Head mash

Considering that I'm supposed to be in a resting phase at the moment, my head is letting itself become increasingly mashed by so many thoughts, that I'm struggling to hold on to the all.

I had a bit of a break from reality last night by going to the radio club, and having my first solo CW QSO. I'd managed to wonder into a 2E0 who was sending very slow morse, so slow that even I could read it, and I then spent the next 18 minuites exchanging names, locations, and RST.

Today was rather busier. My first problem of the day that I'd had to think about was the logs directory in the Boundary Sound filesystem weren't appearing. It seems that when I tightened up the security on the smb share, I broke the mounting account that was used to put it on the main fs. Not hard to change the account, but I didn't want to put usernames and passwords in the fstab. Finally discovered the credentials property and set it up that way. It's fixed, but not perfect. There is some tidying up to be done on that front.

Nice lunch time with Shelagh. She finished her last few hours at her old job at lunch time, and picked up a pie and chips for me to have for lunch.

The main problem of the day at work is a linked list problem. It seems that the items on the list are not going to be sortable, so the links have to be set up as they are written, and not afterwards as has currently been written. There's a whole pile of other ideas and exceptions that need to be considered. I found myself leaving a voice message on my PDA to remind me of some of these thoughts, and since I've brought my work laptop home, I plan to have a bit of a thrash at it over the weekend. I really don't want to have to carry on working on it after Tuesday, since I'm on holiday from Wednesday for 3 days while we have the windows replaced, and I have no intention of thinking about work in those days.

Bleugh! Need to relax for a few hours, otherwise I risk melting my brain...

Regular rythm

...and so life slowly returns to a slightly more relaxed pace. I'm not sure if going to the Roman Way will continue to be a part of my Wednesday evening plan, it does make it quite a late finish, and I'm fairly keen to get to bed at a more reasonable hour from here on in.

Today was nothing special. It rained on my walk home for lunch, so I was rather soggy. Managed to nearly dry my trousers before setting off again. Nothing exciting for lunch either - just a pot noodle.

Ian came up to collect the RSL transmitter today. Hadn't really planned getting the antenna and pole that are his down from the roof, and Duncan wasn't able to get ladders long enough to do it himself. So that sounds like a bit of a disaster.

Otherwise, work has left my head full of "linked list problems" that my head won't stop churning away at. Maybe it'll come up with something useful for tomorrow.

Whitewash

Ok, so last night didn't go to plan. I ended up playing crib in Grantham... however I managed to win 5-0, which probably goes down as one of my best wins to date.

Not a lot to report today. Tried to chase up the future hosting of my rack mount server, but that hasn't turned anything definate up yet... still waiting.

Another evening at Radio Witham, and very little changes on that front.

So let's try to get to bed before midnight eh?

Nocturnal madness

I finally managed it - to get onto the radio club "net" last night, much to the surprise of a few people. I haven't been on for months. Unfortunately, it served as a reminder to something I'd forgotten... an M3 course... that was run last weekend. I was sure it was due at the end of October not September, but then I've lost all sense of time recently.

Soon afterwards, I decided to get an early night, and went to bed (at about 22:30). For regular readers, you'll be aware that during RSLs, I only get about 5.5 hours sleep per night. Well, my body is so used to this, that come 4am, I woke up. How annoying. I managed to get some more sleep unril 6am when I woke up again. Then finally drifted off to sleep until 8am, when my alarm went off. Guess what...? I still feel tired!

Shelagh's due to play cards tonight. I'll be having an evening in, and try to get another early night. Let's see if I can correct this little sleep problem.

Switch off

I'm not a fan of playing the organ for 2 church services in the morning. Dashing from one to the next always worries me. However, all went fairly well yesterday, bar one little false start, where Bob decided to carry on reading the words after a pause that I usually take as my cue. As a result I sort of collapsed on the keys (you have to understand that I "lean in" to play, and once I'm committed to playing, it's not easy to pull away quickly).

A lazy afternoon, and a late session at the radio station to switch off the transmitter at midnight. Ok, I'll admit, I wasn't paying attention (too busy giving a crash course on email filters), and when midnight arrived, James dashed off to pull the plug. Then it was just a matter of cleaning up the website, re-arranging a few cables, and killing a few server processes to stop web streams, etc. Managed to get to bed for 1am.

I'd got an appointment to see the dentist today, so I had to take Shelagh to work, so that I could have the car. This had the usual result of getting me to work about 20 minutes early. Not that it matters much. I know I've lost one of my fillings, and it'll need replacing.

So with all the broadcast radio stuff out of the way, maybe I'll manage to do some ham radio tonight? (No chance of bell ringing - not when it starts at 18:30 and I haven't eaten yet!)

Comments

I've always had comments turned off, but I've decided to turn them on... mostly out of curiosity as to who reads my blog.

Rain

Well Saturday wasn't too bad. I dragged myself to the studio for 09:30 for another of my regular duty manager sessions. I had time to investigate the state of a rack mounatable fan tray, which needed a little case work, as some of the fans were catching. Very little else to report really, just usual hospitality duties.

I spent the afternoon resting. At this time of year, sunlight tracks across my bed during the afternoon, and I like to make the most of the early autumn warmth.

After a chinese take-away tea, it was on to the studio for my last programme of the RSL. Unlike last week, it sailed by, which is a good sign that I'd settled into it. It's a shame sometime that RSLs are only 4 weeks, and by the time you work out what you're doing, things come to a close. Duncan was down as duty manager for the late shift, so I managed to get home, and into bed for around 23:30.

An early night didn't make waking up this morning easier. I was woken up at 06:05 by heavy rain. Really heavy. I could hear water overflowing the guttering, clattering down to the patio. I'd got the windows open, and the fan on, as it was warm last night. So I turned the fan off, and managed to get another couple of hours sleep.

Reboot, restart...

Ok, so I've not written for about a year.

I sort of got out of the habit for various reasons, but I think the time is right to start again.

I can just about summarise the last year by saying not a lot has changed. I'm still building and fixing things at the radio station, I'm still not swimming regularly enough, and I'm still doing too many things.

Plus points - I remortgaged the house, and I've ordered new doors and windows to be fitted in a few weeks time. I'm also looking to get gas heating installed before the year is out.

So, let's pick up from thre shall we?