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Sunday, August 8, 1999
We made it back safely from Holden Beach in the wee hours, about one this morning. The checkout time at the rented house was 10 AM today and since most of the Tucker family are not early risers, so we decided to make the most out of yesterday, start to put together the immense load of junk we had taken with us and spend the day at the beach. If we had decided to leave this morning we would have had to enter about a 5 AM wake up call (we had no alarm clocks with us) in order to accommodate the check out time. Therefore we decided to enjoy the day at the beach and then leave last night. We pulled out of Holden Beach at sunset, sometime around 8:30 PM after a dinner at Archibald's deli, which was on the way out of town. The drive took just less than 4.5 hours, including a gas stop in Lumberton.
Today I went along with Suzy and the kids as they were finishing up some back to school shopping for supplies. Now that was a war zone. We hit Office Depot, Super Big K and Wal-Mart. If you saw something you think you might like, you'd better grab it. Andrew is still into characters, so he chose a "The Rock" backpack from the WWF and a plain lunchbox. Katie, who is entering junior high wanted a plain backpack and had selected one from Office Depot, but then at Super Big K she spied one with a small Winnie the Pooh insignia. We are going to return the plain blue model to Office Depot. The hardest thing to find was plain old notebook paper. Big K cam through with the proper college ruled paper for Katie. Andrew, as a second grader, doesn't have quite the same demands.
When we left the beach I had about 40 pages left to read in John J. Nance's "The Last Hostage" , which I quickly finished this afternoon. While I don't intend to offer any book reviews here, I found it amusing that I was able read three books while spending the very relaxing week at the beach. The kids are already making plans to return next year and Suzy and I have already discussed that the last week in July would be the most appropriate week for us to vacation. Now I have to contact Alan Holden Vacations to see what is available.
Monday, August 9, 1999
I was beginning to think old age and senility had set in before their time. And I should maybe think twice before mentioning this, but it's really rather amusing.
Suzy and I have enjoyed sleeping on a king size soft-sided water bed for the better part of 10 years now. You would never know it's a water bed unless we told you. It looks like a regular king bed and takes the normal king sized sheets, blankets, pillow cases, comforters, etc.
A couple of weeks ago I woke up and my back was all wet. I thought it was perspiration. The water bed has a heater to keep the water at around 90 degrees and with the heat we have been having I thought I had just been sweating, so I turned the heater down.
In the days that followed another wet spot appeared and I thought I was losing control of my bladder. I thought I was wetting the bed!
Then we left for the beach and I didn't suffer any bed wetting while there. Whew!
And then I was awakened about 3 AM this morning and was soaked. The bed was soaked in a big circle, I was soaked and my underwear was soaked with the exception of one strategic place. That told me immediately that I had not suddenly began to lose control of the bladder. I was relieved.
Before I left for the office I removed the sheets from the bed to look for leaks, but all I saw was water, but no obvious holes or fountains of water.
I took down all of the information on the bladder (the water bed's bladder) and stopped at the store where the bed was purchased on my way home. The sales staff quickly identified by my description that I had a leak. We began discussions on the purchase price of a new bladder. Naturally they no longer sell this model, so I began questioning and negotiating on a replacement. I wanted to make sure the new bladder would fit our mattress. They did not have a replacement bladded at this store, so we made arrangements to have one sent in tomorrow from another location.
When I got home I started looking for the fill and drain kit since I would have to drain this bladder and fill the new one. Wanted to avoid having to purchase another kit. I also found a patch kit.
I then decided to go over the bladder and see if I could spot a leak, since the store's staff had reassured me that I did indeed have a leak and I said that my inspection this morning could not find one. I decided to look some more and viola, found a tiny pin hole leak. A little pressure and water started to seep out so I went about the chore of attempting to patch the leak.
I'll give my patch a try tonight. If I wake up with wet drawers again I will immediately know either that my patch did not work or that I have more than one leak. If I have no wet undies, then I will call the store the first thing tomorrow AM and try to get the order for the new bladder cancelled.
I am quite relieved to know that I am aging too prematurely.
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I am still on the local Linux listserv, although I have put my plans to bring up a Linux box on hold for the time being. I just haven't unsubscribed from the list and I will admit that I mostly review the headers these days. However, there was something included in today's mail that I thought I would pass along. The local Linix list is hosted at Wake Forest University and therefore some faculty and students are the backbone of the local linux group. Joe Meador posted a message today that he had written a paper for his sociology class about some of the parallels of Microsoft and McDonalds. He claims the paper is slanted somewhat against MS, so if your decided to check it out, beware in advance. Joe gives the typical disclaimer that he wished he's had more time to work on the paper.
Thursday, April 12, 1999
No major wet spots in the water bed for the past couple of nights. Hoepfully the leak has been repaired. However, the bed still seems a little damp on my side. Don't know if that's my imagination or there was some water water that seeped out that it just hasn't completey dried yet. Hopefully it's not coming from any fresh leaks. I will have the pull the cover off the bed and see if I can find any new water around the bladder. In other words, the saga continues.
It's off to Watkins Glen, NY and a Winston Cup race for me this weekend. Watkins Glen is almost impossible to reach via airplanes. Elmira only offers a minimum of commuter flights, so I decided to fly into Rochester and make the drive down to Corning. It's less than two hours, a nice highway drive all the way and I made the 90+ mile drive in less than 1.5 hours, even after a little brake tapping when spotting New York's finest perched in the median.
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