Dead Lawn Mowers

A few years ago, I started having trouble starting my lawn mower. Otherwise the mower was a good one. I tried to buy the same model. But I could not find it. Instead I got another model from the same manufacturer. This second model was not as good as the first. The handle to push the mower would not stay in place.

Recently the second lawn mower started conking out while I cut the grass. It came to a halt yesterday. Almost could not complete cutting the lawn. This is no way to live. Now I think it is time to junk both of these mowers. My brother has a battery powered one that can suffice for now. Only trouble with it is that does not have enough charge to cut the whole lawn at once.

I think I might go for a self-propelled lawn mower this time. When the weather is good, I can cut the whole lawn. But on really hot days, I struggle. Too bad I don't have a flat yard. Then I could get a sit down mower. The best self propelled mower runs a good $700. That's way too expensive. I think I might get the same brand but with less features. That one runs around $400.

New TV

Today a TV by Element went on sale at Target. It was a 50 inch set. Was a 4k UHD TV, whatever that means. The price was right. I called our local store. They were sold out. Called the next closest store. Bounced around until I finally got in touch with the electronics department. They had it in stock.

Drove Momoko's car up to Target. The parking lot was crowded. There were around 30 people standing in front of the store. I made a beeline to the electronics department. Found the guy I talked to earlier. He took a long time bringing the TV from the warehouse. Many other employees asked if we needed to be helped.

I asked if I could use the cart the TV was on to take it to the car. We needed a store escort. When one showed up, I informed him we were parked far away. I asked if he needed us to drive the car up close. He said we could do what I wanted. I asked him to roll the TV out to the car. Then he changed his mind, and asked us to drive up.

The car fit fine in the back of Momoko's car with the seats folded down. Afterwards, we drove by Qdoba Mexican Grill for a queso and chips snack before dinner. My brother and I moved the old TV out of the way. We moved the TV stand out. Little Kat got the new TV ready. He told me the legs of the TV were too wide for the TV stand.

My brother and I created a makeshift platform for the TV using some plywood. We laid it on top of the TV stand. Does not look good. But it fit like a champ (I had measured thee required footprint). Little Kat was disturbed by the tinny sound coming from the TV. He had some trouble getting the cable inputs set up. I think this TV will server us well for years to come.

Seeing Strangers on Campus

I made sure I left extra early to attend my first school night of the semester. Went to the student union. Purchased two slices of pepperoni pizza. Had to wait for it to be cooked. It came out piping hot. Got a 32 ounce cup full of Fanta orange. Then I sat down and reviewed my notes from reading the textbook.

There were two guys hanging out at the table next to mine. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then another guy who knew one of them approached. He was wearing a suit, but no tie. He had a party style suit on underneath. The striking thing about him was his fedora on his head. He also wore some stylish dress shoes.

I think this guy was dressing up to impress the ladies. From a visual perspective, he was on point. He had a high pitched voice with a Northeastern access. That came across as a weakness. He seemed animated as he talked with his friends. The guy had a lot of confidence. He introduced himself to another person who came to that table.

Lot of people were flowing in and out of the eatery. There were tables to eat just outside of the place. I thought I saw someone who looked just like Little Kat. The buzz cut plus glasses plus unshaven face did the trick. It was obviously not Little Kat, who was at home cooking the family dinner. I did imagine that this was what Little Kat looked like on campus though.

Back to School

On Monday, I head back to school for the fall semester. I had thought that I ordered my textbook online. But that was last semester. So today I decided to visit my school to take care of business. My trip started out bad. I somehow flipped my RC soda can entirely over in my car. Luckily I had already drank more than half of it. The other half went into my cup holders.

At school, I found all the sidewalks closed. They were sealing the joints with some gray putty. Had to walk on the grass. That was a real fail for people with kids strollers. I could not find my textbook in the bookstore. An employee helped me find it. He apologized that they only had new textbooks. I told him that was fine, as I prefer new.

I decided to visit the school cafeteria for the first time. I was not impressed. There was nobody at the grill station. A guy was at the pizza place. But he was busy baking pizzas. I eventually got some pizza slices warmed up for me. The bottled sodas in the fridge were warm. I had to go ask around to find a cashier to check me out. Not good.

This semester is the last in a few years worth of studying cyber security. After all that study, I might not be able to find a project/job to take advantage of those skills. Oh well.

New Wireless Network

Previously I had paid for the Internet access in our house. Got a great introductory rate from Verizon. After that promotion ended, the price more than doubled. Fair enough. Then the price increased mysteriously again. My brother had since got us Comcast Internet. So I wanted to cancel the Verizon service. One problem - my main printer was on the Verizon network.

Finally I decided to do something about this. I wanted to remotely log into the printer, switch it to the Comcast network, and be done with this Verizon service. Used my browser to log in. I was able to specify the new network. But I did not find any place to put the network password. That seemed strange. How could the printer log into our locked down Comcast network?

Then it dawned on me. I did not reconfigure the printer. I reconfigured the Verizon wireless router. Now both the Comcast and Verizon wireless routers were broadcasting with the same network name. Had an emergency family meeting to let everyone know what was going on. Restored the Verizon network name. Then I moved the printer to the other network.

Tried to call up Verizon to cancel. Apparently their office is closed. I had to jump through many hoops in the automated Verizon phone tree. Now I recall another reason why I should cancel Verizon. Their customer service stinks.

Lunch Travels

Momoko has been going to the pool early every morning. Afterwards she gets McDonald's. She brings me breakfast. By the end of the week, it was time for me to return the favor. I was to buy her lunch. We decided to go out. Since I was buying and driving, I got to choose the place.

I decided to go to my favorite burger place. Unfortunately it is across town. On a good day, I might be able to make it there in 30 minutes. We went via the highway to try to get there fast. Unfortunately there was some traffic that slowed me down. We made it though. The place had a lot of people.

We found some burger deals. The burgers were only a quarter of a pound. They were good though. I eat them with a lot of pickles from the fixings bar. Also comes with a side of fries. I add cheddar cheese and jalapenos, which also come from the fixings bars.

There was traffic on the freeway. So we took the back roads home. Things were fine until we got a couple towns away from our house. The two lane highway came to a stop. No cars were coming from the other side. Eventually we found the problem. Somebody hit a telephone pole and cracked it. Took a while to get home. Glad it wasn't us.

Authors Need Side Jobs

I am a fan of the Reddit relationships subreddit. It is a board where you can post questions about relationships. One girl graduated from college and posted there. She lives with her boyfriend who also graduated from college. The problem is that her boyfriend thinks he is a professional book author. He is still working on his first book.

Doh! It is okay to have a hobby like writing books. It is not okay if you only work on your hobby and do not make any money. Time for this guy to get a job or get out. The economics of book writing are not too good, at least for authors. Even successful ones usually have some other way to make money.

I was surprised that Beth Revis commented on this post. Beth is a professional author. She spent 10 years teaching while writing books on the side. One of her books actually took 10 years before she was able to get it published. I know Beth has written follow on stories for the Stars Wars genre. I think she is most famous for her Across The Universe trilogy. I plan to buy book one in that series.