April 13, 2005

           Another early start, and it is a day earmarked for intense study. Unless the Hippie calls and we can manage an extra practice sometime this afternoon. I’m looking south out my window. The view is great, there is no fence and the couple to the west keep such a beautiful yard. Little shrubbery things and trees in clay pots. Bark mulch and lots of flowers. It is all for show, they never use it. He regularly dusts the patio furniture they never sit on. It amounts to a private view for me, because the yard is not visible from the street. There is another house in front and a long narrow driveway that is mostly blocked by an SUV. I’ve always wanted a gardener.

           I can’t use the yard, only look at it. I don’t miss it, never having had a yard of any repute. I have a small patio I rarely use. My only door faces north and I would have to walk around the entire building to view the neighbor’s yard directly. Look near here for a picture of this yard through my Venetian blinds, and remember that this is still in the wintertime.            Okay, back to study. It is already 9:00 AM. I will wisely split the day into part lab time, starting with the computer from ABC. He says it runs for a while, then reboots itself. Although I do not know, nor have I really learned, how to troubleshoot this problem, I do know it is a very hard thing to diagnose. All random or intermittent electrical problems can pretend to be something else. Let’s see how far I get.            First, the book studying has to be done. I’m reading the glossary in the textbook A+ Complete from Sybex. Most if it is written by one author, David Groth, and (like this journal) suffers accordingly. In the glossary, you can see that he has done research since and adopted better definitions as time or complaints came along. It is easy to tell because the writing style changes drastically. Glossaries are easier to change than the body of the text, making it more informative. Groth has an annoying habit of explaining things in circular fashion, “A data bus is a bus that transmits data.” (Not a quote, just a typical representation of the fault.) Why, if was not such a perfect day, I’d complain. It is 82 degrees and partly cloudy at 10:30 AM. This was the weather that fooled me into staying in Florida in 2000. The scorching summer is on the way, be warned.

           The Hippie called before noon, but there just is not enough time to do a power walk today. (That’s me doing a knee-up in the park.) Besides, he tends to go on the same walk all the time. If I walk a stretch and don’t meet the gal of my dreams the first day out, I’ll walk someplace else tomorrow. Either his taste in music is changing, or he has some kind of plan. Last practice, we played “El Paso”. That’s the song that goes, “Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl.” Try to suppose you’d told me forty years ago I’d ever play that song. To me that tune (although I like it and think the lyrics are great) represents “old” music.            Then, he finds this music book at the Dania Beach library. He’s got this plan that we play hits from old TV shows. I’m all for it. It has great audience appeal, riffs like Hawaii Five-0. “DA-da da DA daaaah-da.” He mentioned Adam’s Family, but don’t ask me to name that tune. I would remember Gilligan’s Island, and with Cowboy Mike’s banjar (a correct term for banjo), there’s Beverly Hillbillies. Other than that, I remember exactly two themes. “Baby Elephant Walk” and “Mission Impossible”. [Author’s note: it’s a small world. When I finally decided others were not to be relied on for a music band in this town, “El Paso” became one of my lounge standards, and TV themes became part of my opening act – something that never happened with the other people.]            x margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 1em; margin-left: 1em;