They say you stop hearing high-pitched noises as you age.
I top out at 17,000 Hz on this test of high-pitched hearing. Encouragingly, my nine-year-old tops out at the same level. Then again, this may explain why he never seems to hear me…
[Slight caveat: it’s possible my soundcard and/or speakers max out before 18000 Hz, which could also explain why we don’t hear anything on the high ones.]
The home network’s access to the outside world croaked this week.
Monday saw intermittent failures … resulting in hours of fruitless debugging on my part … followed eventually by total DSL or router collapse on Thursday (it’s not the switches — the computers see each other just fine). After plugging a laptop right into the modem failed to get a signal, even though all the right lights on the modem were green, Bellsouth decided that the problem was my aged Alcatel 1000 modem, and offered to send me a replacement Westell if I’d just agree to keep paying them for another year. Yeah, like any addict makes plans to cut off his supply…
The “new” modem came late Friday. It’s a tiny slip of a thing compared the Alcatel behemoth. Only it wasn’t a new modem, it’s refurbished. And there’s still no signal — only this time the DSL light blinks instead of giving the steady green one requires. Another call to BellSouth revealed that they failed to ship me a line filter which it seems that a Westell requires to operate (but the Alcatel 1000 does not). So, more promises to send what’s needed — although not until late Tuesday.
As a result, posting may be light for the next couple of days as the kids are home and I’m not going into the office much.
So, if you are trying to reach me by email, please be patient. Or just pick up the phone?
My holiday, which began yesterday, has not started well. The last of the last-minute pre-departure things on my list was to bring in the wooden rocking bench that usually sits on my front porch. I have to bring it in because it could be a danger in the event of a hurricane while we are away. So I remove the cushion on the rocker, and reveal … a whole lot of bugs. It’s termite swarming season in Florida, and I have a sick suspicion I know what these are. So I call the bug people, and … they’re closed for July 4. But I’m not taking that in the house.
But it gets worse.
We were scheduled to leave Miami on American airlines on a flight to Boston with a tight but tolerable connection to a flight to Manchester, UK.
A few minutes after the Miami flight was due to start boarding, the gate staff announced that there was an air traffic hold in Boston and that we’d be so late there was no point boarding. Probably very late. There, I thought, went the connection. But a minute later they countermanded that and said we should board after all — the pilot had accepted an alternate route.
So we boarded, pushed back a little late, the pilot came on and said that the new route would delay us about 20 minutes, we’d be 40 minutes late in all. That meant a sprint in the airport, but it was do-able. And we did it.
We boarded the second flight, taxied out to the runway….and the pilot came on to say there was a problem with the temperature sensor on the engine, and we’d have to go back for repairs. So we limped back to the gate. And waited for the ground crew. Then waited for them to report.
And after an hour or so, they did: we weren’t going anywhere. So we all exited into the terminal. By now it was well after 9pm, so Boston airport was basically closed. There were no open concessions. There were no more flights out of Boston to anywhere. There were only a few gate staff there to rebook and hotel us all. And I’m traveling with two tired (but so far well-behaved) kids.
By about 11pm I had made it to the head of the line. And I’d started only about a third of the way into it. I’d had the sense to book new seats by phone, so I’d gotten three of the last seats on July 5th’s flight to Manchester — 24 hours later. We got our hotel vouchers, $45 in meals which were supposed to feed three people for three meals. And we went to claim our luggage, which had been offloaded from the plane.
Two of our bags were there. One was not. No explanation as to why. No one authorized to go hunting for the missing bag (mine, not the kids). So after a dispiriting search and queuing for surly baggage service — did you know only supervisors are empowered to give you a toothbrush? — we made it to the airport hotel around midnight. Only be told they only had smoking rooms.
The kids’ room wasn’t that bad. Mine smelled like the inside of a cigar. I didn’t sleep much, and I’m still having nasal flashbacks.
The next morning we go back to the airport to hunt for the missing bag. In due course — without setting any land speed records — the day crew admits they might have an idea where in the bowels of the airport it is hiding, and go off to find it. And they do. So now I have to take this bag back to the hotel to join its brethren, and then the kids and I can play tourist in Boston for half a day.
Which we do, and which isn’t bad, but would be a lot more fun if any of us had any energy, or if the kids didn’t feel they were losing a day with their grandparents. The kids are being great, but it can’t be easy for them. I did manage to contact the bug company, and they’re going to survey us for termite infestations. They did say that even if there are termites on the bench, those guys won’t move to the house any time soon, as they’ll have plenty to eat. I guess that’s reassuring, in a way.
And now I’m back at the Boston airport, posting this, ready to try again. The folks at check-in assure me it’s a different plane, so maybe we’ll actually get there this time. If I don’t post for a while, that’s a sign we made it.
I am involved in a non-profit project that wants to set up a very distinctive wordpress blog.
The ideal theme would have a great and appropriate logo. It would work with a text-rich site (either one-column with something cute to attract notice to a few fixed links and elements or more likely two-column). And it would make extensive use of WordPress 2.0’s ability to build a theme customization panel that allows on-the-fly theme customization so we could, for example, have a suite of similar looking blogs with different colors and perhaps type faces. Advice on suitable color combos for the first half dozen variants would also be welcomed. The programming work (installation, plugins) is covered; what’s needed is design work by someone used to making themes for WordPress.
Of course, being non-profit, the project’s funds are…limited. But not zero.
If any readers have experience in this sort of work, or can recommend someone experienced (and public-spirited when writing bills), please contact me via email.
It seems that other people have domestic debates a lot like ours.
According to a UK government report, entitled “Sex, lies and money. Research reveals finance is the new taboo,”
One third of women are dishonest to their partners about their credit card spending habits (33%) compared to 29% of men admitting not always telling the truth.
Is she trying to tell me something? Or does she suspect?
Jotwell Blenderlaw