Building is Finished; Building Projects Begin

As of last Wednesday, April 1, construction on the building is finally done. When Susan and I purchased our new home back in 2018, we intended on building a workshop in the backyard the minute our old house sold. Unfortunately, the old house sat on the market for another nine months. When it finally sold in July of 2019, we immediately contacted a local contractor, drew up plans, and signed a contract to get the ball rolling. I could say a lot of good things about the experience and I could say a lot of bad things about the experience,… (read more)

RobOHara

Wasted Away in Coronaville

For a week I’ve been waiting for a break in the Coronavirus/Covid-19 news cycle to catch my breath and write a few words, but there hasn’t been one. Every hour, there’s a new headline. Every day, things are a little worse. Last week I felt like our local school district was being overly cautious by closing school on the Friday before spring break. Before the end of the weekend, school had closed through April 6. Every day since then has been a rolling tsunami of updates, changes, rules, warnings, and fear. Oklahoma has remained a few days behind larger, more… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Three New Lunchboxes in Three Weeks

National Airlines Lunchbox

Over the past three weeks, I’ve added three new (vintage) lunchboxes to my collection. I recently began looking for some wall shelves for my future office. Hopefully I can get them made and on the wall soon; I’m dying to get my lunchboxes out of storage and put them back on display! — National Airlines (1968) – $45 Released as a promotional item in 1968, this lunchbox features a National Airlines crew standing in front of a plane on one side, and a National Airlines plane in flight on the other. The women in this picture are wearing some kind… (read more)

RobOHara4 Comments

Goodbye, Mr. Magnavox Phillips Talking Caller ID Box

Magnavox Talking Caller ID Box

Before throwing things away I like to take a picture of them and occasionally write a blog post about them, too. Here are a few words about my old friend, Mr. Magnavox Phillips Talking Caller ID Box. Let me tell you what telephones were like in the 1980s. When you wanted to call someone you picked up the receiver, dialed their seven-digits (ten if it was long distance), and waited for them to answer the phone. If the person you called was talking to someone else, you heard a busy signal and had to call back later. If they weren’t… (read more)

RobOHara

All Hands on Deck

Through what can only be called a comedy of errors, “we” (not me) managed to brick nearly 1,000 laptops at work. The details aren’t particularly important (nor am I in a position to discuss them), but let’s just say that a unique combination of outdated operating systems, older third party disk encryption solutions, and Microsoft’s latest patches combined to create the perfect storm for these specific machines. All of these things came together in a way that left the machines in a non-bootable state, effectively turning them into “bricks.” A quick response was needed, so management requested that those machines… (read more)

RobOHara3 Comments

Games Magazine

Games Magazine, a magazine dedicated to games and puzzles, was originally published by Playboy. The magazine debuted in 1977 and was sold to another company in 1987. After it was sold, the magazine briefly went out of business before coming back in 1991 and changing hands multiple times since. The version published from 1977-1987 is the one I’m most familiar with. Each issue of Games contained several different kinds of puzzles, and the magazine itself was divided into color (glossy) pages with a black and white (newsprint) section in the middle. The newsprint pages contained traditional “pencil” puzzles — things… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Five Day Friday (02.14.2020)

On Five Day Friday, I put my phone on shuffle and write a few words about the first five (of 5,000) songs that come out. I’ll include YouTube links when possible, but just remember that nothing lasts forever. J. Geils Band – Land of a Thousand Dances (LINK) Showtime (1982) According to Wikipedia, the J. Geils Band originally released their cover of this rock and roll classic on their live 1982 album, Showtime, although the version of my phone came from their 1993 greatest hits album, Flashback. Also according to Wikipedia, J. Geils Band has released 11 studio albums and… (read more)

RobOHara

The Ultimate Jeopardy Challenge

We watch a lot of Jeopardy in our house. Our DVR records two episodes at day, and we try to keep current as much as possible. If we miss watching the show for a day or two, we’ll binge watch all our recorded episodes until we’re caught up. Even though it’s a 30 minute program, if you fast forward through the commercials and contestant introductions you can watch an episode in less than 20 minutes. A few months ago, we started yelling out potential responses as Alex Trebek introduces the round’s categories. For example if there was a category called… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Zen and the Art of Scrubbing Rust

Around the time Susan and I bought our first house, my dad bought me my first set of big boy tools, which included a large tool chest and set of Craftsman tools. Back then I couldn’t tell nice tools from cheap ones, and probably didn’t appreciate them as much as I should have. Over the years I’ve purchased additional tools and mixed them all together. Last year while moving, I emptied all of my tools out of my toolbox and haven’t yet put all of them back where they go. Recently while looking for a socket, I discovered that many… (read more)

RobOHara1 Comment

Yukon 5 Cinema to be Demolished

Yukon 5 Cinema, my hometown movie theater, is set to be demolished “as soon as possible,” according to local news reports. (Update: KFOR was quoted a date of later this year.) According to Cinema Treasures, the Yukon 5 Cinema “opened in 1982, was renovated in 2007, and closed in 2014.” That particular site refers to the theater as “Silver Cinemas – Movies 5,” although my friends and I usually just referred to it as “the Yukon theater” or “the dollar movies.” The Yukon Theater was not the only theater my family visited. When I was younger we went to the… (read more)

RobOHara