viewSuch a little thing...
... in such a rough environment.
The picture at the top of this post was taken last Saturday morning, but it looks essentially the same today.
The thin black line seen in the lower part of the photo is the Google Fiber trunk cable laid above ground and stretching from one end of my block to the other. There is one just like it on the other side of the street.
Before the road work began last week, that trunk cable lay under the street, buried in a trench where the lighter colored horizontal line can be seen just beyond the curb in the picture. After the road work is completed the cable will be buried again in a new trench to be dug.
Until it's reburied this thin cable is intended to remain above ground, exposed to the elements and to all the road work and people passing by and cars driving over it 24 hours a day. And if it's damaged I lose connection to the Internet until the break is repaired.
GOD I'll be SO relieved when all this work is finished!!!
And the adventure continues.
Posted 09/Dec/2020 ~ 10:45 Central Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving
viewWhat's to do on a cold, rainy December day?
During this year of Covid, when I self quarantine anyway, a good option is to stay home where it's warm and dry, work on chess games, and watch college football. That's been my plan today and it's worked quite well.
A most pleasant surprise came late afternoon when I had a video chat with my daughter, son-in-law, and great-granddaughters. That was fun.
After the video chat it's back to football until Svengoolie later this evening.
And the adventure continues.
Posted 05/Dec/2020 ~ 18:10 Central Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving
viewBefore I get knocked off the Internet today....
... and I know that's going to happen, just don't know when or for how long, let me post this:
This will be a transition day of sorts, as I move away from what has become too much reliance on the Internet. Pen and paper will once again be my primary tools of choice; offline computer use will be a temporary staging area for my data (writing, pictures, etc.) before dumping selected and edited parts of that into "the Internet cloud" where it can also be stored and shared.
That short paragraph leads the Random thoughts: section of today's listed and logged post which will go online near the end of my day, (hopefully). And it signals a pretty major change in how I intend to do things going forward.
Before I could get this blog post online, I was knocked offline. Today's outage begins at ~09:15. I'll publish it as soon as I'm able. [/sigh]
Aaaand... the Internet is back at 16:15. But who knows for how long?
And so the adventure continues.
Posted 04/Dec/2020 ~ 16:20 Central Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Internet #options
viewExpect me to be offline...
... for significant periods of time from now until 18 December.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post a City of San Antonio road crew is in the process of tearing up, then resurfacing the street in front of my house.
Many of us who live along my street access the Internet via Google Fiber. And the Google Fiber comes to us via underground cables that are buried under the street. The crew tearing up the street are making no provision to protect those cables. They break the cables and we loose our connection to the Internet until the cable guys can come along behind them and fix what's been broken.
Yesterday's outage for me was two and a half hours in the early afternoon. Today's outage for me was three hours in the evening. I spoke briefly to the guys fixing my cable tonight and was told that I could expect similar outages on a daily basis until the City crew was done with their work. That's expected to be 18 December.
So... long story short: don't expect to see me online very often until their work is done. And if I'm not replying to you during that time, it's probably because I've been knocked offline.
And so the adventure continues.
Posted 03/Dec/2020 ~ 20:40 Central Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #Internet #offline
viewIn front of my house this morning...
... is seen one of the big fleet of trucks, scrapers, caterpillers, and other assorted machines that are busy moving up and down my street. The city is in the process of repaving here and, as those of you who have seen this done before know, that's quite an operation.
We've been told this work will continue until December 18. So things will be rather noisy and sometimes smelly around here until until then. And driving out of and into our driveway may sometimes be tricky. But watching this work from my front porch is an extra source of entertainment.
That work did have me frustrated for about 2 ½ hours today. The crew tearing up my street managed to break the Google Fiber cable buried under the pavement. I was without Internet for awhile and was... umm, let's just say I'm MUCH happier now!
And so the adventure continues.
Posted 02/Dec/2020 ~ 14:30 Central Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Wednesday #truck #Internet
view“Ah, the lemon lady!”
This morning while I was raking leaves in the front yard a neighbor who was out walking her dogs stopped on the sidewalk and we had a chat. As we were talking she asked if I liked lemons. “Sure,” I answered, “Sylvia uses them all the time in her cooking.” She explained that the lemon tree in her back yard had plenty of ready fruit and said she'd be happy to bring some over.
She and her dogs went on down the sidewalk and I got back to my raking. Looking up a short time later I saw her coming back with a small bag. ““Ah, the lemon lady!” I called out to her with a smile. She set the bag of lemons down on a small table we have on our front porch.
After finishing my yard work for the day I carried my tools around back and brought the fresh lemons inside, setting them on the dining room table (seen above) for Sylvia to see when she got home from work.
And the adventure continues.
Posted 01/Dec/2020 ~ 13:50 Central Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #lemons
viewWhile I was sleeping...
..it seems I won another Correspondence Chess game by the silent resignation of an opponent.
This game began back in mid-October when I pushed my White Queen's pawn to the d4 square. And it proceeded at a pretty good pace, considering we were playing with a 7-day per move time control. At a pretty good pace until my opponent chose to slink quietly away, without even a word, leaving me today with another won game.
In his defense it was clear the we were engaged in what was going to be a very long, frustrating endgame. Both our Kings had pawn clusters in which to hide, and we were nearly equal in terms of major pieces, though my lone Bishop did give me an advantage there.
If this game was played in the old days when our moves were sent back and forth via post cards, this particular endgame could easily stretch out through many long months, maybe a year or more. But now we play server=based games over the Internet for crying out loud. We could have knocked this game out inside a couple of months easy, even with our very relaxed time control.
Oh well, whatever...
The position of pieces at game's end is posted above, and our full move record is below:
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bf5 3.Nc3 e6 4.a3 Nf6 5.e3 Nc6 6.Bb5 a6 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.O-O Ne4 9.Nxe4 Bxe4 10.Nd2 c5 11.Nxe4 dxe4 12.c4 Be7 13.b4 cxb4 14.axb4 Bxb4 15.Qa4+ Qd7 16.Qxb4 a5 17.Qb7 O-O 18.Qxe4 f5 19.Qd3 c5 20.Ba3 Rfc8 21.h3 cxd4 22.Qxd4 Qxd4 23.exd4 Rxc4 24.Rfe1 Kf7 25.Rad1 Rd8 26.Bb2 a4 27.Ba3
1-0
And the adventure continues.
Posted 29/Nov/2020 ~ 08:40 Central Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #chess
viewNow on my desktop...
A brand new RaspberryPi 400 that was delivered during the 4th Quarter of this afternoon's IU vs. Maryland game.
It's been many years since I've used a Pi, but the setup of this device was super simple and using it seems very much like coming back home to a comfortable, friendly place.
This will become my primary computer for general home use. Heck, maybe it already has. Ha!
The adventure continues
Posted 28/Nov/2020 – 18:20 Local Time
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Saturday #computer
viewVirtual Thanksgiving Day 2020
Thank God for technology, and for big turkeys, too.
Sylvia and I spent a happy hour this morning video chatting with family a thousand miles away. None of us are able to travel due to Covid restrictions, but we were able to visit virtually. Watching the great grandkids play was so much fun, and it was nice to see everyone again.
Later today she and I will be sharing that scrumptuous turkey seen in the collage above. And this afternoon I'll be enjoying a footbal double-header. It WAS going to be a triple-header but the night game has had to be postponed until Sunday... due to Covid.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 26 November 2020, ~ 11:30 Central Time.
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #Thanksgiving
viewHappy Thanksgiving!
Here's wishing a happy Thanksgiving Day for all my family and friends.
And here's a tip to help make the day happier: TURN OFF THE NEWS! Seriously. It's mostly fake news, lies, and fear-mongering anyway, designed to keep you in a panic mode so you'll keep watching and listening (and watching those commercials).
As a former news junkie myself who is in the process of pulling away from that hubbub and hooplah, I find that the further away I get from it the happier and less stressd I am. There's no way to totally avoid it, of course, but a few minutes a day spent with reliable sources is all we need. It's all I need, anyway.
Much healthier for mind, body, and soul is focusing on little things, simple things. Smiling and waving to neighbors, listening to good music, reading, prayer, really relaxing.
I hope you all can find moments of simple happiness on this Thanksgiving Day. I know I will.
The adventure continues.
Published on 25 November 2020, ~ 20:45 Central Time.
#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Wednesday #Thanksgiving #happiness