Boat Names

One night Bud and I sat around talking about names for our next big boat. He is going to have one called s/v Spastic. My cruising catamaran will be Gullible and our blog, of course, will be called Gullible's Travels. My little dingy will be Gatsby. My sad boat will be Meloncholia, my mad boat will be Malcontent. My boat to relax on will be called No Karoshi. I am going to need a lot of boats.

Scammed by Home Depot?

In early June I needed a new water heater, and fast. The old one was leaking from the tank and the water was seeping into the downstairs hallway and who knows where else, so Project Water Heater became a sudden priority. I really wanted to buy a state-of-the-art, super high efficiency water heater, but found out they don't exist, at least for those of us who don't have natural gas. There were some very expensive "heat pump" electric water heaters but after some research it seemed those were prone to failure--adding electronics to the mix sometimes just means more to go wrong! So the sad fact was that the only reasonable choice was to purchase another water heater that was essentially the same (maybe even identical) to the one that had failed. I'd never replaced a hot water heater myself. I didn't like the idea of soldering the copper pipes, so I decided I would just bite the bullet and get the heater installed professionally. We'd had decent luck with Home Depot in the past, so I called their 1-800 number and talked to a sales person sometime before 9:00 AM. I purchased a nine year water heater and was told it would be installed that day.They gave me a total price over the phone of around $900, which seemed high, but I made the stupid mistake of not getting the details. Of course the installer never called, never showed up...and the day got later. Around 3:00 PM I called and was told I was next on the list and the guy would call me soon. At 7:00 PM he called to say he would be there soon and around 8:00 PM he showed up. First problem: it was a six year water heater, but I was charged for a nine year. The guy said I was getting an extended warranty, so I thought perhaps it wasn't a big deal. Besides, I needed hot water and it was getting late in the evening. He finished the install around 10:00 PM (getting past my bedtime!) and I signed for it. The job was not done particularly well (the soldering was ugly, the expansion tank was in a bad spot, the overflow pipe ran down the back so it would dump water on the wall) but I was tired. I asked for the invoice and warranty information; he said it would be mailed to me. Two weeks later I had not gotten anything in the mail so I had to go down to the Hixson Home Depot and get a receipt. Here's what I found: (1) I had paid $399 for a 9 year heater but got a $270 six year heater. (2) I had been charged a $75 "restricted access fee" when in fact my water heater just sits against an open wall. (3) I had been charged $60 for the extended warranty, which I had never agreed to buy. The manager at Home Depot agreed to give me credit for all of the above but it really makes me wonder: with all the mistakes that were made, could this have been intentional? Was I scammed by Home Depot?

Going Anonymous

Yesterday, my former boss (because I quit during the meeting, but don't worry, that was just one of my jobs) was questioning my credentials and asked me if I had ever created any web pages. Only since 1995, I told her. How could she not know that? But then I was looking at the google stats on my home, which showed five visits last month. Bloody hell, I'm sure I probably hit my own site four or five times myself, so it's entirely possible that not one person in the world (except me, of course) visited my site last month. Meanwhile, my daughter has a YouTube video with (as of this morning) 37,315 views. Go figure.

The Big Loop (repost from Fitness Blog)

One of the benchmarks of my youth (okay, my early 40's) was riding the 14.6 "big loop" (officially known as Trail 301) at Fort Mountain State Park in northern Georgia. Actually, I had never ridden the entire loop in one day, but instead tended to take a shortcut by pushing my bike up the impossibly steep Trail 302 to get back to the campground. The 301 Loop is one of the rougher mountain bike trails around; in fact, on my first ride around it, I had declared the downhill section below the Firetower (where the trail goes pretty much straight downhill on loose dirt and rock along a powerline cut) to be "not rideable." On my second attempt, as Jerry Patten and I were struggling to walk our bikes down the slope, we were amazed to be passed by a couple of high-tech riders using newfangled hydraulic disc brakes. A decade or so had gone by, the trails had surely weathered, and I was now riding a most excellent full suspension Gary Fisher 29er with (you guessed it) hydraulic brakes. How would I fare? I set out at 10:30 AM this past Saturday to find out, leaving the campground and proceeding up the paved road past the dam about a half mile until the 301 crossed. Right away, I hit rocks and a steep climb. Jeepers! I rode the downhill successfully, but my forearms were aching from riding those brakes. I made almost halfway around to the point of the mountain before hitting the first hill that I absolutely could not ride up. Too steep and slippery! So much for a "clean" ride, but it didn't matter, because after I continued on past the 302 shortcut, intending to make the full loop, I started encountering (1) more impossible steep and rocky hills and (2) stinging nettle that forced me to walk so I could use the bike wheels to open a path in front of me. A decade ago, before we had experienced real mountain bike trails, we could put up with this stuff, but the lure of riding eroded double-track has faded. There are no doubt humans who could make the loop without pushing, but they will either be Olympic material or honest to God cyborgs. Lots of pushing later, I arrived back in the campground drenched in sweat (despite fairly cool temperatures) after 3 hours and forty minutes. I was pretty much exhausted. I took Sunday and Monday off but yesterday (Tuesday) I got up and ran my usual 3.5 mile route to White Oak Park and back in just under 29 minutes without ever breathing hard. It rained on me a bit, but not enough to get me wet. Jeepers, I'm done with the 301.

Playing with Google Maps

Link to the spot where I lost my jeep for about four days in 1979:

http://g.co/maps/q5fru

For lack of a $20 comealong, I almost lost the jeep for good. We got it out a day or two before the creek rose ten feet.

What, I'm still here?

Today while waiting for the legendary Michael Torres to come train with me, I ran a mile in under eight minutes without trying very hard. For an old timer like me, I hope that's not bad.

I hereby submit that the "Proof of Nines" does not instill a fascination with numbers in children of any age. And that's all I have to say about that.

Changing web hosts is hard to do

Isn't that an old song title? Anyway, just needed to vent about the terrible customer service I've been receiving from aplus.com. They've hosted my www.statonr.org site (and personal e-mail) for well over a decade, but this year when the autorenew messages started arriving, I began wondering why I was still paying them twice what godaddy would charge. Checked their site and they had lowered their prices to be more competitive--except it appeared that they were going to keep charging "legacy" customers like me the same old rate: double! So I e-mailed their billing department and asked them to confirm what my rate would be. When they did not respond in 24 hours as promised, I e-mailed them again. After a couple more days without a response, I decided that was it and I was switching to godaddy. E-mailed aplus technical support for an authorization code to switch the domain. Two days later, I finally got a response telling me to e-mail or call their DNS department. What? Does one department there not even speak to another? Finally I called and got the auth code, but now I'm still stuck because I don't know how to "accept" the transfer and have to wait five days.. Meanwhile, aplus billed me for another year of domain registration. Of course I e-mail billing again, and have gotten no response, which shouldn't surprise me since they haven't responded to the first e-mails sent over a week ago.

Aplus has the worst customer service I've ever encountered. I should have left them years ago!

The Good Life

As difficult as technology can be, I have to admit that for the most part these computers work pretty well on my behalf these days. Business at PC Liferaft is good, the job at UTC is smoothing out as I adapt to its boundaries, and despite weeks of rainy weather I can see clear skies ahead.

Doggone Flash driving me nuts.

Thought I had my little Flash intro playing nicely on the PC Liferaft website, and then it started getting weird on me, working sometimes, not others. Had to take out some cool code I had snagged that paused the timeline, and that fixed most of the issues, but there's still something wrong with the swobject.js (I'm guessing) that won't allow Firefox to play my little video. It works in I.E. and Chrome.

No time left to struggle with it tonight!

PC Liferaft is the new thing

First I was too busy fixing computers to work on the website. Then I was busy working on the website but broke because there were no computers to fix. Now, on the advice of my spouse, I am officially announcing the birth of www.pcliferaft.com. I still want to do a lot of work on the site to make it look prettier, but I suppose it's good enough for tonight.

To be honest, the humble venture known as pcLiferaft LLC is the most exciting thing I've done since we got back from our cruise. As a small business owner (ahem!), I now have a new perspective on big government, bailouts, and taxes! I'm happy to pay them, of course! (applause from crowd.) But seriously, folks, it costs a bit to set up a new business, so when you encounter people with broken computers, send 'em my way. We'll fix 'em and keep 'em smiling, as they used to say.

The New Thing

The new thing is a computer repair business, to be called PC Liferaft. We now have an address (711 Mountain Creek Road #151, Chattanooga, TN 37405) and a phone number (423-208-9695). There are lots of forms to be filed with the state, county, and city. There is an entire website to be built, with information yet to be decided upon, policies and prices to be dtermined. There will be business license fees, sales taxes, excise taxes, and more taxes to be paid to every possible arm of government.

But as the saying goes, nothing difficult is ever easily accomplished.

Surrounded by Rhus Radicans!

Brady and I made another hot but pleasantly philosophical hike today, this time up the Whiteside Road trail on Lookout, starting from Ochs Highway just above St. Elmo. The Whiteside trail follows an old roadbed dating back to the 1850's. Above the picnic area on Sanders Road, we reached our objective: the "billboard rock," which advertised the hotel at the top of the mountain to weary travelers. The black paint was still there, but mostly covered by moss. Fifteen years ago I knew what the words were, but I couldn't remember even with the clues there in front of me.

After scouting the rock for climbing possibilities, Brady continued up the old road, which was now parallel to Scenic Highway. The poison ivy, which had been bad, got worse. I was in shorts and running shoes, legs bare, picking my way along. All at once I reached the end: blocked by poison ahead. Behind me, the poison had closed the gap, and seemed to be creeping in from the sides as well even as I stood there, frozen like a man on ledge. Trapped! I imagined I could feel the deadly urushiol oil in the air...did I dare even to breathe?

I have a theory that rubbing alcohol will keep the urushiol from binding with the skin. Once it binds, my body's t-cells will mistake it for a toxic invader, and the allergic reaction will run wild.

Did my skin touch the ivy? Will the drinking water I poured over my legs wash away the oil? Will the rubbing alcohol used at the truck prevent binding? Stay tuned! We'll know in about 24 hours.

Pleasant Hiking

And now for something completely different. No, I shall NOT spend my time here blubbering about my lack of a meaningful job, speaking of which....

Ahem. Today I hiked the 3.5 mile Point Pot Loop in the Tennessee River Gorge with my friend Brady, and it was a very interesting walk. The trail allegedly climbs 1,000 feet from the Tennessee River to Laurel Point, but Brady and I doubt that figure. It was an easy climb for the most part, leading to a wonderful rock city with the real bluffs still above us. A nice winter day when the poison ivy, serpents, and spiders were all gone would be a great time to visit this spot, and perhaps to scale the rest of the mountain, but today we headed down the jeep road that provided the descent back to the river. It was a long walk through the thick woods and weeds to the Point Pot House, where had begun, with memorable stretches of mud and waist-high weeds. Again, winter might be the time to visit.

We washed the mud (and any chiggers, I hope!) in a handy stream before speeding off into the sunset.

Tough Times at the Office

I have not been enjoying my job lately. What is my job? I thought it was to help faculty and students make the most of technology, but some faculty don't seem to think much of that idea. I have never felt less appreciated for the work I've done and more powerless to make a positive difference.

Posted tonight to the UTCSTAFF Yahoo List

I could not resist. After a dozen people wrote in complaining (on principle, not because they were personally affected) about the State of Tennessee imposing a $50/month health insurance surcharge, I wanted to be the first to correct their thinking. Ha! Yeah, I'm just that dumb.

***My humble post***

With all the issues that this campus faces, it's a small change in health insurance that has generated so much outrage on the normally all-too-quiet mailing list...and so it is my distinct honor to cast the sole dissenting vote.

I am in favor of the tobacco use surcharge!

It seems that in seeking to reduce health costs the state had a choice: either raise everyone's rates, or just raise the rates on people who choose to smoke and therefore have poorer health. Then use some of that revenue to fund a long overdue program of assistance to help people quit the very same deadly habit. Makes sense to me!

This is not the holocaust, and the analogies comparing it to such are inappropriate. No one is telling people they can't smoke. You have same the choice to smoke or not that you've had since you became an adult. Most or all of the rhetoric we've heard so far would have us believe that if we allow this surcharge to stand, Big Brother will soon have cameras in every bedroom, take away all our guns, reinstate prohibition, and eventually execute everyone who doesn't meet government standards of theology and geometry. Calm down, folks. Auto, life, and (gasp!) health insurance companies have been charging groups different rates based on risk factors for as long as I can remember and the world hasn't ended yet. If you honestly think that a well-intentioned plan to help employees live longer and healthier lives is in fact an evil plot to whittle away your freedoms, perhaps a University is not the institution where you should spend your time.

I have friends who smoke, and I support their right to do so as long as it doesn't harm someone else. But they ought to quit, and every one of them knows it. Smoking is bad. Discouraging smoking (while allowing the freedom to choose to smoke) is good! What more is there to say?

Why I Like Traffic Cameras

The people who get up in arms about traffic cameras are usually (not always, but usually) the ones who were caught by those cameras. They ought to be thankful it was the camera who caught them, since they pay only a small $50 fine and nothing goes on their record. Me, I'm sick of people who zoom along our little roads at high speeds, and I'm scared sick of somebody t-boning into me at an intersection when they deliberately try to push the limits and end up running a red light. (Note: If I had the power I would confiscate the motorcycles from the idiots who do 140 MPH on 153 and pop wheelies in traffic. My friend El Torro says they only kill themselves, but you tell me what will happen when a 500 pound motorcycle comes head-on through my windshield at 140 MPH. Or talk to the lady who was killed by a 19-year-old doing a wheelie across Market Street Bridge.)

One guy was mad because it was his teenage son speeding in his car, and yet he had to pay the ticket. He finds out his son is driving irresponsibly, and he's mad at the city, not at his son!

Traffic cameras prevent accidents and save lives. Traffic cameras generate revenue for the city. Traffic cameras punish the guilty. The problem for the guilty is that the cameras do it so efficiently, so perfectly, without risking the lives of our public servants, that if you break the law you'll pay a penalty for it, every time. Perhaps eventually you'll be persuaded to stop breaking the law. Are you telling me that's a bad thing?

If you don't think people should drive the speed limit or stop at red lights, work to change the laws. Don't get angry at the police officer or traffic camera--does it really matter which one caught you?--who did their duty and wrote a ticket.

What is Wrong Here?

I don't understand why everyone in Chattanooga is sick all the time, especially me. When we lived on the boat, we were happy and healthy. We came back to Chattanooga, and suddenly we're facing headaches, sinus infections, and chronic insomnia.

The late and beloved Forrest Cantrell always called it "the creeping crud," that raspy throat and tight cough that everyone in my household has been living with since November. I can count the days I've felt well--really well, as in "I feel like going mountain biking or hiking!"--since Thanksgiving on one finger. Every few weeks we go get antibiotics and get better for a while, but pretty soon we're back in Marlboro Country.

Maybe we can survive until the seasons finish changing, and summer burns all the germs and allergens into oblivion. Until then, I might as well buy stock in Rite Aid because I'm giving them half my paycheck anyway.

How Not to Install a Garage Door Opener

Here is a partial list of all the ways you can maximize the fun of replacing a garage door opener.

First, order the exact same model as you are replacing because you think you can just bolt the motor unit in place and be done in less than five minutes. That won't work, because the design will have changed just enough to make the new unit incompatible. Of course you could have simply replaced the faulty circuit board in the old opener, but that would have cost $80, which is far less than a whole new opener, but too much money for one little board. So yes, definitely stick to the higher ground and buy the whole kit and kaboodle.

Be sure not to read the instructions that say you have to put the rounded bolts on one side the track, and the flat bolts on the other. And please do NOT pay any heed to the warnings about removing that plastic tie wrap on the gear, because what harm could that do...unless perhaps it allowed you to rotate the chain and get the entire system out of whack so that the motor was trying to open a door that was already open. Finally, be absolutely sure that you do NOT check that the chain is on the sprocket before bolting the motor and track back into place. This way you'll get to take the entire shabang back down again to thread and tighten the chain after you just spent 20 minutes getting it bolted in place.

I you are careful to follow all of the steps above in just the right order, you can make what would have been a thirty minute job into an entire day of installing, uninstalling, installing, uninstalling, and finally collapsing in exhaustion.

One final hint: if you have been typing for five minutes on a post as I have, and then by some inexplicable combination of keystrokes manage to highlight everything you've typed and delete it in one stroke, try Control-Z. That much, to my amazement, worked.

Okay, I give up, the Mac is better!

So you make one mistake (buying a PC instead of a Mac) and you end up paying dearly. Took delivery of a new desktop PC today and Microsoft was so thrilled that I had a non-pirated copy of Windows XP that they offered a free download of Media Player 11. Not sure why I agreed to that, but I did (maybe because I thought it might include an actual codec that would one to watch DVDs--imagine that!--using something called "media player"). Suddenly Roxio Update started popping up every two minutes, asking for a CD that Dell didn't send me, and so I started googling and trying various fixes and the box hadn't popped up for a long time so I thought I'd start the LONG install of Adobe CS3. I was on DVD #4 when the Roxio box popped up and evidently killed my installation.

Say what you will, pay what you will, but this would never happen on a Mac.