The day so far...

I woke on my own around a quarter to six this morning, made some coffee, and by the time it was ready, Galina was up and about. I made ham and eggs and we wordlessly ate breakfast and drank coffee.

Then it was off to the store to gather up a few items for the road, and then we said our goodbyes and I stood on the corner of 160 and Pagosa Boulevard and watched her car grow small in the distance. The shadows were long and the air had that crispness to it that only the night can give.

I turned around and walked home. Once I turned off of 160 onto Meadows Drive, the traffic pretty much died out and the noise grew dim behind me. I was wearing what Drew dubbed my "Elton John" sunglasses, so named because the lenses are yellow, but I prefer them to the traditional wraparound glasses I have, since the latter just make everything dark, while the yellow lenses seem to intensify the reds, yellows, and greens around me.

I got back to the house and cleaned up about one quarter of the garage before the kids got up and decided we were going to go to Durango for supplies. We all went in Drew's car, with me stuffed into the back. Once in Durango, we hied into the Wal-Mart parking lot, went inside, and proceeded to do the requisite amount of damage to our credit cards. Among other things, I picked up a battery charger for household batteries as well as a charger for my StarTac phone.

On the way back, we stopped at a Sonic fast food emporium. It was my first experience with their food, and if the sandwich I had was any indication, it will be my last. I managed to get it down, though, as we left Durango to go back home.

So here I am, staring at my screen, trying to work up enough energy to do the two translations that arrived in my e-mail on Friday. I'm sure I'll get to them... it's just that my heart's not in it. Now that I've spilled my guts here, maybe I'll be more in the mood to work. Let's see...

Cheers...

One lucky sumofthebits...

I noticed that my VAIO was running a little hot, and upon lifting it off my desk and blowing into the CPU vent, was greeted by a faceful of dust.

I grabbed my trusty new can of "Blow-Off" and blew some in gingerly through the vent, figuring the stream of gas would clean out some more dust and help cool down the system.

Instead, it caught fire.

Literally.

What I hadn't noticed was the warning on the side of the can saying "Extremely flammable!"

I was so busy trying to blow the fire out, I didn't notice the neat singe job the flames were doing to eyebrows and arm hair.

I hate the smell of burnt hair.

Cheers...

Connection...hah!

I don't know whether it's the local phone company or my ISP, but I cannot seem to hold a connection for more than a couple of minutes. Feht tells me he has the same problem no matter who he tries to connect with, and has concluded that it's the fault of what passes for a phone company in these parts.

I am still amazed over just how lightly I seem to have gotten off with my adventure of earlier today. I can't see any visible damage... no smell of burned circuits or plastic. Then again, the flame wasn't very hot at all (kinda like the flame you get from alcohol), and I doubt there was enough of a gas-air mix inside the computer for any combustion to have taken place.

I think the CPU fan started working when I blew out the dust, because the flame coming out of the CPU vent was being fed.

But that's enough of that. Hopefully, there was no hidden damage to my computer, and now I know that some canned air products out there are most definitely not inert.

Drew and Shannon made a scrumptious lasagna for dinner. I had two pieces. Then I sat down and finished the translation, which I will send off early tomorrow morning. Right now, I am waiting for an e-mail from Feht that may shed some light on what the client likes to see in terms of crypto-boilerplate terms (do they prefer "requirements specification" or "design specification"). However, we are both at the mercy of whatever it is that keeps kicking us offline.

Better send this off... before the phone company drops me again.

Cheers...