Rudimentary Technology

Well hello again. And forgive me for the communication gap but I assure you I am serious about keeping in touch as I am now typing this post on an ancient (defined as abandoned by an offspring over two years ago) heavy laptop with a few missing keys and a loose wire to the screen, its saving grace being that it can connect to dialup at 24,000 bps because the lovely system my geeky nephew in law created for us, as well as my travel netbook are awaiting (as am I) the wireless internet connection. Although the tower has been in for months the power poles are lined up in the ditch awaiting installation so as the end of 2009 approaches it is still iffy as to whether we shall actually meet the promise of rural broadband for all before 2010. But I digress. Why am I not using the laptop purchased from work two years ago? Because it has moved on to become the system with the 3D plotter for one of the fishing vessels having the hard drive wiped and software installed this week. This required that I spend the day in between my day and night shifts this week sorting, discarding and transferring files to the new computer. Like cleaning a closet at the end "do I really want this photo or not?" as I hit delete. But enough digital whining.

I only had to do one day shift in this set (yeehaw) and I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the technology and routines so things went fairly smoothly. Only one more set of four shifts and I'll be flying solo so I best be picking up the pace eh? Another new grad is joining us next month so at least I won't be the lowest on the seniority list then. Strange place to find oneself as a member of the original (now small) group of employees from the 70s still remaining and orientating to a position I've done a number of times over the past couple of decades. Guess when you stop reinventing yourself that is when things get boring.

Have had calls from the two youngest daughters this week with health related issues as daughter #2 is suffering from what I decided via phone consult is H1N1 flu and the timing isn't great with the push on towards the end of her BEd studies but what can you do? When you're hanging out with germ factories aka school aged children this isn't an unexpected development. Daughter # 3 had received five sutures in her smallest finger as she has sliced over the knuckle while.....are you ready for this?.....drum roll please.....washing dishes!! A glass broke in the dishwater and so the need to have some quilting done on her digit. I'm still working on the fact that she was doing dishes - I didn't even know she could load the dishwasher - but she tells me it was her week at the apartment to do so. If only I'd known that it was as easy as appointing it her week - wow! Talk about missed opportunities. But the main thing is that it heals up properly being near a joint so another phone consult for wound management tonight I think has that moving in the right direction.

The final weekend for lobster season preparation is unrolling as per usual with the shore captain snoring soundly across the hall as I type this. Mister was moody this evening, ignored by myself as I read a scrapbooking magazine (a wonderful gift from daughter # 1 which I enjoy monthly) and so put himself to bed at 9 p.m. Those of us involved in fishing families were discussing at work that the strategy for dealing with this type of behavior (which occurs just before and into the first of the season) is to ignore it and continue on with your activities. I've had lots of practice so I'm getting pretty good at it personally. The heir to the fishing empire (at age 22) is of course visiting a female friend this evening. His crises are usually lower order and today's was described as someone throwing his boots off the boat and he needed new ones - the actual fact may be that he left them somewhere ex. on the back of his truck, someone else's place etc. Good to have simpler issues I always say.

Had a phone chat with daughter # 1 today and she advised she had a mark of 80 on one of her midterms - not a bad start to her university studies. Not to mention that it usually takes a while to figure out the logistics of distance study, getting it together with working full time etc. So a good start to a first semester.

Time to get these bones into bed and back into real world schedule vs nightowl for the days off - the best parts of the shiftwork routine.