Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Well, yesterday didn't work out quite as planned. 

First we had a couple of animals who were worryingly sick.  Miki refused his banana treat in the morning – something almost unimaginable.  Then there was that shivering the night before.  We made a vet appointment for him, just before noon.  We took along Kama (one of our older cats), because Debbie noted that he was losing weight and that his meow had changed.  Miki had signs of an infection, so he's now on a course of antibiotics and he's got a blood panel going.  The vet noticed that his tongue was full of cuts, a little swollen, and sort of blue – and said that he'd seen this before, with dogs that had tried hard to bite the burrs out of their fur.  That's easy to imagine Miki did that on his walkabout.  He's looking much better this morning.  He lunged for his banana, apparently afraid a puppy might get it instead. :)  The vet didn't see anything obviously off with Kama, but he's doing a senior blood panel to see if that picks anything up.  He's suspicious that Kama might be hyperthyroid (common in cats), which the blood panel will check.  If so, that's easily treated.  He also suggested feeding him so food he really likes, so last night he got a can of food – which he hovered over as he devoured, defending it from all the kittens.  We're less worried about both today.

Because of the vet appointment, I didn't make it down to pick up the dishwasher.  So I went with Debbie to her physical therapy, instead of staying home installing the new dishwasher as per our original plan.  It turns out to be a very good thing I did go with her: during her exercise on the upright bicycle, something happened in her right knee.  Excruciating pain, and she lost a lot of range of motion.  Her right knee is not the one that was operated on, so this caught everyone by surprise.  Our fear, of course, was that she'd had another break.  The physical therapists quickly determined that there wasn't anything really bad going on: no big, bad breaks, and no detached ligaments, etc.  But we went next door to a private ER facility and had her X-rayed and seen by a doctor, just in case.  The X-rays show all the bone looking normal (phew!), in fact quite healthy.  They can't tell us anything about soft tissue damage, though.  She was still in quite a bit of pain last night, and this morning.  The pain medication she can take is limited these days, so we're going to call her surgeon this morning to see if he can prescribe something she's allowed.  Meanwhile she's gobbling Tramadol, which help some but are not really strong enough.  Her spirits are a bit low right now; she's seeing this as a big setback (which we don't actually know yet, and we have reason to hope that it will not be) and of course it hurts like hell.

New plan: today is the day of the dishwasher.  I'll be heading down to Ogden to pick it up this morning, and then back to install it after lunch.  I hope...

Day of the dishwashers...

Day of the dishwashers...  That would be today, for me.  This morning I head down to Ogden to pick up our new dishwasher.  It arrived at last!  We had arranged to have it delivered to our house, but on Friday when they called and said it had arrived – they also told us they couldn't deliver it until October 13th.  Yikes!  We've been without our dishwasher too long, and we're tired of hand-washing them.  So I decided to just go down and get it myself.

Once I have it safely here (probably around 11 this morning), then the real fun begins.  First I have to carefully remove some trim strips from the cabinetry around the existing dishwasher.  Then I shut off power to the kitchen, turn off the water to the sink, pull out the old dishwasher, and disconnect its water supply, drain connection, and electrical supply.  The old one I'm hauling out to the dumpster where I'll dump it ignominiously.  Then I will unpack the new dishwasher, connect it to the drain, water, and electricity, and re-install the cabinetry trim strips.  I'm guessing it will take two or three hours, assuming I don't have to run to Lowe's for parts. :)

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Yesterday was mainly a day of bookkeeping for me.  I seem to have drifted into a pattern of episodic paperwork madness, instead of what I used to do: a little each day, as things occurred.  Mainly this seems to be a consequence of the general chaos in my life since mid-May: my mom's move out here and her subsequent death, Debbie's broken knees, the construction work around our house, and the arrival of two cute-but-high-maintenance puppies in our household.  At this point I've no idea whether I'll ever get back to “normal”, whatever that is! :)

Mark T. is the fellow who is supposed to be doing the grading, sprinklers, and sod in our yard.  Six weeks from our agreement that he do the work, he's four weeks late – about the same rate of lateness as our builder. :)  On Saturday evening, near nightfall, he showed up with his plate compactor to pound all the soil around our deck into submission.  That's him at right, making a concerted effort to get the job done.  However ... the rains of the previous week had the soil saturated with water, and the main effect of running the compactor was to cause about 6" of our mud to become semi-permanently attached to the plate.  After the one pass you see him making, he and I together couldn't budge his machine.  We had to flip it on its side and scrape off the rather large amount of accreted mud.  This job will have to wait until the ground dries out ... and with more rain in the forecast, we've no idea when that might be.

I did take a break yesterday morning for a nice walk, with the puppies on our usual route.  There was rain in the distance, and the clouds made for some dramatic lighting effects:

I took a walk with the puppies on Saturday, too.  For that walk we didn't follow our usual route at all.  Instead we walked to the west of our house, along 400 W and some of its side roads down toward the Little Bear River bottoms.  That was a very different walk than our usual route, as we passed a dozen or so homes and lots of dogs, kids, adults, and cars.  That made my puppy-handling particularly challenging, as they were independently getting distracted about 10 times per second, and charging off (equally independently!) in random directions at about the same rate.  On the other hand, they met lots of friendly neighborhood dogs, one aggressively hostile dog (called off by its owner), lots of curious kids, and a whole bunch of friendly adults.  One surprise for me: on four different occasions, an adult called out to me by name and came over to have a friendly chat.  On every one of those occasions, I recognized the person, but couldn't remember what their name was.  I'm just terrible with names.  But it sure was pleasant to discover that so many people living around us knew who I was, and often quite a bit about us.  It was also very nice to see everyone so welcoming to the puppies, who together can be a bit overwhelming.

Earlier on Saturday I drove over to Connor C.'s house.  Connor is the neighborhood kid who alerted us to Miki's whereabouts, and was directly responsible for us recovering him.  I met Connor's mom, who had heard all about me from her husband, whom I'd met the day before.  I told her that I wanted to thank Connor personally, and also to give him the $50 cash reward that we had on offer for Miki's recovery (but which Connor hadn't known about).  She told me that wasn't necessary (which I expected), but that she didn't have any objection.  While I was talking with her, a small crowd of relatives gathered around to listen, all smiling and friendly.  They were gathered to listen to the semi-annual church (LDS) conference that was being broadcast.  I'd deliberately timed my visit during a break in the conference, so they were all free to join us.

So armed with his mom's permission, I had a nice talk alone with Connor, making sure he understood just how grateful and thankful Debbie and I were, and that we knew his concern and initiative may well have saved Miki's life.  He behaved as many of the kids around here would: he demurred, saying that he just did what anyone would have done.  I made the obvious retort, that “anyone” hadn't – just he did.  Then I told him about the cash reward, and it was obvious from his face that it was the first he'd heard about that.  He told me it wasn't necessary, and then when I told him we'd really like him to have it, tried to get me to reduce the amount.  I asked him to think about doing something good for the world with the amount he thought was in excess, and then with a happy smile he took it.

That was a very satisfying experience...

And speaking of Miki...  Since he returned from his walkabout, he's been sleeping with Debbie and I.  Generally he migrates down toward our feet and stays there.  Last night, though, I woke around 1 am to feel him along my side, vibrating.  After a while my sleepy brain realized the poor guy was shivering!  On Friday the groomer gave him a whole-body buzz cut, down to about 1/8" long.  His fur coat was gone!  It was cold last night, and our bedroom windows were wide open.  I tucked him under our quilt and cuddled up with him, and after 15 minutes or so he stopped shivering.  A short time later, he was snoring as only field spaniels can.

It's so good to have him safely back...

I got up this morning around 2 am, and the first thing I did was to take our puppies out for a morning walk.  To my surprise the wind was howling away, 30 mph or so.  The forecast had no high winds in it at all!  Leaves and small branches were whipping us as we walked, and the puppies were wide-eyed and tentative upon seeing how the world had changed.  An hour later when I walked out to my office in our barn, the air was still.  If it weren't for the debris everywhere, you'd never guess we'd just had a windstorm!

Photo of the day...

Photo of the day...  A camellia, nearly perfect:

More memories...

More memories ... from my mom's photo collection...

This one is a modern copy of an older photo, undated.  On the back, in my mom's handwriting: “Elinor Donald - Dad”.  The kid on the left would be my mom's brother (my uncle) Donald, my mom is the kid on the right.  Her father (my grandfather) is the adult, looking very young compared with my memories of him.  If my mom is three there, then this was circa '38.  I don't recognize the house, though we've seen this exact view in some other photos.  It was apparently their go-to place for taking photos.  Gotta love the clothesline (or whatever) crossing right over my grandfather's face!

Also undated, but an original, and on the back in my mom's handwriting: “Tommy on right.  My cousin Kay’s daughter Joy on left.”   I have no memory of either Kay or Joy, nor do I know who the other little girl is.  I don't recognize the location, either.  And I wouldn't even have known that was me in the photo!  I look to be around three, making this circa '55.

Another modern copy of an older original.  The copy was made in 2010, and I don't have the original.  I've no idea who the man on the left is, but the man on the right is my mom's dad, my grandfather, Donald MacLaughlin.  He was a nurseryman, very interested in creating bonsai.  The tag being held up says “Weeping White Dogwood”, which presumably is the plant my grandfather is holding up.  I'm guessing it's his bonsai, and that this was some sort of bonsai display that he participated in.  The main impact of this photo for me, though, is just how perfectly his appearance in it matches my memories of him.  The hat, the shirt, the watch, the leathery and wrinkled face: all perfect.  A whiff of his beery, smoky aroma came right to memory on seeing that.  I also realized, on seeing that photo, that the general style of hat he's wearing is also my preferred type – except that I favor those made to be crushable and foldable; his were always fairly stiff, like a slightly soft felt cowboy hat.

On the back, in my mom's handwriting: “Mable Graduation”.  That would be Mable (nee Johnson) MacLaughlin, my mom's mom (my grandmother).  It's another modern copy of an older original that I don't have, so I have no lab date to go on.  I'm guessing that her mom was born around 1900, and assuming this is a high school graduation photo, that means it's circa 1917 – near the end of WWI.  She's holding a rolled up diploma tied with a ribbon, and that's a very old-fashioned looking dress she's wearing.  What's behind her head?  Some kind of a hairpiece?  And is that a watch strapped to her left arm, halfway up?  What an odd place to wear something!  It looks like it would slip down immediately.  It's hard to tell for certain, but I think she's wearing white cloth gloves, too – very fine cloth, possibly silk.

My brother Mark and his wife Gina, in an undated photo that looks to be from roughly 10 or 15 years ago (so early 2000s).  Both of them look very happy, and like there might have been some alcohol consumption before the photo was taken. :)  On the back, in my mom's handwriting, simply: “Mark + Gina”.  There are relatively few photos of Mark in my mom's collection – and actually relatively few of any of her kids as adults...

My sister Holly, in what looks like a school studio portrait.  If I try to guess her age, I'll get it wrong and she'll holler at me, so I'll wait until I hear from her before posting it.  The terrible color is far better than the original looks – the studio scrimped on the photo paper, and used some awful off brand with dyes that have faded in unforgivable ways.  I've applied all the correction my photo software is capable of, and this is the result.  I tried, Holly!  :)

This is another modern copy of an older original that I don't have, so I don't know the date.  On the back, though, in my mom's handwriting: “Betty & Mike early 50s”.  That would be my mom's sister (my aunt) Betty and her son (my cousin) Mike.  Aunt Betty looks younger than any memory I have of her, so I'm guessing this is very early '50s.  I'd never have recognized Mike, as he's far younger than any memories of have of him.  The house looks familiar, but I can't place it confidently.  It may well be Aunt Betty's house; they moved several times during my childhood.

Yet another modern copy of an original I don't have, and this time my mom's inscription (below) gave no clue:

left to right
H. Donald MacLaughlin (my brother)
Donald MacLaughlin   my wonderful Dad
Sliver Sturgeon - “Male Chauvinist Extremist”

My grandfather (in the center) appears about like he did in the late '50s to early '60s, so I'm guessing that's the rough time frame of this photo.  The location is my grandparent's home in northern New Jersey.  It's a bit of a surprise to me that Sliver (a Maine resident) visited them there.  The two Donalds are dangling cigarettes, an entirely normal pose for them.  My grandfather is outside sans hat, a bit unusual.  Note the beer bottle on the lawn chair: the only thing unusual about that is that there's just one!  Those lawn chairs were the object of some pride for my grandparents: the aluminum frames and plastic webbing were quite the new thing at the time.  The chairs were expensive and a bit fragile, so we kids were always being admonished to be careful around them.  On the house you can see an old-fashioned electric meter.  I got in trouble once for breaking the seal on that meter, using a pair of my grandfather's pruners.  That's the only occasion I can remember when he actually got angry with me – he scared the hell out of me when he started yelling and chasing me across the yard, my mother trailing behind beseeching him not to hurt me.  He didn't – but when he caught me (about 20' away), he grabbed his pruners and inspected them very carefully for damage.  He wasn't mad because I broke the meter's seal (which is what I thought at the time), but rather because I used his pruners to do it – he was afraid I'd wrecked the blade.  Later in life I came to learn a truism: the surest way to get any horticulturist mad at you is to mess with their pruners!

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Now that Miki is back and things have calmed down just a bit, it's time for me to do a little catch-up!

About a week ago we had quite a rainstorm – dumped four and a half inches on us.  The mountains got a nice (and quite early) coating of snow, too, as you can see at right.  I took this while walking the puppies – that might be more challenging that you'd imagine! :)

On this past Saturday evening, friends of ours (Michelle and Jimmy B., and Terry and Tio V.) rolled in for a short visit.  Michelle and Terry are sisters; the four of them were on the last leg of a driving trip that took them across the country and then back to home near San Diego.  On Saturday night we took them to Le Nonne's for dinner.  My entree – crab ravioli – is at left.  Wonderful stuff, that was.  This time we got a perfectly normal waitress instead of the pretentious man-child we had the last time we were here.  That made the meal much more enjoyable for me.  On Sunday we all made the (now ritual) trip down to the Red Iguana, partly because we found out that Tio (who is Hispanic) absolutely loves mole sauce – and Red Iguana is famous for their moles.  Tio looked like he'd died and gone to heaven as he was eating.  It was a lot of fun for us to watch him enjoy it so much.  Everybody else enjoyed it, too!  From these two meals there were enough leftovers that Debbie and I made a meal of them on Monday.  Oh, boy, those were good!

Much of the time we spent with these folks we were talking.  There might have been some alcohol now and then. :)  And past my bedtime, there were games – dice and cards that the others stayed up late to play.  In the photo at right, clockwise from the lower left, are Michelle, Jimmy, Tio, my lovely bride Debbie, and Terry.  They're all sitting at our dining room table, which actually got used during their visit – first time!

Sunday morning there was a beautiful sunrise.  I love the pink/orange light that's first visible on the Wellsville Mountains to our west (leftmost photo).  Later, Jimmy and I took all four dogs for a walk together, something we've never done before.  The most I can handle by myself is two, so I generally walk either Miki and Race, or Cabo and Mako.  All four together make quite a group!  Jimmy didn't have much trouble holding them all, though if they set their mind to it, I'm sure they could have dragged him into the next county!  Left-to-right, the dogs are: Race, Mako, Cabo, and Miki.  Hmmm ... all four-letter dogs!

If you've been reading my blog regularly, you know about Miki going walkabout, and his subsequent return.  I told the story of how our neighbor's kid did a really good job of letting us know about his spotting of Miki.  Yesterday we stopped by his house to say thank you personally, and to give him the reward we'd intended to post for Miki's return (assuming his folks were ok with that).  He wasn't home, so I'm going back to do that this afternoon.  In the morning I took Miki to the groomer, where one of the people there (a young lady named Talisa) did a bang-up job of getting all the burrs off of him, then giving him a credible haircut so he didn't look ridiculous despite his short 'do.  She talked to him constantly to keep him calm, and worked carefully to avoid inflicting any more misery than he was already feeling.  Miki was still looking frightened, so I stayed with him while she worked, and I think that actually helped.  Last night we let Miki sleep in our bed (something he loves more than most dogs love life), and he thanked us in his inimitable canine fashion: he positioned himself with his head by our feet, butt aimed at us, and he farted all night.  We really didn't care. :)  I slept like the proverbial log, thanks to the relief of having him back with us, safe and sound.

This morning I took a lovely walk with Miki and Race, intended really to be a treat for Miki.  He got tired after just a half mile or so, so we turned around and came home.  The entire walk I was watching dramatic skies and lighting.  There were rainstorms to our west, and the early morning sun made great rainbows in them.  To our east, the sun was rising over the Wasatch Mountains through patchy cloud cover, and that made for spot lighting all round.  When an area was in shadow, it was quite dark, as the sun was just barely over the horizon.  Where we were standing was actually still in the shade of the Wasatch Mountains.  Some photos, all inadequate:

Miki is back!

Miki is back!  He looks fine except for having about a bazillion burrs on him (especially on his ears) from a nasty weed around here called burdock.  I'm taking him to the groomer for an emergency trim very shortly.

How did we find him, you ask?  Well, I was backing my truck out of our driveway to go take posters to all the places in the county where someone might take a stray dog.  Suddenly two kids appeared behind me, waving like crazy.  When I hopped out to find out why, they told me they'd seen Miki – and they gave me a credible description of him.  They told me exactly where they saw him, and then they had to take off for school.  I started walking around the neighborhood anywhere and everywhere within a couple hundred yards of where they spotted him – I got there just ten minutes or so after they saw him, so I figured he couldn't have gone far.  After about 15 minutes of hollering my head off, there was no sign of him.

I went back inside our house to talk it over with Debbie – specifically, to consider whether it made more sense to keep looking for him locally (as we couldn't be certain that the kids' sighting was either credible or actually Miki), or to carry on with the poster distribution.  We decided to keep searching.  I opened the door into our garage to head out (the big garage door was already open) and ... there was Miki, right at the bottom of the steps into the garage.  I called him, incredulously, and he actually ran away a bit, frightened, but then recognized me and came inside.  Got him!  I figure he must have heard me calling, came toward the sound of my voice, but never started barking himself.  I was inside talking with Debbie for no more than 2 or 3 minutes, so he must have been right behind me.

Phew!

The poor fellow is massively covered with burdock burrs, though.  The groomers are facing quite a challenge with him.  And now it's time for me to go.

Oh, happy day!

No Miki...

No Miki...  There has been no sign of our little dog.  We remain completely mystified by his disappearance.  It was very sad last night to fill just three bowls of kibble instead of four.  Even sadder to walk around our house this morning and not find him waiting...

Our little household is very somber tonight...

Our little household is very somber tonight...  Miki, our 10 year old field spaniel, has gone missing.  He was in our fenced back yard this morning, with our three other dogs – but when we went to round up the dogs at about 11 am, he was gone.  We've searched the neighborhood, notified all our neighbors, put up a notice at the Paradise post office, hollered until we're hoarse, notified the local vets, humane society, and animal control.  No sign of him at all, at least not yet.

We're completely baffled by this.  Of all our dogs, he's the least likely one to even try to get out of the yard.  Race, our border collie, would be the likely suspect for that.  Miki is old and lazy; taking a nap in the sun is more his style.  The ground is soft and muddy right now, so I looked at the entire fence perimeter trying to find the place where he escaped.  Nothing.  There's no sign at all of where or how he got out.  Furthermore, even if he did get out, he most likely behavior he'd exhibit is to run to the front door and bark.  We also can't imagine that someone came and took him – with three other younger, prettier dogs right there with him.  Not to mention that all four dogs would have raised quite a stink should someone ever have tried that!

So we're stuck here without being able to understand what happened, how it happened, or where on earth poor Miki might be.  All we can hope for is that he's safe somewhere, and eventually someone contacts us about him...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Busy, I've been.  Sorry for missing a day posting and worrying some of you.  Sheesh!

On Monday a giant dumpster was delivered to our house, per my request.  This beast holds 30 cubic yards of stuff headed for the dump, and I ordered it up so that I could clean up piles of crap that have accumulated ever since we first bought the house up here.  There's cardboard, old pallets, a couple cubic yards of foam packing material, stuff left by the previous owner that we didn't want and couldn't give away (carpet remnants, drapes, and all sorts of other things), and more things than I care to list.  Much of my time since Monday morning was spent loading junk into my ATV trailer, then unloading the trailer into the dumpster.  I'm nearly done now, and I'm feeling it in every muscle (even my earlobes are tired!).  All that remains is a 200 lb container of salt (from the old water softener I replaced two years ago) and some fencing remnants (more on that below).  There's a Mormon horde scheduled to appear here on Saturday to help me get that salt container out of the basement and into the dumpster.  On Monday, the dumpster will be gone, and our premises considerably neater!

The fence I mentioned above was a five strand barbed wire fence stretching for 600' along the west side of our property.  A local lad named Jacob H., a mere 14 years old, volunteered to take it down for me at the rate of $7.50 an hour.  He'd work after school.  I figured it would take him four or five days, 3 or 4 hours a day, so worst case $150 or so.  I'd happily pay that to avoid the nasty work of tearing a fence down!  So yesterday evening he started ... and finished, an hour and a half later.  I didn't watch him, but he must have worked like a demon possessed – he took out dozens of T-posts, clipped the barbed wire, rolled it up, and piled up the T-posts – all in 90 minutes!  I paid him $20 (which got a big smile) ... and now I'm going to use him anywhere I could use physical help.  This afternoon he's going to come back and help me load all that junk on my tractor and haul it the quarter mile or so to the dumpster.  Another $20 and I won't have to jump on and off the tractor a few dozen times.  Deal!

I had a long conversation with Kevin, the fellow up in Montana who is making our custom fireplace door.  It was such a pleasure to talk with a craftsman like that!  He had some questions about how to make it, all great ones, and promised me a drawing with measurements I could check.  I got the drawing last night, and this morning I checked it all out – it was spot on.  He's starting the fabrication today, and we should have it in our hands within a couple of weeks.  Assuming we like the result (and we're certainly expecting to!), we will be using him for some other custom metalwork we'd like to have done.  It's a good resource to have!

Monday was a day for Debbie and I to celebrate – we got two pieces of good news on the same day.  The first good news was that her latest lab work showed her sodium and calcium levels both down (through diet and drugs) to levels that mean she can safely take the drug her endocrinologist wants her to take: Forteo.  We've been waiting almost two months for her sodium and calcium levels to get down there, working out a diet and adjusting drug dosages along the way.  Big step!  Forteo is a very expensive drug, though: about $2,500 per month for the daily self-administered injections.  Our insurance company denied coverage for it, wanting Debbie to take a different drug (much lower cost) for two years first, then only if that failed would they cover the Forteo.  Her endocrinologist was certain the other drug would fail, given Debbie's condition, so she appealed the insurance company's denial.  The second piece of good news on Monday was that the insurance company's review board agreed with her endocrinologist, so now she's approved for Forteo!  As I was writing this paragraph, the first month's worth of Forteo showed up by courier.  Tomorrow we travel to Salt Lake City, to the endocrinologist's office, where they will train Debbie on how to administer the drug.  This is the first step to getting her bone density back up, and a big milestone for her.  Hooray!

More memories...

More memories ... from my mom's collection of photos...

This young lady is Sharon Ann Reis, according to the inscription on the back in neat printing that I don't recognize.  The entire inscription: “Sharon Ann Reis Oct 1988 (12 years old)”.  I'll make the assumption that she is the daughter of my dad's Army buddy, Donald Reis.  We called him “Uncle Donald” even though he was not  related to us, and we had two actual Uncle Donalds already!  Of the three Uncle Donalds, he was my favorite.  I'd long thought that he'd been stationed with my dad for his tour of duty in Europe during WWII, but a few years ago I found out (by talking with Uncle Donald) that that was not the case.  They'd known each other during Army schooling, served separately after school, then got together again after they mustered out.  Uncle Donald is the one who first told me that my dad likely left a trail of my half-brothers and half-sisters as a result of his carousing in Italy – assuming one could believe the stories my dad told Uncle Donald.  I have since heard from a cousin that he'd heard similar stories about my dad from his father (my dad's oldest brother).

 The lab dates this in February 1959.  That's my brother Scott, imprisoned in a wire cage.  That cage was likely intended to protect a bush inside from marauding deer, but it serves well to protect the world from my brother, too! :)  The bags to the left of him in the photo are oak leaf mold bags, the burlap bags we used before my dad was able to get plastic bags.  To the right of him in the photo, a bit hard to make out, is a pile of oak leaf mold.  This tells me that the photo was taken in our old shed, on the far northern side of its floor, where we always had Pete unload his truckloads of leaf mold.  The concrete floor looks right, too.

This is me and my lovely bride Debbie, and the date would have been August 16, 1981.  We don't look quite the same any more; 35 years have changed us just a tad. :)  My mom had this photo mixed in with a large pile of photos of shrubs in a field.  There's probably a message there, but it's too cryptic for me to figure out!

Below are four photos of me.  The first one is undated, says “Tom” on the back in my mom's handwriting, and looks like a school photo.  The second one is dated by the lab as September 1957, and in my mom's handwriting on the back says “Tommy”.  I'd have been just five.  I've no idea where that was.  That Dixie cup would have been one of the old-fashioned kind made of waxed paper; don't see them any more!  The third photo is undated, part of a series that looks like we had a picnic on the Maine coastline. The last photo is obviously a school portrait, and on the back says in my mom's handwriting: “1964 Tommy Handsome!”.  The latter is not an assessment I ever hear any more! :)

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  We had quite the rainstorm yesterday: a steady gentle rain most of the time, interspersed with downpours.  For the storm total, we're at 2.5", and it looks like that's the end of it.  The skies here are slowly clearing.  But ... now the forecast shows a good chance of rain a week from now!  :)

We've been having a rash of urinary tract infections in our cats – six or seven of them so far this year.  The first symptoms we notice is that there's an ammonia smell, and the cat's urine doesn't clump in the litter box.  Up until now we've been lucky in that we've been able to figure out which cat it is.  This time, though, we've got a challenge: one of the cats in our cattery (with 9 cats) has a UTI, and we don't know which one.  How can we identify which cat it is?  but when I started poking into the notion of a webcam, things started to look challenging: they need power, big storage, etc.  Then I had a brainstorm: use a trail camera!  These things are made in high volumes and are therefore quite inexpensive.  They're battery powered, as they're designed to be strapped to a tree.  Motion triggers them to either take a short video or a single snapshot.  They use infrared to take photos even in the dark.  So I ordered one, and this morning I set it up, aimed at the offending litter box (photo at right).  Probably that will trigger the cat to move to a new litter box! :)  It will be interesting to see whether this works.  Even if it doesn't, I'm going to set this up outside to see if I can get photos of deer and elk in our yard at night.

Well, we noted that the non-clumping litter is generally only appearing in one of our litter boxes.  Since cats are creatures of habit, and usually use the same litter box, that makes sense.  So Debbie had the idea of setting up a webcam that recorded, and we could watch the video to see which cat it was.

Yesterday we did lots of running around for various chores, and I didn't get a whole lot done.  I did, however, have a chance to start a conversation with an old Navy buddy of mine (Mike B.) over a project both of us would enjoy having: a programmable box joint jig.  If you're a woodworker, this will make sense to you, otherwise you can skip the rest of this post. :)  A box joint (also called a “finger joint”) is made by cutting "fingers" in the ends of two pieces of wood such that the fingers interleave perfectly with each other.  There are lots of ways to do this, but in all cases the cutting must be done very precisely, or else the fingers won't fit together correctly.  One way to do this (and perhaps the most common method) is to use a table saw, making repeated passes on the work piece to cut out the space between the fingers.  You can buy “jigs” designed to make this easier, but it's still quite a bit of work – error-prone work! – to get them cut right.

As if that weren't enough challenge, things get even more interesting if you want to make something with more than four sides.  For instance, if you want to make an octagonal serving tray with sides a few inches high, then those fingers have to be cut at an angle of 45° to the end (instead of the usual 90°).  Even more challenging is if you want something that has slanted sides.  For instance, suppose you want to make a hexagonal trash can, with 6" sides at the bottom, and 8" sides at the top.  That's quite challenging, as you need a compound angle. Then there's the question of the finger width.  Conventionally the fingers are all the same width, as that's the easiest way to do the work.  But aesthetically it would be interesting to be able to vary the finger width.

Mike saw a programmable box joint jig online, and that inspired us to come up with a much more capable version.  Mike and I have started a little collaboration for this gadget, which we're calling “BoxZilla”.  It will be able to do the simple 90° joints, but also the more complex joints as well.  It will be completely controlled by a Raspberry Pi computer, a little $35 wonder that's millions of times more powerful than the computers I started building in the '70s.  Mike is going to do the mechanical and electronic design and construction, and I'm going to do the software.  This will be a very fun project for both of us, and best of all both of us will hugely enjoy using the thing when we get done.  Mike is considering selling them, too.  We're just getting started on it now. I'll post about our progress from time-to-time...

Salesforce to bid on Twitter?

Salesforce to bid on Twitter?  That's like Ace Hardware bidding on Chipotles!  What the hell are they thinking!

You just can't make this stuff up...

Product endorsement...

Product endorsement...  Most burglars won't enter a home that they believe is occupied.  Of course there are exceptions, but the vast majority of burglars would rather avoid the risks associated with breaking in and entering an occupied home.  That's the reason people buy those gadgets to turn lights on and off at random: it makes a potential burglar think someone must be at home.  The trouble with the light switching gadgets is that real people don't actually turn lights on and off at random – and they actually don't turn them on and off very often, either.  What real people do do, though, is watch TV.  Lots and lots of TV.

Now we don't have a burglary problem around here – house burglaries are very rare, and most people here don't even bother locking their doors.  I suspect that's partly because any burglars would know that everyone here is armed to the teeth, and also of a mindset that says one less burglar in the world makes for a better world. :)  It's probably also partly because everyone here watches out for each other, and because there aren't a lot of people with interesting possessions to burgle.  So we generally don't worry about it at all.

But I saw this gadget for sale and thought it was so clever that I just had to see how well it actually worked.  It's a small device, about two inches square, that contains an array of multi-colored LEDs.  Starting at dusk and continuing for a settable amount of time, it blinks the LEDs to simulate what it looks like when someone is watching TV.  I've got mine aimed at the ceiling in our second floor TV room, and when I'm outside after dark it really does look just like someone is watching TV there.  If you drive down any street at night, you'll see lots of windows that look just like this.  The simulation is good enough that even with careful inspection I couldn't tell it was fake.  The price is quite low, and the power consumption is also quite low – this would cost only a few pennies per night to operate.  I'd be willing to bet that it's effective at deterring the type of burglar – the most common type – that will avoid entering a home that appears to be occupied.

Well done, whoever dreamed this up.  Very clever!

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  This Wednesday afternoon I had the opportunity to lend a hand to one of our neighbors, Nick and Maria S.  Normally these folks are quite self-sufficient: they have six kids, the oldest of whom are adults still living at home.  That's enough muscle-power to handle just about any job, but this week they got one that was beyond them. :)  They took delivery of twelve bales of hay, but not the old-fashioned bales that weigh 60 to 70 pounds – they got the medium-sized 800 to 1,000 pound bales.  The truck that delivered them had no fork lift or tractor, so the family got themselves all together and pushed the bales off his truck.  That made a random pile of bales scattered about their yard.  Maria called to ask if I could come over with my tractor and pile them up neatly, so they could cover them before the rains hit.  So I ran over and did that, which turned out to be more challenging than you might think, as there was little room to maneuver between the bales.  I ended up moving most of the bales off to one side, just to make some space – then I stared piling them up in a neat stack.  After I finished with that, the whole family went to work putting up a tarp to cover them, anticipating the rain storm in the forecast.  It felt good to help these good neighbors out, even if it was such a little thing...

Speaking of the rain, we've been getting quite a rainstorm the past couple of days.  The current radar picture is at right, and for the moment the storm is in decline.  The forecast says we should expect heavy rain tonight, though.  It looks like the storm total will be close to 3", and that means it's a goopy mess outside right now: mud season has arrived!  With all the construction work around our house, the grass is gone from large swaths of our yard – it's been replaced by a gluey mud after the rain.  That means we have to be very careful exactly where we walk the dogs, because the field spaniels with their hairy paws will pick up several pounds of mud apiece.  We try to stick to pavement or wet grass; that way we just bring in water. :)

Yesterday morning I finished cleaning up the mess in Debbie's office, and Michelle (our friend and cleaning lady) made it all beautiful.  The photo at right is what it looks like if you walk in.  Also in there is a 24 port Cisco switch, a MikroTek router, a cable modem, and a Chamberlain modem for the garage doors – not to mention a bazillion power cords, network wires, audio cables, etc., etc.  All of that stuff is mounted up under the table at left in the photo, on the left side of the desk, and behind the desk.  If you get down on the floor you can see all this stuff, as in the photos below.  The nice part of all this from my point of view is that with very little effort I can see all the lights (especially on the cable modem, which is the most frequent source of problems) and get to all the cables.  Win!

Yesterday afternoon we had a nice lunch at Angie's (their pot roast special – delicious!), to Aggie's for a nice ice cream cone (also delicious!), and then out for a drive up to Hardware Ranch with Miki and Race along for the ride.  The fall color on the drive up to Hardware Ranch was just gorgeous – the oranges of oaks and the reds of maples were all around us, and the yellow of box elders and quaking aspen were starting to appear as well.  We have friends coming in for a visit on Sunday; I'm hoping the color is still good for them to enjoy.  We didn't see much wildlife, especially not birds, in the rain – but Debbie got a good view of a northern Harrier, and we both got to watch a meadowlark she spotted sitting in a bush just six feet or so from the truck.  We also saw two groups of deer, and a gorgeous rainbow (it was raining lightly on most of the trip).  Some photos from the trip below:

A couple of product endorsements...

A couple of product endorsements... 

The first one is for dog owners.  We have four pooches ourselves, two of whom are six-month-old puppies.  All four are prodigious producers of poop – most especially the two puppies.  For years we've been cleaning our yard with the standard equipment: a tiny little lawn rake and a big scoop.  I've always hated those things – they don't work very well at all. The rake usually either doesn't budge the poop (especially if it's a steaming freshie), or it shoots the poop onto your pant leg or into the neighbor's yard.  Horrible design, just slightly better than using your bare fingers.  In doing some research on Amazon into alternatives, I came across the Nature's Miracle Jaw Scoop, pictured at right.  I chose this photo because it shows the working end – a simple-looking toothy set of jaws.  The thing works incredibly well.  To compare it to the old-fashioned rake is like comparing a SpaceX rocket to a dime-store Roman Candle.  But here's the thing: even though it's quite obvious how the mechanism is put together and how it moves, I cannot come up with a rational explanation for how well it works.  I've concluded, therefore, that this product is the result of a collaboration between Gandalf, Thorin, and Elrond – it must be deeply infused with magic to work as well as it does.  There's no skill required of the operator: you just pull the handle to open the jaws of pooply death, drop it over the offending turd pile, let go of the handle, and lift up.  The turd pile is removed, everything else remains.  It's truly a wonderful thing.  If you own a dog and you don't already have one of these, order it now.  You can thank me later.  Even if you don't own a dog, you might want one of these so you can marvel at its functional perfection!

Then there's this little gem: the Peeps Eyeglasses Cleaner.  This doesn't require any magic to work; it's obvious how it works once you use it.  It comes in a little case that's easy to carry, it includes a little brush for getting dust off, but the really good part is what you see in the photo: two small carbon-fiber pads that squeeze against both sides of your lens at the same time.  You simply swipe these around a bit, and every trace of dirt and oil is gone from your glasses, presto!  I had high hopes for its utility just on examining the advertisement; the reality is even better than that.  This is the first thing I've found that does a flawless job of cleaning lenses in nearly 60 years of wearing glasses.  If you are a glasses wearer and care at all about clean lenses (I know some people really don't care, but I sure do!), then just go get one of these.  You'll love 'em!

More memories...

More memories ... from my mom's photo collection.  All of these photos are modern copies of older photos, and I do not have the originals.  None of them are dated by the lab.

There are no notes on this photo to help me out.  The woman at the far left is my mom's sister (my aunt) Betty.  The child in front of her, back to the camera, looks like Scott to me, but that's a guess.  The woman at the far right, facing the camera, might be my mom, but I'm not sure.  I recognize the house: that's my aunt Betty's home when I was small.  I don't recognize anyone else in the photo.  Maybe some of my relatives can help with this one.

This one is labeled “Don” on the back, in my mom's handwriting.  He's got a book open in front of him, but it appears to be a studio shot – perhaps a slightly more creative than usual school photo?  None of my relatives had a clue how to set up lighting for portraits, so I know this couldn't possibly have been taken by them. :)  He looks to be about 14 or 15 to me, and he was born (I think) in 1937, so this would place the photo in '41 or '42 – wartime for the U.S.

On the back, in my mom's handwriting: “Bonnie”.  I wouldn't have recognized this as my mom's younger sister (my aunt) Bonnie.  I believe Bonnie was born in '39, and she looks to be about 3 or 4 in this photo, which would date it to '42 or '43 – wartime for the U.S.  I don't recognize the door or steps she's sitting on.

Finally, here's my aunt Bonnie again.  This is definitely a studio shot, and on the back in my mom's handwriting: “Bonnie - senior”  I presume that means high school senior, which (if she was 17) would place this in '56.  She appears here about like my earliest memories of her, so that hangs together.  On her hairline, above her right eye (on the left in the photo) there's a white spot that I suspect is a photo artifact.  I don't remember her having a scar or birthmark like that. 

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Yesterday was a day of progress on several fronts.  It was also a great way to make me tired. :)  Especially since I had only slept for a few hours the night before!

Our builder's crew showed up and finished “skinning” the roof of our new mud room.  After that, our roofer showed up and installed the waterproof underlayment (that goes under the steel, which he says he'll have up early next week).  Some photos:

The door cutout isn't the right size yet.  The door going in there is a normal sized door (36" wide), but it will have a glassed arch over the top of it, and sidelights on each side.  The hole you see in the second photo will actually be wider (to accommodate the sidelights); the overall hole may be shorter (once we get the door and see how high the arch turned out to be).  The three doors we bought for the three different parts of our construction project all turned out to be custom doors, so we can't just look up the dimensions in a catalog.

Then in the afternoon, we had an occurrence that absolutely stunned us: the fellow who was supposed to start working on our yard (sprinklers, sod, etc.) a little over a month ago finally showed up!  He worked until 9 pm and got the grading done for where our deck is going (photo at right), and also installed some temporary pipe to get the water from our downspouts away from the house. 

There was a bit of urgency about the downspouts because we have 3" of rain in the forecast for the next few days.  That's also what motivated the builder and roofer to show up today.  After the builders got done, I ran and got some plastic to staple up over the rough cutouts for the door and windows in the mud room.  And it poured last night!  There's a small leak somewhere in the mud room, but it's basically dry - no harm done.  The sun room is completely dry.  This storm was its first real test, and it passed with flying colors.  Yay!

In between working with all the contractors and putting up plastic, I also managed to finish working on the wiring in Debbie's office.  You'd never know all that equipment and cabling was there!  I didn't take photos yet because I haven't cleaned up (that's on this morning's agenda).  I'll take a couple photos when that's finished.