While the snowstorm is really just hitting hard now, as I
write this; I think we can go with March coming in like a lion. We’ll see if that means it’ll go out like a
lamb at the end of the month or not.
The timing worked out for us today because an early storm
would’ve gotten in the way of the data center open house and computer store
sale. The incoming storm actually ended
up helping with that because nearly everyone in the area was in town for at
least a while to stock up on food and supplies; and that’s likely why the
turnout for the open house was even better than Patricia could have ever hoped
for – along with a best-ever non-holiday, wintertime sale.
We had breakfast on the fly this morning, and then hurried
over to the computer store with nearly an hour and a half of work time
available before the grand opening and sale started. While Rowen and I mostly worked in the data
center with Owen; we started out by helping Patricia with the bakery order
pick-up that Nathan had ready for us before the bakery opened. Patricia worked in the store after we’d
delivered the food, and Rowen and I set up the trays of snacks; made coffee and
tea; and had cold drinks ready to go too.
Hot chocolate was available too; but we only had to set up a hot water
pot and a basket of hot chocolate packages for that.
Before I get to the actual event; let’s take a moment to
write about the data center – which is definitely the coolest computer systems
in town right now. Most of the guys
visiting the data center today had no idea what half of the details they heard
about meant; but they’d have been blown away if Owen had unleashed the
computing power on gaming instead of for data storage and processing. Adults who’ve been around long enough to
remember the progress of computing and data storage from at least the early
eighties were amazed by the talk of Petabytes worth of stacked hard drive racks
and Gigabyte data transfer capabilities.
Rowen and I got to hear a lot of ‘remember when’ stories
today – starting with floppy disks. I
won’t include Grandpa Grant’s jokes about his pre-Microsoft, abacus computer;
but Grandma Eleanor deserves special mention for pointing out that her
‘built-in’ memory has more high-definition video capacity than the entire data
center could handle. Owen did point out
that he actually does have more than twenty-nine years of storage capacity; but
Grandma Eleanor just waved that off – and pointed out that her memories
included three-dimensional images; sight; sound; smell; taste; and touch.
That’s all true, but the data center is still cool; and some
of the new toys are going to be nice to have around here – like the back-up
generators that’ll keep the town WiFi live even if the power goes out during a
storm. True, that’ll only help as long
as the batteries on the phones, computers, and other devices are charged; but
then we have our own generator at home so that isn’t a problem for us. While our own town usage of the data center
will be comparatively small, we’ll also get faster service and more capacity
for everything from our school network to the town intranet, email, and
messaging services. Businesses around
town will like the new services too; though how effective that will be still
depends a lot on their own computer systems.
Without getting too technical, the most noticeable section
of the data center is the racks of stacked hard drives and the cooling systems
that keep them from overheating. Yes,
there are computers and servers too, all of the high-end communications and
networking gear, and even a beautiful big-screen monitor that let’s Owen keep
track of major system details at a glance; but it takes a lot of three and four
Terabyte hard drives to create Petabyte-level capacity. One more thing that Mom really likes about
the data center is that it’s given Owen the experience he’ll need to help with
the systems we’ll be installing at the lab and medical center this year and
next – and those systems are going to be even larger – by quite a bit for the
lab in particular.
Okay, that’s enough of the tech-type news; and most of you
reading this in the future may just be laughing about this the same way the
adults were laughing about floppy drives and ‘huge’ twenty Megabyte hard drives
of our not-that distant past. The open
house was a blast, and so was the sale next door at the computer store. Rowen and I took turns helping out at both
places; and that made the day fly past with non-stop action and entertainment. I was always having fun whether that was while serving drinks and
snacks or selling computers and accessories; and it really felt great to be
there and see Rowen’s parents succeed in this latest step in growing their
business.
No, they’re not done with that; but I wouldn’t want to spoil
any surprises for any nearer-future readers with any of those details.
Michael was busy at the Inn today, but he stopped in for
visits during his breaks. Tim had
morning chores to do at home and at the shop with his father; but he spent the
afternoon with Rowen, and helped out too.
That’s why he and I were invited to have dinner at the Inn
with the Emersons after we closed the store for the night, and by then; we were
ready to have a little celebration. That
would have been even better if Michael had been able to join us, but he was
busy helping out in the kitchen; and picked working through the dinner rush so
he could be set free early – and then come to my house with Tim, Rowen, and me
after we’d finished having dinner.
After not really spending any time with Ethan and Ehlana
since Friday morning, I was good with watching a movie with them in the lounge
and sharing my cuddle time with Michael so that they could join us and we could
catch up on what they’d been doing while I’d been busy with Rowen and her
family. I’d missed out on a minor dinner
and movie night that only Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack came over for, and
while that would have been fun; I didn’t mind missing the nearly all-day work
around our house – and getting Grandma and Grandpa’s house ready for their return
home tomorrow.
Michael and I did the bedtime routine with the twins after
the movie while Rowen and Tim had some alone time in the lounge, but instead of
doing a second movie like we’d originally planned; we ended up going outside
and shoveling snow – Michael and I working at our houses; and Rowen and Tim at
hers. There wasn’t a lot of snow on the
ground yet – only an inch or so; but with upwards of six expected overnight, it
seemed like a good idea to get started on that tonight instead of just letting
it pile up. It’s still a safe bet that
my morning exercise will not include Tai Chi; and we’ll all need to be up early
to get the work done before church – assuming we’ll have a service tomorrow.
So instead of any couples’ cuddle time, we shoveled two
driveways and all of the sidewalks and porches at our houses; and then Michael
and I wrapped up our night with a hot chocolate and snack break with Mom and
Dad in the office before he headed home and I came up to my room to get ready
for bed. It’s taken me a while to wind
down, so I’ve been sitting in the window alcove; watching the snow fall while
doing my nightly computing and listening to music. Mandy went to bed already instead of hanging
out with me, and Mom and Dad went to bed shortly after I came upstairs; so it
feels as if I’m the last person still stirring here – though Mom’s wards around
their room strongly suggests that my parents are not sleeping right now either.
I need to get to that – the sleeping – soon, though; so
let’s wrap this up. We’re ready for
anything with this storm tonight, and while we’re looking forward to having
Grandma and Grandpa home tomorrow; it’s going to be digging out from this storm
that’ll keep us busy in the morning – and probably into the afternoon too. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I will need to do
some studying tomorrow afternoon during Michael’s break; and then I’ll be busy
with the mini family reunion for the rest of the day. I won’t be helping out at the Inn; but we’ll
likely be there for one of the buffet dinners; depending on when Grandma and
Grandpa get home – assuming they don’t have any travel delays because of the
weather.
There wasn’t any major email news tonight, but I’ll do
another college teen update tomorrow night if there’s anything exciting
happening there. Political problems in
the Ukraine
topped the global news today, and while I don’t usually comment much on the
news; I mention that because I’m hoping tonight that cooler heads prevail there
before the situation escalates and becomes both dangerous and destabilizing to
the region. We’ll see what happens; but
I’m constantly amazed by how often politicians and leaders around the world
forget history and make the same stupid mistakes over and over again.
Of course that applies to events going on in quite a few
other places around the world right now, which is why I don’t try to write
about all of that here; so let’s move on before I get caught up thinking too
much about all of those problems and end up staying awake for another hour or
more. Instead of doing that, I’ll just
end this by mentioning how grateful I am for another awesome day with my
friends and family; and that I really am blessed to have such an amazing
life. With that said, I’m off to
dreamland for what will hopefully be a very happy rendezvous with Michael! Until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
