TCFJR

About

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A site of my random ramblings. I’m a semi-retired 45-year veteran of the engineering software trenches, with stints at the Jet Propulsion Lab, a small appraisal research firm, and 35 years with MSC Software, one of the leading providers of computer-aided engineering tools.

I bought a new 2005 Yamaha FJR1300A motorcycle in August, 2004, and used the handle tcfjr on the FJR1300 forum. (I lived in a town called Temple City at the time, and one of the top contributors to the forum used a handle with his city followed by ‘fjr’ so I wanted to emulate it.) I still have that bike - 20 years later and now with 140,000 miles, and it’s still running strong.

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Ireland - Week Two - January 26-February 1, 2025

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 10:22:32 +0000

## Day Seven - January 26, 2025

We continued to acclimate to the post-storm weather.

## Day Eight - January 27, 2025

Before we left for Ireland, we decided to bring my old Pixel 5A phone with us, with the plan to activate it with an Irish plan and phone number. This should be helpful when we need to communicate with the immigration solicitor or anyone other business-type contacts.

I took the phone into the Tesco in Dundalk, and signed up for a 10 euro per month plan that seemed to fit our needs. It took less than 10 minutes at the Tesco Mobile desk to complete everything, and I left happily with a working Irish phone.

## Day Nine - January 28, 2025

I was finally able to get out for a short walk around the neighborhood. I went down to the path along the River Fane and took it the path’s ending at the Dublin Road (R132), then went thru the gate onto the grassy side of the roadway. Overall it was about a mile, with pleasant (but cold) weather and bright sunshine.

## Day Ten - January 29, 2025

I spent some time trying to schedule an in person meeting in Dublin with the immigration solicitor, and made some progress. I’m hoping to lock something down tomorrow, with next Tuesday being our first choice and the Monday before as second choice. Their offices are in Dublin overlooking the Liffey, and we’ll have some time to visit our favorite Dublin restaurant after the meeting, and perhaps do some big-city-only shopping.

## Day Eleven - January 30, 2025

## Day Twelve - January 31, 2025

## Day Thirteen - February 1, 2025

Ireland - Week One - January 20-25, 2025

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 17:10:41 +0000

## Day One - January 20, 2025

We landed in Dublin around 9:15am local time on Monday, 20 January 2025. The flights from AUS to PHI and PHI to DUB were pleasant enough, but the overnight flights from the U.S. to Dublin are kind of a jet lag boot camp. You land early in the morning, and are encouraged to sleep during the flight, but your body clock says it’s not really the right time to sleep. And it’s tough enough to sleep sitting up anyway.

We collected the rental car, and made the drive to Banagher, right on the River Shannon in the Midlands. The AirBnB we booked was about 2km/1.2miles west of Banagher.

When we arrived at the cottage, the host had left the back door unlocked. We took a brief tour, and found a number of issues. The heater wasn’t working in the main bedroom, there were lots of cobwebs and dead bugs in the inside rooms, and the toilet in the main bedroom had a broken seat making it functionally unusable.

We tried to contact the host, but she wasn’t available either in-person or by phone.

We soon came to the conclusion that this AirBnB wasn’t going to work for us, and I made the call to find somewhere else for the night. The nearest city with a modern hotal is Birr, about 10 miles south of Banagher, and we booked two nights at the County Arms Hotel - it’s an older building, but the rooms are fully modern, and we settled in nicely.

For late lunch/early dinner, we found a nice little coffee shop/restaurant in downtown Birr.

## Day Two - January 21, 2025

We had a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and enjoyed the view out the window. We spent most of the day resting up from the long day yesterday. In the late afternoon we stopped by the local Tesco to get some supplies, and I went and got take-out burgers from a local pizza/burger/kebab place downtown.

## Day Three - January 22, 2025

Carole was finally able to resolve the issue with the original AirBnB booking, so now we needed to find another AirBnB for the remainder of our trip. One-bitten/twice-shy, we decided it was necessary to visit the prospective options to make sure they were what they claimed to be and everything was in good working order. This kind of pre-visit isn’t really a thing with AirBnB, but we were pleased to find that each host was very willing to show us their offerings.

Carole found two options - one in Blackrock, a neighborhood on the Irish Sea in the south part of Dundalk about 45 minutes north of Dublin, and aother in Kilgraney, about half-way between Carlow and Kilkenny about 2 hours southwest of Dublin.

We first drove to Blackrock, and met with a very nice host named Karen. Her lodging is a 3-bedroom, 1 3/4 bath detached house about half a mile west of the main business district of the small coastal town. We knew early on that this was a great option. It had a washer and dryer (which only a few AirBnB’s in Ireland have), a nicely appointmented kitchen, an super-fast broadband. We had a nice tour and chat with the host, and then headed out to the next option.

The drive to Carlow was long but scenic, and the first hints of the on-coming storm were beginning to show. We stopped for gas at what would be called a truck-stop in the U.S. It included a McDonald’s, so we had an early dinner there.

The name of the second AirBnB is Lorum Old Rectory, a beautiful old stone building that had been the local rectory until the mid-1970’s. Adjacent to the main building was the Stables, which had been actual stables back in the day. The interior had been lovingly updated, with a noticeable effort at maintaining the historic feel of the place. The Stables were the offering for the AirBnB booking.

The hostess Rebecca was also quite nice, and we left feeling this was also a very acceptable option.

When we got back to the hotel in Birr, we had decided to go with the house in Blackrock. It had the modern amenities we wanted, and was closer to Dublin. We had plans to meet with an Immigration Solicitor based in Dublin, so it would be easier to manage the drive from Dundalk/Blackrock.

The drive from the Rectory back to the hotel in Birr was challenging. It was rush hour in Kilkenney, and the sun had just set, and the only reasonable route took us on curvy R roads almost the entire way. We were happy to put a close on the long day.

## Day Four - January 23, 2025

After a nice, final breakfast at the hotel in Birr, we headed back to Blackrock around 11:00am, trying hard to avoid Storm Eowyn which was hitting the west coast of the island a few hours later. We made good time on the way there, taking a slightly different route to add more motorway time in place of the N and R roads we had used yesterday. (In Ireland, M roads are motorways, compable to interstates in the U.S. N roads are National roads, roughly equivlant to U.S. highways. R roads are regional roads, comparabale to state highways. L roads are local roads, which can vary between single-track roads with tall hedgerows a foot from either side of your car, up to near R-road quality.)

We arrived in Dundalk around 2:30pm and stopped by the nearby Tesco for food and supplies. We arrived at the AirBnB in Blackrock around 4:30pm, unloaded the car and settled in. We split a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner, and met with Danny, the co-host with his wife Karen. Danny went over some of the minor quirks of the place, and made sure we knew what to expect from the storm.

## Day Five - January 24, 2025

Storm Eowyn arrived in Blackrock around 1:00am, with winds of 90mph, driving rain, and lots of noise. The power went out around 1:45am, which was to be expected. We slept as well as we could under the conditions.

The power came back around 1:15pm, and other than a few loose flower pots from the back garden that had been blown around there was no noticeable damage. The winds died down to 45-60mph later in the afternoon and remained relatively high the rest of the night. There were wide-spread power outages throughout the island, but the Blackrock/Dundalk area was not heavily impacted, thankfully.

Chicken Nachos for dinner.

## Day Six - January 25, 2025

We spent most of the day unpacking the rest of our gear and getting things organized. We made use of the washer/dryer to clean our traveling closes, and went back to Tesco to grab a few more items.

Old newspaper article

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 14:48:37 -0600

My sister was going through some old papers left by my father, and came across this article from the local newspaper. I was invited by a local group for secretaries and administrative assistants to give a 30-minute presentation on the use of the World Wide Web. As was the norm back then, I suited up for my presentation, but I think I omitted the tie. My recollection of the evening is quite positive.

Generations

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 08:41:30 -0600

From Futility Closet:

“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before and wiser than the one that comes after it.” — George Orwell

New York Times Puzzles with my sister

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 10:04:41 -0600

For the last few years, my sister and I have been playing the daily New York Times puzzles. A few months ago, We started sharing our daily efforts playing Wordle and Connections - we both also play other NYT puzzle games, but stuck with the two main games to share.

It’s a great, low-key way to stay connected. Often we just share the basic results, but if either of us has a particularly good or particularly bad day with our solutions, we’ll commiserate. We both agree the most annoying thing to happen in Wordle is to have 4 of the five letters correctly placed with either the first or second guess, and then need 3 or 4 chances to find the final letter.

The Play is Badly Cast

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 09:17:53 -0600

Lois McMaster Bujold Quotes

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:45:59 -0600

Some memorable quotes from Lois McMaster Bujold

“Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long they stand around chatting before they shoot you.” - Shards of Honor
“My home is not a place, it is a person, sir.” - Barrayar
“Geography is the mother of strategy.” - The Vor Game
“Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.” - A Civil Campaign
“The world is made by the people who show up for the job.” - Cryoburn
“Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn’t going to supply it.” - Cordellia’s Honor
“I wanted to give you a victory. But by their essential nature triumphs can’t be given.” - A Civil Campaign
“Not all prisons are made of iron bars, some are made of feather beds.” - The Curse of Chalion

Ians Secure Shoelace Knot

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 13:49:28 -0600

I have a nice pair of low-top Merrell shoes I like to wear for walking and hiking. From time to time the knot would come undone, which is somewhat annoying.

I was getting ready to do my 3 mile walk around the neighborhood, and decided I wanted to learn a secure but easily tied replacement for the bunny-ears knot I learned in kindergarten. The solution was:

Ian’s Secure Shoelace Knot

It’s easy enough to learn and then to tie, and results in a very secure shoelace that’s still easy to untie.

Here’s a diagram of Step 6, which shows a view of the completion of the process.

Delight

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 10:22:25 -0600

“The true delight is in the finding out, rather than in the knowing.” — Isaac Asimov

Just Deserts

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 16:15:25 -0600

Many people believe the idiom for someone getting what they deserve is “just desserts”, but in fact it’s “just deserts”. It’s a now defunct version of the word “deserts” meaning “that which one deserves” that only survives today in that one idiom. But is is pronounced just like “desserts”.

Harbor

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:03:32 -0600

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” - John A. Shedd

First

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 16:04:24 -0600

Hello. Still in test.

Add Life

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 02:03:32 -0600

“I don’t ride a bike to add days to my life. I ride a bike to add life to my days.” - Anonymous

Game 5

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 11:50:14 -0600

As a long-time Dodger fan - I went to my first game at Dodger Stadium back in 1965 - I was really happy to see them win game 5 today at Yankee Stadium to close-out this year’s World Series.

We can all agree that that fifth inning defensive display by the Yankees was horrible, but their overall defense throughout the series was really weak. It’s hard to understand, but their coaching staff has to take the brunt of the blame.

Red Flags

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:41:59 -0600

“When you wear rose-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags”
- Anonymous

Peanut Butter and Pickle

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:36:28 -0600

Since I was a kid, I’ve always enjoyed peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. It’s a little weird, I guess. You take two slices of bread, slab on some creamy peanut butter on both sides, lay some pickles on and close up the sandwich. Then enjoy.

You can use either dill pickles or sweet pickles. Each has their own flavor, but either one makes for a fantastic sandwich.

Elvis famously enjoyed peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Maybe once I become famous the world will start to enjoy peanut butter and pickle.

The Tree Remembers

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 21:28:24 -0600

“The ax forgets, but the tree remembers”
- African proverb