Nino's Joint

I am not quite sure why, but my sleep habits are kind of odd. 

I just got off of a 2 week vacation where I would regularly nap for an hour or two after lunch at around 2-3pm.  Well, two or three days before my vacation ended, I started to wake up at 4-5am and was unable to fall back asleep.  In addition, now that I am unable to “daytime nap”, I’m still getting up at the same time.

The odd portion is that I’m not dying from sleepy/tiredness.  I feel just fine once I get past the initial sleepiness.  I am guessing I’m lucky enough to only need 5-6 hrs of sleep per day.  Hmm…

Powa loves to eat grass. I think the pictures tell the story:

Wait, what’s that I see?	GRASS!!	Better sniff to make sure!
OM NOM NOM NOM OM NOM	SO GOOD! MUST SAVOR THAT FLAVOR!	Yummy…Time to go puke indoors!

I love her to death!

I bought a Samsung HL-S5086W 50" DLP Projection TV in July of ‘07 from Best Buy along with the 4 year extended warranty. Sometime in mid-July, I noticed a single white pixel/dot on the screen. It was there no matter what input I selected.

I called Best Buy and they forwarded me to the Geek Squad. The Geek Squad forwarded it me to another department to schedule an in-home visit. After a few days, I was called by who I’m guessing is the company the squad contracted the work to.

The gentleman came by and it took him longer to walk through the door than it did for him to troubleshoot the problem. He instantly said "Oh, it’s the light engine". He wrote up some stuff and had me sign it so that he could order the part.

A few days later, someone from Geek Squad called to let me know that the part was in and that the local guys should contact me to set up a time to come swap the part out. A few days later, they did.
When the technician came out, he pulled the TV apart and showed me the busted part and how he was going to replace it:

After he got the "chip" replaced, he put everything back, aligned the picture and he was off. The TV works good as new.

In retrospect, I could have done the repair having seen what he did. It definitely didn’t look complicated, just tedious.

So yeah. I had my laptop serviced under my on site warranty I bought to prevent me having to send it in for repairs. After receiving incorrect parts the first time the tech came out a second time (with correct parts). After finishing up the video would display.

I sent it off (reason: too many on site visits??) and fed ex lost the laptop.

I’m still without my laptop. I hate red tape.

Well, I got my car back this weekend.  It feels good to be back in the driver’s seat.  I missed it dearly.  At the same time, I’ve also noticed all the creature-comforts that the auto-industry has put in cars since mine was made (2002).  I will have to really think about keeping this car or getting a current year model.   I really like some of the things that are coming out as options for the 2011 vehicles (Voice activated radio, personalized “driver profiles”, bad ass stereo systems, more stock horespower, better reliability, great warranties….etc).
My nephew Daniel stopped by in between his classes.  Good to chat and catch up.  I’ve never really had a chance to sit and talk with him without everyone else around or being in a setting that wasn’t the greatest for holding a conversation.  Looks like he’s truckin’ right along and has a great overall outlook on life.  I’m sure he’ll have fun in his classes.  He’s in concurrent enrollment (1/2 highschool 1/2 college).

-Nino

It’s always so hard to wake up after a weekend. Well, since this was memorial weekend, it was hard to wake up this morning. Ugh. Life makes it so easy to stay in bed sometimes.

Powa has gotten into the habit of being very vocal. Normally this is encouraged at our house and is met with praise. What she has all wrong is her timing. It will be damned near 4am and she’ll let us know if she’s run out of food or water. Sometimes, she’ll just want to be in the room with us.

Jennifer’s Mom retires this year. I’m sure she’ll be happy in her garden

Well, I’ve been a busy little bee.

I have been learning about switch monitoring and the different packages that folks use such as OpManager and PRTG.  In doing so, I’ve learned quite a bit.  I enjoy taking on tasks like this because it forces me into territory I haven’t been in before.  I learn something new that I can apply in other facets of my job/life.

Hah, like I’ll ever monitor switches at home!

Congratulations to Melissa for graduating and I’m sorry that our family lost our step-grandfather Ronnie Rios.

Powa is doing great and Jen is plugging along with her school.  I am very surprised at how much she’s learned and very impressed with her tenacity and ability to focus on school.  It’s not easy when you’ve got so much shit swirling about.

More later.

I’ve long said that I believe the medical and auto/mechanic industries to be quite similar in my experiences with both.

I’m talking about how they are so similar when it comes to certain things. Cars have warranties and you (hopefully) have insurance. There is this inherent trust that is almost assumed by most. In other words, we as clients trust that the doctor/mechanic is telling you the truth. While this may be true, I find that a lot of places have built a major portion of the business on these “routine procedures”.

For example, one particular “Back specialist” had almost as much square footage dedicated for medical billing as they did for actual procedures. I wouldn’t have seen it but a door was opened as I walked by to the doctors office.

Another example was Jennifer’s truck. Her rear passenger window rolled down but wouldn’t roll back up. She took it in and they did some shady a/c repair. The a/c has blown cold since I set foot in that jeep. But now, all of a sudden, the a/c needed repair! Since when do they check the a/c during a window motor replacement? Long story short, the work was already done by time I caught wind of it.

Niether case was horrible, but multiply them a few thousand times (or whatever your conservative estimate would be) and you start to see the impact this shit has on our insurance/warranty cost(s).

Well it seems as though Powa only had some fatty tissue in that lump o. Her hip. The doctor “aspirated it” and he said she’d be fine. All her bloodwork came back normal as well. Looks like she’s in good shape . I am so happy! Everyone is!