A nice touch of the flu kept me in most of the day, but wait till you see what I got underway. A real dot matrix, something to challenge the old brain pod. Dave-O came by, the only person who has been here since Saturday, with the exact same flu symptoms and is convinced he caught it from me. Dave-O has a rather pre-Pasteurian view of illness, you know, when they thought the plague was caused by the devil. Here it is, my matrix prototype. It is already over budget.
For the no-tech crowd, that is a matrix of all the LEDs I own and an incomplete rectangle of switching transistors. I’m mapping this thing out to learn what I’m in for. The final working device will have severe limitations. Each display will have to be loaded from a computer. My focus is the matrix, not the code.I took the scooter for a run up to the library, where I bought a music score for the opera. Real opera puts me to sleep and gives me a sore behind. I chose a new one for me, "La Boheme" (The Bohemian) and the influence of Hollywood (CA) way back then is amazing. The play is set in 1830, which is when the author lived. In a Paris attic, which is also where he lived. Even the furniture was exactly what he had in his place. Gee, aren’t playwrights so imaginative?
Even the sex scenes had Los Angeles written all over them. The gal next door comes over and wants him to light her candle, which is about as risqué as you could get in 1830. But if you’ve read Sex and the City, you’ll grasp the whole outline up to this very day. Low budget fantasies where you just know the author’s hidden agenda is to be called in as consultant on the sex parts. “No, no, Mary, touch me THERE. Looks like we’ll just have to do this scene over and over until you get it right.”
I took some spare time and read a chapter each on microbiology and pharmaceuticals. The same thing happened as when I was 16, the words danced in front of my eyes. I was never cut out to be a doctor. You need to cram your head full of so much stuff you’ll probably never use. Yes, I wanted very much to get an advanced degree and make the big bucks, but law and medicine make my head spin. I can grasp the principles, but the textbooks always continue up into the stratosphere. Just not my bag.
The scooter Patsie bought me passed the 1,000 mile mark today. Many more to come, it still rides like new. Say, Patsie, did you know Harley Davidson once made a motorcycle called an “Indian”? Did you know that “Cadillac” was the name of an Iroquois chief? Why, I’m sure if the average person thought about it, they could name, oh, three or four other great Native Americans. Well, three, anyway. If one includes the programmer. Patsie, wait until you see the home you bought me. Is it ever nice! I mean, Wallace doesn’t have the money so we know it must be coming from somewhere. Thank you. I hear this is the first time you have ever done anything from the very bottom of your heart. I know the feelings you must have when you think about your generosity, first with your advice, but then to have the opportunity to back it up with your own money. What a sensation that must be!
When you arriving? I hear the place has an ensuite with a side door wide enough for your ego, though it needs “extensive repair” but apparently the ceiling doesn’t. (The way I once saw Wallace take over an hour to patch a small hole, everything is going to require lots of hard work.) Of course, I’ll wait until you are settled in before getting you to buy me that new PA system. I watch for developments every day. Want to see the pictures? You are the best Patsie I’ve ever known. And I really mean that.
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