Tchoup Chop
I have my initial consultation appointment with the surgeon slated to perform my cholecystectomy tomorrow morning. As I have stated previously, my normally expected apprehension about this entire ordeal is suppressed as a result of the overshadowing pain and discomfort. I just want to get access to my full, unrestricted life back. I will know at the conclusion of this meeting the exact date, time and location of my procedure. I am going to request it is done on a Thursday or Friday to minimize the amount of time I have to take off from work. I have the paid days available to me, but I obviously prefer not to use too many of them all at once.

UPDATE: After talking with the doctor and reviewing the schedule of available surgical time slots, I set my cholecystectomy for Monday, 30 August 2004 at 0900.


Cleaning House
While Mount Sutro did not benefit from the upgrades and modifications I was planning, I did get a lot accomplished that will ready me for that project. I have decided to postpone working on the site until I am home recovering from the surgery. While during the first day or two I may be restricted to a bed, a better part of my recovery time I am expecting to use as the perfect opportunity to work on things here.

My format and reinstall, complete with Windows XP Service Pack 2, went without a hitch. In addition to the new features and bug fixes, I am finding my aging PC actually running a bit better than before. I also installed Microsoft Office 2003 replacing Office XP. I am ecstatic about a few of the new features added to office and the overall improvement in performance.


Laying Pipe
I decided to finally join the latter half of the twentieth century by purchasing DSL service for myself at home. I could no longer squeak by with a 56k dial-up connection or borrowing faster connections from friends or work when needed. My DSL service through Sprint but peered by EarthLink, should be up and running by Monday, 30 August 2004. There were a few reasons I went with this service over the popular Road Runner cable internet solution offered by resident evil Bright House Networks.

First, I loathe that company and although EarthLink technically falls under the same umbrella, it is enough a separate entity to appease me. Second, the amount of people that use this service in the area is high as I was concerned with the inherent bandwidth problems that can arise on a busy cable network connection. Third, the coaxial cable that runs in my house does a sub-par job at transmitting television data. I can not even imagine how spotty the internet connection would be over the same cables. Fourth, I did not want to have to pay for an installer to come (on their schedule, not mine) and request access to my computer. No, never. Finally, DSL seemed like a good idea when I calculated the local central office, LKBRFLXA, was only 2657.5 feet from my home.

My connection will peer over EarthLink, one of the many names for the once-abhorrent AOL Transit Data Network. I am not anticipating this being much of an issue since they have been forced to upgrade their systems to accommodate the nationwide growth there are experiencing. I am also going to pick-up a wireless router and PCMCIA NIC so I can forego physically running CAT-5 through the house.


Look for an update tomorrow on the surgery and, of course, as soon as my new network connection is established.