A House Full of Addicts

That’s me, a computer addict. Addicted to my computer. That is not the worst of it, I addicted Ginny to it too and have now have Marty addicted.

It all started 40 years ago. When I went to work for a computerized tax processing company. Back when everything was entered in the computer by using keypunch cards. Do you even know what that is? Everything was punched into cards, verified by someone else, then sorted into order on a card reader so that the information on the cards could be understood by a computer to process it. Provided it wasn’t too complicated. I’m talking, pre spreadsheets programs, Excel, Access, and almost anything else we take for granted today.

At the time, all our room full of equipment was good for was to read the cards, transfer the information to a plastic tape, so we could send the tape to Stanford University for actual processing. Then back to us to print out the results that had to be manually sorted to finish a tax return. It was high tech at the time. It fascinated me how those little bits of holes ended in finished printed tax returns. That was really fascinating.

I worked there for a little over 5 years and after the end of my first marriage, I tried selling real estate. Boy, I really could have used a computer then. Looking up properties in a book or on 4”x6”cards for everything requested for a property. Real manual job to find a property to show a client.

Two years later after my second marriage, my new bride (Ginny) and I went trucking. I sure could have used a laptop then. Too bad, no one had thought of it yet. That was back in ‘78

By 1980 Radio Shack had TRS 80s (Trash80s) available, all 32K of it. We paid $3,200 for one with a dot matrix printer. We had entered the computer age. I would spend all night writing simple programs, like adding columns of numbers and printing out a list. Boy!! Was I a computer wiz kid!! Ginny would not even look at that ‘damn machine’. Waste of time to her. That was about her attitude for the next 10 years and several up graded computers later. Until she was forced to work on one by her employer. They changed their word processing to a computer, because it saved time and money. They could have gotten just a word processor, but thought that maybe they would find another use for the computer. Ginny just stayed with the word processing.

By that time I was off on the new thing, the Internet. Up all night. Again, online. According to Ginny, ‘Damn waste of time’. Until, she got laid off and was home for a few days. I would go to work, Ginny would be online, I would come home after work and she had barely moved. She was hooked. By the end of the week she had a business going and knew people all around the world. Another junkie in the making.

That was back in the early ‘90s. Since then, computers have improved and the Internet has grown and we have had an on-again-off-again relationship. Ginny has written her book after her bout with the big “C” and spends most days writing emails or playing on Pogo. Now that I am retired, I spend most of my day on line. Designing sites and trying to find away to make a few bucks. Oh! And occasionally writing this blog.

One of the first things I did when I retired was to enlarge the computer room. It now takes up about a third of our abode. Ginny has her corner and I have mine. Almost, back to back. Together but a part. Her doing her thing and I’m doing mine. We still have not gotten to the point of emailing each other to break for lunch or anything like that. We still can talk.

Marty spends his time when not patrolling the neighborhood, laying next to one of us while we are staring at the screen and making funny movements with our fingers. He does supervise the entries into his blog, being his paws don’t fit the keyboard. He seems addicted too.

We have a folding table that we use for our breakfast, lunch, dinner, game table and other stuff that calls for a level surface. It goes up and down several times a day, and Marty leave every time we do it. It makes too much noise for him. The folded table fell over once, made a loud bang and scared the hell out of him, so he isn’t taking any chances.

Our relationship to our computers is like the experiences of trucking, too many stories to tell and I can just tell a little at a time or you would die of boredom.

Until next time, may your God keep you safe.........

The Geese are Flying North

Yesterday was a nice warmer day and somewhat sunny. I was finishing putting the Christmas decorations in storage, when several flocks of geese flew over heading north. That happens every year about this time. Just seem a bit early this year. Sometimes they land in the lake at the ranch and hang out for a while. Then continue on after resting and recharging.

Usually we have ducks and geese that winter over on our lake and in the spring we have a crop of ducklings and geeselings or what ever you call the baby geese. They munch on the grass and leave there dropping behind to nourish the lawns. Some like it so well here they stay all year.

We have people that do the same, except most come here in the summer season and leave when it starts to get cold. Some come all year regardless of the weather. Then there are those of us that never leave. That is to say it is our home. About 120 or so. Some use the ranch as home base when they travel around the world. Some travel in their motor homes most of the year and come back for the important holidays or a vacation from vacationing.

Of course we have a few snowbirds that come from Canada or the east that don’t want to shovel snow. Occasional dips into the 30s are better than constant minus zeros all winter long.

Ginny and I don’t travel much. We did that when we were truckers. We spent too much time on the road and away from home to want to do much of that now. I still think it’s a treat to be home on weekends. My itchy feet got scratched a long the way.

While we were trucking we were in all the contiguous states, but Maine and North Dakota. We were dispatched to Canada a few times. That is a COLD place in January. Ginny liked to have froze to death standing on a loading dock while we unloaded a load of computers (pre personal computers, when a van load of computers were needed to-do the work of one of today's desktops) we spent a week there in two days once. I understand now why the geese leave.

That night after we unloaded in Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers) Canada,  we went on to Quebec for a delivery the next day. Being that it was very cold minus 60 something, we wanted to stay in a nice warm motel room. We found a motel that had parking for the truck and a restaurant across the street. Perfect!! Ginny when in to register and I waited in the truck. I could see her talking to the desk clerk and all of a sudden she disappears from view then pops up with her hand over her head with her fingers spread open bobbing up and down while her head went back and forth. Was she having a fit or something I wondered? I was just about to run to her aide when she turned to indicate she was ok. A few minutes later she came out with the key to the room all smiles.

"What was that all about", I asked.

 "Oh, they only speak French and I had to tell the desk clerk we wanted a bathtub and not just a shower, so I pantomimed it for him. I sat on the floor and scrubbed myself then stood and indicated we did not want just a shower".  Never under estimate what lengths Ginny will go too to get what she wants.

It was late, and we were hungry and the restaurant across the street was still open, so after we parked the truck, checked the room and dropped off our gear we went to dinner. It was around Midnight.

Have you ever tried to order dinner from a menu you cannot read because it is in French and the waitress nor anyone else in the place spoke English. Ginny’s pantomime came into play again. Buzzing like a bee and flapping her hands like a bird to get some honey for her tea. We just pointed at anything on the menu that looked good and hoped it wasn’t an instruction or direction to the place. It turned out to be some kind of pancake thingee. Very good stuff.

While we were having dinner, some drunk staggered in and sat down at the table across from us. The waitress and he got into a discussion. We could not understand a word of it. But, I think it was something like "Order or get out!” He placed his order and went to sleep sitting up. A while later, his bacon and eggs were delivered and placed in front of him. He was still sleeping and the waitress mumbled something and left. A few minutes later, one leg comes up and plops in the middle of his breakfast. We were still gaping at that when the other leg comes up and finishes the job of breaking the dishes and spreading food all over the table and surrounding floor.

Back came the waitress and the cook. After a few verbal exchanges and some cash being dispensed, out the door the drunk staggered. Dinner and a show, who would have guessed.

Next morning after a nights rest, Ginny had pancakes with cheese on them. Morning pancakes are not the same as nighttime ones. We wondered why the morning waitress looked at her funny when she ordered "crapes with fromage". And we thought we were getting the hang of the language.

Back to the geese flying north. I think they are taking their time. It’s still cold up north.

Until next time, may your God keep you safe.........

The Last 10 Years

Ten years ago, the year 2000, I stayed up until after midnight New Years Eve watching TV to see the world fall apart because all the world's computers were going to crash.  Darn!! They didn’t, after all those years of hype and preparing for the destruction of our high tech societies.   I had to go to work anyway on the 2 of January. So much for the world coming to an end.

New Years Eve celebrations have been one of those on again off again things for Ginny and I. The ranch has a BIG party every year with members signing up before hand because the seating is limited. Time to play dress-up. Tux and Teddies abound. We did go every year, but it just isn’t that big a deal for us any more. Sometimes we go to a private party at the ranch or just stay home. 2000 was a ‘stay at home’ year. This year was a ‘have some friends over and play cards’ year.

During the last 10 years Ginny almost died several times from cancer, brain bleeds and a pulmonary embolism. That would have about ended my life. I almost died with a burst appendix. Ginny had both her hips replaced. I gained another 50 pounds. Ginny had to quit work and go on Social Security Disability.  I was hired and retired from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency after 7 years. Both of us quit smoking. All the cats we move here with, passed on and were replaced by Marty this last year. We have remodeled our unit by replacing the kitchen and redoing the computer room. To celebrate Ginny surviving her stem cell transplant and being cured of her cancer, we went to Cancun for a week. Bought and sold cars, ended with two matched Saturns with the only difference is the color. Got a golf cart and two citrus bushes.

Boy! When I put in down in a few words, it doesn’t seem like much. I never saved the world, discovered the next greatest wonder or found the cure for anything. We were just busy living our lives one day at a time here at the ranch. Luckily we had some help and companionship along the way from our friends and neighbors. Just like textiled people.

The ranch, Laguna Del Sol, has had some changes also. New and improved restaurant, added the conversation spa and enlarged the sunbathing deck around the main pool. A new water polo pool was added between the new restaurant and the lake. A new tennis court was added and the upper pool was resurfaced and a new concrete deck replacing the old one. More trees and lawn areas have been added. Generally a lot of improvements. The membership is larger, but no longer as many families with children as it once was. More yuppies now. The ‘Rawhiders’ were disbanded and now management does all the events.

As we get older, more of the people we have known have passed on to the great reward in the sky or their preferred destination (or NOT). I guess that is better than being the one remembered. That will come in time. Not like we haven’t had our opportunities.

Now, on to the Next 10 years. Unless December 21, 2012 turns out NOT to be a bust like Y2K.

Until next time, may your God keep you safe........