White Lightning Axiom: Redux

The alarm folks needed to come by the Manor and check all the devices to make sure it was all in working condition. Of course, that included several Red Shirt Security fire teams which were used to exercise the anti-personnel devices. In the end, only the one chief Tech made it to the front portcullis and was admitted. He did the usual 'Cleaning' of the smoke detectors and trigger testing the access detection devices. He did find some grunge on the 3 button on the access panel on the Main Wing of the Manor ... which we rarely use. Fine, fine. Just send me your $5K bill and be done with it. This fellow has been to the manor before and knows the Tyrants/Hounds and was prepared for the experience. Get in, do the job, get out. He did spend a few moments to talk to me about the political sign I had posted outside the front portcullis. It is the other one, not the 'Beware, there be monsters here' or the 'Abandon all hope' signage. The one about Tom Murt. Apparently he is a friend so we had a talk about it for a few moments until Senior Tech was certain I would vote the way I was proclaiming to lean. Funny how these last few weeks are bringing out the low-level advocates.

Rest of the day: Local Fire Station open house, complete with ladder truck, repelling lines and hoses. We even had a PECO display that showed the Tyrants that electricity is NOT your friend. Lots of burning stuff and arcing electric. The kids were mesmerized. I can see the Tesla Generators being abused into offensive weapons now. After we coerced the Tyrants from the wholesome fun of mass electrocution, we went off to do some shopping and to look at shower inserts. I have a scheduled appointment on Monday Evening to have the tub enclosure measured for an insert. The goof-balls who originally built the manor used regular sheet rock for the backing on the tile work. Water got behind the tiles and now there is no sheet-rock. Just one tap on the tiles and in they fall. You only find this kind of malfeasance years after buying an ancient temple turned residence of tyrants. Evil Lairs are not what they used to be. We need a real good one with a bat-cave or something. Nothing is seems to be on the market, and hints out there?

Saturday was a long one. We stopped off at the anti-social wallmart to ... look about. Found out that the EEEVILLL Coke company was having an enticement carnival that included a moon-bounce. This was an activity that the Tyrants INSISTED we stop at ... for what seemed to be forever. The adults got tired watching the younglings burn off 100 Gigawatts of energy. You want to know the secret of cold fusion? Look at the ATP synthase pickup sequence of a child. Biology is surprising that way. Speaking of biology, get this: The Ms and I picked up all the Mastodon Mountains, then I went on to chop wood with AmishDad and followed it all up with a beastly migraine. Urg. Sometimes, Saturdays can start out on suck and end up blow.

Sunday, Tyrants assault Grandparents, we shower and go to Sunday School, Alexis only takes 15 minutes to let me have my leg back. New record. Did all kinds of wonderful Sunday-school type things. Since there are only 3 4yr olds, we are lumped in with the Kindergarten Class and the kids are a little confused about the material. At least they are not throwing crayons at the alter. 'Nuff said. At noonish, we go to the Wegman's Grand Opening in Warrington ... along with the rest of Montgomery county. It was absurdly PACKED. The herd mentality could be felt all the way over in Pittsburg. The neat thing was that some of the less socially conscious folk (Majorly Obtuse Oblivious : MOO) were learning that if you leave your cart in the middle of a busy aisle, it may not be there when you return to it. Heh, hard lessons for the rude. Before we went there, we stopped at a few other stores so I could pick up some wiring equipment for the Manor's infrastructure. The Wireless network connected to the OC48 bi-directional sonet ring was just not cutting it. I need to run about 8 Cat-5 lines to the top floor of the manor and set up a wiring harness in the network room so I do not need to crimp all those damn connectors. Having a patch-panel available will make things a bit easier on me when it comes time to upgrade to a more capable hub.

The rest of the weekend? Chop a bit more wood, let the migraine rise again and render me ineffective (thank goodness the GrandParents chose this weekend to be here) and then supp upon the feast prepared by SuperMom.

Monday morning brought me up through a foggy haze of fading drugs and rising pain to which I ran off to the hall-way pharmacy and downed a fist of pills that would make Elvis shudder. Seeing that there was frost on the fleet in the Auto Port, I curled up under the covers with Alexis who had found that the only remaining heat producers in the Manor were the Parental units. At 0530 she had crawled in between the Mrs and I. Gave me an excuse to sleep in for an hour. Yes, I did feel bad that the Mrs had to let the Mammoth's outside to burn holes in the lawn ... but all I was wearing was a pair of silk boxers and she was clad in ablative armor with carbon-fiber energy dissipation shielding and fully self-correcting exoskeleton assist ... cybernetic interface v4.75-1 ... self contained environmental support ... the works. Besides, Alexis kicked HER out of bed, not me. I'll get my karmic pay-back tonight for sure.[+/-] show/hide the rest of this post

Oh, and gasoline is holding steady at $2.13USD/gal

Labels: Weekend

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 8:21 AM