The Book of Ashes

The TV saga... 10:15AM

Took a trip to Palmy once again. It has become the well trodden path. Bonnie came with me this time and in preparation I brought along with me a RCA to S-video converter. I arrived and realised I [still] had all the wrong cables. The Video, TV and stereo, all had different inputs and outputs. So I did the thing many men are afraid of doing and drew a diagram of the inputs and outputs and took it with me rather than relying on my memory to pick up what was needed. I should have done this the first time around. The guy was helpful and with another cable and an RCA splitter (the VCR only had mono sound output) we were cooking with gas.

So it worked. Kind of. The 29" TV now displays the VCR thorugh the AV channel without loosing the signal. The VCR was another problem all in itself. Its over 10 years old and the display is a little flakey. I finally worked out how to tune in new channels and witnessed them in their full glory on the TV. But whats this? Some of the channels didn't have colour. The colour came on while tuning but was lost during display. Bugger. Oh well... mostly working, half colour, half not and the sound is beasty through proper stereo speakers (even tho its mono) and mum can still play CDs and she gets channel one with good reception and colour which was her most used channel. Well progress of sorts. Was it worth it you ask me? $30 of TV, $40-$50 of cables and $40 of petrol to get it up there and repeat visits to fix it. I guess so. Its a big arse TV and looks nicer than mums old one. It kinda dwarfs the bamboo cabinet she has it sitting on tho. Another task, another day..

External stresses... 12:40PM

RHCP(Californication) bolsters my morale as I work. One of the side effects of being a programmer is that you tend to get distracted and end up thinking about other things. How else would I get these diary entries done?

My current thoughts focus on the stresses currently in my life. These I hope shall eventually resolve themselves.

Stress #1: The builders over the driveway.

The big house in front of mine? The one that used to have Silver Screen productions in it and now has a family? The one thats probably worth up to a million dollars? Well it needs renevating. Badly. The family who live there have vacated while the builders get to work. Floors are being relaid. House sanded and repainted. Front yard ripped up and a modications being made. Its a big job but to do it the guys have to put scafolding up down our pokey little drive way to make it more pokey. Currently I drive down a long narrowish driveway then nudge into my carpark similataneously watching that I don't hit one of the three cars around me. With all three cars there I then only have the option of backing out. If one is gone then I can do a 10 point turn to turn around and get out forwards. If two are gone then its a tight 3 point turn. If I have to back out then I back out onto the road with a lamp post right there on my right. Its sometimes busy and hard to see if theres cars parked in the way. So what is worse now? First the builders left the scaffolding in our car park, making it impossible for me to turn and blocking one guys carpark. Second they errected the scaffolding down the inside of the driveway. Now its got poles in it and pole edges sticking out. Backing out is now done very slowly. Third they park either their huge truck or huge rubbish trailer as close as they can to their side of our driveway (on the road). Backing out I can't see anything past these huge trucks. Thirdly they are so close that I can't turn till I'm past them and already on the road. This means I can't get out quickly. Lastly when it rains my road is backed up to past my driveway with traffic. This was one of my minor stresses this week. Its not bothering me so much as I can park out on the street to save all these problems and they will be gone within a week (hopefully). Oh yeah, reason its such a pain is that I'm still out at BRANZ so drive to work every day almost