If money can fix it, it ain't a problem

It's Thursday. I couldn't sleep last night. I was up at 1:30, 3:15 and 5:00. I feel OK now but we'll see how the day goes.
Yesterday I bought a new sound board for my laptop. During the Radio Camp I had some problems because I needed to record line level stuff and all I had was a mic input. It didn't work too well. I installed the soundcard and had it working fine, but then I decided I didn't like the software that it came with and wanted to use my software.
Then I ran into troubles. I uninstalled the software and then the computer wouldn't recognize the device. I ended up doing a system restore from yesterday and installed just the drivers and now all is well. Computer-wise.
Now the stupid part. I had a dive watch that was giving me a lot of problems. I kept taking it back and all the salespersons could see it was screwed up-but at the repair place it worked perfectly. Yesterday the dive shop (almost next door to the computer store) offered me a different, newer watch at about 1/3 its price. So I took it. Then I started worrying. I came home and checked my bank balances and money-wise I'm pretty strapped - again.
I got a Suunto D9
Payday is a long way away.

Astronomy

Yesterday and this morning, I've been waking up early. It has been very clear, with the full winter sky out at 4:30 AM. It reminded me that I have missed several astonomy club meetings in a row.
Life is too short. Yesterday I saw the turtle truck parked by the side of the road and knew somebody found a nest. I have wondered in the back of my mind why I wasn't doing it this year. Maybe they don't like me. Remember the Biologist girl I had the crush on?
It doesn't really bother me, the turtle walks always made me late for work.
At the radio camp last weekend, I could hear myself in the background of a lot of their recordings. I sound really mean. When I walk down the street, and I see my reflection in a window, I am often shocked at how mean I look. The way I look and sound does not depict the way I feel.
Most of the time, the inside of my brain seems like it is a mess. I am not sure if I should trust my perception on a lot of things. For example, if I feel insulted, should I let it slide or raise hell? I never know the answer to questions like that. I can't always be sure if I've really been insulted or I just think so. KNow what I mean?
Well, this isn't what I planned on writing about, but Oh well. I'm just kind of rambling.

Switching computers

I have two laptops. A 15 inch Toshiba and a 17 inch Toshiba. Over the past few days, I've been switching over from the 15 to the 17. The 17 has a better screen and soundsystem. The 15 is a LOT easier to carry around.
But
Both laptops seem to have problems, the 17 seems to freeze up once in a while, and the 15 has an intermittent battery problem. I've taken the 15 in for repair twice and it consistently works perfectly there.
I think it may be time for a new one. A 4.5 inch laptop. I saw it last time I was in the US. It is SWEET!
It runs Windows XP, just like any other computer.

What day is it again?

It doesn't feel like a Monday. I worked Saturday and Sunday. I went into work yesterday to get all ready for the hurricane, then it didn't show up. Ok, I won't complain. Even though I did go to work for nothing!
I've kind of fallen behind on my studies. I missed a day or two while I was gone, now I have to make up for it. It's easy to fall into my old routine, and leave the studying part out of it. But I want to finish! I want that piece of paper!
I've been going through some CDs with old pictures on them. I found some of my ex wife. Yuk

On the OI with the OI girl

I'm on the Other Island and Ernesto may be a problem. I'd rather not be stuck here for the storm comes because it's my job to be at work at the station. Although I'm working here, and I like being with the OI girl, I'm sure you know what I mean.
I'm here for a summer youth radio camp, teaching teenagers and a little under about radio. I guess the Department Of Youth and Sports has a little interst in radio, since they do a youth program every week.
I'm supposed to go back on Sunday morning.

Success

Yesterday went well. They were very apologetic. In the end. I called first, and, at their request faxed my letter terminating service. Then I waited about 5 minutes and nothing happened. I called back and said "I been waiting about 5 minutes and nothing has happened yet, we are going to resolve this today". It turned out the person who answered the phone was the same person who answered in June and told me my money was on it's way. I said "wait a minute, I've already got your name down here, On June 19th you told me. . . ." and I let it go. I had this girl cornered big time.
Then they wanted to go see a particular someone at the "corporate office". I was there in 10 minutes, asked for the person. The receptionist calls and no answer. She goes back in the back to get this person. She comes back and says the person wants to know what it's about. I said "It's about termination of service, on June 6, I've called and I've faxed and he knows what it's about and that I'm coming". This perked up the security guard.
The receptionist came out with about four people. I said "do you want to do this here?" They said yes. I went through date by date, who I talked to and when and they didn't even put up any argument. They apologized and promised a check by the end of next week.
I worked out pretty well. I had been documenting their screwups for quite some time. They never had a chance, nor could they get a word in edgewise without it being disproved immediately.

This morning I'm taking the OI girl to the airport and tonight I'm going there. She had a two very successful job interviews yesterday, and I think she found the one she's going to take.
Work is busy with several loose ends to tie up and things are going good. My cold is going away too!

Short Fuse

The OI Girl got here yesterday. That is great! I didn't get much sleep last night, that also is not bad.


But-

bad mood

Months ago I terminated my phone service with Digicel. They owe me $84. On the phone they said they were sending me a check. Last month then sent a statement that said -84 dollars. I tried to call all the Digicel numbers I had and all were out of service. Yesterday they sent me another statement, saying my balance was -$84 then they charged me 69 dollars for (I kid you not) "One time recurring charge". Now they say my balance is about -$15.
Need I point out that if a charge is "one time", it is not recurring. If it is "recurring" it is not a one time charge. They are trying to whittle the money they owe me down to nothing. Obvious ripoff. "One time recurring charge" HA! So I have to call them today. If their numbers are still disconnected, I'm going down there. I am not in a good mood, plus I'm tired plus I have a cold.

new post

Im sitting in my kitchen, on one chair, feet on another, waiting for the floor to dry. I just got done swabbin' the deck.
I have a somewhat complex schedule today. first, I have to meet some tower riggers out where my transmitters are. There is a gas leak in the nitrogen system that keeps moisture out of the hollow cable that sends the signal to the antenna.
Then, I have a split shift as I am working tonight. This afternoon, I'm picking the OI girl up at the airport and we're going shopping: Nemo party supplies for her co-workers young son, and a suit for her to wear to job interviews. She has her first interview tomorrow. She'll probably get the job. She wants this one out of all her prospects.

Then she's coming to work with me tonight. The Tuesday talk show is coming from our sponsors location, a sports bar. ( I normally do a talk show on Wednesday, just this once a month on Tuesdays, when it's not in the studio)

I miss everybodies blogs. I am going to start visiting and leaving inane comments again.

Monday O Monday

It's Monday. I feel like staying in bed. I'm catching a cold or something like that. Tomorrow the OI Girl arrives and I'm going to be sick-perfect!
I didn't dive yesterday. I didn't do much at all. I studied a little. Today, if I'm able, I will pass the one quarter mark in the course. I'll be glad to finish.

Rainy Sunday

It's been cloudy all day and I have a sore throat. I've been staying in bed, not feeling good. Didn't dive, and I'm trying not to get sick.
Here it is raining hard right now.

Saturday Sun

It's a nice day, with full bright sun. I've been up since before dawn, dividing and replanting a cactus that was overgrowing out of it's pot. I planted two groups in the yard in two different places, gave away cactus in a pot to three people who were just walking by, and re-planted a tiny clump in it's original pot that it came out of. Plus half a dozen singles that will be replanted in a week or so.

Today I'm working and studying and hopefully some beach. Tomorrow I MUST dive. I must.

PS: I have a wonderful huge zit growing on my face. Like a second nose. I can't wait to pop it and squirt pus all over the mirror!

Hmmmm

Although the title of yesterdays post was "Thursday" I thought it was Wednesday. All day. Last night the OI Girl told me it was Thursday and I was quite surprised! And I'm very glad it's Friday!

I'm working Saturday, then next weekend I'll be off to see the OI Girll! (and work)

I was tagged by Daisy Mae, but I choose not doing it. To me, there's too much 'credit card type' secret questions on there, mothers maiden name, first pets name . . . and the rest are all the secret questions that are asked in case you lost your password or corporations ask to verify identity over the phone. I suppose that everyone else is using fake information, but I'm just not that bright.

Thursday

I don't have a thing to say today.
A friend is coming in October. He is bringing his rebreather. I already have my vacation approved. I've been sitting here daydreaming about diving.
I feel extremely good right now. I went to bed early and slept OK.
Remember the BBC satellite dish and receiver I installed a couple months ago? Well, the receiver failed and I got the replacement yesterday and it sounds way better than the old one.
My car's overheating. I fill it with water before every trip. I pull 'er up to tha gas station and say "fill 'er up with water, and while you're at it, check the gas!"
ha ha
My mechanics is closed for vacation, I'll be there when they get back!

Success!

Well, I called the help number. I got it explained to me and I understand the solution. I didn't realize that both the problems I had were the same. After I finish this lesson and the next, I'm a quarter of the way through. I think. I haven't seen the second half yet.

Today it's work, then beach then work again.

It seems like the OI Girl and I are getting along better these days. My heart feels fonder. I'm not saying there was a time when we didn't get along. I am just saying things seem better. Better on top of good already.

Just because it seems like I haven't posted a pic in awhile, here's a pic of cemetary beach, across the street. Looking kinda north, kinda west.

Getting my ass kicked

Sunday I started a particular module for my class. I planned on working 2 hours, as you know, and it ended up being all day. Well, it is kicking my ass. I had problems figuring out how to do some math their way, then I thought I had worked it out, but now I am having problems elsewhere. Today is the day I'm going to knock it out and understand it. Not in that order.

I've been neglecting everybody else's blogs, and I'm sorry. I have been getting a lot of my study time from my online time and beach time. Athough yesterday afternoon I was studying on the beach, that's when I thought I had it all figured out, then I got home and now I'm more than slightly confused again. . . Maybe my brain only works on the beach!

Today I will finish this module and prooceed. There's a number you can call for help. When I read that in their paperwork I thought, "I'll never call that number". Well I rekkon I will if I have to.

Can I Have A Re-Do?

Yesterday, my plan was to study for two hours, from 7:30 till 9:30, then go out diving and to the beach. I don't know what happened, all of a sudden it was 4:00 in the afternoon. Then I had to fight a giant wave of depression because I "wasted" the day. The OI Girl recommended that I go to the beach then so I did, but it was almost 5 PM and I didn't get the high intensity solar energy I need. I honestly can't explain how it got from morning to late afternoon without me noticing. I didn't even really accomplish that much studying. I didn't accomplish what I expected to be able to do in the two hours. I think the lessons are also getting tougher without me noticing.

Today I just want to go to the beach and go diving. Can I get a take back and re-do on my weekend?

Flat Sunday

Secret beach, I used to live just around that point in the distance

It's my day off, before I woke up I was thinking I had to go to work, if that makes any sense.
Work yesterday was OK. Not great and way worse than not working at all. I went to my secret beach yesterday. I saw only one person all day. I was there and it started raining. I just stayed and laid in the rain. It was nice.
Today I'd like to do the same thing, but I want to dive and I need to study. I didn't study yesterday at all so I owe myself double today.
I feel kind of bored and "flat" today. Maybe that'll improove after some coffee.

I'm Up!

I just woke up, 2 and a half hour late! I did wake up on time but made the executive decision to stay in bed a little longer.
today I am working for a few hours at about 10.
Then it's beach.
Work is sending me to the Other Island where I will see the OI Girl. Something like three days at the end of this month.
Yesterday I asked for, and recceived the afternoon off, because I'm working today. then it got cloudy and rained and I took a nap and I was kind of grumpy because I felt like I wasted one quarter of my weekend. Then at bedtime I wasn't sleepy because I took a nap.

But today I feel like I'm back on course.
So I gotta get going, I have to shower and shave and get ready to go!

Cash wanted

Yeay! It's Friday! I'm going to try to get off early because I'm working tomorrow. Also yesterday I didn't get to take a lunch hour. They owe me big time!
I need to go diving this weekend.
I also need to go see the OI girl, I haven't been in a long time. The problem is - finances. In the past 3 months I've made 3 trips to the US, bought land and I still owe the stamp duty. That's almost $3000 by itself. I just can't afford to go.
. . .

Magically Delicious!

Today I will have (hopefully) a quiet day at work. I can get started on one of my projects I've been meaning to start, Fixing up the interior of the work van, I want to make a little studio in there. Like a regular broadcast vehicle.

Yesterday I had a good beach lunch, and it was actually sunny. Then after work I went grocery shopping. 212 dollars.

Remember a looooong time ago, I said I wanted to lose some weight? Well I'm down from 200 to about 185, but seem to be stuck. I'm trying to get to 175. I notice that if I eat breakfast, then by 10 am I have an insanely starving sesnation. So yesterday I bought breakfast, but then didn't eat it till I got hungry, about 9:30 or 10 AM. That seemed to work better. I'm trying to eat more fiber too. I bought this nasty cereal, Fiber One. I guess it's not too bad if you eat it before it gets mushy. Plus, it fills you up faster too. A half a bowl does the same job as a full bowl of Frosted Flakes or Lucky Charms (They're Magically Delicious!)

Another Wednesday

I feel like I'm repeating myself every week. It's Wednesday, split shift day. I'm looking forward to a long beach lunch. Yesterday for my lunchtime beach walk I found some nice shells.

This morning for my dog walk I noticed that Venus and Mercury were very close together. I got out my binoculars and looked. It was cool, you could see the crescent shape of each. (Only planets closer to the sun than Earth can ever give you that crescent shape) Mercury is the planet closest to the sun, and usually it is too close to the sun to see. You can only see it right after sunset or right before sunrise.

Here is an excellent website I found last night. It is BBC 'The Sky At Night' television programs you can watch. If you look near the top of the page, there is a place it says "you are here>" If you click there, you can find a lot more of their science programs.

Nice Dream - Interrupted

Last night I was dreaming I was giving oral sex to this beautiful blonde with hair almost to her waist. Then my dog woke me up because of lightning. Oh well, maybe if he hadn't I wouldn't have remembered the dream.
These days the weather is mostly clear, with towering thunderhead clouds that pour out millions and billions of gallons of rain per square inch per second. You can sit on the beach in the stinging hot sun and see it pouring rain just down the beach. I remember once on my kayak it was very hot, but then it started raining and the sun kept shining! That was a perfect moment.

Today is a normal workday. I hope nothing exciting happens.

Just a little

On my kayak
Yesterday morning I went with a couple friends out to the island I mentioned in the south west corner of the island. It used to have trees and a lighthouse on it, but was totally destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. In fact, it's not even quite in the same place any more. I grew these plants to plant out there. They are nasty spike plants with needle sharp iron hard spikes. But they seem to grow in pure sand with no water. Yesterday I planted them there.

It was a beautiful sunny day. But coming back in my car about lunchtime, it started raining very hard. There were localized thunderstorms on the north side of the island.

Getting ready to plant the plants

My co kayakers

On the way out

The base of the lighthouse, which is tipped over. This used to be the west end of the little island. (It's much bigger than it looks in this pic)

After I dropped off my friends and unloaded the kayaks, I went to the beach, it had quit raining, but it was cloudy. So I headed back south (heading south is supposedly good, north is bad). But is was still cloudy. So I headed east. It stayed cloudy. My car overheated. It got sunny. I turned around and went to the gas station and got radiator water, and decided to head home. I drove home in the nice sunshine, and got home about 5:30 PM, un-beached. If I had just stayed at the beach where I was at first, all would have been well, but I drove all over the place and missed it. I was beachless yesterday afternoon.
But there plenty of beach and sun in the morning, so I can't complain too much but I can complain

just a little.

Sunny Sunday

Today the plan is to go out on the kayaks. There's an island that was washed away by hurricane Ivan. I have some very hearty plants that I've been growing to plant there. The island used to have a lighthouse and trees, now it's a sandbar. The little island is called Sand Cay. Sorry this post is so short, but I've got to go!

Up and Running . . . .

. . . .Kinda late. I'm working today, my wireless network is giving me problems, I'm irritated and restless and ready to get out of here!

Creature of habit

I am a creature of habit. I like routine. When I wake up, I go through the same routine every day. I get up, make coffee, shave and shower, walk the dog, drink coffee and type in my blog. Now I need to fit studying into my daily schedule. ANd I need to do it without interfering with my afternoon beach time and swim time. I want to study for the same amount of time at the same time every day.
I received my study materials for my on-line college course yesterday. Last night I started, but I think I should study in the morning, not at night. I already wake up at 5 (about 5, because of the snooze button) Maybe I can get up on time and compress my morning schedule a bit or wake up a little earlier. It would be good if I could study while at work. That's wasted time anyway!
Any suggestions welcome.

Back to work.

I'm back to work today. It will undoubtedly be a very busy one. I have to go check the transmitters, although we've been back on the air, I still have to check and see what's going on/went on.
I imagine the high pooint of the day will be giving my co-worker her new computer. It is so nice I'm jealous. It was $999 and it has the 1.86 GHz duo core processor, and a multilayer DVD burner. (I think multilayer is what it is called, without getting up to go look.)
Here it is all cloudy and rainy. I guess from Tropical Storm Chris. I don't want anything from Chris.
I need some beach time and diving time to get back into the groove I'm used to be in. I feel like an outsider a little. I have to go back to work and get my feet back on the ground, and just generally re-figure out how things are. I don't have a word for how I feel right now. I do know I'll be on more familiar terriroty tonight, whether it's better or worse!
And I have to find out where the heck my land documentation is and where are my schoolbooks too!

Back Home

I'm home again. It's raining. My dog is glad to see me. It seems like I've been gone a long time.
I'm going back to work tomorrow.

free day

Today is a day that I have not much scheduled. I'm buying a laptop for a c0-worker. (She's paying me for it when I get back). Perhaps I'll see an old Cayman friend who lives in DC. And I want to buy something for the OI Girl.
I need a suitcase for the stuff I buy. I haven't got any room!
Tomorrow I head home.