Feeling much better today. Diane is up in Montreal with friends which gabve me access to the house without fear of infecting her. . I used the day to do some general clean up around my shop.
One of the projects I’d had in my backlog was to take a look at my friend Abby (Abiyoyo)’s old IBM Selectric typewriter. She’d gotten it in a junk sale and had used for several years. The machine had quit working.. She asked me to take a look.. if it could be fixed she’d like it back.. if not I could toss it.
It was so cool opening the chassie of that old but magical IBM machine. Inside was a mechanical marvel .. gears, clutches, motors, belts and levers. It is a marvel of engeering.. and a truly iconic piece of technology/ I remember using one of these at Channel 39 the tv Station I worked at from 1973-74.
Youtube was my freind here.. THere were tons of tutorials online about diagnosing.. and sometime even fixing these beasts. I found this one by a woman named. Fran extremely helpful
Fran even warned about thesound insulation that degraded over the years and made a mess of everythign it touched .. especially your hands
Alas.. this one has a broken clutch. I’m pricing what it would cost to replace.. probably not worth it though..
But what a trip through the technology time tunnel !
Damn.. I knew it. I woke up feeling pretty yucky.. I’d brought a covid test just in case. .. Uh-oh
Now what ?!.. I’m supposed to give a talk to 100 customer execs in a few hours.. and tonight I’m supposed to be in DC for an award ceremony .
IBM is sponsoring one of my hero’s induction into the Inventors Hall of Fame. Sh’es Lynn Conway the mother of modern chip design.Lynn was being reconized for her invention of the first scalable composition system for VLSI (very large integrated Circuit) design. I and thousands of others learned from Lynns book hw simple abstractions of semiconductor devices could make chip design scalable, automatable and reliable. Lynne is also a trans woman and a passionate activist in support of LBTGQ rights. I’ve gotten to know her recently by phone where we’ve been dicussing our project OnBoard abotu gettign kids to fall in love qith electronics by making fun printed circuit boards. I was so sad not to be able to attend to congratulate Lynne for this big award.
I couldn’t do either of those things while testing positive for covid. I quickly told both groups that I couldn’t attend todays events, . I canceled my flight to DC and back to BTV> canceled my hotel in DC ., rented a car to drive back hoe as not to infect anyone, checked out of my boston hotel , picked up the car and started driving back to Vermont.
I made a deal with the IBM fols that I could still give my talk remotely. Unfortunately the hotel wouldn’t let me check out late enough to do it from there, so I planned to do it on the way home somehow..
Around 11 I found a McDonalds with free wifi, got out my presentation and dialed in . It wnet as well as a remote presentation from a car could go. the Audio connection was a little wobbly.. an dit hard to give a fun and funny talk remotely when you can’t read your audience. Anyway. we got through it. I was very sorry not to have done this in person. I was really looking forward to it !
A few hours later I got home.. I took the car back to the airport and headed to the yoga space to isolate myself from Diane and our friend Linda who’s up visiting.
I swallowed some paxlovid we’d gotten as a precautio for our Italy trip . THen diane and linda fixed me a plate of delicious treats.. and we all went outside to eat around the fire.. I stayed a good distance away.
By that time I was feeling pretty sick. I went up to the yoga space and fell instantly asleep with a high fever
I know it sounds weird. but it was actually a kind of fun day.. I like that sort of challenge.. Its fun to think on your feet.. even if they’re feeling wobbly at the moment
Worked a half day .. then got on a plane to Boston . I had a bit of a cold so I wore a mask to work.
I’m supposed to give a talk tomorrow at my old lab for a group of IBM education customers. I like doing this kind of thing for my old friends at IBM
I got in town a little late.. and actually started feeling a little cruddy.. I did manage to get together with my good friend Akash for a quick outside dinner. It was really good catchin gup with him. His work is going great. and the lab is doing really well. I got to hear about soem of his recent research. which is always inspiring.
Looks like we’re both feeling a little blurry here.
I headed back to my tiny hotel room feeling sicker by the minute. uh-oh. Lets see what tomorrow brings
