Garage Door Hijinx
Earlier in the week, I came home and found that my garage door opener wasn't working. I could hear the motor running, but the door steadfastly refused to move. Since there are two doors, I took the alternate route. It turns out that ealdthryth had manually closed the door because her remote wasn't working correctly. I repaired it, but alas it was only temporary. My sweetie left me a message yesterday complaining that her garage door opener wasn't working again. The door would vacilate between trying to open and trying to close when she pressed the button. So, she switched which door to manually close so I wouldn't be confused when I got home.
It turns out she had a bigger adventure than I thought. Our garage is full of teh carp--SCA stuff, lawn maintenance stuff, stuff we never truly unpacked after moving, etc. In order to try and get the door back on track, my wife moved stuff around, and, being shorter than I am, she tried to stand on our garden cart to get the door to reconnect to the pulley system. I am so glad she didn't persist and instead was satisfied by simply closing the door manually.
The problem is defective components in the remote. The plastic buttons had come unglued from the casing. After some judicious application of cyanoacrylate, I think it is fixed. If it falls apart again, I have one more thing to try to make it a permanent repair. Hopefully, some of my great-uncle's garage door fu has made it into my DNA.
The Other Sort of Library
ealdthryth was doing some web-site support and programming last night. The mystery was why a particular function worked in one Access database macro but not in a different database. My initial instinct was that it didn't have the right libraries included. We verified that the first four libraries in the reference list were indeed selected. After playing with different functions, I became suspicious that I hadn't really seen what I thought we had. Sure enough, we discovered that Access doesn't keep the libraries in pure alphabetical order--they are in alphabetical order by selected and not selected. Grrrr. After that minor epiphany, ealdthryth was able to continue her debugging process.
In order to understand why this is important to me, you have to realize that I haven't done any real programming in a couple of years. I'm just glad to see that my skills haven't completely abandoned my brain.
Random Musings
Someone at work told ealdthryth that having rubber duckies on her fireplace mantle is tacky. I suggested that there are any number of things that could be far tackier....
I cleaned the kitchen light fixtures last night. You really don't notice how much junk accretes up there until you make one swipe with a dust rag. The "chandelier" over what is euphemistically called the breakfast area was lightly covered in dust held in place by a micro-thin patina of grease. The room seems so much brighter now....
I was wrong. My study of crayons is in watercolor, not crayon. I was also a bit distressed to discover that the watercolors have faded during the last 20 years. In all likelihood, it is because the maternal unit had it displayed in a room that got a lot of sunlight. The orange and yellow are a lot less brilliant than when I first painted it.
I also have to wonder why the maternal unit saw fit to frame a particular art project. I doubt I would have considered that one worthy of display.... There is no accounting for taste, and this one didn't really seem to consistent with hers. It may have been some weird way of belatedly showing support for my art after steering me away from a more arts-oriented curriculum.
Still pondering where to hang various pieces of art.... That third floor stairwell has a lot of vacant space that could be put to use.
Massage Fu
While assisting my sweetie with her debugging chore, I draped myself across the couch, propping up on some pillows so I could see the screen of the laptop. While I was thus arranged, AElfgifu thought I needed a massage. She hopped up on the couch and then onto my back. She kneaded my lower back as if she wanted to curl up and become a furry heating pad. However, another cat traipsed through the room, and apparently offended AElf' enough that she had to give chase.... Phooey! Massage Interrupted!
It turns out she had a bigger adventure than I thought. Our garage is full of teh carp--SCA stuff, lawn maintenance stuff, stuff we never truly unpacked after moving, etc. In order to try and get the door back on track, my wife moved stuff around, and, being shorter than I am, she tried to stand on our garden cart to get the door to reconnect to the pulley system. I am so glad she didn't persist and instead was satisfied by simply closing the door manually.
The problem is defective components in the remote. The plastic buttons had come unglued from the casing. After some judicious application of cyanoacrylate, I think it is fixed. If it falls apart again, I have one more thing to try to make it a permanent repair. Hopefully, some of my great-uncle's garage door fu has made it into my DNA.
The Other Sort of Library
ealdthryth was doing some web-site support and programming last night. The mystery was why a particular function worked in one Access database macro but not in a different database. My initial instinct was that it didn't have the right libraries included. We verified that the first four libraries in the reference list were indeed selected. After playing with different functions, I became suspicious that I hadn't really seen what I thought we had. Sure enough, we discovered that Access doesn't keep the libraries in pure alphabetical order--they are in alphabetical order by selected and not selected. Grrrr. After that minor epiphany, ealdthryth was able to continue her debugging process.
In order to understand why this is important to me, you have to realize that I haven't done any real programming in a couple of years. I'm just glad to see that my skills haven't completely abandoned my brain.
Random Musings
Someone at work told ealdthryth that having rubber duckies on her fireplace mantle is tacky. I suggested that there are any number of things that could be far tackier....
I cleaned the kitchen light fixtures last night. You really don't notice how much junk accretes up there until you make one swipe with a dust rag. The "chandelier" over what is euphemistically called the breakfast area was lightly covered in dust held in place by a micro-thin patina of grease. The room seems so much brighter now....
I was wrong. My study of crayons is in watercolor, not crayon. I was also a bit distressed to discover that the watercolors have faded during the last 20 years. In all likelihood, it is because the maternal unit had it displayed in a room that got a lot of sunlight. The orange and yellow are a lot less brilliant than when I first painted it.
I also have to wonder why the maternal unit saw fit to frame a particular art project. I doubt I would have considered that one worthy of display.... There is no accounting for taste, and this one didn't really seem to consistent with hers. It may have been some weird way of belatedly showing support for my art after steering me away from a more arts-oriented curriculum.
Still pondering where to hang various pieces of art.... That third floor stairwell has a lot of vacant space that could be put to use.
Massage Fu
While assisting my sweetie with her debugging chore, I draped myself across the couch, propping up on some pillows so I could see the screen of the laptop. While I was thus arranged, AElfgifu thought I needed a massage. She hopped up on the couch and then onto my back. She kneaded my lower back as if she wanted to curl up and become a furry heating pad. However, another cat traipsed through the room, and apparently offended AElf' enough that she had to give chase.... Phooey! Massage Interrupted!