early-morning

I'm not sleeping anyway, so I may as well write up a post about some of the reasons why. the first one is obviously first, but the others are in no particular order:

• I heard from the folks last night; my father's leukemia is apparently of a type expected to respond well to aggressive treatment, and there are six treatments lined up for the next ten days or so. My parents both sound much more hopeful than they have recently.
  
• I have a netbook computer that I've set to dual-boot Windows XP (which was pre-installed) and Ubuntu (which I installed). After an automatic update, the Ubuntu side won't start. I've tried downloading the USB installer twice, and have had problems with both downloads (although a Fedora download looks successful). I've had problems with the Ubuntu downloads in the past, so I may just switch to Fedora on that computer, too (I switched to Fedora on the main box some time ago). The computer is still useful as long as the XP boots, although it takes a long time to start up. Still, XP will be supported until at least April 2014.
  
• I went up to the aunt's memorial service, and it wasn't awful, and some of it was actually pretty cool. Now I have people lining up around the block and taking numbers to regale me with variations on, "I told you so". Sigh.
  

Off for Election day today. Probably a ride later. The excellent wife will be working the poll as a Dem challenger for half the day (for next to no money, at a fairly unimportant election, which is why I'm not doing it).

Edit 8:09 am

1. I installed Fedora on the netbook in the space where Ubuntu was (my Fedora installs generally go much easier than my Ubuntu installs), and it's working; I've spent a couple hours tweaking & installing. So now I can go back to worrying aobut my dad.
   
2. Three of the most recent posts have been middle-of-the-night or early-morning. Hmmm.

Edit 6:50 pm

And two rides today: about 5 miles to vote and get razors, then a 20-mile-including-Coppermine-hill on the road bike, on which I broke 19mph average speed. I probably would have been 19.1, but I had to do a U-turn at a closed road. Grumble, grumble. Now off to Chopin class in a few minutes.