Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  Mitt Romney, after The Quake on the Lake:

“Please, please champ, don’t beat my brains out – because if you did, I’d have to become a Democrat.”

I don't like to think about what it might have been like to have a President Mitt Romney instead of a second Obummer term, because cry...

My mother-in-law made the front page...

My mother-in-law made the front page ... of the web site for the nursing home she's in.  That's her in red at right.  Like many in her condition, she has good days and not-so-good days.  She's physically fragile, too; not a great combination with dementia.  Little injuries, often completely mysterious, seem like almost a daily occurrence – and serious injuries have occurred several times in the past few years.  I hope she's not miserable all the time.  It worries me that we have no way to find out, really, how she's feeling.  The folks at the nursing home have mostly been great, with just a very few instances where we suspected the care was anything else.  But even the people caring for her every day can't reliably tell how she's feeling.  The dementia makes everything about her care very challenging...

A pleasant surprise...

A pleasant surprise ... was ours last night, when we learned that Sheila Miller (the proprietor of Wolftree Acres, and the breeder from whom we got all three of our field spaniels) would be in nearby Logan this weekend.  She's at a dog show happening in the fairgrounds there, and we're hoping to be able to have dinner with her tonight.  Sheila keeps threatening to stop breeding (it's a LOT of work!), but we're hoping she'll do it at least one more time – as we'll probably be looking for another puppy in a year or so...

This is turning out to be a highly social weekend for us.  First the Mormon horde, then Sheila, and (allegedly) our friends Jim and Michelle are showing up tomorrow.  Woo hoo!

Despite the cold drizzle...

Despite the cold drizzle ... the Mormon horde showed up and went to work.  In just four hours they got more done that I could have done myself in a year of part-time (hard!) work.  All the old barbed-wire fence is down and hauled off to the dump.  Nearly all of the dead limbs have been cut down, cut up, and piled up ready for burning.  There are just a few branches left that were too high to reach without ladders.  The trash in the old dry canal bed has all been dug up and hauled away.  It's amazing how much got accomplished!  People came and went all morning, but overall I think about 15 people contributed.  There were a half dozen guys with chainsaws, we had a nice big hydraulic dump trailer for hauling, and a neighbor with a 40-horsepower tractor came over to do the heavy lifting and pulling.  The only real challenge we ran into was an old corner post made from cinder blocks and reinforced concrete.  We managed to knock it over, but we couldn't lift it or break it up.  That will have to wait for another day...

Debbie had a nice meal waiting for us when we finished: chicken salad sandwiches on nice buns, with tomato and lettuce, chips, cookies (her homemade chocolate chip cookies with cranberries and orange), and lemonade.  The sandwiches and cookies were a big hit – they disappeared quickly, though Debbie of course made way more than we could possibly eat :)

Now that we're done, I'm all sore and creaky.  Those guys were all way younger than I, and in trying to keep up, I think I've strained ... everything.  No more working for me today!

A boy, a truck, and two flags...

A boy, a truck, and two flags...  Nice story.  It would be different here in Utah.  I can't imagine the local school behaving this way here.  And none of my neighbors are complaining about my flagpole and flags...

False memories...

False memories...  I first started reading about this phenomenon in the '70s, and I'll note that the more research on it that's done, the more common the false memories turn out to be.  One study I read recently said that of 150 people whose memory of a vivid incident was tested one week later, even when they were tasked with remembering it accurately – 100% of them had “significant” errors in their remembered chronology or list of events.  One hundred percent, and the group included over a dozen people whose job required accurate memory.  By far the most common error was addition, not omission – meaning that chronologies were changed or events that didn't actually happen were added.  Another thing that seems clear from the studies: emotionally charged incidents (which the previously mentioned study used) are far more likely to be mis-remembered.

Fallible, we humans are...

Today is the day...

Today is the day ... that the Mormon horde shows up to clean up our canal area, as a service project.  However, the weather isn't looking very cooperative: heavy rain is predicted starting at around 9 am, and the weather radar in fact looks a little ... ominous.  The leaders were here last night doing some final planning, and noting the weather they decided to start this morning at 7 am.  I'm not sure how long they're going to last – if it starts getting wet, we've all agreed they're going to pack it in and reschedule...

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day ... anthropogenic global warming skeptic edition:

What I would like to emphasize is that human actions have very large effects on the ecology, which have nothing to do with the climate. Carbon dioxide is what we're producing in big quantities and putting into the atmosphere. This happens to be a very good fertilizer for all kinds of vegetation, good for wildlife, good for agricultural production, so it has many benefits. And this is something you have together with the climate effects, which are much less certain, so it's a question of drawing a balance. I'm just saying I don't understand it and neither does anybody else. I'm skeptical because I don't think the science is at all clear, and unfortunately a lot of the experts really believe they understand it, and maybe have the wrong answer.

Of course [the weather] concerns me, but of course, we don't know much about the causes of those things. We don't even know for sure whether it is more variable than it used to be. I mean the worst disasters were the Ice Ages, and nobody really understands for sure the causes of Ice Ages, so I'm not saying the climate disasters aren't real, I'm merely saying we don't know how to prevent them.

That's Freeman Dyson, in a quote from an interview about his new book...

Fun with big data...

Fun with big data...  On this web site you can check the popularity (in America) of just about any given name.  The site has a disclaimer for data prior to 1940.

The chart at right shows the result for my own given name (“Thomas”).  You can see that “peak Thomas” (the raw data is downloadable) was in 1952 – the year I was born.  I've always assumed that I was named after my dad, but (perhaps coincidentally) my name was also at its peak popularity that year.

The chart at left shows quite a different result for “Holly” – my sister's name.  Even at its peak (in 1983), “Holly” wasn't nearly as common as “Thomas” – but in 1955, when my sister was born, it was much less so.

My wife's given name is Deborah, and when I checked her name the results were even more dramatic (at right).  “Peak Deborah” was in 1954; she was born in 1955, and at that point the name was more popular than “Thomas” for boys.  But prior to 1944, there were almost no women named Deborah!  And these days, newborn girls are only rarely named Deborah.

I tried about 20 names from my family or Debbie's, and the results were quite a surprise to me.  Try some of your own, and if you find something surprising, leave a note to tell us about it!

31 things you will never hear Southern boys say...

31 things you will never hear Southern boys say...  Via my brother Scott, who lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia – sort of in the South...

31. When I retire, I'm movin' north.
30. Oh I wouldn't dare; she's only sixteen.
29. I'll take Shakespeare for $1000, Alex.
28. Duct tape won't fix that.
27. Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken with a slice of lime.
26. We don't keep no guns in this house.
25. You can't feed that to the dog.
24. No kids in the back of the pickup, it's just not safe.
23. Wrestling is fake.
22. We're vegetarians.
21. Do you think my gut is too big?
20. I'll have grapefruit and grapes instead of biscuits, grits, and gravy.
19. Honey, we don't need another dog.
18. Who gives a sh** who won the Civil War?
17. Give me the small bag of pork rinds.
16. Too many deer heads detract from the decor.
15. I just couldn't find a thing at Wal-Mart today.
14. Trim the fat off that steak.
13. Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.
12. The tires on that truck are too damn big.
11. I've got it all on the C: DRIVE.
10. Unsweetened tea tastes better.
9. My fiancée, Bobbie Jo, is registered at Tiffany's.
8. I've got two cases of Zima iced down for the Super Bowl.
7. Checkmate!
6. She's too young to be wearing that bikini.
5. Hey, here's an episode of "Hee Haw" that we haven't seen.
4. I don't have a favorite football team.
3. Youse Guys.
2. Those cutoffs ought to be a little longer, Betty Mae.

AND THE NUMBER ONE THING THAT YOU WILL NEVER HEAR A SOUTHERN BOY SAY:

1. Nope, no more beer for me. I'm driving a whole busload of us down to help in the Hillary Campaign.

The first one on that list has long fascinated me. I've seen maps showing where people move after retirement, and in fact is is highly unusual for people to move north (as we did!). I've forgotten the exact ratio, but it's on the order of 6:1 in favor of moving toward the south...

Progress in Paradise...

Progress in Paradise...  Three hours – that's what it took to work out all the changes required for our insurance yesterday.  I (naively) thought that transferring our car insurance from the carrier we used in California to our new carrier in Utah would be simple and easy.  Oh, no.  No way!

First, there are about six zillion options on car insurance.  It's been many, many years since I last reviewed car insurance in detail – I've just sort of been on autopilot while I was working.  It never seemed like it was worth bothering with.  After a couple hours of working at it, we've now got coverage that's better suited to our needs – and we're spending less money to get it.  Win! 

That was only part of the complication, though.  Another twist was my discovery that standard car policies don't cover the use of a trailer.  Adding coverage for the trailer was cheap – but I had no idea I even needed it!  Then there was the coverage for the shed.  The structural coverage was easy enough, but the contents are another story.  There are different coverages needed for tools, ATVs, and tractors.  Tractor attachments fall into a gray area.  This all took time to sort out. 

Then there were a bunch of discounts available for certain combinations of coverage (especially basic homeowner and automobile).  When I left, there were still a few unresolved issues – liability umbrella and some details around tractor coverage.  So I'm not quite finished with the insurance mess yet :)

One thing that surprised me: the agents were unfamiliar with high deductible rates.  On talking with them, I found out that nearly all their clients want policies with the lowest possible deductibles, apparently unaware of just how much more expensive such policies were.  Even the agents seemed unaware of how much less expensive high deductible policies were.  For someone like us who very rarely make claims on homeowner or automobile policies (two claims in 45 years!), the savings on high deductible polices is substantial.  We did the same thing on healthcare insurance, for the same reasons.

The rest of the day Debbie and I installed new fixtures in the upstairs bathroom.  We didn't quite finish, but we'll do so today.  The new stuff looks way nicer than the old!  The faucets operate with a satisfying smoothness and solidity; the old ones were creaky and felt like you were sliding pieces of plastic against each other (which probably is exactly what they were)...

Heisenberg's Theorem on Green Energy Measurement...

Heisenberg's Theorem on Green Energy Measurement...  My three long-time readers will know that CoyoteBlog, by Warren Meyer, is one of my daily visits.  He's been on a roll recently with a series of excellent posts.  This morning, before I got to my morning blog reading, my friend Doug W. emailed me about a really good, short post there.  He took unfair advantage of the time zones, as he's currently traveling in Italy :)

Mr. Warren is many things, but a world-class speller is not amongst them :)  I've taken the liberty of correcting his spelling, and quoting his awesome post in its entirety – it's way too short to be excerpted:

Heisenberg's Theorem on Green Energy Measurement

Theorem: A media article on a wind or solar project will give its installation costs or the value of its energy produced, but never both.

Corollary 1: One therefore can never assess the economic reasonableness of any green energy project from a single media article

Corollary 2: For supporters of green energy, there is a good reason for Corollary #1.

The media and the greenies, in bed together.  The result is pretty bad...

Wait, what?

Wait, what?  I saw this headline and feared that Utah had done something stupid to interfere with business:

Contested Utah law could impact contact lens industry

On reading the article, though, I discovered the exact opposite: Utah has acted to prevent the contact lens business from fixing prices artificially high.  They are removing a barrier to getting lower prices for consumers.


Yay, Utah!


More like this, please...

Kinetic sculptures in wood...

Kinetic sculptures in wood...  Completely by accident, this morning I ran across the work of David C. Roy.  The video at right shows one example; more here and here.  I find these sculptures both beautiful and fascinating. 

Mr. Roy limits his sculptures to purely mechanical motion (springs, weights, etc.) and eschews anything like an electric motor.  Personally, I don't think they'd suffer if motorized.  Beautiful things!  And it makes me wonder if I could do something like them...

Progress in Paradise...

Progress in Paradise...  Yesterday we finally finished the maze of paperwork, inspections, etc. required to transfer registrations of our vehicles from California to Utah.  Now when we travel about the area, we won't have the locals looking at us and wondering who the hell let these damned Californians in here!

I started working on replacing all the fixtures in our upstairs bathroom.  When we bought the house, that bathroom was equipped with rather cheaply made chrome faucets, drain, towel racks, etc.  They were also badly installed (just screws in wallboard).  I'm replacing the whole kit and caboodle with much nicer fixtures in an oil-rubbed bronze finish.  One sink and surrounds are finished, and they look quite nice.  Works well, too.  But ... I have kinks in my back and side where I shouldn't outta have them, thanks to all the under-sink work :)

“Caboodle” is an interesting word.  It's American slang (according to the OED), dating back to at least 1848.  Every reference to it is from American magazines, newspapers, or books.  That means it's one of those words you can use to confuse a Brit!

Paradise perambulations...

Paradise perambulations...  We had two very nice walks today with the dogs.  They seem to still be in a state of disbelief that this area is now their home – a place with green grass (and alfalfa!) to run around in!  Race is very curious about the irrigation canal along the east edge of our property – he likes to watch the moving water, along with the swallows and red-winged blackbirds.  Photos and a couple of short videos below...

Oh, this felt so good...

Oh, this felt so good...  Throwing away our California license plates, that is.  Those were the last vestige of our former residence.  We have Utah plates now, and Utah titles are on the way.  Woo hoo!

Oh, YES!

Oh, YES!  If there was an Islamic bakery in my area, I'd be doing this right now!  Via reader, friend, recovering Aussie, and former colleague Simon M...

Progress in Paradise...

Progress in Paradise...  Yesterday morning I managed to get myself almost completely covered with light grease.  This happened as I was unpacking and assembling my new Grizzly jointer (at right).  If you're not familiar with this tools, they do something kind of magical: they put a perfectly straight, flat surface on the edge or face of a board (in the case of mine, up to 6 inches wide).  The top part of it weighs about 150 pounds, a bit too heavy for me to lift onto the stand safely by myself.  So I rigged it up to my engine hoist, and in the process the preservative grease on the milled surfaces got everywhere.  The fence was light enough for me to lift by hand, but that just spread more grease around.  The final straw: the fence carriage's milled surfaces had been painted over in manufacturing, and I had to scrape and steel wool all that paint off – and naturally, it was completely covered in grease, too!  I smelled like a tub of petroleum by the time I finished all this.  On the other hand, I now have a really nice jointer!

Debbie and I went out to lunch at Jack's Wood-Fired Pizza.  I've blogged about this place before – it's got weird and wonderful pizzas with magically good crusts.  I had the “chuck wagon” pizza – barbequed pulled pork with pineapple – scrumptious!  Debbie had one with pepperoni, sausage, and jalapenos; she pronounced it wonderful.  To my surprise, Debbie also ordered dessert (something I'd never had there before).  She got a huge slice of lemon cake, and it was as good as I've ever had.  The cake itself was delicious, but the lemon filling was absolutely superb.  It was lightly drizzled with a not-too-sweet icing, and garnished with perfect fresh blackberries and raspberries.  I was full from the pizza, but I still managed to eat some of that...

We were up in Logan to visit Campbell Scientific company.  They're the manufacturers of the Weatherhawk weather stations – a lucky coincidence for me.  I ordered one last week, and they offered to let me pick it up rather than ship it a mere 12 miles.  I got a model 621, pictured at right, with no moving parts in it all all.  The wind speed and direction is sensed by an array of ultrasonic sensors, and precipitation (rain or snow) is sensed by an upward pointing radar.  The unit is quite a bit smaller than conventional weather stations, and (best part!) has no regular maintenance requirements.  I'm going to be mounting it about 200' north of my shed, where the properties of two of my neighbors intersect with mine, with open fields for at least 200' in every direction – a perfect location.  It will be solar powered (another project!) and it will talk with my server via 918 MHz radio, so there is no need for any wires running out to where I'm mounting it.  With any luck at all I'll have it rigged up within a couple of weeks.

Yesterday afternoon I mowed about half our yard.  It's been two weeks since the last mowing; all the rain has kept the yard so soft I didn't dare run the mower over it.  In areas where there's full sun, the grass had grown up to about 6 or 7 inches high.  I had to go very slowly in those spots so the mower could digest all that :)

Those funny abbreviations weren't invented by kids for texting...

Those funny abbreviations weren't invented by kids for texting...  They were actually invented in the early 1900s, for use by telegraph operators...