Nov 11-ish

–Haw haw Facebook is down today so I did some work on tribe.net instead. Just as well; those Zynga games are evil. So here I am back ‘home’ again and the latest follows.
–Survived the [redacted] Conference; great fun and much useful info exchanged. The way things are going though I won’t be able to afford to go next year unless I get some work; i.e. the one thing I wasn’t able to organize there. Still I was able to find someone to buy my underutilized cnc vertical machining center; I hate to see it go but realistically it’s an albatross. Maybe some day I’ll be able to reenter the fray but I don’t know when..
—Noelle was there and gave me a little one-on-one primer on WordPress but it looks to me like the only way to make it do what I want it to is to enter raw html rather than use their macros to do it for me, as they seldom do as told, so to speak. Will take a whack at it in a few days.
–Took Rich Gibson as my bring-a-friend and I believe he had a great time too. We’ve decided to build a couple of Repraps, probably the new version, codename Mendel. Interesting yr ahead with clean shop ready for such an undertaking. Am thinking seriously of making a few extra and selling ’em as the total number in circulation is still fairly low.
—Thanksgiving looms but we’ve been invited to cousins’ digs so I’ll only have to spend money on one dish and gas money. Most likely no Xmas present exchange as we can’t afford to buy any this yr.
—Family meeting in December and then I’ll know if I have to refinance the house or not. Raises have been on hold for 4 yrs now; another yr without and we’re screwed. Trouble is: if I refi the house the payments, although fixed, will double if I have to pay a 1st rather than a floating 2nd. Have a feeling though that we’re in a situation similar to 1982 when runaway inflation pushed interest rates up to 22% and the family biz went in the dumper, along with what was left of my personal ‘fortune’; a thing to be avoided at all cost. Sigh.
–Meanwhile back at the ranch Judy brought home another rescue yesterday afternoon: a cuddly little sweetie by the name of Sally. Had feared she was both deaf and blind but it turns out that after the vet got all the gunk out of her eyes she can indeed see, altho she’s a little nearsighted. Other doggies didn’t bat an eye and she fitted right into the pack with no trouble at all. Kitties are getting along too. Sally is pretty close to deaf and she’s got a malignancy in one ear so we’ll have to organize some dough to get that surgery done ASAP and hopefully we’ll be getting it out in time.
–More later..