I’ve been re-reading ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ by Robert A. Heinlein. I hadn’t pickup up this title since the eighties some time. Wow! Where on Earth did the time go?!
I did encounter something confusing to me. At one point the Professor, Man, and Wyoming are having a conversation about politics. Actually Man wasn’t so much involved, the other two were discussing it in front of him would probably be more accurate.
At any rate, over the course of a page they rattle off several different political groups, a couple which exist today, a couple that are variations on the names of current groups, and the rest were pulled out of Heinlein’s vast imagination.
One of the groups mentioned was ‘Libertarians’ interestingly enough. The part that confuses me is that the book was written and copyrighted in 1965 and 1966, while my understanding is that the Libertarian national party was organized in 1971. I am a fledgling Libertarian, so please bear with me and forgive my ignorance.
Did the party get its name from the idea in the book? Or did Heinlein perhaps get the name from a new upstart party that hadn’t officially formed yet? Or was it a coincidence? If any of you know, please fill me in.
I had forgotten much of this book, but I am seeing way too many correlations to today already in it. If you haven’t read it yet, you really should. Some of his ideas are really ‘out there’ but the comparisons to our country are astonishing, even though the book is set in 2075.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
An Old Treasure Rediscovered
Today I was practicing with my new phaser, and an astonishing thought occurred to me. Deep in the abyss of our attic, buried away and almost forgotten to the sands of time, was something of tremendous value and great interest. Eagerly I grabbed the ladder and headed up.
There it was! Hanging right where I left it, my red original series Star Trek shirt was beckoning me with its siren song.
I bought this thing yeeeaars ago, sometime during the four years that Keri and I were dating. We’ll have been married fifteen years come May, so I have had the thing a while. The problem is that about the time we got married, I changed jobs, going from being very active to pushing a pen as an insurance agent, and gained a lot of weight. The shirt hasn’t fit for I don’t know how long.
Jason and I used to film short videos for children’s church. We would do something goofy that had a vague correlation to what the topic was. This was three or four years ago. That was the last time the shirt had come out of the attic. Jason wore it for one of the characters; I couldn’t fit into it then.
But sixty pounds is a lot of weight, and the thing fits pretty good now. It’s a little tight around the gut, but I can suck in for now. As I lose more weight the shirt should start to fit better.
It’s pretty hard to tell in this shot, but that is an ensign’s stripe on the sleeve, and it is clearly an Enterprise issued uniform top. In case you haven’t guessed by now, that is my new phaser I’m holding. Too cool!
For those who are wondering, this is indeed a self portrait; I think I’ll use this shot for my FaceBook profile for a while.
Ensign Evans is back!
There it was! Hanging right where I left it, my red original series Star Trek shirt was beckoning me with its siren song.
I bought this thing yeeeaars ago, sometime during the four years that Keri and I were dating. We’ll have been married fifteen years come May, so I have had the thing a while. The problem is that about the time we got married, I changed jobs, going from being very active to pushing a pen as an insurance agent, and gained a lot of weight. The shirt hasn’t fit for I don’t know how long.
Jason and I used to film short videos for children’s church. We would do something goofy that had a vague correlation to what the topic was. This was three or four years ago. That was the last time the shirt had come out of the attic. Jason wore it for one of the characters; I couldn’t fit into it then.But sixty pounds is a lot of weight, and the thing fits pretty good now. It’s a little tight around the gut, but I can suck in for now. As I lose more weight the shirt should start to fit better.
It’s pretty hard to tell in this shot, but that is an ensign’s stripe on the sleeve, and it is clearly an Enterprise issued uniform top. In case you haven’t guessed by now, that is my new phaser I’m holding. Too cool!
For those who are wondering, this is indeed a self portrait; I think I’ll use this shot for my FaceBook profile for a while.
Ensign Evans is back!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Cole Porter Classic
Last year I ran in the Cole Porter Classic. There was a 5k run, a 5k walk, and a 10k run. 5k is approximately 3.27 miles, which I knew I could walk with no problem. I wasn’t sure if I could handle six and a half miles of running, so I entered the 5k run. I thought it would be a challenge for me.
A challenge? This run was last fall and when did I run more than three or four blocks previously. Let’s see, in school gym class when they made us. No wait, I was one of those who walked more than they ran. What about softball? No that was only a couple bases at a time. Oh! I know! The last time I ran more than three or four block at a time was never! Yeah this ought to be a challenge.
I had about a month to prep for it. With the way I tend to over do things, I’m surprised I didn’t enter a marathon (26.2 miles) for my first run. I trained and trained, I pushed myself really hard. When it came to the 5k, I ran a lot of it, but not all the way. I pushed myself so hard during that thing I was exhausted for the next two days.
Today I learned something about my brother Brian. He used to run; in fact he had been up to three miles during a session. So we decided that we would run this year's Cole Porter Classic together. Wicked cool!
Now, I’ve been planning on running again, to start getting my endurance back up; I just haven’t done it yet. I’m sure that once I start, I’ll want to keep doing it. I’m just still feeling lazy from winter. In fairness, I haven’t run since the Classic.
Now I have an excuse to get out there and start plugging away; that excuse is male pride. Ego. Yeah, I can’t let my little brother out do me now can I?
Seriously, this is going to be fun. I’ve no idea if we’ll be up to the 10k or not, but either way it will definitely be fun.
A challenge? This run was last fall and when did I run more than three or four blocks previously. Let’s see, in school gym class when they made us. No wait, I was one of those who walked more than they ran. What about softball? No that was only a couple bases at a time. Oh! I know! The last time I ran more than three or four block at a time was never! Yeah this ought to be a challenge.
I had about a month to prep for it. With the way I tend to over do things, I’m surprised I didn’t enter a marathon (26.2 miles) for my first run. I trained and trained, I pushed myself really hard. When it came to the 5k, I ran a lot of it, but not all the way. I pushed myself so hard during that thing I was exhausted for the next two days.
Today I learned something about my brother Brian. He used to run; in fact he had been up to three miles during a session. So we decided that we would run this year's Cole Porter Classic together. Wicked cool!
Now, I’ve been planning on running again, to start getting my endurance back up; I just haven’t done it yet. I’m sure that once I start, I’ll want to keep doing it. I’m just still feeling lazy from winter. In fairness, I haven’t run since the Classic.
Now I have an excuse to get out there and start plugging away; that excuse is male pride. Ego. Yeah, I can’t let my little brother out do me now can I?
Seriously, this is going to be fun. I’ve no idea if we’ll be up to the 10k or not, but either way it will definitely be fun.
Happy Birthday Dad
Today is my dad’s 69th birthday. Mary, my step-mom, had a small surprise gathering planned for this afternoon. She called me about it on Wednesday. Not surprising is that dad knew about it as early as Thursday.
He told Mary that he wanted to go to Fort Wayne for his birthday, eat somewhere nice and meander about town. So Mary naturally spilled the beans about today. I told her that she just isn’t sneaky enough.
Had it been me, I would have agreed with him. “Why yes, that sounds like a great idea. How about we leave at 11:00, or would you rather go a little earlier than that?” Then I would wake up ‘sick’ Sunday morning, and ask if we could just do it next weekend instead.
Yeah, I can be sneaky; I get it from my dad. Pretty cool huh?
It’s my dad’s birthday, we’re at his house, and he gives ME a gift. Go figure. He and Mary bought something for me to thank me for taking care of their computer so promptly when it broke a couple of weeks ago.
It’s a 40th anniversary Type II Phaser from Star Trek. It has realistic lights and sound, plus a detachable Type I Phaser. Awesome! Thanks guys! They bought it from someplace called What on Earth, which I hadn't heard of before today. I'll have to check them out.
Anyway, it was a nice visit; it’s always good to spend family time. Happy birthday dad!
He told Mary that he wanted to go to Fort Wayne for his birthday, eat somewhere nice and meander about town. So Mary naturally spilled the beans about today. I told her that she just isn’t sneaky enough.
Had it been me, I would have agreed with him. “Why yes, that sounds like a great idea. How about we leave at 11:00, or would you rather go a little earlier than that?” Then I would wake up ‘sick’ Sunday morning, and ask if we could just do it next weekend instead.
Yeah, I can be sneaky; I get it from my dad. Pretty cool huh?
It’s my dad’s birthday, we’re at his house, and he gives ME a gift. Go figure. He and Mary bought something for me to thank me for taking care of their computer so promptly when it broke a couple of weeks ago.
It’s a 40th anniversary Type II Phaser from Star Trek. It has realistic lights and sound, plus a detachable Type I Phaser. Awesome! Thanks guys! They bought it from someplace called What on Earth, which I hadn't heard of before today. I'll have to check them out.Anyway, it was a nice visit; it’s always good to spend family time. Happy birthday dad!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Heading to Westfield
Well, I didn’t make it. I had intended to put something on my blog every day this month, but I missed it yesterday. I guess I will have to put forth more effort next month, although I don’t feel that I’ve been too shabby this month.
Later today we are heading to Westfield, about an hour from here, to pick up a part for my truck that I paid for on Wednesday but couldn’t take delivery of then. It’s a seat for my truck.
For some reason the driver’s seat on the Chevy Tahoe seems to break; it isn’t just mine, I have heard of several doing this.
There is a 60 percent chance of thunder storms today. If April showers bring May flowers, what do March showers bring?
Later today we are heading to Westfield, about an hour from here, to pick up a part for my truck that I paid for on Wednesday but couldn’t take delivery of then. It’s a seat for my truck.
For some reason the driver’s seat on the Chevy Tahoe seems to break; it isn’t just mine, I have heard of several doing this.
There is a 60 percent chance of thunder storms today. If April showers bring May flowers, what do March showers bring?
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The More I Think, the Madder I Get!
I’m not sure what makes me more mad; being lied to, being taken for a fool, or being brushed aside like a pesky little fly. Since I am a voting, taxpaying citizen of Indiana, I actually rate all three of these.
Yesterday I stopped by the Governor’s office to see if I could speak with him. I didn’t actually expect to because I had no appointment and I’m sure he is a busy man. But it doesn’t hurt to ask, right?
I ask the girl working at the desk if I could speak with our governor and she told me that he doesn’t see anyone unless they make a written request to do so. I am standing in the office and cannot make an appointment for later this week, later this month, next month, next year, or whenever. I cannot call in to make an appointment either; it has to be a written request. The more I think about that, the madder I get!
You see, first it is a lie. It has to be because if anyone who wanted to see him had to write a letter to do so nothing would ever get done. Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman doesn’t make a written request every time she needs to speak to him, I sure any legislator that needs to talk to Governor Daniels doesn’t need to make a written request, and I’d bet you money that even lobbyists don’t have to write a letter asking for a meeting. But a voting, taxpaying citizen has to write a letter begging an audience with King Daniels.
Secondly, I was taken for a fool. This girl smiled sweetly and wrote down the governor’s mailing address for me as if to say, “Here’s my condescending story and an address, all is well at the statehouse little man.” Now I can be content and placated because I have been given a golden opportunity to see the king. Hah! My left foot I have!
Lastly, I was brushed off. You see, handing me the address was her way of dismissing me. She basically shooed me out of the office like an insect. Yeah, I could have raised a holy fuss about it all, but what good would getting arrested serve? In our state of martial law where a citizen cannot carry a state flag, pole or not, into the statehouse without getting arrested do you really think I would have stood a chance against some forty armed guards?
No, I am reduced to this; I have to write a letter to prayerfully petition his High Honor King Daniels to please, please, let me have a moment of his time. Perhaps I should sign it “Your humble servant,” because this sure as heck isn’t the way a boss should be treated by the employee; it makes me feel like he thinks I work for him somehow.
Governor Daniels, WE are YOUR boss, as a taxpaying citizen I AM YOUR BOSS, not the other way around. This is the high handed crap that reminds me how very far from the visions of the founding fathers our nation has strayed.
Well, I WILL be writing that letter requesting an audience. I guarantee you that one of the topics I bring up will be this load of horse manure!
Yesterday I stopped by the Governor’s office to see if I could speak with him. I didn’t actually expect to because I had no appointment and I’m sure he is a busy man. But it doesn’t hurt to ask, right?
I ask the girl working at the desk if I could speak with our governor and she told me that he doesn’t see anyone unless they make a written request to do so. I am standing in the office and cannot make an appointment for later this week, later this month, next month, next year, or whenever. I cannot call in to make an appointment either; it has to be a written request. The more I think about that, the madder I get!
You see, first it is a lie. It has to be because if anyone who wanted to see him had to write a letter to do so nothing would ever get done. Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman doesn’t make a written request every time she needs to speak to him, I sure any legislator that needs to talk to Governor Daniels doesn’t need to make a written request, and I’d bet you money that even lobbyists don’t have to write a letter asking for a meeting. But a voting, taxpaying citizen has to write a letter begging an audience with King Daniels.
Secondly, I was taken for a fool. This girl smiled sweetly and wrote down the governor’s mailing address for me as if to say, “Here’s my condescending story and an address, all is well at the statehouse little man.” Now I can be content and placated because I have been given a golden opportunity to see the king. Hah! My left foot I have!
Lastly, I was brushed off. You see, handing me the address was her way of dismissing me. She basically shooed me out of the office like an insect. Yeah, I could have raised a holy fuss about it all, but what good would getting arrested serve? In our state of martial law where a citizen cannot carry a state flag, pole or not, into the statehouse without getting arrested do you really think I would have stood a chance against some forty armed guards?
No, I am reduced to this; I have to write a letter to prayerfully petition his High Honor King Daniels to please, please, let me have a moment of his time. Perhaps I should sign it “Your humble servant,” because this sure as heck isn’t the way a boss should be treated by the employee; it makes me feel like he thinks I work for him somehow.
Governor Daniels, WE are YOUR boss, as a taxpaying citizen I AM YOUR BOSS, not the other way around. This is the high handed crap that reminds me how very far from the visions of the founding fathers our nation has strayed.
Well, I WILL be writing that letter requesting an audience. I guarantee you that one of the topics I bring up will be this load of horse manure!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Let the Revolt Begin!
Amazing! That’s the only word I can readily come up with that describes the Revolt at the Statehouse rally today. There were several great speakers including Sean Shepard, Diana Vice, Gary Welsh, Melyssa Donaghy, and many others.
As I have mentioned before, this was about sending a message to our elected officials; we want them to understand clearly that it is WE THE PEOPLE that are in charge, not the elected officials, and we are sick and tired of the shenanigans.
It was nice to put faces to some of the names I’ve heard and read about, and to put faces to some of the people whose blogs I read. Indianapolis Attorney Paul Ogden was the driving force behind this rally; it was Paul’s blog that I directed you to for more information on the Revolt at the Statehouse.
As hard as this may be to comprehend, the speakers actually believed what they were saying. This was not politics as usual, but real human beings, taxpayers no less, who want a change to come about before it’s too late. Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats were all there as this was not about party lines but about true change.
Believe it or not, we made a little noise out in the crowd as different speakers brought up issues that affect us all. While on the surface some of the issues only relate to Indianapolis, such as the Speedway Redevelopment Commission and the Capital Improvement Board, they are really the same thing we all have in our local communities but with different names and on different scales.
Considering that I had a hard time hearing over the racket I helped to create, I’m quite sure that every elected official and lobbyist in the building knew we were there and that we were in general not happy with them.
Perhaps the most entertaining speaker was Diana Vice, a housewife from Lafayette and author of the Welcome to My Tea Party blog. Being a mother with grown children, she likened our politicians to unruly children and brought a ‘naughty chair’ and a paddle to help straighten them out!
Once the event was over, I spent a little time wandering around the statehouse as it was my first visit. It is a truly beautiful building, the architecture is wonderful to behold. Any Hoosier should take a day to visit Indianapolis and see the Capital Building for themselves.
Before I left, I had one more bit of business to attend to. For those who know me it won’t surprise you to know I stopped by the Governor’s Office to chat with our Governor, Mitch Daniels. I feel that I have some excellent insights that he should know about as my ONLY motivation is to better my country, state, county, and city.
Apparently a taxpayer needs to make a written request in advance to schedule an appointment with Governor Daniels. It is refreshing to see that he is keeping busy, but frustrating because I know that a written requirement is NOT required of EVERYONE, if that were the case our state would be run less effectively than it already is. So I got the address and will try to get something scheduled for a later date, which will give me more time to provide even better wisdom and advice for him.
As I have mentioned before, this was about sending a message to our elected officials; we want them to understand clearly that it is WE THE PEOPLE that are in charge, not the elected officials, and we are sick and tired of the shenanigans.
It was nice to put faces to some of the names I’ve heard and read about, and to put faces to some of the people whose blogs I read. Indianapolis Attorney Paul Ogden was the driving force behind this rally; it was Paul’s blog that I directed you to for more information on the Revolt at the Statehouse.
As hard as this may be to comprehend, the speakers actually believed what they were saying. This was not politics as usual, but real human beings, taxpayers no less, who want a change to come about before it’s too late. Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats were all there as this was not about party lines but about true change.
Believe it or not, we made a little noise out in the crowd as different speakers brought up issues that affect us all. While on the surface some of the issues only relate to Indianapolis, such as the Speedway Redevelopment Commission and the Capital Improvement Board, they are really the same thing we all have in our local communities but with different names and on different scales.
Considering that I had a hard time hearing over the racket I helped to create, I’m quite sure that every elected official and lobbyist in the building knew we were there and that we were in general not happy with them.
Perhaps the most entertaining speaker was Diana Vice, a housewife from Lafayette and author of the Welcome to My Tea Party blog. Being a mother with grown children, she likened our politicians to unruly children and brought a ‘naughty chair’ and a paddle to help straighten them out!
Once the event was over, I spent a little time wandering around the statehouse as it was my first visit. It is a truly beautiful building, the architecture is wonderful to behold. Any Hoosier should take a day to visit Indianapolis and see the Capital Building for themselves.
Before I left, I had one more bit of business to attend to. For those who know me it won’t surprise you to know I stopped by the Governor’s Office to chat with our Governor, Mitch Daniels. I feel that I have some excellent insights that he should know about as my ONLY motivation is to better my country, state, county, and city.
Apparently a taxpayer needs to make a written request in advance to schedule an appointment with Governor Daniels. It is refreshing to see that he is keeping busy, but frustrating because I know that a written requirement is NOT required of EVERYONE, if that were the case our state would be run less effectively than it already is. So I got the address and will try to get something scheduled for a later date, which will give me more time to provide even better wisdom and advice for him.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Revolt at the Statehouse is Tomorrow
All right folks tomorrow is the big day. The Revolt at the Statehouse begins at 11:30 am. There will be several speakers there from all walks of life and the overall message is going to be the same.
WE THE PEOPLE are sick and tired of our elected officials doing as the please with OUR money. It is time these politicians get back on the rail and remember that they were put into office by US to serve US.
Pay to play politicking, squandering our money, conflicts of interests that pump millions of tax dollars to millionaires and billionaires who serve on the very boards that pass out this money; all of that needs to stop and that’s what this ‘revolt’ is all about.
Keep in mind that this is for all of us, regardless of political affiliation. After all, it is all of OUR money being wasted, right?
I hope to see you in downtown Indy tomorrow. Here is your chance; stand up, speak out, be heard.
For more information, check out this blog: http://www.revoltatthestatehouse.blogspot.com/
WE THE PEOPLE are sick and tired of our elected officials doing as the please with OUR money. It is time these politicians get back on the rail and remember that they were put into office by US to serve US.
Pay to play politicking, squandering our money, conflicts of interests that pump millions of tax dollars to millionaires and billionaires who serve on the very boards that pass out this money; all of that needs to stop and that’s what this ‘revolt’ is all about.
Keep in mind that this is for all of us, regardless of political affiliation. After all, it is all of OUR money being wasted, right?
I hope to see you in downtown Indy tomorrow. Here is your chance; stand up, speak out, be heard.
For more information, check out this blog: http://www.revoltatthestatehouse.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 23, 2009
My Dog has Lost His Mind
My dog seems to be about ignorant these days. He was never really super smart, but recently he seems to be even less intellectually blessed.
Over the past several months I’ve noticed that his hearing has gotten pretty bad; he is an old dog after all. Morgan is 11.5 and we got Chewie around the same time as Morgan. Dog years to human years equal eighty and a half years old. So the hearing thing makes sense, but why is he getting dumber?
He’s an outside dog who, during the winter months, pretty much keeps to himself. Now that the weather has changed, more peeps are wandering around and he barks at them. Typical.
The thing is, he has to see them or smell them to know they are nearby. Dogs have poor visual acuity, so he is using his incredible nose to find targets for his racket. His hearing is so bad, he doesn’t know when my truck pulls in the driveway, nor does he know when I’m approaching his house to feed him; unless he sees or smell me.
So why does he bark at me? At ME? Tonight I fed him, watered him, took him some table scraps from the delicious roast Keri made, and when I went to our front yard to gather the trash cans to take to the back, he barks at me.
The wind was blowing from me towards him, so I know he smelled me; he had to have. This isn’t the first time he’s done this either.
Yep, he is surely losing his mind.
Over the past several months I’ve noticed that his hearing has gotten pretty bad; he is an old dog after all. Morgan is 11.5 and we got Chewie around the same time as Morgan. Dog years to human years equal eighty and a half years old. So the hearing thing makes sense, but why is he getting dumber?
He’s an outside dog who, during the winter months, pretty much keeps to himself. Now that the weather has changed, more peeps are wandering around and he barks at them. Typical.
The thing is, he has to see them or smell them to know they are nearby. Dogs have poor visual acuity, so he is using his incredible nose to find targets for his racket. His hearing is so bad, he doesn’t know when my truck pulls in the driveway, nor does he know when I’m approaching his house to feed him; unless he sees or smell me.
So why does he bark at me? At ME? Tonight I fed him, watered him, took him some table scraps from the delicious roast Keri made, and when I went to our front yard to gather the trash cans to take to the back, he barks at me.
The wind was blowing from me towards him, so I know he smelled me; he had to have. This isn’t the first time he’s done this either.
Yep, he is surely losing his mind.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Shooting Lesson
What a beautiful day this was. I’m maybe starting to sound like a broken record (a broken WHAT?!) with my constant raving about the incoming weather patterns, but hey I like the warmth. Cold sucks, plain and simple.
The three of us took a nice long walk this afternoon, down to the river walkway, all the way down the walkway, then back home. We stopped off at Miami’s Fort so Morgan could play for about half an hour.
Later, I took Morgan out shooting for the first time. Yeah, she’s eleven and you may be thinking I should have done this long ago, but Keri Beri wasn’t comfortable with it. Besides, we just used a BB gun today.
Morgan did great! It took her a few shots to get used to the weapon, but once she started zinging that empty pop can, she just kept on going. Each successful shot she took I had her take a step farther back from the target, so she was hitting at a decent distance when we stopped for the night.
This was a great chance for me to teach her gun safety. I realize that it is a BB gun, but they can still be dangerous if handled improperly. All the rules of gun safety certainly apply to this gun, and if she learns them now she will remember them when she moves up to .22, 9mm, etcetera.
I am really proud of her, she listened very well to my instructions and she seems like a natural at shooting. Keri and I used to shoot together when we were younger, but she lost all interest in guns when she became pregnant with Morgan. Strange…
I’m hoping that we might all shoot together as a family sometime fairly soon. That would be excellent indeed.
The three of us took a nice long walk this afternoon, down to the river walkway, all the way down the walkway, then back home. We stopped off at Miami’s Fort so Morgan could play for about half an hour.
Later, I took Morgan out shooting for the first time. Yeah, she’s eleven and you may be thinking I should have done this long ago, but Keri Beri wasn’t comfortable with it. Besides, we just used a BB gun today.
Morgan did great! It took her a few shots to get used to the weapon, but once she started zinging that empty pop can, she just kept on going. Each successful shot she took I had her take a step farther back from the target, so she was hitting at a decent distance when we stopped for the night.
This was a great chance for me to teach her gun safety. I realize that it is a BB gun, but they can still be dangerous if handled improperly. All the rules of gun safety certainly apply to this gun, and if she learns them now she will remember them when she moves up to .22, 9mm, etcetera.
I am really proud of her, she listened very well to my instructions and she seems like a natural at shooting. Keri and I used to shoot together when we were younger, but she lost all interest in guns when she became pregnant with Morgan. Strange…
I’m hoping that we might all shoot together as a family sometime fairly soon. That would be excellent indeed.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Wabash Reef aka Big Four Reef
The Lord truly blessed us with a beautiful day today, don’t you think?
Keri, Morgan and I went to Wabash to see my dad today. I took over a new power supply to replace the one I loaned out on Saturday last week. Now he has a nice new one and the computer is working happy and okay.
Afterwards he and Mary took us out for supper; we went to Pizza the Hutt. They have bone out wings in several flavors including some massively hot ones. I asked the waitress if they were really hot and she assured me that they were. She actually advised me to go with the medium ones.
Naturally I got ten of the hot ones, knowing they wouldn’t really be THAT hot. But they really were pretty spicy. They kind of add up on you, after 4 or 5 you start to sweat a bit. Nice.
Before we went to dad’s we decide to find the Wabash Reef, also known as the Big Four Reef, a supposedly famous reef known throughout scientific circles around the country, perhaps even around the world. I Googled it and found a document from 1949 that someone had scanned into Adobe PDF. Interestingly it referred to the reef as “The famous Wabash reef.”
I grew up in Wabash, my mom seemed to know everything and everyplace, but I had never been told about this place. I stumbled upon a reference to it in the Wabash County Museum a couple of weeks ago.
It is a really cool place to visit, Morgan and I took lots of photos as you might expect. Anyone wanting to see it let me know and I will give you directions. It is surprisingly easy to find. I had been within a hundred or so feet of it countless times in the past and never even suspected anything. Very interesting.
Keri, Morgan and I went to Wabash to see my dad today. I took over a new power supply to replace the one I loaned out on Saturday last week. Now he has a nice new one and the computer is working happy and okay.
Afterwards he and Mary took us out for supper; we went to Pizza the Hutt. They have bone out wings in several flavors including some massively hot ones. I asked the waitress if they were really hot and she assured me that they were. She actually advised me to go with the medium ones.
Naturally I got ten of the hot ones, knowing they wouldn’t really be THAT hot. But they really were pretty spicy. They kind of add up on you, after 4 or 5 you start to sweat a bit. Nice.
Before we went to dad’s we decide to find the Wabash Reef, also known as the Big Four Reef, a supposedly famous reef known throughout scientific circles around the country, perhaps even around the world. I Googled it and found a document from 1949 that someone had scanned into Adobe PDF. Interestingly it referred to the reef as “The famous Wabash reef.”
I grew up in Wabash, my mom seemed to know everything and everyplace, but I had never been told about this place. I stumbled upon a reference to it in the Wabash County Museum a couple of weeks ago.
It is a really cool place to visit, Morgan and I took lots of photos as you might expect. Anyone wanting to see it let me know and I will give you directions. It is surprisingly easy to find. I had been within a hundred or so feet of it countless times in the past and never even suspected anything. Very interesting.
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Tyrant Reborn
Happy first day of Spring, everyone!!
It has not been a bad start to the season; the weather was mild and the sun was bright. A nice day, I think.
This is my first blog entry from my rebuilt computer, Tyrant. I suppose this is Tyrant version 2.0 or something like that. Since my machine got hit by a virus I couldn’t eliminate, I reformatted the HD and started fresh.
While I was at it I upgraded to Vista. Yeah I know, it’s taken me a long time, but I frankly haven’t much liked Vista since it came out; I know I’m not alone in this. Nut we have machines being deployed at the county with it, so I need t have a good understanding of it and the only way that happens is through using the thing.
Oh well.
Once I do get used to it, it may not be that bad. Look at IE 7 for example. When it came out, I didn’t like it either; tabbed browsing was bothersome to me. I got used to it and like tabbed better than non-tabbed now. Actually IE 8 is my favorite browser; it has some really neat features.
Now I think I’ll play some Mafia Wars on FaceBook for a relaxing time of putting hits on rival mafias.
It has not been a bad start to the season; the weather was mild and the sun was bright. A nice day, I think.
This is my first blog entry from my rebuilt computer, Tyrant. I suppose this is Tyrant version 2.0 or something like that. Since my machine got hit by a virus I couldn’t eliminate, I reformatted the HD and started fresh.
While I was at it I upgraded to Vista. Yeah I know, it’s taken me a long time, but I frankly haven’t much liked Vista since it came out; I know I’m not alone in this. Nut we have machines being deployed at the county with it, so I need t have a good understanding of it and the only way that happens is through using the thing.
Oh well.
Once I do get used to it, it may not be that bad. Look at IE 7 for example. When it came out, I didn’t like it either; tabbed browsing was bothersome to me. I got used to it and like tabbed better than non-tabbed now. Actually IE 8 is my favorite browser; it has some really neat features.
Now I think I’ll play some Mafia Wars on FaceBook for a relaxing time of putting hits on rival mafias.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Utility Room Project - Part 6
After a pretty long week of working on the utility room, I can now foresee the end of the project. All that remains now is to put the handles onto the two cabinet doors and to do some minor touch ups on the baseboards.
Whew!
After the cabinet debacle yesterday, which I still don’t want to talk about, I was starting to lose hope that this job would ever end. But today my hope is restored and I am feeling good about it all. Now I can concentrate on my next urgent task.
A couple of days ago my computer got hit by a virus. I have used three different removal tools and they all say my machine is clean, but a clean one doesn’t act like this. Anyway, I thought my security was pretty tight for a civilian, but I guess it wasn’t as good as I thought.
I have a hardware firewall, the windows firewall (duh!), a piece of software that locks my registry down, and Norton Corporate 10. Sounds good, right?
The problem here is Norton 10. Yes it was a god product when it came out, but I kind of lost track of time. I installed it in either 2005 or 2006 which is really too long ago to have not updated the program itself. I kept the definitions up to date, but that isn’t enough.
Lesson learned, I guess.
Now I am formatting a hard drive so that I can copy my files onto it, so I can them format my main drive and start over. The data transfer should take most of the night.
Whew!
After the cabinet debacle yesterday, which I still don’t want to talk about, I was starting to lose hope that this job would ever end. But today my hope is restored and I am feeling good about it all. Now I can concentrate on my next urgent task.
A couple of days ago my computer got hit by a virus. I have used three different removal tools and they all say my machine is clean, but a clean one doesn’t act like this. Anyway, I thought my security was pretty tight for a civilian, but I guess it wasn’t as good as I thought.
I have a hardware firewall, the windows firewall (duh!), a piece of software that locks my registry down, and Norton Corporate 10. Sounds good, right?
The problem here is Norton 10. Yes it was a god product when it came out, but I kind of lost track of time. I installed it in either 2005 or 2006 which is really too long ago to have not updated the program itself. I kept the definitions up to date, but that isn’t enough.
Lesson learned, I guess.
Now I am formatting a hard drive so that I can copy my files onto it, so I can them format my main drive and start over. The data transfer should take most of the night.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The Utility Room Project - Part 5
I finished working on the utility room for tonight about an hour and a half ago. It was a sometimes frustrating, yet productive evening; sometimes a debacle, sometimes smooth flowing. Other than that I for once don’t have much to say. Well, not about that subject anyway. At least not tonight.
The room is looking pretty god though, and most importantly Keri likes it a lot, and that makes it all worthwhile for me.
I like the way it’s turning out too, don’t get me wrong. But this is a project Keri wanted done, so therefore I want to do it in such a way that she like it. That seems to be where we’re at.
The room is looking pretty god though, and most importantly Keri likes it a lot, and that makes it all worthwhile for me.
I like the way it’s turning out too, don’t get me wrong. But this is a project Keri wanted done, so therefore I want to do it in such a way that she like it. That seems to be where we’re at.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Utility Room Project - Part 4
Bullet proof. Bomb shelter. Impenetrable stronghold. I’m not sure exactly why, but when my utility room was built someone really felt that it should be all of these things and perhaps more. Yesterday after work I started back on getting this room finished up.
Replacing the light switch was easy, it went as planned which was very nice. When I replaced the overhead light fixture I ran into something interesting. You see, I’m not a professional carpenter nor am I an electrician. So when I put the new hardware up I followed the example of how the old was installed. I really should know better by now.
The mounting bracket piece was upside down. I figured this out after I had everything put together and I was trying to figure out why the fixture didn’t want to go flush with the ceiling. So I took it all back apart, read the directions, and began reassembling the thing. The irony of reading the directions after I encountered a problem is not lost on me, by the way.
They used sheetrock on the ceiling too. Why?! When I flipped the first piece over, the holes no longer lined up, which means I had to drill through the sheetrock in order for the screws to penetrate the stuff. While I was at it I replaced the screws they had used before with longer ones to provide extra holding power.
Now the new light is up and it looks nice. Keri did a fine job of selecting it. Even though it uses the same bulbs as the old fixture, I actually moved the old bulbs to the new light, it is much brighter than the old. Under the shade it has a larger surface area and is more reflective than the old one was.
Then I uncrated the cabinets. Again the wife did a good job of selection. I gave them a thorough looking over and determined how I was going to install them. There was one tiny issue with one of them.
One of the hinges was broken when I took the cabinet out of its box. These are internally mounted hinges, so nothing hit the thing during shipping. Anything that could have caused such damaged would have torn the cardboard carton badly, and likely would have damaged the cabinet itself too. Both were fine, which means the thing probably left the factory that way. Quality control anyone?
So today I got to drive back to Kokomo to replace the cabinet. It’s only about an hour round trip, so I thought might still get these things up yet today. That will just leave the baseboard install, which is waiting on a couple of minor patches that I didn’t realize I needed before I painted. That should be dry enough to paint tonight so I should be able to mount the baseboards tomorrow afternoon.
The baseboards went as expected. The touchups are finished and drying. Tomorrow I’ll probably get them installed.
Lowes was either understaffed or swamped today. From the looks of the parking lot I would surmise that it was the former and not the latter. I walked right in and took care of my return, headed back to the cabinets and went straight to the one I needed, then I headed over to the carpeting.
Keri bought a runner Sunday, and she wanted me to pick up more of the carpeting in a custom length. So I went to the carpeting for her; and there I waited and waited and waited. I fond what I needed, push the “need assistance” button, and no one came. I don’t know how many times I pushed it before someone got there. It turns off after so many minutes.
Someone did eventually come to my rescue and I got out of there. I did not get the cabinets up tonight, but I got them laid out and I have my plan of attack for tomorrow.
Almost done.
Replacing the light switch was easy, it went as planned which was very nice. When I replaced the overhead light fixture I ran into something interesting. You see, I’m not a professional carpenter nor am I an electrician. So when I put the new hardware up I followed the example of how the old was installed. I really should know better by now.
The mounting bracket piece was upside down. I figured this out after I had everything put together and I was trying to figure out why the fixture didn’t want to go flush with the ceiling. So I took it all back apart, read the directions, and began reassembling the thing. The irony of reading the directions after I encountered a problem is not lost on me, by the way.
They used sheetrock on the ceiling too. Why?! When I flipped the first piece over, the holes no longer lined up, which means I had to drill through the sheetrock in order for the screws to penetrate the stuff. While I was at it I replaced the screws they had used before with longer ones to provide extra holding power.
Now the new light is up and it looks nice. Keri did a fine job of selecting it. Even though it uses the same bulbs as the old fixture, I actually moved the old bulbs to the new light, it is much brighter than the old. Under the shade it has a larger surface area and is more reflective than the old one was.
Then I uncrated the cabinets. Again the wife did a good job of selection. I gave them a thorough looking over and determined how I was going to install them. There was one tiny issue with one of them.
One of the hinges was broken when I took the cabinet out of its box. These are internally mounted hinges, so nothing hit the thing during shipping. Anything that could have caused such damaged would have torn the cardboard carton badly, and likely would have damaged the cabinet itself too. Both were fine, which means the thing probably left the factory that way. Quality control anyone?
So today I got to drive back to Kokomo to replace the cabinet. It’s only about an hour round trip, so I thought might still get these things up yet today. That will just leave the baseboard install, which is waiting on a couple of minor patches that I didn’t realize I needed before I painted. That should be dry enough to paint tonight so I should be able to mount the baseboards tomorrow afternoon.
The baseboards went as expected. The touchups are finished and drying. Tomorrow I’ll probably get them installed.
Lowes was either understaffed or swamped today. From the looks of the parking lot I would surmise that it was the former and not the latter. I walked right in and took care of my return, headed back to the cabinets and went straight to the one I needed, then I headed over to the carpeting.
Keri bought a runner Sunday, and she wanted me to pick up more of the carpeting in a custom length. So I went to the carpeting for her; and there I waited and waited and waited. I fond what I needed, push the “need assistance” button, and no one came. I don’t know how many times I pushed it before someone got there. It turns off after so many minutes.
Someone did eventually come to my rescue and I got out of there. I did not get the cabinets up tonight, but I got them laid out and I have my plan of attack for tomorrow.
Almost done.
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Utility Room Project - Part 3
Don’t you just love it when things work out the way you want them to? I certainly do. So what in the world is the deal with this utility room of ours?!
Yesterday I spent some nine hours painting. Yes, painting a roughly 64 square foot room took that long. There was one setback after another; it is obvious to me, and has been for years, that this type of work is not my forte.
First of all my brilliant idea of sealing the ceiling with primer was not completely successful. The primer caused the old paint to peel off too. Hopefully after it is cured in a day or two this problem will be handled.
Then I moved on to painting the walls, which did go smoothly but took all stinking day. You see, this is the utility room, which has water pipes, a hot water heater, and a furnace permanently attached. The washer and dryer I could move around as needed. There is also a coat and storage closet that we decide to paint on the inside as well.
You don’t realize how much stuff ends up in a closet until you have to take it all out for some reason. I managed to cover the entire bathroom floor with the contents of that closet, and the coats were all on the bed!
Back to the painting, the paint went on okay as I said before, but it was thinner than I was expecting so it required two coats. That was no biggie, but painting behind the furnace and water heat proved to be very difficult.
We moved into this house about fifteen years ago, the walls in every room were Sears brand Antique White. We have redone every room since then, except the utility room. We repainted it once, but we used the same color it had been so that we didn’t have to go behind the furnace and water heater. Keri wanted the room to be persimmon this time, which is a pinkish orange color that makes the room look really nice. It was worth the time I spent straining to get behind everything.
Then I moved onto the baseboards. There were a couple of setbacks here as well, but the most frustrating part was the length of the pieces. I had asked Keri to pick up eight foot long baseboards, four of them. The guy at Lowes lied to her and told her that’s what they were, but they were rally only seven feet long each. So I started out four feet short.
This was alright, I actually only needed a couple feet off the forth one, however this made my margin for error very tight as I had very little excess to work with now. All of my pieces are cut and fitted now, but I cannot nail them to the walls.
The utility room is the one room in the house that does not have ¾ inch drywall. It has ½ inch drywall with a ¼ inch of sheetrock. You can’t nail through this stuff, nor can you drive screws through it. You have to drill a pilot hole, and then drive your screws. Screws don’t work for baseboards because the heads are too large too cover up.
This means I need some adhesive like Gorilla Glue. I’ll be picking some yup later today. I also am going to get the cabinets up today. I will at least get them started; I need to re-hang one of the doors and I need to put the handles on them before I hang them. There are a couple of minor details to do to the room also, but I should have it finished soon.
Yesterday I spent some nine hours painting. Yes, painting a roughly 64 square foot room took that long. There was one setback after another; it is obvious to me, and has been for years, that this type of work is not my forte.
First of all my brilliant idea of sealing the ceiling with primer was not completely successful. The primer caused the old paint to peel off too. Hopefully after it is cured in a day or two this problem will be handled.
Then I moved on to painting the walls, which did go smoothly but took all stinking day. You see, this is the utility room, which has water pipes, a hot water heater, and a furnace permanently attached. The washer and dryer I could move around as needed. There is also a coat and storage closet that we decide to paint on the inside as well.
You don’t realize how much stuff ends up in a closet until you have to take it all out for some reason. I managed to cover the entire bathroom floor with the contents of that closet, and the coats were all on the bed!
Back to the painting, the paint went on okay as I said before, but it was thinner than I was expecting so it required two coats. That was no biggie, but painting behind the furnace and water heat proved to be very difficult.
We moved into this house about fifteen years ago, the walls in every room were Sears brand Antique White. We have redone every room since then, except the utility room. We repainted it once, but we used the same color it had been so that we didn’t have to go behind the furnace and water heater. Keri wanted the room to be persimmon this time, which is a pinkish orange color that makes the room look really nice. It was worth the time I spent straining to get behind everything.
Then I moved onto the baseboards. There were a couple of setbacks here as well, but the most frustrating part was the length of the pieces. I had asked Keri to pick up eight foot long baseboards, four of them. The guy at Lowes lied to her and told her that’s what they were, but they were rally only seven feet long each. So I started out four feet short.
This was alright, I actually only needed a couple feet off the forth one, however this made my margin for error very tight as I had very little excess to work with now. All of my pieces are cut and fitted now, but I cannot nail them to the walls.
The utility room is the one room in the house that does not have ¾ inch drywall. It has ½ inch drywall with a ¼ inch of sheetrock. You can’t nail through this stuff, nor can you drive screws through it. You have to drill a pilot hole, and then drive your screws. Screws don’t work for baseboards because the heads are too large too cover up.
This means I need some adhesive like Gorilla Glue. I’ll be picking some yup later today. I also am going to get the cabinets up today. I will at least get them started; I need to re-hang one of the doors and I need to put the handles on them before I hang them. There are a couple of minor details to do to the room also, but I should have it finished soon.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The Utility Room Project - Part 2
Today I started back on the utlity room, this was painting day. After working from one this afternoon until after ten tonight, I have only one thing to say: ARGH!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Utility Room Project - Part 1
Today we began a bold new project; the revamping of out utility room; paint, baseboards, and a new cabinet system. Not too heavy of a project, right?
So why don’t things go as expected? Sanding the ‘cottage cheese’ off the ceiling seemed to take forever, and the cleanup of that dreadful mess even longer. We bought this textured paint to put on the ceiling, it looks like wet sand. We wanted this to cover the minor imperfections left from the old, but that didn’t go as planned either.
The guy at Lowes said to roll it on with ½ inch nap roller. I poured some into our paint tray liner, the tray seems to have been abducted by aliens since we last used it, and tried to roll it on the ceiling.
Yack! It was like trying to paint with cement! The crazy thing was when I rolled, it seemed to peel the old paint up as it went, giving a horrible splotchy look to the entire area.
Tomorrow I’m going to paint the walls while Keri goes to Kokomo to pick op the cabinets we decided on yesterday. By we I mean she. She’ll pick out our new baseboards and bring them home too.
I will paint the ceiling with primer or white paint, let it dry and set completely and then try painting the textured stuff on again. I think that the paint will seal the ceiling, giving the cement stuff something better to hold onto. My fingers are crossed.
I am expecting that the project will go more smoothly tomorrow (waves hand) “You will go smoothly tomorrow.”
So why don’t things go as expected? Sanding the ‘cottage cheese’ off the ceiling seemed to take forever, and the cleanup of that dreadful mess even longer. We bought this textured paint to put on the ceiling, it looks like wet sand. We wanted this to cover the minor imperfections left from the old, but that didn’t go as planned either.
The guy at Lowes said to roll it on with ½ inch nap roller. I poured some into our paint tray liner, the tray seems to have been abducted by aliens since we last used it, and tried to roll it on the ceiling.
Yack! It was like trying to paint with cement! The crazy thing was when I rolled, it seemed to peel the old paint up as it went, giving a horrible splotchy look to the entire area.
Tomorrow I’m going to paint the walls while Keri goes to Kokomo to pick op the cabinets we decided on yesterday. By we I mean she. She’ll pick out our new baseboards and bring them home too.
I will paint the ceiling with primer or white paint, let it dry and set completely and then try painting the textured stuff on again. I think that the paint will seal the ceiling, giving the cement stuff something better to hold onto. My fingers are crossed.
I am expecting that the project will go more smoothly tomorrow (waves hand) “You will go smoothly tomorrow.”
Friday, March 13, 2009
My New Addiction
I have found a new addiction, and its name is Mafia Wars. This is a surprisingly addictive game on FaceBook. Lloyd K and John P were telling me about how fun these games are, and were they right!
The gist of it is this; you build up a Mafia organization with yourself as its head. You do jobs, such as muggings or robberies, earning virtual cash and experience. The experience can make you tougher, while you use the cash to buy weapons that make you a more formidable opponent. You can also buy properties, which provide a steady stream of income that you don’t have to work for.
As you recruit friends to your Mafia, your organization grows stronger. As you get bigger, you can go to war with rival Mafias.
It is pretty simple to learn, and seemingly impossible to stop!
Try it out and see for yourself. Better yet, let me recruit YOU, and both our organizations will be stronger for it.
The gist of it is this; you build up a Mafia organization with yourself as its head. You do jobs, such as muggings or robberies, earning virtual cash and experience. The experience can make you tougher, while you use the cash to buy weapons that make you a more formidable opponent. You can also buy properties, which provide a steady stream of income that you don’t have to work for.
As you recruit friends to your Mafia, your organization grows stronger. As you get bigger, you can go to war with rival Mafias.
It is pretty simple to learn, and seemingly impossible to stop!
Try it out and see for yourself. Better yet, let me recruit YOU, and both our organizations will be stronger for it.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Cat's Strange Habit
Our cat is so strange. Maybe they all are, in fact I KNOW they all are to an extent, but Blossom seems extraordinarily odd. Simply put, she has bizarre habits.
Now, I understand that cats are dreadfully nosey beasts that seem to be anywhere and everywhere you don’t want them. So I ignore the fact that anytime we walk into the grey bathroom, sometimes called my wife’s bathroom, that the cat has to run in to see what’s going on.
In Blossom’s defense, her food dish, water dish, and cat box are all kept in this room. However, these things are ALWAYS there, they do not go away even when one of us enters the room. The cat is a typical feline pest in this regard.
To set the stage for the cat’s weirdness it is important for you to know that the stinking creature gets fresh water every day, sometimes more than once each day, thanks to Morgan and Keri’s diligence. Morgan even puts ice cubes in the cat’s water just so it’ll have a nice cool drink. I don’t typically water the thing, though I do toss some food out from time to time to shut the cat up.
Despite this, whenever there is condensation on a window or door glass, the cat has to go lick it off. Gross! It will stand on its back legs and stretch up to get as much as is possible. But even though that is ridiculous, there is a far more sinister habit this animal has.
Every time, every single time, one of us takes a shower, the cat feels that she needs to drink the shower water. If it gets into the bathroom while one of us is showering she will hop up onto the edge of the tub and lick the water from the shower wall.
If we are done, she will actually go all the way into the tub to drink off the floor of it. I kid you not. It doesn’t matter that her feet get wet, nor does it matter that water may drip onto her goofy little head.
I tried to break her of this. One time I apparently didn’t get the door shut tight, so the stinking cat let herself in during my shower. True to form she got onto the edge of the tub and started licking the wall. I had a brilliant idea!
I reached outside the curtain from the other end of the tub, watching the beast the whole time to make sure she suspected nothing, and then I gave her a good push right into the tub while the shower was running. Naturally she spazed out and ran full speed from the room.
It didn’t stop her though. She didn’t even avoid trying to get into the room when I was in it, so I just made sure the door was tight from then on.
Oh well.
Now, I understand that cats are dreadfully nosey beasts that seem to be anywhere and everywhere you don’t want them. So I ignore the fact that anytime we walk into the grey bathroom, sometimes called my wife’s bathroom, that the cat has to run in to see what’s going on.
In Blossom’s defense, her food dish, water dish, and cat box are all kept in this room. However, these things are ALWAYS there, they do not go away even when one of us enters the room. The cat is a typical feline pest in this regard.
To set the stage for the cat’s weirdness it is important for you to know that the stinking creature gets fresh water every day, sometimes more than once each day, thanks to Morgan and Keri’s diligence. Morgan even puts ice cubes in the cat’s water just so it’ll have a nice cool drink. I don’t typically water the thing, though I do toss some food out from time to time to shut the cat up.
Despite this, whenever there is condensation on a window or door glass, the cat has to go lick it off. Gross! It will stand on its back legs and stretch up to get as much as is possible. But even though that is ridiculous, there is a far more sinister habit this animal has.
Every time, every single time, one of us takes a shower, the cat feels that she needs to drink the shower water. If it gets into the bathroom while one of us is showering she will hop up onto the edge of the tub and lick the water from the shower wall.
If we are done, she will actually go all the way into the tub to drink off the floor of it. I kid you not. It doesn’t matter that her feet get wet, nor does it matter that water may drip onto her goofy little head.
I tried to break her of this. One time I apparently didn’t get the door shut tight, so the stinking cat let herself in during my shower. True to form she got onto the edge of the tub and started licking the wall. I had a brilliant idea!
I reached outside the curtain from the other end of the tub, watching the beast the whole time to make sure she suspected nothing, and then I gave her a good push right into the tub while the shower was running. Naturally she spazed out and ran full speed from the room.
It didn’t stop her though. She didn’t even avoid trying to get into the room when I was in it, so I just made sure the door was tight from then on.
Oh well.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Taking the Plunge
Yesterday I bought the bullet and joined FaceBook. You're probably wondering what took me so long, and frankly I don't have an answer for you.
What I do know, however, is that there are an unfathomable amount of people on FaceBook! Just by giving a few details about me and a few email addresses I have found more people that I know than I thought I knew!
There is a fun social game called MyFarm, Keri got me hooked on it already. If you don't know how to get to it, type MyFarm into the search bar and select Open Application for the first result you get. There's a help button if you need it.
I'm hooked, and you should be too!
What I do know, however, is that there are an unfathomable amount of people on FaceBook! Just by giving a few details about me and a few email addresses I have found more people that I know than I thought I knew!
There is a fun social game called MyFarm, Keri got me hooked on it already. If you don't know how to get to it, type MyFarm into the search bar and select Open Application for the first result you get. There's a help button if you need it.
I'm hooked, and you should be too!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Another Beautiful Day
What a beautiful day we had again today. Never mind that it rained pretty much all day; the temperature got up to 70o!!! That my friends makes it a beautiful day.
Today was Morgan’s second 4-H meeting, she wanted to join and this is her first year. She is in photography, very cool, and cats. Yuck!
Since it was so nice we decided to walk her to the meeting, it was only about a mile away. Then Keri suggested we pick up Brendan and Katlyn, this is their first year too. So we went about a half mile out of our way to get them which made our walk that much more pleasant.
We walked for an hour exactly; it rained the whole way but we didn’t mind at all. Keri and Morgan each had an umbrella, while I had a water resistant hood on my jacket that I could pull up when it rained too hard for comfort. When we left the meetin’ hall I took Morgan’s umbrella.
No, I didn’t leave the poor girl stranded. When her meeting was over I picked her up in the truck, with the umbrella just in case.
I am so glad to have this warm weather; it makes me feel so alive when I get out like this and I love the family time.
Today was Morgan’s second 4-H meeting, she wanted to join and this is her first year. She is in photography, very cool, and cats. Yuck!
Since it was so nice we decided to walk her to the meeting, it was only about a mile away. Then Keri suggested we pick up Brendan and Katlyn, this is their first year too. So we went about a half mile out of our way to get them which made our walk that much more pleasant.
We walked for an hour exactly; it rained the whole way but we didn’t mind at all. Keri and Morgan each had an umbrella, while I had a water resistant hood on my jacket that I could pull up when it rained too hard for comfort. When we left the meetin’ hall I took Morgan’s umbrella.
No, I didn’t leave the poor girl stranded. When her meeting was over I picked her up in the truck, with the umbrella just in case.
I am so glad to have this warm weather; it makes me feel so alive when I get out like this and I love the family time.
Keri Amazes Me
I am frankly amazed; it seems that every day my wife does something new and unexpected. Yesterday was especially shocking.
She always says that she doesn't like computers, hates them in fact, and knows nothing about them. Recently she vowed to learn more about computing, yesterday she took a giant step.
Keri has a FaceBook page.
Yep. I couldn't believe my ears when she told me she was going to do it. Then she did it, and spent about an hour online last night. She basically stayed up an hour later than normal just to play on the computer. Tonight she's been at FaceBook for about an hour so far.
I'm so proud of her. I don't have a FaceBook page and I'm the family uber geek. She's cool!
She always says that she doesn't like computers, hates them in fact, and knows nothing about them. Recently she vowed to learn more about computing, yesterday she took a giant step.
Keri has a FaceBook page.
Yep. I couldn't believe my ears when she told me she was going to do it. Then she did it, and spent about an hour online last night. She basically stayed up an hour later than normal just to play on the computer. Tonight she's been at FaceBook for about an hour so far.
I'm so proud of her. I don't have a FaceBook page and I'm the family uber geek. She's cool!
Photos from the UFO Crash Site
The UFO crash site has been cleaned up; with the exception of a few divots in the lawn it is as if the thing never existed at all. No, I’m not talking about a military cover up. I am referring to Morgan's once and former trampoline.
I mentioned in a previous blog that it looked like a UFO crash site, which I'm
still convinced of. Here’s a picture of it, judge for yourself. This was taken after the mess had been moved back to our yard and piled up. It had actually landed across the alley and almost against the neighbor’s house you see in the background, with a 30-40 foot long debris field.
Before our bike ride last night I started pulling apart all of the pieces and getting the area cleaned up. I finished after we got back home. I had totally forgotten how many springs there were to this thing.
I’ve been told that steel is running around 25 bucks a ton, so I ought to get a solid buck-fifty, maybe even two whole dollars out of this crap, I mean scrap. Yippee skippy.
I mentioned in that same blog from yesterday that one of the steel tubes had been ripped in two. I was wrong about that; there were more than one of these that got abused that way. Here is a close up of how the tube should have looked. This is one of the pieces from the circular part; note the slight curvature of the horizontally oriented part. The little notch is where the spring attached; the vertically oriented part is where one of the leg pieces attached.
Real nice. Now this is what that same type of piece looks like after being ripped apart. This particular on was still attached to itself, barely, but some of the others were not so fortunate. I tried to orient the damaged piece the same as the other for the sake of comparison.
This poor thing took a horrible beating!
Here’s a detailed shot of the damaged area. You can see how uneven the edges are from the violent tearing apart the steel received. I’m frankly very glad that my family and I were inside the house when this was going on. I think that a person standing out there would probably have gotten a flying lesson that day as well.
I mentioned in a previous blog that it looked like a UFO crash site, which I'm
still convinced of. Here’s a picture of it, judge for yourself. This was taken after the mess had been moved back to our yard and piled up. It had actually landed across the alley and almost against the neighbor’s house you see in the background, with a 30-40 foot long debris field.Before our bike ride last night I started pulling apart all of the pieces and getting the area cleaned up. I finished after we got back home. I had totally forgotten how many springs there were to this thing.
I’ve been told that steel is running around 25 bucks a ton, so I ought to get a solid buck-fifty, maybe even two whole dollars out of this crap, I mean scrap. Yippee skippy.
I mentioned in that same blog from yesterday that one of the steel tubes had been ripped in two. I was wrong about that; there were more than one of these that got abused that way. Here is a close up of how the tube should have looked. This is one of the pieces from the circular part; note the slight curvature of the horizontally oriented part. The little notch is where the spring attached; the vertically oriented part is where one of the leg pieces attached.
Real nice. Now this is what that same type of piece looks like after being ripped apart. This particular on was still attached to itself, barely, but some of the others were not so fortunate. I tried to orient the damaged piece the same as the other for the sake of comparison.
This poor thing took a horrible beating!
Here’s a detailed shot of the damaged area. You can see how uneven the edges are from the violent tearing apart the steel received. I’m frankly very glad that my family and I were inside the house when this was going on. I think that a person standing out there would probably have gotten a flying lesson that day as well.The Cure for Insomnia
I think I’ve finally done it; I have the cure for insomnia! After literally decades of searching I think I can safely say there is a cure. I am not talking about drugs, chemicals, hormones, or the like. It is something far simpler and much less dangerous, and the only side effect is better health.
What, oh what could this miracle cure be? I’m so glad you asked. It’s the south Broadway Street hill, located in beautiful Peru, Indiana. Well, it is half the cure anyway.
Allow me to explain. You see ever since I was little, I remember this from age six, I have had insomnia. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I work out, no matter what I eat or drink, my body just refuses to shut down until midnight to 1 o’clock am. And I always have boundless energy the next day; even when I don’t use any caffeine for weeks at a time.
Last night Keri, Morgan, and I went for a bicycle ride. Yeah, it was a trifle on the chilly side, but we did it just the same. On the way home we stopped at B&K South for some food. While we were eating I issued a challenge to Morgan.
In an effort to help her improve her physical conditioning, I came up with a diabolical plan. I told her if she could ride up the south Broadway Street hill without stopping, I would hand her a ten dollar bill. I took the bill out and showed it to her, so she knew that she could take immediate possession. There were a couple of stipulations, though.
At the bottom of the hill is a crossroad; at the top is the South Peru School. The school has a small sidewalk that extends out to Park Drive. She had to ride from the north side of the intersection to the afore mentioned sidewalk without stopping. She could pedal from either a standing or sitting position, but if she stopped the deal was off.
She wondered what would happen if she went so slowly that she tipped over and had to put her foot down. This indisputably counts as stopping, so I recommended that she not go that slowly.
Keri didn’t think she could make it herself, so she agreed to take the rear so she could watch Morgan and make sure she didn’t try to cheat. I took the lead; I told Morgan that I would ride all the way up the hill to show her that it can indeed be done.
I made it about two-thirds of the way standing, then I had to sit because my legs just wouldn’t go any more; I almost had to put MY foot down. But I did make it, then I rode back down to see how the girls were doing; I met them at about the same pint I started sitting.
Unfortunately Morgan didn’t get to the top without stopping. Keri said that she hit a certain point and she just couldn’t keep the bike moving, though she had tried with all her might. I think we may extend the ten dollar offer until she makes it.
Okay, enough about the hill, it’s only half the cure for insomnia anyway. The second part is a nice relaxing soak in a hundred and two degree hot tub. We hadn’t been in the hot tub since Keri’s surgery last month because the incisions on her leg had to heal completely.
I know that the cure is both of these things combined because I have exerted myself like that and more in the past and not fallen asleep at a decent time. I’ve done the hot tub in the past, still no sleep. I’ve done tremendous workouts followed by the hot tub, all to no avail. But I had never ridden the hill and then done the hot tub.
Last night I went to bed by 10:30 and fell asleep within about fifteen minutes. Since we are now on Mitch Daniels time, or as some in Indiana call it, ‘Daylight Savings Time,’ that’s really like 9:30 to me.
I may have to do this more often…
What, oh what could this miracle cure be? I’m so glad you asked. It’s the south Broadway Street hill, located in beautiful Peru, Indiana. Well, it is half the cure anyway.
Allow me to explain. You see ever since I was little, I remember this from age six, I have had insomnia. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I work out, no matter what I eat or drink, my body just refuses to shut down until midnight to 1 o’clock am. And I always have boundless energy the next day; even when I don’t use any caffeine for weeks at a time.
Last night Keri, Morgan, and I went for a bicycle ride. Yeah, it was a trifle on the chilly side, but we did it just the same. On the way home we stopped at B&K South for some food. While we were eating I issued a challenge to Morgan.
In an effort to help her improve her physical conditioning, I came up with a diabolical plan. I told her if she could ride up the south Broadway Street hill without stopping, I would hand her a ten dollar bill. I took the bill out and showed it to her, so she knew that she could take immediate possession. There were a couple of stipulations, though.
At the bottom of the hill is a crossroad; at the top is the South Peru School. The school has a small sidewalk that extends out to Park Drive. She had to ride from the north side of the intersection to the afore mentioned sidewalk without stopping. She could pedal from either a standing or sitting position, but if she stopped the deal was off.
She wondered what would happen if she went so slowly that she tipped over and had to put her foot down. This indisputably counts as stopping, so I recommended that she not go that slowly.
Keri didn’t think she could make it herself, so she agreed to take the rear so she could watch Morgan and make sure she didn’t try to cheat. I took the lead; I told Morgan that I would ride all the way up the hill to show her that it can indeed be done.
I made it about two-thirds of the way standing, then I had to sit because my legs just wouldn’t go any more; I almost had to put MY foot down. But I did make it, then I rode back down to see how the girls were doing; I met them at about the same pint I started sitting.
Unfortunately Morgan didn’t get to the top without stopping. Keri said that she hit a certain point and she just couldn’t keep the bike moving, though she had tried with all her might. I think we may extend the ten dollar offer until she makes it.
Okay, enough about the hill, it’s only half the cure for insomnia anyway. The second part is a nice relaxing soak in a hundred and two degree hot tub. We hadn’t been in the hot tub since Keri’s surgery last month because the incisions on her leg had to heal completely.
I know that the cure is both of these things combined because I have exerted myself like that and more in the past and not fallen asleep at a decent time. I’ve done the hot tub in the past, still no sleep. I’ve done tremendous workouts followed by the hot tub, all to no avail. But I had never ridden the hill and then done the hot tub.
Last night I went to bed by 10:30 and fell asleep within about fifteen minutes. Since we are now on Mitch Daniels time, or as some in Indiana call it, ‘Daylight Savings Time,’ that’s really like 9:30 to me.
I may have to do this more often…
Monday, March 9, 2009
Pi Day is Coming Soon
Now that the excitement of Square Root Day is over, it’s time to get geared up for Pi Day. Yay!
Not sue what Pi Day is?
Pi Day is March 14. Do you get it? The first three numbers of pi are 3.14 you see. Pretty simple, kind of cool.
You celebrate Pi Day by baking and eating pies. A lot of people do something fun with them, such as bake a pi shape onto the pie somehow, or decorating after it has cooled like you would a cake.
All right, you know Pi Day is coming up on the 14th which is this Saturday. Now you have no excuse whatsoever to not celebrate. I gave you plenty of warning.
Not sue what Pi Day is?
Pi Day is March 14. Do you get it? The first three numbers of pi are 3.14 you see. Pretty simple, kind of cool.
You celebrate Pi Day by baking and eating pies. A lot of people do something fun with them, such as bake a pi shape onto the pie somehow, or decorating after it has cooled like you would a cake.
All right, you know Pi Day is coming up on the 14th which is this Saturday. Now you have no excuse whatsoever to not celebrate. I gave you plenty of warning.
Morgan's Trampoline
A couple of years ago we bought a trampoline for Morgan. It was nothing fancy mind you, a basic twelve foot circular trampoline with a safety net around it. Since we have no place to store it, it has remained outside from the day we bought it. This has worked out great, until this winter.
One night during a heavy wind, the tramp learned how to fly, and it went zipping down the length of our yard. It appears that it rolled a time or two, as the poles for the safety net were scattered and one was bent up somewhat.
That must have been some wind; this thing weighs 125-150 pounds.
Saturday was so warm, such a beautiful day to be alive. Keri and I spent about an hour checking the trampoline out thoroughly and putting it back together. I straightened the bent pole, even. I figured someone should test it to make sure it was safe for the kids, so naturally I started jumping up and down on it like a 12-year old.
It was fun, it was safe. We gave it the official seal of approval.
It turned out to be a busy day, so Morgan never had a chance to try it out for herself. She did get her circus physical, and signed up for four acts, one of which is trampoline.
Sunday we went to circus roundup to meet the trainers and make sure all the paperwork was in place. She affirmed her commitment to the acts, and I was glad that I fixed her trampoline up; I know she’ll get a lot of use out of it.
It rained all day Sunday, so the kid didn’t get to use the tramp yet. Around 6 o’clock we had a gully washer; such a torrential downpour as I hadn’t seen for a few years. We also had heavy winds. This was not a tornado, just heavy winds; so heavy in fact that in one community the wind picked up a school bus (empty of kids) and tossed it onto a building! Not into the building, ON it.
Have you figured out where I’m going with this yet?
Morgan looked out the window and yelled that her trampoline was taking off. Did it ever! It flew 40-50 yards, hit the ground rolling and blew into I don’t know how many pieces. Glorious!
The wind only lasted about fifteen minutes, the rain about an hour. Then we went out to pick up the pieces from the neighbor’s yard. Ouch! The poles for the safety net were scattered in a debris field about forty feet long, as well as leg poles, springs, and even some of the poles from the circular part.
A lot of the poles were bent; some were shaped like hairpins, with one end bent all the way over to touch the other end. One of the poles from the circular part was ripped apart. I do not mean to say that it came apart at the seam, that’s what the other poles did. No this literally ripped apart in a place where there was no seam.
We dragged it back to our yard, collected all of the pieces and put them on it. This mangled mass of messed-up metal now looks like a UFO crash site. It’s hard to believe it was once something nice.
Now that thing weighed, as I said earlier, around 125-150 pounds. The ironic part was what happened to the two trash cans I had set out to the curb. They are plastic garbage cans, nothing special at all, filled with leaves they weighed in at about twenty pounds each. They didn’t budge. Didn’t move a freaking inch! Go figure!
One night during a heavy wind, the tramp learned how to fly, and it went zipping down the length of our yard. It appears that it rolled a time or two, as the poles for the safety net were scattered and one was bent up somewhat.
That must have been some wind; this thing weighs 125-150 pounds.
Saturday was so warm, such a beautiful day to be alive. Keri and I spent about an hour checking the trampoline out thoroughly and putting it back together. I straightened the bent pole, even. I figured someone should test it to make sure it was safe for the kids, so naturally I started jumping up and down on it like a 12-year old.
It was fun, it was safe. We gave it the official seal of approval.
It turned out to be a busy day, so Morgan never had a chance to try it out for herself. She did get her circus physical, and signed up for four acts, one of which is trampoline.
Sunday we went to circus roundup to meet the trainers and make sure all the paperwork was in place. She affirmed her commitment to the acts, and I was glad that I fixed her trampoline up; I know she’ll get a lot of use out of it.
It rained all day Sunday, so the kid didn’t get to use the tramp yet. Around 6 o’clock we had a gully washer; such a torrential downpour as I hadn’t seen for a few years. We also had heavy winds. This was not a tornado, just heavy winds; so heavy in fact that in one community the wind picked up a school bus (empty of kids) and tossed it onto a building! Not into the building, ON it.
Have you figured out where I’m going with this yet?
Morgan looked out the window and yelled that her trampoline was taking off. Did it ever! It flew 40-50 yards, hit the ground rolling and blew into I don’t know how many pieces. Glorious!
The wind only lasted about fifteen minutes, the rain about an hour. Then we went out to pick up the pieces from the neighbor’s yard. Ouch! The poles for the safety net were scattered in a debris field about forty feet long, as well as leg poles, springs, and even some of the poles from the circular part.
A lot of the poles were bent; some were shaped like hairpins, with one end bent all the way over to touch the other end. One of the poles from the circular part was ripped apart. I do not mean to say that it came apart at the seam, that’s what the other poles did. No this literally ripped apart in a place where there was no seam.
We dragged it back to our yard, collected all of the pieces and put them on it. This mangled mass of messed-up metal now looks like a UFO crash site. It’s hard to believe it was once something nice.
Now that thing weighed, as I said earlier, around 125-150 pounds. The ironic part was what happened to the two trash cans I had set out to the curb. They are plastic garbage cans, nothing special at all, filled with leaves they weighed in at about twenty pounds each. They didn’t budge. Didn’t move a freaking inch! Go figure!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Revolt at the State House
Ok Hosiers, here's something interesting. On March 25, 2009 there will be a 'revolt' at the Indiana Statehouse. You can read more here http://www.revoltatthestatehouse.blogspot.com/
Simply put, this is a rally for citizens to stand up, speak out, and be heard. Politicians will be called to task for pay to play and other dirty shenanigans.
Be heard.
Simply put, this is a rally for citizens to stand up, speak out, and be heard. Politicians will be called to task for pay to play and other dirty shenanigans.
Be heard.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Why is the Heat Gone?
Keri, Gail, and the kids are still in Kokomo. They went to get some paint from Lowes, this was around 3:30 or so. About ten ‘till ten I talk to Keri on the phone. Apparently they will be leaving Wal-Mart in ten to fifteen minutes. All righty then.
Keri reminded me that I needed to take a movie back to the store, Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Good movie, it’s long but worth watching for sure. Anyway, it’s about one and a quarter miles to the video store and I’m debating how I want to get there.
Walking is my first choice. But it’s been raining a lot. What if I get caught in some kind of downpour halfway there? So walking is out. I know, I’ll ride the bicycle. Yeah, I dusted it off earlier and this would be the perfect time to use it again. A nice evening ride. (this was around 10pm). That’ll be great, about a ten minute roundtrip. I could handle a little rain if it started. Sure I can.
So out the door I go, ready to unlock my bike. Oh dear. It seems to be raining. Hmmn. Wait a minute, it’s COLD out here. I’m still in my Hawaiian shirt and shorts from this afternoon when t was 70 something. How the heck did it get this cold? Why is the heat gone? Forget this!
I check the temperature and it says it is 50 degrees outside. Huh? Why is the heat gone? Crap.
So I drive down to the video store. Boring, but warm and dry anyway.
Now it’s twenty after ten, Keri was going to call me when they left Wal-Mart, but she hasn’t called yet. It would seem that ten to fifteen minutes was a somewhat overly optimistic estimate of time left in the store.
After all of this I have only one question.
But why is the heat gone?
Keri reminded me that I needed to take a movie back to the store, Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Good movie, it’s long but worth watching for sure. Anyway, it’s about one and a quarter miles to the video store and I’m debating how I want to get there.
Walking is my first choice. But it’s been raining a lot. What if I get caught in some kind of downpour halfway there? So walking is out. I know, I’ll ride the bicycle. Yeah, I dusted it off earlier and this would be the perfect time to use it again. A nice evening ride. (this was around 10pm). That’ll be great, about a ten minute roundtrip. I could handle a little rain if it started. Sure I can.
So out the door I go, ready to unlock my bike. Oh dear. It seems to be raining. Hmmn. Wait a minute, it’s COLD out here. I’m still in my Hawaiian shirt and shorts from this afternoon when t was 70 something. How the heck did it get this cold? Why is the heat gone? Forget this!
I check the temperature and it says it is 50 degrees outside. Huh? Why is the heat gone? Crap.
So I drive down to the video store. Boring, but warm and dry anyway.
Now it’s twenty after ten, Keri was going to call me when they left Wal-Mart, but she hasn’t called yet. It would seem that ten to fifteen minutes was a somewhat overly optimistic estimate of time left in the store.
After all of this I have only one question.
But why is the heat gone?
What a Beautiful Day the Lord has Made
WOW!!! What a beautiful day the Lord has blessed us with. 70+ degrees in north central Indiana! Awesome!
Yesterday was great too. I am so glad to feel the warmth again. Yes. I do realize that winter is not over, but that’s ok. It will be soon.
Keri had a meeting with the women’s group from church this afternoon, so Morgan and I took a short bike ride. A short, two hour bike ride from roughly the National Guard Armory to the East End Market and back.
Morgan is a pretty funny kid. Yesterday when the three of us were taking a nice walk through the park, she said that her legs felt like jelly. She said the same thing today on our bike ride. We were barely on our way back, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her.
We live at the top of the South Broadway Street hill, which is a fairly steep climb if you’re on a bike. I challenged her to ride up it with me, and although she didn’t make it, to her credit she gave it a good try.
Now Keri, Morgan, Gail, Katlyn, and Brendan are on there way to do some shopping, while I have a website to get finished up.
Windows open, check. Rock n’ Roll blasting, check. Time to get busy.
Yesterday was great too. I am so glad to feel the warmth again. Yes. I do realize that winter is not over, but that’s ok. It will be soon.
Keri had a meeting with the women’s group from church this afternoon, so Morgan and I took a short bike ride. A short, two hour bike ride from roughly the National Guard Armory to the East End Market and back.
Morgan is a pretty funny kid. Yesterday when the three of us were taking a nice walk through the park, she said that her legs felt like jelly. She said the same thing today on our bike ride. We were barely on our way back, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her.
We live at the top of the South Broadway Street hill, which is a fairly steep climb if you’re on a bike. I challenged her to ride up it with me, and although she didn’t make it, to her credit she gave it a good try.
Now Keri, Morgan, Gail, Katlyn, and Brendan are on there way to do some shopping, while I have a website to get finished up.
Windows open, check. Rock n’ Roll blasting, check. Time to get busy.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Freedom is So 1940s
I just ran acroos this video. It is very to the point.
Anyone who enjoys the freedoms and liberties that our great nation has to offer should take a few minutes to watch this.
Here is the link: http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/03/06/freedom-is-so-1940s/
Enjoy.
Anyone who enjoys the freedoms and liberties that our great nation has to offer should take a few minutes to watch this.
Here is the link: http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/03/06/freedom-is-so-1940s/
Enjoy.
We Have a Stinking Cat
We have a cat living in our house. Why do we have a cat living in our house? Because I am a sucker and let Morgan have one. Keri thought we should let her have one, but I did not agree.
Anyone who knew me growing up would know that we had house cats; I grew up with cats in the house, for the most part there were more than one at any given time. I loved those cats. I would hug them and pet them and name them George. Yes, one of them was really named George.
But the last thing I wanted in my home was a stinking cat! My mom thought for the longest time that it was Keri that kept saying no, but in reality it was me; I was the hold-out.
Keri would tell me that we should just let Morgan have a cat. But I warned her. I grew up with cats in the house and even though I loved them as a child, I knew the truth about them.
Cats are dirty, hairball hacking, ill-tempered, smelly beasts who shed constantly and everywhere. They get into everything; counters, closets, on desks and dressers, on TVs, into fish tanks. You name it and the stinking cat will get into it. Don’t let me forget that they are careless too. How many things have I seen broken over the years because a cat knocked it off of somewhere the cat shouldn’t have even been.
You just can’t have anything nice with a cat in the house. But I got suckered by my girl and now we have a cat.
We’ve actually had the thing since July of 2007, I think. Keri, the neat-nick, finds herself constantly frustrated with the cat, Blossom.
It makes messes everywhere, it coughs up ugh, it gets grouchy, it smells funny, it sheds on every piece of furniture we own, it is constantly on the table and counters, it gets in the closets, it gets onto my desk and plays with my processors and other gadgets, it gets onto the dressers and onto the TV. We don’t have a fish anymore, but rest assured that if we did the cat would be after it. It has broken things too, countless things, my things.
Morgan sometimes locks the cat out of her room, because Blossom will tear her things up. Keri is constantly amazed at how fast the sweeper fills up with cat hair. We have a Dyson, so you can actually watch it fill up as you go.
These two girls act surprised that Blossom is a free-roaming disaster area, but I’m not.
And here is the worst of it. Cats are fairly long lived animals which means it will probably be around fifteen-eighteen years. It is supposed to Morgan’s cat, which we got when she was ten. Ten plus fifteen equals twenty-five. Morgan will either still be in college, or will have graduated by then, and will presumably be living somewhere on her own. Guess where the cat will live. Yep. When Morgan moves out, you know we’ll be stuck with that bleeping fur ball.
I’ve suggested using Nair on Blossom, and then we could pretend she is a Sphinx Cat, but Keri won’t go along with it. I’ve tried to move the cat outside with the dog, but Morgan wigs out.
So I guess we’re just stuck. With a cat. In the house.
Anyone who knew me growing up would know that we had house cats; I grew up with cats in the house, for the most part there were more than one at any given time. I loved those cats. I would hug them and pet them and name them George. Yes, one of them was really named George.
But the last thing I wanted in my home was a stinking cat! My mom thought for the longest time that it was Keri that kept saying no, but in reality it was me; I was the hold-out.
Keri would tell me that we should just let Morgan have a cat. But I warned her. I grew up with cats in the house and even though I loved them as a child, I knew the truth about them.
Cats are dirty, hairball hacking, ill-tempered, smelly beasts who shed constantly and everywhere. They get into everything; counters, closets, on desks and dressers, on TVs, into fish tanks. You name it and the stinking cat will get into it. Don’t let me forget that they are careless too. How many things have I seen broken over the years because a cat knocked it off of somewhere the cat shouldn’t have even been.
You just can’t have anything nice with a cat in the house. But I got suckered by my girl and now we have a cat.
We’ve actually had the thing since July of 2007, I think. Keri, the neat-nick, finds herself constantly frustrated with the cat, Blossom.
It makes messes everywhere, it coughs up ugh, it gets grouchy, it smells funny, it sheds on every piece of furniture we own, it is constantly on the table and counters, it gets in the closets, it gets onto my desk and plays with my processors and other gadgets, it gets onto the dressers and onto the TV. We don’t have a fish anymore, but rest assured that if we did the cat would be after it. It has broken things too, countless things, my things.
Morgan sometimes locks the cat out of her room, because Blossom will tear her things up. Keri is constantly amazed at how fast the sweeper fills up with cat hair. We have a Dyson, so you can actually watch it fill up as you go.
These two girls act surprised that Blossom is a free-roaming disaster area, but I’m not.
And here is the worst of it. Cats are fairly long lived animals which means it will probably be around fifteen-eighteen years. It is supposed to Morgan’s cat, which we got when she was ten. Ten plus fifteen equals twenty-five. Morgan will either still be in college, or will have graduated by then, and will presumably be living somewhere on her own. Guess where the cat will live. Yep. When Morgan moves out, you know we’ll be stuck with that bleeping fur ball.
I’ve suggested using Nair on Blossom, and then we could pretend she is a Sphinx Cat, but Keri won’t go along with it. I’ve tried to move the cat outside with the dog, but Morgan wigs out.
So I guess we’re just stuck. With a cat. In the house.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Big Bang Theory
Anybody besides me watch ‘The Big Bang Theory?’ When I first saw it advertised I thought “The Big Bang Theory? How interesting could it possibly be? No thanks!”
And so season one went by without notice. Then my friend Seth was talking about it over lunch one day. He went on and on about how funny it was; four egghead buddies that are so smart they can barley relate to the real world and one normal neighbor girl. Hmmn…
As it happens, I came into the show right at the beginning of season two. It turns out this is the funniest show I have seen in a long, long time. Sheldon, the most intelligent and least normal of the four, is my favorite. In one episode, Leonard described Sheldon as, “One lab accident away from becoming a super-villain.”
It comes on Mondays on CBS at 8:00 pm. This past Monday was ‘The Cushion Saturation.’ Although I laughed my head off throughout the show, the last two minutes were so good I had to rewind the DVR and watch it more.
For those who are unfamiliar with the program, here is a brief quote from ‘The Cushion Saturation.’
(Penny is sitting on the couch, in Sheldon's spot)
Sheldon: You're in my spot.
Penny: Are you planning on sitting here?
Sheldon: No, I'm going to the comic book store.
Penny: Then what difference does it make?
Sheldon: What difference does it make?
Leonard: Here we go.
Sheldon: That is my spot. In an ever-changing world, it is a single point of consistency. If my life were expressed as a function on a four-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, that spot at the moment I first sat on it would be (0,0,0,0).
Penny: What?
Leonard: Don't sit in his spot.
There is an excellent page about the show on TV.com. Check it (the show) out people, and let me know what you think.
And so season one went by without notice. Then my friend Seth was talking about it over lunch one day. He went on and on about how funny it was; four egghead buddies that are so smart they can barley relate to the real world and one normal neighbor girl. Hmmn…
As it happens, I came into the show right at the beginning of season two. It turns out this is the funniest show I have seen in a long, long time. Sheldon, the most intelligent and least normal of the four, is my favorite. In one episode, Leonard described Sheldon as, “One lab accident away from becoming a super-villain.”
It comes on Mondays on CBS at 8:00 pm. This past Monday was ‘The Cushion Saturation.’ Although I laughed my head off throughout the show, the last two minutes were so good I had to rewind the DVR and watch it more.
For those who are unfamiliar with the program, here is a brief quote from ‘The Cushion Saturation.’
(Penny is sitting on the couch, in Sheldon's spot)
Sheldon: You're in my spot.
Penny: Are you planning on sitting here?
Sheldon: No, I'm going to the comic book store.
Penny: Then what difference does it make?
Sheldon: What difference does it make?
Leonard: Here we go.
Sheldon: That is my spot. In an ever-changing world, it is a single point of consistency. If my life were expressed as a function on a four-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, that spot at the moment I first sat on it would be (0,0,0,0).
Penny: What?
Leonard: Don't sit in his spot.
There is an excellent page about the show on TV.com. Check it (the show) out people, and let me know what you think.
Breaking the Silence
Kristie (of Life with my X-Men) told me that I should put more entries into my blog. Haven’t I been putting a lot out already?
May 6, June 6, July-November 0 (!), December 11, January 8, February 7. Uh, maybe not so much then. That’s really out of character for me; I typically have a lot to say and I make sure that others know it. I stand up, speak out, and make my voice heard. If that fails I speak louder and more vehemently.
So why have I been so silent with my blog? I’ve really no freakin’ idea what my deal has been. But it’s not too late; there is hope for me yet, after all I’ve put out 7 this month already counting this one.
So here’s the deal, I’m gonna post at least one blog entry every day this month. It’s not like I have nothing to talk about, so I’m just gonna do it.
Kristie? Kristie? Are you there? Did you read that? Yep, it’s going to happen.
For everyone else that thinks I’ve been strangely silent, watch out!
May 6, June 6, July-November 0 (!), December 11, January 8, February 7. Uh, maybe not so much then. That’s really out of character for me; I typically have a lot to say and I make sure that others know it. I stand up, speak out, and make my voice heard. If that fails I speak louder and more vehemently.
So why have I been so silent with my blog? I’ve really no freakin’ idea what my deal has been. But it’s not too late; there is hope for me yet, after all I’ve put out 7 this month already counting this one.
So here’s the deal, I’m gonna post at least one blog entry every day this month. It’s not like I have nothing to talk about, so I’m just gonna do it.
Kristie? Kristie? Are you there? Did you read that? Yep, it’s going to happen.
For everyone else that thinks I’ve been strangely silent, watch out!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Is There Really Nothing To Do?
I don’t understand why people say that, “There’s nothing to do in Peru.” If there actually was nothing going on, or next to nothing, then I would be a believer. But I’m not a believer, because there are tons of things to do!
As the webmaster for Miami County, I update the community calendar page. There are currently 77 different events taking place that are open to the community. Many of these last for more than one day, and many of these encompass several things to do. For example the 4-H Fair lasts for about a week, features exhibits of all kinds, tractor shows, demolition derbies, rides, carnival games, and much more.
The above referenced page doesn’t include things like the several productions that Ole Olson puts on during the year, nor does it include the many activities that our local churches have. I’m sure that for every thing listed there is at least one more that I don’t know about. Many of the local businesses have events too.
Garden Gate Greenhouse, for one, offers free workshops that teach you how to have a more successful garden and on properly freezing your harvest. The link to their site will be http://www.gardengategreenhouseinc.com/ and it will be online by March 14. How do I know? Because I’m the one building their website, that’s how. If you want one of your own, visit http://www.globalme.biz/ for more info.
Something else not covered by ‘events’ would be places. We have the Nickel Plate Trail, Mississinewa Reservoir and spillway, Seven Pillars, Miami Nation of Indians, the Miami County Museum with two floors of displays, Bunker Hill Drag Strip, Miami County Speedway, and the River Walkway to name a few.
So, before you say, “There’s nothing to do,” why not open your eyes a little and take in just a few of the many things that our community has to offer.
As the webmaster for Miami County, I update the community calendar page. There are currently 77 different events taking place that are open to the community. Many of these last for more than one day, and many of these encompass several things to do. For example the 4-H Fair lasts for about a week, features exhibits of all kinds, tractor shows, demolition derbies, rides, carnival games, and much more.
The above referenced page doesn’t include things like the several productions that Ole Olson puts on during the year, nor does it include the many activities that our local churches have. I’m sure that for every thing listed there is at least one more that I don’t know about. Many of the local businesses have events too.
Garden Gate Greenhouse, for one, offers free workshops that teach you how to have a more successful garden and on properly freezing your harvest. The link to their site will be http://www.gardengategreenhouseinc.com/ and it will be online by March 14. How do I know? Because I’m the one building their website, that’s how. If you want one of your own, visit http://www.globalme.biz/ for more info.
Something else not covered by ‘events’ would be places. We have the Nickel Plate Trail, Mississinewa Reservoir and spillway, Seven Pillars, Miami Nation of Indians, the Miami County Museum with two floors of displays, Bunker Hill Drag Strip, Miami County Speedway, and the River Walkway to name a few.
So, before you say, “There’s nothing to do,” why not open your eyes a little and take in just a few of the many things that our community has to offer.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Is It Spring Yet?
Is it Spring yet? It seems like this cold winter has been dragging on forever now.
I am SOooo over the cold it isn't even funny. I'm ready for the warmth, the flowers, the green, the bees, the short-sleeved shirts.
I want to wear my Hawaiian shirts outside with no jacket and be comfortable. I realize that Spring is now just over two weeks away, but please God make it WARM now.
Please, please, please!
I am SOooo over the cold it isn't even funny. I'm ready for the warmth, the flowers, the green, the bees, the short-sleeved shirts.
I want to wear my Hawaiian shirts outside with no jacket and be comfortable. I realize that Spring is now just over two weeks away, but please God make it WARM now.
Please, please, please!
Happy Square Root Day
For those of you who have been living in a cave, today is Square Root Day. Square Root Day is an unofficial holiday where the month and day are the square root of the last two numbers of the year.
Today is 3/3/09. You see how 3 is the square root of 9? There are only nine such days in any given century.
Today is 3/3/09. You see how 3 is the square root of 9? There are only nine such days in any given century.
- 1/1/01
- 2/2/04
- 3/3/09
- 4/4/16
- 5/5/25
- 6/6/36
- 7/7/49
- 8/8/64
- 9/9/81
A couple of exceptions occur each millennium as well. There is 10/10/2100, 11/11/2121, 12/12/2144.
The number of years between Square Root Days in a century are consecutive odd numbers. 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17. This helps illustrate that every odd number is the difference of two consecutive squares as shown here:
2k + 1 = (k + 1)2 – k2.
The ‘generally accepted’ method of celebrating Square Root Day is to cut a radish or other root vegetable into squares to eat, thus creating ‘square roots’.
Hah! I bet you weren’t expecting a math lesson, were you?
More Fun With the Space Heater
I gave in to my inner geek today at lunch and tackled the problem of our ‘cordless’ space heater.
I couldn’t help myself; I have this toolbox full of things for working on electronics; a veritable arsenal of tools spoiling for a new project.
I began by disassembling the hapless heater so that I could fully see how much damage it had suffered. Not bad at all, it was simply a cord blown in two pieces. Not a big deal.
Man that thing was dirty on the inside! Yuck-o! My trusty can of air made quick work of the dust mess, then I could get to work in earnest. I cut off about six inches of cord from the outside, stripped of about the same on the inside, then proceeded to patch things back together. A couple of wire nuts and four zip ties later and I was ready to put the cover back on it.
Keep in mind that it has that blackened area where the cord enters the body, a scar from Sunday night when the cord blew itself apart. I did not attempt to remove this discoloration. A little ‘battle damage’ adds character to the heater; it lends more interest to the piece.
I took it into the bathroom and set it up on the (granite?) counter just in case, plugged it in and turned it on.
Heat, glorious heat! The little bugger started warming me almost instantly. Now I have my space heater back and hopefully will be able to get another five or six years out of the thing. And to think that they say there are no user serviceable parts inside… 
I couldn’t help myself; I have this toolbox full of things for working on electronics; a veritable arsenal of tools spoiling for a new project.I began by disassembling the hapless heater so that I could fully see how much damage it had suffered. Not bad at all, it was simply a cord blown in two pieces. Not a big deal.
Man that thing was dirty on the inside! Yuck-o! My trusty can of air made quick work of the dust mess, then I could get to work in earnest. I cut off about six inches of cord from the outside, stripped of about the same on the inside, then proceeded to patch things back together. A couple of wire nuts and four zip ties later and I was ready to put the cover back on it.
Keep in mind that it has that blackened area where the cord enters the body, a scar from Sunday night when the cord blew itself apart. I did not attempt to remove this discoloration. A little ‘battle damage’ adds character to the heater; it lends more interest to the piece.
I took it into the bathroom and set it up on the (granite?) counter just in case, plugged it in and turned it on.
Heat, glorious heat! The little bugger started warming me almost instantly. Now I have my space heater back and hopefully will be able to get another five or six years out of the thing. And to think that they say there are no user serviceable parts inside…
Monday, March 2, 2009
Fun With the Space Heater
Last night I was running our small electric space heater. We run this thing a lot during the c-c-c-cold winter days and nights. I was sitting in the computer room working away on a website I’m building, minding my own business and keeping quite warm.
When I went to tuck Morgan in, I turned the thing off. Maybe half an hour later I wanted it back on. I leaned over, turned the knob and…
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I turned it off and then back on, still no response. I went into the other room where it was supposed to be plugged in, and yes, it was still plugged in. Hmmn.
I unplug it from there and plug it into one of the sockets in the computer room, turn it back on and still nothing. Bizarre.
Holding it a foot or so from the floor, I turn it on its face and examine the back; nothing caught in it, the motor isn’t buzzing. I flip it onto its back and check out the front. No change, it’s like it isn’t getting any power.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from the heater at that point in time, but I know what I was NOT expecting!
SNAP-POP!
I dropped that heater so fast you might have thought I was never holding it. Having heard that sound, plus the sound of the heater bouncing off the floor, Morgan asks if I’m ok.
Why would she automatically associate frying electronics and things bouncing around the house with me??
For some reason, the heater blew itself into two different and distinctive parts; the cord and the body. Yes, the cord blew completely in two. It was not hanging by a proverbial thread; it was simply no longer attached.
There is now a 2mm electric cord stub sticking out the back of the heater, with a charred, blackened area around it. Cool.
When I went to tuck Morgan in, I turned the thing off. Maybe half an hour later I wanted it back on. I leaned over, turned the knob and…
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I turned it off and then back on, still no response. I went into the other room where it was supposed to be plugged in, and yes, it was still plugged in. Hmmn.
I unplug it from there and plug it into one of the sockets in the computer room, turn it back on and still nothing. Bizarre.
Holding it a foot or so from the floor, I turn it on its face and examine the back; nothing caught in it, the motor isn’t buzzing. I flip it onto its back and check out the front. No change, it’s like it isn’t getting any power.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from the heater at that point in time, but I know what I was NOT expecting!
SNAP-POP!
I dropped that heater so fast you might have thought I was never holding it. Having heard that sound, plus the sound of the heater bouncing off the floor, Morgan asks if I’m ok.
Why would she automatically associate frying electronics and things bouncing around the house with me??
For some reason, the heater blew itself into two different and distinctive parts; the cord and the body. Yes, the cord blew completely in two. It was not hanging by a proverbial thread; it was simply no longer attached.
There is now a 2mm electric cord stub sticking out the back of the heater, with a charred, blackened area around it. Cool.
I wondered what on earth would possess an otherwise well behaved heater to do something like this. We’ve had it for, I don’t know, five or six years and it has never misbehaved like this.
Electrical cords, if exposed to prolonged heat, can become brittle. My guess is that is what happened to our trusty heater. The cord grew brittle, the wires inside made a little contact, and POW!
Which brings me to the positive side of this tale. I should be able to snip off six or eight inches of the cord, disassemble the heater, and reattach the cord. If there wasn’t any internal damage it should just start working again.
Keri thinks I should throw it away, but hey it cost like twenty bucks. If I can fix it in a few minutes, maybe it’ll be good for another few years. If it does this every five years I could get another thirty years out of it before I run out of cord. I think it’s worth a shot, what the heck.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
It Must Be A Woman Thing
Keri went shopping yesterday, but she was not alone. She and her sister drove to Fort Wayne to meet their cousins, Kelly and Kristie for their umpteenth annual shopping trip. To the uninitiated, that would be Kristie of Life with My X-Men.
So they leave Peru at 8:00 am, get back around 11:30 pm, and Keri walks in with three pairs of pants and one shirt. From the same store.
This has to be a woman thing. If I went shopping for 15.5 hours, minus 2 hours round trip for driving, I am pretty darn sure I would have spent a young fortune. I would have had a lot more than four pieces of clothing to show for an all day event.
I came home with more than that from the Brickyard 400 and the Indianapolis 500 last year. And that wasn’t shopping, it was watching a race!
Yeah, this is definitely one of those women things.
Keri tells me that she doesn’t like to shop with me, I’m just no fun.
Well, when I go into a store to shop for clothing, I follow a pretty easy process.
So they leave Peru at 8:00 am, get back around 11:30 pm, and Keri walks in with three pairs of pants and one shirt. From the same store.
This has to be a woman thing. If I went shopping for 15.5 hours, minus 2 hours round trip for driving, I am pretty darn sure I would have spent a young fortune. I would have had a lot more than four pieces of clothing to show for an all day event.
I came home with more than that from the Brickyard 400 and the Indianapolis 500 last year. And that wasn’t shopping, it was watching a race!
Yeah, this is definitely one of those women things.
Keri tells me that she doesn’t like to shop with me, I’m just no fun.
Well, when I go into a store to shop for clothing, I follow a pretty easy process.
- Find men’s clothing section
- Look at clothes
- Select clothes that I like (if any)
- Try on clothing (if needed)
- Toss the crap onto the cart outside the changing rooms
- Goto the checkout with good stuff, pay and leave
We’re talking 20, 25 minutes tops. Keri can spend HOURS looping between steps 2 to 5, and then leave without buying anything. If I spent that long without buying anything, I’d feel like I wasted my time. When I’m with her I try to hit the pause/break button to save her from the endless loop, but it provides a less than satisfactory result.
That’s all right. I know she had fun; in fact she was looking forward to this day since the four of them planned it out. She looks forward to it every year, it’s one of her favorite days of the year. No really, it is.
Oh Yeah, It is most definitely a woman thing.
P.S. to Kelly – Yesterday you had Keri convince me to do something, a fix for something that was bothering you. Remember? Well it is done. I took care of it a few moments ago.
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