Family Archives

July 19, 2014

Computer Is Still Oinked

We’re still fighting the computer issue. Since it was down, I took the opportunity to not set my alarm. I had to drain off some nitrogenous waste around 7:30, but I went back to bed and didn’t see daylight until 11:43 a.m. Except that it interferred with my mid-morning nap, I could get used to that.

Once I dug into the computer problem again, storm clouds started swirling. (Figurative storms clouds. These actual clouds were taken over Cadiz, Ky. in 2012).

Geeks were busy

Slaying my dragons would have been easy had I known what I was doing, but I was cautious because I didn’t want to mess up anything that wasn’t messed up in the process of solving Issue 1.

Kid Adam had been up all night doing a migration of his own, so he didn’t check in until he was groggily heading back home from the Miami data center. He suggested I put in two new 2-terabyte drives and do a restore from backyup, rather than rebuilding the mirror.

Kid Matt didn’t finish a 130-mile bike ride (actually 129.56 miles) until mid-afternoon, so he wasn’t in much of a mood to stop by, understandably.

I’m hoping Matt can swing by tomorrow, tell me that it’s OK to push this button and select this option without launching a palm tree or causing the shower to blow up.

Remember this big ball

Click on the big red Amazon button when you order stuff online. That helps me keep feeding hard drives into my computer and it doesn’t add anything to your cost.

July 19, 2014

My RAID Failed

Things were starting to come together for my trip back home. I wrapped up the final revision of the Smelterville book, got a haircut, the van got an oil change and new rear shocks, we went out to say goodbye to Grandsons Graham and Elliot, and I made a lot of progress pulling together a video this morning. I even worked in a well-deserved nap after all that activity.

Then, I looked down at the corner of my computer screen and saw an unusual scary-looking alert message. I think this email to Computer Geek Sons Matt and Adam will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about my travails. Bottom Line: I’m out of business until the Geeks parachute in.

HELP!!!

Got an alert this afternoon that my RAID 1 array had gone critical. That’s my boot drive.

I confirmed that my overnight backup had run and copied a few files I knew had changed over to the Drobo. Then I created an Acronis boot disk.

I loaded up the AMD RAID utility and confirmed that it WAS RAID 1 that was sick. My RAID 5 data drives were fine.

I went to Best Buy and picked up a new drive, just in case.

I told the utility to rebuild the mirror. It would crank awhile, then the computer would reboot.

I pulled what I thought was the drive attached to Port 2, which I thought was the bad drive, then I booted up the computer. It booted fine (much faster than usual, in fact).

There’s no joy in Steinhoffville

I went into the utility and confirmed that the drive in Port 2 was gone.

I put the new drive in, and got an error message telling me to tell it where it should boot from.

I tried Ctrl-F, Esc and F8 to get to a window that would let me do that, but no joy.

I pulled the new drive. Same result. I put the old drive back in. Same result.

I put the Acronis boot disk in the drive. It booted up with a bunch of data dumps and got me to a screen asking if I wanted to recover my computer. Rather than take a chance on screwing something up, I turned off the machine and typed this message.

Matt is getting up a 4 a.m. to ride 130 miles, so I don’t think he’s going to be of much help on Saturday. I’m getting ready to leave town, so I need to get fixed as quickly as possible. Am I overlooking something simple?

Remember the big Amazon button

Click on the big red Amazon button when you order stuff online. That helps me keep feeding hard drives into my computer and it doesn’t add anything to your cost.

July 6, 2014

A Sign of the Times

When we moved into our house in West Palm Beach, it had two bedrooms and one bath. When Sons Adam and Matt were little, they shared a bedroom. I drilled a hole in the door and installed a wideangle lens peephole so we could see if they were (A) Awake; (B) Asleep or (C) Up to mischief.

In retrospect, that might have been more useful when they got a bit older.

In 1986, we added two rooms and another bath to the back of the house. Matt got the new back bedroom and Adam got the old one to himself.

Mother ran across a wooden sign that read “The Adams” in a yard sale. Wife Lila rearranged the letters so it spelled “ADAM” and we hung it on his bedroom door. (Covering the peephole at the same time.)

Adam hits 34

Family and friends gathered to celebrate his 34th birthday on July 6, even though his official Birthday is July 7.

Grandsons Graham (barely visible at left) and Elliot are quick with the puff. I was too slow to capture the lit candles.

Room is officially mine now

Just before we left the house, I grabbed a screwdriver and pulled the ADAM sign off the door.

His acceptance of it concedes that the room is now, officially, my office. I have to decide what to do with that peephole, though.

July 5, 2014

Hula Hoopla

I was looking at a digital copy of our 8mm home movies shot in the 1960s. This brief clip brought back memories of the hula hoop craze in the late 1950s. The things were all over the place: schools incorporated them into recess and PE programs; Life magazine loved to run hula hoop pictures, and Brothers Mark and David had to give them a go in our back yard.

Wikipedia has a pretty good history of the hula hoop.

Here’s a hooping video

Our two hoops were part of the more than 50,000 hula hoops that were being produced every day at the height of the craze.

P.S. This is a silent movie. Turning up the volume isn’t going to help.