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Happy 2022 Winter Solstice!
- To: robert-friends
- Subject: Happy 2022 Winter Solstice!
- From: http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)
- Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 07:34:59 -0800
Happy Winter Solstice! 🌅
Here is my latest contact information:
Robert
.
where-I-live
my-Oakland-voicemail-number (voicemail)
our-San-Jose-phone-number
our-Oakland-cell-phone-number (cell)
http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert
http://www.
My solstice update is below.
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News
Lifestyle
* Family
* Surrender to the void. My father passed away in March. Despite
knowing all his health problems leading to this outcome and many
discussions about declining treatments, it struck like a jolt.
And, while we did try our best to lay out plans for when the time
came, there was quite a bit of last-minute hustling and many
decisions to be made; everything had to be done at a distance
since my parents live a bit too far. It was somewhat tricky.
* The travails of an obituary. It started out as a nice idea, but
turned into a cumbersome and unwieldy project. My mom thought
it would be good to write an obituary for my dad. There was a
lot of feet dragging about the entire process, but, after some
brainstorming sessions, finally came up with a rough outline,
including some amusing stories. Using a shared Google doc, I
filled out portions, as did Noelle, my mom, and siblings. As it
evolved, however, there were a kerfuffle over the wording. A
small war of attrition ensued and words were exchanged. A
détente was reached and the obituary finally published.
See it here
https://web.archive.org/web/20220523083900/https://www.news.com/obituaries/tnm063074
* Jet airliner? Or, jet plane? We drove up to the San Francisco
airport to meet up with Noelle's stepmom and dad there for a
leisurely lunch in the summer on their way back to Santa
Barbara. Due to new limitations on their driving, all future
visits to the Bay Area will be mediated through airplane flights
and SFO in particular. Everybody got to eat what they wanted
since, luckily, there were food courts available outside of the
plane ticket security areas.
* Health
* Pandemic
* My name is Robert and I'm a vaccination junkie. I injected
five vaccinations this year. I got my second and third COVID
boosters, a flu shot, and the two-dose shingrix regimen. As
usual, I had side-effects for every jab. I did discover that
my side-effects always start between 11 and 13 hours after the
being injected. Thus, if I get my vaccination in the morning,
I can just spend a bad night sleeping instead of knocking me
out during the day.
* White privilege, or seeing how the other half lives. For my
second COVID booster, I went to my appointment at our local
pharmacy only to be turned away after discovering that the
COVID vaccination card (passport) was required to get the shot. I
went home, dug up my card, and found an appointment at 10pm at
a pharmacy in East where-I-live. We live in central where-I-live and,
after jumping in the car and driving there, discovered this
very long line just to check in. The pharmacy was very
short-staffed and the one lone pharmacist there was running
around. As it passed 10pm, while I held my spot in line,
Noelle ran around and found that the line for vaccinations
were separate and shorter, but there was still a wait time.
When I ducked behind the divider for my shot, the very
tired-looking, very exhausted pharmacist didn't even look at
me and didn't say anything as I walked in. She grabbed the
vaccination card out of my hand, took a look at it, and stated
"You want the third booster". I nodded. She threw down the
vaccination card onto the small table, ran away, came back
about 2 minutes later, pushed my chair so my arm was close by,
rolled up my sleeve, jabbed me, picked up the card, wrote
something on it, and then ran off again. I didn't have chance
to say "thank you", and just picked up my card and left.
* Socially distant. Being viligant about who gets access to my
social security number can be a taxing process. Such a
process even extended to my dentist. My workplace switched us
to a new provider for dental coverage. When we got a bill for
over $500, I was very confused as to what had happened. I
called them up and found out that my insurance couldn't be
billed since they needed my SSN. After some back-and-forth
about possible solutions, we ended up on a 30 minute three-way
call with an insurance company representative who could vouch
for the validity of my current coverage without revealing my
SSN. There really has to be a better way than having these
national identifiers.
* The day the music lived. November was the first time since
the pandemic began that we listened to live music. It was at
a cafe and it was at the invite of Noelle's yoga teacher. The
band played lots of cover songs, and we were all singing
along, belting out song after song. What we didn't know until
afterwards was that one of the band members, with whom we
spoke, tested positive for COVID. The next few days, we were
careful, always wearing our good quality masks and avoiding
most public places (e.g., the gym). We waited the requisite
five days and got a PCR test. Thankfully, we both tested
negative. We remain the lucky 4% of Americans that have
never had COVID.
* Home
* Conspiring with some old fossils. I read about how a big
earthquake could knock out electicity for several weeks. Since
I had some savings, I figured it would probably be a good idea
to get rooftop solar panels installed. I asked around for
company recommendations and, after comparing quotes from three
companies, decided upon one and put down a deposit. We started
with a rough outline for the project and came up with a final
project outline. I signed the contract and paid for the first
half of the project. That went wonderfully smooth. It was at
this point that everything came to a stop. It was relayed to me
that people in the where-I-live Building Division wouldn't grant us
a building permit for the project. They were unacquainted with
the novel batteries being used in the project and needed more
information about them. After repeatedly and unsuccessfully
asking the battery manufacturer to send data, the solar panel
company approached me to use other batteries instead. The
paperwork was signed off, the permit was approved, and am
waiting for next steps.
* The 10-year slow drip. While we were hopeful that our roof
repair earlier this year would finally plug up our ceiling leak,
it was not to be. We had placed a plastic tarp on the roof
where we believed the leak to be, and it seemed to have worked
-- the leak stopped. Our roofer could concentrate on that area
for a repair, and he put in a ton of sealant in there. He took
away the tarp and, during the very next rain, there was no
leak. However, during recent rains, the leak began again.
(Admittedly, it seems to be less water, but it's nevertheless
still there.)
* Garden
* A bargain for the birds. The laws of supply and demand affects
everyone, including the wildlife. Because our persimmon tree
bore less fruit than usual this year (no doubt, due to the
drought), after the birds and squirrels were done, we got barely
10 persimmons this year. Every year we've been here, we get
about three times that amount. I hope this is not an omen for
the future.
* Travel
* A trip a bit too late. It was way back in January
when I had booked a trip to to visit in April. I was
hoping that I'd get to see more of my dad since his health had
continued its decline and I was expecting the worst. Sadly, the
worst came before I could arrive. After my dad's death, I had
doubts about going, but my mom said I should visit anyway. My
sister got out there a week before I arrived, and our stay would
overlap by one week (i.e., I would get to see my sister whom I
hadn't seen in about 3 years).
* Wild thing. It was just a few days after I had arrived in New
Mexico and my sister and I began plowing through bills,
statements, and receipts when the wind picked up and the weather
became turbulent. Gusts were up to 80 mph; these were mostly
annoying. The news of wildfires didn't trouble us at first.
But, once we heard that some fires started in the town we were
staying, we packed our suitcases, and set them out near the
front door, ready to flee if necessary. It was later that day
that the power went out. The power had been deliberately shut
off to prevent more possible fires caused by downed power lines.
At least some of our financial work had to stop, especially at
night when all we had were candles for light. In lieu of any
other entertainment, we listened to podcasts since cell phones
continued to work and could be recharged in the car. Water
pressure was fine, and the propane-powered stove could still
cook. Power was out for three days, and it was surprisingly
quite tolerable. Nevertheless, we stayed on edge and kept
the suitcases by the front door.
* Vacation hoop-jumping. The workplace that Noelle works at has a
restrictive vacation policy. She has to declare vacation three
months in advance and any vacation cannot overlap with anybody
else in the group. There's a mad rush for spots on certain
calendar dates. However, we studied the data, projected
available vacation time, and decided that she would be able to
have a 2-week vacation in September. Unfortunately, the cut-off
for the September time frame passed. On the appointed date,
with bated breath and fingers crossed, she submitted her request
for some time in October. A few days later, we were relieved to
find her request approved. We now had to figure out how to
spend a rare 2-week span of free time.
* Stewing over a vacation. Since it had been a number of years
since Noelle had visited New England, that was high on the
vacation possibilities list. We explored various ways to get us
there and it repeatedly proved complex for a couple of reasons.
First, there wasn't really a "base" in New England where we
could stay where we could visit friends and relatives or
vice-versa. This alone would've involved many logistical
challenges, quite aside from the overall costs. Second, since
the pandemic befell us, airlines severely reduced their number
of flights. Getting there from where-I-live just would not be as
convenient as it has in the past. Besides the fact that any
such vacation would have been far from relaxing, we eventually
scrapped plans to travel to New England and decided to stay
local instead. Our focus was going to be on calming and taking
it easy and, so, settled on mineral hot spring places. Another
simultaneous goal was to visit Noelle's family. During the
first week, we went north to Harbin Hot Springs near Calistoga,
and, the second, to Sycamore Mineral Springs in San Luis Obispo.
See photos at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/noelle/albums/72177720302954113
* Finance
* No rest for the wicked weary. I didn't travel to relax during
my vacation to , but what I fell into completely
diverged from any expectation. Before my arrival, my sister
embarked on a project to fully bolster and organize my mom's
finances. In the prior three years, we had had online monthly
meetings to discuss my parents's finances, but, despite our best
intentions, these discussions were insufficient. There was
quite a bit of work to fix the finances. And work it was. Both
my sister and I worked about 12 hours per day trying to organize
things as best we could. In other words, I had a full-time job
during my vacation. Every day, we were all completely
exhausted. By the time we left, there was still a pile of
unresolved stuff. Luckily, we established a process which my
mom was able to continue in our absence.
* People
* Backyard bootstrap. In lieu of reduced COVID spread, we revived
our backyard summer potluck this year. We had a slightly select
invite to this one, but, despite no neighbors showing up, it was
still somehow popular. It was good to catch up with people.
* Miscellaneous
* My continuing campaign to slaughter trees. I admit that I still
use paper organizers. Every year, I was buying an annual diary
organizer from Lett's. But, I hated having to copy over the
info from the previous year's journal to this year, and having
the "overhead" of the cover of the book. To improve efficiency
and reduce waste, and having found a version which was
pocket-sized, I made the switch to a refillable format via
Filofax. There was an initial outlay for the appointment book
structure (leather-free, of course). I am able to fill in the
contents with paper refills every year.
Entertainment
* Movies
* Fondness for a film fest. Cinequest, the local film festival,
held their event in-person this summer after a pandemic hiatus.
There were too many to see, as usual, but we did watch a number
of them. Although it was great to see things on the big screen
again, it was the usual mixed bag, and I was reminded, as if it
were necessary, that I have little attraction towards the horror
genre.
* Music
* The dark shattered underbelly of the American dream. After I
had to hear that D.H. Peligro, the drummer for the Dead
Kennedys, died at 65 on the radio on NPR, my self-perception
that I existed outside of mainstream culture was upended and I
came to the realization that I, and everything that I surround
myself with, have been assimilated. Any pretense of an
alternative lifestyle has long gone out the window.
Politics/Society
* Misc
* Another in-person reboot. The SF Mime Troupe dropped podcast
episodes over the last two years for various radio drama-like
series, but that does not compare to their in-person shows.
Thankfully, for all of us, they came alive in Palo Alto in July
with their latest show "Back to the Way Things Were". Although
short, it was great seeing them again and got to see friends as
well. They're still struggling financially since the bottom
fell out for live shows during the pandemic. Hope they make it.
Technology
* Telephones
* My cell phone was turning into a pumpkin. My phone company
informed me that my old flip phone would no longer be supported
since it uses 2G. (While traveling to , I found out
exactly how unsupported. There was virtually no where where I
was able to use my phone.) The phone company offered a deal
where I could exchange this phone for a smart phone. (Yeah,
being thrust into the 21st century.) There wasn't any other
unpaid upgrade alternative, and I succumbed. After a few
mix-ups where they claimed that I couldn't exchange my phone, I
finally found an outlet that would do it. (Several Reddit
posters had this exact problem. I knew if I kept pursuing it, I
would succeed.) Now, I have entered the world of smart phones
with an Android one, albeit without a data plan. Several
youtube videos described the evils of joining the Google
ecosystem associated with Android phones. In order to avoid
that fate, I carefully installed particular apps onto the phone
and never allowed it to connect to a Google account. (I
probably should have de-Googled the phone entirely by removing
all Google apps when I first got it, but I did not do that.
There are probably still some trackers, most notably the few
times I've needed to fire up Google Maps.)
* Computers
* Software
* Miscellaneous
* Going from signal to noise. I was curious whether there was
a secure multi-platform messenger which did not require a
phone number, like Signal, since the phone number
association is a big security hole. Ideally, it wouldn't
even require any registration and would be decentralized so
that it would avoid going through centralized servers. I
discovered it. It's the Session App, and I put it on my
machines and devices (except the iPad, which is too old to
run almost anything). While it is end-to-end encryption,
the only problem (the same that Signal suffers from) it
doesn't encrypt on the end; that must be manually handled.
Another problem is that it doesn't work so great behind a
restrictive firewall, unfortunately.
* PC
* Linux
* Ssh left with its pants down. I discovered that the
sshguard I was running was not protecting me from the
unwanted attacks I thought it was. It may have been doing
nothing at all. It was supposed to add entries to
/etc/hosts.allow . I had hoped that if I ran an old enough
version, it would have that functionality; but, I found
out that that functionality was removed in the version I
was running. Happily, upgrading to the latest version
restored that functionality and I can see from my logs
that I am again safe against these ssh brute force attacks.
* Trailing way back from the cutting edge. When it comes to
technology, I always prefer the oldest thing that will
work and is secure. Nevertheless, I found that a number
of my Debian packages were not associated with any Debian
release. In an effort to fix that, for all my machines
(all of which run Debian, except the cell phones, iPad,
and the one Windows machine), I ran a script which would
figure out the latest version of the package within the
release in which it existed, download it, and install it.
I'm still trailing, but at least I'm synchronized to the
trail.
* Putting a new spin on an old problem. Last year, the fan
on Noelle's Asus computer became very loud. I opened it
up and there's only one fan, the CPU fan. I cleaned it
the best I could (it wasn't dirty at all), but the
noise continued. In fear that this computer will some day
blow up, I bought another one, the identical make and
model. If worse comes to worst, I will swap the new one in.
* Not just a noisy computer. The SMART disk monitor on
Noelle's computer began to report errors on the hard
drive. (It corresponded with the times that the machine
ran hot.) I popped the box open and saw that it only had
room for one drive. However, it had a M.2 slot for a
memory SSD drive. I went ahead and ordered an M.2. There
was not a screw in there to hold it in place, and so had
to order a screw set as well. Finally, I installed it and
then used gddrescue (a.k.a. ddrescue) to copy the contents
from the old drive. I pointed the boot loader to the M.2
and, surprisingly, it just booted.
* The drive to fail. Hard drives were failing left and
right this year. Not only did Noelle's hard drive begin
to fail, I got SMART error messages on my main Dell
machine. I knew that the CMOS battery was kaput; so I
replaced it, hoping that that would solve the hard drive
issues. The SMART error messages continued to arrive, but
I ignored them, thinking that they were just temporary
failures. One day, however, I woke up and the drive had
put itself into read-only mode. After poking around, it
turned out that the filesystem began to get corrupted and
Linux changed it to read-only. I bought a replacement SSD
drive and, using a SATA adapter, used gddrescue (again) to
copy the contents. During this process, I learned several
things, among them that, when a filesystem is mounted,
even if it's mounted read-only, it can write to the drive
if it needs to be repaired. Due to some happy dumb luck,
I managed to avoid this; later, however, after the copy
was successful and was able to boot, I tried mounting the
old drive and the entire thing instantly became unusable
since just mounting it corrupted it. (I had since created
all sorts ways to boot on my various machines so that they
would mount the drives in a truly read-only mode so I
won't accidentally do this in the future.)
* Mac
* Bad Apple. It was years ago that I vowed never to buy
another Apple product. But, I still had this old iPad2 that
I was given. There are a zillion known security holes in
old iPads (of course, Apple doesn't care and there's no way
to fix it since its source code is locked down). So, we
were using it just for playing Youtube stuff, Zoom meetings,
and podcasts. It was this year that that all came to an
end. Something (my speculation is that it was errors being
thrown by the podcast catcher) was filling the disk and
nothing I did would fix the disk space problem. Since it
was basically unusable, I did a factory reset and wiped out
all the data and so on. Noelle wants to keep it for some
reason, even though it is quite limited in what it can now
do. I switched the entire podcast playing, youtube playing,
and Zoom meeting stuff to Noelle's old Android cell phone
instead, a phone without a SIM card. It's much easier to
deal with and doesn't have serious security holes.
* Internet
* Tearing into Tor. It was after my workplace started blocking
ssh connections that I started looking into alternatives. I
wanted something that didn't require me to enter a username and
password on any machine owned by my workplace; that eliminated
pretty much every VPN. A bit of digging revealed that Tor
services can be made nearly completely anonymous. After jumping
through a few hoops, I was able to create a Tor hidden service
for ssh. It's very slow (you get what you pay for), but it
works. It's also nice that, if my IP address changes, this
service will continue to work. (I also use Tor browser these
days as well, but that is a much different story.)