You start hallucinating confusion and bad intentions with your fellow workers and they brace you against the wall and say things to straighten you out. The larger company structure, should it find it necessary, is less subtle in its methods, wielding, as they do, the bi-weekly paycheck. So I had these things to think about as I sipped on a Coca Cola and wondered if there were any pictures about.

I have accumulated hardware over these last two years with a project or two in mind. I have two new, now relatively new, computers sitting under my desk. New, certainly, when you compare them to my much older production machine. They have over three times the processor speed and larger hard drives, not quite as fast as the two ultra whatever's I have in the old production box, but fast enough. Good equipment, in other words, gathering dust. I bought them with the idea of learning Linux by building a firewall and building a server with the second machine to familiarize myself with the latest Windows server software and split out some of the photography stuff. Haven't touched either one.

So, I decided (again, sitting in the City Center), I'd better start. One week now on vacation, the head clearer, I downloaded the Linux video driver needed for the new machine (for the third time) and began building the firewall. And I went to the Honda site and built out an Element for the forty-fifth time except this time I pushed the button that said "request a quote from a dealer". I have not bought an Element, but I have given my name, address and phone number to a Honda sales person, who will track me down like a dog with pen and paperwork in hand. I consider this a serious move. So do you, if you've ever bought a car.

So, I'll start complaining again tomorrow of aches and pains and failing organs, but tonight I will work with this firewall business.