Some Days in the Life - May 9, 1999

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The counter is gone from the bottom of the page. BeSeen lost all my hit-data for the last week. It had just broken 490 on Friday, and was back down to 380 on Saturday. Not good, not good. It reset during the day again yesterday. You only get to break twice before I get fed up and shoot you.

About 110 hits a week. Not bad. Not bad at all. Hello, all. Have a lovely beverage.

Mason has awakened and wants to tell everyone here "hi."

Mason and I had a nice day yesterday, despite fog and rain. We hopped in the car rather early and drove over to Maine, to see the folks and the countryside. The countryside is looking good -- Spring finally having come there the same as it has here in Wolfeboro. The homestead is awake with life now. Too much life, actually. Insects have started to come out. Nothing stung or bit me yesterday, but it won't be long now. The Black Flies are coming, and you can't stop them with your silly little bug dope, Mister. They're on to that trick. But they weren't there yet.

Mason met Mom and Dad, and both sides seemed to enjoy the presence of the other. He also met Buddy, who greeted me with his usual ballisticness, and who seemed to like Mason just fine. That's cool. Your dog should like your houseguests. Buddy doesn't like everyone, but he's generally sweet.

After sitting for a bit, we took a ride out to Two Lights, which is a park and (as the name implies) the home of two lighthouses and a foghorn, which was in full electronic cry yesterday. It's also a perfect example of what makes Maine Maine. The rocks jut out into the Atlantic, where the waves alternately caress and pound them. There is a beach, below, but it's not as interesting as the rocks that overlook the ocean. We wandered them, and looked out into the fog. It was like the world itself was fading away -- out there was the Old World, which had finally slipped off into that good night, and the fog was coming closer. Not violently. Just a reminder.

Maine reminds you of mortality and the end of things, sometimes. That's really not a bad thing.

While out there, we had seafood. Mason had lobster, so he can claim with the best of them that he went to Maine and ate lobster, which is important. We had to wait a long time to sit down -- one family of three had pushed two tables together, and the husband was sitting alone at the second table while the little boy and wife sat at the first. When asked if we could have one of the tables, we were informed that they had friends coming. Well, not while we were there, they didn't. Finally, the rather outrageous nature of it overcame even them, and we sat and ate our food in quiet comfort after that.

Buddy is fun to watch on the seacoast, though he ran up to a bearded gentleman wandering along the coastline and acted like it was Dad, who also has a beard. We decided that in Buddy's head, any old beard will do -- which may explain why it seems he remembers me.

Mason and I seperated from the folks then and drove down to South Portland, where we were going to see "The Mummy." I attempted to draw more money out of my account (and deposit a reimbursement check for a book I bought for the office), only to be stymied at every turn. KeyBank's been having severe network problems all week, and it's still there today. This is deeply annoying. So, while I've got a few thousand tucked away, I'm effectively broke until they acknowledge my existence again. I'm hoping that's cleared up today. But, I had enough for the movie.

"The Mummy" was entirely too good to be the bad movie we hoped it would be. The leads were appropriately cast, the plot (while thin to the point of being breathable) held together just enough to explain why things were going on, and there was lots of cool special effects and two gorgeous women in veils or body paint. All in all, a fine evening indeed. Brendon Fraiser seems to be a perfectly credible action hero.

Driving back was an adventure, as the fog was thick and rainy. We went about trolling speed and I managed to miss about three turns I've done a billion times in the light (including one to my own street and apartment). I assume I'm not used to driving while having fun conversations with anyone but myself any more. Upon getting back, we fired up the computer and then, more or less to see if we good, we pulled down IPNetRouter and configured it, allowing Mason and I to use the same PPP dialup account to connect both Egoiste (my 8600/300) and Arsenal (my Work Powerbook) at the same time, through Ethernet.

We noticed no lag, even when we were both chatting in rooms, downloading our mail, and surfing the web. Mason pulled down two variants of the "South Park -- the Movie" Trailer (we saw a third on the movie screen. It looks hysterical). So, either IPnetRouter is a phenomenally good product, or PPP is more efficient than we thought. Either way, we're happy.

We're likely to stay close to home today, and mostly talk and take pictures and the like. Should be pleasant. I can't wait to see what the round of sunshine will do to the leaves now that they've had a few days of rain. It's got to be a short night tonight -- we need to leave the apartment before five to get Mason to his plane before six, as it takes off at seven. And then I head into work. So, Monday I'll probably be whining about exhaustion. See you then.