(not so) Random Thoughts

I'm getting old

2011-08-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Or at least I'm getting the ailments of age. To be precise, arthritis.

I've been aware of this for a while. The lower back, definitely. But I now know of several other areas affected.

See, yesterday I took the train to Tacoma to meet with a general contractor concerning work to be done on my new-to-me house, and as it wasn't that far from the train station, I walked.

Well, thirty years ago it wouldn't have been that far. Three miles, basically. A forty-five minute walk. At twenty I was walking 16 miles to visit friends, up big hills, with no problems.

At fifty, it's a different matter. There were some hills, nothing major, and I felt them. I was noticing the exertion, big time. It took me the better part of an hour to start to recuperate, and I was still feeling it that evening. And today, well, my hips hurt. In an arthritic manner. I'm really glad the contractor was willing to give me a ride to the train station, walking back just wasn't going to happen, and arranging for a cab would have required calling 411 and getting Tacoma directory assistance and not knowing the name of the local cab company, and I really wanted to avoid that if I could. I need to add the cab companies, and the ride information line for Pierce County Transit, to my phone/address list I've been making for Tacoma.

It's now 25 hours since I finished that walk, and I'm still feeling it, aching hips, unhappy knees, sore feet; I'm not doing that again.

Pity, that. What a difference thirty years makes. Actually, what a difference ten years makes, which is when the arthritis started kicking in.

On the good news, I'm back down to 180 lbs., which is my low weight for the last twenty some years. Now to see if slightly smaller portions will drop the weight further without feeling overly hungry; the height/weight charts say I should weight more like 160 lbs, which I haven't weighed since before I went to grad school in 1987.

Anyway, that's it for now. Just like living with my disabilities, I get to live with arthritis, and balance things out; Ibuprofen would take care of the pain, but at the expense of mental functioning, so I deal with the pain during the day and take Ibuprofen prior to going to bed.

Moderation in action!

2011-08-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

A site I frequent is self-defined as 'A friendly place to read, write, and discuss Trans-gender fiction.' And that's what it is. It doesn't happen by accident, or just by everyone naturally keeping on topic, however. It takes careful moderation.

Case in point. Poster A posted a link to a BBC article and an article in The Guardian, both discussing a research report on the NHS (National Health Service). Several responses were made. Then poster B started a new thread, destructively critiquing the report and the coverage, and taking a swipe at poster A. Again, several responses were made. Indeed, I myself prepared a response (comparisons were being made to the US healthcare system by Poster B). When I went to post my response, lo and behold I couldn't. Access was denied. I looked, I was logged in, why couldn't I post?

I couldn't post because the thread was gone. Both threads were gone. Poof, vanished as if they had never existed. I sat back, aghast. Shades of 1984! Liberal Librarianship front and center! This is censorship! This is restraint of freedom of speech! This is... all sorts of things the American Library Association is against.

Actually, it's quite proper moderation. The threads were becoming contentious, and had absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of the site. And thus, to promote the friendly atmosphere and to keep the site properly focused, they were removed.

I thought of making a thread commenting on this, and how well done it was, but realized that such a post would be unacceptable, because it would have nothing to do with the purpose of the site, and would be a potential source of contention. So, practicing restraint and self-moderation, I didn't.

But I can post here, on my own blog, can't I? Yes, I can. Here's to Erin Halfelven, site owner and moderator, for a job well done.friendly place to read, write and discuss Transgender Fiction.A friendly place to read, write and discuss Transgender Fiction.A friendly place to read, write and discuss Transgender Fiction.

Home purchase

2011-07-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

Today I get possession on my new home in Tacoma. Won't be moving immediately, there is stuff I want done first, like replacing knob and tube wiring, earthquake retrofit, plumbing inspection/repair, flashing on the roof, some other stuff. But possession is today.

And such a deal, too! $411.00/month payments, including property tax and insurance. $40,000.00 30-year mortgage, finish paying it off in 2041. Fixed rate at 4.65%, no penalty for paying it off early.

It's a three bedroom, with a large living room and a breakfast nook in the kitchen which I get to rebuild; the breakfast nook originally had built-in table and bench seats, I'm going to restore it to that style.

1925 Craftsman, other than the breakfast nook it doesn't seem to have been changed much if any. Oh, and the garage, the garage isn't original, it's a huge cinderblock construction, plenty big for a shop and storage, and a carport as well. Nice sized yard front and back. Nice neighborhood. Sushi shop at the end of the block.

Update on Clematis & Blackberries

2011-03-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd mention, if I hadn't, that the massive campaign several years ago was completely successful. The Clematis is eradicated, and the blackberries are hardly around anymore. Go team!

Update on things

2011-03-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it's about a year since Mom left home. She's in an Adult Foster Care facility in Olympia, with increasingly advanced Alzheimer's, and I don't call her anywhere near as much as I should. My difficulty making phone calls combined with not knowing what to talk about, and crying.

My grandparents' farm in Grand Ronde has sold, which relieves a great many monetary worries.

The current plan is to move me to someplace near Olympia, either Shelton or Centralia. My IRA combined with some of the funds from the farm and some budgeting will allow for a property up to $95,000.00, but lower is better, smaller mortgages are nice, more money for living. There are some nice properties available, but wanting a shop does limit things a bit. But I've bought too much shop stuff to not have a shop, don't want that money to have been for naught.

My sister, Beth, has done a great job dealing with things, I couldn't have done anywhere near so well, not with my broken brain. 15, 20 years ago, maybe, but not now. I just fear my own slow deterioration and that I need to get things lined up for when she'll need to take care of me, a number of years away still but I fear the day will come. Given we got Mom's power of attorney filled out and notarized at what turned out to be the last minute, and had a time getting the notary to agree Mom was fit to make such a decision, we shouldn't wait that long with me. Just glad when we did the power of attorney for mom that Beth was listed as the fall back, so when we determined I couldn't handle it we could just notarize my stepping aside in her favor, we wouldn't have been able to get a new power of attorney filed.

Anyway, once I'm moved, we look at selling this place that has been home since 1976. It's been homebase for 34 of my 50 years, and home for 25 of them. Mom knows where she lives; she lives here, in Portland, and she knows her son lives in the same building. So not seeing me bewilders her some, just like not seeing her is so strange, especially since the last several years I'd been supervising her meds and seeing her at least three times a day. I've spent a fair amount of the last year contacting organizations to get her off of their mailing lists, with good success except for Consumer Reports, which ignores all requests and doesn't respond to my emails, even though they claim to respond to all emails personally. I may be forced to call them on the phone, which is difficult for me, I freeze up and fear confrontations, don't deal well with real time at all these days. Which is where the property search activity so far has gone well, I've been able to do everything by email or the web.

I get out nearly every day, picking up trash surrounding the building, especially the covered bus shelter in front, so I get some fresh air. But other than that I stay inside except for going shopping or appointments. Which is really a change over how I used to be. Used to go for walks all the time. Used to go see people all the time. But I just don't get out. And don't want to depress people, so rather just fade into the past with good memories of me. Which is maybe not fair on my part, my friends, and they are friends, should be given the option rather than my just vanishing, but I've always been this way, it's part of my problems, not keeping in touch with people, not seeming to be capable of keeping in touch if not actively involved in doing something. It ties in with my disabilities, the inability to do things that don't grab my attention, so if nothing grabs my attention I don't do anything. Which is as bad as it sounds. My diet is fairly good at least, sleep is pretty good, spend my days at the computer, mainly the Whateley Academy Crystal Hall forums and wiki, the Whateley Academy stories catch my interest even after many rereads, don't get enough physical activity which is reflected in my blood pressure, listen to the local classical music station from waking until bed.

One thing I need to focus on now is entering the financial information from the Olympia bank account, so I can do Mom's taxes. But it has to grab my attention. I should position the files so I see them, that'd help. (pause) OK, just did that, we'll see if that helps, it should. Just like I need to remember that the gate to the side yard has fallen down and that I need to fix it. (pause) OK, post-it note put up.

I do as well as I do because so much can be done online these days, banking, bills, shopping. And my food shopping, I buy in bulk so I don't need to go out that often. A tank of gas lasts me most of a year at this point. That'll change once I move, will have further to travel to Costco and the food co-op, plus seeing my sister and mother. And who knows, if I get everything organized with enough space, I might become active again; get to where I can have people over again. I've still got the impressive library, although I seem to have given away my SCA publications, my old TIs and CAs, etc.

Guess that's all for now, thought I'd but some thoughts down, just to prove I was still here.

Water, water, everywhere

2010-09-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

So. Saturday morning, about 3:30, knock at the door, it's Karen, my sister's partner, coming up from downstairs to inform me we had a water leak, coming from my apartment, doing tons of nastyness, and could I please turn off the water so it would stop?

Bathroom sink, cold water supply, compression fitting, came loose, spraying everywhere, my sleeping mind had said "heavy rain," 'cause that's what it sounded like to the former Chicagoan in me.

Massive damage. Standing water everywhere, creeping towards stuff, soaking carpets, swelling underlayment, ceilings sagging, ucky.

Beth, my sister, calls insurance broker, contacts emergency after hours line, leaves message, gets callback, talks to insurance carrier emergency line, meanwhile Karen is mopping stuff up, I'm moving boxes of books to keep them safe, water keeps dripping from flooded between floors, yucky.

Morning comes, Beth back on phone, trying to findout what we can do about this, don't want to wait until Tuesday for Insurance Adjuster, need to start work now to prevent mold, etc., get referred to Kennedy Restoration, specializes in disaster recovery services, has worked with insurance carrier before, sends out a team immediately, lots of pictures taken, carpet removed, underlayment removed, sagging ceiling removed, fans and dehumidifiers implaced, thorough job all around. Samples taken from vinyl flooring to determine composition, in case needs special handling.

Fans and dehumidifiers raise temperature exceedingly, much warmer than outside, but opening doors and windows to lower temperature would be counterproductive. Swelter. sigh.

Tuesday. Insurance adjuster comes, asks questions, lots of photos, talks with Kennedy rep, will return Friday with Kennedy rep after further drying out and work.

Last time saw the floor under the underlayment was in 1976, when my parents' bought the place.

Amazingly, while building damage, no stuff damage; we got everything moved and protected in time.

So much for going to Anime Convention that weekend.

Converting from vinyl to CD

2010-07-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

It's something I'm working on, converting my 300+ collection of LPs to CD. I've got a refurbished SFF WinXP machine set up in the stereo cabinet, hooked up to the stereo receiver, and have started copying the analog LPs to digital format. So far I've just recorded them off in Audacity, which is an open source audio recording software package which seems to work well. I mean, it allowed me to play a 78 at 45, record it, and then change the tempo to what it should have been recorded at; it let me select from a pull down menu the recorded speed of 45 and the should have been recorded at speed of 78, and it changed it perfectly, and after running the noise reduction filter we can again listen to Basil Rathborn narrating Peter and the Wolf. I've copied off about eight or nine LPs so far, doing one a day prior to going to bed, at that rate I'll be at this for quite some time, and I haven't begun the process of taking the recordings and separating them by track, labeling them with all the appropriate recording info, and exporting them to .WAV format prior to actually burning audio CDs. And I suppose I should also create .MP3s or some such as I go along.

The fun bit will be going through each recording, using noise reduction where necessary, and the really fun bit will be applying the clip filter, which will remove the sound of scratches and attempt to recreate the sound sequence using a best guess approximation based on the surrounding sound recording. Audacity is a really good program, capable of great stuff in cleaning up and modifying sound files, well worth checking out. I can also recommend the instruction book which is mentioned at the Audacity site, I purchased the eBook version, read through it, and it really made a difference in re the learning curve.

It's been kinda fun, listening to old mono recordings that mom bought prior to her marriage, which places them back pre-1956; have to admit I'm not quite sure which year my parents married, just that it was more than two years prior to my sister's birth, and I'm not looking it up just now. But yeah, a bunch of what I recorded so far are from prior to stereo recording of LPs, but I think I'm close to being through with them, and shortly will be purely working with stereo recordings. I know they're mom's records from before they married because she wrote her name on the outer jackets, and it's her maiden name. Kind of interesting seeing what she collected.

The burning of CDs shouldn't be that hard, the time consuming bit will be creating the sleeves for the jewel cases; two options, purchasing pre-perforated sleeves for laser printers and using their included software, or creating my own templates and cutting the sleeves out myself. I'm seriously leaning towards purchasing sleeves, it would make it so much easier. And purchasing jewel cases. Then there is the whole buy CD labeling stuff or just writing on the CD. So I've got a bunch to think about prior to creating the CDs, but I can do everything up to that without any further investment except for time. And time is something I have plenty of.

The one I'm not looking forward to is the 1950 La Scala performance of the Ring Cycle, all eleven records worth. Wondering how many CDs that will end up being, all depends upon how the tracks fall out. You can buy jewel cases that will hold a varied number of CDs, six I believe being the max without shifting to a DVD case, I've got an empty six CD jewel case, it would be nice if it would be enough to hold the recording, we'll just have to see now won't we?

Paying attention while cooking

2010-06-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

So, there I was, baking cheesecake. Had to put it in a bit longer, too sloshy.

And then I had this driving urge to take some measurements for a stereo cabinet project, went downstairs, spent some time measuring, making drawings, checking over supplies, materials on hand, etc., determining that I'm short two or three pieces from being able to do it entirely from materials on hand matching the existing stereo cabinet, realized the place I'd get the stuff is already closed for the day so I'd have to go out at a later date to pick ub the material.

"But what about the cheesecake?" you ask, as well you should!

Um, it isn't sloshy any longer. the cheesecake itself is quite firm, slightly golden on top, maybe a bit more towards the brown end of golden, but still ok for eating, but the crust, well, the crust, it looks quite, um, charred is the word I'm looking for here, charred, blackened, rather scorched looking, will be interesting to see if that's merely the part above the cheesecake or if the rest of the crust is equally overheated.

And there you have it, a perfect example of part of my disability, that when something grabs my attention to work on I concentrate on it to the exclusion of all else, including whatever I was already doing. Conversely, if nothing grabs my attention it's very hard for me to work on anything. But here I was, working on one project, baking, and another project jumped to the forefront of my brain and yanked me downstairs, to the first floor and the basement, for I don't know how long, the timer wasn't doing its annoying reminder beeps anymore when I got back, and if Ralph Miles had still been open I'd have been gone longer shopping for materials, I had completely forgotten I had something in the oven, it was the smell of smoke as I came up the stairs that reminded me. I had forgotten I was baking before I left the apartment in the first place.

You know something? This is not good. It's the first time I've forgotten I had something in the oven, that I had a cooking project in progress and forgot about it, but I very much fear it won't be the last time. It ties in with my gradual deterioration, and disturbs me greatly. And smoke alarms aren't any good when you're two floors away.

We had a timer that had a cord so it could be hung around one's neck, so that you didn't need to worry about forgetting that you were baking or whatever, but I don't know where it is now, if it was with mom stuff and has already been sorted and disposed of, or if it is here, and just misplaced, but it behooves me to either find it or obtain a new one, so I don't repeat this fiasco.

One works with disabilities, one doesn't deny them, they are real.

More Mom Stuff

2010-06-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

Mom wants to learn how to knit. This is commendable, at 84, except for one thing; she's known how to knit for longer than I've been alive. Or rather, she did know how to knit, as recenlty, I think, as six months ago, but now not only does she not know how to knit, she appears to have no memory of being able to.

I have several sweaters that mom made for me, and have had many more in the past. The best pair of gloves she made me just died, due ot mice getting at them, which actually means improper storage on my part, leaving then under a pile of stuff instead of putting them away properly. At one point in time I had no socks other than what she had knit for met, and scarves as well.

When sorting through mom's stuff, Beth [my sister] laid claim to all mom's knitting and crocheting supplies, and it was a vast collection of needles and hooks, dozens and dozens, the accumulation of well over fifty years of active knitting.

As children, Beth and I sometimes referred to mom as "the automatic knitting machine", given how we always saw her with knitting when she was sitting down watching TV or listening to music, riding in the car, sitting talking with people, just about anytime she didn't need her hands for anything else.

And now she has no memory of knitting, or how to knit.

I'm getting good at not letting mom hear me cry while on the phone with her.

Derivative works and artistic creativity

2010-06-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Music. Let's look at music, creativity, and interpretation.

Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition. Phenomenal work. But what most people are familiar with is the orchestration by Maurice Ravel, and to quote from the liner notes of my copy, "this modification of the music's essential nature has greatly increased its accessibility." Haven't heard the original work so I can't be sure of this, but I suspect the promenade portions aren't anywhere near as reminiscent of Aaron Copeland's style in the original, whereas the orchestration of the promenade screams Copeland at me, which probably has to do with Copeland being influenced by Ravel. Anyway, Ravel took Mussorgsky's piano work, altered it for orchestra, and produced a work of creative genius. Derivative, yet original.

Interpretation. There's a reason Conductors get top billing, when they conduct they produce a unique interpretation of what the composer envisioned. Musicians are noted not only for their technical skill, but their ability to work with the conductor to produce unique interpretations, to create each work anew, to breath fresh life into a work played many times before.

Covers. One artist originates a song, then others add it to their repertoire, each performing it differently, sometimes taking a song which was so-so with the original artist and creating a hit due to their interpretation of it [and sometimes, well, Trini Lopez anyone? (taking a hit and making it far less)]

I should be nice in mentioning Mr. Lopez, while I dislike his style he had quite the following, and a unique hand at interpretation.

Something we sometimes come across are those who are technically proficient, but who seem flat in their performance, for while their technique is good, they have no ability to add anything to the work via interpretation. In theory they produce exactly what the composer or arranger intended, by following the score without variation, but one has to wonder.

The ideal is someone who is technically proficient, who has great skill, and also has the spark of creativity which allows for interpretation; they can deliver a letter perfect performance without variation, but can also add those little nuances which separate the inspired performance from that which is technically proficient but non-interpretive.

Something to bear in mind. The modern standard is to have all the parts scored, every note indicated, but this was not always the case. There was a time when the base line was filled out, the figured bass, with key signatures given, but the rest of the score was not given; the musicians filled it out anew with each performance, and what was prized was the ability to take the figured bass line and fill in the other parts on the fly, to have a structured jam session each and every time. That was musicianship!

Do I own that CD? One possible solution

2010-06-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

One possible solution, obviously, is to get rid of all your CDs, then you know the answer to "Do I have this already?"

Not finding this an acceptable option, I have, as a time waster, embarked upon the effort of creating an Excel spreadsheet to catalogue my music CDs, with the intent of expanding it to include cassettes and LPs as well. A maximum of ten data points per record, such as composer, director, artist, album title, issue and reissue dates, labels, format and media.

Having started on this yesterday, I already have 116 entries, which looks to be about a third of the CD collection.

Oh, the reason for using Excel instead of OpenOffice for this is quite simple, my PDA will open Excel files, so I can take this list with me.

While at a certain level this is the silliest thing I could be doing, especially given not going out to buy CDs so not being concerned by the question, do I have this already?, it is giving me a sense of accomplishment, and is reacquainting me with my collection, which I had utterly ignored for the last five years; when I go into an isolationist period, I go into an isolationist period! And unlike other recent activities, this isn't making me melancholy.

So, that's what I've been doing the past two days.

The Manhattan Transfer, Walt Disney, and other stuff

2010-06-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to The Manhatten Transfer by an evangelical Christian back when I was attending Portland Community College; she was in my ballroom dance class, and we hung out a bit outside of class, and she gave me some tapes [the others were Keith Green tapes, tied in with that missionary work aspect of things].

Since then, while in Chicago, I bought The Manhattan Transfer Anthology - Down in Birdland, which I'm listening to as I type. So I've been listening to this group, off and on, since 1983 or there abouts. But I jsut found out that I could have been familier with them a lot earlier, if my family's television viewing habits had been different. You see, shortly after they started, back in 1975, they had a short-lived television program, Sunday nights at 8:00, according to their website the old Ed Sullivan Show time slot, and a show akin to that old warhorse.

1975. Sundays, 8:00PM. Let's see, what was I doing? Watching the Wonderful World of Disney and putting together jigsaw puzzles with my parents, either that or up in my room reading books, I can't take oath as to which, it's been a few years. OK, it is possible I was reading and my parents were watching The Manhattan Transfer, it's nice to think that dad appreciated them as much as I've come to, they are definitely a group he'd have liked. And it is possible that I wouldn't have enjoyed the show, but given the variety/comedy shows I did enjoy, I feel sure that I would have found it of some interest. But thinking about it, I was probably reading a book.

At that time of my life, odds were good that at any given time I was off reading a book. Or hanging out with Nathan Banks, who was my best friend for several years, in which case I might still have been reading a book.

So why are you reading this, anyway? Go out and get something by The Manhattan Transfer, and listen to it, you'll be glad you did.

Balkan Folk Dance, or, why I didn't do well in ear training

2010-06-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Back in High School, back before there was dirt, freshman year it was, 1975-76 school year, winter term or spring, I'm not entirely sure which, I got drafted by my sister into taking a folk dance PE course. She paid for this; my feet were basically the same size they are today, and I was six inches shorter, or some such difference [can you say clumsy?] My sister folk danced barefoot, I wore hiking boots, they made me dance next to my sister, I had my revenge! Mwa ha ha! Oh yeah, it was spring term that Dave Adlhoch started the folk dance class.

Anyway, there I was at an early, formative, stage in my life, tossed into the world of Eastern European Folk Dance, Balkan, Turkish, Russian, and all parts in between, with excursions to Israeli Folk Dance. I spent the next five years or so taking folk dance classes for PE, and attending the then very active Reed College Folk Dance scene every Friday evening, gradually growing into my feet and gaining a great fondness for Eastern European Folk Music, including buying what records were available in the Portland area.

Fast forward to 1983, Portland Community College, I'm taking Music Theory, doing well in the composition section [while showing my rebel creds by giving the melody to the Tenor part, let the Sopranos suffer!], doing well in the sight singing section, but having real problems in the ear training section. See, to Western ears, minor chords are supposed to sound "wrong", this is part of how you identify them as being minor; take someone who has spent much of the proceeding seven years cultivating a taste for Eastern European, Israeli, and other folk music, and none of what they played sounded "wrong" to me, I was used to chords which cannot be done using "traditional" J.S. Bach based Western European tempered chords and harmony, this stuff was ho hum boring and sounded just fine to me, if unimaginative.

Just goes to show I was too worldly for that class, my ears weren't parochial enough for them.

I was reminded of this just now, as I sat listening to the Bulgarian Women's Choir 1993 world tour CD; still sounds just fine to me.

To Dady

2010-05-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

And I picked up the next item from the box, and it was an envelope, inscribed "To Dady". And I opened it, and it contained a card, and the only words written on the card were the same as the envelope, "To Dady". And I looked at it, and suddenly broke down and cried.

I recognized the handwriting, it was mine, from when I was very young, not past first grade, if that. And all I'd needed to do was find a nice card, a raccoon cleaning its food, and write "To Dady", no need for anything else, and that card was treasured, and kept for 35 years, and then set aside with other items to be looked at and disposed of following my father's death, and now, 9 years later, I reach into a box and find this message of love. "To Dady".

And I cry. I cry for my father, who is long gone. I cry for myself, for the child who could write such a simple note on a card. And I cry for myself, who has no child, and has never known what it is like to have such a card given to him.

And the card sits on the box, and I know it is there, and I cry.

One with the ages; life as ephemera

2010-05-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Having gone through four boxes of computer disks which my father had accumulated, programs, accounting records, tax returns, etc., there were a total of five disks which I selected for retention. And there may well be overlap on the contents of those disks.

Three of the disks are 5.25" disks, which is difficult enough to work with in this day and age, but furthermore they are CP/M formatted, Kaypro 2X CP/M to be precise. This predates MS-DOS, and are non-compatible, so not only does one need a 5.25" disk drive, a rare thing in this day and age, but one needs an emulation program, which will allow the drive to act as though it were on a CP/M system, with file transfer software to copy the files from the disk. Now it just so happens that one of the files I rescued from a dying hard drive was 22DSK144, which is just such a program, and one which you can still find on the internet, produced by Simtel and available on their site, as I just discovered by doing a quick search. Released in 1997, this program allows you to read disks formatted in a wide variety of CP/M formats, provided you have the appropriate floppy drives, compatible with the disks, which I just happen to still have.

So using an aged Win98SE system, which had compatible disk drives, I have copied the contents of the three disks to said computers hard drive. I then copied the two 3.5" disks to the hard drive as well, as my most modern system has no floppy drives. The contents of the five disks fit onto one CD-ROM, with plenty of room to spare. The next step, which I'm not sure when I'll take it, is to search amongst my various word processing programs for one which will allow me to import files in WordStar format, for WordStar was what dad used, both CP/M and DOS, and I no longer have WordStar; I threw out the last installation disks for WordStar in my possession yesterday, knowing that I have versions of WordPerfect which will open the files, and I believe my copy of Word is early enough that it too can open WordStar files.

Keeping a copy of WordStar would be silly, as I no longer own any printers for which WordStar possesses printer drivers.

So I now have a CD with files from dad concerning family history, his life, etc., which I may someday peruse, actually probably sometime soon so that I can insure I can open the files, knowing that eventually Windows will no longer support the software programs which still recognize the WordStar format, and that I'll want to have the files converted to Word or OpenOffice or WordPerfect file formats prior to that day.

Going through dad's paper files is having an equally small amount of material being retained. I have no inclination to read through his sermons from when he was active in the Unitarian Ministry, and old ledgers, bank statements, correspondence, all of no relevance to my life, or my sister, so they are being recycled. We are not being hasty in this, dad died in 2001, we've had plenty of time to develop an interest in these files and have failed to do so, and it is now time to clean house and minimize belongings in preparation to moving me someplace else. Those five disks of dad's? That's more than I've kept of my own work from over the years.

You can tell a lot about someone by the books they own, and going through dad's books this is certainly true. An interest in medieval history and culture, religion and philosophy in general, a smattering of economics, some mysteries and science fiction, some children's literature, some poetry and classics; very little that we are retaining from the perspective of would we actually read them. But the current batch of seven boxes of books, which had been in the office and his bedroom, a fair portion of them we suspect Powell's will actually be interested in. But much would only be of interest to someone with a similar background, and that makes for a small interest group.

It's sad, in ways, how little we keep. But the most precious are the memories, and those will stay with us. As will the photo and slide collection, which my sister will maintain, having more interest in them than I do.

Staying in touch with people, an area I'm weak in.

2010-05-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

I've never been good at staying in touch with people, once I'm not seeing them all the time. I'm lousy at correspondence [what's to write about? I perceive my life as being dull and of no interest.] I don't like using telephones, although I'm getting better with that, having no choice if I'm going to keep in touch with mom and my sister.

So I've gone through my life making friends, good friends, and then dropping out of touch. Someone will move, there will be changes in schedules, staying in touch will require a certain amount of effort, and I just can't seem to make that effort.

Damn. It ties into my disabilities, doesn't it, the inability to work on things unless they grab me, the whole lack of proper adrenaline production, the inability to work on many things unless its reached crisis point and adrenaline production is upped, oh *bleep*. *bleep* *bleep* bleepitty bleep* Jiminy Christmas! Fudge brownies!

Well, that was a lovely thing to just figure out, boy am I slow on the uptake.

And anything I take to improve my functioning results in increased blood pressure, at the least, such as the Ritalin and Adderal that I'm on, or raises the blood pressure and also increases the incidence of kidney stones, such as anything with caffeine. And the substance that seemed to have the best impact, ephedrine, is now a proscribed substance due to it being used in the creation of crystal meth; pseudophed was such a lovely OTC, dealt with my allergies and got me functioning [and sent my blood pressure through the roof, *sigh*]

Actually, I should be impressed with how well I'm functioning just now, I'm getting stuff done everyday in regard to sorting through stuff and disposing of stuff, although the trick is still to come, working on organizing what I'll keep; rather, deciding what I'll keep. I'm really torn in regard to shop stuff, I haven't done anything with the shop in five+ years, and it feels like the drive has gone away, but that also ties in with when pseudophed became unable to be obtained, doesn't it?

Mega *bleep*!

On the flip side, I'm much calmer these days. That's the downside of anything that helps me function, due to not being able to replicate the brain's natural delivery system everything is delivered by swamping the system, it's a hack job, no surgical strike this. Under medicated is very mellow, over medicated is strung out, and there isn't any such thing as properly medicated, or so it seems.

So the shop question is also the sewing question, and the leatherworking question, etc., because at some level the interest is there, but I just don't quite have the oomph to do anything about it. Maybe if I can get to where things are cleaned up and organized, then sewing would become a possibility. Now when did the place really start to decline? Oh, yeah, same time period.

I really need to talk to my psychiatrist and see what the options are which we haven't tried. First I need to write up what the problems are, so I don't have to be functioning during the visit; that's the problem, if I'm functioning I forget what the problems are, if I'm not functioning, well, there ya go!

OK, got my marching orders, need to write stuff up.

Later. Not just now. I don't feel up to it at the moment. Which, of course, is the whole problem.

Me go read stuff now, will feel more cheery afterward.

Letting go of the past, one document at a time

2010-05-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

I have two small accordion files of checks to go, and Tucson and Chicago will no longer exist. There will no longer be documents in my possession, other than resumes and related documents in my disability application file, relating to my having ever lived in either city. By the end of the day I will have shredded the last of them. I've already thrown out all my letters received and all my other mail, newsletters and such; I hadn't looked at any of them since 1994, when I moved back from Chicago, I wasn't going to suddenly start doing stuff with them now, especially since when I started to I just ended up crying. My father and grandmother both died in 2001, and reading their letters would just remind me that they are no longer here, just as reading mom's letters remind me that she is now in an adult group home.

Going through the house, sorting things and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, so little that I choose to keep; I'm not really all that attached to things, I find, which given how much money I've spent on things over the years is unexpected. The books are going to be the interesting project, that and the shop. Deciding which of my books I'll actually read again, and thus might justify keeping, against the ones that I don't see using again, no matter how much I had to have them at another time. Do I see being a reference resource for anyone, as at one time I was, or will my hermit existence continue, with no one using my resources other than myself? And those that I determine not to keep, how to dispose of them to their best advantage? Or can I afford to concern myself with that question, and instead just take them to Powell's and other stores, and what is not taken donating to thrift stores, or just recycling as of no interest to anyone at this time.

We've already given all the jigsaw puzzles, except for a few that my sister is keeping, to Goodwill; I haven't' worked on a jigsaw puzzle in over 15 years, growing up they were a family activity, we had so many 1500 piece puzzles, lovely and complicated, spending hours an evening working on them together, my hording pieces, my sister leaning over the table and obscuring pieces with her hair, mom trying pieces that to everyone else obviously didn't fit, dad being very intense and not happy with pieces being horded or obscured, and Beth and dad insisting we couldn't look at the picture on the box, that we had to put the puzzles together without that aid. There were a couple I might have liked to keep, but before I realized they were going away they were gone, and really, when would I work on them? Jigsaw puzzles aren't something I do by myself, they are a social activity to me as a result of my upbringing. And I wonder about my collection of games, which do I keep on the off-chance that I'll become social again, with folks who would want to play them? And even more important, which of them will I be up to playing?

As we deal with mom, I keep having the thought, "How long until it's me?" My disability claim had to do with my mental functioning, reliability and the ups and downs of my abilities, and my increasing fear of trying, of taking risks, of being able to react appropriately to challenges and stress. Of fear of interacting with people, being afraid that I won't be able to do so at an acceptable level, that I'll be a drag on those around me, which does my friends no little injustice. But I've always been feral, under the surface, insecure, although for many years my success spurrec me on to overcome this, but as I perceive myself to be declining, I draw back into myself, back to how I was as a child, alone because I didn't have the skills to interact, because my mind betrayed my, being damaged at birth. I've done so much better than anyone thought I would, some of my doctors didn't see how I would make it to adulthood without being institutionalized, and it was close, closer than I like to think about. And how much I owe to my mother's persistence, her not accepting the negative prognosis, but constantly searching for other possibilities, wanting the best for me. And now she's deteriorating, memory betraying her, , showing everyday that wanting to help others is central to her very being, as her memory gets worse and she thinks she's on staff at the group home, thinking she's helping when she's a client, they like her, they humor her, I talk to her on the phone and I cry, cry for my mother, for who she was and who she is, my mother, whom I dearly love and can no longer help, other than talking with her and being her son, who loves her very much.

Given typing through a wall of tears, my touch-typing is very good.

My sister is under so much stress, dealing with mom, and me, at this time, as well as having been working on growing her music instruction, trying to get more students, working on a website just before all this started, not having it up as she can't focus on that now, I don't know what we'd be doing if not for my sister, Beth, I couldn't do what she's been doing, I'd just freeze up and break down, now she has to care for her mother, and try to set things up for her brother, and I fear that the day will come where she'd having to look into my care as well.

Not what the heading indicated this would be, this has been very much stream of consciousness.

On a cheerier note, I've gotten quite the collection of bookmarks now, reaching back 40 years some of them, and there are many more to be gathered in from my books, and one can tell, to an extent, where I've lived over the years, based upon the bookmarks, although there are stores that I'd think I'd have bookmarks from that aren't showing up so far, but there are many more books to go through. And some of the stores where I know I had many bookmarks are only showing a couple, but as stated, many more books to go through.

And in a bit I'll feel better. As I've commented before, at heart I'm a very cheerful person, which is a very good thing.

How many computers do you have?

2010-05-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

19. That's how many computers I currently have. 16 of them are in mom's living room, along with 9 printers, 4 monitors, and a number of mice, keyboards, dead hard-drives and a bunch of other computer related peripherals.

2 of those computers run CP/M, they're old Kaypro 2Xs, purchased back in the mid-1980s; one was used in dad's bookkeeping/tax preparations business for many years, the other was used by my sister through grad school. The most recent software they ran was WordStar 4.0, a very good wordprocessing program which dominated the CP/M world, but was sabatoged by the marketdroids when they transferred to PC-DOS; rather than properly develope and support their existing program, they chose to purchase others work and relabel it as WordStar, stabbing their loyal followers in the back. WordStar 7 for DOS wasn't bad, but the atrocity that was WordStar for Windows, meh, horrorshow, no wonder folks switched to WordPerfect and Word, Microstar took long enough to produce a DOS program that their dominance was lost, and then they put out crap.

Then there's a PS/2, and we're not talking about video game consoles here; this one was an old machine gifted by a friend when she upgraded, haven't actually used it or found a home for it, it's just gathered dust. Ditto the ZEOS 386 tower, which is the heaviest of the lot, truly an awkward machine, begging for the installation of wheels and handles. There are at least 2 486's, one of them a laptop running Win95, an old IBM Thinkpad, the model with the butterfly keyboard. One NextGen 586, which was a non-pin compatible alternative to the Pentium; nice machine, actually, but no upgrade path, and there was the periodic problem of programs properly identifying the hardware. 2 Pentiums, Compaq DeskPros, a P95 and a P115 I think, bought used at Stuff, the P95 came with built-in SCSI support.

The remaining 11 computers are all AMDs of different vintages, mainly with Win98 installed; this computer runs Windows 7, the next most recent operating system is WinMe, I'm thinking of installing WinXP on a secondary hard-drive on this machine so I can run computer games which choke on Windows Vista and Windows 7, which is the main reason why I have the WinMe and the most modern Win98SE machine up here and not with the rest in the living room; the problem with those machines is that the sound seems to have cut out, which is a drag when playing games, and for some games a critical failure problem. If I get a new hard-drive to install as my back-up drive, I can then use the current back-up drive as an alternate OS drive, and have sound with my games; I'd also need to get a USB joy stick, as they no longer provide MIDI/Game Ports on computers and that takes care of my old joy stick. Of course, I could also check to see if my games would play with Wine, and if so I could look at installing a Linux distro. Pity my WinXP computer died, seems to be motherboard as well as the hard-drive being toast, that forced me to my current machine, at least no boot activity with a new hard-drive, which sure makes it look like toast to me, it should at least POST if the motherboard was still good.

It's going to take a couple of trips to run them all over to Free Geek, which is a local organization which will first attempt to make computers function as Linux systems, and failing that recycle them properly; if you bring in more than a couple of systems at a time they do charge, but it's minimal, and they'll try to utilize everything they can prior to sending to recycling, and given my not wanting to toss these puppies into a landfill but instead have them properly disposed of we'll find the funds for their fees.

And it's interesting being able to access my second bedroom again, it was full of dead computers. Now, the really painful part was tossing all the old software, several thousands of dollars worth that have no value now, expensive wordprocessing programs, OSs, games, etc., none of which will run on anything modern, or if you can get them to run you can't get them to print, as they're using DOS printer drivers, printer specific drivers written for each program. The great thing with Windows is that the printer has one driver for the OS, and programs talk to the OS; previously printer drivers were program specific, so each program required their own printer drivers, and once the program ceased being supported you were toast once you could no longer purchase supported printers. With Windows so long as the program can properly talk to the current version of Windows you can use any modern printer, and this, to me, is much more significant than the GUI, and is one of the things which forces OS upgrading, the need to be able to print with modern printers, as it's not cost effective to maintain old printers. Now, the thing that drove my upgrading to WinXP was that it was the minimum required to run TurboTax a couple of years ago, and that was the final straw for Win98SE, no longer running modern tax software when it was time to do my mother's taxes.

OK, my mind is starting to drift, time for afternoon meds and then food, I guess.

Unknown Boxes [Not what I thought it was!]

2010-05-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Somewhere, I have several boxes of old Tournaments Illuminated, and Complete Anachronists, relics of 20+ years of SCA activity. I thought I knew which box it was, as I'd gone through all the other boxes in the room I though they were in. But that box, whilst big enough to hold all the TIs, didn't. Instead, it was full of LPs.

This surprised me. See, I have lots of LPs, a vast collection, esoteric and fascinating in its own right, but they aren't up here in this apartment, they're down in the basement, in record boxes, awaiting the day I again had a functional phonograph; my phonograph died in grad school, and I shipped my records home after grad school, to be stored by my parents, as I didn't want to entrust them to UPS or anyone else involved in shipping things from Tucson to Parts East, known as Chicago, when I didn't have digs established yet, and not having a functioning phonograph in Chicago I never saw fit to have them shipped out from Portland, it would have been silly.

Yes, the phonograph was taken in by my parents, who got it repaired, and shipped it out to me. And it arrived in Chicago and had died in transit, the tone arm not having been properly strapped down. It's currently sitting on top of the glass front in my living room, awaiting a visit to a phonograph repair place, yet again; it's a good phonograph, direct drive, a sturdy Technics turntable of respectable vintage. And I have both of my parents' turntables, one also a Technics, one an ancient monstrosity from my grandparents which will play 78s as well as 33s and 45s.

So, anyway, there's this box of records. I looked through them as I transferred them into more reasonably sized boxes; yes, with age I've learned to pack things in smaller boxes, it's better for my back. I found that with very few exceptions I recognized these records, they were indeed mine, except for three 45s and a copy of the Messiah and some Spoken German collection. And while thumbing through, a Bloomington bus schedule dropped out.

Now, I've never been to Bloomington, Indiana, but I know someone who lived there, who lived in Tucson previously and afterwards lived here in Portland, in that very room for a bit, and then in Apt 4, across the hall. Cameron Craigie, the Once and Future Roommate, whom I shared an apartment with in Tucson and met up with in the Midwest when he got work in Bloomington after obtaining his PhD in Optical Physics, and whom we housed when he had enough of the Midwest and moved back to the PNW, sans job initially, but correctly thinking he'd do better finding work out here if he was here than he'd do hanging out in Bloomington. And I remembered, then, that he had pulled a bunch of my records out, to borrow and keep in Tucson while continuing his studies, with the promise to get them back to me, sometime, before the world ended.

Well, apparently he did, leaving them in my spare bedroom. And I really have no memory of this occurring; I thought he still had them! Now I need to sort them, and then when I get to that part of the move, reintegrate them with the records he didn't borrow.

And I am completely baffled as to where the old TIs and CAs are hiding, I'm guessing down in the basement. I'd really been hoping to find them, I want to find a good home for them, unlike all the old SCA newsletters I'm sending to recycling. They definitely aren't where I thought they were.

Locks and Memory, or memories

2010-05-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

Whilst sorting through stuff today, well, more like while making sure it's nothing I need after not seeing this stuff for over ten years, and recycling papers, I came across a box that probably hasn't been looked at since I moved back from Chicago in 1994. And in this box was a combination lock. This lock was last used by myself in 1988; it locked my bicycle. I obtained this lock in the fall of 1975, the first day of school; it was my locker lock. Not having seen it in 15 years, not having used it in 22 years, I calmly spun the dial, and entered the combination, and opened it.

Yes, I remembered the combination. Good thing, too, it's not written down anywhere, I'm sure the school bookstore purged their records of that lock many years ago [I did, early on, forget the combination, called the bookstore, and they told it to me; they kept records just for that purpose.]

I can't remember any of the four addresses I had in my six years in Chicago, nor the telephone number, the same holds true for Tucson and Eugene, both of which were school-related tenures. At the moment I still have papers from Tucson and Chicago, and if I looked through them I could find that information. Shortly, in the next several weeks, all of that information will be gone, except for several boxes which have shipping labels on them and are still in use. Shortly, aside from some photographs, books, and a couple of tchotchkes, I will have nothing left from the vast majority of my life, no tangible items reflecting my experiences and history, nothing except my memories.

My memory is a quirky thing. I can remember the address and phone number of the house I grew up in in Salem, Oregon, and I could draw a diagram of how the house was laid out prior to our moving to Portland. I can actually draw floor-plans for every place I've lived, now that I think about it, even if I don't remember the address. Well, except for the first two houses, but I was very young, less than a year old when we moved into the house on Saginaw in Salem, so I have no memory of the house on State Street which we lived in initially upon moving to Salem, nor the Potter Street house in Eugene where we lived when I was born; I know the streets they were on from my parents' conversations over the years, and there is the slight chance that amongst their documents we'd have those addresses. I can't navigate Salem as well as I used to, because of the construction over the years since we moved.

In my mind I can see people that I've known over the years, worked with, gone to school with, known in fandom and the SCA, and I know who they are... except that the names are starting to fade, with time and mental disuse. Well, some of them, some of them can be dredged back up, given time. But I've always been bad with names, at least when I initially meet people, it always took a while for me to learn names, part of my memorization problems which have always been with me. Once I learn the name, I'm pretty good, I guess. And I can remember what people look like.

There was a period when I took lots of photographs, before my first real camera was stolen; I fell out of the habit, then, and never got back into it. So there are a couple of years with lots of photos, of the SCA, some of fandom, some school, but after that not much at all, I was too busy doing and not recording. Taking photos is what spectators do, and I enjoyed myself so much more if I was helping make things happen. Which means for most of my life there is no record, other than the very documents I'm in the process of discarding. Some will be kept, those which look to be of use, such as those supporting my disability claim; it may come under review sometime, so I feel the need to keep those documents, which means I'll still have copies of my last job resume, and a work history which describes in some detail what I did at various jobs, all part of documenting what I'd been able to do prior to the gradual decline. But I'm throwing out alot of memorabilia, con programs, newsletters, letters, all sorts of stuff that I look at and force myself to ask if I'll ever look at them again, and find the answer being "No, I'll never go through these again", so I discard them, the neglected record of my past.

And then I'll go through my books, and that will be hard, going through and looking at them from the perspective of what I'm honestly likely to use, as opposed to the reference librarian who wants to keep everything, but if I'm looking at moving into a considerably smaller place, I really have no choice.

And the wood shop and all my electronics and building maintenance materials, what of them to keep and how best to dispose of what I don't? Again, the question of what do I actually see myself using. I'm seeming to be functioning some better recently, but how will that carry over to various activities I haven't done in years?

So much of going through my stuff includes saying "This I used to do, but do no longer, and will never do again". There needs to be some "And this I may do again", something of planning forwards, seeing future accomplishment and activities. To be blunt, a reason for going on. I need to find things that I will be doing, that will involve me with others, for I need to be involved with my fellow man, and at some level be a contributing part of society; I do not enjoy being a spectator, and at this time I'm not even doing that.

I'm tired. Guess I'll go to bed, then.

Where to start?

2010-04-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

Life is being interesting these days. On Monday, March 8th my mother didn't wake up when it was time for her morning medications. I was a little concerned, but thought that she might just be really deeply asleep, so I decided to wait an hour and see if she woke up, and then waited another hour until I decided that this was just too long for her to be unresponsive to my shaking her shoulders, etc., and called 911, whose response in regard to my saying my mother wasn't waking up was to send paramedics and an ambulance right away. That would have been around 10:00AM, I guess, well, just a bit later as I got dressed before calling. I let the paramedics in, and provided answers to their questions while they checked mom out, and finding her still not responding, and her muscles being pretty rigid, pull on her arm and it would resist and move back to the same position, and apparently she had some slight vomit that I hadn't seen due to the positioning of her head, they packed her up and took her out to the ambulance once it arrived. I tried to track down our copy of her advanced directive, but couldn't find it at the time, she'd been thinking of redoing it and it wasn't in any of the locations I could think of, and I decided that getting her to the hospital was a bit more important than looking for the advanced directive. I rode in with them, taking the perspective that I could catch a bus home if need be but wanted to be there with mom and if I rode with them I'd get to the right place. Instead of going to Kaiser, mom being a Kaiser patient, we went to OHSU [Oregon Health Sciences University] Emergency Services, guess it was closer and they were not sure what was going on. Got checked in at Emergency, they cut mom out of her clothes which she hadn't taken off from the day before, discussed with me inserting an airway to keep here breathing clear in case she were to vomit or have problems swallowing, and while I know that mom didn't want tube feeding and various other forms of life prolonging treatment, this struck me as a reasonable preventive precaution, the idea of giving her a fighting chance. I'm not sure when they installed the catheter, but when they did there was a lot and nasty looking. They got her on an IV, and took her in for a CAT scan and had me wait in the waiting room at that time. That's when I called Beth, my older sister, to let her know what was going on, got her voicemail and left a message; Beth lives in Olympia, WA, and is a self-employed Piano teacher. Beth had been down jsut a few days earlier, on Thursday, to go to a meeting with mom's doctor, who was of the opinion that it was time to start looking at some variety of long term care, that mom shouldn't be living at home any longer, her dementia and incontinence, specifically the problems keeping clean, were such that she should have assistance greater than she could have at home, that we were past the help I could give with my own problems which were why I was on disability. Anyway I left a message on Beth's voicemail, and waited. After a while, long enough to read through the only interesting magazine and then some, they came out to let me know they were moving mom to ICU, that she didn't seem to have had a stroke or anything, but she was dehydrated and still hadn't woken up. So I went with them as they transported mom to another section of the complex, up to the 12th floor of another wing, possibly another building it's hard to tell, and had me wait in a waiting room while they got mom set up. This is the one section where I'm not happy with them, it wasn't made clear to me how I could get in touch with them when I was left in an unattended waiting room, I was there for hours without any contact. During that time Beth called me, her phone was out because of construction work cutting through the trunk line to her subdivision, the phone wouldn't have the physical connection repaired until the 13th, but voicemail worked since it was voicemail and not an answering machine, they'd borrowed a cell phone from a neighbor and had finally gotten a chance to check their voicemail and found out that mom was i8n the hospital, and that they were going to come down, they'd contacted her students and rescheduled the rest of the day, and Beth had a copy of the advanced directive and would bring it. About that time I said enough was enough, I was done waiting for someone to come talk to me and was going to go looking for mom. Turns out there was a phone on the wall next to the door which could be used to contact the nurses station, I called and told them I was looking for my mother [with her name] and they checked and said I could come back, so I did and found the nurses station and they then directed me on to the room mom was in. No, wait, they had come out while I was in the waiting room, three doctors, to ask me questions about mom, but no one had said how I'd be able to go back to see her. And being in a waiting room didn't do mom any good, but if I could be back with her I could at least hold her hand and let her know someone who cared about her was there. Which was what I did, held her hand and petted her head like she was a cat, to let her know someone cared and was there, she still hadn't woken up and it was late afternoon, but they were pretty sure now that it was a bad urinary tract infection, and it had started to go systemic, so they had her on antibiotics and saline, she'd gotten very dehydrated and her kidneys weren't happy with her. Oh, and I'd also called my uncle Richard earlier, to let him know something was up. I don't remember precisely when in all this I called Richard, but I think it was before I went on mom search. Beth and Karen [Beth's partner] arrived after visiting hours were over, and had a fun time getting into the building, but snazzy staff members helped them find their way to the proper area. They sent me off to get food, I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and we were now into late evening, and they talked with doctors whilst I was off. 10:00PM or so we decided that it would serve no purpose to stay the night with mom, so they ran me home and went to stay with Allison, a friend of ours who they normally stay with when they come to town. I think they'd already started calling students to clear Tuesday, the neighbor who'd let them use a cell phone had a spare cell phone that he'd sent with them so they could do phone stuff [good neighbor, yes].

Tuesday mom started to be somewhat responsive, but only somewhat, we weren't really sure how aware she was of things, if she was really responding to us or not, as the whole time she'd been having twitches, I'd forgotten about that until now, she'd been twitching a bit the whole time this was going on, from when I first saw her Monday morning, so the whole asking her to squeeze your hand or move a foot or whatever was totally bogus because she was having these twitches and you couldn't presume any meaning to them. Her eyes being somewhat open didn't mean anything. But once or twice it seemed that she was turning slightly towards the voice of someone talking to her, but we couldn't be sure she was really responding. Partway through the day they determined she had stabalized enough to be transported to Kaiser, and I again rode over with her, Beth and Karen bringing their car, and around this time B&K decided they'd probably be here the rest of the week and to start clearing her schedule of students, because they weren't heading back to Olympia until they had some idea about where to move mom after she was released, but it sure looked like it wasn't going to be back home. And boy were they glad we'd gotten mom to sign a Power of Attorney on the previous Friday before Beth had to go back to Olympia. We'd drawn up a PoA that named me as the Agent, and Beth as an alternate, but real quick we realized that I just wasn't up to what was going to need to be done, so Beth was going to have to become the primary. If we'd started out as Beth as the primary mom might not have signed it, which is part of mom being a bit weird, but she'd signed it and we could now shift it to where the person capable of dealing with stuff would be the agent. Things have blurred together in regards to what day and precise order, but we got Beth all the information on the various life insurance policies, IRAs, etc., which could help with funding, she already had the long term care insurance policies; I might not have been up to dealing with the various people and entities, but I was able to lay my hands on the information needed for Beth to do so. I do know that Wednesday mom started being clearly responsive, they'd taken the tubes out late Tuesday before we headed out for the night, Wednesday when I drove over she was in a chair, not doing well in regard to talking, but clearly someone was home. I honestly can't remember how many days she was at Kaiser, B&K had to head back up to Olympia and see about finding a facility to transfer her to upon her discharge from Kaiser, because they really had to handle things and that meant it would be best to find a place in their neck of the woods. I was in what I refer to as "deal with it" mode, with jsut enough adrenaline permeating my system that I was functioning well, so I was making it out to see mom each day while she was at Kaiser, staying until I could feel my edge start to fade and then get home while still safe to drive. Part of my problem is that I don't seem to produce adrenaline and various other neurotransmitters properly, so I can't be relied upon, too much day to day what will I be up to, and getting myself started on things, meh, totally undependable, the gradual decline from what I used to be able to do has me totally depressed when I allow myself to think about it. Anyway, B&K found a Nursing home/rehab facility in Olympia to shift mom over to, which they did, not cheap but very good, and she was there for the better part of a month, she's gotten back pretty much to where she had been before the infection, so it's been determined that an Adult Foster Care situation is what would be best, and Thursday I think they transferred her over.

The long term care insurance may not cover this, but it's more appropriate at this time. We're going to have to sell the Portland property to fund things long term. But that requires that we have someplace for me to move to. Due to my being on disability Medicaid will allow mom to set monies aside to help me, and my IRA is enough for a good sized down payment, but the order in which monies are made available is going to be crucial, if uncle Richard or my cousin Glenn can buy out mom's interest in the family farm in Grand Ronde that will cover getting me re-situated which will then allow for disposing of this property where I'm currently living, which has been "home" since 1976, even when I lived in Chicago for six years this was home. So as funds are made available there will be a search for a place near Olympia, in one of the lumber towns most likely, where the economy is really depressed and home values are down, for me to move to so I'll be close to mom and sis. And I have to start getting my stuff organized for a move, and this is something that is difficult for me, which is a problem for precisely the reasons they approved my disability claim. I've got to sort stuff, throw stuff away, recycle stuff, dispose of things to worthy homes, sell some stuff, whatever, drastically reduce what I have and determine what things I actually might use again.

One of the things I've always identified myself as being is an Oregonian, a fourth generation native born Oregonian, and that will become a thing of the past, I'll be moving and never coming back. Of course, another thing I always believed was that I'd marry and have children, at 48 that doesn't seem so likely anymore, so looking at keeping things to pass onto further generations doesn't seem to be a consideration at this time. Beth and Karen have raised Karen's niece, Caillie [or however it is spelled, Gaelic for dance or some such thing], and look to be passing things down to her, so the family stuff is being funneled to Beth for preservation and distribution.

Well, that's three hours plus of writing, and crying at times. Maybe I won't take so long before my next entry.

Shed Lumber Storage, post 1

2009-12-15T15:31:00.000-08:00

I can't recollect if I've actually posted concerning the shed that Bill was building for us, I think I haven't. It's big. 8'x20', near 10' on the tall side [it has a sloped roof], door in one end and on one side, two big windows courtesy of having replaced some and needing a home for the old windows. Sturdy. Well framed. Proper roof with shingles and everything. Still has some work that needs to get done, steps to the doors, gutter, and paint, but other than that the structure is complete. Will need to get someone else to finish it, Bill's now got hernia problems and continuing to do this kind of work, well, it just isn't going to happen.

The intent is that all of our yard related equipment and storage can shift to the shed, and that the vast majority of our lumber storage can also shift there.

To this end I've, you guessed it, bought more lumber, so that appropriate shelving can be constructed.

I'm using a tried and true shelving methodology, or at least one that I've successfully used in the past. 4"x4" uprights and base, forming an 'L' shape, with 1 1/8" holes drilled in the upright to allow for 1" steel pipe, the kind used in plumbing, to slip into and form the shelves. To encourage the pipe to stay in the holes, and to make gravity our friend, the holes are drilled at a 5 degree angle from horizontal, so everything wants to shift towards the uprights. The pipe gets wrapped in pipe insulation so that it doesn't discolor the lumber. The 'L's are joined together to form a unit via 2"x4" cross beams set into notches in the back of the 4"x4"s, and these cross beams are also attached to the shed frame. Angle brackets and bolts hold the uprights to the base legs. Once it's all put together it's solid, very solid, not going anywhere solid, and able to hold lots of lumber. Covers one entire wall of the shed, so it'll handle a lot, with the base and then six shelves coming out from the uprights, 28" sections of pipe.

There are a couple of tricky bits, one being all those angled holes. I'm currently 5/8s done with drilling them, would have been 2/3s but the drilling tool came unadjusted on me and shifted to a 15 degree slope on the last upright I was drilling, didn't realize it until I'd drilled several holes, so that upright is going to turn into base pieces. The tool I'm using is at the end of this link; this tool allows you to drill holes at a specified angle, 5 degree accuracy if you are careful, using a standard power drill. If you have a drill press and appropriate outfeed supports by all means use it, but if you don't, this puppy sells for $39.50 from Lee Valley, and Rockler, Woodcraft, and Harbor Freight all sell variants on it. A drill press would be a much easier way to go, but not having space currently to assemble my drill press, this is what I'm using. Anyway, the settings came lose thanks to vibration after drilling 30 holes, I've reset the thing and will check more frequently to make sure it doesn't come loose again. I've got 18 more holes to go, and my arms are getting sore. Then I'll need to cut the base legs, and break out the dado gear to make the notches, and go get 2"x4"s and the able braces and bolts, etc., to put the things together, and do so.

Then I'll be able to look at moving stuff into the shed from the basement. The goal is to clear out all the lumber, etc., which is underneath the plumbing, because the plumbing is at the stage where we really need to think about replacing it. The building is 90 years old, there abouts, and much of the plumbing is original; the pipe is rusting up on the inside, needs replacing.

I'm not looking forward to selecting plumbers. Frankly, I'm terrified, my various stress-related reactions are all triggering, and it's not going to be a pretty sight.

That I'm working on the storage shelving is nothing short of miraculous. The only thing I can figure out is that one of my medications just changed manufacturer, and they're using a different mix of "inert" components in it, and that I'm not reacting to them the same as I was to the previous manufacturer's product, which I need to bring to the attention of my doctor, because seriously, I'm being far more functional than I have been in some years now. This is what is known as a "good thing".

Governmental Fiscal Responsibility

2009-11-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

There is a mailing address in Salem which is used by various Political Action Committees; one of these days I'll actually try to find out who is the official address holder. All of their mailings have a certain slant to them. And they do themselves no good mailing stuff to me, because I've come to the point where if I see their address, yes, I read their mailing... and vote entirely against them, every time. The address, by the way, is 3421 Del Webb Ave. NE, Salem, OR 97303.

They'd almost get me to see their way this time, except that the current situation is partially the result of their previous actions. There are a couple of tax measures on the next ballot, and they're against them, and have nice things to say about not raising taxes in bad economic times, and how government should be fiscally responsible.

However, they have been against fiscally responsible government when times were good, so I can't sympathize with them.

Fiscally responsible governments raise taxes when things are going good, and build reserves so that when things are going poorly they can continue providing desperately needed services. Fiscally responsible governments retain revenue surpluses against future revenue shortfalls. Fiscally responsible governments do all the stuff that we expect good, fiscally responsible individuals to do. Buy low, sell high. Set a budget that reflects routinely recurring periodic expenses, like roof repairs and a new paint job, which don't happen every year but which are expensive when they do, and which you know will happen; you set aside money every year towards them so you have the funds when needed. Plan for emergencies; things go wrong, set aside a bit more each month to provide for the truly unexpected expenses.

This isn't new. Take a look in the Bible, fer crying out loud! Pharaoh had these dreams, remember? Joseph interpreted them as foretelling seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and set up a system whereby that plenty was capitalized, food reserves were build up, and some of the surplus was sold to build up cash reserves, but enough kept that when the famine came they had all they needed, and enough to sell to their neighbors, as well.

A balanced budget is balanced for the long term, not just this week, month, or year. Properly, you should be looking 20, 30 years ahead, all the time, so that the various cycles can be taken into account.

This is a tough sell to the general public, they don't want to hear about long term planning, they want to have their cake and eat it, too. They are disinclined to listen to the voice of experience if it doesn't say what they want to hear. There is a reason our founding fathers set up Congress the way they did, and our fiddling with it has been detrimental to our fiscal well-being. The Senate has two seats per state, because initially those seats were filled by individuals selected not by the state at large, but by the State government, to represent the interests of The State; they were to be our House of Lords, to counter-balance the House of Representatives, our House of Commons. They were given a longer term of office, so they could really buckle down and work on long-term policy. The Senate was to be that voice of experience, given force. But that's water under the bridge, there's no way we'll ever switch back.

But the next time someone starts talking about responsible government, think a moment, or longer, about what a truly responsible government would be doing.

Kumoricon 2009

2009-09-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

So on Friday I was reading the latest installment of Girl Genius, and saw a note that the Foglio's were going to be at Kumoricon that weekend, and also the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, and said to myself, I did, "Hey, the Nikkei thingy is in Portland!" and proceeded to type a quick search on Kumoricon and found that it was an Anime Convention, seventh iteration, held at the Portland Hilton. Labor Day Weekend. $45.00 at the door.

And I thought about it. It would be crowded. I wouldn't know anyone. The video list was all stuff I wasn't familiar with [not having watched Cartoon Network][or anime in general for far too close to 20 years]. I'd also need to buy food. And if I went to the Dealer's Room, I'd spend money, probably.

And I thought about it. It was a 15-20 minute ride by bus from my front door. I wouldn't need to worry about where I was staying. Given my lack of current anime/manga knowledge, I wouldn't spend that much money at the Dealer's Room. And I hadn't gone to any kind of con in at least ten years. I wouldn't need to explain to anyone who knew me why I'd been a hermit and vanished off the face of the Earth for seven+ years.

If I didn't enjoy it, I could always go home.

So I went.

Got there Saturday morning, stood in line [in the rain] to get into registration. Noticed that anime fandom has bigtime costuming going on, and that this was a young crowd, teens through twenties on the whole, some of us older folks but not that many proportionately, which ties in with my discovery that many of them got introduced to anime via the Cartoon Network, so it's a Cable Generation thing, I got introduced in an earlier period, back in a much more word-of-mouth period, where the anime was available in Japan and what we saw was multi-generation copied... kinda like Blake's 7 fandom was. Anyway, back when I was watching in college it was a dedicated core and only starting to get to where some of the stuff was being imported to the states.

So I'm waiting in line, in the rain, listening to the folks in front and behind me, and it felt good, it felt like a con, full of media fans. And I just know it's going to be bursting at the seams crowded, as I can remember what it was like when Orycon used the Portland Hilton, and I can already tell this will have far more than Orycon had when last we used this venue.

Get registered, look at the pocket program guide, and start thinking about what I'm going to do. Some stuff on the third floor looks interesting. Now how do I get to the third floor... Much latter, after searching unsuccessfully for stairs [they did exist, I found them later on, but not this first time], and then standing in line for an elevator, I reached the third floor.

Which is where I spent most of my time while at the con. Seems there was a programing track on writing fan and original fiction, which I found interesting, and the presenters amusing, so I just hung out there. Did make it to the Exhibitor's Hall, spent not that much money, and didn't stay very late either day as I found myself getting tired and went home, but for a first foray back into the world of fandom, and just back into being around other folks, felt pretty good about it.

Fandom is a separate and distinct culture, homogeneous even in it's diversity, and I really am comfortable in it; my kind of people.

I did, a couple of weeks ago, buy an Orycon membership, so I'll be attending Orycon in a couple of months, the first time in over ten years, and there will be folks I know there; that'll be a different situation, re-establishing contact.

Memories from Camp

2009-08-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

The summer camp I worked at for two summers, 1977 & 1978, has changed it's operational methodology over the years, but is still in the same family and finding a way to survive; I just discovered their website, so I know they're still around. Sherwood Forest or as it was known in my time, Camp Sherwood Forest or Greiner's Camp, at the time was run by Alan & Barbie Greiner, who were the Theatre Arts faculty at The Catlin Gabel School for many years, and during the summer ran their camp on the Long Beach Peninsula of Washington, near Nahcotta on Willipa Bay. It is currently spearheaded by their daughter, Susie Andrews, and her husband, Gordie, who are attempting to maintain it as a gathering place for like minded individuals, friends, family, and somehow make it relevant in the modern world. Not entirely sure how they are doing, the website hasn't been updated in a year and the email is invalid, but the yahoo group appears funct, I've submitted an app to be added to it.

I have some fond memories of my two summers there, one of the highlights being a canoe trip where we left camp, circumnavigated Long Island, and returned in four tides, a little under two days. I was a bow paddler on that trip, and that's when we learned I paddled twice as fast as anyone else, and had to throttle back to keep from exhausting everyone else. By the end of that trip Gordon Leeds, my stern paddler, and I had gotten to where we could go from a semi-broken down camp to in the water paddling in around five minutes, including loading a passenger in the canoe; we were organized, in the zone, and didn't waste any motion. It was a wonderful trip, and also the last time I was in a canoe; haven't had the opportunity since. Thinking about it, I think that's the last time I've been on the water, which says not good things about the last 30 years! Haven't even been to the coast that many times since, and, well, I think I'll leave this be before I start getting depressed, yes?

And on other fronts, the painters finished up yesterday, so the major maintenance projects are done for the moment, although the next ones are already under consideration, the plumbing needs upgrading as previously mentioned. And Bill has started building the new outbuilding/shed, which will clear out a bunch of the basement, which will hopefully enable a lot of re-organizing of things.

I guess that's it for now, next Wednesday is part two of tooth extraction.

Teeth Extraction, primus

2009-07-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

Right now I have cotton gauze pads crammed in my mouth, helping to control bleeding as an aftereffect of having nine teeth pulled; the first of four Adventures in Tooth Extraction. They pulled mu upper molars and bicuspids [I think they're bicuspids, I might be wrong, they're the not quite molars just forward of the molars].

Was a bit of a trick doing it, with the level of decay and the fact that I've got good and solid roots, that really didn't want to let go. There wasn't much to grab onto, what there was to grab onto wasn't the solidest, and they really didn't want to come out. In other words, a good set of teeth for a dental school, they got to learn something dealing with my mouth.

In other news, it's over a hundred, my a/c is busted, and the painters have started work so my windows are shut; only way it could be worse would be if I had a south exposure. I don't, I'm on the north side of the building.

Oh, and my bathroom sink drain is clogged back in the wall, and a major nut on the pipe that I need to remove to get at it doesn't want to move. The next major project we need to save money towards is replacing a lot of the iron pipe in this building, the plumbing is anywhere between 70 and a 100 years old and is demonstrating that rust causes iron pipes to shrink internally.

So I'm not in the best of moods just now, and mom wants to talk, not catching on that right after oral surgery might not be a good time. Parents!

And I just demonstrated that the local anesthetic is still doing a good job, can't use my lips properly for drinking, nice spill all down my front.

*sigh*

It's a good thing I'm innately cheerful, otherwise I might really be down in the dumps!

Think I'll go read something silly.

The Roof, Heights, and Me

2009-07-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

I don't deal well with heights, at least not when I have any sense that I could fall. When I helped some friends when they were shingling their roof, I was the ground crew; was on the roof a little bit, but just couldn't handle it.

So the fact that I actually did get up on the roof of our building to look at the job being done says something. Mind, I never stood up, stayed firmly knees to the roof, but I still got up onto the roof, which is how I know it has slope and all. And the roof covering, this reinforced 60mil PVC sheet stuff, is smooth and slick; Wade [the boss] made it clear that if anything went wonky, call them [hey, 15 year guarantee], and don't even consider going onto the roof in the rain, and really don't consider it with ice, you'd be on the ground way too fast in an uncontrolled fashion.

But I actually got onto the roof. I'm not sure if it was courage, or insanity, or if there is a difference.

Roofing done!

2009-07-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

Yay! Friday they finished up the work on the roof, installing the new cap flashing on the facade; see, the roof actually has a decent slope to it, but on the front and sides it has fake walls running up to form a square profile, just like the false fronts on the buildings in frontier town in the American west. These fake walls have to be capped with flashing to prevent water from getting in and creeping all over the place inside the building, and to finish up the roofing, as the roofing material actually goes up the back side of these wall thingies and needs to be capped to prevent water entry.

So the roof is done. Yay! And there was much rejoicing.

Next up will be painting. Actually, siding repair and then painting.

Roof work now going on

2009-07-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

OK, to understand all this a bit of background on the building is needed.

It's a big square flat topped box. There is interior roof access, if one calls a hatchway accessed by leaning a ladder precariously from the stairs access. Earlier this year we had Bill install a slightly lowered ceiling area at the top of the stairs, with a pulldown attic ladder, making access to the roof quite easy, unless you just have a thing about heights, like myself. The pulldown ladder made it real easy for contractors to get to the roof to make bids, and the workers are finding it super handy, they still have some exterior ladders for hauling up materials but other than that they use the interior ladder 'cause it makes it so much easier. The reason I'd pushed for the ladder install was that otherwise we'd not be able to see what the roof was like, and it had been decades since anything had been done up there.

So yesterday they started on the job, first scraping off the old roofing material so they could see what the roof proper was like, which turned out to be not absolutely awful, but there is some rot, and the surface is rather uneven, more so than works with the roofing material we're having installed. So they're fixing the rotten sections, and then installing 1/2" CDX Plywood over the lot, and then back to the regularly scheduled roofing project. Adds $2295.00 to the cost, which is reasonable, at least to me. And these chaps are good steady workers; it's right above my head, I can tell they are working steadily, trust me on this!

Whateley Academy, or, What I've Been Reading Recently

2009-07-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Nestled in the Presidential Mountains of New Hampshire lies the Town of Dunwich, near which is located Whateley Academy, founded in the late 1800s by Noah Whateley as a school for Young Gentlemen. Fallen on hard times in the late 1950s, foreclosed upon by the bank, it was brought forth anew in the mid-1960s as a High School for those who possessed 'odd talents'.

Dunwich, New Hampshire? Where, pray tell, is that? Nowhere in our reality, although mentioned by H.P. Lovecraft. Welcome to the world next door to ours, where the Superheroes, Supervillains, and Mutants of the comic books are reality, and where the writings of H.P. Lovecraft are fact disguised as fiction; this is the setting for the stories of Whateley Academy, a High School founded [and protected] by a consortium of Supers, both Hero and Villain, for the express purpose of educating young Mutants in the usage of their powers, and the development of skills needed to survive in a somewhat hostile world, for there are many who do not love the Mutant as their brother.

Welcome to Whateley Academy, student body circa 600. Scrupulously neutral as to the path their students take upon graduation, directed by one of the foremost Superheros of any generation, staffed by some of the finest educators and researchers in the land, part prep school, part mutant academy, their graduates are accepted into the most prestigious colleges, courted by the CIA, NSA, NASA, and other governmental agencies, as well as the established Superhero & Supervillain teams, The Syndicate, and other shadow organizations both malign and benign.

Written, singly and cooperatively, by a group of approximately 17 writers referred to by their fans as 'The Canon Cabal' to difference them from those writing fan fiction set in their universe, the main sequence of stories follows six members of the Class of 2010 starting with their arrival at the beginning of their freshman year, in September of 2006. Brought together initially by the common thread of a change in gender accompanying their mutation, these six individuals rapidly form bonds which will last their lifetimes, however long those may be...

Five years of writing, with significant weekly updates for the most part, has brought the storyline partway through their second term, Winter 2007, although some Fall 2006 storylines are still in progress. Utilizing 'The Canon Bible' [a Secret Compendium of Established Lore regarding the Whateley Universe], a private forum, and individual emails, the Canon Cabal have maintained an astounding level of character consistency and universe coherency. Originally posting their stories at Sapphire's Place, a GLBT Internet fiction site, Whateley Academy has for several years now maintained their own server, The Crystal Hall, hosting the official Canon of stories, a fan maintained wiki, and an active fan forum, including fan fiction. [Some fan fiction has also been posted to The Big Closet.] Several significant members of The Canon Cabal began as writers of Whateley fan fiction, and were invited into The Cabal, and their work revised and reissued as Canon.

Experience the pathos and bathos of life at a coed mutant boarding school, the comedy, tragedy, seriousity and farce of life in the mutant fast lane with fifteen-year-olds adjusting to new powers and abilities, some eagerly, others reluctantly, all while taking English, Maths, Powers Theory & Lab, Home Ec, Basic Martial Arts, Introduction to Flight, Gadgeteer/Deviser Lab, Costume Theory, Introduction to Mystic Arts, Advanced Topics in Mutant Genetics, and others both academic and vocational.

Cliques and clubs abound! Jockey for social position with The Alphas [Whateley's self-proclaimed elite]. Considering a career as a cape, why not rush the Future Superheros of America? Your parents are Supervillains, that's a sure in with The Bad Seeds, admittance only to those of proper pedigree; desire to emulate your parents not required. Fancy a career as a model, Venus, Inc., is for you! Family from the upper crust, hang with the Golden Kids. Think yourself the next James Bond, the Intelligence Cadets [Spy Kidz] might be for you. Spectre more your style, the Masterminds for those with guile.

Acknowledged influences include the various major [and minor] comic book universes, H.P. Lovecraft, Japanese anime [especialy Ranma ½ & Urusai Yatsura], various role playing games with a superheroes/supervillains or Cthulhu theme, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Adam West's Batman, Vincent Price' laugh, and a familiarity with Prep Boarding Schools [US & Foreign].

And that's what I've been reading lately.

Renovations & Maintenance

2009-07-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

We're looking at a considerable outlay this summer, but it looks like we'll do it without going into debt.

The roof needs repairs and replacing, the siding needs repairs and painting, and we need a storage building for lumber, yard equipment, and construction related materials.

It's a flat roof, and little has been done on it in the 33 years we've lived here. Presuming it is still sound, recovering it combined with replacing flashing and a variety of other items looks to run us $9,862.00, with a 15 year manufacturers warranty. More if they have to patch the roof, of course. DialOne Roofing of Oregon.

Big square building, cedar shakes, some of which need replacing and many need reattaching. Plus flashing, and the chaps we're tending towards suggest re-stapling the shingles with snazzy stainless steel staples; the bid we're tending towards is a firm which doesn't just paint, they also do siding and window installation, the sides of buildings are their thing. So we're looking at $2,497.00 for shingle repair, replacement and re-stapling, and flashing on the corners and one window. Then $15,889.00 for all the stuff involved with painting the building, including this snazzy paint from Sherwin-Williams which has a 25-year manufacturers warranty. Oh, and while we're at it, repainting the entry hallway which is this immense two story with stairs space, and which hasn't been done since we moved in, might be an idea, and enough of a pain that paying $1,395.00 to have it done sounds real good to me. Total bid: $19,871.00. But wait, 10% discount somehow comes into play, which knocks it down to $17,802.90. And anything not covered in the bid but added later at $35.00/hour, most reasonable, it's a good detailed bid. C&K Home Improvement.

Storage shed. Say about 18'x8'x8', sloped roof, gutters, windows [we've got one's we've replaced running around, still good double pane, whyever not use them?], 4x4s instead of 2x4s on the south side so lumber storage shelving on iron pipe racks is fully supported, built to last for decades, none of this chintzy backyard storage shed stuff that's falling apart as soon as you finish building it, like the shed we just took down. The idea is that all the lumber in the basement will have a good home, as will the yard tools & supplies, and hopefully the various construction supplies we keep on hand. Get this stuff out of the basement. Clear out the Furnace Room, and make the major plumbing pipes accessible without struggling. Let the shop be a shop. Make it possible for me to move back into my old room in the basement, so we can get my current apartment back on the market as a revenue source. Bill's working up a bill of goods for this, after which he can give us an estimate as to what it will cost. This will go against his mortgage payments. There's around $16,000.00 left on his mortgage, so this will be no out of pocket on our part. Bill will have the mortgage paid off before the end of next year, at which point we have to start actually handing him money when he does work for us.

Once all that stuff gets done we start looking at other things, like the floor work in the apt. 3 bathroom, which is partially rotted out, and the need to replace the buildings plumbing as the old iron pipe is getting clogged with rust.

But the stuff currently bid on, we've got the cash on hand to cover, between what I've had mom socking away for periodic expenses and my Social Security lump sum back payment, which can repay the support mom provided for me prior to it coming through. And my budgeting for periodic expenses will be improved based upon these expenditures, so with care we won't need to go into debt for future repairs, either.

It's nice owning the building free and clear. It's nice to have zero credit card debt. And I plan to keep it that way if I can.

"Slugs & Snails & Bugs," he wails!

2009-07-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

We have snails the way some folks have cats, and boy did they do a number on the zucchini.

None of the zucchini survived, they all got et up before they got past the big fat initial leaves, the ones that pop out of the seed case. Nasty vicious snails!

The butternut squash, on the other hand, appear to be doing just fine, with one weird case. One clump of seedlings doesn't look at all like the others, Seems to me some other seeds got mixed in, some other variety of squash, the weird thing being that they ended up planted together in the one clump. Either that or some volunteers came up looking exactly as if deliberately planted, in a location that matches the pattern of planting I used; which I find unlikely, but I find both scenarios unlikely. It'll be interesting seeing what they produce, as that will be the only way to answer this puzzle.

Something is munching on the peas, and to a lesser extent the beans. Some bug which crawls out at night, with a voracious appetite. The peas have had all their tendrils, the stuff they use to glom onto things, munched away, and a job done on their leaves, and they're being slow to recover, if they ever really do. The beans have something eating holes in their leaves in 3 out of five cases, and the progression is from one end of the row to the other, but they still seem to be doing better than the peas, even if they don't seem to be growing all that fast.

Of course, not doing anything to the soil, other than attempting to remove the sod, might have something to do with rate of growth.

Allium

2009-06-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

The plants which I thought might be onions aren't. They appear to be some version of Allium, a garlic variant, with garlic style cloves and a slight garlic odor. They're going to bloom at this time, waxy onion-dome shaped flower pods peeling back to reveal a snowball of blossoms. Not much of a garlic taste at this time, I'll see what they're like after the blossoms wilt, when if garlic they'd be ready to harvest.

It's just crazy what all grows in this yard, domestic and invasive species growing in a forest edge style of semi-shade giving way to full meadow. And remove one obnoxious ground cover and another appears in it's place, seemingly out of thin air. The latest pestilential ground cover does a great job of smothering everything, even grass, which takes some doing! Long stems, with velcro-like stickery bits, about every eight inches or so a ring of leaves, slender things, and the seed pods are small BBs with stickery bits so they hold onto your clothing [and animal fur] so they can hitch rides and become widely scattered. The stickery bits on the stems make them act like they were sticky in a sap fashion when it's not a sap style stickyness, little brats sink hooks into your skin, can actually leave welts/rashes in their wake.

And the seedlings all over the place, let it go wild and in twenty years this would be a grove of mixed Oak/Walnut/Maple/Filbert, never mind the three apple trees. And the occasional holly.

Still more garden stuff

2009-06-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Same day as last post, went out and suddenly there were five butternut squash seedlings, and the two I'd previously seen were realized to both be zucchini. The butternut squash are all from the same planting area, so unless I attempt transplanting they'll be kinda cramped. The zucchini are from separate planting areas, crowding should not be a problem; the problem is that one got attacked by a snail last night, and one leaf and part of the other got eaten, just hope it pulls through. Our yard is crawling with snails, also some slugs but the slugs are not so pervasive.

I've gone through and pruned back all the new blackberry growth, except for anything which had blossoms; berries are good, brambles are bad. My plan is to go through and try to dig up the obvious blackberries after the berries have ripened, in the mean time keep them pruned back so it doesn't turn into the horrible bramble mass that it had been prior to my hacking them back last fall.

Garden update

2009-06-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

When I planted, I wasn't sure how everything would do, it's been 30+ years since I've planted anything remotely resembling a vegetable garden; not so for my parents', but for me doing it of my own free will, we're talking back before we moved from Salem, pre-1976, a number of years before then actually.

I'd say we're looking at a high germination rate for the peas, sprouting up all along the two rows I planted, way too close together. The beans, on the other hand, so far... I count three. Yes, three; big bean crop in our future. And to date one Butternut Squash and one zucchini, which is something like a 1 in 20 germination rate for that lot.

Both the peas and beans are pole varieties, at the moment what I'm using for that purpose are those tomato support thingies, the ones with three graduated rings and three stakes to support them. They'll do for a bit, but down the line I'll probably need to add longer stakes, presuming the legumes want to climb higher. But the tomato supports were kicking around in the way, so they were handy to the task.

And wandering around the yard, checking things out, I found, you guessed it, more Clematis striving to creep all over. A couple or three mini-infestations, now history.

I've determined how to quickly differentiate the sprawl-all-over-invasive blackberries from the we-actually-planted-them blackberries [aside from sprawl vs non-sprawl]; the invasive ones have noticeably darker leaves. This will help when I resume working on blackberry control, although part of me wants to see if I can keep them semi-controlled, 'cause they taste soo good, even though there is no such thing as a controled Himalayan Blackberry, they live to bramble, dreaming of the day they will cover the Earth in a layer ten feet deep.

I've discovered something interesting. If you stick a somewhat freshly cut Walnut branch into the ground in the late Fall to mark a possible Clematis infestation, it will take root and put forth much new growth in the Spring. I need to decide if I want a Walnut growing at that location, it's kinda close to the fence.

Also, squirrels will plant acorns a good block+ from the nearest Oak; we've got little Oak trees sprouting up all over the yard, pulling them out is getting to be a nuisance. And I've no idea whatsoever about where the squirrels have been finding the Filberts; those I try to leave alone, just to see if they'll make it. And then there's the Holly growing under the porch, nasty prickly thing, keep prunning it down when it grows through the slats. It's right next to a fern, also a volunteer under the porch, the fern is at least 20 years old now, like the one in the yard just past the rhubarb.

Guess this'll do for now.

Garden planted. Post numbering

2009-06-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is the actual post 100, I'd worked with Blogger's listing in the create post section, and I've got two posts which are saved as drafts and that threw the count off. If I ever finish them they'll show up with the initial date of creation from way back when instead of the actual posting date, which will make this post 102. Like anyone really cares.

Now, the garden. Planted peas, beans, butternut squash and zucchini two days ago, having soaked the seeds overnight, and soaked the ground as well. If they all germinate it'll be very overcrowded, but I'm banking on inexperience keeping germination to a reasonable level. Stuck bunches of apple pruning branches in the ground with the peas and beans, for them to clamber on, may need to add more sticks depending upon that germination thang.

Guess this'll do for now. Weather has been cloudy and chill the last two days, and the SAD thing seems to be kicking in again; really prefer it when it's hot and bright, sometimes I really miss Tucson's weather, or a Chicago summer, even with the added humidity.

Post 101, early morning gardening, and computer case modding

2009-05-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hit a milestone with the last post, and didn't realize it; this is my 101st post on this blog, never thought I'd be this verbose, that I'd post this much.

Mind, it's gotten fairly narrow of focus, and a focus I never expected. I mean, me, gardening? Get real! Although, as I've pointed out, it's much more me doing weeding and pruning, deciding stuff needs to go away rather than adding stuff, other than relocating the occasional volunteer filbert or maple sapling to a better part of the yard from my perspective.

Yesterday it was determined that we're getting back into warmer weather, which means yard work needs to shift to the early morning hours, when its not so blinking hot out. So, while it is only 6:58AM, I've already put in a half hour or so of weeding today.

Not having functioning air conditioning is going to impact computer use in a bit, as it did last summer; when the computer does an auto-shutdown because the heat sensors have reached critical, you know its getting hot. Tried to fix it last year by adding more fans to the case, with no real impact. Of course, what I realized a month or so back was that the fans were 12v and the power I supplied was 5v, so they never kicked in; I've rewired them so they are now getting the 12v they need, and it is making a difference in re interior temperature. Not surprising, really, adding two 12cm case fans, one aimed right at the CPU, will dramatically increase the air flow. A bit noisy, but that's OK, just gives me more white noise for the brain to try and interpret as music, I guess. Have to be a little careful opening the case, the new fans are on a side panel, and I have to unplug them to set the panel aside. I've read of cases where contacts and wires have been set up such that side panel fans are powered by contacts integral to the side panel and main body, where you close the side panel and the contacts slide into place. I could try and set something up like that, but I'd want to do it with an empty case, not one that has a functioning computer in it while I was working on it. Properly insulating a slide connection would be the interesting bit, although if I used the adhesive copper tape I have in conjunction with the brush-on insulation, I could lay down a layer of insulation under the tape... You know, that'd work. Provided the side panel was just loose enough to allow that much added thickness. Actually, electrician's tape with the copper tape would do, and be thinner.

Funny thing about the copper tape, Lee Valley sells it as a gardening item, wrap it around the base of pots to discourage slugs and snails, I bought it with the idea of running it behind fluorescent tubes in home brewed light fixtures, providing the ground plane needed to insure full function of the tubes if the structure was built of wood or plastic instead of metal. The idea was to build valances at the windows, covering the tops of the curtains and having lights aimed upwards, I'll still probably get around to this if we get the shop in shape, as my seasonal affective disorder really responds well to lots of fluorescent lighting with proper spectrum tubes, and its much less expensive than fancy light boxes that stand out like sore thumbs.

7:28AM now, time to think about breakfast, or so my body says. So I'm off!

Volunteer flowers

2009-05-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

Scattered around the yard are a bunch of flowers which have appeared from nowhere; at least, we haven't seen them here previously. I was first aware of them as unexpected greenery, which upon investigation was bulb-based, with significantly large bulbs, giving the appearance of being perennials. In the last couple of weeks they've come forth with blooms, reminiscent of what I called 'bluebells' in my youth, albeit in white as well as blue.

They're nice. I like them. I don't like where they are located, as they sprawl through the center of the yard, where one would consider hanging out or gardening.

So... While not weeds, they are now officially candidates for transplanting to the edges of the yard, specifically along the fence on the Mall Street side of the property. There, they can mingle with the other miscellaneous flowers, looking pretty and being out of the way. Of course, an I do this, I'll also need to fill in the holes resulting from transplanting, unless I want an impromptu puttputt golf course, otherwise known as anklebreaker heaven. Got enough problems with uneven ground without adding to it deliberately.

And guess what? While looking around for remnant patches of dandelions, I found a Clematis! Took me a moment to realize what I was seeing, but I promptly dug it out and tossed it in yard debris. There are also some areas with blackberries struggling to come back, so I need to see about harrowing them again; not real harrowing, allegorical harrowing, but going through with appropriate Implements of Destruction™ and making them Go Away.

I'm still finding the occasional dandelion, but I've really done a number on them, and a couple of related weeds; three yard debris containers in four weeks worth, the yard and parking strip are massively better looking, and the weather has helped on this by allowing for nice soft ground to work with.

My breakfast is beeping at me from the microwave, so I guess I'll be going before it gets mad at me! My motto is 'never ignore food'.

Arthritis of the lower back, oh joy! [NOT!]

2009-04-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

So, Tuesday got x-rays taken to look into this pain I've been having in the lower back, that sometimes shoots down the right leg, sometimes like to make the leg want to give way and buckle on me [hasn't quite done that so far, but at times it sure feels like it wants to.]

Seems I've got arthritic developments down there. They've sent the x-rays over to be looked at by more specialized folks.

So when I'm sitting down I've got twinges, depending on just how I sit. When I get up it's a bit more than a twinge, decidedly an Ouch!

Oddly, the position I kneel in when weeding seems to be free of pain, feels like nothing is wrong with the back, everything is nice and dandy. Then I have to stand up and carry the bucket of weeds to the yard debris can, sometimes a major ouch, sometimes merely a lieutenant ouch.

This is having a decided impact upon my interest in doing cleaning and organizing around the place; for some silly reason I don't like pain, and tend to avoid actions which will cause it. Taking pain meds enough to make a difference fogs the mind something awful, so I don't.

Oy. Oy vey, even.

So I sit around reading, and playing stupid computer games. Being a real slug. Or I go and weed for a bit, filling a bucket or two and then ouching my way back upstairs.

But the parking strip is majorly decreased in regards to dandelions, which is nice. Next, I guess, is wandering back to the back yard to continue working on dandelions there.

Weeding vs Gardening

2009-04-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

It's time I came clean; I'm not a gardener, I'm a weeder.

Gardeners look at a stretch of yard, and think about what they can do with it, and see weeds as part of the journey, an irritating part.

Weeders, au contrair, look at a stretch of yard, and look to see if there are any weeds, that they may while away the hours peacefully weeding, enjoying the challenge of each distinct type of weed.

Gardeners tend to work on one area at a time, doing the total makeover, striving to achieve their perfect vision.

Weeders are more inclined to focus on a particular variety of weed, casting about hither and yon to see if one more instance of this fractious weed may be found, ere they switch to another weed, and another method of weeding. Weeders have vision, and it comes into focus somewhere between one and two feet in front of their head, when kneeling on the ground. Weeders may move across an open stretch of yard, following a variety of weed like locusts across a Kansas wheat field.

Gardeners desire order in their yards, and in their lives.

Weeders see order for what it truly is, an artificial construct bearing no relationship to reality. They merely desire a pleasant afternoon in the sun, not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Gardening is a journey with a destination.

Weeding is a journey without destination.

Gardeners are plant snobs, cultivating specific varietals in specific places.

Weeders are egalitarian, asking only 'Is this a weed?' and if not, leave it be, it looks nice where it is.

Gardeners and weeders both wonder if given plants will play nicely with their neighbors. Gardeners will resort to careful plant management to bring out the best of various not-nice playing plants, while to weeders, well, not playing nicely with others is the very definition of a weed, isn't it now?

Boston Legal, Star Trek, and Stargate

2009-04-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've never watched Boston Legal. But I just saw an ad for the Fifth Season, and found it amusing that the two male leads listed were William Shatner, formerly James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek fame, and James Spader, who is the actor who originated the role of Daniel Jackson in the movie, Stargate, a role more commonly associated with Michael Shanks, who first ghosted Spader's performance and then made it his own in the series Stargate: SG-1, reprised the role with several guest appearances in Stargate: Atlantis, and who may reprise the role in guest appearances in the upcoming series Stargate: Universe.

Both Shatner and Spader have demonstrated a gift for comedic acting as well as the ability to be very serious when the roles required it. I may often make fun of Shatner, but he really is quite talented. Spader I have seen rather less of, but if he had not done so well as Daniel Jackson in the movie, Stargate might not have been optioned for a television series.

I could go into all sorts of comparisons between the roles of Kirk and Jackson, how they were both the vehicles for interventionist exploration, but it's lunch time, and food is my friend; a hungry boy is a stupid boy, wherefore I shall go eat.

More Dandelions

2009-04-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yep, in case you hadn't guessed, Dandelions are the new Clematis. In other words, this seasons obsession.

Dandelions are perennials; they last for more than one year. Over the years their roots grow deeper, send out side roots from the central tap, and sometimes even appear to have more than one top to a single tap. The roots are filled with the same type of white sap as the blossom stems, and have an orange colored sheath. The greens IIRC are edible, and I have heard tell that some make wine from the Dandelion. They are foreign to the Americas, lore says brought over by an herbalist which implies that at some time they were used medicinally. They reproduce via seeds, which are suspended from a fluff-parachute and distributed by floating on the breeze, landing where the wind dies down; they seem to have a relatively low germination rate given the number of seeds per plant in relation to the number of Dandelions in a given area, taking into account that they live for years. The seeds are light enough that a strong wind could carry them a fair distance, so no area is safe from them, although I suspect they don't do so well in arid terrain, preferring seasonally moist soil to expedite deep tap roots to tide them through the summer months. Their greens are saw-toothed, and spread out radially , hugging the ground, from directly above the tap root. The blossoms grow on long hollow stems, closing up at night and opening fully in response to strong direct sunlight; they don't open fully on overcast days. They prefer a sunny environment, not a shade plant, making them the bane of lawn and garden far more than forestland; at least this is my impression. The blossom is composed of multitudinous narrow yellow petals, with a tough green wrapper enclosing them at night and on overcast days; they are actually quite pretty in full bloom, but this could also be said of Clematis, and like Clematis the problem is that they refuse to be confined to any given area, and where possible smother other plants with their greens; where unable to smother with their greens they do poorly, as they require plenty of sunlight on their leaves and do not have stalks. The true reason they are loathed is because their best environment is domesticated lawns. Any affecianado of golf, croquet, or lawn bowling has an abiding hate for dandelions. They are evergreens, and over the years build a thick mat of leaves.

I have no citations for the above, purely my personal recollections and off-the-cuff extrapolations, so I may be wrong in some details.

Oh, we may be approaching veggie planting time, the bumblebees are coming out of hibernation, as have the ants. Have to start actively laying out ground for garden, not as much fun as pulling weeds, but hey, food is good.

Dandelions

2009-04-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

While I still question planting veggies, being leery of a late frost, sure it's been warm the last three days but still...

Well, the dandelions are in bloom. Spent an hour or so with the weeder in the parking strip and backyard until my back told me, "Enough already!".

Dandelions have weird tap roots. Sometimes long and thin, sometimes not so long, thicker around, and split, like funky carrots. On the parking strip they tend to head straight down, but in the yard some turned about an inch down and ran along under the surface for a foot+ until they suddenly dove down. Difference in soil is my guess, not as compacted in the backyard.

I'd have had better success if I had started weeding several days ago, the ground is still moist but not as wet as it had been, the roots had more resistance than they would have had earlier, so while some of them yielded long sections of tap root, others snapped off an inch down, far too close to the surface, good odds they'll come back to haunt me.

Lot of dandelions, given I haven't done any weeding before and it's years since mom worked on the parking strip in regard to weeds, so I have something to look forward to for a while. They've been settling in for years, roots growing longer each year, getting smug and complaisant. But their golden age is coming to a close, I and my trusty weeder will take them out, slowly but surely.

I find it amusing, Lee Valley and Garrett Wade sell this tool, which they call 'Grandpa's weeder', telling how it had been a Pacific Northwest standby before the Second World War; you see, this is my grandfather's weeder, I replaced the handle and oiled the hinge, it's good as new. I used it as a kid to pull dandelions in Salem, without the success I'm now having, something about weeding at the wrong time of the year, you don't try to pull dandelions when the ground is dry and hard packed, just won't work, you do it in the early spring and early winter, when the ground is moist and pliable, get it done then and you won't have problems with them in the summer. You do your major weeding when you don't have crops in, as part of your prep work, so you only have to do maintenance weeding during the summer, when you go after the new weeds before they get the mondo tap roots. At least that's my theory, and we'll see how it goes. I may be full of it, after all; it's happened before that I didn't know what I was talking about, it'll happen again, sure as can be.

Still too cold to plant

2009-04-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

I've been considering all sorts of goofy things, such as getting a soil thermometer [hey! Only about $10.00 at Lee Valley!], but so far the old hands are good enough for me in re soil temperature.

After all, if after 15 minutes spent digging up odd bits of Blackberry my hands are freezing, it's far, far, too cold to plant anything in the ground.

Different varieties of berries have different types of root. While your garden variety Himalayan Blackberry has the mondo thick 'root from hell' in old established vines, the raspberry has thinner vines, nowhere so thick at their worst. Sometimes it's hard to tell by root, as exploratory tendrils look pretty much the same, and I've not developed the skill to tell apart the various berries based on the initial frilly leaves poking up through the ground as they send out their scouts.

Still no signs of Clematis; the last live section, hiding out on the other side of the fence, was killed back by the Big Snow at the beginning of the Winter, and it's yet to get warm enough for anything to give a look-see. So I'm continuing to feel optimistic that I've done them a serious injury, that there shall be no Clematis in this here yard this year.

The next door neighbor to the East, whose yard I eradicated Clematis from, and shoveled snow from, has gifted me with an electric cultivator, aka roto-tiller; she's shifted away from gardening, having gotten a dog, as well as the cultivator is too heavy for her to use any longer. She got it at a yard sale, don't actually get the impression she used it. So, when it gets a bit warmer, and closer to being plantable, I'll be checking this tool out to see how well it works, if I need to take it apart and give it maintenance, or what. But it'll sure beat spading! Even if I am scared of it, just not as scared as I am of lathes, a tool I just was terrified of back in Junior High, resulting in a 'C' in Wood Shop II, where you had to use it to complete the required project, and I just wouldn't, nothing doing, it looked dangerous. The cultivator isn't that scary, I'll give it a try.

Powers of Attorney

2009-03-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Powers of Attorney are tricky things. Your generic Power of Attorney, at least as the various software packages present it, grants tremendous power over property. If durable, it lasts until revoked by the granter.

But say you want to grant authority in a narrow area, such as authority to talk with specific firms on specific subjects? Or firms in a given field of endeavor? Your generic Power of Attorney is far too broad, you need a Specific Power of Attorney.

In our case we needed a Power of Attorney for my mother, authorizing my sister to act on her behalf in conversations with her Long-Term Care Insurance Companies, and to enter into conversations and contracts with In-Home Care Providers and Long-Term Care Facilities; having an existing Trust instrument a generic Power of Attorney would overturn all the already established structures and be a right bloody pain. Working with the legal software we had kicking around, well, nothing suitable could be created, or so it initially seemed...

But...

By creating a Specific Power of Attorney, and selecting to not grant power over anything the software suggested, it was possible to create a document that had all the proper phrasing minus the actual area of authority, and then export the document to a text file, an .rtf file in this case. Opening the file in the word processor of our choice, we then went in and specified that the authority granted was to negotiate and enter into contracts with 1) Mom's Long-Term Care Insurance Companies, and 2) prospective In-Home Care Providers and Long-Term Care Facilities. Save the file with changes, print it out and double check, then print it out as a two-sided document, and we were ready to get it notarized and see if this meets the needs of the various entities who had been reluctant to talk with my sister.

This should work; it is a Durable Specific Power of Attorney with 2 clearly specified closely related task specific areas of authority, and I don't think they'd have a leg to stand on to claim it doesn't cover what we want my sister to deal with.

We do need to revise the existing Trust instrument, because dad created it and mom wants to change how things get distributed after she dies, seeing how dad died back in 2001 and his wishes are decidedly irrelevant at this time; mom wants to do things differently, that is her right. And we need to do this while there is no question about her competence. But until that is done we don't want to create anything which invalidates the Trust instrument, which a General Durable Power of Attorney would have done.

So, being a minor computer geek came in handy, being able to figure out how to tweak things around using different software packages to get the document desired.

And that's what we did yesterday and today, yesterday the tweakage, today the notarizing.

Woof!

Post this Puppy!

Sharp garden tools

2009-03-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Something I've discovered is that when you stick things into dirt, they get dull. Case in point being shovels, trowels, and root cutting knives. Sharp shovels cut through matted grass roots far better than dull shovels. Sharpened root cutting knives cut through blackberry roots far better than dull root cutting knives; sure, it has jaggy edges, but they dull down, get blunt, round off a bit, and there you are wearing yourself down hacking away at a root that's no where near as tough as the one you cut through previously like a hot knife through butter.

Now, the question may come up, just what do you use to sharpen these things? I don't know about others, but I've come to rely upon a nifty carbide sharpener from my old stand-by, Garrett Wade.

Perfect for putting an edge on steel or iron tools, small enough you can tuck it in your back pocket while working in the yard, or purchase the optional sheath with belt loop, or, perhaps, add a belt loop to the sheath it comes with. Not for use on anything requiring exact angles, don't try to sharpen woodworking tools with this, but fine for shovels, trowels, and knives, including all those dull ones in the kitchen [which reminds me that mom's knives are dangerously dull]. Actually, there are woodworking tools you could sharpen with this, spokeshaves come to mind as well as marking knives, scopes, and other hand tools which don't require precise angles, just a reasonable sharposity.

And given I'm making up words again, it's clearly time for me to

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Smile, smile, smile

2009-03-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

Something which requires a good set of teeth, as does eating certain foods, and clear enunciation.

Saw the folks at Oregon Health Sciences University School of Dentistry [OHSU] this morning, and the prognosis was as I'd thought it would be: a) do nothing at this time, b) major reconstructive surgery at around $50,000.00, or c) yank them all and go for full dentures at around $4,000.00.

Do nothing at this time is not an acceptable option to me, my teeth are majorly decayed and more and more various foodstuffs are ceasing to be amenable for mastication. Major reconstructive surgery is to laugh, for far too many of my teeth there's nothing to attach fake teeth parts to, and the rest of the teeth would require 50% to 75% rebuild, not really worth doing just to falsely claim I still have my own teeth, with no guarantee that the teeth will hold up, eh, NOT!

So I'll spend the next nine to twelve months, depending upon how things get scheduled with the Dental School Clinics, having teeth extracted, jaws healing, and dentures being made, at the end of which I'll have a removable smile I'll really need to take care of, but I'll also be able to do things like chewing my lip again, and taking bites out of food like an adult and have something to grind with as well. And I'll speak more clearly, which mom will appreciate.

And some dentistry student will have had a real learning experience, working on my mouth. Which is why it will take so long, something about the work having to be scheduled around classes, vacations, etc., but also why it will cost so little.

And thanks to my Disability claim being approved, with a two year retroactive payout, I have the money for this.

Well, that's the latest news from the Brooklyn neighborhood of SE Portland, so I guess I'll just

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Got seeds!

2009-03-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yeppers, went and bought vegytable seeds, to plant so that we'll have veggies for the table... too late, I already quit my day job.

Anyway, got some bush peas, stringless string beans which wants poles, carrots, lettuce, Butternut squash and zucchini; I realize that even though the packet has many seeds, one only plants one zucchini seed, any more and it'll feed the precinct. Especially since I don't happen to like zucchini, but mom likes it, so I got some.

I know what I'm going to use with the string beans, gonna use a bunch of them apple tree branches I pruned last year for them to climb up, knew there was a reason I was saving them!

It'll still be a while until I plant, we're still getting below freezing weather at night, but I figure this way I've got the seeds, and once it gets safe to plant I can plant.

It seems very strange, my preparing to plant a garden. I've never voluntarily been involved with a garden before, it's always been something I've been made to do as part of my "family obligation", you know the thing, parents not being up front and saying "because I told you to" but instead trying to lay a guilt trip on you so you'll feel guilty about not working on it even though you can't conceive of any rational reason they should expect you to care about a garden, or whatever their laying the guilt trip about. "Because I told you to" is a lot more honest, and had much less negative feeling on my part; don't try no Jedi mind tricks on me, be up front about it, and the most twisty you need to be is to mention that there's a lot done for you by your parents and maybe, just maybe, some help from you when possible might be nice, and give it the thought that they might have a better idea of what you can do to help than you do; not that parents are all knowing and infallible, far from it, they're making this up as they go along, but humour them, OK?

Anyway, got stuff for planting, did just realize that I'll still need to get tomaters and potaters, but those'll wait until closer to planting, too chill for tomaters just yet, and need to read up on potaters as well as the other plants.

Like I'm lacking in reference materials, no sirry bob, got lots of gardening books I've picked up over the years, self-defense 'cause mom would ask me gardening questions and my response would be a quite truthful "How the *bleep* should I know" followed by purchasing books to answer the questions, this is a patron-driven collection development policy, no high-falutin ideals, no sir, we get what the patrons are asking us for; to some in libraryland a strange concept, to me it makes sense, especially for my own library!

Snow, again?!?!?

2009-03-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Come on, it's March 9th already!

Don't tell me about Global Warming, so far this winter is more of an advert for "Enter Ice Age Four" as it were, in a mild Pacific Northwest kinda way.

No accumulation at this elevation, but it was coming down fast and furious for a bit an hour ago.

Definitely not planting vegetables anytime soon, the ground is too cold and we keep having snow.

But in regard to veggies, thinking along the line of peas, beans, lettuce, spinach, squash, carrots, taters, tomaters, you know, the staples, stuff that can be put up for the winter if in excess of current needs.

Quick! Alert the media! John's talking about vegetable gardening in a favorable manner! Sure sign that the apocalypse is upon us!

Or maybe it's that I feel a need to justify the huge yard by doing something productive with it? As well as truck gardens make economic sense. Yeah, that's it, the Scot's parsimonious nature, something never before seen in me, finally breeding true?

Dunno. Whatever. Just hope it keeps going, and sparks my interest enough to set up proper soaker hose watering and such like so that economical watering of said garden occurs.

Well, off to find something of interest to do. Wish me luck!

Hibernating Bumble Bees

2009-03-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

Bumble Bees are solitary critters, don't live in swarms or hives, hang out all on their lonesome, and when the weather gets cold and their food goes away they creep down through the upper layers of soil and settle down to hibernate, staying below the roots of the grass until it warms up enough that plants start to flower when they perk up and crawl back out and merrily buzz around gathering pollen and nectar to build up their reserves for the next winter. I've no idea how long they can live, how many turns of the season they can have.

So, like, I know this about Bumble Bees partially through reading, but also partially through personal experience, to wit: No *bleep*, there I was, merrily pealing away the top layer of soil, that which the grass had put down roots in, and what do I come across in the cold, damp soil, underneath the roots, but a Bumble Bee! And the shine doth sun, um, the Sun doth Shine upon said Bumble, warming it slightly, and it doth look up, say "no way Jose!", and burrow down through the soil some more until it can return to hibernating, for indeed, it is still far too chill for a Bumble Bee to be a-bumbling about.

Also came across a big old grub, several worms, and the knowledge that grass does surface roots, and various other plants come up from under the grass and stay behind if you are pealing away the grass. Like onions. Of which we have a-many, descendants of onions planted five plus years agone and never harvested, and some other plants which I'm not sure what they are, not aware of having seen them afore, but which are popping up all over in the wake of the unlamented Clematis and Blackberries, said viney types having held done and sorely oppressed many other plant species who are now putting forth greens and announcing to the world, "We are here!" and daring me to name them Weed, daring me to identify them as useful or non, being full healthy already and even bringing forth flowers, some of them. And the onions grow forth, quitely sending up their green tubes in some areas, and slightly different, more leeklike growths in other parts of the yard where I peeled back grass last fall whilst hunting out the Ivy which had snuck in under cover of the Clematis.

And no, I have seen no Clematis, for truly it seems to be gone, vanished, iradicated like the vile verminous viney vamp that it is, not root nor branch to be seen these several months agone. It, and the Blackberries and Ivy are gone, to appear no longer in this yard, slain by "clearcut" Mead himself, removed, banished, repudiated, evicted and exterminated, no more to annoy me with their ne'er ceasing shouts of "neener neener neener" as they creep out from yet another hiding place, gone they art!

[following a quick expedition to the back yard] Yep, still gone.

So, last fall was getting rid of stuff, this year may actually see vegetable gardening occur.

Well, enough, the focus it goeth and the writing thus becomes blurry of topic, hmm?

Yet more snow... and whistling

2009-02-26T08:39:00.000-08:00

Yep, this is a record winter. Another snowfall today, no accumulation on concrete at this elevation, but outside the main metro area there is.

Not since my mother was young have we had snow this late in the season here in Portland. Of course, in my mother's youth the casting pool in Moreland Park would freeze over enough for ice skating in April, which goes to show you how much of a climate change we've had in the last 70 years.

"Casting Pool?" I hear you ask, "What's a casting pool?" A Casting Pool is used for practising fly fishing casting. Big puppy, over 100' each side, with piers projecting into it to provide a place for the fly fisher to stand whilst practicing. Couple of yards deep, takes a lot of water to fill, and to freeze over enough for skating calls for an extended period of very cold weather. Don't know if it's been used for practicing casting in my lifetime, I have seen it used for RC model boats, and also for milk carton boat races. Clearly, when they built the park, fly fishing was much more popular than today.

And now to whistling. Finally, at 48 years of age, I've suddenly learned how to whistle, not very well mind you, but still the ability to whistle at all, and repeatedly verified over a 20 minute period so it wasn't just a fluke, well, it just made my day enough that I had to post about it! Already figured out how to whistle on the inhale as well as exhale, and to do a wolf whistle, and some controlled changing around between notes. Don't expect to hear the national anthem anytime soon. Not sure what my range of notes is just yet, and I whistle in the Soprano range, no deep notes, not that I know that anyone can whistle in deep notes.

So, there you have it, snow, history, and whistling.

Guess I'll just post this puppy now.

Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail

2009-02-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

So...

Decisions, finally, have been made about the oft proposed SE light rail, or at least the first installment. trimet.org/pm for full details, will run from PSU, through OMSI, stops at 17th & Holgate and then SE Bybee & McLoughlin, various other stops finally ending in Oak Grove. Scheduled to be complete in 2015.

We're right inside the 5 minute walk radius of the 17th & Holgate stop, which TriMet's project folks see as being the most heavily impacted, the 5 minute walk radius around each stop, that is.

The one for sure thing is that property values will go up. And the demand for housing in this area will go up.

If you pull up the TriMet site and then look at their brochure about the 17th & Holgate stop, you can see our property on their aerial photo, not on page one, but on the other pages, Milwaukie Ave is the angled street running north/south and from the west toward the east as you look down the map, positioned partway between where 14th & 13th are further north and south; Mall street is one block north of Holgate, the east/west white rectangle in the SE corner of that intersection, with the really tiny white rectangle snuggled up below it, that's us, and Bill's old truck before we got it hauled away; the incredible dark green foliage in the lot to the east of the building is the blackberry, etc., brambles which I've written about clearing out.

We're grandfathered as mixed use residential/commercial, due to the various businesses which have operated out of this building over the years, and we've got a double lot, so I foresee developers being interested in this location.

Interesting times ahead, interesting times.

Fear

2009-02-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Fear is the great disabler.

Fear requires no basis in reality, or it may have a basis so long removed that it no longer has relevance to current affairs.

Fear can control your life, preventing you from trying new things.

All of these presume that the reaction to fear is to pull in, to hide, to retreat, to entrench, to shield oneself from imagined harm.

I am far too intimately familiar with these forms of fear reactions, they have controlled me for all of my life. The most overwhelming has been the fear of the negative reaction of those whom I know and respect, in situations where the fact that I know them should show the fear to be with no basis, for the fear presupposes their being negative, judgmental, and self-centered, all of which I knew to be false images, yet still the fear would hold me back.

There are times when it is right to fear, but where possible one should strive to work through the fear to the underlying reality, and then take considered action to deal with the rational basis for the fear, to be advised by your fear but to not be mindlessly driven by your fear. Devise ways of testing that which you fear so that you can find out if it is rational to fear, and if it is, then work to define the factual dimensions of rational fear so that it may guide you, not blind you.

It is rational to fear fire, but we have learned to harness fire, answering our fear by learning about that which we fear, and through that knowledge, reducing the threat posed by fire; never eradicating the threat, for it is real, but devising safeguards such that with a healthy fear we can use fire to our benefit. Without fire, flint was as far as we could progress in tool making; with fire, we could eventually progress to building computers.

And I read over this, and fear that it is too fragmented, that too many different forms of fear are dealt with without proper exposition or transitional writing, that maybe its not perfect.

It isn't perfect, but it may spark useful thinking anyway, so I'll post it, in despite of my fear.

Once a Librarian...

2009-02-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

Now, over the years I've done some pretty geeky librarian things, such as assigning Dewey Decimal Classification call numbers to the non-fiction in my library, several thousand volumes worth, and ordering book jackets to protect the dust jackets, but I think I'm now starting on an übergeek undertaking, to wit, creating a bibliography for a book I'm reading. We'll see how long I keep this project up, n'est ce pas? [And as a former Spanish student, I've no clue if I either spelled or used that French phrase properly, so there, nyah!]

The book: Leonard Lee, The Complete Guide To Sharpening, The Taunton Press, Newtown, CT 1995. And yes, Leonard Lee is Founder and President of Lee Valley Tools, which right off gives him some street cred, added to by the very scholarly technique used in the research for the book. One of the things he did in researching the book was work with one of Canada's foremost electron microscopy technicians in analyzing the tools and the impact various sharpening techniques had on them, and where possible using tools from the same production run to as nearly as possible present the results of different sharpening techniques on the same tool while still having different tools to physically compare, to remove as many variables as possible from the project. In other words, the scientific method lives!

But the book lacks one thing, a bibliography. Works are mentioned as they are come across, but not in full bib format. While the first item mentioned, being a publication of The Taunton Press, is easily tracked down, the second item is a dissertation published in 1950 in Finland, and while the Author is given, I suspect that the True name of the publishing entity is not Finland Institute of Technology, but rather something akin to that in Finnish, and that, to those of you who know me, is what got me interested in making a bibliography for the work.

So, we'll see how long this obsession lasts, and how far I actually get on this project. The spreadsheet has been created, the first two items entered, and I'm about to start searching for a certain Finnish Dissertation from 1950...

The frustrating thing is that there are so many other, more practical things I should be doing, but this demonstrates precisely how irritating my disability is; I can't control what grabs my attention, and if it doesn't grab my attention I'm not able to force myself to work on it. This has resulted in short term brilliance throughout my life, followed by substandard performance once the obsession is appeased; in many classes I was doing A work up until a certain point, that point being when I'd gotten from the course what I was interested in, and then my work would plummet such that I'd come out with a B; this is how I know that my mind really does mesh with COBOL, I got an A in that class, well deserved too as I came out of it understanding the language better than the GTF teaching the course, but enough, off to Finland!

[Later...]
Well, that was easy! Searching Google under Eero Kivimaa, the sixth item was a patent application which provided the bibliographic information required. Seems he's gone on the great things, numerous patents over the years, numerous publications; good street cred.

Didn't even get to try to locate an appropriate Finnish repository and track it down that way, just searching his name was enough. Could not have done it this easily ten years ago, twenty years ago it would have been well nigh impossible without the resources of a major research library and for pay online searching. How the world has changed! Of course, properly I'll need to verify this with another source, to confirm the validity of the posted information.

Life is good

2009-01-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I packed off the last yard debris from The Great Yard Excavation of 2008, so on [quick, start counting on fingers!] so on Thursday morning, February 12th, the last three cans of yard debris will be hauled of by the lovely folks at Heiberg, who would be delighted if they but knew that this signals the end of most of five months of up to six cans every two weeks. The yard's a full lot, and it was horribly neglected for most of four+ years, and now it looks like my grandparents' pear orchard, slightly uneven ground, patchy grass and onions and stuff, you know, a working farm type appearance as opposed to looking like poor white trash with uky stuff taking over.

So life is good.

And in the last week I've gone from being two years behind on my Mom's taxes to waiting for the last few documents to start the 2008 return, having completed and mailed [or having ready to mail] the 2006 and 2007 returns, both refund returns [yay!] and being caught up on the bookkeeping so that all I need is to get the 2008 tax software and check a few things and 2008 will be done, first time it will be done early since Dad died in 2001, shows that while I have a ways to go getting the place tidied up, still and all, improvements are occurring.

Life is good.

And like clockwork, at slightly over two year intervals for the last 4+ years, I've gotten called for Jury Duty; this'll be the third time since life went weird, unlike the previous two this isn't a set term of two days but instead a pool for a trial which is expected to go 8+ weeks, Federal Grand Jury stuff sounds like, and while I doubt they really want me given why I'm on disability... I don't fall into their exempt categories, being neither 70+ years of age or breastfeeding, so I'll be showing up in mid February and they can decide if I'm who they're looking for in re serving on a Jury.

Life, is weird. All the years I was in fine shape, never got called for Jury duty, now they do it as closely together as is legal. I may ask them about it this time to see if they really want to keep calling me up given my erratic functioning.

But still, the yard is clear and now to wonder what to do with it, and time to try and motivate in like manner to deal with stuff inside the building.

As I swivel around in my chair, I look around and see that while I'm not having folks over, it is much better than it has been in years and there might actually be a tunnel that I can see a light at the end of, instead of a cave with a mirror reflecting the light of the train behind me, as it has so often felt like these past five years.

This'll do for now. All hail the Conquering Gardener! He Who Hast Slain Clematis! Banisher of Blackberries! Pruner of Fruit Trees! He Who Uses Opposable Thumbs! Tool User!

Yea, verily, let this be mine epitaph, "He was a user of tools", for all shall know that this was a man of worth.

Save that thought, for some time many years from now!

Life, is good.

The absolute best time to go shopping!

2009-01-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us, and that means that the best time to go shopping is upon us as well.

Costco is almost vacant during the Super Bowl, the place absolutely echoes, and the malls look like they aren't open. The streets are empty.

And the folks you come across while shopping are great! That is, the other customers are great, they're preselected to not be obnoxious sports fans, their IQ is considerably higher, and they tend to be pleasant non-aggressive types. And they tend to be tired of all the hoopla about the Super Bowl, it's just a d*mn football game after all, not like its really of any import to Life, The Universe, And Everything.

And I'm sure that there are gals who could really dig a straight guy who'd rather be shopping than watching the game. After all, which is more important?

Now is the Winter of our Discontent; still more snow!

2009-01-27T09:07:00.000-08:00

So far this winter we've had more snow than in the last 15 years, possibly longer, combined. Since the last I posted about snow we've had two more snowfalls, including the lovely snowfall going on right now.

The current snowfall looks more like a downpour, except that its snow not rain; coming straight down, rapid not drifting, medium sized flakes so it really has that downpour look to it. Supposed to have a possibility of freezing rain later on, as it warms up.

Makes me wonder what next winter will be like, so we can see if this is a trend or just a fluke, its probably time for another cold cycle, haven't had a really good one in thirty years and that was just a sequence of three years with ice storms, nothing much snow-wise.

The part of me that doesn't deal with shoveling the walks thinks this is grand, its part of what I miss about Chicago [other than the food and bookstores and friends], the part that deals with shoveling the walks thinks if this is more than an aberration I'll need to get a better, read proper, snow shovel, the thing I'm using is more of a manure scoop shovel for unloading trailers than something you'd use with snow, the handle is just too short so you have to hunch over and like to kill your back in nothing flat. Of course, just as I've done with other implements of destruction, I can always replace the handle, just need to drill out two rivets, drive them out using a pin punch, then insert one of the spare shovel handles I just happen to have in the shop, drill proper holes and bolt the thing together and voile! Probably wouldn't hurt if I sharpened the blade as well, dull shovel blades are much harder to work with than sharp shovel blades.

Which nicely segues into sharpening tools, such as hand saws and shovels and trowels, et al., and tools I recently bought for the purpose of doing so, except I don't feel like going into major details just now, but I've purchased the equipment needed to properly sharpen handsaws, which all of the western style saws we have desperately need to have done. Saws are supposed to have nice and sharp teeth, not nice and round teeth, and some of ours are rounder than a hunchbacked mouse, to coin a phrase.

Well, back to killing time while watching the snow come down.

SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder

2009-01-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

Seasonal Affective Disorder, acronym SAD [yes, they clearly designed the name to produce the acronym], is a bloody pain. At least in my case.

Light quality and intensity affects mood; the gloomier the environment, the gloomier the person. The converse is generally true, the cheerier the environment, the cheerier the person. The best long-term solution to SAD is to move to, say, Tucson, where even during monsoon season the skies are this gorgeous bright blue. Don't even consider moving to Alaska, not if you expect to last a year; seriously, those struggling with SAD have heightened likelihood of suicide during the winter months, the world just is a complete downer. Conversely, those not affected by SAD but depressed during the winter have a heightened suicide potential when the weather changes and they stay depressed, as they realize it's not just the weather.

There are semi-successful treatments for getting through the dreary months, and they involve tweaking your environment. Bright, high intensity lights, balanced output to simulate mid-day summer light levels, combined with paint matched to the appropriate shade/hue of blue found during mid-day, high summer, has the best effect. Combine this with closing drapes/blinds when it is gloomy out, insuring that the drapes/blinds are highly reflective and/or of a cheery color, helps to remove awareness of the outer gloom.

The light stuff is pretty common knowledge these days, I don't know if the medical crowd has a clue about the impact of color; I'm aware of it as it explains my lifelong infatuation with certain shades of blue, especially in shirts; having certain shades of blue constantly in my peripheral vision has an extraordinary impact upon my functioning.

Nifty idea for tracking down the appropriate shades. Take a digital camera, on a day where the sky just causes your heart to sing with joy, and take photos of the sky. Then run the pictures through color analysis software, which will output the mix of primary colors required to achieve that shade/hue. You can take this down to your paint store and they can mix paint to match; take the photo as well as any analysis you've done, they may have their own color-matching software tied into their mixing machines.

For a really neat effect, take photos of the color at the horizon, mid-sky, and straight up; you'll produce a range of shades due to the different amount of atmosphere the light had to travel through. Paint your walls shading from horizon at the baseboard to straight up at the ceiling, your mind will be tricked into thinking you're outdoors on a gorgeous day!

Blending light and color in different ways in different rooms can result in the mind being able to focus better in different rooms for different activities; you need to be able to work on x type activity, go to y room to be properly stimulated by your surroundings. The final touch in environmental pre-conditioning would be audio, blending sounds/music to sight; OK, the real final touch is tying airflow into the whole thing, to produce a sensory virtual environment appropriate to the task at hand.

Now, for a truly scary situation, combine bi-polar with SAD. Bi-polar being a PC way of saying manic/depressive, combining it with mood swings tied to environmental stimulus is just asking for trouble. I know I'm SAD, and there's reason to suspect bi-polar and some autism-related behaviors.

It's bright and sunny outside. I'm slightly manic right now. I need to go do something!

Income Tax, withholding, and refunds

2009-01-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, when I was working for the Chicago Public Library, I always had a refund return on my Federal and a slight tax due on my State taxes. Then Bush, Sr., had his Economic Incentive Brainfart, and withholding was reduced, and I suddenly started owing taxes every year.

The rational was that if people had more money throughout the year due to decreased withholding they would turn around and invest the money in some manner that would enable them to earn more money, and that from this they would pay the taxes with no burden at tax time.

Stupid. That's all I can say about that idea, STUPID. The average worker has no investment plan, does not invest, and presumes that withholding will cover their tax burden with a refund left over, as it should and had done for a long enough period of time that generations of blue collar workers were raised budgeting for a refund to make purchases; the refund was their investment plan!

And withholding has not been adjusted back since then, because they all think readjusting withholding will be perceived as raising taxes. Idiots. The vast majority of folks don't really notice the difference in paycheck size that seven dollars would make, but everyone notices the difference come tax time, when they owe money, serious money, instead of having a refund.

See, the whole concept behind withholding is to spread the burden over the course of the year, in such a manner that no tax is owed at the end of the year. From a strict fiscal perspective this should be done such that refund or tax due is under $10.00, and the understanding being that amounts less than x, where x is the cost of processing payments, would neither be issued nor collected; that you don't lose money due to the cost of processing the paperwork.

For the longest time the majority of workers, the one's able to file short form returns, always had refunds, refunds large enough that they could make semi-big plans around them. Tax time was not looked at with dread, it was looked forward to with anticipation because they had a refund coming, and they had budgeted for that refund; the refund itself was a viable economic stimulus package, and one which had no negative emotions attached to it.

When people get refunds they don't complain about taxes, when they owe tax they complain; the tax burden may be identical, but perception is based on how the pocketbook is hit, and big chunks all at once are a pain and are perceived to be a pain, whereas refunds cause the sense that things aren't so bad, kinda nice actually.

Folks living paycheck to paycheck can't pay tax due returns. They really appreciate a refund. They generally have enough frivolous 'expenses' each paycheck that a slightly larger withholding won't be noticed, but the end result of a tax refund instead of tax due will be noticed. People who receive refunds are happy with their government, those who owe taxes are not.

Truly smart congresspersons would adjust things so refund returns were once again the norm for those who have no non-W2 income and no Schedule A deductions, the folks who fit the norm. It should be that if you do everything you are supposed to do by the governments rules that you will not owe taxes; anything else is the government deliberately yanking your chain, and deserving of public outrage.

More snow!

2009-01-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

So, when I went to bed last night rain was coming down in a decidedly Chicago drown your cat fashion, the kind of rainfall where you expect to be able to sail boats down the street and heaven help you if the drains get clogged, not the weather to go take out the garbage for pickup in the morning. So I didn't, take the garbage out, that is, decided I'd get it done in the morning prior to their showing up to pick it up.

Lo, and the morning came, and it wasn't raining, and I did open the door to deal with garbage & recycling & yard debris, it being that week, and there was snow on the ground!

Not that much snow, a soggy inch of it, so I did go forth and drag stuff to the curb, that the Mighty Men of Heiberg might come forth and Haul It All Away, and I did return to my domicile, and in scant minutes, less than five, I did Hear Them Arrive And Haul It All Away. And it was good.

And the snow it slushith, and turns full soggy and lacy looking, and anon it shall be gone, for it is not a full storm of snow that occurred, just a slight taste of one, on ground full wet and sloppy, and it thus is more akin to normal snow in this region than that which occurred some weeks agone.

It's Melted! O Frabjous day, calou calay!

2008-12-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

The thickest sections of snow still have remnants, but the sidewalks are clear, and except for where snow got piled on snow the yards are clear.

Yay! Hooray! Yippie ti yi yay!

After ten+ days of being snowbound for all practical purposes, this is nice. And as is usual in the Willamette Valley, it already feels warm enough to work outside without a jacket, given a certain amount of physical activity; or that could just be the former Chicagoan defining warm enough, but observing others says its not just me. its not, it is to pleasant out, it has warmed up.

And sans flooding, thanks to lower than average December rainfall resulting in non-saturated ground and thus the ability to absorb the snow melt without any problem, which is nifty, it is, it is, nifty indeed!

Giddy I be, no? *grin*

Snow's still with us, record length of time for PDX

2008-12-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Not sure what the weather is going to do today, didn't pay attention to the forecast yesterday.

But we still have snow piled up all over, with side streets totally treacherous. Some snowfall yesterday, no accumulation at my elevation.

It's more than ten days now since the snow started accumulating, and it's still here. There has been some melt from time to time, even some rain, but the result of that has been ice and crusting.

I know, this is nothing, in Chicago the snow will come and not melt for months during the winter, I lived there for six years and can testify to that, but here in the Willamette valley, well, snow just doesn't stick around like this, not in the lower elevations it doesn't.

Hasn't done anything like this since Mom was a kid, and I mean a kid, 1930's we're talking about here, just glad we haven't really had any freezing rain with this, that'd mess things up for sure.

Going just a tad stir crazy, stuff I've felt like working on but not with everything covered in snow or just really cold, like the basement.

Did get all caught up on financial data entry with Quicken, which is a good thing.

Got a bunch of stuff ready to go out for recycling, but that just means it piles up inside in a different configuration given not being convenient to drag it outside to the bins, with the snow on the steps; yes, I should clean off the back stairs, and if we had tenants right now I'd have done so, but not doing it when it's only for me. Stupid on my part, of course.

Bleh. Stir crazy and depressed, lovely combination.

me go find something to do, bye now

Appropriate use of technology; eyeglass selection

2008-12-23T07:15:00.000-08:00

I know, I got my new glasses last month, don't know why this didn't pop into my head until now.

My focal length, uncorrected, is under six inches. When selecting new glasses, well, let's just say that I'm used to taking other's word for it if it will look good or not, 'cause there's no way I can see how they look on me with the lenses they have in the display frames.

Enter modern technology, to be specific, photographic technology.

Using a digital camera and digital picture frame, you know the type, flat panel display dedicated to displaying still pictures, it was possible to see what I would look like in the frames I was considering. Put the frames on, staff femme snaps a picture, transfers it to the picture display frame, put my current glasses on and voile! There I am with the prospective frames for my viewing pleasure, able to see for myself just what I'd look like for the first time in my life when selecting new frames, none of this sticking my face right up against a mirror and having perspective bent to heck and gone which is what I was used to doing.

I was quite impressed with this use of technology.

I don't know if this is standard practice at eyeglass shops or not, but Lenscrafters, Clackamas Town Center Mall, is on top of things and proved worthy of patronage.

And they've also got quite the selection of metalworking tools for adjusting the temples of the glasses for a proper fit, the former jewelry student in me has a major case of tool lust, I haven't seen anything like it before at an eyeglass shop. Only thing they were lacking that I'd add to the selection would be a short length of ¾" PVC pipe for use in getting nice smooth curves on the earhookthingy, the section that loops over the ear; smoothed up the curve myself after I got home with the new glasses using a short section of said pipe, and have considered dropping off a short length next time I'm out there just because it would be the thing to complete their tool selection, and I really like the service they gave.

OK, so I'm weird that way, call it the gut-level socialist in me, if I can help folks in some fashion I like to do so.

I still think it was a clever use of technology.

post this puppy

Snow; or, feeling my age

2008-12-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, I should grab my camera and take pictures to prove that we've got, like, maybe six inches of snow here in the lowlands of Portland.

My back says "no."

See, I went out and shoveled the walk, not all of it, I stopped when it started sleeting on me, but the front and the beginnings of the side are donish, and my back tells me that I'm every day of 48.

"Happy birthday," sez the back.

Bundled up I was, two sweatshirts, silly name that, not made of sweat, more like fleece to me, but anyway, two sweatshirts, sweatpants with wool military pants over them, wool oversocks, nifty pair of Lands' End boots purchased back when I lived in Chicago, must be 17 years I've had them now, welding gloves, and the head protection from my SCA fencing outfit [four layers of sports cloth and a layer of pretty fabric over that, pattern based on scuba diving headgear, nice and warm my ears and head were]. Ready for the weather I was, I was, ready for the weather I was. Don't look now, almost turned into the chorus to a song, don't know the words but had that rhythm, didn't it now?

Snow shovel we had from back in Salem, scoop shovel, heavy sucker, handle could be a bit longer in my mind, I'm taller than I used to be, nothing like being half stooped over when shoveling heavy crusty snow, back's been nattering at me non-stop most of the last hour, telling me I'm not up to this anymore, and the left knee, the one that hasn't had surgery, its not too happy with me either.

Hair's looking grey these days, blend of snow white hair and the stuff that hasn't changed yet, hands starting to get that slightly thinner look that comes with age, feet also seeming to lose fat, getting right skinny they are, taking to wearing socks to be to keep them properly warm.

Haven't wished my sister a happy birthday this year, been a couple of months, don't think she's really into her punk brother ragging on her about turning the big Five-Oh, 50 she is now. Mom's 83 now, twenty more years to match how old her mother lived to, we'll see how she does. Dad only made it to 75, lesson to ya about smoking that was, no real question about the cause of his emphysema, although he always blamed some of it on growing up downwind/stream from the Oregon City paper mills, can't say he was wrong about that contributing at some level, pollution wasn't a concern back in the 1920s and 30s, not like they gave a damn about the impact of their effluents on the lowlifes living below the falls.

Hows this for a stream of consciousness post?

Take a prime number starting with 2 and progressing from there, square it, fuzz it +/- 1, and the fourth prime fuzzed in that manner gives my sister and I in age at this point in time. Absolutely meaningless, but the type of thing my mind will occasionally spew forth, which shows how weird I am. Won't happen again, we'd have to live to 122 and 120, respectively, for the next prime, and I just don't see that happening.

Think I'll settle down and read a bit, let my back grumble a while like the curmudgeon that it is.

Oh, and the weather we've been having, put the big kabosh on my getting all the yard clippings cleared out by the end of the year, not gonna happen.

post this puppy

PVC fittings for furniture

2008-12-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

Almost from the day PVC pipe became available, people have used it for stuff other than plumbing.

Lightweight, strong, inexpensive, amenable to home machining with just a small expenditure in tools, generations have made shelving, play structures, chairs, desks, etc. using this material.

For a long time there was one major drawback, the fittings available were only those of use to the plumbing industry, many of use to the non-plumbing trade just didn't exist, so folks would either have to bore out the innards of plumbing fittings, in the case of slip-tees, or use PVC glue to manufacture the fittings they needed for the project at hand.

Then some in the plastics industry realized that there was a large enough market to justify manufacturing fittings for non-plumbing use, fittings which while structurally strong and useful actually violate plumbing codes, such as the 5-way cross with all five openings the same size.

Two different approaches were tried, the first was to create entirely proprietary fittings and pipe, not matching any industry standard sizing, this done by firms begun as new ventures who tooled up from scratch, the second being to retool slightly and produce new fitting styles for industry standard sizing, allowing existing firms to expand into a new market. Those expanding into a new market have focused mainly on 1-1/4", with some fittings also designed for 1" & 1-1/2" pipe.

Recently a third approach has surfaced, of creating PVC fittings of various styles sized for 3/4" copper pipe. This intrigues me.

Searching for 'PVC furniture' with or without 'fittings' will pull up a number of sources for fittings and pipe; the nicest selection of fittings I've come across is provided by my perennial favourite, United States Plastic; indeed, this is how I first became aware of the firm, looking for fittings useful for making pet agility equipment.

Normally I'd try to include pictures of fittings and examples of use, but posting this was a result of enthusiasm and low blood sugar, and the blood sugar has hit rock bottom, so I'm off to get food.

So this is a wimpy post. Oh well.

john, stop editing and revising and go feed yourself, right now! silly human, food is necessary for proper thought and functioning, and stop typing right now

21 degrees out, high of 25 forecast

2008-12-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

So, for Portland, Oregon, this is cold. Really, really, cold. And we're not even talking wind chill factor here, so effectively its even colder. Mind, folks are being directed to websites for explanations of what wind chill factor is all about, which would make my friends in the Midwest fall over laughing, to think that anyone would need an explanation of wind chill, probably as much as I lost it laughing when I read an article in a Chicago paper explaining about slugs, which they were having a problem with given a warm winter, slugs being something any Willamette Valley native knew about before they entered school, Nursery school that is.

But yes, we're a wimpy bunch here in Portland, didn't actually have that much snow, and it's not really that cold if'n you've lived anywhere East of the Rockies and north of Mason & Dixon, yesterday [Sunday] they already had the school closures out for today, and trust me, every school was listed as being closed. Guess they had deeper snow in the higher altitudes, have to remember that I'm not that much above sea level here in the Brooklyn neighborhood, SW hills are much higher, and East County has the Columbia River Gorge, aka The Great Wind Tunnel of the Pacific Northwest

Whoa! Red Cross is opening Emergency Warming Centers. Actually a good idea, given that if you don't have heat this weather will kill you.

Well, once the sun comes out I'll bundle up again and clear the walks again, it's now 6:30AM so it'll be a bit until I do that. In Portland you are responsible for clearing your walks, are held legally liable for injuries if you don't attempt to keep them clear, be it snow or leaves or whatever, back in Chicago the deal is the opposite, only responsible if you try to clear you walks but don't do it properly; given that snow on top of ice is safer than ice without snow, both could use better definitions of what is acceptable and what is not.

It's been kinda fun listening to the wind whistling around, hearing the gusts rattle the porch roof; real glad I used pop rivets, zip tie anchors, screws, and zip ties to fasten them down a while back, used to really rattle in the wind, but now it just indicates that it would like to rattle.

Which reminds me that one of the projects for the summer is to reroof the porch, or at least reflash it, which also requires making it easier to get to the building roof, so one can approach from above. Making it easier to get to the roof would also aid in checking the condition of the roof.

See, this building has a totally flat roof, OK, it may have a slight slope but it is effectively flat with just enough slope to direct rainfall to the rain gutters. The roof access is via a hatch above the internal stairway, currently requires using a ladder in an unstable manner to get to the internal cover, then climb up like a yard to the external cover, then you're at the roof. What I want is to install a pull down ladder, one of those attic ladder jobbies, to the internal hatch, making it much safer and easier to get to the roof, so we can see how the roof is doing, and can then use a removable boat ladder, the kind that hooks over the side of a boat when it's on a trailer so you can get into the boat from the back, like we had back when we had the 16 foot tri-hull, anyway with such a ladder it would be possible to get to the porch roof from above and inspect the flashing, which I know needs replacing because water has been creeping down the side of the building between the porch roof and the building, resulting in water damage above the 2nd floor kitchen doors, which open on the porch, and this damage is a bad thing, and needs to be stopped.

Huh, radio just said lows around 15 overnight. Like I said, for Portland this is cold. Me, I just drag our my medium weight Chicago winter clothing from storage, the heavy weight stuff is for -50 wind chill...

7:00 AM, still dark out, but I should fix some breakfast, yes?

So...

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Comparison price shopping & Library Products

2008-12-13T12:01:00.000-08:00

Having just received the Five Season collection of Andromeda, via BoxedTVSeries.com, I find myself in the market for DVD cases, specifically 10-packs, cases which will hold 10 DVDs plus cover graphics.

Nexpak VERSApak seems to be the way to go. Let's see what the library supply firms have to say:

Brodart has them for $2.65, Demco for $4.79, Gaylord for $3.25, The Library Store for $4.40

Hmm, last time I ordered them from U.S. Plastic... $1.33

I need five. Take a wild guess where I'm ordering from. Same place as last time.

The real point in this exercise is that in many cases a bit more digging will find a better price, in this case a majorly better price, at a non-library source, for products we tend to associate almost exclusively with libraries.

There are reasons your purchasing department may prefer utilizing the standard library sources, such as the convenience of one-stop-shopping, working with a "known" source, minimizing time required to process orders, etc.

In The Olden Dayes these had some validity, but with the ease of online shopping this is far less valid. Certain institutions I used to work for would bring to mind the concept of delaying payment as long as possible, which can be stretched a bit via purchase orders, invoicing, etc., but unless there are cashflow problems involved with your funding this shouldn't be a factor, and if there are cashflow problems with your funding you have a much greater problem to deal with, and should have incentive to argue for staggered purchasing at the best price possible per item; I can testify that if a librarian saw a chance to stretch their supplies budget to 3 times its face value via careful scheduling of purchases to match cashflow they'd be most happy to work with purchasing to expedite things, just tell them the truth and don't lie to them, work with them to find the best price for your money, after all, anything not spent can be grabbed for administrative expenses, which always expand without penalty...

I feel a rant coming concerning budgeting and accountability and who gets the axe based on my personal experience, so I'm ending this now.

Post this puppy!

OHSU Intelligence Test

2008-12-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

While the Oregon Health Sciences University, OHSU, doesn't officially have an intelligence test which their patients are required to pass prior to receiving services, if you drive there they do; it's called "finding the parking garage".

Lots of parking garages. Lots of Permit Required parking garages. Smart park garages abound, as well, for the Eye Clinic, various others. I just couldn't spot the one for the Dental School. And no place to pull over and leave the car whilst asking for directions, not that I spotted a map or anything while frantically glancing in all directions, traveling at 25 mph, the speed limit, through windy curvy blind corner abounding stop for all pedestrians oh my god im so stressed out heres an exit im going home where its safe

I didn't make my dental intake interview yesterday. You see, I failed their intelligence test.

After I reschedule I'm determining how to get there by bus, I'm not going up there by car, ever again.

When I called to let them know I wasn't making it, they got quite the chuckle from my saying I failed the Intelligence Test. Most people wouldn't phrase it that way. Most people if they couldn't figure it out would probably be far more antagonistic than I was, I was just glad to make it out of there alive, and no I wasn't going to try again later in the day, thank you very much, just let me sit and quiver for a while, recovering from the stress, which I got out of there before it set off the advanced stages of my stress reactions, but still I decided I wasn't going to do the other stuff I'd been feeling up to; gorgeous day, crisp clear blue sky, near freezing temperatures, nip in the air, the type of day that actually gets me up and going [once I've dressed for it].

Kind of like today looks to be.

Who knows, maybe I'll head out and get stuff done.

But not at OHSU.

Computerized sketch pad interfaces

2008-11-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

Not that I know much about the topic, I'd like to, know about the topic, that is.

Because bad as my hand-eye coordination is, I'd still do better using some form of pen drawing interface than I do using a trackball for sketching.

In theory, there are a number of products available which allow you to merrily draw on a surface and have it appear on the computer screen, and software packages which then allow you to grab what you've sketched and make it more rigorous, more as if you'd used rulers, compasses, calipers, etc., orienting the sketch and snapping the lines into a grid-assisted format.

I want this. If I felt confident about a product, I'd even be able to convince myself I need this and make the purchase, but finding information is a stone-cold bitch, pardon my Anglo-Saxon, but there ain't no sugar-coating it, information is just scarce as hen's teeth, except that as certain Discovery Channel programs have demonstrated they've engineered chickens with teeth, don't know if they've brought any to maturity, but hen's teeth aren't so scarce any longer, compared to reliable information on computerized sketch pad systems. At least in regard to what I've been able to track down, and I'm not actually the best Internet searcher out there, never had any formal coursework on it, I know searches can be put together than I do and that there have to be better search terms than I've used.

Anyway.

There are systems where you effectively have dopplering radar set up, where you bring your pen into the field and it records all the movements as coordinates and plots that on the screen, you can use a normal pen and paper with this, they have big one's you can set up using chalk/dry erase boards, standard classroom size boards, great for instruction/brainstorm sessions. Probably arcane signals for things like erasing or asking for a clean slate.

Some similar systems, still able to work with regular paper, the impression I have is that the writing implement has a small short-range transmitter embedded into it, so that you set up an tiny localized GPS system, effectively. I think this type allows for erasing via a different signal sent from the eraser end of the stylus.

Then there are the touch pad systems, where you work with a touchscreen-type system, using a stylus to sketch on the screen, kinda like the old pressure sensitive sketch pads from my youth, these are variants on the Tablet PC concept, more focused on the sketch pad end of things so they don't have a full OS but rather are recognized as an input device, generally USB interface, although I suspect that wireless version s are now available. If you could also use them as an ebook reader life would be good, but I don't think they've realized the marketability of such a hybrid, something to sketch with that can also be used for reading standard format documents, hmm, if one could use it for mark-up purposes combining both purposes it could be truly powerful; I'd like it, loads.

While I can find info on these various systems, the one thing I can't find is where I could actually try one out before buying, so I could see if I could use it successfully. Probably some CAD/graphics expo is where I'd have to go, and that just isn't gonna happen, unless something shows up locally and I hear about it, the combination being unlikely.

Why do I want something like this? I get ideas for things, and the ability to draw as I think, and to then manipulate the drawings at a latter date would be wonderful, and scanning drawings in and then struggling with mice or trackballs doesn't cut it. And some of the ideas might actually turn out to be marketable, if I could clean up my sketches without having to hire a graphical artist to do it for me, which also would have the whole problem of getting what I visualize expressed well enough that someone else could do the drawings, at a certain level I need to do the drawings myself.

Now if only I could plug my brain into a hook-up such that what I visualize appears on the screen, I'd be set. Nothing like being able to visualize in three dimensions, rotate and transform mentally, and have hands which won't do what I want them to. I can see the stuff in my mind, but transferring it to media of some sort is the problem, my hands just won't do what I want them to do.

Ties into the whole disability thing, synapses and such just don't work right, and that then triggers frustration which causes things to deteriorate and there you go, damn near comatose at time with systems shutting down on me.

Mental brilliance combined with physical sub-par ability just frustrates the hell out of me. And with the physical sub-parness resulting in mental function ranging between extreme genius and barely able to care for myself because the brain fuzzes up that much, ick.

Boy, I've wandered afield, haven't I?

If you haven't read it, look for the story, Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, for a long time it showed up in the various best Science Fiction stories of all time collections, he then expanded it into a novel, they made it into a movie, charly (1968)with a backwards r, Flowers for Algernon (2000) I haven't seen the movies so I don't know how badly they butchered it. I feel the short story version is the best, at least it hits harder in some ways. I fear it becomes increasingly difficult for me to reflect upon the story, for it seems too reminiscent of my life, and what I fear in regard to my decline.

OK, I'm going to see if I can cheer myself up somehow, thankfully I do have an innately cheery personality.

Teach your children well

2008-11-27T19:17:00.000-08:00

It's interesting the paths my mind wends down whilst working in the yard.

Some writers of fantasy postulate that deities come to exist because they are believed in, that faith generates divinity. Others that non-corporeal beings exist, and through their interactions with us take on aspects of divinity, that they are shaped to reflect our beliefs; if one imagines electro-magnetic beings, then they could well be changed by their interaction with our own electrical fields, and given our having physical form to anchor our consciousness we would be less influenced then they, unless they be of great size.

In either case, strength of belief would have the most impact in either forming or changing such beings.

Who has the strongest belief in things? Who are they who are most capable of believing, of imagining, of creating with their minds?

Children. Children believe far more strongly than any, even than radical liberals or conservatives. Children, when hearing a tale, can become part of the tale to a greater extent than any adult, for we doubt, at some level we doubt everything, but children can accept and simply be.

And whether there is deity, whether belief creates it or it exists, or it doesn't exist, what we believe as children shapes us as adults, either by being confirmed, or via disillusionment, we are created via our belief.

If presented with a structure of warmth, compassion, a child is more likely to exhibit these characteristics as an adult. If cold, darkness is their lot, then greater the likelihood of being cold and dark as adults.

Teach your children well, for as they are nurtured, so shall they believe, and believing, be.

******
Frustrating it is, that I can never hold to myself the thoughts that come in solitude and present them unchanged, the act of trying to recollect and present changes them, what is written is never what was first thought. The more I strive the more the thoughts end up twisting and turning, like fish in water, elusive, slippery, and escaping, leaving only slime and scales behind and an elusive glimmering of the beauty that was.

And the hope that somehow, despite everything twisting awry, some glimmer of the original thought comes through and sparks a light in the minds and hearts of those who read the febrile words left behind.

Why clothes never fit, or, I'm a mutant

2008-11-25T10:15:00.000-08:00

I get tired of this.

My middle finger is 5/8 of an inch longer than the next longest finger, which makes gloves a problem. My big toe reaches to Alpha Centaurus, OK, so it's only 3/4 of an inch longer than the next toe, which makes shoes a bloody pain; they called me "Ape Toes" at camp [seriously, they did]. My arms are long for my shirt size, so either my wrists hang out for the whole world to see, or my shirt puffs out around my waist like a circus tent. My body is short in the torso, instead of worrying about Plumber's Butt my shirts end up blousing over my belt because they aren't divided for slipping down the legs; I need shirts divided like a Knight's surcoat, able to hang properly when mounted on a horse, that way they'd slip down my pants' legs properly. We won't discuss underwear.

Good thing I can sew. Bad thing the place isn't in shape for sewing. And making shoes is somewhat complicated.

I've complained this way before, haven't I? Pretty sure there's a previous post along this line. And pretty sure they'll be more of them to come.

Grumph grumph grumph

And a curmudgeonly good day to you, too!

Post this Puppy

Getting cold for outdoors work

2008-11-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

Mid-thirties this morning, kinda chill out there.

But it hadn't rained for a couple, so there I was, bundled up a bit and proceeding with turning branches into short stublets of twigs in yard debris containers, good hour and a half, but oh were my hands cold when I finally called it a day at 9ish, none of my gloves for yard work are well lined, need to look into that for the next pair, so I can work through the fall & winter.

Down to just three piles of stuff from this year to process, and then a pile of limbs from the previous pruning needs busting up. So there's the pile of apple pruning, with the remnants of the rosemary pruning now tossed on top to keep off the ground until I continue, and the bin of maple, blackberry and wild peas by the side of the house, and then the pile of maple & blackberry by the fence. No Clematis clippings left to deal with, and only one little sniblet of Clematis spotted these last two weeks; it really does look like I've done a number on that danged vine, given the climate here in the valley [Willamette Valley, that is] it's a year-round growing season for these pestiferous plants, so not seeing them means something when it's mere days til Thanksgiving; guess I'll have something to be grateful for, aside from disability coming through.

Although, it'll seem dull without the challenge of Clematis.

But it's getting to where I can look at the yard and think to myself, "Just what do I want to do with this yard, anyway?" Ya know, not just don't want x to grow, but maybe want y to grow, and perchance a little reading nook or two, for reading books, a few. It even rhymes, too. Boo hoo.

Silly I'm being, yes?

Puppy Posting Time it is!

Cars, doors, and electricity

2008-11-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

So, there I was, all set to go pick up my new glasses, get in the car, glance around, see that one door hadn't been locked, hadn't closed quite properly when I'd taken in groceries last week, shut it properly and locked it, then tried to start the car. Totally dead battery. And my jumpstart power station thingy, hadn't given it a total charge in a while, not quite up to starting the car this time. Bet I'll have to reset the clock, too.

So I'm back inside, charging up my jumpstart power station, and musing on just how loose/ajar doors cause batteries to die.

Oh, sure, I know the official reason, if the door doesn't close all the way the dome light stays on and draws down the battery, but get real! I mean, how wimpy an explanation is that?

Nope, not going to use that explanation.

Ya see, it's like this, electricity stored in batteries is a closed system, have to open the system to utilize the juice. That wimpy little dome light couldn't possibly draw enough power to drain down the battery. Nope, it was the door being ajar, see, that made it an open system and the juice was able to spill out the car and down the gutter and into the storm drains, all the way out into the Willamette River, and trust me on this, the Willamette River would be able to drain the car battery. River's got a mighty thirst for power, that it does. Not to mention how close we are to where the Willamette drains into the Columbia, mighty powerful river, that one, bunch of electrical dams on it, so full of power they have to drain it off so it doesn't get rambuncious and leap out of the banks and flood places, like it did Vanport back before the dams were built. Well, that's not quite right, bunch of anthropomorphism there, actually the water builds up this static charge when it flows fast and if they don't drain it off with the dams it just gets pulled up out of the river bed until it finds a good ground and then kind of pools up for a bit, swirling and draining, until the excess charge is all gone, then it drops back into the river bed where it's supposed to be and continues on its way to the sea, adding to the electrical charge the ocean has, which is so great it keeps sliding back and forth looking for good grounds to drain it away, that's what they call tidal action, they say they're caused by the Moon, don't see how that could be unless it's that the Moon is rubbing up against the Earth building up a static charge like a balloon on cat fur [cats aren't too pleased with that experiment, let me tell you, sharp claws and don't like the popping sound either], bet if it wasn't for the charge the rivers supplied that wouldn't be enough to cause the ocean to try and cozy up to the Moon as a good ground, don't you be telling NASA about this, can just see them trying to build the charge up enough to sail to the moon on a big wave.

Much better explanation than some dinky dome light running down the battery, unless the dome light has a real good vocabulary, then I suspect it could run down any battery it chose to. *rimshot*

Yes, it's silly season, right here in River City.

Don't know about anyone else, but my brain feels drained now, sigh.

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Job Descriptions, Evaluation Criteria, and... God?

2008-11-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

I had the misfortune, while working at the Chicago Public Library Bibliographic & Interlibrary Loan Center [CPL BILC], to work there while they changed job descriptions and evaluation criteria such that there was no way to score higher than 'satisfactory' on an evaluation.

Where formerly job descriptions had phrases such as 'process x number of requests per day,' which allowed for being more efficient than the norm, and also reflected that the workload in that department varied from day to day in a manner outside the control of the staff or administration, the new descriptions included phrases such as 'complete all requests within 48 hours of receipt,' which would be fine if the same number of requests were received each day, but was clearly insane when requests received varied between 200 and 400+, gave no allowance for staff shortages due to illness or vacation, and because of changes in processing implemented at the same time made it such that while one person was held accountable for seeing that all requests were completed in 48 hours, 2/3 of the support staff now assigned to handle those requests in an assembly-line manner were supervised by someone else, making them responsible for the results of people over whom they had no authority.

And if they succeeded in making it all work out properly, they would receive a 'satisfactory' evaluation.

Not only did merit-based pay increases become an impossibility, doing what had previously been acknowledged as 'satisfactory' could result in no step-increase in pay at all.

About that time is when I started having IBS, amongst other stress-derived ailments. My friends in after years commented that it distressed them to see me slowly falling apart, edging toward a full breakdown only avoided by transferring to a branch library, literally in the nick of time given the partial collapse I had at the end of a vacation just prior to the offer being made, where the very thought of going back into the hell-hole that department had become was more than I could deal with and I broke down crying. Considering that two years previously my perspective was that I could see myself retiring from that department in 40 years, things had changed drastically.

Any wonder that at that time I commenced one of my several ventures into Christianity, where the idea of a loving, compassionate god who cared about each of us was most welcome? Someone, who knowing it was inevitable that we would fall short of the mark, would forgive us this and hold us close and comfort us?

Hold that thought. Inevitable that we would fall short of the mark?

Um, yes. God's criteria is perfection, you cannot do any better than that, so nothing can offset any areas where it just didn't work out right.

So the best you can ever get from God, in an evaluation, is 'satisfactory' if you actually lived a perfect life according to the rules that He, as Creator of All, established. And anything less that an overall ranking of 'satisfactory' damns one eternally, unless we beg His Mercy for failing to meet his impossible standards.

Well, at least He allows groveling to set aside an 'unsatisfactory' evaluation, more than was possible at CPL.

Remember, God made all the rules. He set it up so no one could ever be under par in any area, and par for the course is the only winning score, anything over par puts you in the sand box or water trap or the trees for all eternity, unless we 'humble' ourselves and cast ourselves on His infinite Mercy. As I don't play golf, my apologies if I've reversed the definitions of 'under' and 'over' par.

Um, so I should be worshiping a tyrant who is even more petty than the ones I dealt with at Chicago Public, who at least had the justification that the standards were being handed down from the State and significant State funding of library operations were on the line? They weren't ultimately responsible for the impossible situation I had been in, the Library Administration that didn't have the guts to try to explain why the criteria was impossible and that better guidelines for evaluation needed to be developed were at fault; when you're a special case you have to document this and argue for dispensations, I'd produced, as a new hire straight out of library school, most of what they needed to make the argument, but the fact that the ILL management tried to stand up for their staff got the department labeled a 'problem' department, and replacement by hatchet-persons was the result. Um, yes, 18 years later I'm still bitter when I think about it.

Anyway, God doesn't work with standards set by someone else, at least according to the Christian Scriptures; He created everything, determined how it would all work, and set the criteria for evaluation, and knew, up front, that everyone would fail.

Yes, I've again departed Christianity, and this time I doubt I'll ever be back.

I'm not shut on religion as a whole, mind, I'm not comfortable with thinking everything in this world is a result of chance, that there is no underlying basis for judging right/wrong, good/evil, but I have a new criteria for anyone I'll be willing to follow.

At some level it has to be possible to get better than 'satisfactory' on your evaluation, anyone who sets it up otherwise isn't worth working for.

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One man's perspective on modern library funding, ideology and mission

2008-11-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

No footnotes, no citations, no documentation, purely my at-this-time flow of consciousness thoughts on this topic; how late 1960s' can you get!

Which is appropriate. Library funding received a massive boost via various entitlement programs starting with the Johnson administration, not ending until the Reagan government-is-the-enemy administration. So starting in the mid-1960s libraries started expanding their services, going from the traditional library-as-repository-of-distilled-knowledge-and-culture to the library-as-liberal-stronghold-for-social-change which we all know and love/loath; this was deliberately encouraged as part of the Civil Rights Movement and the related social movements of the 1960s-70s, a deliberate policy of shaping young minds to further social change.

An entire generation of librarians entered the field believing that part of their mission as librarians was to shape society in a liberal image; those who were not comfortable with this tended to find other work, or at least steered clear of library leadership roles, focusing on the traditional nuts and bolts of library work, traditional reference services and tech services, those areas where ideology was mostly irrelevant. But the high profile positions, collection development and administration, attracted those who had Vision.

All well and good when society as a whole agrees with the vision, and funding is practically being forced upon you for these purposes. But what happens when the initial social change being promoted is complete, and a new ideology of limited Federal involvement results in significant reductions in funding?

Reason, in my mind, would indicate that you reassess your activities based on the central mission of libraries. The problem was, and remains, that an entire generation of librarians rose to power who felt/feel that one of the central purposes of libraries is to nurture social change, something which no one espoused prior to the Civil Rights Movement, and which they have taken further than anyone had intended, and they have no understanding of how funding and services interact in a market economy. When funding is cut service must needs change to reflect decreased means. When anti-taxation sentiment is being fanned by demagogues, you must needs market your services carefully to enlist the widest base of support possible, and above all things be practical in any innovative programs, providing reasons why it is a good thing, economically, to provide typewriters or computers or Internet access, and to set up policies of use which adhere to the arguments made when seeking approval for these services.

Internet access for research, job search related activities, writing papers, these are reasonable to propose and will find support. Internet access for social networking, game playing, pornography, not so; these are not reasonable services for a library to provide, and any arguments for them are inevitably going to be found specious because they are not related to the traditional roles of libraries in our societies. Libraries do not have a mandate to provide services without exercising due judgment about the worth of those services.

Libraries do have a responsibility to their funding constituencies that they provide services of the widest possible benefit, and in the most cost effective manner possible. Core services do not include ideological agendas, and libraries must operate within the law.

Libraries are not supposed to undermine a parent's authority. When I was growing up, it was accepted that certain materials were not provided in the Children's Library, and the Children's Library was isolated from the Adult Library. If parent's desired a child to have access to materials held in the Adult Collections, the parent either checked the materials out themselves, or issued instructions that their child be granted access to these materials, and certain materials would not be covered by such a waiver, the parent would have to check them out if they desired their child to access them. In the regular course of affairs, if proper research for assigned coursework required access to materials held in the Adult Collections, the Children's Librarians would retrieve those materials and make them available in the Children's Library. This was felt to be reasonable, and I knew of no one who had any complaints, and trust me, in that time period if anyone would have had complaints it was my family.

The very idea of restricting access to materials in this manner is currently anathema, and can prevent one from being hired, and can adversely effect your tenure if hired; I know this from personal experience. Never mind that until one reaches the age of majority, being 18 years of age, the child only has those rights and privileges granted to them by their parents, who are held accountable for the actions of their minor children. Nowhere has the parent granted the library the status of in loco parentis, the library has no legal standing for allowing minors access to materials restricted to adults, yet libraries all over the country argue for the children's 1st amendment rights, of which there are none; as the parents are held accountable for their children's actions, there can be no rights of the child which undermine the authority required for the parents to be accountable, otherwise the parents are placed in an impossible situation [which given the modern liberal take on things is the case, but that's for another posting...]

Back in the day, when access was circumscribed, exceptions were easy to record and permit; now, where access is open to all, it is impossible for a parent to exercise judgment in restricting access other than being physically at their child's side every second they are in a library, and how to insure the child is never there without them? Prevalent library policy forces responsible parents into the role of being an ogre. Of course, prevalent library policy is to abdicate responsibility in the name of freedom of information, as if the fact that some opinion is held means the library has to make it available, and the irony is that libraries do censor materials, but that their criteria is skewed from mainstream society, demonstrating a decided leftward bent, promoting the personal agendas of staff members instead of truly being factual and impartial.

Um, I've been at this for several hours now, and it's time for lunch, which may be starting to impact my writing.

So before it gets any worse,

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Maple; Rocky Mountain? Similar, at least...

2008-11-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

OK, the unknown trees are a bit less unknown now.

While working with web resources and tree identification for the west coast is a chancy venture at best, the USDA NRCS Plants Database leads me to believe they are closely related to the Rocky Mountain Maple; the descriptions are very close, the photos, hmm, variant is a possibility.

First thing you have to realize is that, like people, no two trees are exactly alike; we tend to forget this given that most cultivated trees are actually grafted, where clippings from one tree are spliced onto another, not quite cloning but having something of that effect. This allows one tree, selected for desired characteristics, to seemingly multiply into many trees, kept alive and spread via grafting for decades beyond the normal lifespan of said tree, and leading many to presume that all examples of that species are identical, with no variation.

Not what we have here, this are from wild seed, and many trees, while having both male and female flowers, are not self-fertilizing; they require pollen from a slightly different tree to produce fertile seeds, so by definition they do not breed true. Thus, illustrations and photos of a given species of plant merely provide a basis for comparison, not a strict criteria which must be matched to the last crinkle of their leaves.

Given all of that, our volunteer trees look to be varietals of the Rocky Mountain Maple.

Not a variety noted for it's lumber usage, given that it doesn't have one main trunk but instead has several trunks splitting off near the ground, none reaching terribly large diameters. As a source for twig furniture materials it's not a bad one, especially as it regrows from stumps quite well, and is pleasant to work with, as I already know from making the new handle for the Japanese Root Cutting Knife mentioned several entries past, and the now-mentioned-for-the-first-time walking stick for Mom [hey, she forgot her cane inside, so I handed her a section I'd just trimmed, a little tall for her but it worked, I've since cleaned it up a bit and added it to the collection of canes in our possession]. Turns out this type of Maple has cross-hatched bark, not as deeply striated as Oak, but something of that look not on steroids, as it were. *grin*

And that's the news from SE Portland, Where Men Are Men, Women Are Women, and Trees Are Trees.

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Parking strips, edgers, weeds, and gloves

2008-11-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

Tso, havink done tsome verk ont de parkink streep

erm, OK, ditch that dialect!

So, having done some work on the parking strip, I realized that I desperately needed an edger, and not the type used in woodworking [which I have]; this resulted in a trip to Harbor Freight. Or rather, was taken care of during a trip to Harbor Freight.

Nifty tool, One Stop Gardens' Lawn Edger, Harbor Freight Item 94299, a mere $4.99 [not on sale, normal price!], much better than the edger my parents' had lo these many years agone and which may not have even moved to Portland with us it's been so long since I've seen it and how's this for a run-on sentence? [inhale] Solid steel cutting blade, good haft, OK plastic handle, lousy aluminium rivets holding the blade to the haft. "How lousy?" you ask, so lousy that after maybe fifteen-twenty minutes use they'd worn through and the blade separated from the haft. Fume, not happy camper.

Have no fear, Fix-it-Man is here! First, try using a nail to create a through rivet. Yeah, I said first, implying it didn't work. It didn't, not really, something to do with not having a nail of appropriate diameter to hand. Sleep on it. [Man, no wonder my back is sore!] Come the dawn, use a pin punch to remove the nail rivet, grab Klein Tools Six-in-one tapping tool, item 627-20, a handy tool which has a reversible insert with three taps each end, smallest to largest, so you can easily thread items for use with the most common machine screws. [hey, nice threads, man] Ahem. Turns out that the 1/4-20 tap is just right for the openings in the blade & haft. Wander down to the basement, saying "Hi!" to Mom en route, grab an appropriate length 1/4-20 hex head bolt, crank a ratcheting socket wrench a bit, get it all the way through, and not need an end nut as the tension from the blade trying to get away from the haft is enough to prevent it from vibrating loose; I don't know why the blade is trying to get away from the haft, I mean it knew what it was getting into when it applied for the job, didn't it?

Anyway, tool fixed, better than new; well, since new had lousy aluminium rivets, yes, better than new is correct.

They's weeds in the parking strip. Lots of them, make you think it hasn't been weeded in decades weeds; funny thing, it hasn't been weeded in decades. Gotta do something about that...

The weeds that really need taking out, the dandelions, Queen Anne's Lace, and them Wild Peas, they all have two things in common; they sprawl, and they have deep, thick, taproots which they will re-grow from if just broken off at the surface. Nasty buggers.

Enter Grandpa's Weeder, Garrett Wade product 65P01.01, $27.50; a nifty tool, very good for this purpose, pulling taproots, and which I have no need of purchasing; you see, I actually have Granddad's weeder, pre-WWII production line, been in the family and well used for 60+ years, a quality tool which I recently replaced the handle on. Lot of that happening around here recently, yes? Anyway, when the soil is damp, as is common in the Pacific Northwest in the Fall, this tool makes them narsty taproots come out of the ground smooth as silk; there's a reason Garrett Wade brought it back into production, it is ideally suited to it's purpose, no tool developed since supplants it for ease of use and simplicity of design. Center it over the root, stab it into the ground, plant you foot on the footpad lever thingy to sink the tool as far into the soil as it will go, remove you foot and lean the handle toward the footpad, easy smooth pressure, and watch the root come out of the ground. In an ideal world, that is, some roots are nastier than others, soil conditions vary, as does dampness of soil. In my case, the soil and dampness are just right. But if it didn't cooperate entirely, there is a secondary use for the footpad thingy, it has a slot at the end which can be used to pull roots out akin to the claw on a hammer pulling nails out of a board, given sufficiently thick taproots, such as young Oaks and Walnuts, a use I put it to growing up in Salem.

And finally, gloves. The Rose Gloves I got in August, I've worn out the fingers using them to protect my fingers while grubbing in the dirt, and they're a bit expensive for that purpose. Not quite so well fitting, but still some sturdy and supple, Harbor Freight sells what they call Leather Roping Gloves, although I suspect they aren't the strongest roping gloves around, but $4.99 on sale sure beats what I paid for the Rose Gloves! Regular price of $6.99 isn't bad either. Only real problem is that they only sell them in large, and I take an extra-large due to my long fingers. But it gives me an idea of what type of glove to look for in the future, might need to visit a farming & ranching supply shop to check out their gloves to find a proper fit combined with supple strength...

Lunch time, so I'm out of here!

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Raking sidewalks, gutters, storm drains... and Clematis?

2008-11-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

No bleep, there I was...

It's Fall, no question about it.

Leaves are falling, and as Property Owners, we're responsible for the leaves on "our" sidewalks, regardless of origin...

So I'd just spent probably 30-45 minutes raking leaves; hey, they're small leaves, don't cooperate that much, and its been raining, OK?

Then I'd turned to the street gutters, cleaning out leaves before they turned into dams.

Then to check the storm drain at the bus stop.

Clematis. Growing in the storm drain. A foot to eighteen inches down. Roots into a crack in the wall. Real healthy looking, large shiny leaves, dangling down several feet to the storm sewer.

This one will be interesting, currently... no, I take that back, the pruning saw that screws onto standard thread handles, I can stick that down and cut through the vine, can't do anything about the root but I can get the vine.

But not today.

My hands are cold.

I should change afore I catch a chill, damp cloths and cold body do no one any good.

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BookletCreator: Son of Nifty Online Resources

2008-11-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

BookletCreator is a truly nifty resource.

So you've written the next great novel, photo album, whatever, and you want to print it out and bind it in signatures.

"What's a signature?" I hear you ask? Maybe not you, but that person on the next computer to the right, yes, that one. He wants to know.

Hardcover books, thick ones tend to be made of many bundles of folded pages bound together. Each bundle is comprised of a number of pages printed such that when folded in half down the middle all the pages are in proper order within that bundle, and those bundles, when placed in proper order, are bound together to form the body of the book. Some books have an even edge, some have a wavy edge. Even edged books have been trimmed after binding, as the inner pages of each bundle project out from the outer pages. Each bundle is referred to as a signature; beats me where that term came from, and I'm not looking it up.

Printing a signature requires ordering pages in a very weird manner, so that when printed and folded everything is as it should be. Printing a set of signatures for binding into a book is trickier still if you want to keep the page numbering constant between signatures; signature one ending on page 16, for instance, signature two starting on page 17, signature three starting on page 33, and so on. And then, if you want all the signatures the same size no matter what, you often find that you need to pad the last signature with some blank pages at the end.

BookletCreator will do this for you, the ordering of pages for printing in signatures, when you provide it with a PDF document and answer certain questions, such as how many pages per signature, Left-to-Right or Right-to-Left, etc.

It will take your PDF, your criteria, and automagically reorder the pages so that when printed on a duplex printer all you need to do is count off x number of pages, fold in half, and voila, a signature! x is the number of pages to a signature divided by 4, given four pages per individual sheet of paper.

Then you get to go into more advanced bookbinding matters, but the pages are ready to go.

And the really nifty snazzy thing about BookletCreator? It's free, absolutely free.

Now if anyone knows of a program which would reorder pages for printing three to a side on 8.5 x 14, so that slicing in three produced 8.5 by 4.66 pages, and which would do this for n number of pages, reordering everything for duplex printing, I'd love to hear about it. It would be great for producing slightly off-size paperbacks.

But until then, and in all cases where I want to make hand-bound hardcovers, BookletCreator is The Bomb.

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A pivotal moment in US history

2008-11-04T20:36:00.000-08:00

I know, every blog in the US is talking about the election just completed. So be it.

While parts of John McCain's campaign upset me, his concession speech was one of the most gracious and positive speeches I've heard in some time; if his campaign had reflected this speech the result would have been much closer.

It was a clean election, in regard to the vote. No hanging chads, no voting machine problems in strongly Democratic precincts, clean, clear, unequivocal. This election did not hang on a series of unfortunate events throwing it one way rather than another.

African-American. Generally, when we think of African-American, we think of descendants of slaves, not someone who's father was Kenyan by birth; Barack Obama, far from being the traditional African-American, appears to have a cosmopolitan background that should be envied by all, which should give him the least parochial, provincial outlook of anyone who has served as President within my lifetime, if not since the founding of this country.

The first time I heard of Sen. Obama was when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, and my reaction at that time was that I'd be much happier voting for him than any of the candidates involved in that election. That was the same election I really wished McCain was the Republican nominee, as I preferred him to Bush and the Democratic candidates. That in four years he went from being a Chicago Senator in the Illinois Legislature to first being a US Senator from Illinois to now being the President-Elect from "The Land of Lincoln" is an incredible accomplishment.

Having paused to listen to Sen. Obama's acceptance speech, I remain impressed by this man, and hope that his, and Sen. McCain's, sentiments bear healthful fruit.

One thing I should note: Sen. Obama is a punk kid, nine months younger than I am, and we overlap our Chicago residency by a couple of years, his commencing in 1991, and my leaving to return home to Oregon in 1994. Mind, I never heard of him prior to the 2004 speech, but what the hey. And the entire time they were panning the camera around in Grant Park I was watching to see if anyone I knew showed up. Given 14 years since I moved back from Chicago, I'm not surprised that I didn't recognize anyone, but it was nice seeing pictures from my old stomping grounds.

Anyway, this is enough for now.

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Cost of items

2008-11-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

It would be easier if I had a copy of the Stat. Ab. handy, or just did some research, but when I hear Mom mentioning how expensive things are my fingers twitch and I want to drag out real-number comparisons.

When Mom was first driving, back when she was 17, that would be 1625+17= 1642, no, wait, 1925+17=1942, she recollects paying 17¢ per gallon for gasoline. I recollect, back in the day of three gas stations at the corner of wherever-it-was, three blocks from Bush Elementary in Salem, OR, 4th grade, would be around 1969, gasoline at 25¢ per gallon. And I think it was still well under $1.00/gallon back when I started driving in 1987; yes, I got my driver's license when I was 26, ya got a problem with that?

Anyway, comparative buying power, what things cost in relation to each other at different times.

1969, 25¢/gallon for gas, Frank Herbert's Dune, one of the largest SF novels published to that time, was selling for either 75¢ or 95¢ in paperback, my memory isn't precise on that and my copy is in storage.

Currently, as in yesterday, I saw a gallon of regular for $2.53, a price I never expected to see again. Last I purchased one new, comparably sized paperback SF was selling for $7.99.

3 x 25¢ = 75¢
3 x $2.53 = $7.59
95/25=3.8
2.53 x 3.8 = 9.61

So, if the price in 1969 for Dune was 75¢, then the price of gasoline today is lower than it was in 1969 in real dollars, as the gasoline costs less, in relation to the cost of paperback SF, now than then.

1942 15¢/gallon, Mom thinks her Piano teacher was making maybe 50¢ per lesson, I suspect that's a bit high for 1942. 15/50= 0.3
2008 $2.53/gallon, my sister makes something like $35.00/lesson, I think. 2.53/35= .07

If the initial numbers are correct, by this calculation gasoline costs a fraction of what it did in 1942; it would be more reliable if I was comparing the cost of milk or apples in season or things like that, non-luxury items... except that in 1942 an automobile was a luxury item, Mom doesn't realize just how privileged she was to be driving a car at that time. There was a reason that the various stores in downtown Portland would deliver purchases for no charge, that the various grocers did the same; people didn't have the means of carrying very much when shopping, the merchants had deliverymen running regular routes as a matter of course. And then after the war, when the Interstate freeway system was built, as a military expense, and the GI Bill created a greatly enlarged educated workforce, changing the economic picture, the Suburbs came into existence, strip malls and shopping centers with monster parking lots began to compete with lower prices as they weren't providing free delivery as a matter of course, the whole economic structure of our society changed.

It's impossible to make comparisons between pre-WWII and post-WWII pricing which have any validity unless you somehow factor in the change in economic structure produced by the military subsidy of the interstate automotive infrastructure; pre-war the railroads ruled, post-war there was a paradigm shift to the interstates due to Federal subsidies, and the impact that had on everything. And it is still with us. There is no rational economic system which would make it more economical to utilize trucks over railroads for long-haul transportation of goods. It requires an artificial subsidy, and every time the market tries to correct this we interfere. The very people who rant and rave about government interference in the marketplace prosper only because of government interference in the marketplace.

OK, I'm not going down this path any further, we're talking Ph.D. Thesis work to document just how various changes in the legal code have influenced corporate business practice as well as the impact of government subsidy of the Automotive transportation network upon the marketplace, etc., etc., etc.

All I know is that if I ever sat down and got the research done, no one would like what I had to say about our current economic and social structure in relation to a true market environment.

I have a far darker vision than Marx & Engels; I do not see Communism, I see Fascism as the result of unregulated Capitalism, either that or a collapse via anarchy to a new feudalism, with a die-off of at least 50% of the population.

Right, said I wasn't going down that path any further, then went even further down the path to post economic collapse prophetics.

Gah.

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Vision, function, and, of course, more yard stuff

2008-11-04T07:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I came to realise just why I can't seem to focus on things; I really do need to order new glasses now that I have a current prescription, I can't focus because my eye correction is that far off. How plebeianly mundane.

The inability to properly focus does have a decided impact upon my ability to function, the mind strives to make sense of that which is senseless due to it being fuzzy, draining much needed CPU cycles to use a computer metaphor. Having, as a result of a shopping trip yesterday, replenished my potassium levels [bananas, gotta love them!][ditto blackstrap molasses, chock full of lovely nutrients to a remarkable degree], my next mission should be eyeglasses.

After that, time to take over the world! ["Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" "why yes Brain, but how do we get the Boston Philharmonic into leiderhosen for the Macy's Day Parade?"]

Riiight.

And to Yard Debris: Pile 1, as described in the October 31, 2008 posting, is considerably diminished, to the tune of two yard debris containers; Thursday is Yard Debris pickup, lots of lovely stuff to go away again. Speaking of which, they've finally gotten around to charging us for all the extra containers I've been placing out, to the tune of $47.50 for the last three months, a mere pittance considering just how much stuff I've been putting out every two weeks! I mean, $2.50 per each additional container, um, that's less than a decent cup of coffee or glass of beer each, not to mention the comparison to a haircut or movie... or more appropriately in my case, the cost of a book, any book. No question about it, at the rate I'm going I'll have all the yard debris piles eliminated by the end of the year.

Then I'll have to find something else which grabs my interest in similar fashion.

Hopefully, organizing the shop will grab my interest, and then organizing storage, and moving things into said storage, and determining what stuff we have that can Go Away, and making it go away, and making it possible to do stuff, like sewing and leathercraft and woodworking and oh just lots of Neat Stuff which will utilise materials I've accumulated over the years, and setting up an electronics lab, and trying to repair dead circular saws and such ilk, and basically wanting to get myself doing stuff that continues to give me a sense of accomplishment.

And it wouldn't hurt if the fancy caught me to finish getting Apt 4 ready for renting again, and got it rented, this time to reasonable folks.

And seeing about having contact with people locally, like actually seeing people in person, not just Internet stuff. Although reasons of vanity and self esteem puts that off until after I've gotten a ton of work done on my teeth. See, I discovered that Whole Grains are bad for you, if not cooked properly, which is tricky, bad for you as in wearing off the outer layer of the teeth bad, which is then followed by wearing down the teeth; if I was a Gift Horse, you'd sure better look me in the mouth! So I'm very selfconcious about my teeth right now, and given that when I'm happy I beam a lot, great big smile, lots of teeth, nice enough expression that it alone garnered me one girlfriend, well, being around others is and is not something I want right now, but I've an appointment with the OHSU Dental School on December 4th, 8:30 AM, to have an initial evaluation; I think the dental school will find my mouth a useful teaching environment, which given no dental insurance other than whatever Medicare A&B provides is a good thing.

And don't let any English Majors see that last paragraph... Oh, Hi Missy!

busted

Anyway, getting on toward when eyeglass shops would be opening, so time for me to think about vamoosing, as in time to

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Fall is upon us, Indian Summer is past

2008-10-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

We had an extended Indian Summer this year, pleasant temperatures and little rain through much of October, but the last several days foretold the coming of Fall; whilst still not raining, it had become overcast and brisk, with my fingers getting chilled even with gloves if I spent time working outside.

And today, the rains are upon us.

Makes me glad I spent time yesterday dealing with the pile of Blackberry & Clematis clippings created during the first foray into yard work, back in August. Four yard debris containers later, the two piles which were mixed Blackberry, Clematis, and Rosemary were all gone, except the larger hunks of Rosemary, which I'm still looking at in re uses for the wood; at the least I'm planning on keeping the large diameter sections, so I think it will only take one yard debris container to deal with the to-be-clipped sections of Rosemary.

After that I still face four piles, to wit: 1) Blackberry, Clematis, and some unknown tree, said pile located in the NE corner of the lot. 2) Apple & Walnut clippings, located just south of central in the main yard. 3) Pile of Blackberry and another unknown tree, against the south fence in the area south of the building. 4) Mondo pile of Blackberry, wild pea, and the second unknown tree, all in the off-ground frame I made to prevent anything from rooting.

The first unknown tree has big spiky thorns, up to 3" long, sticking out of the main trunks, like the stereo-typical spikes on a bead of nails; nasty! And they are rigid, not wimpy.

The second unknown tree has an Oak-like bark, in that it has all these canyon-like fissures running the length of the trunk, starting out as mild surface patterning on the twigs and growing deeper as the wood thickens. The color doesn't match my recollection of Oak trees growing up in Salem, OR, in that it's more orangish, drying to an off yellow in the younger sections after being cut, the larger sections to a steel grey/green. Um, thinking about it, this may be two related species, as there are three trees, one in the main yard NW corner, two in the south extension along the fence, and the yellow/orange clippings are from the second area, with the grey/green from the first, and the striations differ between two, yellow/orange having more Oak-like depth... Except I think they show both together? Aughh! "Memory is the second thing to go." "What is the first?" "I forgot."

I should take good pictures and go to the library to research these trees, well, the 2nd two varieties, the first unknown, the one with the spikes, that got clear-cut, the other two merely pruned to my satisfaction. Be nice to know what they are, the wood for the handle came from one of them.

Ooh! Ooh! The rain has stopped, it's getting brighter out! Time to take the mid-day meds and see if I'll be up to going shopping in a bit! At the least I want to make it to Trader Joe's, I have decided that a slight increase in Kidney Stones is an acceptable cost for increased functioning via Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans, being a stimulant that does work with me, and a means of controlled dosage. I really wish the meth-heads hadn't forced them to ban pseudoephedrine, that stuff dealt with allergies and contained the prime anti-narcoleptic stimulant, combined with Ritalin and Adderall it kept me functioning half-way decently; not well enough to be off disability, but well enough to regularly go shopping as my reaction time was dependably prompt.

So. Meds. Wash my hair. See about obtaining CCEB.

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It works! Da handle is Da Man!

2008-10-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

So, anyway, spent some time today looking for things to eradicate, and found some more Blackberry and Clematis; every time I tell myself I've beaten the Clematis more hops out saying, "No you haven't! We're still here! Hey, get away with that implement of destruction!" and various other pithy comments whilst I endeavour to remove the evidence of Clematis survival.

Clematis just isn't very smart, taunting me and thinking I'll leave them alone.

The Blackberries, on the other hand, haven't really tried to fool me, I'm still dealing with stuff that was around earlier and I just wasn't quite up to dealing with at the time, stuff that I trimmed down fairly close to the ground but knew I'd be back to deal with later, say after it rained, when the ground would cooperate. Which is what I've been doing.

And as the heading for today's missive states, the new handle I made yesterday for my root cutter, it works. No slippage, no tool trying to elude my grasp, no, instead very rapid cutting through roots, as advertised. Yeah!

Also spent some time lugging branches into the basement for storage until I come up with projects to use them. Kinda funky with the Walnut, I've three or four branches which have matching curves, not all the same length but to scale, I can see a sofa in my future, Walnut with Apple rungs, even have branches shaped properly for arm rests at each end. It'll be a fun challenge. Of course, where I'd put it when finished does not bear contemplating at this time.

That's the burbling for today.

And I'm being good; I'm not ranting about the idiocy of Bill Sizemore and Kevin Mannix, two of Oregon's top idiots in regard to misuse of the Oregon Initiative Petition system.

Um, why yes, that was a mini-rant, and I filled out my mail-in ballot today, how'd ya guess?

And to prevent any further, I'll just

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I can handle this... the replacement handle is made!

2008-10-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Clearly I need to take these over again with a better contrast background.

Old handle above new handle; the new handle is a tad shorter, due to the shape of the tree branch I was working with, but also due to the shape of the branch it fits my hand much better. From this view, given better contrast, you can see a slight ) shape, with the handle continuing a slightly flattened curve from the blade.

View with blade facing toward me

View with blade facing away from me; the s-curve shape to the handle is subtle

To the left the new blade cover, then the blade with new handle, followed by the original handle and sheath.

I'm not sure what kind of wood I used, I haven't succeeded in ID'ing the tree; it wasn't one of our apple trees, nor the Walnut. Its one of the unknown volunteers, which has been de-volunteered with extreme prejudice. It might be a variety of Oak, the bark has that type of pattern to it, which really helps in regard to holding onto it and not having it slide out of my hand in use.

Initially I thought I was talking big in yesterday's blog entry, about how I could whip this off in nothing flat today, but I wasn't. Except for attaching the blade, I had this done by 8:30AM, starting a bit after 7:00.

First step was evening up the ends, for which I used my TopMan Japanese Saw Double-Edge Cross and Rip Cut, Harbor Freight item 92599, purchased around seven years ago, my first pull-saw.

The initial pass on narrowing down the end for the ferrule was done using the Shinto SR-30 Saw-Rasp, purchased from Garrett Wade in the same order as the root cutter; hadn't expected to use it quite this soon, but this is the type of thing I purchased it for.

After I got within range of the proper shape/diameter on the end I shifted to my Dremel, using a sanding wheel to finish shaping the end for the ferrule.

So far, easy-peasy. Now for a trickier bit, cutting the slot for the tang of the blade. Back onto the back porch with the pull-saw, clamp the hunk of handle-esque tree branch onto the railing using my left hand, and start cutting with the saw in my right, deliberately wobbling it a bit to widen the kerf sufficiently for the tang to fit. Well, that was the theory, I had to switch to a wider blade later on to get it wide enough for the tang.

Taking the old handle off turned out to be much easier than I had expected it to be. I used my trusty Stanley Yankee Handyman No 46, a lovely push/pull drill which they no longer manufacture, although you can buy a very good replica of their upper end model from Garrett Wade, their Classic Push Drill, Chromed Brass rather than the plastic, aluminium and steel of the No 46... Now where was I? Oh yes, I drilled a hole in the old handle from the side opposite the nail that held the tang in place, got it in one try, then tapped the nail out, grabbed my vise-grips and wiggled the blade out of the handle, shifted it to the new handle, tried to wiggle it on, re-sawed the slot, wiggled it on, held it firmly while using a deadblow hammer to tap the bottom of the handle the final bit to get it fully seated, and then tried to locate the hole in the tang...

Tried is the operative word. After several wrong guestimates as to where the hole in the tang was located, I shifted back to the Dremel, grabbed a carbide drill bit of appropriate size, and drilled a new hole; I presume I drilled a new hole, I could have suddenly found the old hole for all I know, wasn't taking it apart to check now was I? No, not checking, Mrs. Mead didn't raise that stupid a son.

The nail from the old handle wouldn't work with the size hole I created, so I grabbed a left-over steel rod from a pop-rivet, tapped it through, got it to bend a bit inside the handle to lock it into place, used a hacksaw to cut off the ends of the rod, and voila! New handle made and in place, total time approximately 2 hours.

I'll be 48 in December, I'll be using this tool many years from now. It has a really great blade, and now has a handle, custom fit to my hand, made from wood from my own yard. I'm a happy camper.

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These roots are made for cutting...

2008-10-27T21:19:00.001-07:00

Garrett Wade calls this a "Japanese Short-Bladed Root Cutter"; I call it well worth buying! Does a very nice job cutting through 2" Blackberry roots.

OK, it does have one problem. The handle is lousy. Can't hold on to it for beans. Especially if wearing gloves. Too small around, too smooth; nothing to hold onto to prevent it from getting yanked out of your hand. No problem, my next project is a new handle, got a section of branch just the right length and diameter, nice curve to it so it fits well in my hand, nice semi-rough bark, just need to shave down the end to fit the ferrule properly and slice a notch for the tang, should be able to get it done tomorrow.

Already made a sheath for it, the plastic thing it comes with is fine for hanging in a store but wouldn't hold up to everyday use, served as a place to start in making a pattern. Did a proper sheath, including the in-between layer of leather so that the saw blade rests on leather and can't slice any stitches or tangle with nails; thinking I'll use clinch nails to reinforce the sheath, currently it's just held together with Elmer's Glue-All. Sure, I could use my Dremel to drill holes for stitches, but that'd be a pain compared to clinch nails.

Clinch nails, it you are not familiar with them, are ball-headed nails, short like brads, which basically have on side shaved off at an angle. You use them to attach soles to boots, things like that, by hammering them through your leather into an anvil; when they hit the anvil the point curls up along the shaved angle, effectively creating a rivet-like fastener. You can buy them in various lengths depending upon how thick the leather is that you are fastening together. Ideally you will size them such that they curl up inside the leather, not actually projecting out the far side, that way they grip the leather better and don't wear away from walking on concrete or rocks or whatever until the leather is already needing replacing. I've used them a couple of times, and have yet to size them properly; another example of my being fine on theory and a disaster in practice. This boy really needs to cultivate patience, and take the time to buy the proper tools instead of trying to hastily make due when working on something that is meant to last a while.

But like I said, the blade itself is good. Despite the difficulty holding onto the haft, cut through 2" blackberry root in a matter of minutes, with a better handle it would have gone much faster. Also did a good job working Clematis loose from against a concrete wall, slipped around the roots and loosened them up so I could pull the puppy out without breaking anything off.

Whoa. Evening meds just hit, getting woozy and time for bed.

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Good weather for blackberry eradication

2008-10-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hasn't rained the last couple of days, so the grass is dry, but the soil is still nice and damp.

Perfect for going out and routing blackberries. OK, not quite perfect, perfect would be damp and warm soil, not damp and cold soil. But as things go, pretty darn good for grubbing around in the dirt, dragging up blackberry roots so they don't grow back.

Did this along the south side of the building, the not-quite-penultimate holdout of blackberry bramble; now to deal with the scraggly bits along the south fence, gonna have to move the pile-o-tires to do that, think the tires are left over from either potatoes or tomatoes, haven't been used in ten years, probably need to find a home for them somewhere along the line. And then the scraggly bits along the north fence. After that, well, the only berries left will be wanted berries, need to build new trellii for them. Yes, trellii. Singular Trellis, Plural Trellii, and we have both blackcap and red raspberries at different sections of the yard, so trellii it is. Tra-la, tra-la.

Sorry, couldn't resist. Actually went back to add the tra-las, sprang to mind whilst rereading prior to posting.

Seven remnant Clematii running around, the two next to the north fence are growing rapid-like, the others not-so, fairly soon I'll take more pictures and then remove the six on our property, the seventh, the one growing the best, is growing on the other side of the property line, so permission should be sought prior to eradication.

Limb remnants from pruning are going away fairly rapidly, another two or three yard debris pick-ups should do them, then the stuff to the south of the building will go, that will probably take a couple more, so by the end of the year all trace of The Bramble That Ate Brooklyn should be gone. For those who don't know, I live in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Portland; I blame my accent on that. Mind, my accent doesn't match any locale I've ever lived, and changes as the mood strikes it, but do they know that?

Still dealing with bouts of depression since they approved my disability, I see my psychiatrist on Monday, hopefully we can get a handle on this.

Enough. I've demonstrated I'm still alive, and getting some stuff done.

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Cold...

2008-10-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

It seems like I have not-so-much body fat these days, and an internal thermostat that doesn't work so good, as well as an imprecise thermostat for the baseboard heaters.

I'm either shivering, or sweating. Trying to adjust apartment temperature and layers is a trick.

Do need to replace the old thermostat with a digital programmable one, the current jobby is from 1976 and one of those turn-a-knob things with no precise gradations.

Not a happy camper.

Clematis Observation Project Begun

2008-10-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today, while taking a break from other activities, I wandered around checking for nasties growing in the yard, just for reference sake as I didn't have the Hori-Hori knife on me, and found three Clematis that hadn't been there Friday.

I marked their locations by stabbing Apple prunings in the ground near by, so as not to misplace them, and then went and got my

[wait for it]

[hope this is far enough to have been off-screen!]
camera to record current growth, as I plan on leaving them alone for a bit so I can chart their growth; how fast does Clematis grow being a relevant question, and this gives me three to observe in somewhat different settings.

Might even try to time-lapse the photos, presuming I stand close enough to the same positions.

Oh, and on pruning, welding gloves aren't particularly good when trying for any kind of delicate work.

On an entirely different topic, I'm investigating duplex sheet feed scanners, in addition to my previous interest in tablet input systems. The cost is way down since I worked at OHS, I suspect this is revolutionizing document preservation and management big-time, being able to purchase 50 sheet feed duplex scanners rated for 1000 copies per day for under $500.00, including top-notch software.

Nifty.

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Gloves ordered

2008-10-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, wandered over to Garrett Wade, they have some gloves that look pretty good for this kind of activity; actually, two types of gloves, not sure which is better for using with saws and which for blackberries, so I ordered one pair each; cost is not a concern when dealing with a clumsy oaf and his hands, ya dig?

Hopefully this'll be the last you hear of my cutting myself with sharp tools or prickly plants.

Speaking of which, one should always wear pants, not shorts, when removing blackberries, as documented by this photo from back in August...

Like I've mentioned before, I'm an idiot. And yes, I'm wearing sandals as well as shorts while fighting blackberries.

idiot idiot idiot, three times I name myself Idiot!

Next post will probably have some comparison photos, pre-Apple Pruning and post, and ditto in some ways in re blackberries, just to make clear just what got accomplished. It blows my mind, but then I'm clearly A Bear Of Little Brain.

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A Message from Gen. Incompetence

2008-10-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

'Greetings!'

"Maj. Stupidity was scheduled to give this talk, but he wasn't dumb enough.'

'First, let's sing our regimental song, dedicated to those gems of brilliance, the 2nd Lieutenants!'

All join in singing 'Louie Louie', extra credit for using the words generated by the FBI prior to the words being printed on the jacket liners.

'Excellent, none of you sang in the same key; you are a credit to the Corps!'

'My talk today is on safety, but first, march in review over that nearby suspension bridge; remember, KEEP IN STEP!'

Transcript ends following sounds of bridge vibrating apart as resonance frequency is reached...

****************
Safety. I've previously mentioned saws, and gloves, and fingers, and the lovely things that happen with a bad mix of the above. Writing this is taking a bit more effort than normal, as I have bandages on three fingers and thumb of my right hand.

So, no bleep, there I was, working on trimming twigs, etc., off the branches I'd removed from the Apple trees yesterday...

You only think you see what's coming, remember, Maj. Stupidity was too smart to give this talk...

Left hand is holding pruning saw, with lots of nasty sharp jagged teeth. Right hand is holding pull saw, used to cut thinner stock. Right hand brushes freshly cut branch to the left...

No, still not there, this is dumber still, Maj. Stupidity is too smart for this.

I'm wearing bicycling gloves. Bob Cratchet style bicycling gloves, the kind with no finger tips. The better to control what I'm doing while keeping my hands warm, as its wet outside...

I've no idea whatsoever how I avoided slicing my right index finger. But three knuckles and the ball of my thumb slid ever so smoothly along the pruning saw, thankfully not much pressure involved, small miracles happen.

I'm going to order proper safety gloves today.

Man, Gen. Incompetence may be too smart for this, I might be a 2nd Louie...

sound effect heard in the distance, a 'rim-shot'

Internet Resources I didn't know about, second in an ongoing series

2008-10-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

So there I was, searching the Web for materials on Sewing Machine Maintenance, and lo and behold an ERIC document came up as a hit. "Huh," I went, "haven't thought about ERIC in years, wonder what this links to?"

If you followed the link, you found out, as I did, that it links to ED183837 - Military Curricula for Vocational & Technical Education. Sewing Machine Maintenance, 18-3; snappy title, what? And, get this, that had a link to the full text of said document. All 110 pages of it.

Mostly. A link to a PDF image of a microform document, which hadn't been well cared for, and it is very clear that they didn't clean the fiche and the fiche scanner properly either before or during the scan process. And the fiche wasn't COM [Computer Output Microform], it was made by photographing an already extant document, which was missing some pages [but nothing crucial, as the notes made by the folks producing the microfiche took care to note].

Think of it as a multi-generation photocopy of a training manual. With cruft. See the entry for cruft in the Jargon File, if not familiar with cruft. [If not familiar with the Jargon File, be ready to lose the next several hours as it grabs you and educates you while making you howl with laughter. The Jargon File is worthy of its own blog entry.]

But the nifty thing is that they're trying to make all the old ERIC documents available online, for free. No charges for accessing the things, none of this IEEE bait-and-switch abstract looks good but I got to pay umpteen bazillion dollars to find out if it really is what I'm looking for, no refund if it's not, same with ANSI and the other standards folks, hrmph!

Something being in ERIC doesn't make it public domain, but it does grant pre-DMCA fair use, the type beloved by librarians and researchers the world over. The idea behind ERIC was to create a repository for materials relating to science and education, with copies at all GovDoc depositories, so that the free flow of information relating to research, etc., not be impeded; just look at the name: Education Resources Information Center, ERIC. It got a real boost when various tenure assessment programs decided ERIC Documents counted towards tenure; instead of paying to be included in some specialized journal which would be printed on the cheapest paper available, and cost your University Library as much as three staff members to obtain, ERIC would accept it and distributed it to all the major universities for you, on archival microform. Another boost was that being included in ERIC established copyright in a firm and tangible fashion, so even if you planned on submitting the snazzy write-up to The Journal of ... for proper peer-review and kudos, you'd send the initial write-up to ERIC to establish it as your work, so it was then safe to give talks about it at conferences prior to it appearing in said august journal.

Ignore the past-tense, ERIC is alive and growing, and has made the switch-over to the Internet with flying colors.

Check them out. Who knows, you might decide to submit something to them, yourself.

That's a wrap.

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Clematis: Terrorist of the Botanical World

2008-10-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, I say 'Terrorist!' Western White Clematis, when it has a choice between living on its own, or intertwining its rootstock with another's, will invariably choose to intermingle. 'Why, that's just being sociable,' you say, 'where's the terrorism in that?'

Collateral damage. By placing themselves as they do, it is not possible to remove them without endangering innocent plants, breaking branches and stems, straining, unearthing, destroying root structures. Just so do terrorists place themselves amongst the innocents of their own countries, that those whose righteous wrath is directed at them will hesitate to strike, for fear of injuring and alienating those who are deserving of their nurture, who are in their care. And at the same time they entwine themselves in the lives of these innocents, pulling them towards those who are in truth their enemies, cozening them with honeyed words until they clasp them to their bosoms and drink their poisoned lies, becoming twisted and stunted as that which is good is drawn away to serve the evil ones.

So does Clematis, rooting itself amongst others, entwining itself around them and using them to lift itself toward the stars themselves, stealing their light, strangling their limbs, and eventually obtaining their very deaths, all to the Greater Glory of Clematis! The gardener must harden their heart and act early, whilst Clematis' roots are yet shallow, whilst the least damage is done to those it would entangle with fine tendrils whose strength is as iron itself. The gardener must embrace the Greater Truth that Clematis will inevitably do far greater damage to these innocent plants than the gardener can possibly cause whilst battling Clematis, that the better part of valour is to strike early and decisively whilst the invader is still weak.

This requires diligence on the gardener's part, an ever-watchful eye, never relenting, for while Clematis spreads best via vine and root, yet still some seeds do fall on fertile ground and it spring up where it dwelt not before.

And the dread knowledge that there may be times when a mistake is made, where something superficially similar to Clematis at a stage in its growth will be seen as Clematis and be rent from the ground, only to then realize their error and weep bitter tears of remorse, knowing that naught they might do will bring back the innocent destroyed in error.

Such is the Evil that is Clematis.

Look! More pictures! Other stuff that grows in The Yard

2008-09-30T16:50:00.001-07:00

As seen previously, there's this fern, well over 15 years old

Asparagus, I believe, going to seed; we haven't planted any since 2000 at the latest...

Mint. Almost as pervasive as Clematis, but nowhere as obnoxious; a good neighbor, plays well with others.

Mint in Bloom.

Wild Pea, attempts to be Clematis but doesn't quite make it; it is on the list...

I know, it's the 30th, the pictures are from the 24th, so sue me already.

OH, important stuff, tomorrow I get my eyes checked for the first time in like, say, five years? I suspect I'll shortly have new glasses, now to find a style that doesn't slip down my nose and out of proper position, and doesn't irritate the ears. *snort* Maybe I'll just get sports spectacles for everyday use...

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A picture is worth a thousand words, wherefore let us be brief...

2008-09-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

At last! What was underneath all the Blackberries and Clematis, anyway?

Just how large was that Blackberry root?

(HINT: Knife is 32cm end to end)

LOOK! Still more Clematis striving to be free!

Brief is as brief does.

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Do nor ask for whom the Clematis grows...

2008-09-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

...it grows for thee!

One of these days I'll write Fin to the Clematis, but not quite yet.

Its been good growing weather lately, everything that might grow this time of year is, so after working on dismembering Apple prunings for a while I decided it was time to do another walk about the yard to see if anything was growing as shouldn't, like Clematis.

It looked pretty good. Former strongholds and fastnesses showed no green, no growth, and thus seem safe. And still I looked, hither and yon, seeking that telltale distinctive shade of green, that shape of leaf, the jointed stem, anything which would say 'this way Clematis dwells, fear and tremble ye mighty,' and no sign did I see.

Yet still did I seek. And as is written, 'Seek and ye shall find,' I sought and I found. Seven did I find, some scarce showing above the surface, only the tinge of Evil making them perceptible, some more boldly did stand forth, growing anew in ancient fastnesses, sheltered amongst branches from Apple prunings seven years past, thinking them adequate to hold back my righteous wrath. Carefully did I clear the ground about them, to uncover any tendrils they might have sent forth to establish forward encampments, concealed colonies, covert concentrations of corruption to fester until they might burst and spew forth their strangler's stems and once again do battle for the very soul of the yard! But for naught did they plot in their leafy fortresses, for full deep did I thrust my Hori-Hori blade, wide about did I dig, and with strength combined with delicacy did I draw them out from their redoubts and boldly did I stride to the Yard Debris bin and cast them forth, out of the garden, that they might die in heat and darkness and never more disturb the tranquility of the yard.

And now, closer seems the day when I shall be able tell of The Last Dangerous Clematis, when I shall know that they be dealt their last blow, struck down and driven forth, never to darken the surface of the yard again.

Apple Pruning and wood accumulation

2008-09-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

Given the proper species of Apple, seven years growth on an adult tree can generate very straight 12'+ lengths of wood, significant portions of which have respectable girth.

I do own a spokeshave, maybe I should turn out some quarterstaves...

Anyway, I'm looking at a lot of hardwood here, much of it straight enough and thick enough that while I don't see what I'd use it for, I'm disinclined to give it the heave-ho provided I get it processed for storage promptly. If nothing else I'll have tons of nice dowel stock.

I also own a 12" thickness planer, down the line after the wood has seasoned I could rig up a sled and plane them flat, then see about laminating or pinning them together... could create cutting boards if nothing else, or a table top, or something.

I think I have my work cut out for me this week... or that I'll spend the week cutting out work for me... didn't figure a way to phrase that for a true groaner, sorry!

In regard to the potential table/desk carcase, yep, it'd work, one problem. It weighs a ton, and moving it onto the porch or inside isn't something I can do on my own, so right now it looks like a table in the yard is in my future. I should really take a picture of everything right now and post, it is again a case of not recognizing the yard when compared to previous incarnations of yardness. When I finish pruning there will be no question about the existence of a house behind the Apple trees. There will also be no question about the existence of a Walnut tree which needs to be taken down, I don't like its position in relation to said house, it'll be somewhat tricky given the direction it leans, will require careful topping and delimbing prior to the main trunk. And then I'll have Walnut as well as Apple to work with.

Too bad the Filbert volunteers never seem to make it, they're the ones I try to save! But no, Oaks and Walnuts, and Maples, and Holly, and some others I've yet to identify, but the Filberts just seem too fragile. Pity.

Mind blanking out.

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Mixed News

2008-09-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

The sort of news where you aren't sure if you should celebrate, or cry tears of despair.

Got a letter from Social Security yesterday. They've approved the medical basis for my disability claim, and are now dealing with the non-medical portion. My translation of the latter part is that now they look at my work history to see how much time I've put into Social Security, and how much I was making, to determine how much they're going to start disbursing. Given that I've surpassed the requisite 40 credits, or whatever they call them, it'll be the full load. Just wish the Oregon Historical Society had paid comparably with The City of Chicago, especially since The City of Chicago doesn't participate in Social Security; governmental entities are the only folks who can opt out of Social Security, OK, them and religious organizations, anyway it would have been nice if the calculations were based on what I made at The Chicago Public Library, I took a $10,000.00 pay cut when I hired on at OHS, and that was before I found out I'd been hired at step -2 on the pay scale, made it more like a $14,000.00 pay cut; never did get around to checking to see if they had mentioned that fact to me before I accepted their offer, I'm pretty sure they hadn't, but given accepting an oral job offer over the phone there was no way I'd have been able to prove they hadn't, I admit it should have clued me into just how reliable their administration was going to be.

Anyway, sometime in the not-so-distant future I'll be receiving a four year back payment on Social Security Disability, and then monthly benefits. Like I said, not sure if I should celebrate or cry. Celebrate that they agree I'm no longer employable due to various physical ailments, or cry because they agree I'm no longer employable due to various physical ailments...

So I expect I'll do neither, and just be glad that this particular stress-source is over, except for the periodic reviews to confirm my status until I reach normal retirement age.

Not much else to say right now, except that I harvested the last apples this morning, and then started pruning the trees. Given how long since they'd last been pruned, the yard is covered almost as much by the pruned branches as it'd been covered by blackberries earlier. Scary, that.

Interesting bit on the pruning, one section looks like if I keep being careful on how I do it I'll end up with a one-piece carcase for a new desk, just need to put a top on it.

Anyway.

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Vertigo

2008-09-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

Vertigo is a very odd thing, and its been visiting me a bunch recently.

Like, looking up, and suddenly the room is turning around me, except it isn't. I can see that its not turning, yet I can feel that everything is spinning, like I'm at the center of a merry-go-round.

Or, really weird this, pulling on blackberry roots, and being ready to swear that the earth just shook, reverberated, like I was pulling on Yggdrasil's roots, the World Tree of Norse Mythoes, and the World literally shook, and knowing that there was no way that was actually happening.

Very strange. And my head trying to turn, drifting as with the tide, toward the right, actually feeling resistance as I tense my muscles and hold position.

If part of the mind believes something is happening, the rest of the mind will react as though it is happening.

Just like if one part of the mind creates sounds which aren't actually out there, they still exist, inside the mind which creates them. Some do great things with this, as Beethoven wrote his last symphony after he was completely and utterly deaf, yet his ears still heard the sounds and his hands could transcribe them.

So too with me, except that I haven't developed the skills to transcribe. And I wish I could. Of course, I also wish I had better control over the music, sometimes it isn't very restful or inspired, just annoying as all get-out. Other times, like right now, its pretty neat, a guitar riff inspired by BŐC's Don't Fear The Reaper, with a nifty oboe/keyboard or maybe electric guitar bit overlaying, and a flute solo descant just joined in, nifty stuff. But exhausting, as part of my mind is creating this, and then routing it through the neural pathways such that while I can feel that there are no pressure waves impacting my eardrums, the stereophonic stimulus is there, and I can't turn it down or off. Well, sometimes I can convince my mind that it should fade out like the end of a studio recording, and sometimes can convince it to not fade back in with the next song. Well, now its fading in with another BŐC-style ballad, for a bit I thought it might shift to something akin to Rush.

Or maybe a blend with some early Jade Warrior, haven't listened to them in years, should drag out Floating World sometime, have to hook up a record player and unearth the platters... or track down the cassette tapes I made lo these many years agone.

It's a bloody pain when you can't trust your mind to properly report what's going on in your surroundings.

well,

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The World Between Floors, or, quite the lowered ceiling we've got

2008-09-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Back when the current building was built, there having been at least one previous on this foundation, they went for mega-tall ceilings. This became handy when they did major rewiring and plumbing later on, as they found the easiest way to do it was to do the work, running below the current ceiling, then when they were done, lowering the ceiling by 3-4 feet; the ceiling is still 8 feet or so, I mean, ya could have installed loft sleeping space before they lowered it. I'd be willing to say the upstairs hadn't previously been plumbed, given the way the plumbing is installed; I'd also say they weren't concerned with the plumbing being all that well organized, its quite the ugly jumble.

Anyway, there is around 3 feet between the old ceiling and the new rafters for the lowered ceiling, making it not too tough to maneuver between floors when doing additional wiring, things like running 14/2 grounded cable replacing 18/2 ungrounded; hey, we've even replaced some wire & tube stuff!

Getting between floors wasn't always easy. When my folks bought the place back in '76 [1976, that is], there was no access to between floors. That changed real fast, as we wanted to install new electrical services for the upstairs apartments, and upgrade from fuses to breakers, and install base-board heaters instead of central heating, all at the same time; we had to replace the main runs, at the least, and the baseboard heaters are 220, not 110. So we opened up the area under the stairs [talk about wasted space!] and made it possible to get between floors... by clambering up a ladder, twisting sideways, and doing all sorts of odd contortions to get back out onto the wobbly ladder my folks had for this purpose; sure, the electricians who did the initial work had a nicer ladder, ours was somewhat ... less nice.

Over the years we had reason to do more thorough rewiring, and I'd get sent up the ladder [crammed into the coat closet we'd set up in the under stair area], remove the jigsaw puzzles stored on a shelf we'd put in, remove the paneling behind the puzzles, then twitch around like an asthmatic fish out of water until I flopped into the worst section of between floors, then drag a trouble light and extension cord and tons of wire & supplies and tools and... you get the idea this was not my favorite activity? Add to this that the between floors had no floor, just rafters and plaster ceiling, one mis-step and down I go, as it were.

Given this, I tended to stay between floors as long as possible once there, maximizing my output at the expense of things like breaks and lunch, because getting in and out was such a pain.

Until the day I slipped.

[such a temptation to end the post there, do a continued next ish bit, but I'd not do that, especially since the follow-up post would be read first by late comers to the blog...]

I caught myself before I went sailing between the rafters, but I did have a nice view of my parent's bedroom I'd not had before, and noted that my [intercepted] trajectory would have terminated [possibly literally] with my head hitting the arm of a rocking chair.

I decided I was done for the day, and took the usual way back downstairs, via the ladder.

After reassuring ourselves that I was OK, Dad and I were looking at the [new] hole in my folks' bedroom ceiling, not looking forward to patching it, when Mom had a brilliant idea; why not install a pull-down ladder, the type they sell for attic access?

Hole in ceiling, not a bug, just an undocumented feature.

Pull-down ladder installed, much easier to get between floors. Then my moment of brilliance, how about wiring the between floors for power and light?

We've had occasion since to have workers in to do stuff between floors, and they love it, compared to other places they've had to struggle with. Plenty of room to maneuver, lots of light, power outlets every eight-ten feet, lights and power controlled by a GFCI outlet at the top of the pull-down ladder [using the 'test' button as the on/off switch], ah bliss [comparatively].

Still, moving around with my knees resting on the joists is less than comfortable, and as I develop arthritis downright painful, hence buying top-notch knee pads with gel liners a few years ago; haven't been between floors since, of course.

But, as noted yesterday, the knee pads also work well when working in The Yard. If adjusted properly so blisters don't form under the straps.

Which, as I didn't mention yesterday, I know how to do, but neglected to do as it was a bit more effort than I felt like just then...

I did mention that I'm an idiot, yes?

Post this Puppy!