Eric’s Blog

I don’t think it’s possible for the weather to be any nicer than it is right now. As always, all the things that I needed to do during the week pile up, and I have to hustle on the weekend to get ‘em done. In no particular order I have to:

Try to get rid of most of the weeds in the back
Smog my escort (1988 Ford), and take the papwerwork to the DMV.
Replace my bike chain so I can ride my bike.
Get stuff for dinner tonight- with my spaghetti recipe (yumm)
Plant some tomatoes, and peppers??

I am sure there are other things, but I can’t think of them now. Hopefully the weekend doesn’t end, and I forget something to do. We’ll see.

Oh, for about a week now I have been having tremmors in my hands. They are not apparent until I am holding something, and my hand (and the object) will shake. I went to the doctor on Friday, and she said that I have “intentional tremmors” which means they only shake when I am doing something. She doesn’t think it’s Parkinson’s or some Cerebral problem, but I got a referral to talk to a Neurologist about this. Hopefully it’s just a manifestation of the stress I have been having.

Well, I got some good ideas for a vacation from a friend of mine over lunch, and she suggested that I go on a WindJammer cruise. She mentioned that it’s really a non-pampered trip unlike cruises on a big ship- there’s not fax machine, no phone, no nothing. They put a diving board off the edge of the ship so you can dive in the water, and they throw rafts out there, and toss a few beers into the water for you to grab. Sounds like a nice get-away. Also, I mentioned to her that I wanted to go on that 100mile hike through France/Spain to travel between monasteries (which she read on my blog), and SOMEHOW she was able to find it (Google master?). So now, I’m tossed between the Wind Jammer cruise (for two weeks I think), or doing the pilgrim walk. I’ll have to think about it. Sitting on the deck with a drink in my hand reading a trashy spy novel sounds awesome. hehe.

Why am I thinking of dong this you ask? Well, I have been on a few get-aways for 4 or 5 days mostly, but I haven’t been on a 2+ week vacation in 6 years! Alot has happened since then, and I think a vacation would be good medicine to cheer me up, and reward the child in me that I have neglected for a long time.

Oh, she also suggested that I sail the Polynesia which I guess it is the biggest (125 people), and hits some great spots. Hmm…

Here’s the pilgrim trek: http://www.jrnet.com/travel/articles/santiago.html

Here’s the Windjammer cruise: http://www.windjammer.com/

There’s nothing like fresh tomatoes grown in the garden. This time I am going to buy baby tomato plants to get a jump-start on the whole process. There may be some other things to grow, but the one other thing would be some jalapeno peppers. Yumm! I’ll have to go to the nursery to see what else they have. I think for tomorrow I am going to pull the weeds out of the garden, and get things ready.

This isn’t really a dream that I had, but I remember seeing a special on the Travel Channel (I think, or what it PBS) that talked about a vacation where you go on this 100 mile walk through France where you travel to the different missions (where you get it stamped off in this “passport”. The caveat is that you can’t use any motorized vehicles otherwise your passport goes void. I just think it would be a great way to unwind, and do what I really love to do- walk! I have friends in Belgium and Germany that I could stay with for a few days before I do something like this. Perhaps when I get to the point where I feel guilty about spending money (seems like a recurring theme, I know), I can go and do that. I think I am really wanting to do this becuase it is really getting warm here, and being outside is just something that I like to do when it is hot/warm. Hmm…

Today was just one of those days. Not much going on at work, so I figured I would write a Perl script that would merge in changes into my Redhat 9 kickstart setup. It’s a real pain in the pooper to do manually, so this really cleans things up. Now, if I need to kickstart a server, it’s all fully patched. Yay. The cool thing is that the Perl script queries the RPM to look at the build date as unix time, so I don’t have to look at build numbers/versions at all. Also, I was thinking that I would like to sell my camera on E-Bay and buy one of those new-fangled cameras, but I don’t really feel like spending the money (seems like a recurring theme eh?). Oh, one cool thing is that my boss at work handed me some training that I can take for EMC stuff. He’s now given me four classes that I can take, I just need to block out some time to take them. Very cool indeed as my SAN experience is not as strong as my NAS experience. hehe. That’ll be nice to put on the resume.

Is it just me, or is this weather just awesome! I want to take advantage of the nice weather by planning on doing some long bikerides (~30 miles or so). A few years ago I went on one where thre was a steeep descent for about 5 miles, and I unconfortably got up to some really high speeds. The only reason why I did this was because of my size (6′8″ @ 230lbs) the kinetic energy that I had put a huge strain on my brakes which could heat up my rim enough to where my tire would pop. This would suck if I was going 40mph. I called Calmar cycles today, and they said I *could* retrofit my bike with disc brakes, but it would cost me about $300. I am not sure I would want to part with that. Hmmm…

I guess this isn’t totally cool, and it’s been quite a few hours since I have had it, but I figured I would keep a log of dreams that I remember. Perhaps someone can give me insight into why I am such a weirdo. hehe. Anyway- The dream took place at night- the sky was a super-deep midnight blue that was still lit, and the clouds were all dark. They weren’t eerie dark, just dark from the night. It was realliy pretty, almost as though the moon was lighting the sky. Anyway, I was walking down a cobblestone path, and noticed a house on my left. It was HUGE- probably 200-300 feet high, and 1000 feet wide- almost like a castle. The “house” was made of big brick and had a huge window in the front where you could see a room (forget the name) where there were animal heads, and old books on shelves. Very rustic looking. So, since it was so high, I wanted to get a better look and flew up there (something that I have learned to do in my earlier dreams). That was the last thing that I remembered. Oh, I fly exactliy the same way that you would tread water without using your legs. Cool dream for sure. I just wish I remembered more. Oh well. Next time, I’ll write in my blog in the morning.