Let the galley be kept rowing.

Fall Replacements

2011-10-04T23:00:00.000Z

Spring Hill Nurseries sent some replacement plants for ones that never came up. Last week I planted five hostas and this morning I went out in the rain and planted three Hardy Cyclamen (neapolitanum).

It's not immediately obvious which side goes up or down. Here is what they look like: some kind of cookie with a rough spot on one side.

I decided to plant them with the smooth side down. Since the previous ones did not come up at all, I picked a different spot and prepared the soil by digging a hole that is over a foot across, mixed in sand, fertilizer, and dirt mixed with sawdust (from where the tree was removed at the back driveway).

Here they are, I thought it would be handy to have a picture so that I can look for them in the spring.

Finally I covered them with a couple inches of dirt.

Now I'll just have to get some mulch to cover them over. (Does anyone sell mulch this time of year?)

House Painting Reunion

2011-06-24T13:52:00.003Z

Drew, Adam, and Tom are home for the week to paint the house. Local painters gave us estimates of $6K, so even with airfare, we are way under that.

Saturday was bright and sunny, and was spent in scraping and priming preparation:

The old basketball hoop is now a shadow of its former self:

Some areas needed more preparation than others:

Shutters:

Painting of the body color happened on Monday, thanks to a paint sprayer loaned to us by Bernie Benson:

Anson was on vacation for the week, and helped paint the garage:

Madelyn also got a few strokes in:

Looking beautiful:

Two more days, working on trim in rainy weather, and it was done.

VC No Comm Event

2011-03-12T10:45:00.001Z

Score a temporary victory for the machines in Man vs. Machine. A couple of weeks ago, an external event triggered a rebellion of our HP Blade Servers.

Without getting too technical, a bug in the firmware meant that the Virtual Connect network switches were checking out an incorrect IP address when validating management communication. The Virtual Connect Manager apparently decided to stop talking to us when someone in China configured DNS for their new network using that address.

Once that happened, the Virtual Connect Manager started reporting NO_COMM and other disinformation. Just going into the manager and looking to see what was going on made things worse, and eventually rebooting the switch (to clean up the mess) abruptly took down every blade server (even though they are configured for complete redundancy).

(The HP Customer Advisory gives a long list of what can trigger disaster.)

Reminds me of the Uncle Remus Tar Baby story. Starts out with a lack of communication, but quickly becomes hopelessly sticky if you try to find out why and then keep slugging it out.

Trimming Maple Branches

2010-08-25T17:59:00.004Z

The Saturday before our trip, we were working in the yard and decided to trim the maple branches that hang down in the next door neighbor's yard. See if you can spot anything important in the picture that I missed:

We set up a ladder under the branches and had the pruning shears ready, I climbed up there and pulled the branch down and hit myself in the back of the head with a huge hornet's nest. It made the hornets very angry. I jumped down, stumbled, and splatted flat on the ground, then jumped up again and flailed my arms around, running and yelling like an idiot. I had to get the hose and hose myself off before I got them out of my hair and shirt collar.

Green Industries Seem to be Booming (in Mexico)

2010-08-21T17:53:00.002Z

Driving in on I-80 toward Omaha, we kept passing windmill blades being transported on trucks going the other way. We were behind another one going the other way and took pictures of it at Little America.

The transport escort said that they were driving up from Mexico and going to Washington State. They must have been resting up for the night before facing the canyons in Utah.

Yard and Garden Update

2010-08-14T18:28:00.002Z

We tore out the overgrown bushes along the garage, so now the walkway (where I go in and out every day) is a part of the side yard. The bushes were replaced with a rock run that will handle the rainwater from the downspout that would otherwise come down in the new foundation shade garden.

View from the back patio:

Things are growing well in the butterfly garden. We will have to do something with the stray maple tree soon.

Foundation Shade Garden

2010-07-06T08:03:00.000Z

As built:

Hardy Cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifclium) - 3 bulbs
Sister Theresa Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) - 1 plant
Mixed Hostas - 5 stumps
Amethyst Astilbe (Astilbe x. Arendsil) - 3 clumps
Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) - 3 twigs
Mulch - 3 bags
Red Scallop Edging - 12?
Dirt

The Earth Holds Many Secrets

2010-07-03T21:35:00.003Z

Here's one... a 240v electric line buried within five inches of the surface:

An immovable stake or fence post of unknown length:

This Week's Garden Project

2010-07-03T10:39:00.000Z

We had a "Foundation Shade Garden" kit come from the nursery on Tuesday evening. Kind of need to get them in the ground, but there is a lot of preparation work to be done in the place where I want to put them. Here is the "before" photo:

Zach Griffith came over to help. Some of the young men in the ward are trying to earn enough money to go to summer camp, so I am offering $10/hour if they will just come over and work. One, with six hours, so far.

Baby Butterfly Blue Bloom

2010-07-03T10:14:00.000Z

One of the Butterfly Blue Scablosa has a couple of flowers on it this morning.

The First Flower

2010-06-29T21:55:00.004Z

There it is, the first Billberry Ice flower:

It was out there this morning, but tonight it is gone. Here is how the garden is looking:

Vacation Day Five - Uncle Sam's Boat Tour

2010-06-25T19:07:00.006Z

We had dinner and stayed the night in the Thousand Islands Inn. It was a hundred years old and showing its age. But, you have heard of the salad dressing they invented, right?

Our room faced the park across the street (and the river). The places in the grass that look worn out are where a huge slab of rock shows through.

On the drive from Clayton to Alexandria Bay, we saw a huge nest on top of a utility pole (and a second one a little further down the road). I think that it is a baby Osprey or Seahawk sitting there.

In Alexandria, they flagged us right into the parking lot for Uncle Sam's Boat Tours. We took a three-hour tour of the Thousand Islands.

The 1,700 islands that they call the Thousand Islands are mostly privately owned. Boldt Castle is an estate that is open to tourists, and I think that they said that $30 million had been spent on renovations. The next photo is just a utility building at the edge of the island. (We didn't get off the tour boat and pay the $7 to walk around because we were pretty tired by then.)

At the other extreme were islands with one tree:

Vacation Day Four - Erie Canal Village

2010-06-24T19:03:00.002Z

Vacation Day Three - Rockwell Museum of Western Art

2010-06-24T10:12:00.004Z

The Corning tour bus picks people up at a "Welcome Center" where there is plenty of free parking. It then stops at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, the downtown market district, and then completes the loop.

Today we started out with the Rockwell Museum. It has three floors of well laid-out exhibits. It holds mostly art about the West, and not so much Native American art. (No flash photography allowed...)

This painting was massive. It was amazing that the artist could visualize what the whole thing would look like, when he was standing a couple of feet away to paint it:

One floor had contemporary art.

Here are some of our favorites:

Vacation Day Two - Corning Museum of Glass

2010-06-22T22:10:00.004Z

We spent the afternoon on Tuesday at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Most impressive is the Heineman Collection. This couple collected all kinds of contemporary glass art over about 20 years, and the collection has been donated to the museum. The exhibition displays 240 objects by 87 international artists:

The musuem also puts on live shows of how glassblowing is done. In the demostration that we saw, a very nice bowl was made, and then trashed because there wasn't room to cool it down overnight.

Vacation Day One - Letchworth State Park

2010-06-22T21:00:00.004Z

We started off with a tour of Graycliff, an estate designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Sorry, no photos.

Then we went cross-country to Letchworth State Park.

We stayed the night at the Glen Iris Inn:

It is just across from the Middle Falls:

The park is huge. Driving across it, we saw a lot of different kinds of wildlife. We saw a fox in the bushes at the edge of the road. We saw a doe and her fawn, and almost got a photo. There were turkey vultures cruising over the river:

Butterfly Garden Planted

2010-06-15T22:00:00.001Z

The tree nursery before the big change:

Photos of the new garden:

The New Butterfly Garden

2010-06-14T20:30:00.001Z

Hey, I've been gone from the blog for almost a year. I guess I've been busy.

Here is what's in the works now: a butterfly garden for Momma. Here are the main ingredients:

Wild Romance Aster (3)
Butterfly Blue Scabiosa (3)
White Obedient Plant (3)
Black Knight Butterfly Bush (1)
Jacob Cline Monarda (3)
Billberry Ice Tradescantia (3)
Flagstone Bricks (31)
Portage Stones (4 or 5)
Dirt and Mulch
Stray Arbor Day Foundation Trees (4)
Stray Bulbs, including Fox's Grapes

Final Ingredient: Add Children

2009-06-22T20:20:00.001Z

Done but Unfinished

2009-06-22T07:25:00.000Z

We finished the treehouse construction last week.

The stairs required about half of the construction effort.

It has a ship's wheel for small pirates.

Lookout Mountain still needs some landscaping to absorb impacts.

There is a cargo net for bigger pirates.

It's a swing and phase two is well begun

2009-05-31T19:50:00.000Z

What do you think it's going to be?

2009-05-23T22:00:00.001Z

End of the Road

2009-05-22T22:15:00.001Z

This historical marker caught my eye on the trip down and we took a picture on the way back up. Somewhere around Helper on US 6.
The loop through five states:

Road Trip Day 10

2009-05-14T11:59:00.004Z

We left Williams after eating breakfast at the Pine Country Restaurant. We are tired and are now concentrating on getting home, heading out on US 40.

We could have checked out the Arizona Meteor Crater, but didn't.

We could have gone into Winslow Arizona, but didn't. But that didn't stop the Eagles "Take it easy, take it easy..." song from going through my head every time a Winslow Arizona sign came along.

We could have visited the Petrified Forest National Park, but didn't.

We turned north at Gallup, New Mexico. Driving up US 491 in New Mexico, one of the interesting features were these monuments rising out of the sandy desert here and there:
We met up with the bikers again on US 491 between Gallup and Farmington, coming the other direction. Apparently they went up to the Grand Canyon and came out the east entrance on US 64.
We drove through the corner of Colorado. The landscape turned green, with trees and farmland, almost as soon as we crossed the state line.

Here is an interesting formation that can be seen coming for many miles down US 191 from Monticello, Utah:
We are staying in Moab again for the night. We had excellent Mexican food at Fiesta Mexicana. If you are traveling all over Southern Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, you really need to do Mexican food at least once.

Grand Canyon National Park

2009-05-13T23:10:00.004Z

We made it to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. (The North Rim is still closed.) There was a "management fire" burning to the east of us:

We spent some time watching the condors and trying to catch them in flight. Here are four or five in one photo: (Two are on the ground.)

The views are impressive and I don't think that the photos can really do them justice.

We returned to Willams tonight and had dinner at Rod's Steak House. Best steak we've had in years.

There are now motorcycles everywhere, passing through for Run For The Wall.

Road Trip Day 8

2009-05-12T22:30:00.001Z

We drove down I-15, past Las Vegas, then on to Hoover Dam:
They are building a dam bypass bridge that will be done in 2010:

View in the other direction is the bottom of Lake Meade:

We met up with Route 66 a couple of times. We had lunch at Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner in Kingman Arizona:

We are spending the night in Williams Arizona, just outside of Grand Canyon National Park. Williams is also on the old Route 66.

Zion National Park

2009-05-11T23:30:00.002Z

We spent Sunday (yesterday) in St. George. We attended church in the home ward of Elder and Sister Edwards, a missionary couple who served for 18 months in Buffalo. (It turned out that we are staying just across the Interstate from there.) They have been back for just a week and they spoke in Sacrament Meeting. The ward's meetings start at 12:30, which was nice since we have been sleeping in late. It being Mother's Day, the ward gave a gift to each of the sisters, a copy of the Gospel Art Book. (I wish I had thought of that.) The Edwards talked us into having dinner with them after church and we had a good time.

It was hot in St. George and Zion NP today... in the 90's. Most of our sight seeing was from the shuttle bus stops.

Temple of Sinawava:

Riverside Walk:
Controlled burn between The Grotto and Zion Lodge:

We had lunch at the Zion Lodge. The Checkerboard Salad was generous enough that you couldn't hardly finish it all.

Court of the Patriarchs:
Tonight, we are spending our third night in the St. George Best Western Abbey Inn.

Bryce Canyon National Park

2009-05-09T23:40:00.001Z

Rainbow Point:

Black Birch Canyon:

Ponderosa Canyon:

Agua Canyon:

Natural Bridge:

Farview Point:

Sunset Point:

A different kind of camper:

Road Trip Day Five

2009-05-08T22:35:00.000Z

They finished the truck enhancement before lunch break, so we left Loa a little after noon. Heading south on Route 12, we went through Dixie National Forest:

In Boulder, we paid to go into the Anasazi State Park Museum. Excavations at the site have uncovered about a hundred rooms and structures used by ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians. ("Anasazi" is apparently a derogatory term used by the Navajo Indians to refer to the Ancestral Pueblo.)
The park has also created a six-room replica of part of the pueblo. I had to stoop down and turn sideways to get through the door, and the living space is about ten by ten, so it is small, even by modern motel standards. The people who lived here probably did not want to spend a lot of time and effort gathering building materials.

View out the back of the park:

The drive through Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument was amazing. There were parts of the highway where, just a couple of feet across the white line, the shoulder fell off a bluff six or seven hundred feet down. No guard rails or anything. This is another case where you couldn't stop and take photos of the most amazing parts, but here is a panoramic view from a pull off area:
View of Powell Point from a later viewpoint on Route 12:

We are now in the Elk Lodge of Ruby's Inn, just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park.

Road Trip Day Four

2009-05-07T22:30:00.001Z

No new photos today. Had a nice drive to Loa Utah in the cab of a AAA tow truck. The driver, Gary, was a nice guy and seemed to know everyone on the road. They waved to each other as they passed by in opposite directions. We have settled into the Snuggle Inn for the night.

Here is the view from the Rim Rock Inn where we stayed in Torrey last night, with some examples of the black lava rocks that show up everywhere:

Road Trip Day Three

2009-05-06T23:30:00.006Z

Heading south from Moab on State Route 191, about half-way to Monticello, Wilson Arch was visible from the road. There were several hikers in the area and I tried to catch one under the arch waving his arms, but I wasn't quite fast enough: (Click the picture to see the guy.)
At Blanding, we turned off onto Route 95. This is another "Scenic Byway" and it billed itself as the Bicentenial Highway. (By the way, we also discovered that they have "Scenic Backways" that are another whole level of primitiveness.) There was not a lot of traffic... this guy on a bicycle is getting ready to cruise down a 10% grade at about 35 MPH:
Along the way, an interesting sight was Jacob's Chair sitting all alone on a mesa:
The road followed White Canyon for quite a while. It was pretty impressive, but we didn't get a good picture of it. Unless you are right on top of it, not much of it shows (as in the photo above). We finally crossed over it when it took a turn to connect into Glen Canyon and Lake Powell, but there was no place to stop on the road. Shortly after, we met up with the Colorado River again when Route 95 crossed over it on this bridge:
There were several recreational areas where you could approach the river, but most of the turn-offs didn't even look like roads, so even though you could see pit stops down there, you couldn't figure out how to get to them. This part of the river is probably the nothern-most limit of what you could call Lake Powell. (A "Uranium Rush" town called Hite is mostly under water here, having been flooded when Lake Powell was created.)
The nicest rest area was at a spot called Hog Spring. It had nice trees, a suspension footbridge over the spring, and shaded picnic tables placed up into the canyon.
After crossing through the San Rafael Desert, the landscape changed again as we reached Capitol Reef National Park, with water, trees, and strange black lava boulders that looked like gigantic rabbit droppings. One of the attractions in the park is a set of petroglyphs pecked into the cliff wall:
When we went to leave, the truck would not start, or even turn over, the temperature guage was pegged at the high end, and it seemed like the block had seized up. We waited and prayed for a while, and then tried again. Still nothing. After a lot of effort, we got the stuck hood open, and that attracted some helpers. We jump started it from another vehicle and went on our way. We are stopping in Torrey tonight (just outside of the park) and will check it out further in the morning.

Also... no good cell phone coverage here in Torrey, just "digital roam".

Colorado River Scenic Byway

2009-05-05T22:00:00.000Z

We took a little side trip up Route 128 along the Colorado River.

We had been told that there was a scenic byway that makes a La Sal Mountain loop, starting with a turn at Castle Valley.
We climbed about 3,000 feet from the Colorado River and the road kept getting narrower and narrower.
When we reached 6,946 feet up, we decided that it was going to keep going up, and with the truck overheating, it was time to head back down.

Road Trip Day Two

2009-05-05T21:25:00.002Z

Gigantic signs posted along the park road:
(Two out of three are gigantic, anyway.)

It was eerily quiet in the park, but there was this one bird flying around:

These are the Three Gossips:

The photo doesn't really show how massive they are, until you see them in a wide-angle view. Note the tiny car on the road in the foreground:

This is Balanced Rock, with a gigantic hand waiting to stop it when it falls:

View of La Sal Mountain Range in the distance:

I spotted a few flowers here and there along the road, but, except for these, they were all in spots where you could not pull over. Probably means that the accessible ones don't last very long.

Road Trip Day 1

2009-05-04T22:00:00.005Z

Taking US 6 southeast from Provo Utah. Photos of some of the terrain approaching Price Utah, and the good old pickup truck that we borrowed with 228k miles on it:

It is amazing how fast everything completely changes, here are radical changes in the landscape just after Price:

We took a few minutes in Arches National Park after dinner in Moab (at the Broken Oar Restaurant):

Not Very Tasty

2009-04-23T08:00:00.003Z

I looked out the back door yesterday morning and saw a squirrel sitting on the back yard fence, eating a bright red carrot. He worked on it for quite a while, long enough to get the camera.

I wouldn't think that anything out of the garden would be very tasty this early in the season, especially if it is made of plastic.

Candlelight Vigil Caught on Camera

2009-02-03T22:50:00.000Z

The Evidence Remains Inconclusive

2009-01-09T23:00:00.000Z

Momma gave me a stud finder as one of my Christmas presents. Since the disappearance of Troll may have been the result of a construction accident or maybe even foul play, we decided to check out the fresh concrete in the basement.

Although on the surface this doesn't seem to be a very good application for a stud finder, Rumples appears to be pretty convinced.

Troll Was Last Seen "Helping" In The Basement

2008-12-26T22:00:00.004Z

Review of basement video shows the last sighting of Troll:

He was right there in the middle of things, then, when we looked back the next minute, he was gone. Why would he just disappear like that?

It May Be The End of Troll

2008-12-25T22:00:00.009Z

Missing!

Have you seen this troll?
173 years old. Bright pink
hair. Last seen wearing a
shiny red fireman's coat.

Quite a Drain

2008-12-22T21:45:00.002Z

Most of the drain pipe is now in place. It is much bigger around than the old drain tiles. Here in the crazy plumbing area, the drain pipe gets crazy to go under it:

Troll seems to really be fascinated by the clean-outs in the pipe:

Notice how the perforated pipe is wearing stockings to keep the gravel out of the inside... I would not have thought to look for something like that in Lowes if I were doing the work.

Basement Reinforcements

2008-12-20T22:00:00.000Z

Frank's finally got a building permit on Wednesday morning and started chewing up the basement floor. The puddles are where the posts are going:

Some of the strange plumbing in the basement has gotten stranger:

Since opening up the floor for the posts cut into the old drain tile that fed the sump pump, we added a couple of $ grand to waterproof the perimeter. A foot-wide opening is being made on all four walls (even the ones that don't get posts), and this will be lined with gravel and a perforated drain pipe:

One of the last changes that the engineer made was to specify 4 x 4 beams spaced at three foot intervals (instead of 4 x 6 at four foot intervals). This is what the north wall looks like:

The New Dining Room and Kitchen

2008-11-18T22:00:00.005Z

Drew laid a new floor for us in the dining room and kitchen in October. I'm sure everyone has been waiting to see it, but it has been a busy few weeks since then.

Mom's mail-order rug really looks nice, too.

Mom found some rooster rugs for the kitchen. I'm still working on trim.

We kind of forgot to take "before" pictures. Here are a couple taken during the project.

Just in case you've forgotten what the walls looked like before Drew, Amy, Kay, and Pam painted over them, here they are.

Evan really loved the flowers on the old floor. Not to worry, they are still there, you just can't see them any more.

Dry Creek in the Back Yard

2008-09-05T17:30:00.002Z

Here is it with rocks. It still needs plants and flowers, but that will probably wait for now.

New Back Yard

2008-08-23T21:00:00.000Z

We put a new fence around the back yard in June. They were supposed to finish it in May before Amy and the kids came, but kept putting it off and putting it off. It's nice now that it is done. The yard seems bigger and Rumples doesn't bother barking at people going by on the sidewalk.

The squirrels have a favorite place near the sandbox where they like to tease Rumples. There was also a cat that was hanging around and walking on the garage roof next door:

The current landscaping project is going to be a (mostly) dry creek bed. I've had something of a trench dug back there in past years to drain off the spring floods. A lot more work is going into this version of it.

It's also nice that Rumples can run around and play without being on a chain.

Another Sign of Spring

2008-04-15T21:00:00.002Z

We hung up this bird feeder on the last post left from the old garden.

It is finally getting a few customers. We found this pair of American Goldfinches chowing down Saturday afternoon.

I haven't seen any squirrels trying to get into the seed.... They must have quickly figured out that it has spring loaded doors that cover the feeding holes when an overweight animal climbs onto one of the perches.

The Truck's Been Demoted

2008-04-10T07:27:00.001Z

Here's the new car, a Ford Focus. I went easy on the options: automatic transmission and floor mats.

I've driven it a few hundred miles and my fuel economy so far: 33.5 MPG.

Spring Has Sprung?

2008-04-09T16:33:00.001Z

The bulbs are starting to come out, surviving the Winter and the squirrels.

Now we need to decide what to do next. Open up the rodent smorgasbord, or try to grow flowers through the mesh? Some people think that they can be repelled with black pepper, but they may like their bulbs spicy.

It Snowed

2008-03-09T16:33:00.002Z

We got a little over a foot of snow Saturday morning. The forecasts were saying that we would get another "dump" of snow overnight, so we cancelled church meetings. When we got up this morning, there was only another inch or two and the sun is shining.

Rumples didn't want to leave the porch until I dug a trench for him to follow.

But then he got into it.

Melissa and Steve are Married

2008-02-20T05:10:00.003Z

It was 9 degrees when we left Buffalo on Tuesday, but the weather when we finally got here was nice. The next day was a major storm and Grandma Oaks was stuck at the airport for something like 5 or 6 hours while Drew and I were trying to drive to the airport.

Steve and Melissa left their wedding license in their car at John's house, so I rushed back from the temple to get it. Sometimes there will be challenges along the way...

The temple ordinances and ceremony had a beautiful spirit and it was especially touching to look around and see family members there.

It was great to be here together this week. Having all of the grandchildren together was special. I wish Dave and Lisa could have been here.

New Years "Power" Tool

2008-01-01T20:00:00.000Z

We went out to Pep Boys yesterday and bought an emergency power generator. It is a Power Pro 3500 and weighs about a hundred pounds. The optional wheel kit is definitely worth it.

They have had generators on sale in the last few Sunday ads in the newspaper. One week it was for a 5500, then a 9000. The store is out of the 9000's, but they had 5500's. The 5500 weighs at least 200 pounds. The 3500 ought to do us and run the refrigerator, freezer, sump pump and furnace. Not advertised (or even posted in the store), it was $50 off plus a $50 dollar rebate offer.

It is so shiny and new, I almost hate to have it associating with the snow thrower.

My Guitar Has Six Strings

2008-01-01T14:00:00.000Z

My guitar now has six strings and sounds like new. Thank you Kay.

Rock Project "Day" Five

2007-12-23T03:52:00.000Z

It's starting to look like something. I spent about four hours on a Saturday, cutting rocks for the second side, then another couple of hours finding some with specific shapes.

The "almond" color grout started out looking green when it first went in, but has lightened up overnight.

(Score so far: two sides have rock, using about one third of the total rocks available; one side has grout. Days left until Christmas: one.)

Are Some Visitors More Welcome Than Others?

2007-12-20T23:29:00.000Z

Other than the obvious, we don't really know what happened... we found this destruction the third morning after the big snow storm.

The street had been clean for a couple of days, but somebody jumped the curb and went another ten feet before hitting our sign.

The car and driver disappeared, except for part of a bumper left behind.

Call it a Bad Left Turn.

Rock Project "Day" Three

2007-12-01T02:34:00.000Z

Drew's saw blades work wonders. We finally have enough rocks ready for one side to be glued down.

Rock Project Day Two

2007-11-05T20:00:00.000Z

Test of adhesive... New tube of Liquid Nails: never set up, the test rock fell off. Old tube of Nail Pro (next two rocks): held on pretty well, but still soft, can't find in the store. Polyurethane Premium from Lowes: looks like a solid winner.

We rented a grinder and used a masonary cutter to try cutting the rocks. Three hours (and $20) later, one corner piece is done:

It looks nice, but clearly, we need better technology if this is ever going to get done.

Tired Boys

2007-11-04T15:12:00.000Z

Rock Project Day One

2007-11-03T02:32:00.000Z

We brought a load of rocks back with us from Utah. (In an unrelated news item, we've replaced the transmission in the Caravan since coming back.)

Here is our rock cleaning station.

Seems like enough, doesn't it?

Here is one of two unsuspecting endtables that we bought at Big Lots.

Take the top off and turn it around. The front is the back and the back is the front.

The old back gets a new front. (Hey, Dave, there's your blood donation card.)

A little chicken wire, and we are ready to rock.

The New Garden

2007-10-17T21:09:00.000Z

We took some time off from the construction projects on Saturday afternoon to plant bulbs in the new garden and transplant perennials.

We have high hopes that the chicken-wire cage will keep the squirrels from digging up all of the bulbs over the winter.

It has:

A row of Drew's Irises
Two rows of Grandma Oaks' Irises (Not sure if they are going to grow because they have been out in the garage for a year or two.)
Unifolium Allium
Golden Bells Narcissus
Uva-Vulpis Fritillaria
Tulip Angelique
White Lady Narcissus

You can't see them yet, but these are Italicum Arum.

I also got a new electric stapler out of the deal.

How Old Do You Think It Was?

2007-10-16T12:09:00.000Z

I don't know, but if you look closely at the service label, you can see that they only needed six-digit phone numbers in those days.

Out With the Old

2007-10-15T10:00:00.000Z

Here goes the old furnace...

I'm sure glad that I don't have to go into the crawl space...

A Few Photos From The Trip

2007-10-15T03:33:00.000Z

I think that I have finaly recovered from the trip. Here are a few photos from the drive back.

Deer Valley, between Heber City and Park City:

A dry creek landscape outside The Lodge at Stillwater:

Elk Mountain, Wyoming:

Platte River:

One of the many rest stops somewhere:

I'm Good At Taking Tests

2007-09-16T01:15:00.000Z

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

15% Dixie

15% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

October Storm Cleanup

2007-09-15T14:30:00.000Z

Have almost cleaned up from last year's surprise October storm. This is what the garden looks like now. The new "grass" is ready for its first cutting as soon as the rain dries up.

This is the closest I could find to a photo of the old garden. (Rumples on the left, old garden on the right.)

Another view featuring a rotting garage.

Cross-Country Drive

2007-07-05T01:12:00.000Z

Here is Adam's "new" truck:

We were in a hurry, so sight-seeing was done out the windows of the truck.

Iowa:

Nebraska:

Wyoming:

The Western way of slowing down for construction zones:

Age of Empires

2007-03-23T11:56:00.000Z

Kitchen, Fly, and Ivan

vs.

Maurice, Napoleon, and Isabella

Not many humans playing this time, mostly computers playing Hard. Isabella resigned after about 70 minutes game time. Fly resigned and went to bed after an hour or two. I defeated Maurice about 10 minutes later and went to bed. In the morning, I see that Ivan defeated Napoleon in our absence. I was still in it and moved up a level.

Who does Madelyn look like?

2007-03-19T02:25:00.000Z

It looks like the same expression to me (with 30 years difference in available photographic technology).

Remembering the Old Timers

2007-03-11T20:10:00.000Z

I was looking through the photos and thinking that these couches are like old friends. Do you remember them fondly?

First baby, first couch.

This was one tough couch that survived the 60's and then crossed the plains.

Second baby, couch in disguise.

Second couch, and a wonderful coat.

I think that we even paid money for this couch.

This is the 70's, can you tell?

In the future, when TV remotes were invented, this couch would suck them down into its big, inaccessible hollow spaces.

Third couch and a bunch of kids.

Past its prime, but still hanging in there.

Daylight Saving Time 2007 (Y2K7)

2007-03-10T15:30:00.000Z

Congress has decided that we should all get up an hour early tomorrow. I kind of wonder who is making money from this little experiment. The one thing that I have noticed so far is that the summer gasoline prices are coming about three weeks early. And it is just an experiment: the Energy Policy Act said that they would evaluate the "energy savings" and possibly change it back.

We have spent a few months planning and preparing for this computer software change. Every system and application seems to have a different way of computing wall clock time. Windows, Exchange, Java... Kronos, Exchange, PowerChart... All this work patching and upgrading systems and on Monday everyone else (hopefully) will say, "What's the big deal, nothing happened!"

But even yesterday, vendors were giving us notice that their software is not ready. The GE PACS software has their own copy of Java that needs to be patched on workstations. I think that GE was already trying to tell us about this one, but the critical applications that are closest to actual patient care are supported by Clinical Engineering, not IST.

I've recently learned a few things about time zones and Java... but who is Olson?

No N00S is Good N00S

2007-01-10T13:37:00.000Z

I spent the evening responding to a new virus. This one runs a program called n00s.exe and attacks Symantec AntiVirus on TCP port 2967. Nearly all of the machines in our domain have Symantec AntiVirus, so there is a lot of potential for destruction. Some machines get a message when Symantec's rtvscan crashes, but others get infected and go to the dark side.

White Christmas?

2006-12-26T21:16:00.000Z

Nope, it was kind of a brown Christmas...

The county water authority had a project that tore up the street and it has been raining.

In spite of what it looks like, it was a wonderful Christmas because it was peaceful and Pam liked her gifts.

How to prepare for a flat tire

2006-05-26T12:15:00.000Z

Last week I had to run over to BGH to do some server work. I had a couple of small disk drive boxes to carry in from my truck. I got out, picked up the boxes, decided to leave my jacket behind because it was fairly warm and not raining any more, put the boxes down, took off my jacket, picked up the boxes, and shut the door. Later in the afternoon when I was getting ready to leave, I couldn't find my keys in any of my pockets. Or anywhere in the computer room. Or under the computer room floor. Or in the hallways. Or in the rest room that I had visited earlier. Or in the Security office. Or in the Security break room. Or in the hallways for a second look. Or in the computer room for a second look. Or in the ignition of the truck. Or anywhere inside the truck that you can see through the windows.

Dave was working at BGH but didn't have a copy of my key with him, so he gave me a ride to my doctor's appointment at 4 o'clock when he got off.

In the evening, Pam brought me back to pick up the truck, and wouldn't you know it, the keys were in my jacket pocket because I had dropped them in there when I first stood up.

As we were leaving the parking lot, Pam noticed that there was something hanging from under the back of my truck. It was a bicycle lock chain that I had used to "anti-theft" my spare tire years ago. The lock had disintegrated so the chain was hanging loose.

--- time passes ---

This week I was scheduled for a blood draw at eight in the morning on Thursday for which I was supposed to fast for twelve hours. So, on Wednesday evening, I rushed bishopric meeting to hurry home to eat before 8 PM. (We ended at 7:55, but still earlier than usual.)

I was on the home stretch when I heard a strange noise coming from the back of the truck. I pulled off and there it was, a totally flat tire.

But the timing was good:

It wasn't dark out yet (which was unusual after a bishopric meeting).
The evening was getting chilly (but I still had my jacket in the truck).
The spare tire was good (and I didn't have to cut off the bicycle chain even though I had forgotten the combination).
The tire was ruined (but Goodyear was having a 30% off sale on this tire model).

Travel Musings

2006-04-13T10:52:00.000Z

Last week, I flew to Indiana (I should say Indianapolis, but who can spell it?) to pick up a car and drive it to Maryland. I was going to be driving all day anyway, so why not help out?

The Weather Channel was pretty excited about the big storm that would be covering this route, but, as it turned out, I had sunshine almost the whole way. It started drizzling when I reached Route 29 at the end of the trip. Apparently I was a few hours behind a small storm and a few hours ahead of a big storm.

This was a nice visit. Evan doesn't mind playing with Grandpa. He greets me with a "Come on!" and sets me right to work playing with super hero village people and reading about "Swampy Critters" in the swampy swamp.

It must be a sign of getting old, but spending time in the car with no distractions makes me reflect on my life and how it could have been different. I can't really call it regrets, because I wouldn't necessarily do anything differently if faced with the same decisions, but here are some items of advice:

1) Don't slip into debt for "operating expenses" and needless things. Education and home ownership may require going into debt, but those are investments that could provide for the family. We seem to have slipped into debt just by living. If I didn't need a high-paying job to stay even, we could pick up and go anywhere we wanted. Golden handcuffs are pretty, but freedom would be nice.

2) Stay in touch with your friends. I sometimes wonder what has happened to the people I knew in high school. The ones who didn't die in motorcycle accidents and in Vietnam are probably still out there. Are they happy? Did they find the Church after all?

3) Have fun while you're young and single, but get serious about preparing for the future, too. I was a great student in subjects that I was interested in, but I wasn't self-disciplined enough to complete something like English 111. So what if the teacher has an affection for her local rules of punctuation? (Maybe you can tell that I am still ticked off that the West apparently had a different opinion than the East on the need for a comma before "and" in a list. I now randomly do it both ways.) If you can learn where a computer prefers to have a comma, you can adapt to where a teacher wants one.

4) There are things that you can do when you are young and single that you may have to wait a long time to do later. Like a mission. Don't let your fears or someone else's bad experience scare you off.

5) When you are working day and night to provide for your family, stop to ask yourself if you are providing for their needs other than monitarily. Did I spend enough time doing what the kids wanted to do? I could have been a better leader.

6) Read the scriptures every day. You don't know what you are missing until you try it. Last year's challenge was a good experience and we can do it again.

Vocal Experiment

2006-02-03T03:46:00.000Z

I wouldn't say that I am a good singer. Sitting next to the Bishop on the stand, sometimes it seems like I am lost trying to find the right notes, and he is lost getting the words right. I would like to do better, but what does it take?

Kirk is trying to get a choir together to sing for ward conference, so a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. If I practice and learn the song, could I develop the confidence to do well?

The music that he has chosen this time is called "Bless Us With Your Love". It is kind of Mozarty. It has "Alleluias" with twice as many notes as sylables.

The first challenge is getting to choir practice. They want to have it "right after Church", meaning about 12:45 PM. That is also the time when everyone wants to do things. We count donations and make the deposit right after Church. People need things right after Church. Checks need to be printed and signed. Can't we set people apart right after Church? We really need to.

We don't have baptisms right after Church, they are at 1 PM.

What I did two weeks ago was I went to choir practice and they called me out as they needed me to sign checks or whatever, but I kept my MP3 player/recorder running while I was gone. Now, going to and from work, I can sing along to Kirk's instructions.

I may be getting better. We'll see.

"Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow nor Dark of Night"

2006-01-29T04:19:00.000Z

The rain doesn't seem to stop them, and "dark of night" doesn't make any sense when they close up the post office by 5:30.

A year or two ago, they said that they wouldn't be able to deliver the mail in the sleet or snow unless we moved our mailbox so that they wouldn't have reach across the front steps.

That's why we have two mailboxes now.

Winter is Back

2006-01-26T22:23:00.000Z

Winter is back. My shoes have white salt lines around them. Driving to work this morning, it was nothing but grey skies seen through a dirty windshield.

I hate it when the snow at the curbs turns black. How can snow be so ugly?

There was a tow truck at the toll booths waiting and watching for something bad to happen on the slippery roads.

My rear-view mirror has fallen off and it is too cold to glue it back on. It hangs there from a power connection and goes "bonk" if I slow down too fast.

Just have to deal with it and keep going...

... time passes ...

The drive home is much better. I figured out how to unplug my mirror so it doesn't bonk anymore. The roads are clean and dry and feel safe again. The unsightly parts of the city are covered in a clean white blanket. The blue sky has reappeared and there are fluffy little clouds going by. The sun is setting across the river, and along the horizon the sky has a rosy peach color, blending up into a baby blue that you only see in the winter.

My shoes will survive...

I will survive...

Life is good.

Crazy Wild Desktop Day

2006-01-25T22:22:00.000Z

I knew it was going to be bad when the pager started going off at 7 AM, before I had crawled out of bed. They said that "a lot" of people were getting rebooted for security patches and after reboot, they didn't get their desktop. They also said that they didn't get the "I Accept".

Okay, I dialed in and checked the WSUS server: 1,800 desktops or so updated so far. Not a Good Thing if they were all broken.

"Not getting their desktop" was something that was reported from time to time. Also known as "lost the printer setup" or "lost email profile". When we do automated installs, it is generally by making the machine automatically log in to a special, captive desktop admin account. The account runs a login script that does the install. When a user reported that their desktop is blank, email profile is gone, printers are gone, I had written it off to something failing in the script and the user not knowing that they are logged in to a different account. TAC walked them them through getting it straightened out.

This was not like that. These updates were being done by Automatic Updates. Straight Microsoft code with no automatic login or anything.

The patches were released by Microsoft on Jan. 10 and we applied them to our 30 or so test desktops. No problems in the last couple of weeks. They were scheduled to be released to all desktops last Wednesday, but we had too many other problems going on that day. Finally released then Monday evening. They downloaded to the desktops during the day yesterday, then started installing at 4 AM this morning.

It looks like all of the ones that installed at 4 AM worked without problem. Machines that were powered off overnight were different. The user powered on the machine, Symantec AV kicked off a scheduled weekly scan (on Wednesday by coincidence), the patches started installing, and then the user logged on.

"Can't load profile... NTUSER.DAT file in use." (Was it being scanned?) Windows was kind enough to create a new profile by copying the default user profile... but none of the user's desktop shortcuts, printers, My Documents, etc. were to be seen. Some new profiles were worse than that: Default User\NTUSER.DAT could not be copied because it was also in use. Ugly profiles resulted. (They didn't get the "I Accept", which being interpreted, means the login script didn't run.)

1,880+ out of 3,000+ already installed and the others probably couldn't be stopped because most would already have been downloaded and waiting on the desktop. Vogue la galère. We'll just keep it going.

To shorten a long story... We developed a safe and effective fix to get the users back on their original profiles and "a lot" did not turn into "very many" or "every".