Fall is such a great and beautiful time of year. Even though I live in a major metropolitan area, I am fortunate to be located in an older neighborhood that has lots of trees. I have been enjoying the color and the sunsets. Here are a few samples from a gallery called “Neighborhood Moods” in my photo album.
Category: Life in General
Lost Emails
Last night before going to work I noticed that I hadn’t got any email since about 1500. Not that I get that much email but it seemed a bit odd. This morning after work and early this afternoon when I got up, I still had no new mail. I checked my quota on my mail hosting service and had used less than half of my quota. I saw from my Gmail account that forwards mail to my hosting service that my forwards were getting rejected due to a full mail box.
Well that was puzzling. After contacting tech support, I found that I had not used up the physical capacity of my mail box but had reached the limit of the number of messages I could have in my mailbox, which was 3000. The tech kindly upped my quota to 6000.
I asked him what good the record of physical usage was if the quota was based both on that and the number of messages. He said that I had to monitor the number of messages in my account via webmail. I asked if there was any kind of alerting to let users know when they were nearing either quota and was told that there was not.
Thankfully, I am not trying to run a business using this email because the lost emails could cost me money. I think I would have to change hosting services were I to have a business dependent on email. I think that my hosting service needs to reconsider its approach.
Anyhow, I did not get email for about 24 hours starting yesterday at 1500 so I you sent me an email between then and now, please resend it.
Veterans Working on Veterans’ Day
I guess I will say this every year. What good is Veterans’ Day if veterans have to work? As a veteran of 10 years in the Navy, 7 of which I spent overseas, other than a slight preference in government hiring, I get nothing but pride. Wouldn’t it be a great thing if every veteran got Veterans’ Day off with pay? May we could all do volunteer work, give back to the community, or work with disabled veterans.
Enough said about that. Thanks to all those who served, fought, sacrificed, and died. You will always be remembered, valued and respect by me!
Back to Work, Starting the Night Shift
Well, I start week five of my new job tonight. I did two weeks of normal business hours, two weeks of days (0600-1400) and now I am starting nights (2200-0600). I am working Monday through Friday night this week. Next week I think I am on Sunday to Wednesday so I will only get one day off in between. Then I go to Saturday through Thursday nights for the foreseeable future.
I think that I will be working on Thanksgiving night but should still be able to enjoy the dinner prior to going to work. Since I will work Thanksgiving, I should get Christmas off. I do not know how long this schedule will be in place but I will deal with it in hopes of better things down the line.
Today is the tough day since it is my first night shift. I have been getting up reasonably early and today I was up at 0730. I will probably have been awake for nearly 24 hours by the time I get to sleep tomorrow morning. I feel confident that sleep will come easily. I never had much trouble sleeping during the day when I was shift working in the Navy. Of course I am 16 years older but….
I did get out and get a nice paddle in on Burke Lake and walk on the treadmill for about 35 minutes. I would like to get more walking in but am having problems with my left leg. What I believe is a pinched nerve or sciatica is causes alternating numbness and achiness when I stand up for too long and/or walk. Nonetheless it was a beautiful day albeit very windy and a bit chilly. Not chilly enough to keep me off the water though I did use my splash skirt.
Snotty Tears Run Down My Face
I am not quite sure why I rented “Marley and Me” through Netflix but it was not the best movie to watch less than three weeks after I put my my cat and friend of 19.5 years, Hamlet, to sleep. While it was a movie, and the circumstances were not exactly the same, there were many similarities in the downfall of Marley and of Hamlet. The loss of energy, the deterioration of vital organs, the look on their faces….
I felt a horrible deja vu as Owen Wilson said his goodbyes to Marley who laid helplessly on a table in the vet’s examining room. He made a decision, as did I, that it was better to put the dog down. I will wonder forever,why I thought I had the power. He held Marley close as I did Hamlet, thanked him for all the love and joy he had brought him and his family and wished him well in in the afterlife. He stayed close, as did I, as the doctor injected the death potion into the IV.
He caressed Marley…as I did Hamlet, as within less than twenty seconds, his eyes closed, the doctor checked for a heartbeat, and declared his friend of so many years dead. Except Hamlet’s eyes never closed and he twitched and occasionally expelled air from his lungs for five or six minutes after he was declared dead. If there is a kitty heaven, Hamlet deserves to be there.
I lingered for some time with him until I wondered what else I was supposed to do. What could I do? It was over. I still hope that I did the right thing. Sure it was only a movie, but as I think about Marley, helplessly lying in the cold and compare him to Hamlet helpless convulsing in a diabetic seizure, I think I did the right thing. Even so, I am not sure I will sleep too well tonight.
Why Can’t I Remember?
I had to put my cat to sleep less than 12 hours ago. I cannot even bring his face up in my mind now. Why is that? We were together for 19.5 years. How is it that I cannot see him now? Am I blinded by my tears?
Slow Dreams
I also dreamed last night that I was walking up a hill on a city street somewhere. It was one of those dreams in which no matter how hard you try, you can just barely make any progress walking. Symbolic of my job hunt perhaps? At some point I step off the curb into an open gutter filled with dead fish. A guy walking by asks me if I am on of those “homeless people.” I am dressed in business casual so I wouldn’t appear to be one of those “homeless people.” I try to explain this to people standing around me without much success. Symbolic of my future perhaps?
Fire Dreams
I dreamed last night that I was camping with friends at a place that seemed like it was near a friend’s house in Vermont from where we could see across Lake Champlain to the New York side. The weather was very dry and windy. We were worried as we watched wildfires break out in the hills across the lake. On our side some idiot had set up a “controlled” burn that had multi-colored flames that spelled out a “Happy Birthday” greeting to some named Jennifer.
Then on the news this morning I heard of a devastating fire in the town adjacent to mine. Apparently, three homes were totally destroyed and five were damaged. Fire departments from three counties responded. I wonder if I heard sirens that sparked (pun intended) my dream.
Pictures of My New Apartment
It is still a work in progress. Hamlet getting fleas didn’t help things.
Fleas’d Again?
Not really again but… My cat got fleas, I believe since we moved into the new apartment, which really chaps me. The place looked in great shape, freshly painted with new carpet. My vet, who charged me $66 to deflea my cat (I guess I was fleeced again…) said that all kinds of people from my apartment complex come in there with flea problems…on their pets that is.
So Hamlet got dipped and I sprayed the apartment. I should have bombed but am still in the process of putting things away and the bombing just sounded to onerous. Apparently I will know within 21 days, the gestation period for the eggs, whether or not the debugging process worked.