Can't Leaf the Area Very Easily

For those following the events in U.S. weather, the midwest was hit with a major windstorm last night -- gale force gusts, to be precise. It's amazing how loss of power puts everything into perspective, even if it's only for a few hours. I needed a good reminder to keep me grounded in what really matters. In retrospect, I count myself very much blessed. The worst of it was about 24 hours without Internet access, which was quite annoying, about 4 hours without power, and a bunch of branches and leaves in my back yard.

Others were not nearly so lucky. The street I live on, for example, is currently a detour for a major state route that has a huge fallen tree across it. I'm also quite glad I don't subscribe to the digital phone package that Time Warner pushes alongside its RoadRunner service. Both my in-laws and some very good friends of the family were not only without power, but also without a source of communication by not having a cell phone or a landline. Over 450 school districts -- not schools, but districts -- were closed for today.

Over 230 schools were closed in my area , including my own, so I had an unexpected -- but nonetheless welcome -- day off. With my newly-found spare time, I spent the morning hacking on the DeskPanel, the proposed R2 retooling of the Deskbar. Progress? Igor, it's alive, I tell you. ALIVE!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Well, it's certainly comparable to Dr. Frankenstein's monster -- the sources aren't exactly pretty. Then again, the Deskbar's sources wouldn't have won any beauty contests to start with. *shrug* Anyway, the changes are more evolution than revolution -- more reorganization and some minor improvements here and there. While it's definitely a work in progress, I finally have some eye candy for all of you. I won't comment on them, but with the cat out of the bag on the last of my summer projects, I should be publishing the revisions I made to my desktop RFC in the next day or so.