THE PACK Message Boards

I'll be out of town visiting Chicago all this week until next Saturday. I might still be able to check messeges every now and then, but not be able to check my e-mail for activating accounts. See yall again in a week.

Have fun!

You picked a really bad week to travel. I wish you well...and remember>
Chicago=Lake effect cold (high humidity and sub zero temperatures).

Not even a brass monkey is safe...

Bah leave him alone Redeye, if he wants to go somewhere by all means he can.

Sure- It's just that it seems to have turned out to be a very bad time to travel anywhere for some reason. If he's going for anything other than education or family-that is, if he were going for fun-this is a bad time to do so.

I'm writinig this on my laptop while I take a break from trying to save a friend's house from being submerged. At least the rain has stopped...for a day or so. I hate filling and hauling sandbags almost as much as I dislike ditching fifteen feet away from the house to re-route the blasted stream that's threatening to engulf her home.

So...I tend to be in a downer mood at these times. Aching all the time does that to you.

Hey take a quick break and eat something sweet it should atleast keep some joy ahead of the gloom.

RedEye wrote:You picked a really bad week to travel. I wish you well...and remember>
Chicago=Lake effect cold (high humidity and sub zero temperatures).

Not even a brass monkey is safe...

You're not kidding. The homes of two people I know here had flooded. I'm glad that I brought my waterproof boots on this trip, as they are the warmest footwear I have. Perfect for walking in three inches of water in a basement moving waterloged mattresses and videotapes. At least I was there to help out when they needed me the most.

Overall the trip is great. The weather, besides the rain, is overall not that cold at all. Heh, any rain is fine with me, since New Mexico doesn't get nearly as much as they do here. I'll be back home tomorrow afternoon. Any of you who have my cell number feel free to call me to get the scoop on Chicago. I'll take some pics too.

Sorry I haven't been on much. My life's being yanked in three different directions.

1) Bill Richardson bowed out of the Presidential race and I switched camps to Barack Obama. That's a much more energetic campaign — as you probably figured out if you've been following it — and I'm running 100 miles an hour. Daily.
Activity aside, this campaign is high-intensity because most of Hillary's political potshots are aimed straight at our candidate. Richardson was mostly benignly ignored and occasionally nodded at; but Hillary is sharpening her claws on Barack...
Heh. I'll stop there before this turns into a political rant.

2) Spring is coming fast and that means — horse show season. And I got two BIG efforts to get ready for. It starts with an open show next month to get recompressed; then in March, I'm one of a group of two people giving a Warlander breed presentation and that's a big job. We have to choreograph a ride to music, prepare an introduction, completely decorate a 10x10 space for our hospitality area and the fronts of three stalls, and do it all with a smile. And starting immediately after, I have to work like crazy to be ready for the Andalusian breed circuit, three shows in two states and one Canadian province, and turn in championship performances so we go to the Nationals with lots of points and qualifications.
I won't be working nearly as hard as Tagie: he'll have four riders and four tack changes and I'm still working on my seat and hands.

3) All this, and my quest for gainful employment in Eugene, Oregon continues...four months until Saturday Market starts up again...

The other developments...I've been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Not as bad as cancer but still a serious and escalating challenge that is, ultimately, unbeatable. And, when I was down at my mom's for the holiday, I noticed the first signs of dementia in her. She wrapped a cheesecake in paper napkins and stuck it in a drawer, and wrapped leftovers in plastic wrap and stuck it in a (conventional) oven. She asked what day it was, at least ten times, on CHRISTMAS. So now I have that on my mind...

Okay, that's over with. It be late, I need to sleep. The good news is, we got a nice snow a couple days ago and it's the best of both worlds: snow to play in, and daytime temps in the mid-thirties, so we get all the fun without the cold

well at least its not rheumatoid arthritis, its allot more painful and mobility inhibiting

Got a new lead on a new part time job position. Not news in and of itself, as I take on new positions all the time. I work as an ER physician, which makes me an independent contractor who travels a lot. What is remarkable is that this position is not two hours away but just up the street. If I could shave off some of my two hour commutes and work where I live, I could reduce my carbon footprint substantially. It also gives me more time to spend sleeping, browsing The Pack, or catching up on DVRed episodes of Battlestar Galactica rather than driving.

A year or two ago, people laughed at my worrying about my environmental footprint. Now, with $4.00 USD gas prices, everyone on my continent is going green. I tell people I drive a Lexus because I can't afford a Chevy. Because of my extensive highway driving, my ES350 sedan gets 31 mpg, so I'm paying between $40 and $50 per fill up. (I have to use premium fuel, though.) With a fill averaging once every four or five days, it adds up. If I had driven instead an 18 mpg SUV, even using regular fuel, that would be a difference on the order of $250 to $300 a month. It would cost about the same or more per month to own a $30,000 SUV than a $45,000 luxury car.

Of course, having to drive hours at a time in a plush luxury car in this screwy economy, I have to count my blessings. Nice thing about emergency medicine is that it's pretty recession-proof. My work load has actually gotten bigger and bigger as the economy spirals down, because more people can't afford to go anywhere else. And, when the day comes that medical emergencies don't come up any more, then we'll by that point already be in a Utopian dream world in which people don't have to work for money any more anyway.

Okay! My life's my own again.
Senator Barack Obama painted Oregon blue and is well on his way to the nomination. So I can breathe for a few minutes each day. Before May 20th I didn't have time to bleed, never mind breathe.

Election night was great! Our 17-day primary went out with a resounding crash-bang-boom with Obama winning my county by some obscene margin, 61% - 38% I think. Statewide margin was a little narrower but still spectacular. Not many people know that outside Portland, Eugene, Corvallis and Ashland, Oregon is candy-apple red; but he turned some red counties blue, and won pretty much everywhere he stopped and did rallies. The Outback tipped mostly for Hillary and so did our neighbour county to the north, Linn County. We all thought Deschutes would tip for her too, but he took it in a pretty good margin. Our campaign had a big throw-down party downtown, with a big marching Samba band, a balloon drop, and a projection screen running the CNN coverage. The place exploded when they showed Lane County results. The samba band played over the re-run of Barack's victory speech and Hillary's earlier Kentucky-victory speech, and virtually nobody noticed. We were too busy dancing and soccering the balloons around the floor. Classic Eugene scene!

Job situation here still sucks canal water — we're giving 200 cops their pink slips — so I said "Screw it" and set myself up for gold-panning. Nope, sorry, this is <i><b>not</i></b> gonna be a hobby and I won't be turning any nuggets I find into jewelry. Not when gold is going for $900+ per ounce. I figure I'd be working my hiney off one way or another, might as well do it out in the fresh air, forest and running water. Even an eighth of an ounce would set me up for gas and groceries for a week and we're literally surrounded by rivers, streams and gravel creeks here. You can't walk down the street swinging a wet sock in a circle without hitting one.

The first Andalusian regional is coming up in two and a half weeks. My trainer's got me on Tagie in what's colliquially known as "The Old Farts' Class," aka "Vintage Rider 45+." It's an easy class, any tack, Pleasure class pattern of walk, trot and canter both ways, the only stipulation is that the rider be older than 45.

They're pasturing him with two other geldings and he's been getting in a scrap or two while they figure out who's Alpha horse. Good for his emotional well-being, but not so good for his sides and a**; I went out today after a two-week absence to find a nice wavy pattern of healing dings across his side. Knowing him, though, I'm sure he's giving at least as good as he's getting. But they're in the midst of breeding season so we have to keep him away from the mares. If Armani and Hilandero see him Casanovaing the ladies they'll pound the stuffing out of my boy...

BTW, Tagie's turning 7 on Thursday. And he went through another growth spurt; no taller, just filling out. His body's too big for his neck so we have to develop that now. Not an ounce of fat on him, it's going straight to muscle and bone. His summer coat's in and it's a lovely soft-dappled terracotta...where it's not dinged...

Part of the Andalusian regional circuit is up in Chilliwack, BC, but I won't be going. Passports are something like $200 now, and there's no chance in Heaven, Hell or otherwise that I can swing that. Never mind the turnaround, which is two to three months. So I'll just go to Nampa ID and Vancouver WA.

I started some sunflowers growing and they're doing great. They're about 6" - 10" tall now. No flowers yet, but they're very happy out on my balcony. They'll get about 40" tall with 6" red flowers before they're done.

I'm busy getting the apartment cleaned up because I'm hosting an Obama campaign field organizer starting on the 12th, and going through July.

Saw Mom last weekend. She's doing okay, she's getting dementia but it's pretty much holding steady. Not getting better, but not getting worse. The bad news is, she knows she's losing it. Her dog took a powder out the back door as I was about to leave, and we had to chase the damn thing around the block. Fortunately a man with a big friendly Labrador caught her, otherwise we'd have been chasing her for hours.

That's pretty much it for now. On with the business of Life!

I am oficcaly addicted to maplestory once again.. so you may be hearing alot less of me from now on... for any ther maplers i may not be on for awhile due to a Really !@#$%^ up account...

In case anyone wonders where I went off to, I'll be at the beach with my family for the next 6 days. Not sure if I'll be able to have internet access till then.

I guess I've been less active overall as of late, but I've been at work on several projects, including my mother-in-law's 80th birthday, but now a new development: my father has passed away.

Richard Coolidge was a composer and for over thirty years a professor of music at Stephen F. Austin State University. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corp at the end of the Korean War and trained as a Doctor of Music at the Cincinnati Conservatory. His music has been published world-wide, and a number of his students have become prosperous musicians. Surviving him are my mother Penney Coolidge, an artist and quilt designer in Nacogdoches, Alicia Vogel, a computer graphic artist who works for the University of Texas in Austin, and myself, Jonathan Coolidge, an osteopathic physician who commutes to work in several community hospital emergency departments. Richard Coolidge was 78.

Condolences. He actually did leave the world a better place; not that many people can say that.

I'm sorry to hear that

You've got our sympathy Mr. Coolidge.

[hugging]
I'm sorry to hear that. On Lughnasa, too.
Be thoroughly kind and gentle with yourself, give yourself whatever you need to pull through. Speaking as one who's been there, yes, I can say you'll pull through.

This might be anti-climatic, but I did post a new Paradice Shirt over in the Classifieds section, and of interest to the IRC crew - the IRC Golf rules are available through the same place (difference is it's $5.00 each, not $15-20 each).

It's also the first feature of Lupin playing golf. I shoulda put something up here awhile ago (it does, and doesn't get much attention in Classifieds)...

Apparently I'll be taking a disappearance starting tomorrow until Friday. Vacation, I guess. I wish it was a little later so that I could actually get some visible progress done on this website. But I shall of course start working at it again when I return (I'll probably even be planning it out on the whole car ride as well).

And I've returned. Hopefully nothing burned down here while I was gone...

Nothing burned down that I noticed, but we have had a couple of spammer attacks...

Midnight wrote:Nothing burned down that I noticed, but we have had a couple of spammer attacks...

Yes, I've noticed that and fixed it. Apparently an admin/moderator (I'm not going to point a finger though) just approved those posts without checking them first otherwise those wouldn't have been publicly visible and would have been deleted.

New computer! Nothing big compared to the beginning of the month, when I lost my father. Needless to say, that was a sad milestone in my life, whereas having my desktop go out on me was a dinky annoyance by comparison.

Basically, my old computer was based on a motherboard and Athlon 64 3000+ processor, originally put in a compact desktop I built back in 2004. The original case and power supply died out, and the core components survived a move, got put into a new case, and got a sizable upgrade with a graphics card. It saw the early adoption of Windows Vista, the 64 bit version, right when it came out. It struggled to keep up with such a demanding OS, but I knew what I was getting into. I made it last a lot longer than expected, but last week, I rearranged my desk and suddenly found after plugging things back in that it was no longer responding to my wireless keyboard. I then tried another keyboard and got the same problem. The BIOS saw it, but not the OS. I tried a reinstall on a spare hard drive--I disassembled an aging external hard drive and used up the last spot on the old IDE cables for it, but it crashed half-way through the installation of XP. (I had an upgrade copy of Vista that needed a "sacrificial lamb" XP partition to find and replace.) It would have cost $300 or so just to troubleshoot from there. For only a little bit more, I could get a bottom end new computer with twice the processing power.

But, instead, I splurged a bit more for a system with a quad core Phenom 9550+ CPU, 6 whopping Gigs of RAM (I made sure it had 64 bit Vista on there so I could actually use all of that RAM), and an ATI Radeon 3450 HD graphics card. With this transition, I have put to rest AGP graphics cards in favor of PCI-express and moved from IDE to SATA. Feels good to be working with up to date hardware again.

I did take a slight hit when it comes to storage. I had a 320 Gig primary hard drive and a 750 Gig extra, and the 320 Gig transplant. The new system has a 640 Gig drive. Even so, I've got plenty of room to spare at the moment, though I anticipate escalating storage needs as I go to more video files, especially once iTunes starts selling high def rather than just renting it through Apple TV. Granted, a look in the window of my new computer shows one available IDE port, so I could theoretically just transplant my old hard drive, but I've already promised it to a friend, so I'll instead upgrade when the need arises. By then, maybe four, five, or even ten Terabyte drives will be available; Two TB drives are already out. Or, I may go with network drives and leave my computer's innards alone.