Annie's Blog

This weekend at the beach was a lot of fun–and the perfect end to a day that saw us winching the van up into the driveway to make it easier for Eric to start working on it. But that was kind of like giving a mouse a cookie–because first we had to clean out the garage so that we could back the truck into the garage in order to have enough room to pull the van up the hill. And then we had to respool all the winch cable, because you can’t possibly use a winch unless the cable is perfectly straight and even in the spool. (actually, that was twice: once before, and once after) But we all stayed cheerful, and going to the beach was a blast.

The tide was really low, and I got some cool shots for inspiration–colors, textures…nifty stuff. See what you think.

Urgh. Woke up early yesterday to help Eric finish packing for his trip with the kids to see his dad, then went to work. Got a phone call around 3:30…the van had broken down, and Eric couldn’t get it started. So after many phone calls to repair shops, towing companies, and insurance companies (Public Service Announcement: Don’t assume you have towing insurance. Frakkin’ insurance company didn’t transfer our towing insurance when we moved from NV to CA because they assumed that we would not want to pay $7.50(!) every six months to cover our three vehicles–which collectively are 75 years old) eventually we decided that I would rent a tow dolly and drive to Bakersfield to pick them up.

So that’s what I did. Got down there about 9:30 pm last night and loaded the van, then spent the night at the Motel 8 (and yes, they do leave the lights on–shining right in your eyes) and hit the road again this morning at 7:00. Got back to Santa Teresa at 11:45, and by 12:15 I was in my office.

Now I’m beat, and behind, and maybe just a little disappointed that I don’t get an evening or two to myself. Not that I don’t love my family–it’s just the thought of an entire evening to myself with no responsibilities and no reason to feel guilty is….sigh. A pipe dream for a while at any rate.

So here’s a picture of our rig this morning. Note: once again, my “butch” truck comes to the rescue. I love my truck.

So I’ve been using Facebook for a while, and it’s a little tough to get a handle on it. For instance, here is my public profile. Surprised me a little, because I didn’t know exactly what information Facebook would include (it comes up fourth in a google search of my name).

So I did some checking to see what settings I could use in Facebook to control who could see what. Part of my discomfort comes from classmates from high school trying to add me as friends. For pete’s sake–not a single one of them wanted to be friends with me in high school (nor me with them), so why in the hell would I want to be in contact with them now? I felt kind of bad for the reunion committee representative who called me–I pretty much told her to kiss off and mark me as “will file harassment charges if anyone tries to contact me again.”

Anyway, my search brought me to SocialTimes.com. This site seems to be a good compendium of detailed information about social networking sites and how to use them. AllFacebook.com is another great source–and they’ve published a Facebook privacy guide that seems pretty rock solid in its advice.

Anyway, there’s my preaching for the day!