Done yesterday

[mdlbear]

0321 Sa
  * awake 6ish; up 7:15
  * W=186.6; drugs, nose, flonase; coffee, emergen-c
  & The wolfling IM'ed to ask whether there was coffee.  
    Of course there's coffee -- I'm awake.
  & The wolfling came down for breakfast.  Almost un-heard-of.
    ! surprised.
  & Visit Colleen; deliver fixed Kindle
    ! she seems optimistic; that cheered me.
  * walk.  Los Gatos Creek to the park.
    ! happy, contented.  Mostly observing rather than thinking.
  * visit difference engine at Computer History Museum
    see if the kids want to go -> Kat
    ! happy, proud; occasionally very old
    = maybe using Hollerith cards for sketching/writing on would be a
      good conversation-starter
  & Visit Colleen with Kat -- 90 minutes of PT
    ! nearly stood up out of the wheelchair three times.
  * leftovers for dinner
  * drugs, nose.
  * bed: midnight

Yesterday was a good day. I didn't get much done, of course, out of all the things that have been piling up needing attention, but I was happy.

First there was a visit with Colleen; she seemed optimistic, which cheered me. She was also happy to get her Kindle back. I'm glad I got it -- she really loves that thing. It would drive me crazy, but I'm me; it seems almost perfect for her. I'll have to make backups occasionally, though.

Then I went for my walk, along Los Gatos Creek to the park at Campbell Avenue. I haven't been getting enough walks lately. Unlike most walks I deliberately tried not to think too much, but just observe and enjoy the green Spring day. That let me notice that I was happy -- I seem more in touch with my feelings when I'm not thinking.

I stopped at a garage sale on the way back -- they were closing up after a busy morning, and giving away books. I found no less than four that I wanted: The Five Love Languages (Chapman), The Etiquette Edge -- The Unspoken Rules for Business Success (Beverly Langford -- an etiquette book has been recommended as a way of learning about social interaction norms), Legacy -- a step-by-step guide to writing personal history (Linda Spence -- I figure if I'm writing a sort of memoire of the last year...), and the Tao Teh Ching (Lao Tzu, translated by John C. H. Wu -- I'm always interested in reading a new translation of one of my all-time favorites).

After lunch I went to the Computer History Museum with chaoswolf. It's been ages since the two of us went to a museum together; it was a nice father-daughter bonding experience. Fun! Of course, it also made me feel very old, to see things I grew up with behind a "please don't touch the artifacts" sign. The Difference Engine was awesome, even though we missed the demos, which were at 1pm and 2pm. I'll have to go back to see it run.

The Wolfling was able to fill in some of the references in my filksongs: things like magnetic drums, vacuum tubes, teletypes, keypunches, Deep Blue (in an exhibit on computer chess, which she found fascinating), the Cray 1 and the PDP-10. And plugboards. Brings back memories, it does.

The Wolfling bought herself a "Paper Palm" (also known as an analog PDA) and immediately started thinking of making a leather case for it. I realized that carrying around a small stack of Hollerith cards for taking notes and sketching on might be a good conversation-starter, though they may be a little too bulky for every day.

It rained on and off during the afternoon.

After the museum we went to REI, because Chaos had expressed an interest in getting buckles and clips for leatherwork. I picked up a new hat (mine have been disappearing lately) and a purple bandana for Colleen. Took a new route. Got lost a couple of times, but with nobody providing panicky feedback I stayed calm and centered. I actually like exploring when I'm not rushed or sleepy.

We stopped off to visit Colleen on the way home. She'd had an hour and a half of physical therapy, and had come close -- three times! -- to getting out of her wheelchair unassisted.

I was very sleepy in the evening. It occurs to me to wonder whether the fact that I'm sleeping more has anything to do with my improved mood. It would be unfortunate to have to make that trade-off. Can I think about it? I thought depression made you sleep more.

I could get used to days like this. I may have to... :-)

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Ah, computer history... ferrite memory cores! "washing machine" disk drives! circuit boards full of individual transistors! jumper wires! ("...and we did all our computing with ones and zeroes - and sometimes we ran out of ones!")

It must feel amazing to suddenly realize that you're happy!

[mdlbear]

See my parody -- I'm about 10 years older than Frank Hayes, so I don't have to exaggerate.

Yes. It's happened a couple of times; not so much amazing as very, very strange. I'm getting more used to it now; when I had a week of feeling happy last September I was completely baffled, and when it stopped I was afraid I'd never get it back.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

I think I like your version better ;-D
(I never did it myself, but I saw a medium-size mainframe being programmed in "assembler language" by a grad student flipping switches on the panel. Eight switches and a button, IIRC; create one byte at a time with the positions of the switches, then enter it into memory by pushing the button. There was no keyboard.)

And, well, now you know that you can get it back, probably at many times.

[mdlbear]

I prefer using octal, three switches at a time :)

Even on some machines with a console typewriter, like the SDS 930, you had to key in a bootloader by hand.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

"Keyboard? We don' need no steenkin' keyboard!" ;-D