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3 -
QUIET New Years - did NOT even open a bottle of champagne -- first
time in MANY years! Snow still on the ground. Cold. Launched some
9 updated 2001 pages within an hour of midnight on 1 January 2001
-- after having worked on them for about a week. Received 4 Christmas
cards last December -- sent NONE out for the second year in a
row, but have my Christmas greeting on my YES page 
Downstairs windows still NOT repaired (broken 30 November 2000). Freeman auction payment still NOT received (art works sold 10 December 2000). Apartment still NOT cleaned -- BUT it is organized enough so that I can find almost anything I am looking for -- I might call this Non-Random Disorder!
[Internet] I
first got on the Internet in 1995, using an Apple Power Macintosh
6100/60AV, progressing through a UMAX S910 -> iMac.
Kardas.net was initially launched on 25 October 1997. My master site file now contains some 91 MB of data distributed among about 2,109 different text and pic files.
According to my counter statistics (which has been down a number of times), as of 1 January 2001 my site has been visited at least 139,042 times (counting reloads) - 50.9% by webbers using Windows 95 OS - 2.7% with Mac OS, and the rest by 10 others. An average of 120 people per day viewed my site over some 1,163 days.
Microsoft Explorer was the web browser of choice (38.12%), with ten others making up the rest.
The highest number of viewers logged on at 21 - 22h GMT, while the fewest at 05 - 06 GMT. Saturdays were the busiest and Wednesdays the slowest days.
Most of the visitors were from the USA, followed by Canada, Spain, and Germany. The lowest four were Costa Rica, Macedonia, Venezuela and Gibraltar.
After hearing and reading so much
about MP3 = MPEG audio streaming players, and finding that Quick
Time (audio) is about as quick as cold thick honey, I spent a
couple hours downloading 2 different MP3 players and loading some
music and talk stations from around the world to each of their
PLAYLISTS. It is really unbelievable how FAST they load the buffer
and continuously play sounds, which can be SAVED as files which
you can listen to offline, and even broadcast on the WEB! For
more info -->>
20 - YAWN!
New President, complete with a stage full of cronies from his dad's regime of about 20 years ago!
OK, so they finally put in the new windows down stairs. I still have to clean up the mess and all. BUT I have been feeling unusually lethargic since the start of the New Year, for some reason. It may be simply plain and simple stress?
The auction gallery finally coughed up the $$ for the art that sold, and I finally paid 2 years back taxes and only have the first quarter of this year outstanding yet. Also sent in all my utility bills and a couple credit card payments, so I am basically caught up on these details
I started reorganizing my study-computer room (only about half finished), and now have loads of stuff to move downstairs when someone comes over to help me -- IF and WHEN! I still have a few things to rearrange, including the top of my desk which seems to have things piled up on it from over a year ago! You would NOT believe the mass of paper that went into my recycling bags from what I finished thus far! I even was able to disconnect 3 extension cords that were no longer needed -- two of which I could not figure out why they were there in the first place!
My birthday came and went (the 14th), just as did Christmas. I did get a bunch of email greetings and a card from my brother, that arrived after the fact -- which helped cheer me up a lot. On the 17th I finally got myself a birthday cake, which is now about half gone -- I guess I just wanted to keep up an old family tradition! And, hey, I even got MYSELF a birthday present -- which was a REAL surprise of sorts! Well, actually, I did not GET it yet......
My digital camera is the second model Kodak ever came out with (DC50), and is over 2 years old. It was top-of-the-line when I got it and has served me well -- BUT I wanted a new one for a long time already, and not just ANY new one - my dream was a megapixel Nikon CoolPix 950, which received all kinds of positive acclaim when it was first introduced last year. Problem is that it costs around $900, which was way out of my financial possibilities. That is, until yesterday! I saw one on eBay, and it started at only $279, and was up to $317 when I bid. To make a long story short, I was the winning bidder at a measly $446.52!! So I sent the guy a check and assume that within 2 weeks I shall have a new camera to take way BETTER pics with.
It snowed again early this morning -- about 4", depending on where you measured the white stuff, and the nights are VERY cold -- and my sleep patterns have been unusually disturbed lately. I have to practice crawling into bed at midnight -- that might help a little.
News? What news? With all the snow and COLD weather, I seem to have been hibernating for many weeks!
The kittys are OK - I am as OK as usual -- and there are TWO new critters that I have to provide for now, at least until I find them new homes. Hillary and Bernie are pals that are totally new to the long list of animals which I have had over the years, and I really have not had anything new since I was a teenager, so maybe I adopted these just to feel young again? Because the cats have NOT yet seen them (except for Devi, my oldest Siamese cat -- and she really went wild with Bernie!). I decided that they have to find adoptive parents because my poor felines are now NOT allowed into my study simply because I do NOT want them to knock the aquaria over and have problems with escaped critters!
They are VERY kewl, and if I were still 20-something, I would NOT hesitate to keep them. Hillary is a real pussy-cat, is ENORMOUS, and eats more than I do (crickets), while Bernie simply slithers around his aquarium and loves it when the sun shines in.
I finally moved a dozen or so boxes of goodies-in-storage downstairs, and have at least that many to move yet. Now I can see parts of a rug that have NOT been visible for about 2 years already! Next I have to thoroughly clean the rugs, the hardwood floors and do the spring cleaning that I have NOT done for about two years! Wish me luck!
15 - HAPPY EASTER !
I hope to spend my Easter moving more stuff somewhere else and starting on the floors and rugs. I actually need a long-overdue rest! The weather has been somewhat more springlike, but with a lot of rain. And I still have to cut down all the bamboo and some trees! EXERCISE! Maybe I can work off a few pounds working in the weedy gardens?
20 April - Because I researched my family name, Kardas, going back some 300 years, and put the data I have on this web site, the Polish branch is holding a 300th Anniversary event on 23 June in Jednorozec, Poland and invited me to participate as Honorary Chairman of the family reunion, due to my efforts. Unfortunately I will not have enough $$$ for the flight and shall not be able to attend. Some of my cousins from California plan on going. Needless to say, I would really love to be there, as one of my lifelong dreams has been to visit the homeland of my grandparents before I croak.
It would be great to coordinate a trip there with one to my place in Tenerife, but it would cost in excess of some $2k, and I NEVER have that much money to spare -- and I have not even been back to the Canaries in over 2 years already! I am amazed at how fast the $$ leaves as soon as it arrives -- ALL for bills -- MOST for credit cards which I no longer use, and the very modest rest for utilities and food. This early disability retirement really SUCKS, big time!
21 April - WOW, I finally got to cleaning the apartment! There are still some boxes of stuff sitting around, but they will eventually get moved, I guess.
I thought that actually scrubbing the kitchen floor with a scrub brush would get it cleaner -- BUT after doing half of it on my hands and knees, with a LOT of difficulty, I decided that finishing with a mop would get it just as clean. Vacuumed the 2 rugs, and then I wanted to use wood floor polish on the hardwood floors. When I read the directions it said it is good for linoleum also, so I started with the kitchen.
I simply can NOT crawl around polishing floors as I used to! I thought I would croak after the kitchen, but did the hallway and living room floors also. This is the first time in over 2 years that I actually used floor wax, and it does make a noticeable difference!
The bathroom was next, but it was easy, as that is perhaps the ONLY room that is always clean and tidy -- probably because the door is always closed and the cats can not get in.
Then I started on the bedroom. Mopped the floor, but decided that I would NOT survive waxing them, so I switched to using Pledge on the furniture. OMG, did it get a LOT of very dark dirt off! I was amazed. I had to use two old socks as polishing cloths because of all the dirt that came off! Before I moved here I would polish ALL the furniture at least twice a year. I may yet use Pledge on the kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors -- tried it on 2 in the kitchen, and it makes them look a lot better than they did, and I guess it protects and conserves them better too.
Now everything smells fresh, and the cats look as if they like the place better. For the time being I closed the bedroom door and they cannot get in during the day to sleep under the covers OR to sleep with me at night -- just a trial to see if I sleep better without them always moving around and all. Needless to say, after the excessive energy and effort spent on cleaning, my back was killing me and I over-slept - twice!
I got a haircut, my usual flat-top, here in Trenton, and they did it all wrong! The only 2 places where they do it just as I want it done is Boris, in New York City, and a barber shop close to where Horacio and his wife live in La Laguna, in Tenerife (Canary Islands). New York is a tad closer, but I have not been there in probably over a year!
OMG, is it excessively HOTTER than normal lately! The cats just lay flat on the floor, table, or where ever, like little rugs and do not even follow me around as they usually do.
23 May - my brother's eldest son is graduating with honors this week from high school. He applied to 8 colleges and was accepted at ALL of them - so he can now select which scholarship most interests him.
Since I have not seen them since November and still had their Christmas gifts, meager as they be, I thought I would make a surprise appearance at their place -- so I travelled the 2 hours and didn't lose myself this time!
I gave Peter a new Kodak DC 120 digital camera, a much better model than I started out with a couple years ago. In this digital age, it will probably come in handy for many things, I hope. The family also got a copy of Adobe PageMill, the program I have used for this site since I started it several years ago, just in case they ever want to do a couple web pages -- hey, when I am no longer here, somebody has to keep this site rolling along!
After taking him to his school's graduate/faculty dinner, we all had hoagies at their place at the shore, and I finally got back home around 23h - this time without running out of gas and almost freezing to death, as happened last Thanksgiving!
24 May - I rarely check the messages on my answering machine because they are usually from bill collectors, but just did, only to learn that my beloved Tracy was hit by a car yesterday while I was at my brother's and croaked! I'll be damned! Bernar seems to have a real problem keeping things alive for some reason! I should not, of course, mention the SECOND winter that MOST of the large koi in the ponds died!
I shall NEVER understand his unusual purely personal selection of things that he absolutely MUST do (and actually gets around to doing/partially completing after a while), nor, particularly, WHAT HE DOES NOT DO! He NOT infrequently unpacks my van, which I leave there and allow him to use (even though the last time I asked to use HIS Jeep Cherokee -- which I helped pay for with several thousand $$ when I was teaching and could sort-of spare the $$, he bruskly replied that he was busy at the computer and needed it), and the last time I went to the flea market and actually wanted to set-up ALL of my stuff PLUS cases (which I had NOT done during the colder months), only to discover that the glass top on one of my display cases was smashed! (Hey, I had been carrying the cases for at least 10 years and somehow managed to keep them intact!) I was so upset at the broken glass that I did NOT even open the case to see if the ivory carvings and rare ceramic Satsuma boxes inside were also smashed!
Not to mention the tire that I had to replace because it kept getting flat (the tire dealer told me that I probably violently hit a curb or something) -- which I did NOT. I mentioned it to Bernar and he simply said, as he usually seems to, "what makes you think I did it"? PLUS the time, months ago, he disconnected the door stop-brackets, saying they would be reconnected -- and guess what? They are STILL unconnected.
Guess who uses MY refrigerator, upright freezer, dish washer, air conditioners, riding mower and a lot of my power and other tools -- and adorns the place with MY outdoor sculptures, or some furniture and paintings inside the house?? Then he calls me to say he has 2 cases of wine for me -- which he had been promising since last Christmas! GAWD! WITH the bill for them attached to one of the boxes with a long NAIL!! How delightfully cute! I just clipped the bill to a broom rack in the entryway and loaded the wine in the ole Festiva. He is always just brimming with really kewl details such as this. IF they were not so weird, they would be almost laughable!
I am way too easy going to worry about these and MANY other things and already know that mentioning them again and again is like talking to a brick wall, so why bother. Perhaps what I consider as my logical reasoning ability is somehow flawed and I erroneously see things so totally and wrongly differently? Does anyone else see a long-standing well-developed, somewhat obvious pattern here? He actually scares me sometimes!
Tracy was the most lovable and friendly dog I can remember, and she made a great watch dog and would even play with the cats. I adopted her in about 1992 from an acquaintance who found her running loose at a local flea market and he tried to find her owner, but apparently she was just left there as a castoff when the people went on vacation for the summer. Luckily her name was written on her original collar. I was sort of reluctant at first simply because she was so big, and I always sort of thought of this breed as being aggressive. Of course she barked and LOOKED fierce when someone she did not know approached, but she was a real pussy cat!
Now there is one less incentive for me to go to my jointly owned West Trenton property for brief visits once or twice a week to check on Tracy, bring her leftover food (which she loved -- including pizza crust) and see if I have any mail. When I left her outside for a while I always attached her collar to a VERY long ground-cable which allowed her to roam about half the length of the yard, with NO possibility of her running out in the street in front. The last exception to this rule was a couple weeks ago when I asked Bernar to take some pics of me and the dog... and she seems to have enjoyed the free romp - and I was mildly surprised that Bernar took time out from his "busy" schedule to want to take some pics! Maybe he just wanted to get the feel of my Nikon Cool Pix 950 digital camera to see how it works??
SNIFF!!
21 June
- I have traced my Family history,
thus far, back 300 years, and a celebration is being held on 23
June in Jednorosec, Poland to celebrate the event. Since I cannot
attend, I sent Darek Kardas (in Gdansk) 10 of the above certificate
[click for a larger
readable view] and the accompanying
Pope John Paul II
limited edition bears
as my meagre long-distance contribution
to the festivities. The adjoining pic is of the relic, with a
closer view in the inset.
Hey, and I even took the new large tree clippers I recently bought to the other place across the street to start cutting down some of the bamboo forest which has overgrown the back yard there! I only did a couple dozen of the hundreds and now have to cut the longer than 15' high sections into smaller lengths, bundle them and put them out in the trash. It is amazing how they grew over about 15 years -- some of the bottom stem diameters must be over 2" wide! It is a shame that I am cutting them, because they are kewl, but I would like a more tidy garden.
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