Until I dragged it down and beat it in to submission...
A friend of mine has a big ink jet plotter (Cadjet 2) they weren't using... I've got a number of surplus vintage wood working machines... He collects such machines as well... So a swap was in order...
He came by to see what I had available a couple days ago while on the way home from picking up a little machine north of me... We kicked the tires on a few of my machines, and he then suggested bringing in the plotter, which I had not expected... I figured we would swap when the machine of his choice could come out of my shop lineup... So he left it with me, along with a load of paper for it, and headed on his merry way...
I played with it a bit yesterday, but it seemed like the cable I had was giving me fits... So I brought another cable in today... New ink cartridges came in today as well... Well I beat my head against that thing all day... Its an older machine, though there are still plenty of them in use... Problem is in my case, I hadn't evolved with the machine like everyone else that owned one from way back... It's a mid 90's ink jet... I can't imagine what it cost then, I was still working with pen plotters, and dot matrix plotters then... Well it got to be 5pm and I debated going home, but figured I didn't have any reason to rush here, and it was quiet now, so perhaps I'd have better luck...
All it took was the right search string in Google... I happened across a post from someone trying to get it to work with the "new" OS of the day... Windows 95... Seems in Win 95, Microsoft came up with the ECP or Enhanced Capabilities Parallel Port... It was way faster than the earlier version, and helped with their plug and play deal... Well guess what... Its too damn fast... I guess hardware wasn't talking back and forth yet then, because the plotter can't tell the computer to slow down... The data comes down the ECP line so fast the plotter can't handle it... So after beating my head against XP for a bit, because hell who would want a slower port, so why put that info in the help... I did finally figure out how to get XP to roll back to an EPP port, after having to set it that way in the BIOS as well...
Suddenly, I hit print, and while it isn't a barn burner, I now can have nice big E size prints... I'll work on the speed issue... I'll just have to get AutoCAD to go to monochrome, and use line thickness for clarity rather than color, which is my usual MO on the 11x17 printer... I can do both in the same drawing, and the plotter has some features that will help with that as well...
I was never a huge dog person... I mean, I got along with a number of dogs over the years, but they were always someone else's pet...
Two dogs however have effected my life... The first was a big, basically happy Rotweiler. He belonged to a friend of mine. I never really trust Rottys, they're just too protective of their people... He and I never really hit it off... So how did he effect my life?... I really wanted to date that girl... We always seemed to get along well, and there didn't seem to be too many massive differences between us... But, you can't date a dog lover, unless you can love their dog, and their dog can love you... Door closed on that possibility...
We're still friends, and chat occasionally... Sadly, her dog suddenly died a couple weeks ago... He went before his time by a few years... Sick one day, and gone the next... Do I mourn the dog in this case?... No, not really, I mean I had some bitter feelings for him, but I don't want any animal to suffer... Mostly though I feel terrible for my friend, and the loss to her... Until recently, I never would have been able to understand that loss...
That's because of dog #2...
He belongs to the girl I dated for the last 4 years... Happy Dog is the best way I can describe him... Everyone that meets him loves that dog... He's a mutt, mix of greyhound, and some kind of bulldog as best anyone can tell... It is impossible to stay in a bad mood around him... He was diagnosed with cancer last spring... He's had 3 surgeries, and radiation, and seems to have beat it... He doesn't have quite the same energy level any more, but he's no spring chicken any more either...
Until I came across him, I wouldn't understand it if someone claimed this... He was my friend...
He's still fine, don't get me wrong... I just don't get to see him any more...
Its hard as hell loosing your best friend when you break up with someone... I am dealing with that, because that was a choice. It wasn't a mutual choice, but it is a choice I can understand, and that takes a little bit of the edge off it... The dog and I didn't get to make that choice, it is simply the result...
The house is way to god damn quiet...
I was never a huge dog person... I mean, I got along with a number of dogs over the years, but they were always someone else's pet...
Two dogs however have effected my life... The first was a big, basically happy Rotweiler. He belonged to a friend of mine. I never really trust Rottys, they're just too protective of their people... He and I never really hit it off... So how did he effect my life?... I really wanted to date that girl... We always seemed to get along well, and there didn't seem to be too many massive differences between us... But, you can't date a dog lover, unless you can love their dog, and their dog can love you... Door closed on that possibility...
We're still friends, and chat occasionally... Sadly, her dog suddenly died a couple weeks ago... He went before his time by a few years... Sick one day, and gone the next... Do I mourn the dog in this case?... No, not really, I mean I had some bitter feelings for him, but I don't want any animal to suffer... Mostly though I feel terrible for my friend, and the loss to her... Until recently, I never would have been able to understand that loss...
That's because of dog #2...
He belongs to the girl I dated for the last 4 years... Happy Dog is the best way I can describe him... Everyone that meets him loves that dog... He's a mutt, mix of greyhound, and some kind of bulldog as best anyone can tell... It is impossible to stay in a bad mood around him... He was diagnosed with cancer last spring... He's had 3 surgeries, and radiation, and seems to have beat it... He doesn't have quite the same energy level any more, but he's no spring chicken any more either...
Until I came across him, I wouldn't understand it if someone claimed this... He was my friend...
He's still fine, don't get me wrong... I just don't get to see him any more...
Its hard as hell loosing your best friend when you break up with someone... I am dealing with that, because that was a choice. It wasn't a mutual choice, but it is a choice I can understand, and that takes a little bit of the edge off it... The dog and I didn't get to make that choice, it is simply the result...
The house is way to god damn quiet...
No... Not that kind...
I know it hasn't been any time at all in reality... It just feels like forever already...
I think I'm having to pay back in to the pool of happiness every bit I got out over the last 4 years...
I can push it out of my mind mostly by concentrating on work... The instant I stop though I'm pretty much falling apart...
God this hurts...
Four years ago to the day, I started a post... I typed it up, and set it to draft, and let it just sit there... I had just gotten home from my first date at 2am with a woman in a long time. I'd been single for 10 years at that point, since I had left college. I stopped blogging effectively around this time, because I wanted to spend more time with her... This just couldn't compete for my interest at that point... I started blogging because I needed an outlet... Mostly it was work stuff, but some personal crept in there... I found it therapeutic then... Hopefully it'll help me again, now...
This is that post:
5/16/04
Where to start... I've know her for a few months... She broke up with her last boyfriend late fall/early winter... That's when I met her... I'm not one to spend much time or thought on dating, but I figured out pretty fast, that she was something special... Eventually I managed to work up the nerve to ask her out, but, then she seemed to disappear for a bit, and wasn't all that friendly for a while... Seems someone else had caught her eye... Naturally, I, being the quiet one, let this lie... Later, in the spring, I started seeing more of her at my pub... Seems whoever she was interested in didn't work out... That's when I started loosing my grip on being the guy always in control mentally... I know that I'm falling for her, and there's not a thing I can do about... For that matter, I don't want to for the first time in a long time... I don't know where it will go, if it goes anyplace... I do know that I believe that it will be a good and worthwhile ride along the way...
5/17/08
Thursday, the 15th of May, 2008, the woman I had dated for a little over 24 hours shy of four years broke it off with me... There was no lack of love on either side... No lack of desire... Just, unfortunately, I guess a lack of compatibility for a variety of reasons...
I'm not the guy I was 4 years ago... I'm not really equipped to handle this right now. There isn't much of a support network out there for me these days as the majority of my friends have moved away, or drifted away... Hell even my bar that I hung out at is long gone...
The house is too quiet.
The phone isn't going to ring.
No emails will come in.
So I'm going to bury myself in work... That was how I got through things back in college when breakups were more of a norm... I hope it still works... Work isn't the same as it used to be either...