There it Is

This morning, some texts:

Now, I'm already looking at the out of Idaho area code. But as cell numbers are portable and have been for years, it's not uncommon to get calls or texts from numbers that ain't local to Idaho.

Also, we do have dogs. We have neighbors who love to complain about things like lights and imaginary nonsense. So I'm a little sensitive to this situation.

But I'm also skeptical. It's true our dogs are indoor dogs and don't spend the night outside.

So it went on:

They did send a video.

I was hesitant to click on it. but I did.

It certainly did include a dog barking at night. But there was an outdoor fireplace in the video that I did not recognize as belonging to anyone close enough to be bothered by a barking dog. I spend enough time looking at my own property on Google Maps to know. Now, I know the info there isn't 100% up-to-date, but another red flag.

Still, I went on:

Tiburon. I Googled it, and it appears to be a chi-chi suburb of San Francisco, which matches with the out-of-Idaho area code. So another red flag. But the conversation was winding down.

Until: There it is.

Yeah. Softening me up for the kill. I'm sure had the conversation gone on longer, it would have resulted in a scam. Maybe money. Maybe blackmail over naughty photos. You never know.

And I won't either. Immediately blocked and reported as spam.

And I didn't even feel bad about it.

Who's Suing Me?

 

Someone attached a sheaf of papers to our front door this morning. The wind keeps catching them and our Ring camera picks up the motion. I've had like a hundred notifications today on my phone.

Turns out it was a notice from the city on a delayed chip seal project in the neighborhood.

My Facebook friends, of course, are feeding my paranoid nature.

I Miss WordPerfect . . .

So, here's a conundrum maybe someone else in the universe has encountered:

We use Microsoft Word at work for word processing. Nothing unusual there.

Our record documents are Word documents converted to PDF via Adobe. Again, nothing unusual there.

But three times in the last two weeks, we've seen the PDF version of the document mess up something in Word -- and since the PDF is the record version, we have to revise the document so it can be used. Fortunately, two of the three instances I've mentioned got caught at the revision phase, so they haven't gone live yet.

What's odd is that in Word, everything appears hunky-dory. It's only in the rendering that things get messed up. I can't go into the details, but what we see is step numbering and cross references getting messed up.

I've looked on the Internet, of course, for others experiencing the same problem. And as with many things on the Internet, I'm able to find people who are experiencing other Word to PDF problems, but nothing exactly like what we're seeing.

So, anyone within the sound of my voice seeing similar problems? And more importantly, what did you do to fix them?

Don't Push the Red Button or Pull the Dangly Cord

From Stephen Ambrose's essay "Struggle for Vicksburg: The Battles and Siege that Decided the Civil War."

Cocksure no doubt.

The text:

The Indiana and the Illinois units came over the barricade north of the railroad and captured a gun. Private James S. Adkins of the 33rd Illinois, exhilarated by the bloodless victory, leaped astride the gun tube, waved his elbows up and down at his sides, and crowed like a rooster. Then, curious, he tugged at the lanyard. The gun went off, hurling a shell close over the heads of the units coming up in support, and bucking Adkins head over heels into the dirt. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

Gen X/Boomer Tendencies

Presenting a Gen X/Boomer tendency here.

Instagram confuses me. I don't understand the interface. I get notifications on my phone that my friends are posting - even sending me messages - and when I can find the app on my damn phone I open it and I get lost. I can't find the posts or messages my friends are sending me.

Too old, yes. I remember when they invented chocolate. Sweet, sweet chocolate . . .

I should remind my readers: As Gen X, I can adapt to new technology as well as any Millennial, but I reserve the right to be cranky about it like my Boomer ancestors.

90s Maigret Pleased, 2020s Maigret Curious

The last few days I've enjoyed watching an old Grenada Television show from the 1990s on YouTube -- starring Michael Gambon as Chief Inspector Maigret of the Paris police.

This chief inspector is far from the bumbling of Inspector Clouseau. The stories are based on novels written in the 1950s by French author Georges Simenon. I've read a few (in the original French, because that's how I found them in one of the missionary apartments I stayed in). They're wonderfully told, tight mysteries that really capture the feel of old Paris.

I'm intrigued that the stories have been retold more recently with Rowan Atkinson in the titular role; I'd love to see a few of those.

The Bacheloring

So it begins: The Bacheloring.

Michelle has been to camp off and on for a month now, but after a two-week break the whole family sans Lexi are headed to camp, even Isaac, who we thought wouldn't be going this year.

Michelle's up there as Cope and Climbing Director.

Liam is up there working in Nature and helping out with Trail to Eagle and the Astronomy Merit Badge.

Isaac, after a rough go of not really being welcomed back due to reasons, is going back as a commissioner, which thrilled him to no end because he's sick of working at Reed's Dairy and needed one more fling before he starts is mission in mid-August.

That leaves me and the dogs all alone. ALONE.

But I don't want to be alone. I'm no good on my own.

Take today: After church, I made dinner for myself. That's not so bad, because I only have to worry about what I want for dinner. But since then . . . I've taken a nap. I've played a video game. I've watched some YouTube. And that's about all I'll be doing for the next few weeks. At least I don't have to teach Sunday School next weekend.

I have a lot of yard work lined up for the next few weeks, though. Going to finish getting all the sticker weeds out of the garden, going to finish splitting the wood from the chopped down pine tree, and do some general cleanup in that area. Also have to mow lawns. And rebuild the rail I put on the back porch last weekend because the one that's there is a bit too short. But that'll be simpler since I've got the wood for it already and a general path forward on what the rail will look like.

Fun stuff. Whee.

Pardon Me, Google?

So I'm uploading a photo to this blog as I always do, and suddenly Google is asking me to sign into my Google account.

You know, the Google account I was already signed into so I could post something to my blog.

Why ya gotta be this way?

Way too Late at the Movies: The Night Stalker

As a longtime fan of A Christmas Story, I've known for a long time that the Old Man, Darren McGavin, starred in a movie, and then a television series, called The Night Stalker, wherein as a newspaper reporter in either Las Vegas or Chicago or it seems wherever the story called for, he investigates supernatural crimes.

The first film has his pursuing a vampire through Las Vegas' seedy underbelly.

The film is, eh, not exactly well written, but other than the Old Man, did include a surprise or two.

First, the Old Man:

He's looking good. And does a lot of narration in the film which I guess it a choice, but I'm not sure it works for me.

And the coroner. At least we know he has medical experience:

The script is really funny. At the onset of the film, McGavin's character - Kolchack - says he was pulled off the first vacation he's taken in years to write the story of a series of murders for the newspaper. Then his editor at the paper goes on to berate him and thwart him and bend the knee to the officials who want the story suppressed.

Mild spoiler: Just after he tells the police it's likely they're dealing with a vampire and under no circumstances should they approach him at night, he breaks into the vampire's house at night because of course he does. I guess it's less exciting of a movie if he waits until daylight and skewers the guy with a stake.

There are some other actors in the film I can't place. Claude Aiken is there, pre-Sheriff Lobo, I believe. But there's a smarmy dude I can't place, though I'm pretty sure I've seen him before.

Done Smithering

The week is over, and I'm done smithering. And by that, I mean I'm done filling in for the boss, who's been on vacation.

It was a good week to smither. A lot of people were leaving early for an extended Fourth of July vacation, which suited me fine.

But, for the first time, I actually accomplished things as the WIPP Review Coordinator. Actually did things, communicating out information with others in the nuclear waste industrial complex so we can all agree to get along and swap waste and keep everyone happy. Late Thursday I was told that I was part of the process that helped the company earn a $250,000 fee for completing work on time. Not that I get any of that money outside of my pay, of course. But it did feel good to be part of the process and hopefully I didn't screw up too much. We'll find out more during the debrief on Monday when the boss is back. But I don't think I committed any major screw-ups.

We did have one thing non-WIPP related turn up that was interesting: Something went wrong when one of our procedures posted to the company website and step numbering was off. What was odd is that on the surface of the Word copy, everything looked fine, but the render to PDF made it blow up. So we had to revise the procedure. Then I was tasked to work on another procedure from the same group, and I'll be darned if I didn't see the same thing happen. Fortunately we're aware of the problem now and can be more vigilant, just like W. A. Thornhump, VIGILANT AGAINST FURTHER ATTACKS.