Made the long drive (2 miles) over to David Crocket State Park this morning and had the place to myself.

A new gym opened up over the weekend in our little town and I'm now a member. It's a 24/7 called Workout Anytime and it's big, they have brand new state of the art equipment, a Hydro Massage, a reACT Trainer and my Medicare Advantage plan makes it totally free for me.

So I get home after a great first workout, open the carton of eggs my neighbor gave me from his wife's chickens, and find this little egg. That's me, the 74 year old sleeper...

Meanwhile, Piper was laying on the floor where her bed of books used to be so I grabbed my travel bag, threw one of her old blankets from Idaho in there, and...

The leaves are falling again as I enter my third winter in southern Tennessee. My groundhog and I reflect.

Pipers new bed, the box of VC Andrews books and no I don't read that stuff...

Update: Sold the box of books on FB.

I've created a cool concept today that I call the Logo Cube. It has six sides: front, back, left, right, top and bottom. Here it is with all six sides at 0.7 opacity, being built one side at a time and then unbuilt:

It's now the site header with each side a decreasing level of opacity.

Here it is with all six sides at full opacity:

I have some cool animals that live along the creek and frolic in my backyard: Two busy squirrels, a fat groundhog (used to be two), a big armadillo, and a red fox with a bushy tail as big as it's body.

When I opened the door at 0430 this morning to let Piper out we both spotted the fox on the road under the street light. Piper wasn't fazed at all as it took off to the back, like they've crossed paths in the nights before.

I have no plan, parkinson's is kicking my ass and my website project is at a standstill. Despite that, I gave my life an eight yesterday while talking to Steph. I have shelter, technology, supplies, a great old truck and a great old cat. Just chilen.

btw: This blog has been spasmodic lately, a function of the process known as my old brain. So many memories always flooding in from every corner and I try to convey them (because this is a blog :-) but sometimes it gets too personal and I have to step back. Sorry.

I wrote my first computer program in Fortran at Merritt College in Oakland, CA in 1969. They installed an IBM System 3 Model 10 in 1970, I took over the lab, and learned RPG II. As I stepped out into the Bay Area business world in 1971 my skills were in huge demand.

I took the first job offer that looked good, from Golden Grain Macaroni in San Leandro. I setup their new Sys 3 box as an employee and then quickly got swept away, up into the consulting world working on the hottest computer platform on the planet, the IBM System 32/34/38.

I was the guru that everyone wanted. IBM was selling their systems all around the Bay Area and my sub-contractor passed me the work. Eventually I became independent and great systems were built from the ground up for many companies.

By the time the eighties and the IBM PC rolled into town, I was a jaded, burnt out code head. But of course, I took it on full steam and started several companies, blew up Comdex's and ultimately wrote scanner device drivers for Z-Soft's PC Paint, in assembly, at 5k a pop.

Now I'm just an old guy hunkered down in a small town in southern Tennessee. I still write code. I'm still as messed up as ever. Rock on baby!

As I live another day of intoxicants and code I slowly slide away into southern Tennessee oblivion. I question my future, reflect on my past, and search my soul for that next big move.

What was my last move? I did that fucking road trip, had a great time and survived. I rescued my truck on a Montana mountain pass and gave her new life when she brought me home. I saved my cat, found a cool goat cheese place and made that trip to Pensacola to meet Taylor. Oh, and I'm creating a website.

Wow, I don't know what's next...

But I want to look like this!

Ok, who's the girl? She was one of the kids from the Reach For Rainbows daycare north of Driggs, ID about five years back. I drove them once a week to wherever Day Care Mistress Lucinda (my buddy) chose to go.

I was told that this one talked about a daughter who had died. She was an old soul who blew everyone's mind that met her.

There you go...

Oh wait, check this out!

I've finally taught Piper how to kiss. She learned years ago to just plant a big lick on my forehead when she wanted a treat and I've been slowly ramping that down, rewarding her more for the soft touch. Today she planted the sweetest little kiss in the middle of my forehead that I swear were just her lips. Heart melted...

What an interesting time to be alive. I never thought I'd live long enough to see pot become a multi-billion dollar business in California, where the ready for harvest buds are currently getting infused with wildfire smoke while a hurricane is threatening my grand-daughters business down in Pensacola. My prayers go out to both today.

I got a call last night from Riley and he said his partner (and boss) Brian loved the new website. He asked Riley "Does he do this for a living, can I give him some money?" and Riley said "No, and he won't take money". My boy knows me well, I do it for the love of the game, and positive feedback makes me happy. I'm also thinking that the domain monarchc.com is sitting pretty well with them.

Now the site needs content, which is on Brian's wife, a very busy medical executive. Right now it just contains template gibberish that I cut and pasted from sources around the net. The site needs to define them properly and present photos that reflect the quality of their work. We'll hook up...

My day to day goal is to stay alive. Writing code in the company of my cat, helps.

Riley and Brian wanted their logo on a black background as the header and I gave it to them. Brian sent me a .pdf of their logo so I opened it, captured it, resized it and created a sweet transparent .png image. Then I centered it inside an almost black container and voilà!

Ya know how a traditional website link takes you directly there? Well, I'm playing around with a fun little concept that I call trick links. Here's an example: In my latest project I have an item in the main menu called "Photos", and to create a trick link to it all I have to do is go monarchc.com/photos

The site is loaded up, the menu item "Photos" is lit up, and then everything pauses for a magic second so the viewer can see where we're going, and then the site slides on down to "Photos".

This works for every menu item...

People are accusing me of sluffing off by taking stupid pictures of my cat and a cup. They say I should be doing something meaningful with my precious time because I'm old and I could be dead tomorrow.

Truth is (and I can do this with one arm around my cat and a straw in my mouth) I registered a new domain for Riley's business this morning and ported over all the code I've been creating, and then set the domain live.

The company is called Monarch Collision Center. They seem to often drop the Center so I've just taken Monarch, added a "c" at the end, and come up with monarchc.com. I think it's catchy and easy to say, monarch with a c .com.

Riley is running it past his partner now. If they don't like the new name, or the look, then I still have a great template for someone else and I'm out $10 to buy the domain name.

Here you go: http://monarchc.com

I am now the proud owner of a Flora-Bama Silicon Tie Die Tumbler. My new travel cup from Taylor just arrived and I've got a green silicon straw around here to match. I'll use it on my upcoming Austin adventure!

Update: She fits right on in and works great!

Even with Piper back.

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I just decided to write down the top ten attributes that I believe define me as a person, as they pop down from that processor above, unto my hand. Here's my list:

Sensitive, troubled, brilliant, creative, caring, kind, addictive, loving, lonely, happy, restless. What's your list?

Excuse me while I take a knee...

Meanwhile:

Every step I take, every move I make, glad to be alive!

Thank you god for blessing me with two amazing grand-daughters. The word on the street is there are more grand kids out there, maybe ten or eleven more, but these are the only two who will have anything to do with me, and I love them.

I just got back from hanging out with them down in Pensacola, FL and we had a hell of a good time. I drove home this morning and they drove over to New Orleans for a day trip.

Shelby lives there and co-runs an event planning company with a big wedding happening this weekend. Taylor, the mother of my great grand-daughter Prudence, whom I love very much, was up from Austin, TX. I've got thirty seven photos to share with you here. We hit some great places, hung out at the beach in Flora-Bama (swam in the Gulf of Mexico), I kicked Taylors ass last night at pool in the Man Cave, we met Shelby's new friend and well, just click the photo below to go there...

Update: I didn't like the initial resize cropping of this photoset, so I redid it here and now Shelby's face is no longer cut off at the Alcohol sign.

The fuel gauge on my truck has never worked, so around every 200 miles, I fill up. The trip tomorrow to Pensacola is 400 miles so I used my great routing app (OMJRoute) to split it in two and I found an Exxon with an easy exit in Clanton, AL exactly 200 miles from my house.

I put the trip from there to Pensacola into playback mode and maybe you can get it to run on your device by clicking the image below. Who knows!

I'm driving down to Pensacola, FL tomorrow and parking my truck at the Court of De Luna Event Space and Winery. I've heard it's a cool place to hang.

Next day, the Southern Alabama Zoo!

Looks like I better grab a sports jacket and a hot date, then go hang out in the Man Cave

Happy Labor Day from my backyard.

One of the key components of this blog is the users ability to display photos full size when clicked, and this only applies to photos stored on Flickr, which is 95%. The other 5% are smaller photos stored on my server that I use to augment a post. There was no click logic on these photos.

People have told me the photo app sucks on mobile but I blew it off because I didn't have a phone. My apologies... Now that I have a phone I realize they were right.

So, I've re-written it. Now when you click on a photo the whole image is displayed in it's actual size. Drag it around to see it and click it (touch it) to close. Works great, and here's a photo to try it out on:

I've also just created a similar app to display the smaller image files on my server. This means that every image on my blog since it's creation two years ago, that isn't a link to a web page, is now expandable. Wow, impressing myself...

That Vincent Van Gogh painting I used recently is a good example and you can try it out below.

I had a conversation with Steph today about embedding electronic trackers into her grand-daughters. I say yes.

If one gets snatched, first thing you do is call the cops, report a kidnapping and give them the childs tracking number. Modern technology could locate her immediately and have a chopper overhead with a patrol car behind, in minutes.

Tell them about it and let them know as soon as they want it removed, it will be. If they were ever kidnapped, the knowledge that it's there could help them.

And here's the kicker: As child traffickers start to get busted because one of the kids had a tracker embedded, I assume it would begin to happen less.

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And there is a powerful group of people on the Left that is better served by the U.S. being weak and the thought of another four years under Trump has them panicked and desperate.

I think we will end up a bitter divided country when this mail-in ballot debacle the Left is pushing destroys the integrity of our electoral system and our elected President will be unknown for months.

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Oh, and I wrote a song:

Step On You

by OldManJim

I don't want to step on your life,

you're arms don't have to hold me,

I just want to be your friend.

The connection's real and can't be denied,

drop all the bullshit and come inside,

Just let me know you're there.

Come on by my place, you know were I live.

Don't be afraid, ain't going to rock your world,

I just want to be your friend.

-----

I write code, and songs, and I have opinions. Here's my backyard today:

My sweet little '88 Mazda B2200 is 32 years old. I drove her hard on the road trip, broke her compression apart in the Montana mountains and limped her back into town with a trashed rear end and no clutch.

Well, she don't leak no more, she has a new ass and slave, and I don't think she's ever run better!

I'm getting design inspiration from my desk. I use three coasters there, remnants from Idaho, for everything from oatmeal to cocktail. I look at my site designs and see that I use a lot of similar squares, with distinct borders and shading. I believe layout should be emphasized, not made transparent.

Template notes: Menu items can be scrolled to directly by passing their name to a ?m= parameter in the url. So, if you click the image above I will take you to monarch/?m=photos.

Piper has her spot back overlooking the big yard and creek.

Meanwhile, I did some pretty nice structure stuff to my Mobile Template. I can now just load up a photo directory with images and the code self-generates.

Sometimes I settle down into Vincent Mode where great code concepts are shifting from my fertile creative mind, down to my fingers, and then on to that great canvas in the electronic sky. Along the way, I feed my cat.

Vincent Van Gogh, 1885

So what's going on with this code stuff, you might ask? I'm continuing a project that I started early this summer where I created a mobile friendly web site for the creek tubing company I drove the bus for and they were too busy succeeding to notice it, which is fine because it was too cool for them anyway.

Then I realized the template would be perfect as a web site for Brian and Riley's auto body business, then I realized it would be cool as a template for any small business! So here I am, being Vincent!

My focus today was a photo gallery presented in a mobile friendly manner. You show the major categories as clickable thumbnails, which display the individual sets.

So, you ready to drop on in? Here's the link, mosey on down to the Photos.

I was reverse lactating goat cheese into my mouth when Piper expressed interest, which she lost as soon as I plunked a treat down into hers, and ruined it.