Pretty much finished my customer's program after hacking all last night in Denny's. The waitress was surprised to get over a $5 tip from someone who ordinarily tips only a dollar and change, but after letting me have one of the few tables with electrical power, and not bothering me except to keep my coffee mug full all night, I'd better pay up if I might need that type of service again. And I well might. Still cheaper than the cheapest motel.
I picked up the PV panel at the UPS station Friday morning. Man, does that company like to locate its offices out-of-the-way or what. Like the San Diego facility, which has the same goddamned street number as the credit union building down the same block. The one in Deming is in a shitty "industrial park" off Country Club Road. Open 4 to 6 PM, but that's OK, they had a platform set up outside where I caught a nap while waiting. Saturday (the day that just ended), I mounted the panel on the back of a bicycle I had bought at Wal-Mart on Thursday or so. All with one 1x6x8 board, one piece of angle iron, and a few other small pieces of hardware including some self-drilling screws, and a hacksaw and P2 screwdriver for tools. I already had an adjustable wrench, and I wouldn't have needed to use my vice-grips had the damned screws had better quality control, as the screwdriver didn't fit some of them well enough. It's not very strong, but it's held up so far, and I managed to ride a half-mile here to the truck stop without breaking it or myself.
Back to the programming. I can't upload the damned thing until Monday, and that's only if I can either sneakily plug my laptop into the library's network, or if the one internet cafe in town decides to open. Joe Perk's no longer has its DSL line, so that's out. If I can't do it either of those ways I can fedex the guy's iPAQ back to him with the program installed on it. Talk about latency. Towns without internet access suck.
The only thing really holding me here is the solar panel. If I could have left it on my lot I would have done so by now, and already be heading back to Rosarito. But someone cleaned off everything I had on the lot: my tent (well, tarp used as a tent), tools, battery, small PV panel, books (including the I Ching I never got around to reading), and other stuff, probably one or two hundred dollars' worth. Damn. So I will probably leave the panel at City of the Sun with one of my friends down thataway, and pick it up when and if I come back; and they can use it meanwhile, so the sunlight won't be "wasted". Or if I get it to where I feel confident it can handle the trip, I might even ride it back through Arizona again. We shall see. If I do that, I'd better prepare myself for those federales, or whatever they are, wanting a couple hundred for the privilege of bringing it into Mexico. I'm probably better off leaving it here. I can buy one in TJ for use in Rosarito, if I can find the damned factory there.
This library has a copy of Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, and I've gone through the first hundred pages or so. Pretty good so far. I started Quinn's My Ishmael while in Santa Fe; it's the best in the series so far, in my opinion, and starts giving some answers instead of just asking questions. It discusses a lot of things I had already tied into the picture, like the homeless population and street gangs; and some things I hadn't heard of except perhaps peripherally, like the Seattle street urchins.
What do you think of Keane? I like his stuff, like Coldplay, with a driving beat and a lot of minor chords banged out on the piano. I can't come close to his vocal range though.
last updated 2013-01-10 20:35:42. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com