My wife’s father passed away last week. He was push mowing the lawn and dropped dead. Needless to say this pretty much stopped everything we were working on for that last week. My wife is still taking care of paperwork. The poor girl… I wouldn’t want to do it.
On the house front, I have 60% of the eaves completely rebuilt. (I’ll post a picture when I get one.) We’re still waiting on siding to come in. 8 of the 10 windows are now in and most of the foam insulation is nailed up. Until the siding accessories come in, the only thing I can do is get soffit up. The last side (with the two windows that need to be installed) has the electric and phone service mounted to it. I can deal with the phone… the electric is going to be a different story.
I got my tower cemented in and mounted to the house! I also mounted the 900Mhz yagi antenna to the top of the tower. I plan on playing with it this evening and see if I can get a half-assed link. I need to call the folks that are allowing me use their DSL connection so they don’t think I’m all talk. She came to the funeral for my father-in-law so she knows we’ve had other things to do.
Other than that, its hard to believe I’ve got the house nearly done. Prepping for the siding is 80% of the work. Hanging the siding is where the job looks done. I hope to have the whole project done by July 4th. I may have to take a week of vacation to make that a reality.
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
Been pretty busy and haven’t had the desire to update anything.
Went to ROC last Saturday and had a pretty good time. Seej gave me a lead on a cheap server. Yay! We’re going to see Star Wars this coming Saturday with a bunch of Psychorage people. This Saturday is also our 11th anniversary. I’ve been ripping down the old eaves on the house. I’ll post some pics when I get it done a bit more.
On the DSL, I need to secure my tower better. It sways about a foot at the top. Not good when you need to stand on it to adjust the antenna. I’ve basically been screwing with the network setup… routing, services, etc.
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
I got 6 out of the 10 windows in the house. One of which is one of the huge living room windows. I’ll post a picture later when I get the second living room window in. My back hurts for some reason…
I’ve been running Nagios 1.0 at work. I just upgrade to Nagios 2.0.
On the DSL front, I’ve contacted the “other” blueberry farmer. Their house is the one I was in front of when I got my 1.5 mile wireless link. I’ve discussed my proposal and they’re geeked! Come to find out, the lady that lives there is the sister of one of the teachers at Wood School across the street… one of the reasons I want to get Internet. How ironic! I’ve scheduled Sunday afternoon to make the connection. If all goes well, the next step is to make sure they can get DSL. Verizon’s website says yes but I’m a half-empty kinda guy. I told them I’d like to install the equipment for a week to do tests before we commit with the DSL.
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
I got a few sheets of the aluminum covered foam insulation up on the back side of the house today. I spent most of the day driving around buying/pricing supplies. I got the one odd-ball window framed up and installed. I’m hoping to get 4 - 7 of the 10 windows I’m replacing installed this weekend. The remainder of the windows should just drop right into the rough openings. The one I changed today was placed there to replace an old door. It looks much better now.
I haven’t pursued the DSL connection for the last few days. I plan on stopping by the victims house this weekend. If someone came to you and offered to pay you $50 a month for a $30 dollar service, would you? Of course there will be a antenna and a computer running but you get free high-speed Internet and free IT tech support from yours truly. What better can one ask for?? 
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
The farmer called me back today. You can guess what their answer was. Their loss. They probably think its a scam. In the recesses of my mind, I hope they need computer help some day and decide to give me a call. “Gee. I know it’s probably for a good cause… but I’m not interested. Bu-bye!”
It has become my obsession to try to get broadband. I started doing searches for phone numbers with the Covert, MI prefix in order to find ANYONE. Ironically, I found the number for a government official… that happens to live in the house where I conducted my wireless trial this weekend. Their number pre-qualifies for DSL service. I think I’m going to stop by one evening and introduce myself. I’m insane… I know.
I’m going to take Thursday and Friday off this week so I can start changing the windows in the house. It is supposed to be beautiful this weekend. That gives me 4 days to change the windows out.
The real bear of residing the house is going to be the eaves. I’ve been loathing the thought of working on them ever since I did the roof. I’m no fan of heights, ever since I busted my arm falling off a ladder. Speaking of that, I’m no fan of ladders either.
The Gage Management program I wrote has been in production for 2 weeks. I’ve had nothing but good comments about it.
The latest project I’ve been working on is a system to keep drawings for different part numbers with regard to revision numbers.
Griminal Grim's Ramblings
