When I went to see Karen at the walkathon yesterday, she complained of a rash all over her torso; I noticed that she had a new shirt on, so I thought that she might be allergic to something in the fabric.

I went to sleep shortly after I got home and I heard Karen come in about 11:30 or so, she said that she was miserable with the itching, and took some benadryl. I went back to sleep and got up about 16:00 and found a note from her saying that she had gone to Lawrence to pick up Brian for the weekend. She got back about 17:30. Brian's mother, Jacinda, had pointed out to her that she was on antibiotics and that she had got some sun, and that certain antibiotics would react like that...

And sure enough, on Karen's prescription it says Avoid exposure to sunlight while using this product.

I hope that she's better today...

I got the Linux machine going. Well, the machine is, but the software... well, I'm installing it for the umpteenth time.

I had a helluva time with the motherboard... the case that I was putting it in was an old Northgate 386, and built to last. Major components of the frame were welded together... and the MB that I got had the memory located underneath the internal drive bays. So I had to do some metallic modifications before I could even get started.

Halfway through, I decided to read the directions... just so I wouldn't have to next time.

Everything went well until I tried installing the CDROM. I had a sound board that was configured properly and worked well. The whole system said it was happy with the CDROM. It just wouldn't read from it.

So I dinked and dinked and dinked, couldn't get it to work in DOS. I gave up, deciding that, even though the RedHat Linux came on CD, that I would get by without it.

So I started the Linux install. It wanted to know about the local CD drive, so I said "Why not?", told it that it was a soundblaster configuration and it took off. I was amazed. Well, no big deal, I'm frequently amazed when things go right.

Not very amazing, though, is that fact that that was the last thing that went right. The Linux install kept running out of HD space. So I fought with it and fought with it and went to bed.

That was about 01:30. So I woke up at 04:30. Make coffee... think. Decide to read the install book a little better. Duh. It gives the numbers for the full install, which I had chosen. Bigger than the HD. Hmmmm... I'll just knock some components off... like all of the grafix. Makes it smaller than the HD. Yeah, that's what I want, something that will fit.

So it's installing away as I'm typing.

It's not as easy to earn geek wings as I'd hoped it would be.

Dr. McAllister was on, and he saw Karen after Johnette had checked her in. He was sure that it was a reaction to the Sulfa derivative that Karen was taking for her supposed sinus infection. Sandy, the nurse that I mentioned in Heart Attack #3...NOT! put an IV in her left hand and they started her on meds.

After an hour, her symptoms had started subsiding, but not as fast as they were supposed to, so they hit her with some solu-medrol and that started things working. She was ready to go home after another half-hour. In the meantime, I had gone up and eaten breakfast and got an excellent backrub from Hyon, our receptionist/scheduler, who was working today for some OT.

So Karen is better, but she won't be moving around much... she's also supposed to take 3 benadryl a day, and that knocks her on her ass. She will spend the next three days mostly sleeping.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I'm on the 20th install attempt now. I keep getting further along with each install. Right now, there are only 33 files left to install. Maybe this will be the one...

...

...
All Right! I now have... almost... a linux system.

Now I have to figger out what that means to me. I also need to figger out... why?

Oops! It doesn't like my monitor... a green-screen CGA.... start all over again. Damndamndamn!

More tomorrow....