Happy 2017 Winter Solstice!

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

Happy Winter Solstice!

Here is my latest contact information:

Robert
 .
where-I-live 
my-Oakland-voicemail-number (voicemail)
our-San-Jose-phone-number
our-Oakland-cell-phone-number (cell)

http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert
http://www.

My solstice update is below.

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News

Lifestyle
  * Home
    * Welcoming internet-y things into our home.  Coinciding with our
      trip to , I thought it was time to invest a web cam
      security system.  So, we've officially joined the
      internet-of-things bandwagon, for better or for worse.
    * The year of the flood.  Coyote Creek in where-I-live overflowed its banks
      due to a lot of rain in February.  And, despite our being a few miles
      away, the rains affected us as well.  Our basement had a small flood.
      The primary fall out was that the gas pilot on our water heater went
      out.  Living without hot water was annoying, but that was all,
      thankfully.
    * It's demolition, man!  The plumber who came to look at our water
      heater suggested that we dig a hole in the basement floor so that
      a pump could fit in there to keep the flooding water depth under
      control.  The weekend after the flood, I rented a demolition
      hammer.  It was an edifying experience.  The awful mess from the
      liquidated concrete is still in the basement.
    * I deserve a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  Our compost bin is
      in very sad shape.  We bought a new one, one with wheels and a
      rolling barrel style.  It was Ikea style -- you had to assemble it
      yourself.  I started working on it on Thanksgiving day, just
      before our trip to Woodside.  I could not finish it.  I would
      assemble it using the instructions, and then realized I didn't
      follow the instructions correctly, had to disassemble it, and then
      reassembled it.  I did this several times.  Luckily, I had the day
      after Thanksgiving off and spent another few hours putting it
      together.  Software engineering is so much easier.
    * We've been dealing with the stereo receiver for a whole year?  Why
      did we put up with it for so long?  We tried to get it fixed again
      and it would work for a while but die again.  Noelle finally said
      enough is enough (she works at home and has the stereo on all day)
      so we went back to Sounds Unique in November and we talked to
      Mickey the owner about what receiver to get.  Then, while
      chatting, Noelle said hey that one looks like ours. It was almost
      the exact same model, and it's easier to get something that is
      most familiar instead of trying to learn how to deal with a whole
      other receiver.  So, I bought it and it is so nice!
  * Pets
    * Kitty
      * What a bloody mess!  Gary has become an expert mouser.
        Unfortunately, this summer he had the habit of bringing in his
        prey around 2am.  Very inconvenient, especially when he brings
        the, sometimes alive, animal into the bedroom when it is pitch
        dark.
  * Family
    * Touchin' down in New England town.  I went on a solo trip to
      Boston to visit with my parents and see my greater family late to
      mid-June.  The cool sea breeze at Hampton Beach, where I mostly
      stayed, was a relief after the repeated heat waves in Ca.
      However, the sudden rain bomb was a small shock.  You can see this
      and other pictures at
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/noelle/albums/72157682462901152
    * Not a terribly noisy river.  In the fall, we visited my parents,
      who live in .  We stayed overnight in
      Albuquerque, visited old town in Santa Fe, stayed at the Historic
      Taos Inn in Taos, soaked in hot springs in Ojo Caliente, and
      finally stayed with my parents in Ruisodo.  Photos can be seen at
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/noelle/albums/72157688416078604 .
      The best new Mexican food we had in  was at a tiny
      restaurant in Taos called La Cueva.  Noelle had Frito Pie as an
      appetizer (which could have been enough for the main dish) but she
      had ordered chile relleno "Christmas style" which in 
      means green and red chile sauces on top.  Also had a nice
      breakfast in Taos at the Taos Diner.  Noelle ordered huevos over
      potatoes, but instead the waitress gave her huevos rancheros with
      red sauce which Noelle did not send back and enjoyed.
  * Food
    * Stabbing at tofu.  A friend of a friend is a vegan who has spent
      many years building their custom-made home in the woods of
      Woodside, and, at the last minute, we were able to be invited to
      her large vegan Thanksgiving meal.  It was a combination of her
      son's twenty-something friends, high tech friends of her partner's
      and her friends.  They have a beautiful kitchen with Italian
      deLorean gull-wing style cabinets.  Her partner is a whisky
      aficionado and he served us some very nice whisky.  He also has a
      huge collection of books in 2 of the rooms, one room had books and
      the whisky and artisan chocolate.  The bar counter and fireplace
      wall were made with black fossil rock all the way from Madagascar.
  * Health
    * Eyes
      * Talkin' 'bout my degeneration.  My ophthalmologist still doesn't know
        the source of my macular degeneration.  It hasn't degraded
	significantly, so it's possible that it will be a long decline.
    * Ears
      * Say the word and you'll be free.  A number of years ago when I
        was having my balance problems, I was told that my upper range
        hearing was poor.  Curious as to whether my upper range hearing
        had become worse, I visited an audiologist in October and found
        that my hearing was about the same.  The audiologist also told
        me that I should have difficulty understanding people with a
        heavy accent, female voices, and listening to people with a lot
        of background noise.  Hearing aids will likely be in my future
        some time.
  * People
    * Missing persons.  I continue to no longer have email addresses
      for these people:

        Clayton Glad
        Louise Zivnuska
        Bruce Moreland

      If you're in contact with any of these people, please tell them that
      I am missing their email addresses.

Entertainment        
  * Outdoors
    * The red lights of where-I-live.  In February, Noelle helped organize a
      walking tour, Breweries, Bars, and Brothels of where-I-live, for the
      Unumhum Brewing beer co-op.  The tour company is run by a where-I-live
      history teacher as a side job.  He has his students do the
      research and some of them lead the downtown walking tours, but,
      this time, the teacher led the tour since it was strictly an over
      21 adult content tour.
  * Music
    * Adding to the kitty.  There was a benefit for The Dancing Cat cat
      cafe in August.  Two Indian music musicians played some ragas
      amongst the cats.  One played sitar and the other played tabla.
      They also answered many interesting questions the guests posed.
    * Hot African drumming on a cold January day.  Noelle signed me up
      for a drumming workshop in where-I-live's Marshall Cottle Park.  Led
      by a professional percussionist, we were taught the history and
      culture of drumming.  After the history lesson, he directed us to
      do some basic rhythms; we also had to sing at the same time.  This
      was just before the presidential inauguration and politics kept
      popping up, but, despite everyone's apprehension, everything
      stayed upbeat.  So to speak.
  * Misc
    * Sliding back into old habits.  After getting her father's
      projector repaired in January, Noelle started laboriously going
      through slides that she has acquired from both her friend and her
      family.  In small digestable showings, she has been presenting
      slides, correcting the notes for each.  I expect she'll be done some
      time next year.  I urged her to digitalize the slides, but she
      refuses and we'll have to figure out how and where to store these
      boxes somewhere.
    * The agony of the feet.  A friend invited us to participate in a
      treasure hunt in San Francisco, The Chinese New Year Treasure
      Hunt.  On an afternoon in early February, we went up to the city.
      We spent an hour strategizing over the riddles and making a plan.
      Once the hunt started, it was an intense stomp around the city.
      It was a real mess.  Our group accidentally got broke up, we
      pursued places based upon incorrect riddle answers, we marched
      many blocks the wrong way before correcting ourselves, had to
      cross the Chinatown New Year Parade, etc.  It was stressful,
      Noelle's feet were in severe pain, and we came in fairly far
      behind.  I'm hoping our friend will do better without us next
      time.
Politics/Society
  * Voting/Elections
    * Inauspicious inauguration.  I took the light rail downtown on
      inauguration day (feeling a bit dizzy that day, I didn't want to
      ride my bike) and marched with others to protest this president's
      policies towards immigrants and civil liberties.  Admittedly, it
      was a bit tedious, but I felt good communing with others sharing
      similar beliefs.
  * Misc
   * The elusive search for a conservative in the Bay Area.  Apparently,
     a few years ago, some Santa Clara County jail guards beat a
     mentally ill inmate to death.  And, in March, as part of a sweep to
     find an unbiased juror, I was called up for jury duty.  Using a
     back of the envelope calculation, I figured that there were about
     80 people in the jury pool.  Statistically, even aside from my
     political views, it was unlikely that I would be picked and, in
     fact, after going to the court house four times over the course of
     a month, I was dismissed.

Technology
  * Computers
    * Software
      * PC
        * We are all Debian now.  With the newest release of Debian
	  stable earlier this year, now all my computers at home and
	  personal virtual machines are sync'd to running the same
	  version of the OS and underlying applications.  This has eased
	  my support burden immensely.
    * Hardware
      * Mobile devices
        * Decrepit tools.  Once I found out that our iPad's OS would
	  never be updated again (thanks, Apple!), I knew it was time to
	  start being more careful with it.  So, I've isolated it to our
	  "dirty network" for now.  One of the many downsides of using
	  proprietary software.
      * Virtual machines
        * EOLing openvz.  My old VPS is running an ancient version of
	  openvz and it will not be able to upgrade to the latest
	  Debian.  I have thus back-burner'd it and, once the year
	  contract is over, it is the end.  I have moved to a Xen-like
	  system which allows me to run whatever I want on it.
  * Books
    * To sleep, perchance to code.  With all the traveling I did this
      year, I was able to finally finish the book was I working on:
      "Dreaming in Code" by Scott Rosenberg.  I wouldn't call it
      relevatory, but it was entertaining and evocative.