OK, McAfee, you win

When you spend as much time in front of a computer as I do, a computer crash can be a very unbalancing thing.

The McAfee Security Center subscription that came with my desktop computer expired today and I decided to replace it with a free copy of Bitdefender Internet Security I got awhile back.

Some of you can see where this is going already.

Realizing that two anti-virus programs can’t coexist, I went to Control Panel and the Uninstall Programs section to remove McAfee. It launched the proprietary McAfee uninstall program, which offered me a last chance to renew my subscription, then went through the uninstall routine. When it finished, it told me to reboot to complete the process.

I clicked OK and Windows 7 went into shut-down mode, presenting me with a Windows is Shutting Down screen… that remained on my monitor for more than 10 minutes.

I went to Maria’s computer and played several games of Free Cell while I waited for the computer to shut down and restart.

Finally, I decided it was hung up (terrible mistake) and did a forced shutdown by holding the power button down for several seconds.

When I turned the computer back on, I found it wouldn’t boot to Windows. Or at least it wouldn’t boot to Windows as quickly as I expected. So I fiddled around with Boot Options (F12) and eventually launched the Windows Startup rescue software. It presumably reset my configuration to a date prior to this morning’s fuck-up and took about 15 minutes. Eventually, it initiated startup and got as far as the Windows 7 startup screen. Then the screen went black. And it stayed black.

By this time, I was close to freak-out, so I went downstairs for a cup of coffee and to do some laundry, thinking it was time to call my computer wizard buddy Tim in Colorado for some help.

When I came back up to the office about a half-hour later, I fully expected to see the same black screen. Instead, there was my logon screen, waiting patiently for me to enter my password.

Password entered, Windows 7 launched and apparently everything is working properly. I just launched my tax software and confirmed the tax calculations I did a few days ago are still there, awaiting some final tweaks before I e-file our Federal and Arkansas returns.

Also, McAfee Security Center was still there. Not wanting to press my luck, I caved in and bought another year’s subscription.

And wonder whether this is what McAfee meant to happen all along…

Suicidal newspaper management

We’re still reeling from the news that our friend Lauri Shillings, who is arguably the best ad designer in Indiana and a brilliant graphic artist, got cashiered yesterday by the Crawfordsville Journal Review.

That was a day after they canned another brilliant and loyal newspaper man, Kevin Cothron.

This was after Lauri spent a week or so driving through hellish winter weather to make sure the paper got published, even bringing her two young sons along because their school was snowed out. They called it a layoff and said it was for economic reasons. No severance package. Just clean out your desk and get out.

It was the most clueless, moronic, idiotic, suicidal – I could go on for an hour – management decision I’ve ever heard of. The malignant imbeciles (owner and publisher) who made this decision clearly have no idea how their own newspaper works and how crucial Lauri’s skills and dedication were to the day-to-day operation.

I have no doubt that Lauri will get a call this week or next from someone at the paper wanting to know how to do this thing or the other. I hope she puts on her consultant hat and makes them pay through the nose for the information. Or else just hangs up on them.

The good news is that Lauri said she woke up this morning with a feeling of liberation. I imagine it was the same feeling I experienced after I walked away from Gannett wage slavery at The Indianapolis Star. Her time is her own. No more deadline pressure and the humiliation of having to suffer fools. Her husband Jim recently went through a substantial career upgrade and now Lauri’s opportunity is here.

Staying at the Journal Review would have meant more frustration, insufficient pay, insufficient respect, and the depressing prospect of watching criminally incompetent management put the ship on the rocks. It’s a sad, sad thing to see a once great newspaper die. I watched it happen to my paper, The Indianapolis News. Gannett is slowly killing The Star, and the Journal Review’s days are surely numbered.

Lauri will have the last laugh.

This video is the best 3 minutes 11 seconds you’ll spend today

Happy Thorsday

Today is Thursday, named for the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor.

Thor is associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, destruction, fertility, healing, and the protection of mankind.

Wikipedia says:

By employing a practice known as interpretatio germanica during the Roman Empire period, the Germanic peoples adopted the Roman weekly calendar, and replaced the names of Roman gods with their own. Latin dies Iovi ("day of Jupiter") was converted into Proto-Germanic *Þonares dagaz ("Thor's day"), from which stems modern English "Thursday" and all other Germanic weekday cognates.

So go out and have a kick-ass Thorsday.

The Fence

If you ever wondered which side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test.

If a Conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.  

If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.  

If a Conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.  

If a Conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.  

If a Conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.  

If a Conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A Liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a Conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.                     
A Liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.  

If a Conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A Liberal will delete it because he's "offended."

You can have your RV, I’m taking the bike

I’ve always thought of a motorhome with towed car as kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from motorcycle touring.

I’ve passed thousands of them and always wondered who owns those things and why.

I recently discovered an old friend is into RVing with a 36-foot, diesel powered Monarch Cheetah coach, towing a VW beetle.

That piqued my curiosity about the economics of that kind of travel versus what I do.

Based on cursory Internet research, I see that the Monarch has an 88.5-gallon fuel tank and reported mileage figures range from 6.5 mpg to 11 mpg. According to arkansasgasprices.com, diesel fuel is running around $3.40 a gallon, which means it costs about $300 to fill the tank and drive 885 miles.

My bike averaged 41.1 mpg of 92 octane gasoline on my 17-day trip last summer. I can fill the tank for less than $15 and ride about 200 miles. To compare apples with apples, with mid-grade gas going for about $3.10/gallon here, I can ride the same 885 miles on 21.53 gallons of gas for a cost of $66.75. That’s only 22.2 percent the cost of the Monarch.

Since one of the big selling points of RVing is not having to pay for motels and having more of your stuff with you, plus having heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer and being enclosed in the rain, I concede the Monarch is a more comfortable way to travel.

There have been several times when I’ve ridden past RV drivers and envied their cushy air conditioned comfort while I’m sweltering in 100-degree heat.

RVers make much of the friendships and cameraderie they find whenever they set up in a campground. I’ve found the same thing with touring riders.

I covered 5,414 miles on my summer ride. I stayed with family and friends four nights, spent seven nights in motels and camped for four nights at a BMW rally, so my lodging expense amounted to $353. The KOA up the road from here charges $34 a night for a 36-foot motor home. Using that as an average, we’re talking about 16 nights on the road for a total of $544.

But I guess the main reason why I prefer motorcycle touring is that I think it keeps me young. I’m not ready to give up the wind in my face for an RV captain’s chair. To my way of thinking, there’s a lot more adventure in motorcycle touring than there is in riding around in an old person’s box on wheels.

Astonishing!

The sky is falling. Again.

The National Weather Service office in Memphis, which likes to type in ALL CAPS, not realizing that’s INTERNET SHOUTING, says we’re gonna get another inch or two of snow tomorrow:

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 9 PM CST
WEDNESDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MEMPHIS HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 9 PM CST WEDNESDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.
* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS: 1 TO 2 INCHES.
* TIMING: WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING.
* IMPACTS: LIGHT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS COMBINED WITH TEMPERATURES SEVERAL DEGREES BELOW FREEZING FOR THE DURATION OF THE EVENT WILL LIKELY LEAD TO SNOW COVERED ROADS AND HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES...AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

Monday’s snow is completely gone, the way snows usually disappear here. After this little cold snap, things are forecast to warm up, with highs in the 50s Sunday and most of next week.

I took advantage of the relatively mild weather this afternoon to replace the bulbs in both of the carriage lights that flank the garage door. The one on the right had burned out and the one on the left hasn’t worked since I replace its bulb the last time. I discovered why today. I’d cross-threaded the bulb and it wasn’t making contact. Doh! Now they’re both blazing away, albeit with 75 Watt incandescent bulbs.

Super Bowl

As imperfect as it was, last year’s Super Bowl halftime show with The Who, was infinitely more enjoyable than last night’s tribute to pointless excess by the Black Eyed Peas.

I kept waiting for it to make sense and it never did.

That said, it was a pretty fun game, especially if you were rooting for the Packers, like I was.

Go Packers!

Just for the record, I'm rooting for Green Bay tonight.

My Indianapolis News buddy Welton "Art" Harris is the son of Welton "Jack" Harris who played for the Packers in the 1925-26 and 1926-27 seasons.

Snowy Saturday morning

We got about a half-inch of crusty snow overnight and the finches are swarming the thistle seed feeder this morning.

Maria tells me this is the last of our thistle seed, so we’ll have to resupply next time we go to town.

Indianapolis BMW Club friend Wayne Garrison says our friend Howard Mudd’s retirement from the NFL lasted less than a year after his Colts lost in last year’s Super Bowl:

Just got off the phone with Howard Mudd.
He has come out of retirement to coach offensive line with the Philadelphia Eagles.
He sounded so excited to be back in football again.
He will be coaching with his old friend Jim Washburn who was the defensive line coach at Tennessee.
Howard and Jim took a bmw trip to south Africa together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPlXbBnwr8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Go Howard

Howard says he expects to be at the BMW MOA International Rally in Bloomsburg, Pa., in July, so I’ll see him there if I make it to the rally. I hope he wears his Goobertown, Arkansas t-shirt.

On the South

It has been suggested that I use this blog to “bash the South as being full of stupid people.”

Not so. Let me state for the record that I don’t think Southerners are, as a group, any more stupid than folks in any other region of the United States. I have found many of the cultural differences puzzling or amusing, but if I had to bash a region for being full of stupid people, it would probably be a toss-up between New York and California.

In fact, I find much to admire in the South. People here tend to be friendlier and more generous and that counts for a lot in day-to-day living.

And, the evils of slavery notwithstanding, I completely get the States’ Rights basis for the Confederacy. If you read the Constitution closely, you can come away with the understanding that it tacitly recognizes the right of a state to leave the union.

Given the state of affairs in this country since the beginning of 2009, I wouldn’t be all that upset if Arkansas decided to secede from the Union.

No, I like the South and its people just fine and I have no desire to move back to Indiana, especially not at this time of year.

Global warming

Stepdaughter Morgan and her husband are shivering today because the natural gas pipeline serving Tucson and Sierra Vista can’t handle the demand during the current record cold snap.

It’s 18 degrees in Sierra Vista this morning, compared with 30 here in northeast Arkansas.

Here’s how the Sierra Vista Herald covers the story:

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — The coldest temperature on record for Sierra Vista caused an array of heating and water issues for thousands of people in and around the city Thursday.

Southwest Gas estimates 4,500 customers in the country club area, south of Buffalo Soldier Trail to Hereford and on either side of Highway 92 were without gas after weather issues, as well as increased demand and a limited means of delivery, resulted in shutting down an area of service.

Residents should not expect to have gas restored for another two days, said Libby Howell, spokeswoman for Southwest Gas.

High demand for the only natural gas pipeline serving southern Arizona, coupled with increased demand on the suppliers of the gas itself, resulted in the outage, Lowell said. 

To prevent the dropping pressure from affecting even more customers, the decision was made to isolate one area of service.

“It’s like cutting off the tip of your finger to save your hand,” she said.

A record low of 3 degrees on Thursday morning saw that hundreds of residents throughout the area were without water due to frozen or burst pipes.

Area plumbing services reported a deluge of calls throughout the day.

“I’m answering phone calls probably every five minutes,” said Pam Whitecotton of Huachuca Plumbing and Blue Diamond Electric.

Calls were coming in from as far as Bisbee and Tombstone to Sierra Vista Plumbing, said Secretary Charity Urias.

“I’ve gotten at least 50 or 60 calls about frozen pipes,” Urias said.

Sierra Vista Fire Marshal Paul Cimino said that “at least 40 businesses have been affected by the freeze,” such as frozen sprinkler systems.

Cimino also said that the majority of medical calls that fire department personnel responded to in the first half of the day were the result of people whose chronic medical issues were aggravated by the weather in some way. 

On Fort Huachuca, more than a dozen buildings were without water due to freezing temperatures, said Media Relations Officer Tanja Linton.

Selected boiler systems on the fort will be turned down, while all those living on post have been asked to turn down their thermostats “to the lowest possible setting but not lower than 50 degrees.”

Linton said, “We’re trying to stay abreast of the situation and one of our priorities is to keep the barracks warm.”

Schools and all nonessential services on the fort were closed Thursday in an effort to “avoid the possibility of a complete gas shutdown to Southeastern Arizona communities, to include Fort Huachuca.”

The Post Exchange and Commissary will remain open, she said.

For those living in the Sierra Vista area who are without heat and cannot find shelter with friends or family, city officials, with the Sierra Vista Unified School District, established a temporary warming center at Apache Middle School.

“It will remain open as long as we need it,” said Sierra Vista Police Chief Ken Kimmel, who directed city staff as the incident commander of the Emergency Operations Center that was established at Sierra Vista Fire Station 3 in order to deal with the gas outage.

The shelter is designed to provide only heat, running water and basic facilities like restrooms for those without them.

Those who will be utilizing the shelter are asked to bring their own food, as well as sleeping bags, pillows and any pertinent medication or infant necessities. If arrangements can not be made for pets, they may be brought to the shelter as well, though they must remain in kennels or pet carriers at all times.

Similar temporary warming stations have been established throughout the county in Benson, Bisbee, Douglas and Willcox.

This is Southwest Gas’s press release:

Due to the unusually cold weather throughout many parts of the country, Arizona's natural gas supply has been impacted. Southwest Gas is working as quickly as possible to restore service. Additional Southwest Gas crews have been sent to area. It is anticipated that it may take several more days to restore service.

In the Tucson area, natural gas customers in the Rita Ranch and eastern foothills areas, and those in the Sierra Vista area south of Buffalo Soldier Trail, on both sides of Highway 92, and running south to Hereford, have been impacted.

If you live in these areas, you do not need to notify Southwest Gas because we are currently working to restore service as soon as possible. Customers are advised not to turn off their gas meter, use their natural gas appliances, and are also advised to set their thermostat to the off or into a non-demand position so that the furnace does not cycle on/off.

When service is being restored to homes and businesses, Southwest Gas personnel will directly contact customers. At that time, they will need access to the natural gas meter and entry. Also, inside and outside lights must be on and an adult home during the dark, evening hours.

Customers who currently have natural gas service are asked to conserve while service is being restored.

Got silver?

Just in case the Obama administration succeeds in its effort to destroy the U.S. dollar and trigger a hyperinflation crisis, I bought a few of these the other day.

But God help us if we have to go through the hellish inflation that Germany experienced in the 1920s. If this 50 million Mark note were good today, it would be worth about $34 billion.

Intermittent motorcycle pin of the day

This pin commemorates the 20th anniversary of the American Motorcyclist Association’s Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Westerville, Ohio. It showed up in the mail awhile back and I just got around to photographing it.

Shock the monkey, pet the owl

Since I have to blog something…

Two years later…

You can’t see it very well in this photo, but there is a large broken branch hanging from the circled treetop. The shot was taken a couple of days after the Jan. 27-28, 2009 ice storm that paralyzed northeast Arkansas and left a swath of devastation from Oklahoma to West Virginia.

The branch was one of several “hangers” that have dangled from trees all over our 1.23 acres. This one was over the west end of our house.

We were watching TV about 10:15 p.m. yesterday when we heard a horrendous crash and thump. I knew immediately what had happened.

We took flashlights to the attic to make sure we didn’t have a tree limb through the roof. We didn’t.

We found the branch in several pieces on the ground with a few bits still on the roof, but no apparent roof damage.

It could have been much worse.

Actually, it seems kind of trivial compared with what our friends and family are enduring up north.

Burning the clock

My iPod Touch earphones have gone all nasty and tinny. I get better bass response with the earbuds that came with my iPod Shuffle.

I’m hanging out at Seattle Grind, being the designated driver today. That’s because the del Sol door opened this morning, but wouldn’t latch when closed because of internal freezing. So, rather than chance having to hold the door shut while driving, I drove Maria to work in the Subaru Forester and did my to-ing and fro-ing in it.

But I’m not drinking coffee. I’ve been feeling the effects of too much caffeine lately, what with my daily homemade vente mocha cappuccino. I’d had some tightening of the throat and chest that came and went over the last several days. It showed up yesterday morning about halfway through my cappuccino, so I decided to take a break from coffee for awhile. No caffeine so far today and no jangled feelings.

I’ve decaffeinated myself a few times and managed it with only a little crankiness, so this should be fairly easy.

Tim Balough is not stranded in London. Or anywhere else.

I got a call this morning from Greg Miller, a BMW riding friend in Indiana, who said he received an email from Colorado friend Tim Balough who is presumably stranded in London after being robbed of his cash and his cell phone.

Tim supposedly had to make a quick trip to the U.K. which, if you know Tim, is completely off the probability scale. Getting no answer on Tim’s cell phone, Greg called Tim’s wife Linda, who said Tim is pulling a 24-hour shift at the Alma, Colo. fire station where he is a volunteer fire fighter.

It appears that malware has gotten into Tim’s Gmail account and is sending bogus emails to random contacts in his address book. I didn’t get one, but I’m grateful for the heads up, even though I would have been immediately suspicious too.

This is a fairly common scam. The scammers usually target the elderly, pretending to be a grandchild who has been the victim of a crime or is falsely imprisoned in a foreign country, requesting that money be wired to help them out.