A couple of years ago I put a lot of work into generating polygon outlines for every county in the U.S. Today I implemented then into my new program, on a Leaflet map, and they look damn cool. Once you drill down to the county level within a state, clicking on the county name opens up a map with the outline overlayed. I even plugged a title layer on to it so you know what you're looking at. Zooming the map removes the title.

↑ Shelby's neck of the woods...

I've been feeling really lonely lately, so I signed up with Tinder. What a joke that is! I filled out my profile honestly and all that comes across the screen is a bunch of old women.

I don't want an old woman in my life. Ex husbands, dead husbands, baggage, christ... Which means, since I'm an old guy, that's all the options I got I guess.

So I need to get over this lonely thing and move on, but where? Nobody could live with me anyway as I go to bed at 1900 and wake up at 0130 in the morning writing code.

The code thing is interesting, I realize I still have it, diving into old projects, grabbing complex code I've written in the past and creating something new. I'm behind the modern curve but I can still blaze forward. Not that anyone is going to use it, but that's another story...

It's a nice sunny day and Piper and I have been chilling on the porch. I've been nuzzeling my face into her beautiful belly and life is what it is, until it ain't.

A funny thing happened yesterday, Daniel was over visiting and I mentioned I had a new website. All of a sudden he starts freaking out, saying "there you go, changing shit up again", blah, blah blah. I showed him the new site on my phone and he calmed down. I'm pretty sure he thought I was talking about my blog, which he gets. No sir, I was talking about the new domain and content I just created, of which I have many.

This one uses the CovidActNow API I recently mastered to create a cool sortable data table. It was a challenging piece of code as the fixed table header is a sort of holy grail among programmers, but I got it down.

Anyway, if you would like to check it out, here you go: c19table.com.

I'm working on a new tool that extracts data from the Covid Act Now API which is the most up to date database in the US currently. I will eventually integrate it into my tool set, but for now, if you want to try it out, click here or click the logo below.

Click on a State to see the state totals or dive down into the county data. Very interesting...

Just thought it was time to share my feelings about this crap.

Last year as the virus was spreading around the world I was transporting 200+ people from around the South up and down Shoal Creek in a cramped 14 passenger bus. Then I drove cross country to Seattle and back.

People around me were catching this thing and a bunch dropping dead so when the City offered drive thru shots at the firehouse early this year I joined the line and got both jabs from the window of my truck. Stories of rough reactions were everywhere but all I experienced was a sore arm. I did have a couple of months of mental fogginess early on, but who knows...

I stopped masking up at Krogers and Walmart, went to Belize this summer and a few other trips, and I have not caught Covid, not even the flu. Yesterday I got the booster and I have a slightly sore arm, that's it.

I've been a staunch anti flu-vaxer, never got one, but I have no regrets about these shots. Maybe there is shit going down with them, but at 75, I don't care, all I know is that I have never caught Covid and I'm still alive!

I decided yesterday to finally break down and get a muffler for my truck. I love the performance of a straight pipe but it ain't worth the grief and I've just been waiting for the local police to give me shit.

On the way to check out the only muffler installation option in town, a State Trooper pulled me over on the main drag for being loud as hell. I started laughing as I handed over my stuff, and swore I was on my way to a muffler shop! I get it!

Anyway, no ticket and when I arrived at ProLube, the same guys that change my oil and the only option for a muffler install in this town, I was shocked at their quote of $200. Come on man, you've been my oil guys for going on four years here, and that's the best you can do?

Then I went to my parts guys and they recommended a little shop down in Iron City. I called and made an appointment for 10am this morning. They quoted me $70 sight unseen and neighbor Daniel said he knew and trusted the guy, just bring cash.

When I showed up and went inside to the funkiest little shop I've ever seen they slid behind the wheel of my truck and drove it round back. I spent the next half hour shooting the shit with some locals hunkered around a pot bellied stove who had no reason to be there other than they wanted to be. I'm talking down home real country boys.

I saw my truck pull up out front, gave Greg $65 cash and drove off. I didn't even look at the job till I got home. What an amazing way to do business!

The work was great by the way and she's purring like a kitten...

Update: It just occured to me that he cut five bucks because I dropped Daniel's name...

I just ran across an online article about my first IBM PC product called 4-Point Graphics. It was marketed by a company called IMSI out of San Raphael in 1984. The article was written by one of the co-founders, Bob Mayer and here are some highlights:

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4-Point Graphics – really the first painting program for the IBM PC. Able to display 4 colors at a time out of a palette of 16, all at a stunning 320 x 200 pixel resolution. And this was a program that still used the cursor pad to move the cursor around the screen. Computer mice were just in their infancy and we hadn’t yet written an input driver for any of them.

4-Point Graphics quickly became the most popular program that we sold, mainly because there was a dearth of graphics applications for the IBM PC. Its success at retail soon caught the attention of hardware manufacturers, OEMs as we called them. These OEMs were both interested in our writing input and output drivers, as well as supporting their graphics cards; implicit in this support was the potential to have them bundle our software with their hardware products. On the input device side, we were approached by mouse manufacturers such as Logitech and Mouse Systems, a digitizing tablet manufacturer, Kurta, the first color ink jet printer manufacturer, Diablo Systems (a Xerox company), and a ‘graphics’ oriented computer manufacturer called Mindscape.

One of the biggest challenges we faced in closing these deals, was that our ‘team’ of people responsible for selling and supporting these OEMS was not exactly a polished, professional group.

4-Point Graphics' Product Manager, Dusty P, was a professional astrologist who dressed and looked like someone from the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. Our OEM sales manager, Alan K., while looking and dressing fairly conservatively, had big drinking and cocaine issues. Finally, the programmer of 4-Point Graphics, Jim H., never went to sleep before 3am and when he did wake up, began his day with a joint or two.

Naturally these personalities presented challenges to morning meetings with the more conservative manufacturers such as Xerox and NCR. Alan would often attend the meetings with his wrap-around sunglasses still on, Dusty would weave references to the position of the moon and stars into his comments about the program, and Jim, if he actually showed up for the meeting, was usually too stoned to say much of anything at these meetings, so would just sit there and smile.

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Here you go :-)

Some art from the program:

And a couple other things I created back then:

I was driving through town today just to get out of the house when I noticed a good old boy standing in his driveway checking out my truck, so I pulled in. I thought he was just appreciating my ride but he walked up to me and started bitching about how loud my truck is.

I'm really despising this little southern town I live in and I need to get the hell out of here. This is not my first incident with southern inhospitality, there have been many, trust me. Man, I don't know what it is but I feel like a duck out of water.

I have two friends here, my married friend Crissinda and my married friend Daniel. Crissinda and I text often but only see each other rarely. Daniel and I see each other daily but he drives me crazy often.

My cat's on her last legs, I love her dearly, and I'm sticking around for her. Otherwise I would leave all of this physical shit behind and hit the road. Throw some clothes and my electronics in the back of my truck and road trip until I die...

By good buddy Jeff the book dealer sent me a paperback yesterday called The Willpower Instinct (How self control works, why it matters and what you can do to get more of it), by Kelly McGonigal out of Stanford.

I starts out by laying down three challenges:

• I will: What is something that you would like to do more of, or stop putting off, because you know that doing it will improve the quality of your life?

• I won't: What is the “stickiest” habit in your life? What would you like to give up or do less of because it's undermining your health, happiness, or success?

• I want: What is the most important long-term goal you'd like to focus your energy on?

I knew immediately what my priorities were within that list and wrote them down in the book. We'll see where this goes...

Update: Crissinda just gave me a hard time, wanting to know what was on my list. What the hell, why not share it:

I will get back into great physical shape.

I won't drink anymore.

I want to find inner peace with myself.

What's on your list?

Jim's been on my mind a lot lately, so I decided to drop by his little house and check up on him. When he answered the door I was shocked, he looked like a wild man.

His hair was getting long and the space on both sides of his long goatee were filling in with beard. He told me that he shaved his head when he took off for Belize last summer and hasn't cut it since. He also said the last time he shaved his face was before his recent cruise, which included Belize. I began to see a pattern forming.

His place is well kept. The old cat he's had for a decade or more seemed well and very fat. Heat was on, so was Netflix. The big computer was shut down and he had his tiny little laptop in front of him.

I sat across from him in one of those big chairs he brought from Idaho and damned if he didn't have the same table that was in his living room. I asked him how he was. I have to admit I was a bit concerned since he had stopped bloging, and that was my main way of keeping up with him.

He said every day is the same. He wakes up at 0400, drinks his hot lemon drink, makes breakfast for himself and Piper. Said he alternates between hot oatmeal and organic cereal, both topped with strawberries and black berries. Drinks a berry smoothie around 0700, eggs at 0800, tuna and egg sandwich around 1100.

From that point on the days appear to be a blur for him. He shuts down at 1900. No code, an occasional trip to the park, said he really want's to get back into working out, but say's he has no reason to do so. He also mentioned he's got a book coming from Amazon tomorrow about getting motivated or something. I hope that goes well.

So I said goodby to my old friend and as I was walking out the door I asked him if there was one thing he really missed. He said children in his life. Wow, that's sad...

I have been dumping my bullshit here on the blog a lot lately, and then deleting it the next morning. My apologies, time to take a break...

Steph has been on my mind a lot lately, she hasn't responded to my text in a long time and I didn't know if she was even still alive what with Covid going down. So I decided today to drive up to her last known employer (a Dollar store) and do some shopping.

As I was checking out my plan was to ask about her, when she suddenly appeared with a cash drawer in her hands, all masked up. We exchanged a brief hello as I walked by and she appears well.

I get it that she's moved on and I'm happy for her, but I'm not alone in wondering how she was. She endeared herself to many members of my family over the twenty years or so we were together, and I know they think of her. So this is an update, Steph appears fine and doing ok!

As for me, I still love her. I've also accepted the reality that life moves on, as it should. But tonight my heart rests easy knowing that she's still at the same job, probably an assistant manager at this point, and still around. Hopefully she's enjoying her sweet grandkids to the fullest.

 • Sometimes the memories of long ago crash like waves inside your poor mangled head, and drain from your eyes like a river. The longer you live, the stronger the current...

 • Rapid tests may not pick up positive cases in people who have been vaccinated or who have recently recovered from Covid-19, since they may produce less virus.Isn't that interesting...

 • Still no word on that Homer Jolly site, oh well, I know it rocks. I've created a lot of stuff over the last two decades that never went anywhere, but I always knew it was good. Sometimes people just don't get it...

 • Down to the very last remanents of that flu I got onboard the crusie ship, one more rest day, watch the Titans secure their division tomorrow, and get back to my work out routines come Monday...

 • Life goes on... Not sure why, but it does.

My space at 1400 on Jan 8, 2022, got some electronics on the table, a drink, and my grandfathers hammers. Big TV and my teddy bear, all is well...

Ok, it don't match the snow Riley got back in Washington, and it certainly don't compare to Brian's ski resort in Jackson, WY, but southern Tennessee got a dusting last night!

It was so weird last night, still feeling like shit after coming down with something in the Caribbean. My home covid test was negative so I don't know what's going on.

Yesterday afternoon around 1700 I talked Piper into going outside, promising to keep an eye on her. All of a sudden I got real ill and grabbed a container of water with a straw, some tissues and went to bed sweating like a pig. I spent the next six hours coughing and rolling around, listening to fireworks going off down the street, and finally remembered Piper outside.

I got up and brought her in, poor baby, and then watched the New Years Eve stuff on TV. I talked to my boy Riley on the phone who was worried about me, and went back to bed. I've been making it up to my baby all day now, gave her a spray bath with a good brush, and lots of treats. I think she forgives me...

I've also been writing code through all of this. I have a friend down in Pensacola that I met through Shelby, those two cooked me a Thanksgiving meal once, and Homer took Brian and I on a tour of the new Alabama Zoo, which he designed. Shelby told me on the cruise that Homer needs a new website for his art, separate from his design site.

Homer is an amazing designer and artist and it is my pleasure to come up with something that works for him. His current site is great, but not responsive (i.e. looks good on a phone). I'm using my template to create a workable solution, and hopefully he likes it.

It's in pretty good shape at this point, and if you would like to check it out, here you go HomerJolly.com