turn the corner here and they get to spend a little bit more time with their furry friend before the end is near. It’s all about quality of life and it sound like there is still some left. The blood work came back and the dog’s kidneys are in great shape, so that is a plus for them.

Just talking with him brought back a flood of memories for me. I know what he is going through, the rollercoaster of emotions. He is fortunate that he has his wife to lean on but the loss will still be difficult (when it happens). You hold your breath and can never exhale until the ride is over. I feel really bad for my colleague and hope that things work out for the best.

On a different note, I have been tweaking and fine tuning my NextDNS account. I realized that I could move my logs from the US to Switzerland so I did that. Unfortunately, I lost what I had collected but it did start over. The advantage of this is for privacy reasons. I truly have nothing to hide but if given the option of more/better privacy protection I would be a fool to not use it. I had added most of the block lists available and that caused me some problems on my mobile device. I couldn’t get the Facebook and Amazon apps to work properly, but once I saw what was blocked and opened it up, all is back to normal. I’ve tested it multiple times and it works fine.

Speaking of computers, Sunday night I ran into a snag where my audio playback on my computer had some interference and was clipping. I ripped the speakers and sound system cables out and put them back one by one. It was a process that took about an hour to sort out and of course what fixed it? You bet it was a reboot. Fuck I was mad but at least glad that I didn’t have to listen to the horrible audio. My late spouse bought me a Bose Speaker System for my computer and the sound is incredible. Once you hear good audio you don’t want to go back. This system even though it’s old really brings the music alive at least to my old ears. This morning when I sat down and started listening to music, I noticed I had a similar problem and rebooted, presto issue resolved. Hopefully my sound card isn’t getting ready to bite the dust.

Music is very important to me not only now with the whole stay at home order but in general. It brings me comfort and also sooths the soul. I listen to a wide variety of things but mostly pop music. When I am in the office it’s all instrumental. I’ve been looking at a new computer in general just to price things out and as before you can really spend a lot depending upon what you’re looking for. I saw some high-end systems at Dell and without monitors they were expensive. Throw in new monitors and you have an even bigger bill. I’m content with what I have so long as it continues to operate. I do my best to take care of it and keep it updated. Say what you will but I think Windows 10 has helped smooth out a lot of the flaws that Windows had and it just keeps getting better, at least for me.

I saved my TV from last night and opted instead to play with YouTube via my Roku. I listened to a couple coming out stories and then got focused on one of my favorite comedians, Louis Black. He’s a funny guy but if you have little ones around, they shouldn’t listen to him because he loves to cuss and for some of us that is one of our only outlets to express frustration.

Life is moving along, nothing major to report at the moment. We’re going to have a company wide meeting next week and that should be fun. I like them so long as no one is delivering any bad news. It’s also interesting to see people in their home environments. Best news of all is that my hair is growing back really fast so no one will ever be the wiser that I shaved my head, unless I tell them. I’m not near haircut territory yet but in a couple more weeks that will probably change.

Take care and be well. I will talk with you all again. Stay safe!