As I go home each day, there is a used office furniture store that has a life-size fiberglass cow (painted red and white) sitting on the sidewalk. The owners put a short phrase of the day (or week).
This week, the cow’s message is “Stop the Recession – Get In Here and Buy Something!”.
And that’s how you fix the economy.
You can also donate to the FileHurl site (www.filehurl.com), or buy your very own Carbon Offset Certificate (www.carbonoffsetcerts.com ). That will help my economy.
All the wet stuff went up north, as usual. The folks up in Washington/Oregon are a bit damp at the moment, with lots of rain melting lots of snow. Nephew Todd reports that he’s still on dry land. Daughter Christine reports cold and a bit of snow, along with some intestinal distress. She insists it is not morning sickness.
Here, we just got fog and low clouds. Cold (for us), with highs in the mid-40’s (F). My plan is to stay inside.
Made a minor addition to the FileHurl site (www.filehurl.com). Now you can see the thousands (well, ‘ones’) of people that are using the place to send a file to a friend. Soon, the counters will show thousands of people visiting the site daily. Perhaps.
Back to work today. I really wanted to sleep in…
So, digging my way out of the inbox, and trying to get organized with the project list. Had some difficulties posting these blog entries over the weekend, but all seems to be well now. That will make my five regular readers happy (three of those being my family).
The “Free File Transfer” site (www.filehurl.com) is working well. I’ll be making some minor tweaks to the pages, and have updated things a bit to let Google know that the site is active. You five regular readers are welcome to try it out, and any suggestions for changes are welcomed.
A fun Christmas holiday so far … most of it, anyway.
Started out with a long trip to Utah to spend the holiday with Jared and Christine (daughter) and children (cute grandkids, all five of them). We started at 8am on the 24th after Stacy (daughter) got off her overnight shift at Shriner’s Children’s Hospital). I had been watching the weather for several days, with an incoming winter storm in our future.
I had hoped that we would be able to stay just ahead of the winter storm, but it was not to be. Chains were required over Donner summit (although four-wheel drive vehicles didn’t need chains then). The roads were a bit snow-packed, but all lanes were plowed. We got the cable chains on the car (actually, we helped the local economy by allowing a chain installer to do it for us), and trundled along at 25-30mph over the summit. It was a bit slippery, though: we watched a Subaru wagon (without chains, since they are all-wheel drive) do a nice 360 pirouette a bit in front of us. They were lucky; didn’t slam into the guardrails or any other cars.
We got over the summit OK, and were able to take the chains off at Truckee. The roads were wet but clear as we made our way into Nevada. Just past Fernley NV (east of Reno), the roads started to get a bit of snow-pack, with the right lane clear and slightly slushy, and the left lane snow-packed. Just a bit of snow flurries in the air, so I was thinking that we were going to be able to stay ahead of the storm.
By the time we got to Winnemucca (NV), the snow was starting to fall a bit heavier, and the roads were getting more snow-packed. I pulled into a gas station at the edge of town and got the snow chains on.
And we started rumbling across Nevada at 30mph. It was quite windy, with the snow blowing horizontally across the road at times. The road was snow-packed in places, but the four-wheel-drive trucks (lots of them in Nevada) were able to pass us. Even the big semis were swooshing by at 50-60mph; I assume they had snow tires, but it was quite exciting to have a big semi speed by you in a snow-packed lane as you are plodding along at 30mph.
The elevations across Nevada range from about 4000 feet to 7000 feet in the mountain passes. And it was snowing most of the way. The road crews were out with the snow plows, keeping at least one lane partly cleared. Although I’ve made the Sacramento to Salt Lake City trip many times, this was my first winter crossing in a snowstorm. I’m driving a Camry with good tires, although not snow treads. And since a snow storm over the Sierra Nevada mountains is always good for a few feet of snow, I’m figuring the same elevation mountain passes in Nevada are going to get similar amount of snow.
So the chains stayed on, perhaps a bit longer than needed. I finally got to take them off at Oasis NV. That’s about 200 miles (half of Nevada), normal driving time of under 3 hours. But a bit longer at 30mph max, with rumbling tire chains. The chains probably could have come off sooner, but I figured the mountain passes would have enough snow that chains would be needed. Apparently, it doesn’t snow as much in Nevada as I figured. It was mostly slushy snow in the right lane most of the way, with the left lane snow-packed.
Once free of the tire chains, the roads started to clear up, and we started making good time. We finally ended up in Syracuse UT (a bit north of SLC) at about 330am, after about 19 hours of driving (a trip that usually takes about 10 hours in good weather).
It was pretty cold outside (about 28 F), strong winds, so it was quite chilly (for this Californian) unloading the car (and about 6 trash bags full of presents). We tried to be quiet as presents were arranged under the tree (as I tried a short nap downstairs). The grandkids got up about 5am (or a bit earlier), and changed into their new pajamas (a family tradition). So the fun part started.
Lots of presents for everyone, and the good times started as everyone opened their treasures. A relaxing day at home while there was light snow outside. We stayed there until the following Monday, leaving at about 8am under clearing skies. The weather was partly to mostly sunny all the way home, roads dry and clear, even over the Sierras, so were able to get home at about 6pm.
It was a fun trip. This time of year is difficult for our family, as we miss Jason (and celebrate his birthday on Jan 3rd). So time spent with family over the holiday is nice. We may make this an annual trip, along with the several others we make to Utah during the year. (Pam is already planning for a March trip to coincide with a big scrapbook expo in March.)
Once at home, it’s pretty low-key and quiet. We managed to stay up until midnight last night, but were in bed sleeping a few minutes after the midnight New Year’s noise. Our plans for the rest of the week are similarly quiet.
Hope your holidays were enjoyable.
Ever need to transfer a file to someone, but it was too big for sending via email? There are some sites that do that, but most have a one-time or monthly charge, especially if the files are large.
That happens to me sometimes. So I decided to try to create my own file transfer web site. And I think that it is ready for my thousands of readers (well, maybe as many as five) to try out (and to recommend to others).
The concept is quite simple. You fill out a simple form with the email address of the person you want to receive a file. Type in a little message, use a browse button to find the file on your computer, then click one button to send it off. (We call it “Hurling a file”.)
The recipient gets an email message with a special and unique link, along with your message. Click on the link, then click one “Get the File” button to save the file to your computer.
And that’s it! You’ve sent your file to someone else, no size limits, no charges, and it’s simple enough for “Aunt Minnie” to use (at least, that’s our hope). We don’t save the email addresses, and the file is available for just seven days and then goes away.
It’s not a file sharing site, since you only get to send one file that you already own. And it can’t be a spam site, since you have to enter the email addresses manually. We’ve protected it against the evil guys as much as we can, and will monitor things to make sure that the site stays as safe as it can.
And, it’s all free. Although we do have a ‘donate’ button, and hope to get some simple advertising, to help defray expenses.
We (hmm…sounds like a ‘royal we’…) also put some social networking buttons at the bottom of the page to spread the word about the place. It’s a grand experiment, it will be interesting to see if anyone other than me actually goes there.
Oh. Where’s there ? www.filehurl.com . You’re invited to try it out.
And tell a friend.
Created a new Windows 2008 server at work. Quite easy to set up with all the wizards. Having a problem with the wrong serial number, but that’s my fault; just need to get the right code from the guy that’s in charge of the company licenses. It’s a big server, tons of disk space (16 * 146GB drives), to be used as a logging server. Now just have to figure out what logging software I want to put on there.
At home, still working on the new web site. Final testing going on now; just some minor styling changes to finish up, I think. Should be interesting to see if anyone pays attention to it. (Yes, my regular two readers might be interested.) If you ask nicely, I might let you try it out.
Tonight, a project involving a guy in a red suit. Weekend plans: replace the water valve on the toilet, which has decided not to shut off when the tank is full. Not a hard project: requires a pair of pliers and some teflon tape.
Might do some Christmas shopping. Even if it’s a bit too early to start that.
I am in the middle of a mild cold, mostly sniffles. But I am eating a lot of mandarin oranges — locally grown in Placer county (CA – north of Sacramento), in fact; we buy them by the box directly from the grower.
Mandarin oranges are good for the sniffles, since they contain a higher concentration of synephrine:
“A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms that Placer’s popular Owari Satsuma mandarins pack a big jolt of synephrine, a natural antihistamine that relieves cold and allergy symptoms. Scientists have known since the 1960s that citrus fruit, such as oranges, contain synephrine, but the health experts overlooked the mandarin. ” (news article; the study was funded by the local mandarin orange growers).
This variety of mandarins contains up to 6 times the synephrine as orange juice. Since I am on blood thinner medication (Warfarin, for an atrial fibrillation condition), I can’t use over the counter decongestants. A couple of mandarins seems to relieve my congestion a bit.
They are quite tasty.
And I am at work today.