Tony's Microsoft Access Blog : Personal

Twitter and Swine Flu

Tony — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:13:00 GMT

I don't get Twitter. There is so much crap on there I just don't care about. And my life is far too boring to post any such minutiae. So I laughed quite hard when I saw the XKCD cartoon.

Ok, so it is interesting reading about my sisters life over in Sri Lanka because it is so different than here. The lizard in the back yard was just cool.

My grandmother passed away

Tony — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:02:51 GMT

My grandmother passed away last Friday at the age of 92. In many respects her passing was a blessing as grandfather passed away about 10 years ago. She told me many times that she was ready to join him ever since.

While we had some disagreements of course, and sometimes she got a bit irritating, she and grandfather were very good people. I enjoyed my visits with them over the decades.

As a young child they would take us to the Winnipeg Zoo. A highlight was to see the polar bears, monkeys and, of course, the train. We also visited the Manitoba legislature and other scenic places. I can recall one time as a teen we drove south into the US to visit the scene of a tornado which had gone through a forest. It was very impressive seeing the twisted tree trunks bent over a few feet above the ground.

I worked on their farm on and off for two summers when I was in my mid teens. Among other things I drove the tractor cleaning up a ten or 20 year old chicken manure pile. It sounds much worse than it was as the pile was thoroughly composted to black stuff by then. Indeed it steamed in cold mornings.

When I lived out in Winnipeg I frequently visited them especially for Sunday dinner. Her fried chicken, from their own farm and fried potatoes were excellent. I've wondered since then if a 20 or 30 year old cast iron fry pan in daily use makes a difference to the taste. <smile>

After my grandfather passed away she mostly stayed with my aunt in the lower mainland of British Columbia ,a couple of hours drive north of Seattle. So whenever I went to an MVP Summit or visited Microsoft I would spend a few days or a week on either side of the Summit visiting with her. I would give my aunt and uncle a break so they could get out on a "date".

One of her nephews I spoke today to made the blunt comment "She was the last of the aunts and uncles I gave a damn about so yes I'm going to her funeral." And that about sums it up.

RIP Leah G.

Spit does not go clunk at -40 aka Converting to Metric

Tony — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:16:44 GMT

I just had to laugh long and loud when I read the Converting to Metric XKCD cartoon. In light of the Canadian prairie deep freeze where the temps have had wind chills in the -40 and -45 C for quite a number of days recently.

Spit does not go clunk at -40.

Mind you there are some videos on YouTube showing boiling water being thrown in the air. For example From Boiling to Frozen

A number of years ago when I was a teenager I was working for my Dad up in Fort McMurray, Alberta on some 3 1/2 story walkup apartment blocks. The recessed balconies had to be painted so they were covered in multiple players of plastic. It was about -45 or -50 C outside without the wind chill. I was really tempted to cut a small slit in the plastic on the fourth floor balcony and see if err, ahhh well you know, that yellow stuff, would be frozen when it hit the snow. However I quickly realized that a rather important chunk of the male anatomy might get frost bite which I figured would be a bad thing.

My sister, who reads my blog, is just shaking her head right now.

I've been meaning to visit a friend ...

Tony — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:19:31 GMT

I ran into her husband today. I told him I'd give them a call to invite myself over for supper. He stopped me by saying "We lost her in September. The cancer spread to her brain." Granted they're both seniors but I had no idea she had cancer. Never mind that she had died. Sure she had some tremors when I saw her last a year or so ago.

Last email from her was in April subject "Haven't heard from you in a coons=age". We exchanged a few emails and that was it.

Margaret had been around long enough that she knew the meaning of cc as used in emails quite literally. "I was asked by the Captain to make seven copies of the memo. I told that that the seventh copy would be so fuzzy as to be illegible. " This was back in the days of manual type writers, no photo copiers and carbon paper. cc stands for carbon copy.

Also interesting how many terms used in Microsoft Word come from the lead based (that's lead as in lead batteries) hot metal typesetting machines which used, among other technologies, molten lead. I was quite fascinated watching just such a machine being operated a while back.

I've got an aunt who has said for the last four or five years "Yes, we'll call or come out and visit your Dad soon." Well, he's had some strokes a few years ago and another one a month or so ago. Minor ones but he's definitely slowing down. (Not quite as bad as Bilbo in the final scene of the Lord of the Rings but getting there.) To my aunt who doesn't read my blog - "You'd better call soon."