Saturday, June 13, 2015
Paradise blossoms...
Paradise blossoms... These are all from our yard, today and yesterday. The most surprising ones to me are the wild roses, 25 feet in the air, blooming after climbing our choke cherries (last photo)...
Skyrmion memory?
Human ingenuity seems to have no bounds...
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Debbie is starting to back off on the pain medication. This took a lot longer than either of us expected, but we're taking that as meaning she's on the mend. She's got nearly full use of her right (injured) arm back, and all the swelling at various places in it is nearly gone. She's got a lot of bruising, though, and it continues to “evolve” daily. Her injured knee is still too painful to bend at all – almost certainly the meniscus tear – and she still can't put any weight on it at all. Today we're going to try to get her in the shower, for the first time in 9 days. We're both looking forward to that :)
Yesterday I kept busy with little things. First thing in the morning, while it was still cool, I leveled a few square yards of soil near the house, where we trenched last year to get water, gas, and network to the shed. This is the area where our air conditioner's compressor is mounted, and it's getting warm enough that we would like to have that working again. After leveling, I set four 18" square pavers in place to make a square yard base for the compressor. Then I set the compressor itself on top of the pavers. Early next week our HVAC guy (another of the wonderful contractors I found last year) will be here to reconnect it all, and recharge the refrigerant.
After I finished with that, I tackled a window screen and screen door in our bedroom. These both had falling-apart screen material in them, not at all cat-proof (and Jahar, our Savannah cat, lives in our bedroom). I replaced all that with pet-proof screen, plus installed new wheels in the screen door. This took a trip to Home Depot, of course. If there was anything that I wished was closer to us, it would be Home Depot :)
Just after lunch, a truck driver (with a comically stereotypical Mexican accent) called to warn me he was about to arrive. He was delivering my new log splitter – a 30 ton model that attaches to my tractor's 3 point hitch, and (more importantly) uses the tractor's hydraulics. The thing weighs 550 pounds, so we needed my tractor's fork lift to get it out of the truck. We had another little challenge first, though. The log splitter was laying sideways on a double-sized pallet, twice as long as it was wide. It was sitting cross-wise in his truck. Between the log splitter and the trailer's door was another pallet (not mine) with 1,500 pounds of paper products on it. The driver wanted me to offload that pallet that was in the way so he could roll my pallet to the back. My tractor can't lift quite 1,500 pounds, though – it's limit is 1,250. We tried, but it wouldn't budge. The driver thought we were stuck until I pointed out that we could rotate my pallet (so it was oriented long ways), then move the little pallet alongside and behind it with his pallet jack. It took me some talking before he got the idea, then he was smacking himself in the head for missing something so obvious. The scene was like something out of an implausible Hollywood comedy. Once we maneuvered the little pallet out of the way, offloading mine was a breeze – and now yet another project sits in my barn. Why is this another project? Well, because of course it's a kit – and in addition, I have to get custom hydraulic hoses made up to fit my tractor. Of course.
All you equipment manufacturers out there: it wouldn't offend me at all if you were to deliver the stuff I buy ready to use. Not one bit...
Yesterday I kept busy with little things. First thing in the morning, while it was still cool, I leveled a few square yards of soil near the house, where we trenched last year to get water, gas, and network to the shed. This is the area where our air conditioner's compressor is mounted, and it's getting warm enough that we would like to have that working again. After leveling, I set four 18" square pavers in place to make a square yard base for the compressor. Then I set the compressor itself on top of the pavers. Early next week our HVAC guy (another of the wonderful contractors I found last year) will be here to reconnect it all, and recharge the refrigerant.
After I finished with that, I tackled a window screen and screen door in our bedroom. These both had falling-apart screen material in them, not at all cat-proof (and Jahar, our Savannah cat, lives in our bedroom). I replaced all that with pet-proof screen, plus installed new wheels in the screen door. This took a trip to Home Depot, of course. If there was anything that I wished was closer to us, it would be Home Depot :)
Just after lunch, a truck driver (with a comically stereotypical Mexican accent) called to warn me he was about to arrive. He was delivering my new log splitter – a 30 ton model that attaches to my tractor's 3 point hitch, and (more importantly) uses the tractor's hydraulics. The thing weighs 550 pounds, so we needed my tractor's fork lift to get it out of the truck. We had another little challenge first, though. The log splitter was laying sideways on a double-sized pallet, twice as long as it was wide. It was sitting cross-wise in his truck. Between the log splitter and the trailer's door was another pallet (not mine) with 1,500 pounds of paper products on it. The driver wanted me to offload that pallet that was in the way so he could roll my pallet to the back. My tractor can't lift quite 1,500 pounds, though – it's limit is 1,250. We tried, but it wouldn't budge. The driver thought we were stuck until I pointed out that we could rotate my pallet (so it was oriented long ways), then move the little pallet alongside and behind it with his pallet jack. It took me some talking before he got the idea, then he was smacking himself in the head for missing something so obvious. The scene was like something out of an implausible Hollywood comedy. Once we maneuvered the little pallet out of the way, offloading mine was a breeze – and now yet another project sits in my barn. Why is this another project? Well, because of course it's a kit – and in addition, I have to get custom hydraulic hoses made up to fit my tractor. Of course.
All you equipment manufacturers out there: it wouldn't offend me at all if you were to deliver the stuff I buy ready to use. Not one bit...
Friday, June 12, 2015
This could be us and our dogs...
Dramatic takeoff of Boeing 787-9...
I want a ride on this airplane, please...
Next time you consider letting a kid touch you...
I don't actually know if the result of culturing the hand print of an adult would be any better. But I'd prefer to think so :)
Paradise forecast...
Paradise forecast... It's looking like some warm and beautiful weather for the next 10 days (at least):
Philae found?
Excellent book!
Excellent book! Just finished The Martian, by Andy Weir, last night. It's like the love child of Heinlein and a nerdette. The science and technology are all plausible. The central character in the book chews his way through a seemingly never-ending series of existential threats, using nothing but the material at hands, his will, and a not-insignificant amount of pure American-style cleverness. I couldn't put it down!
I hope that Andy is working on another book...
I hope that Andy is working on another book...
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Debbie update...
This is actually a bit of a relief for us. The meniscus tear, in the grand scheme of things, is far from the worst sorts of injury that can happen to a knee. Debbie's already experienced one of the worst: a tibial plateau fracture, and a bad one at that. Generally surgery to repair meniscus tears is arthroscopic, low risk, and fast recovery. We're hoping that hers will fall into that category.
Also, there's quite likely a bit of a bonus for Debbie in this surgery. When she had her tibial plateau fracture surgery (two and a half years ago), the surgeon “installed” a significant quantity of very expensive hardware – a fancy plate and a half dozen or so titanium screws. She could never bring herself to schedule a surgery just to remove that hardware, so she's been clanking around with it (well, it doesn't really clank) ever since. We're going to see if it can be removed at the same time the meniscus repair is done.
Phone just rang, and she has an appointment with a knee specialist next Thursday...
Precipitation in Paradise...
Precipitation in Paradise... We had a surprise thunderstorm last night. The forecast was for overcast, but we got a bit more than that – four tenths of an inch more, to be precise! Our backyard is now once again a mud bowl, and it will take a few days to dry out. Meanwhile, we have more rain actually forecast for this afternoon.
A couple of months ago, the locals with long experience here were worried about a drought. Now they're worried about their hay rotting in the sopping fields. Crop dusters (both fixed wing and helicopter) are having a boom time here, as many fields are too wet for a tractor spraying rig to traverse them. I also saw a fantastical machine the other day (too far away to get a photo): a spraying machine with around a 100' wide spray boom, all running on the sort of giant balloon tires you see on dune buggies, but scaled way up. Those tires spread the weight of the rig over quite a large ground area, and he wasn't sinking into the muck at all. The photo at right will give you the general idea, but the one I saw was much larger...
Visual perspectives...
There's something similar that I hope to do in my retirement: capture natural sounds that we cannot hear because they are too low or too high in frequency, or their modulation is too low or too high in frequency. I'd also like to develop a phase-array microphone that will let me accurately point a camera at the source of a sound (especially for birds). Way back in the early '80s I briefly played around with these notions, but the compute power available then made it impractical. Today the compute power in my iPhone is more than adequate! Digital audio capture and electronic phase delay has also gotten much easier and cheaper than it used to be. I think the most challenging aspect of these projects today will be the digital signal processing (software), not the hardware...
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Yet another way to choose where to retire...
“I say we should ban cows and human farting.”
“I say we should ban cows and human farting.” So says friend and former colleague Simon M. in his sarcastic reaction to the news about the EPA proposing to regulate methane, carbon dioxide, and other “climate change inducing” chemicals from commercial airliners.
His comment relates to the fact that cow farts and human farts are also sources of methane, and therefore potentially subject to EPA regulation as well. Mandated Beano, anyone? I suspect my wife would approve :)
Aircraft engines produce (primarily) nitrogen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide as exhaust gas components. There isn't much room to make the engines more efficient, as commercial pressure from high fuel prices has done wonders there already. Nitrogen isn't a concern with respect to climate change. Carbon dioxide is the main thing the EPA is proposing to regulate. The EPA does not propose regulating water vapor emissions, despite the fact that water vapor is dozens of times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is.
So lets think about this for a moment. The EPA tells commercial aircraft manufacturers that they must reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. What mechanisms do the manufacturers have available to them? The most obvious one is to switch to fuels that have more of their energy in hydrogen, rather than carbon – which will have the effect of increasing water vapor emissions. Which, remember, are far worse for climate change than carbon dioxide is.
Now does this make sense in any universe? Sure it does! In the universe of the loony politicians!
The only other choices are to switch to exotic fuels that don't have carbon in them (very, very expensive), or to slow down the aircraft (because overall fuel consumption goes down non-linearly with speed, thus reducing emissions).
Shakespeare wrote (in Henry the Sixth) “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” I think his priorities were slightly off – first should have been the environmentalist wackos, then the lawyers (which has the knock-on effect of getting most politicians as well)...
His comment relates to the fact that cow farts and human farts are also sources of methane, and therefore potentially subject to EPA regulation as well. Mandated Beano, anyone? I suspect my wife would approve :)
Aircraft engines produce (primarily) nitrogen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide as exhaust gas components. There isn't much room to make the engines more efficient, as commercial pressure from high fuel prices has done wonders there already. Nitrogen isn't a concern with respect to climate change. Carbon dioxide is the main thing the EPA is proposing to regulate. The EPA does not propose regulating water vapor emissions, despite the fact that water vapor is dozens of times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is.
So lets think about this for a moment. The EPA tells commercial aircraft manufacturers that they must reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. What mechanisms do the manufacturers have available to them? The most obvious one is to switch to fuels that have more of their energy in hydrogen, rather than carbon – which will have the effect of increasing water vapor emissions. Which, remember, are far worse for climate change than carbon dioxide is.
Now does this make sense in any universe? Sure it does! In the universe of the loony politicians!
The only other choices are to switch to exotic fuels that don't have carbon in them (very, very expensive), or to slow down the aircraft (because overall fuel consumption goes down non-linearly with speed, thus reducing emissions).
Shakespeare wrote (in Henry the Sixth) “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” I think his priorities were slightly off – first should have been the environmentalist wackos, then the lawyers (which has the knock-on effect of getting most politicians as well)...
Paradise progress...
Paradise progress... Debbie's still doing fine. We've got a followup appointment with her orthopedist in two weeks, and we're both hoping that the level of pain and sensitivity has gone way down by then.
Today has been a day of chores and running around for me. Mostly little things, but I did get the screen replaced in the screen door of our kitchen. Replacement was necessitated by Race running straight through the old one to get outside, as though it wasn't even there. One second we had a nice, taut screen door; the next second the screen was flapping in the breeze and Race was a mere dot in the corner of the yard. Sigh. I ran to Home Depot, got some “pet proof” screen and an expanded metal grille for the bottom half of the door. I spent the best part of the day removing the screen door, cleaning out all the old screen (the rubber spline had become one with the frame), stretching and splining the new screen, installing the grille, and finally reinstalling the door. Every single step of the way something went wrong, of course. There was much Navy-learned language employed; the box elder bugs all ran away and the dogs were blushing.
Palliative care...
Palliative care ... is prescribed for the U.S.:
WASHINGTON—Saying there were no other options remaining and that continued intervention would only prolong the nation’s suffering, experts concluded Tuesday that the best course of action is to keep the United States as comfortable as possible until the end.It's one of those times where The Onion doesn't really seem like satire...
According to those familiar with its condition, the country’s long, painful decline over the past several decades has made it clear that the most compassionate choice at this juncture is to do whatever is possible to ensure America is at ease during its last moments.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
I had conversations like this many times...
I had conversations like this many times... I once worked for a company named Stac Electronics. At one point the company hired a new CEO (J.T., for insiders). Read today's Dilbert strip:
This brought back instant memories, and for me, some laughter. That CEO – who was running a software company – had technical expertise that was over-matched by any randomly-selected decomposing aardvark. I was, at the time, the company's chief technical officer. After my first few attempts to have a meaningful conversation with him (my boss!) about anything I did, I gave up. Then I started entertaining myself at his expense, by trying to see just how nonsensical a conversation I could have without him picking up on it.
I never found the limit. He resigned (for other reasons) before he had any clue what I was doing...
This brought back instant memories, and for me, some laughter. That CEO – who was running a software company – had technical expertise that was over-matched by any randomly-selected decomposing aardvark. I was, at the time, the company's chief technical officer. After my first few attempts to have a meaningful conversation with him (my boss!) about anything I did, I gave up. Then I started entertaining myself at his expense, by trying to see just how nonsensical a conversation I could have without him picking up on it.
I never found the limit. He resigned (for other reasons) before he had any clue what I was doing...
Paradise update...
Paradise update... We're back from getting Debbie's knee MRI. It wasn't fun :( She's happy to be back home, in bed, her Savannah cat (Jahar) by her side...
Monday, June 8, 2015
Paradise Progress...
Paradise Progress... Debbie is doing just fine. She's not happy about being black-and-blue, or in pain, or not being able to even hobble around – but she's showing signs of improvement (pain is subsiding, she's eating better, and the swelling is going down all over). I'd post some photos of the black-and-blue, but I'm being threatened with all sorts of horrible punishments if I even think about that very hard. Tomorrow she goes in for an MRI of her knee. This is the same knee she broke over two years ago, and we want to make sure there's no cartilage or ligament damage.
Yesterday and today I made great progress repairing the damage to our back yard from all the hectic trenching we did last fall to get services (gas, water, electricity, network) to the shed. I've been holding off until the ground dried out enough for me to run the tractor over the back lawn without leaving deep ruts. I've been doing a lot of shovel work, using the forklift to replace concrete slabs back from where we'd removed them, and the loader to move small mountains of soil around to fill in trenches. Today I finished everything I can immediately do with the tractor. Tomorrow I'll start the finish leveling by hand, with shovel and rake. I'm guessing I've got two or three days of work on that, and then I'll be planting grass seed.
Now that the back yard has dried out, and isn't a giant bowl of mud, we're letting the dogs run around back there. They love it – an acre of nice green grass all to themselves!
I picked up my new glasses today. I can see again – hurray!
Yesterday and today I made great progress repairing the damage to our back yard from all the hectic trenching we did last fall to get services (gas, water, electricity, network) to the shed. I've been holding off until the ground dried out enough for me to run the tractor over the back lawn without leaving deep ruts. I've been doing a lot of shovel work, using the forklift to replace concrete slabs back from where we'd removed them, and the loader to move small mountains of soil around to fill in trenches. Today I finished everything I can immediately do with the tractor. Tomorrow I'll start the finish leveling by hand, with shovel and rake. I'm guessing I've got two or three days of work on that, and then I'll be planting grass seed.
Now that the back yard has dried out, and isn't a giant bowl of mud, we're letting the dogs run around back there. They love it – an acre of nice green grass all to themselves!
I picked up my new glasses today. I can see again – hurray!
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Just listen...
Just listen ... to this whiny, self-important little mind: Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans. The author is one Lee Siegel, best known for his sock-puppetry at The New Republic a few years back. This conspicuous moron:
This is what we get when we encourage a culture of entitlement – morons who believe they're entitled to have the rest of us pay for whatever they want.
I have no patience for that attitude, and I am not willingly going to pay for his chioces. Our student loan programs may be administered by idiots, and they are most definitely contributing to the high cost of college these days (especially when college is more about the amenities and the partying than the education), but still: it was his choice to partake. Lee Siegel and the others like him should have their student loan payments extracted from them by force if that's what it takes...
- Chose to go to colleges with expensive tuitions
- Chose to borrow the money to do so
- Willingly accepted the offered loan
This is what we get when we encourage a culture of entitlement – morons who believe they're entitled to have the rest of us pay for whatever they want.
I have no patience for that attitude, and I am not willingly going to pay for his chioces. Our student loan programs may be administered by idiots, and they are most definitely contributing to the high cost of college these days (especially when college is more about the amenities and the partying than the education), but still: it was his choice to partake. Lee Siegel and the others like him should have their student loan payments extracted from them by force if that's what it takes...
New Horizons...
How close is that? At it's closest approach to Earth, Pluto is almost 46 billion miles away. Aiming New Horizons to approach within just 7,800 miles is phenomenally good aiming. It's the equivalent of shooting a gun at a target a mile away, and deliberately missing the bulls-eye by exactly a tenth of an inch. NASA was able to make some course corrections along the way, but still ... that's mighty fine shooting!
New Horizons was launched in January 2006, over nine years ago. That's one very long voyage it's on. It's still in perfect condition, too – a testament to some excellent engineering and fabrication work. Surviving nine years in the harsh environment of space didn't happen by accident. The mission of the New Horizons explorer will continue for at least another year, exploring the Kuiper Belt for the first time. The mission team has identified several Kuiper Belt objects that they'd like to fly by, and if they get their extended mission (through about 2020) funded, they'll be able to do it. The funding required is far less than the launch of an ISS mission, but nevertheless it's at risk due to the priorities given (pretty much totally useless) manned spaceflight...
Innovations in education...
Innovations in education... These sorts of articles always leave me with a funny feeling, as they generally leave out the education method that's worked so well for me: self-education. It's not that I think there's no place for pedagogy – there clearly is. The vast majority of people I know both got their education in some sort of institutional setting, and expect that's where their education (and their kids') will come from. But I think there's a place for autodidacts as well.
Institutional education (i.e., schools) weren't completely useless for me, but they weren't far off. I was bored out of my skull in just about every classroom; the few exceptions provide the few good memories of my school experience that I have. Part of the problem was the slow pace, but the bigger problem was the shallow treatment of just about every subject. I was constantly wondering Why? Why? Why? in nearly every subject, and I wasn't getting answers from either the teachers (to whom I was an annoying pest) or the texts (which even then I could tell were glossing over huge areas of interesting knowledge).
On the other hand, the schools provided me with something I did need: access to textbooks (there was no Internet back then, so books were the only source of recorded knowledge), through the school libraries. Those books I absorbed on my own, almost entirely. Every once in a while I'd have a question I couldn't figure out, and a librarian (most often) or a teacher (occasionally) would answer it. All too often, though, what I got was an admonition to stick to material more suited to my age. For example, in high school I got very interested in understanding how semiconductors (the basis of transistors) worked – and when I asked my physics teacher about it, he advised me to wait until I was in college to investigate that. So I learned about semiconductors from a book checked out from the school library, instead – and what I wanted to understand was easily accessible by an interested high school student with a limited mathematics background.
Once I left high school, I continued my exploration of science and engineering on my own. I had my own motivations, even if I didn't understand them, and I didn't need a teacher to be able to learn the things I wanted to. That has been a lifelong habit of mine, continuing even now in my dotage.
This is the source of that funny feeling I mentioned at the start of this post. I've never quite been able to figure out why so many people seem to depend on institutional education. I'm convinced at this point, after having met quite a few others with the same point of view, that the answer has little to do with native intelligence (that mainly seems to affect the speed with which one learns) and much more to do with the motivation and will of the individual. There's something else as well, something to do with that expectation of institutional education. I've heard a great many people make the assumption that if they wanted to learn X, then they'd have to go to school (take a course, etc.) to do so. Relatively few people assume that they can learn X on their own. I have no idea why that's the case, because these days – especially with the information resources available for free on the Internet – there's very little in the way of obstacles impeding anyone from learning just about anything.
I have the sense that self-education is on the rise, though. It's definitely more respectable in the engineering world these days :) I think the Internet is making it more common, as well. I hope so...
Institutional education (i.e., schools) weren't completely useless for me, but they weren't far off. I was bored out of my skull in just about every classroom; the few exceptions provide the few good memories of my school experience that I have. Part of the problem was the slow pace, but the bigger problem was the shallow treatment of just about every subject. I was constantly wondering Why? Why? Why? in nearly every subject, and I wasn't getting answers from either the teachers (to whom I was an annoying pest) or the texts (which even then I could tell were glossing over huge areas of interesting knowledge).
On the other hand, the schools provided me with something I did need: access to textbooks (there was no Internet back then, so books were the only source of recorded knowledge), through the school libraries. Those books I absorbed on my own, almost entirely. Every once in a while I'd have a question I couldn't figure out, and a librarian (most often) or a teacher (occasionally) would answer it. All too often, though, what I got was an admonition to stick to material more suited to my age. For example, in high school I got very interested in understanding how semiconductors (the basis of transistors) worked – and when I asked my physics teacher about it, he advised me to wait until I was in college to investigate that. So I learned about semiconductors from a book checked out from the school library, instead – and what I wanted to understand was easily accessible by an interested high school student with a limited mathematics background.
Once I left high school, I continued my exploration of science and engineering on my own. I had my own motivations, even if I didn't understand them, and I didn't need a teacher to be able to learn the things I wanted to. That has been a lifelong habit of mine, continuing even now in my dotage.
This is the source of that funny feeling I mentioned at the start of this post. I've never quite been able to figure out why so many people seem to depend on institutional education. I'm convinced at this point, after having met quite a few others with the same point of view, that the answer has little to do with native intelligence (that mainly seems to affect the speed with which one learns) and much more to do with the motivation and will of the individual. There's something else as well, something to do with that expectation of institutional education. I've heard a great many people make the assumption that if they wanted to learn X, then they'd have to go to school (take a course, etc.) to do so. Relatively few people assume that they can learn X on their own. I have no idea why that's the case, because these days – especially with the information resources available for free on the Internet – there's very little in the way of obstacles impeding anyone from learning just about anything.
I have the sense that self-education is on the rise, though. It's definitely more respectable in the engineering world these days :) I think the Internet is making it more common, as well. I hope so...
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Debbie's doing fine. There were a few changes today. The most noticeable one: she developed a spectacular shiner (a black eye), with a dark blue/purple bruise extending nearly all the way around her eye. This afternoon that same part of her face swelled, but it has since gone back down. The pain and swelling in various other places is starting to recede. The pain medication she's taking is an excellent appetite suppressant, but I managed to find some food that she enjoyed: french fries and turkey salad from a place that's new to us. It's called “Juniper”, and it's located in downtown Logan. Our neighbor Tim D. recommended it to us for the soups (which I bought some of, but we haven't tried yet). I tried a halibut sandwich, and it was just plain delicious. The fish was perfectly done, and there was plenty of it – on a nice bun that tasted homemade, though there are enough great bakeries here that it could be store-bought. It's clear this is a place that we will return to.
In between other things today, I managed to get the lawn mowed. I also mowed down about an acre of weeds to the west of our house. Things are looking much neater around the homestead :)
I took the dogs for a walk in which we passed a neighbor's pasture that is currently the home to a couple of beautiful horses. The horses were interested in the dogs, and vice versa. Race got a good nose-rub in with the second of the horses in the photos below:
I've posted a couple photos of the robin chicks, in a low nest built in a half-dead tree in our front yard. Here's what they looked like today – they're outgrowing their puny nest:
In between other things today, I managed to get the lawn mowed. I also mowed down about an acre of weeds to the west of our house. Things are looking much neater around the homestead :)
I took the dogs for a walk in which we passed a neighbor's pasture that is currently the home to a couple of beautiful horses. The horses were interested in the dogs, and vice versa. Race got a good nose-rub in with the second of the horses in the photos below:
I've posted a couple photos of the robin chicks, in a low nest built in a half-dead tree in our front yard. Here's what they looked like today – they're outgrowing their puny nest:
D-Day...
Light blogging alert...
Light blogging alert... On Thursday evening I took our dogs for a short walk just before we planned to retire. When I came back in the house, Debbie was sitting on the bottom of the stairs, looking dazed and a bit confused. She'd fallen down the stairs just a minute or so earlier – she'd been walking down them in her stocking feet, and the slipped out from under her. I saw her hand swelling up rapidly, and she was feeling pain in her knee (the one she broke two years ago), head (which had a big bump), and hand. Time for the ER.
There we had the same general sort of experience we've had before with medical care here – all good. The people, in particular, were wonderful. The ER doctor on duty was the same fellow who saw Debbie after her fall in March. When we walked in, she was the only patient there – but soon afterward, the ER filled up, so naturally things got a little slower. We were there for a couple hours. They got her on pain medication quickly, then it was X-ray time. Lots of X-rays, from head to toe. The good news: nothing was broken. The bad news: lots of bruising, a broken vein in her hand (hence the swelling), and the pain in the knee (twice injured already) is worrisome. We've got an MRI scheduled for next Tuesday to get the knee checked out more thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Debbie is doped up and laid up. I'm taking care of all the things she normally does, plus helping her out as needed. She can't (yet) walk or get around on her own, so there's lots to do.
So blogging will be light...
There we had the same general sort of experience we've had before with medical care here – all good. The people, in particular, were wonderful. The ER doctor on duty was the same fellow who saw Debbie after her fall in March. When we walked in, she was the only patient there – but soon afterward, the ER filled up, so naturally things got a little slower. We were there for a couple hours. They got her on pain medication quickly, then it was X-ray time. Lots of X-rays, from head to toe. The good news: nothing was broken. The bad news: lots of bruising, a broken vein in her hand (hence the swelling), and the pain in the knee (twice injured already) is worrisome. We've got an MRI scheduled for next Tuesday to get the knee checked out more thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Debbie is doped up and laid up. I'm taking care of all the things she normally does, plus helping her out as needed. She can't (yet) walk or get around on her own, so there's lots to do.
So blogging will be light...
71 years ago today...
71 years ago today ... the Allies invaded Normandy, marking the start of the extended invasion from the Nazi's west (the Soviets were already attacking from the Nazi's east). After much hard fighting, the Allies brought the Nazis to their knees, and the European front of WWII was over.
I've walked Omaha beach in Normandy, and visited quite a few sites of battles in WWII. I've also visited three Nazi concentration camps, and the ruins of Soviet fortifications in Estonia, and Nazi gun emplacements outside St. Petersburg (Leningrad). While I've read quite a bit of history (especially of WWII and the rise to power of the Nazis and the Meiji), but physically visiting the sites of the events I'd read about was more moving, more profound than reading alone could ever be. On the Pacific side, I've visited Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Okinawa, Tarawa, and Peleliu. My reading of history and those experiences have shaped me, especially politically. I wish more Americans could (and would) do the same...
I've walked Omaha beach in Normandy, and visited quite a few sites of battles in WWII. I've also visited three Nazi concentration camps, and the ruins of Soviet fortifications in Estonia, and Nazi gun emplacements outside St. Petersburg (Leningrad). While I've read quite a bit of history (especially of WWII and the rise to power of the Nazis and the Meiji), but physically visiting the sites of the events I'd read about was more moving, more profound than reading alone could ever be. On the Pacific side, I've visited Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Okinawa, Tarawa, and Peleliu. My reading of history and those experiences have shaped me, especially politically. I wish more Americans could (and would) do the same...
Friday, June 5, 2015
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Debbie and I managed to get all the EVA foam laid down in her indoor agility court, on the west side of our shed. The first photo below shows the work in progress; the second shows the finished result. Installing this stuff was actually quite easy, though we had to learn some new tricks along the way. One unexpected challenge: the squares of foam are cut to metric size. Though they were sold as one yard square of 3/4" thick foam, they are actually one square meter (39.37" on a side) and 2 cm thick (which is slightly more than 3/4"). This made our layout just a tad more tricky than we'd first imagined, as of course our room is laid out in feet and inches. Oh, well :)
The EVA foam is pretty tough stuff. Cutting it with a knife, or possibly with big shears, looked like it would be a real pain in the patoot. So I did the obvious thing and looked it up on google: presto! A whole world of video tutorials, written descriptions, etc. The answer turned out to be straightforward: use a hot knife. Great. Where does one get a hot knife? Well it turns out I already had one, and didn't even know it! Last year I bought a Weller soldering gun, to do some heavy duty soldering. In the kit was a pair of hot knife bits. They can only cut about 1/4" deep, but three passes and I had it. It worked like a champ, especially when we figured out that Debbie could separate the cut while I wielded the (massive) soldering gun. I made one mistake while doing the whole floor, and we managed to re-use the square I messed up anyway.
While we were partway through this exercise, a crew from Statewide Paving showed up to “seal” our driveway. This isn't something I knew about until last year, when our neighbor Tim D. – a former paving supervisor – educated me about it. This is an area of business rife with shady operators and inferior products, so choosing the right product and contractor is important. These folks Tim had done business with before, and he knew that they did good work with the best product (a pure asphalt spray that contains no water).
The photos below show them at work on two of the three phases of the job. The first phase is simply cleaning off the driveway (no photo). They use a special wheeled blower with a 10 HP gas engine; it's powerful enough to blow fist-sized rocks right off the driveway. They also scrape any heaped-up soil or other junk off the pavement. This first phase is more than half the labor of the whole job. The second phase is filling in all the pits and cracks with a special thick asphalt (first photo below). Then, finally, they spray on the sealer (last photo). The guys were really good with a piece of plywood used as a shield to keep the spray off our lawn and plants.
Because our driveway had never been sealed before, they're going to put two coats on. The second coat goes on today.
So what does a sealer do, anyway? It makes the top surface of the pavement watertight, and (when done right) fills in all the little pits in the top surface. Both of these effects prevent water from infiltrating the pavement and then freezing in the winter (which would crack the pavement). Asphalt pavement, when first laid down, is a mixture of asphalt, gravel, and sand. It's not solid, though – in fact, it's rather porous. The sealer puts that waterproof layer on top...
The EVA foam is pretty tough stuff. Cutting it with a knife, or possibly with big shears, looked like it would be a real pain in the patoot. So I did the obvious thing and looked it up on google: presto! A whole world of video tutorials, written descriptions, etc. The answer turned out to be straightforward: use a hot knife. Great. Where does one get a hot knife? Well it turns out I already had one, and didn't even know it! Last year I bought a Weller soldering gun, to do some heavy duty soldering. In the kit was a pair of hot knife bits. They can only cut about 1/4" deep, but three passes and I had it. It worked like a champ, especially when we figured out that Debbie could separate the cut while I wielded the (massive) soldering gun. I made one mistake while doing the whole floor, and we managed to re-use the square I messed up anyway.
While we were partway through this exercise, a crew from Statewide Paving showed up to “seal” our driveway. This isn't something I knew about until last year, when our neighbor Tim D. – a former paving supervisor – educated me about it. This is an area of business rife with shady operators and inferior products, so choosing the right product and contractor is important. These folks Tim had done business with before, and he knew that they did good work with the best product (a pure asphalt spray that contains no water).
The photos below show them at work on two of the three phases of the job. The first phase is simply cleaning off the driveway (no photo). They use a special wheeled blower with a 10 HP gas engine; it's powerful enough to blow fist-sized rocks right off the driveway. They also scrape any heaped-up soil or other junk off the pavement. This first phase is more than half the labor of the whole job. The second phase is filling in all the pits and cracks with a special thick asphalt (first photo below). Then, finally, they spray on the sealer (last photo). The guys were really good with a piece of plywood used as a shield to keep the spray off our lawn and plants.
Because our driveway had never been sealed before, they're going to put two coats on. The second coat goes on today.
So what does a sealer do, anyway? It makes the top surface of the pavement watertight, and (when done right) fills in all the little pits in the top surface. Both of these effects prevent water from infiltrating the pavement and then freezing in the winter (which would crack the pavement). Asphalt pavement, when first laid down, is a mixture of asphalt, gravel, and sand. It's not solid, though – in fact, it's rather porous. The sealer puts that waterproof layer on top...
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Anyone close to this guy...
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... We drove up to Home Depot to get a few things we needed, and on the way up our neighbor (Tim D.) called us. It seems that a wandering driveway sealing guy was going house-to-house looking for customers. Tim is a retired paving supervisor for a large highway construction company; he knows this stuff inside and out. He'd used this guy in the past, and he'd done good work. Tim also knew that we were looking to get our driveway sealed, so he called us to make sure it was ok to sic this guy on our driveway. We said “Hell yes!” and while we were at Home Depot the fellow measured our driveway's area. He'll be back tomorrow morning to actually do the job: pressure-wash our driveway, then apply the sealer (hot pure asphalt, with no fillers of any kind). All for about 1/3 the price of a crappy sealing job (with no cleaning) in California. Sweet!
The imminent driveway sealing derailed me for the day, though – I had to run around like mad to move everything that was sitting on the pavement. That took a couple hours, and a lot of muscle work. But 'tis done!
Debbie, meanwhile, started actually installing the foam for the floor of her (soon-to-be) indoor agility court. As I write this, about half the foam is down, except for one skinny row near a wall. For that row, we've got to cut each “tile” before we lay it down. We do that with a hot knife: easy, but tedious and needing a steady hand. Another couple days and we'll have all that installed – and then there will be a couple of very happy dogs turned loose on this beautiful blue agility practice court!
The imminent driveway sealing derailed me for the day, though – I had to run around like mad to move everything that was sitting on the pavement. That took a couple hours, and a lot of muscle work. But 'tis done!
What do dogs do after a vigorous morning walk?
Flowers in Paradise...
Flowers in Paradise... These are all from our yard. The wild roses smell really good right now, all along the irrigation canal. The horticultural varieties of columbine, and the poppy, are far happier this year than they were last year – I suspect because of the three weeks of rains we had this year. That most likely means that if we were smart enough to irrigate them, we'd have them every year. But we're not that smart :)
Robins in Paradise...
Robins in Paradise... This is an update on the robin's nest we found in the half-dead tree in our front yard. They've (of course) grown a lot in just a couple days. There are still four babies...
The rise of creamy yogurt...
The rise of creamy yogurt... Well, here's another case where the U.S. is over 20 years behind Europe. Click the first link to read the article. The bottom line: U.S. yogurt manufacturers are starting to offer tastier yogurts made from whole milk (depending on where you live, that means 5% to 8% butterfat).
I first ran into these “full fat” yogurts on a trip to Estonia, while buying my lunch from a grocery store (a favorite mini-adventure of mine). The labels on the yogurts were mostly not in English, but I could make out the butterfat analysis on most of them anyway. Some of the German brands had butterfat contents as high as 18%! I still remember the first time I had one of those – a little container of German strawberry yogurt. It was to U.S. low-fat yogurt as Hagen-Daz is to ice milk. I thought my brains were going to fall out.
We still have a ways to go to hit that European yogurt yummy goodness. But any step along the way is bound to be better than what we used to have. I can hardly wait to find this in our local stores!
I first ran into these “full fat” yogurts on a trip to Estonia, while buying my lunch from a grocery store (a favorite mini-adventure of mine). The labels on the yogurts were mostly not in English, but I could make out the butterfat analysis on most of them anyway. Some of the German brands had butterfat contents as high as 18%! I still remember the first time I had one of those – a little container of German strawberry yogurt. It was to U.S. low-fat yogurt as Hagen-Daz is to ice milk. I thought my brains were going to fall out.
We still have a ways to go to hit that European yogurt yummy goodness. But any step along the way is bound to be better than what we used to have. I can hardly wait to find this in our local stores!
Hyperion...
Quote of the day...
“It was certainly the first time we have taken that kind of field trip and it will probably be our last, which I feel bad [about] because the kids had so much fun.”The field trip she's referring to was for a dozen students of middle- and high-school age for a sex education class – to the Smitten Kitten, a “progressive sex toy” store.
I'll bet they had fun, Starri :)
Sex education when I went to school consisted of a single session, perhaps 30 minutes long. The class was boys-only, there was a short film that taught me exactly nothing I didn't already know, and then the teacher (a gym teacher!) mumbled something about talking with our dads and seeing the school nurse “if we had a problem”. That was it. No field trips anywhere. I'm not sure if sex toy stores existed back in the '60s. I don't remember them.
I'm not a death penalty advocate...
I'm not a death penalty advocate... But there are stories that make me less certain of my position...
3.9%?
3.9%? According to this report (click first link) from the Wall Street Journal, that's the percentage of people who test positive for drugs on corporate drugs testing programs. That percentage has been declining for almost 20 years, but this year it went up.
Something to remember: these are the positives from people who knew they would be tested (though they might not know exactly when). You can bet that the actual percentage of drugs users is much higher, because basically everyone who cares about keeping their job would have stayed clean for the test.
Every time I see a test like this, I have to laugh at the impression it leaves. More recently, I also remember a casual conversation I had with an executive at a company I worked for (the company and the executive shall remain unnamed). I asked why the company didn't participate in drugs testing. He said “Because if we did, you’d be the only programmer here!” Hah! I don't think that's actually true – but I'd bet you it was a more accurate assessment than that 3.9% number. Just from incident observations and conversations, I'd guess the actual percentage at the last few companies I worked for was more like 50% to 60% (just counting illegal drugs), and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find the number was actually 10% to 15% higher.
Since I worked with (primarily) engineers and executives, we're talking about a group of above average intelligence and function – which is enough to make anyone question the alleged brain and motivation destroying properties of casual drug use.
3.9% of American workers use illegal drugs? Don't you believe it! That number is far too low. It's still not as high as the (perfectly legal) use of alcohol, though – despite alcohol use having a much worse impact on workers...
Something to remember: these are the positives from people who knew they would be tested (though they might not know exactly when). You can bet that the actual percentage of drugs users is much higher, because basically everyone who cares about keeping their job would have stayed clean for the test.
Every time I see a test like this, I have to laugh at the impression it leaves. More recently, I also remember a casual conversation I had with an executive at a company I worked for (the company and the executive shall remain unnamed). I asked why the company didn't participate in drugs testing. He said “Because if we did, you’d be the only programmer here!” Hah! I don't think that's actually true – but I'd bet you it was a more accurate assessment than that 3.9% number. Just from incident observations and conversations, I'd guess the actual percentage at the last few companies I worked for was more like 50% to 60% (just counting illegal drugs), and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find the number was actually 10% to 15% higher.
Since I worked with (primarily) engineers and executives, we're talking about a group of above average intelligence and function – which is enough to make anyone question the alleged brain and motivation destroying properties of casual drug use.
3.9% of American workers use illegal drugs? Don't you believe it! That number is far too low. It's still not as high as the (perfectly legal) use of alcohol, though – despite alcohol use having a much worse impact on workers...
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Evening walkies in Paradise...
Evening walkies in Paradise... The sun is low, the temperature balmy, there's a slight breeze, the dogs are lazy, and we just slowly walked through the fields of alfalfa and drank in the views...
Shaper in Paradise...
Shaper in Paradise... My shaper is the last big piece of woodworking equipment that I'm planning to buy, at least until I learn what else I need (a standalone sander of some type is a distinct possibility). I received the shaper last week, but other project have kept me from finishing the assembly of it until today.
The photos below give you an idea what it's like to unpack and assemble a piece of equipment like this. The first photo shows what it looked like when I took the top of the crate off: a nicely milled cast iron surface, covered with a thick layer of grease. The second photo shows it with the crate completely removed. All the parts that had to be assembled (dozens of them) were packed inside the green cabinet, as you can glimpse in the third photo. The fourth photo shows all those parts after I extracted them. The fifth and sixth photos show a couple of stages during the assembly process, which is nearly all on the top of the machine.
The last two photos should have a title: “Really, Grizzly?” The next-to-last photo shows the angle meter (for the tilting spindle). Looks great. Except – in the last photo, you see the handle for raising and lowering the spindle installed. It completely covers the angle meter. Really, Grizzly? That's the best you can do? Fortunately, I suppose, I don't expect to be changing the spindle angle all that frequently. But ... when I do, I'll be partially disassembling my shaper just so I can read the angle! Jeez. I certainly expected better for a machine in this price range.
Aside from that one awesomely stupid design element (really, Grizzly?), I like what I see here. The cast iron table is heavy and very nicely made, the sliding part slide true and smoothly, the tilting spindle works great, and everything on the machine looks like it was built to withstand a nuclear assault. I haven't wired it up yet, so I haven't been able to actually run some wood through it.
While I've got the shaper itself completely assembled, I haven't yet assembled the rolling base I bought for it. That's a project for another day, along with wiring it up and lighting it off...
Really, Grizzly? Really?
The photos below give you an idea what it's like to unpack and assemble a piece of equipment like this. The first photo shows what it looked like when I took the top of the crate off: a nicely milled cast iron surface, covered with a thick layer of grease. The second photo shows it with the crate completely removed. All the parts that had to be assembled (dozens of them) were packed inside the green cabinet, as you can glimpse in the third photo. The fourth photo shows all those parts after I extracted them. The fifth and sixth photos show a couple of stages during the assembly process, which is nearly all on the top of the machine.
The last two photos should have a title: “Really, Grizzly?” The next-to-last photo shows the angle meter (for the tilting spindle). Looks great. Except – in the last photo, you see the handle for raising and lowering the spindle installed. It completely covers the angle meter. Really, Grizzly? That's the best you can do? Fortunately, I suppose, I don't expect to be changing the spindle angle all that frequently. But ... when I do, I'll be partially disassembling my shaper just so I can read the angle! Jeez. I certainly expected better for a machine in this price range.
Aside from that one awesomely stupid design element (really, Grizzly?), I like what I see here. The cast iron table is heavy and very nicely made, the sliding part slide true and smoothly, the tilting spindle works great, and everything on the machine looks like it was built to withstand a nuclear assault. I haven't wired it up yet, so I haven't been able to actually run some wood through it.
While I've got the shaper itself completely assembled, I haven't yet assembled the rolling base I bought for it. That's a project for another day, along with wiring it up and lighting it off...
Really, Grizzly? Really?
Storm in Paradise...
Storm in Paradise... Yesterday afternoon we had a brief visit from the storm king. It brought very little rain (just 0.04"), but lots and lots of drama – mainly in the form of gusty wind and dark, evil-looking clouds. It was all over in less than an hour...
Progress in Paradise...
Dr. Seeholzer is a second-generation optometrist – his dad started the practice over 60 years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit, which isn't at all what I expected! Dr. Seeholzer (who asked to be called “Jeff”) is an affable fellow, happy to answer my questions in any amount of detail I wanted. His exam was thorough, as was his review of my optometric history (which, unfortunately, he thought was interesting :).
I'm starting to think that appointments being honored on time is some kind of cultural norm here, just as in California it seem to be the norm for all appointment times to be basically ignored. My appointment yesterday was for 9:15 am, and I was ushered into the exam room (and the exam was started) at 9:13. Amazing!
This morning I hooked up my sprayer to the ATV, and sprayed ... just about every conceivable place on our property. I used 67% 2,4-D at 2.5 ounces per gallon (a 25% increase from last time), and sprayed our entire lawn, the field borders, the area between the irrigation canal and the highway, the non-lawn areas around our outbuildings, the dirt piles leftover from the shed construction, and a bunch of weed “hot spots” scattered all over the place. I'd made two batches of spray, 40 gallons each, and all the spraying on our place used 72 gallons. The extra 8 gallons I sprayed on our neighbor's property (after getting permission, of course!), so they got a free second dosage on part of their yard. I ran out about a third of the way through their lawn :)
Debbie's been making great progress on recovering from her fall in March. Today she's feeling good enough to start cleaning up the agility court area of the shed, to get it ready for installing foam. She's been going on about half our walkies, too. It's great to see her getting better!
Mo'i in the moonlight, in Paradise...
Mo'i in the moonlight, in Paradise... Our ancient and venerable field spaniel (Mo'i) just keeps getting better. Beyond the Miracle of the Unnecessary Diapers, he's now getting physically stronger. There are increasingly frequent moments when he seems downright playful and frisky. Where he used to bark piteously at 2 or 3 am to be taken out for a walk (and to pee prodigiously), he now only occasionally barks to be let out before we wake up on our own.
That's what happened this morning. I awoke around 4 am, then read email and news for an hour or so before actually getting up. I took a leisurely shower, then wandered out to the kitchen to greet Mo'i. He was up, wagging his tail, and eager to get outside. We walked out into a wonderfully cool, still morning, brightly lit by the full moon that was about to set over the mountains to our west. He strained at the leash to go off and investigate all the things he could smell, and I could not. I smelled just four things: pines, spruce, roses, and the complex aroma of the irrigation canal. Mo'i ignored all those things and chased invisible trails of mice, muskrats, neighborhood cats, and who knows what else. He's reveling in the lush green grass of our lawn, something he rarely saw in Jamul. He was obviously having a good dogly time, tail wagging like mad. A couple of times, walking alongside me, he reached up and nibbled my fingers – something he did as a puppy when he was happy. The fact that he survived his cancer to make it up here, and can enjoy it, is a source of great satisfaction to Debbie and I...
That's what happened this morning. I awoke around 4 am, then read email and news for an hour or so before actually getting up. I took a leisurely shower, then wandered out to the kitchen to greet Mo'i. He was up, wagging his tail, and eager to get outside. We walked out into a wonderfully cool, still morning, brightly lit by the full moon that was about to set over the mountains to our west. He strained at the leash to go off and investigate all the things he could smell, and I could not. I smelled just four things: pines, spruce, roses, and the complex aroma of the irrigation canal. Mo'i ignored all those things and chased invisible trails of mice, muskrats, neighborhood cats, and who knows what else. He's reveling in the lush green grass of our lawn, something he rarely saw in Jamul. He was obviously having a good dogly time, tail wagging like mad. A couple of times, walking alongside me, he reached up and nibbled my fingers – something he did as a puppy when he was happy. The fact that he survived his cancer to make it up here, and can enjoy it, is a source of great satisfaction to Debbie and I...
I don't know why...
TSA fails again...
TSA fails again... Several readers flagged this one for me. Larry E. also sent along a personal experience:
Most of the news stories about the current brouhaha don't mention it, but TSA (and its predecessors) have been failing these spot checks for years. In fact, they've never passed one! As Bruce Schneier likes to say, the TSA is all about security theater. It doesn't actually provide security, just the minimum necessary appearance (for sheeple pacification and political purposes) of it.
The continually failed security spot checks reminds me of a similar experience I had in the U.S. Navy. Hopefully they've gotten better by now, though I wouldn't bet any money on it. I served on a nuclear-powered ship that carried nuclear weapons, and it was a ship that could serve as “flag”, meaning that it could carry an admiral and his retinue – and had extensive secure communications facilities.
To give just one example of the security test we routinely failed (routinely as in every single time): one of the testing agents was always able to get into the radio room, right up to the teletypes and printers that were handling all the “secure” communications. The radio room could only be entered through a door that had a push-button combination lock (similar to the one at right), and the combination was frequently changed. How did the agent get in? It was trivially easy, as the combination was always taped to the door or frame somewhere easily visible. WTF? Why would they do that? Because the several dozen or so people who were cleared to enter the radio room (including yours truly) couldn't be relied on to memorize the new combinations. Plus distributing the new combination was an interesting challenge in itself. So someone always taped the combination up. I had access to the radio room for about three years (while I had responsibility for maintaining a computer involved in secure satellite communications), actually entered it hundreds of times, and I never once memorized the combination.
I went through screening one day and forgot some change in my pocket. I went through the body scanner and realized it, so I reached in my pocket to get it to show the screener but it was still in my fist as his device showed it, but he basically just wanded me over the pocket my change had been in and sent me on my way. I never had the chance to show him that I had it in my hand now and he didn't ask nor did he find it. Can you imagine is someone had even simple sleight-of-hand skills?I've had some personal experiences of my own over the years, mainly involving my pocket knife. I have a lifetime habit of carrying a small folding pocket knife with me at all times, and many is the time that I've forgotten to remove it (post-9/11) before flying. Only once was that pocket knife detected by airport security – and that was in London, getting ready to come back to the U.S. They confiscated it and mailed it to me (I paid the postage). I never counted the number of flights inside the U.S. where I took the knife through security, but it has to be in the range of four or five dozen times.
Most of the news stories about the current brouhaha don't mention it, but TSA (and its predecessors) have been failing these spot checks for years. In fact, they've never passed one! As Bruce Schneier likes to say, the TSA is all about security theater. It doesn't actually provide security, just the minimum necessary appearance (for sheeple pacification and political purposes) of it.
The continually failed security spot checks reminds me of a similar experience I had in the U.S. Navy. Hopefully they've gotten better by now, though I wouldn't bet any money on it. I served on a nuclear-powered ship that carried nuclear weapons, and it was a ship that could serve as “flag”, meaning that it could carry an admiral and his retinue – and had extensive secure communications facilities.
Why did nobody ever tell us?
Why did nobody ever tell us? This morning Debbie and I changed our bedclothes. Part of this effort included inserting a comforter into a duvet, something we've done about 10,000 times over the past 30+ years. While trying to find a corner in the duvet, I noticed a pair of cloth ribbons, about 8" long, sewn into the inside of the corner.
What could that be? A tie? To tie the corner of the comforter in place? Working on that theory, I checked inside of all four corners, and sure enough: there are ribbons in all of them. Who knew?
So then Debbie and I decided to try tying the corner of the comforter with the ties. We weren't quite sure how we were going to do that, but it sounded like it would make the clumsy process of inserting the comforter a bit easier. So we got the comforter in place, and then I went to tie the first corner – and discovered that the comforter had a handy loop right where we'd need it to make the tie work. In a jiffy we had the comforter tied into the right place, inside the duvet, and in fact that was much easier than the corner-holding and shaking we've been doing all these years.
Duvets come with insider corner ties? Comforters come with matching tie loops? We checked our other comforters and duvets. Yup. Ties and loops in all of them.
How the hell could we have been doing this for over three decades without once even suspecting that those ties and loops existed? And why are we completely surrounded by cruel people who never told us?
What could that be? A tie? To tie the corner of the comforter in place? Working on that theory, I checked inside of all four corners, and sure enough: there are ribbons in all of them. Who knew?
So then Debbie and I decided to try tying the corner of the comforter with the ties. We weren't quite sure how we were going to do that, but it sounded like it would make the clumsy process of inserting the comforter a bit easier. So we got the comforter in place, and then I went to tie the first corner – and discovered that the comforter had a handy loop right where we'd need it to make the tie work. In a jiffy we had the comforter tied into the right place, inside the duvet, and in fact that was much easier than the corner-holding and shaking we've been doing all these years.
Duvets come with insider corner ties? Comforters come with matching tie loops? We checked our other comforters and duvets. Yup. Ties and loops in all of them.
How the hell could we have been doing this for over three decades without once even suspecting that those ties and loops existed? And why are we completely surrounded by cruel people who never told us?
Monday, June 1, 2015
Snakes in Paradise...
Snakes in Paradise... There's one poisonous snake here, a particularly docile and low-toxicity rattlesnake called the Great Basin Rattlesnake. We haven't seen any of these yet, but we're not worried about them as they're amongst the least aggressive and lowest venom toxicity of all rattlesnakes – pretty much the opposite of what we were dealing with in Jamul, California. However, I have see four snakes here – all different, all small (about pencil diameter and 10" to 12" long). I haven't identified any of them, though one of them I'm pretty sure was a garter snake. One of these was on the shore of Porcupine Reservoir; the others in our yard, spotted while I was mowing. It's interesting that all last year, even with all the outdoors work I did, I never saw a snake. Now in the first few days outside this spring, I've already seen four.
Polygamy...
Things change. Faster than I'd ever have thought. What's the next frontier in permissiveness after polyamory? I'm guessing it will be the mainstreaming of bestiality, but I stand ready to be surprised...
Way back in about 1995...
Twenty years later, nothing has changed.
The inertia of the Internet is truly astounding...
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