An Icy Mid-January 2011

bitter weather

The roads iced up Wednesday morning, and even Interstate 69 was too dangerous to drive on. (The interchange with the road to Fairmount was closed at one point.) So I had to take a vacation day today. Laundry and minor chores occupied my day.

I mailed letters to my state representatives, asking them not to make pseudoephedrine available only by prescription. The gist of the letters, with which I included a copy of an appropriate Yahoo! News article, is that such a law is futile and serves to corrupt doctors, as the current law (which is spottily enforced) corrupts ordinary folks. It is better to tighten existing law by making all pharmacies comply with it.

library board

I have been confirmed as secretary of the local library board of trustees for the fourth year in a row. It promises to be a difficult year. Even if this year's state legislative session changes nothing, the falling population of the town and surrounding county will mean less revenue to spend on library services. We need to attract more light industry to Fairmount to bring in more residents. Service companies just don't cut it because they don't pay as much in property tax. There is nothing else for it.

birthday steak

I turned fifty-one this past Sunday. I got a T-bone steak and Zestie fries for Sunday dinner, and a visit from my brother Bill and his friendly dog Rebel. I also got my usual German chocolate cake with coconut icing. That sort of thing wreaks havoc with my blood sugar: The last two morning measurements were the highest since I started measuring my blood sugar nearly seven years ago.

I have a couple of weeks to get my blood sugar down to acceptable levels before I see my doctor. Well, I hope I see my doctor this time. I was originally scheduled for late December; but I have been rescheduled for early January (Xmas vacation), then mid-January (illness), then early February (arterial stint implanting).

the year in memoriam

The year just past has been a bad one. Yes, I got my ACSP certification, a just reward for five years of working on Macs. Yes, I got my back roof replaced and insulated; and the back of the house is warmer and leak-free for it. But the bad side of the year has outweighed the good: There has been deaths of a lot of people I know, have known, or dear to those I know. My father tops that list; followed by the father and the colleague of Anna Justus, a high-school classmate of mine who runs the Giant Bar and Grill; followed by several other classmates; followed by my former fifth-grade teacher, back in 1970, who would become a principal and then a vice-superintendent of my local school district.

nabiki server #n

I got the two DVDs of Fedora 14 some time ago. One copy went to work with me. The other I used on my home server, Nabiki. I had installed it several times, each time installing with a different database. I had chosen first PostgreSQL and then MariaDB, before settling on my old choice MySQL. Partly, I found PostgreSQL and MariaDB difficult to install and to use. I am not used to the mindset that went into making PostgreSQL (clusters? What's that all about?). Also, I now reckon that Oracle will not threaten the open-source (GPL) version of MySQL if it wants to keep its reputation as a company intact. I lost the original forum message on which I base my confidence, but have since found the Planet MySQL entry that confirms it.

numbness

By Tuesday morning, I woke up with numbness in both hands and fingers. At first, I thought it was a side-effect of high blood sugar. But I have had that before, and my hands felt fine. I finally decided it was the typing and writing I was doing in compiling instructions on how to set up the server. The numbness was gone by the end of the day.