Bombs Away!
or
That Will Turn Your Brown Eye Blue
Well, it happened. Drake was taking a bath with his mother and sister the other night while I was trying to get the other laptop working. There’s a small flurry of excitement and I’m informed my presence is needed. When I get in there, Drake is standing up looking very serious, holding his bottom, and telling me “Make poopie Daddy.” Without delay I hoist him out and sit him down on the throne at which point he falls in. I’ve still got a hold of him, but the poor kid looks like he’s been crammed in the crapper. After a little readjustment he’s able to do his business. That was a first. He was able to tell us he needed to go and was able to hold until he got to the toilet. I was really proud. I’ve got pictures. Three I think. Drake is getting really close to being potty trained. I’ll bet he won’t be wearing diapers anymore in a couple of months.
Melinda and the kids went to the Exploreum again today with the Mom’s club. Drake evidently behaved very well, as did Scout.
I was contacted by an old friend of mine recently (Doug Wyatt) through the magic of facebook.com, a social networking site. Each of us contends that we were contacted by the other. Regardless of who drew first blood (Doug) it’s good to hear from him. It’s a little surreal to receive an email from someone you only remember as 12 years old who is now an adult. As I mentioned in an email to him, the last vivid memory I have of him was when he was inflating a cow’s lung in our 5th grade class. He did this using a tube and his own breath. Now he has a M.S. degree from MIT in computer science and is beginning law school in New York. I guess he couldn’t get in to Georgia Tech. If he becomes a politician, he may be able to filibuster without having to inhale.
If anyone out there has a spare battery for a compaq presario 700 series, I’d love to get my hands on it. I found them at eBay for about 30-40 dollars, but that’s a bit much to spend on something that may not fix the problem. My old laptop simply won’t start, even when plugged in. I have done some looking online and I have found that this problem has happened to other folks as well. My best guess is that either the switch is bad (which I don’t think is the case) or that the battery is so dead that it can’t even hold enough of a charge to start the laptop. It would be neat to get it running again since I’ve got linux installed on it. Mac’s version of linux (Darwin) is great, but it doesn’t have some of the tools that I like to use (like Valgrind) when debugging code. I have a linux box out above the garage, but I seldom get the chance to go out there. Maybe I’ll buy myself a battery for Christmas. I probably need to take the machine to a diagnostic center (Best Buy maybe?) to see if they can tell me whether or not that will solve the problem before I go out and buy a battery. I just don’t think it likely that they will have a battery on site that will work in a six year old machine.
The events in which parents show great pride never fail to amaze. I wonder why famous people never list this event in their own lives as part of what made them what they are. I hope your son will not be so remiss. Perhaps you can save the blog and the pictures and share them with him and his future girlfriends when he gets to that even more amazing stage. I apologize for being so remiss to not have properly prepared for that event in your life.
Voices from the past are often a little unsettling. Brings back too many memories that had been mercifully suppressed. Of course, the good memories are nice, but there always seem to be at least a few that make one cringe. I think I heard from his mother some years ago that he had started a business with some of his MIT classmates after graduation. Do you know what happened to it? He is to be commended, I guess, for going back to school if he was not happy with whatever he was doing, but to be a lawyer? That seems to be a giant step backwards from any position. He might be good at it, but it is a sad fate for anyone.
Sorry, but I don’t have a battery that will work. I believe most computer batteries are more or less equivalent (from the power supply standpoint) but are not compatible with most machines due to shape and connection fittings. If we can determine polarity (and voltage) we might be able to use some other battery to check whether or not your battery is the problem. If a well modulated DC power supply were available, that might also work – but I don’t have one. I could continue with this list of things that might work that I don’t have but enough is enough. Even if you did get it to work, would it be fast enough to do you any good?
I have every intention of letting Drake relive this momentus event in the presence of all of his friends (so they too can applaud his efforts) when he is around 15 or so. Sound good?
The computer wouldn’t be fast enough to do much, but it could certainly handle maintaining a blog.