Tralfaz

Author: gander

  • Time to retire

    Time to retire

    (My other blog that is…)

    When I began my journey on the internet back in the 1990’s, I signed up with a small-ish ISP at the time, Best Communications. One of the “benefits” of their ISDN service was the inclusion of a domain for my email.

    At the time, I had an English Mastiff, a giant of a dog, named Astro – from The Jetsons, and of course that domain was gone. However, there was a twist, the name of Astro before he was adopted by The Jetsons was “Tralfaz”. Surely, this was a meaningless name dreamt up by the scriptwriters to make the episode work, it was a good choice in the early days of the internet.

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  • Car Shopping

    Car Shopping

    As I age, I am increasingly finding it less and less comfortable to fold myself into my current car, a Honda S2000. I wouldn’t have noticed this if I hadn’t spent a few months with the use of my Step Father’s Jeep Cherokee after he passed. A compact SUV, it was comfortable to drive, and I found that I enjoyed that.

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  • Goodbye Google Drive File Stream

    Goodbye Google Drive File Stream

    Way back, in September 2017, I was happy using Google Drive to put some of my documents. It was reliable, and if not as feature rich as Dropbox, my go-to solution for syncing between computers, I did get a block of storage free with my Google Suite account.

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  • 54 and Counting…

    54 and Counting…

    54 down, ? to go…

    Today marks the completion of my 54th trip ’round Sol, a time for reflection, celebration, and looking to the future. Not to wax philosophically, but with what is certainly the greater fraction of my life gone by, it is a bit of an eye opener.

    There are good things to be thankful for. My health remains good (even though I could stand to lose some weight,) I am doing meaningful – if highly stressful – work, I have a wonderful family, my wife and our two fur kids, and finally, it could be a lot worse.

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  • A very sad thought …

    A very sad thought …

    As I am finally getting my stepfather’s estate in order (it is largely in the hands of the realtor now) I have begun bicycling again. I dusted off my mountain bike, a 2014 vintage Specialized Crave that I enjoy riding, but I find that I don’t do as much offroad riding as I thought I would.

    Prolly because my fond memories were from nearly 20 years ago, when I was much more mobile, and in far better shape. Ah, the joys of late middle age.

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  • Bread Making

    Bread Making

    In the last installment of bread making, a new hobby, I was just beginning on the adventure of making sourdough bread.

    I followed the “sure bet” recipe for Rustic Sourdough from the fine people at King Arthur Flour, and it came out well. However there were two deficiencies:

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  • Music Collection Grooming

    Music Collection Grooming

    Music has long been a big part of my life, beyond just my (admittedly waning) guitar playing, I have been an avid collector of music. From my early days of buying LP’s (and kicking myself when several moves in the 1990’s caused me to donate my vinyl collection) to being an early adopter of the CD format while I was still in high school, my collection, while not huge by some standards, remains quite large.

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  • The New Year

    The New Year

    2018 is done, dead as the Dodo. Good riddance. Sayonara, arriverderci.

    The Dodo

    2019 is finally here. Cue the trumpets, the accolades, the … whatever. Regardless, 2019 will be better than 2018. It has to be.

    Things I will do to improve myself:

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  • Saying Goodbye to 2018

    Saying Goodbye to 2018

    Upfront Matter: To quote the illustrious Sterling Archer, “2018 can eat a big bag of dicks.” Seriously, this year has been trying by many measures. As I look back, there are some nuggets of positives, sprinkled among the shit-sandwich that was the year 2018, but by and large, I am going to be glad to see it in the rear view mirror. (more…)

  • The Quest for the Perfect Pizza

    The Quest for the Perfect Pizza

    My earliest recollection of Pizza was Round Table take out in the early 1970’s. At the time, Round Table was local to the SF Bay Area, and it wasn’t a terrible pie. However, it wasn’t inspiring.

    Then sometime in the mid 70’s, we had pizza at a local place. I think it was called Anchors, or something similar. I do know it was at the end of Homestead Road where it hit Foothill Expressway. (more…)