2013-12-05:

Only the one job today, her main problem was printing stuff over and over for some reason. She had 106 documents in her queue. Mbam found nothing, so her machine was clean, but I went over some things with her. 

Then played Skyrim and went over to feed everycat/everybird. Got the round trip down from two hours to just about an hour and forty five minutes. Not sure I can do it quicker then that, I was rushing to see how fast I could do it. But 35 minutes of that is just the driving between houses, so that's constant. An hour to feed/cuddle/make sure everyone is healthy probably can't be cut down much more.

I got the brainstorm to go at night, after I make phone calls. I was going to start getting up early and getting over there, but then figured, wait a second. They don't care when they're fed, as long as the schedule remains the same, right? And yes, it's cold and dark at 9:00 but in the morning it would be cold and early. So that was that. This way I don't have to change my schedule that much and can still do all my (thus far nonexistent) calls as normal. It's only after I "end" the day I have something else to do. No problem. I play less games for a week, big deal.

Figured out what to get James for Christmas and settled on what to get Heather. Once they arrive I'll have everything in place, and not a moment too soon.

Got an email from Mom, they had made it to Florida. Apparently Governor Rick Scott is Open For Business, I don't want to know what that means.

Sun:

And so the countdown begins. Played some more Skyrim and then Path of Exile, then did phone calls of which there were only a few. Then went to see everycat and they were all fine. Moocher 2 was nowhere to be found, I hope he's safe. 

Mon:

Two actual jobs, but in the morning I got a call from the dentist guy to see if I could come that day because he was leaving for India the next day. I know I always schedule things the day before I leave on the day before I leave. 

Got a call from the window people, he want to do the job Friday. Ouch. It was supposed to be done today. I guess I'm starting my vacation a little early, as they'll probably be working the whole day. Great, just what I needed. I wouldn't have minded losing today, Friday is a little harder to work with. Sigh.

Went shopping, didn't get much, basically just stuff for the cats. Food and litter. I'm trying to use stuff up so I'll be eating up everything I have so I can unplug the fridge. 

Then out to work. Dropped off the laptop, forgot about loading some drivers, whoops. But at least I remembered it and got that done. 

Then over to my 1:30, a BSOD on a laptop, which turned out to be his 2GB RAM chip. His wife apparently restored the machine, uselessly, so I put the standard package on there. She had backed at least most of her stuff up, so she only lost her email and favorites. Shoot, I forgot to ask how they got their email, and set up windows live mail for them. Sigh.

Then I was passing by Heather's so I went and looked for Moocher 2 again, still missing. As dentist guy is right down the street from her I stopped in. He was there so I straightened all his needs out. 

Then back here. 

Got a bunch of calls, of course. Because I only have three days now to do anything. I might have part of Saturday of course, if they get the window in and don't have to come back another day. But I can't guarantee that, so… yeah. 

The laptop people are taking the busted laptop back, so I got that ready to shop. I'll drop it off when I go that way to do the feeding for this evening. Of course I won't get a replacement in by the time I have to leave, so I'll call him and see what he wants to do.

Snow is slowly melting. Maybe we'll avoid any major snow until just before I need to leave and there's a blizzard? 

Went over to feed everyone, still no Moocher2, but more food had disappeared, so somecat is eating it.

Tues:

 First one was no problem. She somehow turned the wireless off on her printer (she said her son probably did it) so she couldn't print anymore. I turned it back on. I then gave her machine a brief checkup, and a laptop she had been given that was running both AVG and MSE. This was an ancient laptop with a 20GB hard drive so needless to say it wasn't happy at all. I finally got them both removed and put on Panda so it's at least somewhat useable. Then she gave me her old machine, an XP media center 2005 machine with keyboard, mouse, and monitor (lcd). Might be able to fix that up when I get back.

Called the print shop guy, his email problem had disappeared, and the mortgage lady who I walked through telling a website to use compatibility mode for IE. Honestly, fix your stupid websites, people. IE's rein is over. It's done. Gone. Through. The End. Get over it.

Actually did some painting, shock and surprise. Got the black done and did the grey on the gun, then set it up to dry. 

Wed:

Sunny! My driveway is finally mostly clear of all that ice that built up, and with the temperature going into the high 50s tomorrow, it should be even better. Let's keep this up, okay weather?

Three jobs, one unscheduled. The first was an FBI virus, or so I thought. He apparently called me in the morning either I had left or my caller id box wasn't flashing, I didn't get the message it was fine. I scanned it and updated everything in any case. It was clean, so that was odd.

Next I came home, finished watching a tutorial video about the Skyrim creation kit. Did some more painting, I just need to put in some highlights with the airbrush and it's done! After months of sitting there. Getting stuff done before I leave for the win. 

After lunch I called York, who it turned out was having a switch problem. Never needed to reset a switch, I've had some running around here for years without touching them. Odd. Knew his RAID was weird so I looked at it. The 180 GB drive was listed as "failed" again. I rebuilt it but thought I would just watch it. The owner came and said to just order one, so I did. 

Then to my 3:00, setting up a new laptop to replace a desktop machine. He gave me the unit, so now I have three machines sitting on my breezeway. One I would like to sell and two I need to decide what to do with. 

Actually did some writing, finished chapter 120, decided to start the endgame, and figured out how to introduce it. Did so. All this creative stuff!

Worked out a little of how I want my "forbidden knowledge" quest to go when I get a chance to work on that. Wow, one more day of work, then putting the window in, then hopefully saturday they'll be done, finish one last job, do the last minute stuff, and Sunday go to bed reallllllly early. It's almost time!

Thurs:

Warm today! Like in the 60s and the snow is all gone. That won't last.

So, almost locked myself out of my own house last night. Fun times! Walked out, walked over to the car, patted my pocket for my keys.

No keys.

Yeah, they were in on the table under some papers where I didn't see them. Cute. 

The one thing I didn't do at that exact moment: panic. 

So I took stock of the situation. I could drive someplace because I have a spare car key but where would I go? I can't go to heather's or mom's unless they have spare keys someplace. Does Heather have my key at her place and a key hidden someplace? 

But then I realized my door knob comes off. So I thought, what if I could pull it off, look inside, and figure out how to unlock the door? So I yanked the knob off and sat there with a cow mooing in my ear (the LED light I keep by the door is a cow, don't ask) while I figured out how to unlock the door this way. 

Turned out to be pretty easy, actually. I was back inside in less then ten minutes after I started thinking about it. 

So add yet another way someone can get into my house. At least this way doesn't bypass the alarm.

That done I fed everybody, and came back here. 

Now today I did a bunch of stuff. Job number one was the guy who plugged his cable box into his router as though it was a computer rather then into the cable box port. His machine was totally messed up. I was trying to (vainly) install Panda but he had spoken about replacing it soon. So I said "what if you replace it, I copy the stuff off, and then wipe this machine out and start it over" so he could have his grandkids use it. He said that was fine. So I went over to the second one, which was a corrupted calendar file, causing the program to crash upon opening. I suggested google calendar from now on. Answered a few other questions for her. 

Took Buddy his typewriter. What will he do, not able to call me every freaking night for a whole week? Who will he complain to? I FEEL SO BAD FOR HIM. (note this was sarcasm)

Came back for lunch, then went out again. Wanted to get the people that had called me today done. It was a broken machine, it would power on when it was plugged in, but not do anything. I tried a new power supply, changing out the RAM, unplugging everything, nothing worked. Dead. I lent them the gaming machine I wanted to sell, and they are going to get another one and have me transfer stuff when I get back. 

I also called a guy, but he wasn't available today. 

Didn't reach one other person from yesterday. 

Finished painting the gun. Think I'll list it tomorrow, with a 10 day duration, that'll end just as I get back, so I can ship it right away if it sells. It could be a gift I guess. Heck, I gave one as a gift!

So tomorrow is Window day, we'll see how that goes. If it goes well and I have time, I'll probably do a job or two later in the day. Then Saturday again we'll play by ear, depending on if the window is in or not. 

Then last minute stuff Sunday and leaving early monday morning. No entry next week, unless I'm somehow really, really board in Florida on Thursday and I want to post something.

Yeah, probably not going to happen. 

I will update my stories. I've put the text up there already, I just have to hit the button to finalize it. They'll never know I was gone. I would have used my iPad- if I owned one- but I've already sent miniMacLaptop down in my suitcase so I'll use that. Sigh.

Stay safe everyone. When I get back it'll be about a week and two days until christmas. Yipes. Good thing I've got most of that done. Oh yeah, got James' gift delivered to the front door- who delivers there? They all know to go to the back, or they should. Sillies. 

See you all when I get back.