What a hell of a week...

[Dug]

It has been a doozy.

First the truck got broken into on Monday night. They took my briefcase which had my computer, iPod, backup hard drive, boat clip board, corporate financials, my new gun owners manual, pay stub, 3 checkbooks, etc.

Tuesday and Monday night were spent contacting credit agencies, banks, credit cards, closing accounts, opening new accounts, and so on.

Wednesday I get a loaner computer, and within 5 minutes it crashes, due to a bad power supply. This was Liz's machine, so it took out all her stuff. We got that one back by snagging a my screen and hard drive and putting that into a dead machine from someone else... Phew. Close call. I have now backed that up twice in two different locations.

On Dec. 12 we lost power for a few days due to a heck of an ice storm. I have been putting in a transfer switch at the house to enable a generator. We finished that job today and went to test the system, and discovered that the reason the lights were flickering at one point about two weeks ago was because the main breaker in the main panel is bad. So we get to put a whole new panel in the house now...

All I can say is I am glad the boat is not in the water...

Goddamn.

[CaptPatrick]

Dug,

Look at the bright side: You could be living in Riviera Beach, FL....

As for the rest, barring the ice storm, sounds like typical SNAFU.

One thing I finally learned, living just across the canal from Riviera Beach: Never, I mean never, leave anything of value inside of a vehicle overnight. Carrying that one step further, I had a passive alarm & engine disable wired in and never even locked the truck.

With the economic climate of today's world, look for petty crime to go off the chart.

Could'a been a worse week & glad for you that it wasn't...

Br,

Patrick

[bob lico]

like i wanted to say to the both of you ( bruce& patrick) always wear a revolver for a side arm.my police friend pounded that into my skull when i wanted to wear a semi (sig 40 cal). i will let you figure that out! think what if dug went to his machine shop at night and was accosted while trying to stop the lowlife from stealing his computer.

[Dug]

Thanks guys. For sure it could always be worse. Much worse. It has been tiring, but it is a summary of minor issues.

The real loss was the 6 months or so of digital pictures lost. Such is life.

Unfortunately the break in occurred while I was at the gym, at the gym. For about 1.5 hours.

I don't go late night without being armed. That would be truly nuts...

SNAFU is right! All is good now, as I have Liz at my side, the dog at my feet (ok, she is still a puppy, she is trying to knaw on my feet!) and a beer in my hand.

[Dug]

Now, I am not sure why I felt compelled to say "at the gym" twice.. But that is funny!

[luis]

Now, I am not sure why I felt compelled to say "at the gym" twice.. But that is funny!

Its normal gym compass , 1..2; 1..2; 1..2 that's why you say gym twice. But on what concerns to break in cars, here, is a normal thing. It happens all the time. My last time was in November and my fault. I forgot to put the alarm on and someone look and don´t see the litle red light flashing. (They look for that, and also there are people without alarm but with only a flashing led, and it works). They take the radio, sunglasses, support of the gps(what for?), the wheel jacket, and minor stuff. Till I forget again, now, I always switch on the alarm and the new wheel jacket is with a chain on the back of the jeep,just to make it harder "next time". We have the "bright law" of #no guns allowed# and if I'm caught with a gun - I go direct to jail for at least 3 days (depends on the size)(maybe 3 days= 6,35mm and 1 month=9 mm)and pay a fine(also depends on the size) and bye bye gun. When they made this law they put in small letters " This law don't apply to any sort of criminals- Only to tax paying citizens ". And when you try to register to be legal is a really really montruous burocratic path that makes you quit and forget about it. But in the end its all well when we wake up in the morning and we are still here. Have a beer. Regards

[thuddddddd]

Damm Luis, you sound like a old style republican.............

[Carl]

Isn't it amazing how much crap can be dumped on your lap in one week...

Hopefully you got all that bad karma out of the way and you'll have a spell of good luck for awhile.

Gotta hope anyway.

Carl

[luis]

Damm Luis, you sound like a old style republican.............

Maybe I miss some of the good ole days. This democratic "way of living" is taking more and more of us, normal people, everyday. But I really don't care about politics. I don't vote for more then 15 years. I really care about my familly and their welfare and of course about my boat. Have a beer. Regards

[Bob H.]

Sorry to hear about your tough week Dug, just think about a good canyon trip and what you would do to that low life IF you did catch him in the act....

[TailhookTom]

Sorry to hear about that Dug, sucks to have someone violate your life like that. But, see what happens when you go to a gym?

I don't usually worry about locking my car, cause I have a 140lb Rottie sitting in it!

Tom

[CaptPatrick]

I don't usually worry about locking my car, cause I have a 140lb Rottie sitting in it!

'Round here, Tom, some folks just leave a pet rattlesnake curled up on the seat. However, if you do, Texas DPS does require you to post a warning.....

[TailhookTom]

Patrick:

That is a beautiful thing. I wonder if I could replicate that with a picture of my ex -- warning Guard Bitch on Duty -- hmm, not politically correct, but no time to start now!

Thanks, you gave me a great chuckle!

Dug: just a thought, and I am sure you are way ahead of me, but do you still have the memory sticks, photobucket accounts, anything? After my fiasco of the past 2 years, I was actually able to get a lot of my old photos restored by photobucket. Even though they said they didn't have copies, they were able to get me a lot.

Good luck, Tom

[Dug]

It sure has been a lesson in backing up things, that is for sure.

I had backed things up as recently as a month ago. But the backup drive was also in the bag, and was stolen too.

In the big picture, I am not in a bad place now which is great. Liz had happened to back up 90% of the pictures, maybe more about a week and a half earlier, and we found that we had many more than we thought. I spent a couple days backing up in multiple places and now have three full copies of the data that doesn't get regularly backed up on the server.

On that front, things are feeling much better. And Itunes will let me de-activate the computer remotely so I don't have to worry about the 5 total computers allowed for use with itunes limiting me early because one was stolen.

The house has a new panel now, and it is a good thing, as the main breaker was literally melted and we probably came pretty close to burning the place down. Bad breaker. Good story/part is that it didn't burn down, and that is good to say the least!

Patrick, I want to get a rattlesnake, that would be funny! I thougth about leaving Marly the masterful German Shepherd in the car, but once the break in I would be afraid they would steal her! Of course she would bark her brains out, look mean, and no one would mess with the car. But it seems unfair to leave the dog in the car while I work out! Good security however!!!

As for what I would do, I have pretty much decided that the Worcester police are useless as tits on a bull, and that I would have to deal with it on my own. I know many others from the gym who would delight in taking part in the dealing. I would not have to do it on my own. That would make it fun as I always love to share good and entertaining things with my friends. Not a fun hog!

D

[CaptPatrick]

Patrick, I want to get a rattlesnake, that would be funny!

Actually, you could just take a page from the "Fake Security Camera" practioners...

Get the snake decals made up and pasted to the door windows, buy a snake stick/tongs, and a medium sized muslin sack. Leave the stick and sack fully exposed on the front seat. Let the Dirty Harry question creep into the mind of any potential break in goof. "...you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"

BTW, when the pooch is in the car, put a lump in the bag and tie it off at the top, still leaving it visable. Be sure that whatever the lump is, it has an odor that the dog doesn't like or it'll become a toy to play with...

[In Memory Walter K]

I like Coral Snakes better. You can usually find the guy nearby. Walter

[randall]

i litterally had rattle snakes on my porch on occasion when i lived in my mountain top cabin. they liked to sun . i would come home from surfing and have folks waiting for me in their cars cause they didnt want to walk past the snakes. no lock on the door.

i know lots of people here who never lock anything and even though everyone knew i never took the key out of my truck in 20 years it never got stolen, not even as a joke, which surprised me.

[Ken Hudson]

Dug,

Look into Carbonite (carbonite.com). It is a back up service that I think cost about $50/yr. I got it and fortunately have never needed it. An acquaintance got it, needed it and swears he will never be without it.

Ken