The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey July 1, 2018

1 July 2018

Half of the year is gone, and all things considered for us, things could be worse. But between the political situation and all the shitty men doing shitty men things to women, things could certainly be a lot better. Additionally, we were touched by the tragic shooting in Annapolis - Marcia and I know a couple of the Capital Gazette folks, and Wendi Winters was one, now gone. Also killed were Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, John McNamera, and Rebecca Smith. Rest in peace. Our condolences to the affected families, friends, and coworkers. Other than that sad news, it was a…

Brian Bilbrey June 24, 2018

24 June 2018

We're back! We had a two week vacation! Destinations: three days in Ithaca (NY), a drive-by for Ticonderoga (NY), three days in Stowe (VT), and a week in Winthrop (ME) at Cobbosseecontee Lake. We managed some hikes in Ithaca, along with visits to the gardens and arboretum at Cornell. On the drive to Stowe, we stopped in Ticonderoga, and beamed up to the Enterprise for a quick visit: The Star Trek Original Series Set Tour is great fun. Licensed by CBS, the team at TOS Set Tour have put together most of the sets you saw through three seasons of…

Brian Bilbrey June 3, 2018

3 June 2018

Well, another wet week. We had, today alone, way more than the 1.5 inches the gauge shows. Over 12 inches of rain in the last month if my rain gauge (and memory) can be trusted. The good news is that, while muggy and warm yesterday, I managed to get all of the required outdoor work done: mowing, pruning, weeding, fertilizing. Today, shopping and a couple of hours of remote work (patching) took up the morning. The afternoon ... well. Marcia's been providing an extra bunch of hours to the theater for the last couple of weeks, what with people out…

Brian Bilbrey May 28, 2018

28 May 2018

Memorial Day for those in the US. All respect and honor to those who gave their lives in service to our Country and Constitution. * * * A busy week last week, building new systems for new services, retiring old systems, and generally doing modern system administration stuff. Continuing to build out the configuration management system to improve system repeatability, reliability, security, and availability. So there's that. The three day weekend had a bit of lawn work, a bit of garden work, coffee roaster maintenance and roasting, etc. Oh, and a bit of old-school wood working to make a cutting…

Brian Bilbrey May 20, 2018

20 May 2018

Howdy. A full work week, followed by chores and theatre on Saturday, and mowing a wet, wet, tall set of lawns today. We had just one rainy stretch - it lasted from Saturday the 12th until this morning. All in, according to my still-poorly-sited rain gauge, we got just under 5" of rain in that period of time. Not too shabby. The abbreviated garden hasn't drowned or died from lack of direct sunlight, either ... yet. I've been working my way through some Python (programming language) training, and I've reached once again the point where I spend more time fighting…