The Meyer Family Blog

Early Morning Cat-atonia

2012-02-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

It has been the tradition that the cats come into our room at five a.m. to announce the fact that they are Hungry. It used to be the tradition that one of us would rise from the bed and fumble downstairs and open a can of cat food and plop some into the dishes and put the dishes down on the floor and then stumble back upstairs to grab a scant few moments of slumber before Alfred would come back into the room meowing loudly to announce that he was ready to go outside, now, please.

(Sometimes, I actually have the intelligence or wakefulness to go to the front door after giving them their breakfast and await His Majesty in order to let him out before heading upstairs again; but that is generally the exception rather than the rule.)

In more recent times, it has become the custom that the earliest riser in the house - i.e. James - feeds the kitties while waiting for his morning coffee to brew. This has been a delightful development. It means that we get to stay in our warm, comfy bed just a little while longer.

But sometimes Mr. Early Riser forgets to take care of the cat-feeding before he jumps in the shower, in which case the cats come into our room and complain. Loudly. Erin attempts to shred the carpet with her claws, Alfred sings an aria from Die Fledermaus (he's a baritone).

I don't like carpet shredding, nor am I a fan of early-morning opera. I am also not a fan of getting up too early in the morning to deal with annoying felines when someone with the capability of dealing with the situation is already up. Namely, Mr. Early Riser.

Sometimes, Mr. Early Riser needs a reminder that I expect him to take care of the annoying felines. Not for my sake, of course, but for the sake of his dear mother, who needs her sleep. We all know what happens when we are pulled out of our "deep-sleep" REM phase too early: we go through the whole day but never feel really rested. A not-fully-rested mother (or wife) is not a good thing. It can lead to all sorts of bad consequences. It is to be avoided at all cost.

Mr. Early Riser performed his task well this morning. Indeed, I never heard a peep of cat, and was able to rise at a normal time. I enjoyed a leisurely, casual breakfast with my Lovely Lady, and felt mostly rested all day.

Ah, if only the days could all be like this. Whatever will we do when our Early Risers have moved on?

NOTE: To those of you wondering (as my mother does) why these posts are suddenly appearing with dates from the past, it is because I am taking advantage of the ability to set the date for any entries, rather than having them set automatically by the blog software.

I must confess that it has been difficult of late to spend any time doing web updates, which explains in part the vast gap in time between entries. Yet my personal logbook is something I write in every day, a habit which I started way back in 2000. Most of the entries in the daily log are for keeping track of work activities; several of them are related to evening activities with the family, or weekend plans; some few are actually ideas or essays which spring to my head and must be written down.

Reviewing the daily logs and transferring interesting excerpts to my weblog is of necessity a background priority, subject to interruption by various and sundry activities, which lately include First Robotics over at the High School (even though none of my children are interested). But I want the entries to remain linked to the original date on which they were composed, not necessarily the date on which they finally made their public appearance. This is to ensure that the weblog retains some historical aspect, so that I or my progeny are able to review these logs at a later time in order to remember the "good old days".

I apologize if this is confusing.

Allergy, Smallergy

2012-01-31T23:35:00.000-08:00

Terribly disappointing trip to the Allergy Specialist today. Was hoping to find myself facing the business end of a sharp, pointy, hollow stick loaded with toxins designed to irritate my immune system, thus training it to ignore said toxins.

Alas! The Physician's Assistant (PA) had other ideas. She is still hoping that I will find relief utilizing the Ipratropium Bromide nasal spray, and the other stuff (whose name escapes me), which is a pill.

Naturally, these medications are the type which require long exposure to become effective, so we won't know for a couple weeks whether they are working or not.

We started the Fire Safety Merit Badge tonight at Scouts, which was a lot of fun. The boys and I all sat in the church library and talked about preventing and controlling fires while all the "old" guys sat out in the gym and told old "war" stories.

It was much more fun in the library!

Next up, I have to schedule a trip to the Fire Station. I hope they let me sit in the cab of the truck and turn on the siren!!

Meanwhile, my brain is aching, my arm is tingling from a pinched nerve, my sinuses are dried out, and, looking at the incredible number of over-the-counter medications which currently grace the pantry, it appears I could open my own pharmacuetical outlet store.

You Can't Take it with You

2012-01-28T22:28:00.000-08:00

Every time I'm feeling depressed about my job, I watch that classic old movie, "You Can't Take it with You". My job must be really depressing, because we've just about worn out the old VHS tape. (We've had it for years.)

Our new DVD copy finally arrived last week (or thereabouts), so tonight, after hosting a wonderful little get-together for some friends from church, we sat down and watched it again. In glorious big-screen goodness.

For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to display it correctly. The monitor (or TV or whatever you call it) has several different modes to deal with three different resolutions: standard NTSC (old-fashioned TV), mid-range (720p) and high-def (1020p). It also does Standard Screen and Wide-Screen, with a Zoom feature if you really want to look at actor's pimples.

Most DVDs can be watched in Standard mode or WideScreen mode, either Normal or Stretched or Zoomed. This one, no matter what mode I selected, came out the same. Not sure why.

The net result was a lot of artifacts and pixelization. Not really noticeable when viewed on a laptop, but on a big-screen, it was annoyingly obvious.

Oh, and there was that really weird background-shifting thing going on. If you have a big-screen monitor, you've probably noticed it: some element in the background suddenly shifts one or two pixels to the left or right (or up or down) but the rest of the screen is normal. I've been told this is an artifact of the onboard graphics procesor, when it performs edge-detection on elements in frame and tries to sharpen the contrast. Sometimes, the edge shifts subtly between two frames because of lighting conditions, and the graphics processor forces the contrast point to shift, which makes the background element (e.g. a desk or cabinet) appear to move.

It's a really weird effect.

But ... back to the movie.

I've always liked that movie because of attitude it espouses, where we shouldn't worry about things - "Consider the lilies of the field" - or waste our lives doing things we don't like to do (i.e. working at jobs which waste our talents or abilities). At the same time, however, I've always hated that movie, because it doesn't explain how it is that anyone can get through life that way.

For example, Grandpa doesn't need to pay income taxes because he doesn't work. (In fact, there's a scene with a tax collector that is played strictly for laughs because the tax man doesn't understand that Grandpa doesn't work.) That ignores the rather obvious question of how he pays his property tax, which is in quite a different category than the income tax. But it also ignores other rather important costs of living. Wwhere does the money come from for food and utilities? What do they use to pay for repairs to the infrastructure of their home? How do they pay for all the "things" they acquire?

I really want the movie's theme to apply to me, so that I can be like a lily of the field and not worry about where my food and clothes are coming from. But it isn't really the food and clothes I'm worried about. It's the electricity and the water and the gas and the constant little repairs that need to be made around the house; it's the children's education and the planning for the future (i.e. college); it's the ability to take the family somewhere for a day of fun that we'll remember for a lifetime; it's the ability to take trips around the country to see our parents and aunts and uncles, the nieces and nephews before they've all grown up, our friends we've known for so many years but not seen in nearly as long.

The movie ties everything up nicely, leaving the family & friends to celebrate a wonderful dinner together after everyone has come to realize that family is more important than career, that love is more important than money. But it doesn't quite go far enough to explain how that really works for those of us longing for the simple life, where basic needs are met even while we get to do the things we feel called to do, all without incurring incredible debt.

That's expecting way too much out of a fluff movie, I know. Nonetheless, it always leaves me feeling strangely happy and sad at the same time.

Brakes Break

2012-01-26T17:25:00.000-08:00

I was going to work at the office today, but a friend of mine dropped in for a visit. Do you recognize him?

(I'll give you a hint: he lives under the left front wheel of my Subaru.)

Actually, we first became aware of him from the smell. He usually doesn't smell bad, but he apparently got very angry the other day and started smelling very badly. We think it was because he got a little "hot under the collar", probably because he was dealing with a lot of pressure at the time and didn't have an effective way of venting his frustration. In truth, he was kinda stuck and things just kept getting hotter and hotter. And when he gets hot, he gets smoking hot. And then all sorts of bad smells start filling the air.

Give up?

Well, don't worry about it. You'll figure it out, just like we did.

I wasn't sure what was going on until I got back from taking the girls to school this morning (because Mary had a project that was far too fragile to carry on the bus, that's why!). But I knew there no way I was going to be able to drive the car any further, what with the smell and all. So, like any good mechanic, I first went around and sniffed all four of the wheels. The rear wheels were fine. The front passenger wheel was fine. The driver-side wheel was ... stinky. Burned smell. Yuck. When I touched the brake rotor through the wheel - Ouch! Hot!

Time to pull the wheel. Which means, find the jack. It should be in the trunk of the car. (I say trunk, but since it's a hatchback, it's more like the rear storage area.) Kinda difficult to get to, what with the garage door down. But if the garage door goes up, all the cold air comes in. And I don't want that!

So I gingerly raise the hatch of the car, easing it up so that it doesn't whap the garage door. And I lift the tray cover. And ...

This is when it was discovered that the tire-changing kit in the car didn't have the right socket for the wheels. Oopsie! Guess I'd forgotten to put that in the little trunk tray. Instead, it was sitting on my workbench. Now, how did it get there?

Oh, well. Got the socket. Locked the back wheels between two pieces of lumber. Released the parking brake. Put the transmission in neutral. Jacked up the front of the car. Took off the driver-side wheel. Now I should be able to check the brakes.

Interestingly enough, the wheel wouldn't move, no matter how hard I tried to turn it. Peering in to see between the pad and the rotor, I see that they are still smooshed together. Great. Looks like the brake pad is welded to the rotor.

Or is it?

Actually, when I started taking apart the caliper, I realized that it wasn't the pad that was bonded to the rotor, it was the guide pin that was frozen in the closed position. When the bolts holding the caliper were loosened, the main part of the caliper came right off. The caliper bracket was a bit harder, since one of the bolts holding it on was a size 17 (which was correct, per the manual), and the other was a size 16 (and a bit worn, in serious danger of not being able to come off).

It required a bit of creative noodling, but the bracket finally came off. Now I could put it on the bench and really see the difference between the "relaxed" guide pin, and the "activated" guide pin.

Unfortunately, no matter how much banging, twisting, turning, or coaxing I attempted with various tools, the stubborn guide pin refused to come off the bracket.

So much for the easy fix!

Called the shop. $35 for a rebuilt bracket (with core). It'll take a few days since they don't have them in stock. Looks like we'll be a one-car family for awhile!

(Now, did you recognize my friend up there? Why, yes, you're correct! That's the main caliper, turned upside-down; normally, it fits over the hub and rotor, and the brake pads go between the "eyes" and the "teeth" to press onto the rotor when the brakes are supposed to be "on". Those "eyes" are the hydraulic pistons which push the brake pad against the rotor. I'm not sure, but these may be too rusty to use. Looks like I'll have to order a complete new caliper.)

Birthday and Rebirthday

2012-01-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

What is it that causes someone to make the Big Decisions that will shape the rest of their lives? How do they know when they are actually ready to even make those decisions?

And what kinds of things keep them from actually doing something about it?

It has been my policy at home to never ever push the kids into a decision about following Jesus. I don't consider it my job to force them into anything, but rather to present the information to them so that they can make intelligent decisions when they are ready to understand what it is that they are signing up for. Not that I require them to have a Divinity Degree, of course; but by the time they reach that magic "age of accountability" (which varies from person to person) and have become able to think through the things they have seen and read, put those things into the context of their lives, and consider whether they are ready to make a commitment to a way of life which is, in many ways, in conflict with the way of life for most of the people around them, I would expect that they will decide one way or the other.

I have constantly stressed to my children that I do not want them to make any decisions of this magnitude simply to please their parents, or to fit in with their peers at church, or because "everyone else is doing it". Nothing could hurt me worse than my children telling me, years from now, that they felt pressured to make a decision which they were really not ready to make yet. I'd much rather that they say, "Not yet", than to say "Now" for the wrong reason.

I'm not one of those who believes that being dunked in the Magic Water makes one Holy simply because of the act itself (else I would have baptized my children as infants). It has always been my contention that becoming a Christian requires a level of contextual cognizance, an understanding of the ramifications of the decision, and a desire to let others know that the decision has been made. In a sense, it's like joining AA. You have to believe in your soul that there is a need, be willing to stand up in public and confess your pitiful state, and then, every day, rise from your bed and re-commit to the way of life that will keep you alive.

We have read through the Bible with the children, studied with them, asked them questions from their lessons at church, and tried to come to an understanding of where they are in their spiritual lives. We understand that they are not fully grown, either physically or spiritually. And we have let them make their own decisions on the matter. It is interesting that our youngest was the first to make a commitment to Jesus, but knowing her personality, not quite surprising. It was surprising - to me - that Deborah was the second, based on her personality; she is not typically demonstrative or outgoing or public about personal things. Indeed, in some ways she is the most private of our offspring.

So when she started talking about it the other day, we wondered where this sudden decision had come from, what had prompted it. Cheryl discussed it with her, helping her narrow down what it was she really wanted to do, and when. I was more concerned with her understanding of the long-term consequences of her decision - how it would change the direction of her life in many ways, how it would affect all her future decisions, and how it could impact many of her relationships.

In the end, she held fast to her commitment, and we had the happy task of calling some dear friends to come over on Saturday morning - her birthday! - and witness her re-birthday.

And the joy that we shared as we gathered around the baptistry and congratulated her, was immeasurable.

Happy Birthday, Baby Sister!

2012-01-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

Thinking of you today...

A Good Day to Rest (If That Were Possible)

2012-01-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

Today would've been a good day to get a lot of things done, except for the feeling of malaise that had settled over my body over the past twenty-four hours. Not really sure where it came from; certainly everything has been aching and twinging, and there have been bouts of sneezing and dripping, but that is so much a part of my life that it is difficult to tell where allergies end and viral attacks begin.

The day began, as usual, with the five-thirty a.m. cat-alarm, which prompted me to wake up Mary so that she could get up and finish working on her Aaron Copland report for choir (to make up for a concert she missed due to being ill). Thereafter, it was impossible to get back to sleep (although a valiant effort was made!), so the morning was spent helping the kids with various get-ready-for-school activities, and some work-email checking, and some general web surfing to find out the results of the Iowa primary, and that sort of thing.

After the kids had all left for school, it should've been my signal to get off my lazy duff and head for work, but my body was still aching; and there was this nagging urge to just sit back in my comfy chair and take a nap. So I did. And it felt almost like a real nap, the kind you'd take on the airplane riding between Grand Rapids and Minneapolis-St. Paul: just long enough to whet your appetite for more, but not enough to really perk you up. By that time, the decision had been made by the Committee for the Preservation of Rob's Sanity to work from home, so stay at home was the order of the day.

Much of the time was spent doing the normal file-shuffling from my remote location, downloading this document, reviewing that document, updating status, attending telecons - the usual activities which fill up my day but do absolutely nothing for my mind. Which is bored beyond belief. A few medications were taken, of the analgesic / decongestant variety, to avoid any headache and/or breathing issues.

And a few leftovers were removed from the fridge and put to good lunchtime use.

The afternoon passed by quickly, and suddenly the kids were home; then it was time for James to run off to worship team practice, then time to make dinner, then time to take Adam out for some last-minute Christmas shopping (yes, we're celebrating Christmas a little late at our house!), then Family Time, which was more snacking and puzzle-putting-together while a volunteer (James) read from The Magician's Nephew.

My body rallied a bit after a bit of a sugar rush from the last of the ice cream (some kind of blue mint monstrosity), so I went downstairs and put in a few pieces of insulation in the forthcoming bathroom. Then it was time to put the girls to bed, and finish up a few work-related things on the laptop.

Now my mind can only think of sleep, and some perchance-to-dreaming (as the Bard would say). And a deep and abiding hope that tomorrow brings a fresh, new feeling of wellness and vitality to an otherwise wiped-out carcass.

Sweet Dreams!

Last Day of the Holiday Season!

2012-01-02T20:00:00.000-08:00

In the quiet of the evening, after a hectic day of last-minute panic before we have to head back to (a) school, (b) work, (c) a dentist appointment, we decided to start our Family Time this year by reading from a classic book: The Magician's Nephew (by C. S. Lewis).

So Cheryl read out loud

while Adam, Deb and Mary worked on our puzzles we received for Christmas

and James sat in the comfy chair and drew.

New Years Day 2012

2012-01-01T23:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

It was a good day to continue to work on the basement, but first there was the matter of getting up after such an exciting evening.

Exciting? Well, if you looked at the pictures from the last post, we weren't exactly the most exciting party-goers on the planet on New Year's Eve. In fact, we weren't partying at all, just standing around the television watching the big blue ball drop down the pole. With fresh sparkling cider in our glasses to toast the New Year.

And we didn't have to drive home!

But we did have to get up on time in the morning so we'd be on time for Sunday School. And the girls had to be ready a little early so they could go over to our dear friends' house and take care of the kitty for the very last time before they got home.

I had a wonderful time in Sunday School, with a group of energetic, eager-to-learn kids, listening to their stories of holiday fun and Christmas presents and New Year wishes; the older kids (6, 7 & 8 years) got to practice finding books in the Bible, and we talked about the journey of the Magi.

After that, everyone was supposed to be together in a combined service, but there were a few kids who just couldn't sit still, so I took them downstairs and had an impromptu Bible class - complete with fire trucks and tractor-trailer rigs! (You'd be surprised how many spiritual applications can be made with them, but probably not surprised that they help keep boys interested in the lesson.)

It was snowing when we left for home, and definitely time to relax for awhile.

So we relaxed for awhile. And watched Three Stooges. And Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in "Road to Utopia". And then the Marx Brothers.

Meanwhile, Cheryl had invited our dear friends over for dinner (the same ones whose cat the girls have been taking care of). And they came! Which was absolutely delightful, as we had a wonderful dinner (prepared by Cheryl), then the kids all ran upstairs and we adults got to sit and talk about their recent trip to New York.

(Oddly enough, they came back downstairs when we got out the pecan pie and the ice cream. Go figure...)

When our dear friends had gone home to catch up on their sleep, we had our family meeting to discuss the week's activities, so we could be ready for the start of school and work and our regularly scheduled weekly events.

I am so not ready to get back to work.

New Years Eve 2011

2012-01-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

It was a busy day. And it ended well.

We watched a classic movie. Can you tell which one?

Then we prepared for the ball to drop.

And it dropped!

Friday Fun Day

2011-12-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

Finally got off my duff and started working on some of the home projects around here.

Got the office door hung, reworked the downstairs lighting to add the third bank of lights, moved the mechanical room light switch from the stairs to the mechanical room itself, and started the framing for the mechanical room door.

Watched "Apollo 13" with the family (well, most of the family) in the evening after I was too tired to work anymore.

Had a wonderful time playing in my little garage/shop. That place is addictive!

Now if I can only keep up the pace tomorrow...

Thursday and Counting...

2011-12-29T19:38:00.000-08:00

Hmmm. Almost out of holidays, and there's still too much to do around here.

Oh, well.

Adam's friends came over today and watched "The Empire Strikes Back", which was hilarious because one of the girls had never seen it, and the rest of them wouldn't shut up with the comments throughout the entire movie, and she was getting very annoyed (although she was gracious about it and didn't pull out an Uzi).

How is it possible for someone on planet Earth not to have seen the entire Star Wars trilogy yet? (I don't count the prequel movies, because those were just bad dreams, the output of a fevered mind, and should be completely removed from the canon.) This is something beyond my comprehension. And it makes it very difficult for the other members of the audience because they're all aching to spill all their trivia knowledge, but in order for the poor soul to get the complete experience, they really need to keep their mouths shut.

Well, they tried. And we got through the movie and no one was killed. Except, of course, in the movie.

Now we have to wait for another day to watch the "Return of the Care Bears" -- I mean, "Return of the Jedi" so she can finish up the rest of the trilogy. I don't remember if she's seen the prequels yet. I hope not. We're going to try and convince her not to see any of them, because it is a known fact that they cause brain implosions.

May the Force be with you.

Weary Wednesday

2011-12-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

It's so hard to get anything done when there are so many interruptions. Today was supposed to be a day of working on the basement plans, but there were many, many interruptions.

Adam had his senior year pictures done today, which required a trip down to the photo studio.

Deb and James were gone on overnights.

Mary and I were taking care of a neighbor's cat, and then doing some shopping, which didn't get finished up til afternoon.

Then there was a surprise birthday party in the evening, which meant more shopping, prep time, actual event time, post-event travel time, picking up Deb at her friend's house, and then getting home late in the evening.

Another vacation day gone, not much (in the project sense) done.

Maybe tomorrow.

Snow!

2011-12-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

Birthday for A Lovely Lady

2011-12-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

We weren't quite sure what we were going to do for Cheryl's birthday this year, but we had a few ideas we were tossing around. One of them - going to Greenfield Village over near Detroit - didn't pan out because the place is only open in the evenings at this time of year, and while they do have this quaint little dinner event with historically accurate foods from various eras, the price for a family of six was prohibitively expensive (i.e. $60/person).

So we opted to first spend some serious time puzzling over some puzzles we received from some dear friends. Ten puzzles of varying sizes packed into a huge box.

So far, we've solved four of them! Go team!

Cheryl has always enjoyed venturing up to Meijer Garden to see the artwork, and at this time of year, they have an exhibit of "Christmas Trees from Around the World", so we went up to see that in the afternoon. It was a wonderfully warm (45°) day, so we were able to walk around the gardens outside and enjoy the fresh air. Then we wandered around the building and saw all the Christmas trees, which were amazing. And we also saw the train set that they put out every year to honor the "Polar Express" book / movie / whatever.

Since we'd spent the past two days cooking up all kinds of delicious food, we had a wonderful "leftover" dinner, and then watched "The Bishop's Wife" with Cary Grant and Loretta Young.

Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Day, before we went to the Christmas service at church, we had a marvelous breakfast!

Afterward, when we had returned and eaten lunch, we sat around and worked on puzzles from a huge puzzle gift set we'd received from a dear family.

Ah, what a relaxing day!

Christmas Eve is Here, and We're Still Cooking!

2011-12-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

And I'm still working on my Christmas cards.

Can you tell I'm not a card-writer? Nor a letter-writer? Well, at least not by hand. I've done most of my writing on the keyboard since about 1981, when I got my first typewriter (for graduation), and never turned back. Even now, if I try to write a letter, a simple one-page missive, my hand cramps up something awful and my fingers go on strike.

We have quite a long list of goodies to bake today. Pies, cakes, cookies, etc. I don't have any idea who is going to eat it all. Certainly not us! We're going to give it away, mostly, to anyone we find wandering around the streets looking hungry. Or hesitant. Or bored. We consider it our duty to stuff the gills of anyone we find, simply for the joy of seeing their insulin spike off the charts. What fun!

Naturally, we'll ask to make sure they're not diabetic first.

Meanwhile, there is a Christmas Eve service tonight, and then a Christmas Day service tomorrow, and I haven't gotten a single thing accomplished on my housework list. (This is the list that encompasses the numerous activities involved with finishing the basement.) Just been sitting around doing stuff with the family. And watching movies. And eating chocolate-covered peanut butter balls. Which are very yummy. But highly fattening.

Oh, there was also the struggle to help a Boy Scout get through his merit badges before he ages out on Christmas Day. He's trying to get to Eagle beforehand, and just needed 3 more badges to complete. So the past week has been interspersed with various Eagle-related activities. Building shelves in the church. Finishing Personal Management, Physical Fitness, and Family Life badges. Which all have 90-day requirements (i.e. the Scout has to log 90 days of specific activities). These are not good requirements to leave to the last minute! Ask Brason or Mahlon; they know!

Well, back to my card-writing.

Anyone got a spare hand I can borrow?

Ready or Not, Here it Comes

2011-12-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas, I mean.

It's almost Christmas. Or Christmas Eve, whichever comes first.

The pies are baking in the oven, the cookies are resting quietly in the tupperware, the eggnog supply is rapidly being depleted by James, and we're going to watch part 1 of "Return of the King" tonight. (We've been watching Lord of the Rings all week long, 2 hours per night.)

Tomorrow night, we'll go to the Christmas Eve service; then, Sunday morning, we'll have a big Christmas brunch and go to the Christmas Day service. Then we'll hang out all afternoon trying to finish off all the food we've cooked up.

We're sure to gain at least ten pounds by Monday!

Well

2011-12-21T14:56:00.000-08:00

It's been nearly a week since I've been able to think straight. Some kind of stupid virus or something had me unable to breathe through my nose, unable to think through the pain. Naturally, it wiped me out the first few days of my vacation. Hard to catch up on things when my mind and body have been out of commission for so long.

A few things got done around here, but I'll get to that in a while. For now, I'm going to stop and think about putting together some kind of annual letter which will be sent out to the people who haven't dropped off the radar completely. Most seem to have abandoned letter-writing altogether, relying on Facebook to maintain their contacts. Not that I can complain about that; I'm the worst letter-writer in the Universe. Will there suddenly be more time for such things once the kids have grown up and left home? No, there'll just be more people to write to.

Music & Cookies

2011-12-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

Adam read "Heart of Darkness" in his English class, and was assigned to do a project based on the book, some kind of artistic venture; or, as his teacher entitled it, "Art of Darkness". Ha ha. Francis Ford Coppola did his project based on the book and called it, "Apocalypse Now". Adam called his "The Ambush".

It's actually a musical score written as a theme for a particular scene. For those of you who remember the book, or have a copy handy, turn to the part where Marlow and his crew are going upstream after encountering the dense fog and are suddenly attacked by natives. Adam's theme follows the steamboat as the attack begins, the helmsman is killed, and then the natives withdraw.

He wrote an explanation of the theme to go along with the musical score, and made a CD for his teacher (with some help from his mother).

After all that work, he and Cheryl made a huge pile of cookies for him to take to school tomorrow.

Don't you love the last few days before Christmas break? All the projects due, all the snacks showing up. Extra stress and extra sugar, all rolled into one.

Christmas Madrigal

2011-12-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

We've been looking forward to this event for a very long time. As the description says,

"Imagine for one evening that you could be transported back to a 16th-century English castle, where you could hear a cappella Christmas carols sung by lords and ladies, and you could get caught up in the mischief-making of the court jester, all while enjoying a 3-course meal served by friendly peasants.

"Every year, Great Lakes Christian College hosts a Madrigal Dinner and Concert series at Central United Methodist Church, in downtown Lansing.

"We anticipate that the atmosphere, great food, lively drama, and concert will be a fun, unforgettable evening, both time and money well-spent!

"This year, begin the Christmas season in a unique, unforgettable way!"

We went last year and it was simply wonderful. Good food, good entertainment, a magical evening of drama and music and celebration. This year, we decided to bring the kids along so they could enjoy it as well.

And they did. Mostly.

But it took them awhile to get into the mood.

They weren't very excited when we were taking pictures prior to leaving the house.

But once we got there, they seemed to get into the spirit of things. I'm not sure if stealing my hat helped.

Or maybe it was wearing cool shades.

Either way, by the time the event was over, we were all in a good mood. Mostly.

Second Snow of Winter

2011-12-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

I don't even remember when the first one was, but it was a long time ago. Now we finally got a little more snow - and I do mean a little! In Western Michigan, we usually start getting heavy snows by now, four to six inches or so, depending on how the winds are blowing. A week or so ago, there was a really weird wind which dumped snow right down through the middle of the state (near Lansing) and completely avoided Grand Rapids and Detroit.

It's not that I'm looking forward to shoveling it, but like Charlie Brown's little sister, I just want my fair share!

So we got a little bit last night, just a reminder that winter is upon us. Looks pretty when it first comes down, all white and clean. Then the cars start driving around in it, and things get yucky.

Maybe next time, we'll get more.

Sleeping In

2011-12-06T19:59:00.001-08:00

Everyone has a different way of looking at their calendar. I'm generally looking to see if there is anything on the calendar that will take me away from my home, something that interferes with my very strong desire to just stay home and do things around the house. Which is why we have our Family Meeting every Sunday night, to plan out our week so that I will know exactly how many nights I'll get to stay home.

What? You thought the point was to let everyone in the family know what is on the schedule for the week? Ha! Everyone else in the house has an infallible memory (although most of the teen hormones are also an effective memory-wiping chemical which causes them to forget little things like "chores" and "homework" and "we already had family plans for that night" when it occurs to them to do something spontaneous like go out to see a movie with money they don't have, in a car they don't own, with fuel they haven't paid for). I'm the one who can't remember for five minutes that I have an appointment with ... with ... um, which doctor am I supposed to see this week?

Calendars are merely tools, tools which are intended to drive me insane with anxiety over the ridiculous number of things that are scheduled to occur during the week. Every night with something scheduled on it, is a night I can't go out to my garage and play with my power tools. Or down in the basement to work on programming. Or in the living room to work on a short story. Or in the music room to play my guitar.

Tonight was Scouts. I'm the Family Life merit badge counselor. There were only two guys who were supposed to be getting the training tonight, but it ended up that the entire troop came into the library to listen to my "guidance". I'm not sure whether that was due to the fact that my spiel was that interesting, or they just didn't want to hang out with the other adults and listen to deer-hunting stories. But we had a grand time, talking about what families are, and how we support and love one another, how we learn so much from one another, how we learn to work together in order to transfer knowledge and wisdom from one generation to another so that society will benefit and civilization will survive and prosper. We talked about personal projects and family projects and weekly chores and things that could be done during the winter versus things that could be done over the summer.

Afterward, I talked to my Eagle Scout candidate about the things he has left to do - time is rapidly flying, and he has only three weeks to get it all done! - and then it was time to head home and see how the family was doing.

We're starting some new routines this week, owing to some decisions we made over the weekend. Telephone service and internet for sub-adults is going to cease after 10 o'clock at night; hopefully, that will prevent anyone from having difficulty getting to sleep owing to the huge distractions of remote communications. We adults are still struggling with that concept, but it's going to have to be for us as well, since we've noticed that the internet is a huge time drain late at night, and we really need to be getting to bed on time. I'm hoping it means that we can start getting up on time, too, because I experienced a rather slow start this morning.

It was terribly difficult to get out of bed, and it wasn't because the bed was nice and warm and the room air was cold, or because there was nothing to look forward to at work. No, the problem was that I was exhausted, and just couldn't get moving.

This sleeping in has to stop.

Closing Matinee

2011-12-03T16:17:00.001-08:00

It seems rather odd to have a Saturday matinee as the final performance of a play, but perhaps that's the way it is for Middle School musicals. Certainly, none of the Middle School / Junior High musicals I'd ever seen were quite as sophisticated as this one, so it is probably to be expected that the schedule of performances would be non-standard as well.

The only real complaint about the scheduling of this performance is the same complaint I'd have for any middle-of-the-day event for a Saturday: it kills off the whole day. I can't really accomplish anything else, because during the morning, I'm preparing for the event, and afterward, I'm recovering from the event. So, there goes another Saturday!

Having a few hours beforehand did provide me the opportunity to clean up the shop area. I'd left it in a huge mess Friday afternoon as we were in a rush to get to the performance, so there was sawdust and board scraps and tools scattered thither and yon all over the place. Took me quite a while to put everything back in its place. Then there was just enough time to grab a quick lunch before heading off to the school.

As a villager, a non-principal part, Mary didn't have to do microphone checks or extensive makeup or complex costuming, so we didn't have to be there extremely early. As you can see from the picture below, she had a simple costume. The kerchief gave me the impression that she was a Russian peasant, probably because I've seen far more photographs of Russian women wearing them than French, but it's still valid for the period. And she looked great onstage.
Here she is standing in front of the cart.

The afternoon performance didn't start off well. The principal actress, playing Belle, had been struggling with a sore throat all week, so it really wasn't a surprise when, after only a few notes into the first song, her voice cracked and she had to switch it down an octave. Caught me by surprise, though, because she'd been doing so well all week long. From backstage, it sounded as though she'd suddenly switched to an alto harmony part instead of the melody, but people who were out in the audience assured me that it was simply an octave switch.

Then there were some unexpected hitches with some set pieces catching on curtains and floors and things. A few rushed lines, a few missed blockings, one or two places where a singer couldn't find the pitch or the beat, or rushed ahead of the music a bar or two. The wood-chopping "invention" worked great. The fog machine (for the Beast-to-Human transformation) still didn't work right: the fog missed its cue, so there was a huge cloud of fog swirling around the floor after the Beast had turned human. I don't think that trick ever worked right except once during rehearsal.

The cart looked great.

It was a bit of a relief and a downer when the curtain finally went down and we were all done. Putting on musicals can be such a stressful time, but when it's all over, you just can't wait til the next one starts up. Unfortunately, there isn't another Middle School play for a year or so.

Meanwhile, there was a set to strike, and the kids got to work with a vengeance, tearing the flats apart with hammers and screwdrivers, pulling the styrofoam arches apart, sweeping up the mess of debris that was scattered all over the stage. It took us the better part of an hour and a half to get it all done, then it was time for the cast party.

The parents in charge of the food had done a marvelous job preparing the cast party. There was pizza and vegetable trays and fruit trays and chili cheese dip and crackers and chips and crab puffs and stuffed mushrooms and cupcakes and fudge marshmallows and cookies and -- did I mention pizza? There was far more food than could possibly be eaten by the cast and crew, but they gave it their best. Mary and I didn't stay til the end because she was tired and I was tired and we wanted to get home and relax for awhile, so we did.

Now only two more weeks of school & work, and then we're off for a while!

Opening Night

2011-12-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

It was a scramble, mad-dash, race for the moon kind of day.

The first performance was at nine o'clock in the morning. An auditorium full of elementary school kids, all with ADHD, were the first recipients of the talents of the middle school dramatic personae. And they loved it! But what's not to love? One of their favorite stories from childhood come to life, onstage, with music and lights and special effects and "Big Kids" playing the roles they've only seen on the television.

The Company did very well. Most of the lines were remembered, most of the songs went off well, most of the stage survived. I was mortified that the cart wasn't completed yet: some of the side panels weren't painted yet; there was duct tape covering some gaps; the wheels weren't painted yet. But "Chip" didn't complain, and the show went on.

Mary was obviously having a great time. I'm not sure yet if a serious drama bug has bitten her yet, but she seemed to relish the life backstage. (Those of you who have been behind the stage know what I'm talking about.) The tension, the chatter, the gossip, the whispers from the crew to "Hush!" She looked so cute in her villager outfit, makeup done just right, standing at the edge of the stage and waiting for her cue.

As soon as the presentation was done, I grabbed the cart and took it outside to where Cheryl was waiting with the van. We loaded it up and she drove it home while I went back to work. After lunch, I went home and together, we worked on completing it. She did the (marvelous) painting job, and I finished the wheels and filled in the gaps and tweaked a few things here and there.

We took it back to the school after dinner, around five-thirty, where I had to finish one final task - painting the wheels gold - and then it was finally ready to go.

The show started promptly at sometime after seven o'clock. The auditorium had a few people in it - probably around a hundred, mostly parents - but they were ready for it. (Thursday nights are traditionally a Dress Rehearsal night because no one in their right minds goes "out" to a show on a Thursday night, but apparently things have changed over the years, and this was actually considered a regular show.)

It didn't go as well as before, and mostly that was due to the fact that the kids had already done it earlier in the day, and their voices were tired. And they'd been in school in the meantime, so there was some regular tiredness as well. And there were several tech things that didn't work: the fog machine, the microphones, the automatic wood chopper thingie.

The biggest thing that went wrong was the scene where Gaston and Lefou and one other henchman stroll across the stage on their way to the castle. Gaston and the henchman didn't show up. It seems they were playing around back in the dressing room (or locker room) and weren't paying attention, and they were supposed to be out on stage, and they totally missed their cue. A third actor, who was really the main instigator, was there as well. So Lefou walked across the stage by himself, got to the end without saying a word, shrugged his shoulders, and exited.

I'm sure the audience was confused.

After the show, after final bows and curtain calls and all that had been done, the director took the three boys aside and told two of them that they were in "major trouble", and told the third that he was out of the show, not to return ever again. (He had been messing around quite a bit throughout the whole production.)

First time I've ever seen an actor removed on Opening Night.

[Some of the aficionados of the show might've noticed as well that the Wardrobe lady was missing. She apparently stopped showing up for rehearsals a few days ago and so was dropped as well. Must be a Middle School thing. Mrs. Potts has had to improvise some cover lines for that situation, but she's done well.]

After that unpleasantness, the kids all went down front of the auditorium and were congratulated by their parents and other well-wishers. Then the kids went back and changed into normal clothes and we all departed for home.

Well, almost. Actually, Mary and I departed for Wendy's, where we got Frosty shakes to celebrate, and then we went home. After all, an actor deserves her due!

Tomorrow night's production should be very interesting.

Dress Rehearsal

2011-11-30T20:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight, the middle school kids put on their dress rehearsal production of "Beauty and the Beast, Jr.". It was a remarkable improvement from Monday night's rehearsal.

Monday night was full of forgotten blocking, dropped lines, bad acting, technical mishaps, and entirely too much conversation in the wings.

Come to think of it, so was Tuesday night.

Monday, we got all the way through Act One, and it only took two and a half hours.

Tuesday, we got all the way through Act Two, and it only took three hours.

Together, that makes for a five and a half hour play. It's supposed to be an hour and ten minutes, tops. Throw in an intermission, and you've got roughly an hour and a half. Where did all the extra time come from?

Missing props. New stage direction. Wireless mikes that needed adjusting. Figuring out the timing for the costume changes. Repeating scenes that just didn't work.

Tonight was a non-stop run-through. Absolutely no repeats. Deal with the mishaps and mistakes, just keep going. Got it down to about two hours. Not bad.

Tomorrow morning is another "dress rehearsal", except that it will be taking place in front of all the elementary school kids, who are being bussed in to watch the performance. Mr. Hudson said there would be 650 of 'em. Really? That's going to be one loud auditorium! And very unruly, to boot. Can't wait to see how that works out.

I've got to be there at the end of the production so I can grab the tea cart and make a few minor adjustments to it. Still need to paint the wheels. And add some floral patterns. So that by the time we open "for real" tomorrow night, it'll be all prettified and elegant, like a tea cart is supposed to be.

I find myself looking forward to any excuse to go out and work in my shop now that it's all closed off and insulated and cozy. And it's so relaxing! Especially when there's time to do things right, and not be in a rush.

I'm so looking forward to Christmas vacation. There are many ideas floating in my head which involve wood in some way.

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-11-27T20:57:00.001-08:00

We pulled the tree out of the attic. Cheryl set it up. The girls, with the help of their friend, Sarah, strung up the lights.

Then we turned it on.

So, are you ready for Christmas yet?

Tea Cart

2011-11-26T19:45:00.001-08:00

You wouldn't think to look at it, that it would take so long to complete. But there are always complications. Especially something that is supposed to be as flexible as this.

There are only a few things that the tea cart has to do.

One, it has to roll across the stage. So, it has wheels. Actually, it has real wheels underneath and "fake" wheels on the side. The fake wheels are supposed to look like old-fashioned spoke wheels, the kind you'd find on a piece of furniture back in the 1700s in France which wasn't supposed to carry an incredible amount of weight on it. The "real" wheels are supposed to carry about 100 pounds of weight (depending on the size of the occupant), so there's a furniture dolly underneath to do the real work.

Two, it has to have room inside for an actor, somewhere between seventy and one hundred pounds - depending on who is playing the part of Chip, the tea cup. The actor sits on the little seat, facing forward, with his/her head sticking out of the top. (No, I haven't cut out the hole for the actor's head yet.) The actor's feet must fit in the space between the seat and the front of the tea cart. The top of the cart must allow the actor to get in, and must allow the actor's head to come through it.

I thought about creating a split lid which would fold together with a center cutout, but that seems a bit difficult to support along the seam, so instead it'll probably just be a single cutout for the head, with a tablecloth to hide the hole. The most important thing is that it can't be obvious that there is a person's body stuffed inside the tea cart. The plan is to use mirrors to make it look like there isn't someone inside the cart. I'm still working on that part.

Post-Thanksgiving GiG

2011-11-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

It's Friday, and there are a million things to do today. The most important, obviously, is to get my GiG (Garage-in-Garage) ready for winter, because the weather is going to start turning cold very, very soon.

As you may recall, the doors to the GiG were started a few days ago, but there hasn't been an opportunity (until today) to get the door handles on them. And they really need door handles. Currently, they don't close very easily, which is part of the design. Tighter doors make for tighter seals against the cold, you know. But that means that the doors can't be shut by simply closing one side and then the other. The doors have to be brought together carefully and set to just the right angle and then pulled sharply together so that they mesh. But that's very difficult to accomplish when there is no door handles.

So, first order of business is to make the door handles. Starting with the main entry doors which go from the two-bay garage (where the cars are parked) to the GiG.

Next, the doors which lead out of the GiG into the "shed" which was created by the extra space between the GiG and the 3rd bay garage door. This will allow access from the GiG to the shed where all the snow removal (and grass removal) equipment is kept, as well as the recycling and trash bins which must go out every week. The intent of putting doors here is to seal off the GiG from the exterior cold which creeps in when we're shoveling snow or putting out the garbage every week.

Now that the GiG work is done, it's time to work on the tea cart for the school play ("Beauty and the Beast").

The Tea Cart is supposed to look like a real tea cart, only it has a person inside who will be playing the role of Chip, the tea cup. The actor has his/her head made up to look like a tea cup, and the actor's body is hidden inside the tea cart.

I can't wait to see how (if) this works!

James is an Old Man!!

2011-11-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, there was a boy named James who suddenly, inexplicably, was attacked by the EEE-vil forces of the "Axis of Geriatric Enemies" (A.G.E.) who wanted him to become an Old Man with gray hair and arthritis and creaky bones and aching joints. But James was, after all, only sixteen years and didn't deserve such a horrible fate.

The EEE-vil forces of A.G.E. sent in a huge Army of Penguins to destroy whatever semblance of good health he might be enjoying by infusing him with massive doses of sugar.

He did his best to defeat the Army of Penguins, one at a time, using only his teeth.

Remarkably, his strategy worked and he was mildly successful. Except for a huge sugar rush which threatened to send him into a diabetic coma. Even though he's not diabetic. Yet.

Oddly enough, once his huge sugar rush had dissipated, he was given a weapon to use against the forces of EEE-vil which consisted of very sweet, very sugary bag of Chocolate Kisses from a not-so-secret admirer! (Face not shown so as to protect her identity.) Some suspect that this was actually some kind of Secret Code.

In addition to the encouragement he received from his not-so-secret admirer, he was also encouraged in his struggle against the forces of A.G.E. by many loving friends and relatives who sent him cards and notes and gifts.

Young James read them.

All of them.

And he was filled with joy upon receiving them. Especially the maroon ones.

So now we all know what color 'maroon' is.

And we know what 'chocolate' is.

And we know what Starbucks Gift Cards are.

Yes, young James was very pleased and content with his cards and gifts, a shower of love and affection from his friends and family.

And, like most of the Meyer family celebrations, it wouldn't be any fun at all if there wasn't a book involved!

So James was strengthened and heartened by the wonderful attentions from his friends, family and admirers, and was able to successfully defeat the EEE-vil forces of A.G.E.

At least for another year...

A Door for the Garage

2011-11-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

The Garage-Within-a-Garage (GWiG) is coming along nicely. I have completed the first set of doors! (Well, almost...)

As you can see, these doors form an entryway into the little gap between the GWiG and the actual garage doors which lead to the front driveway. The theory is that we'll be able to use these doors to take care of the snow removal during the winter and the gardening during the spring and summer. The gap actually is like a little shed inside the garage. I used the outer wall of the GWiG to hang the tools on, and the shed has just enough room to enclose the lawn mower, the show blower, the garbage bin, and the recycling bins.

In this view, you can see through the GWiG doorway all the way out into the driveway, and you can even see the garbage bin beyond.

Here you can see that the garbage bin has been brought into the little shed area between the outer garage door and the inner garage (GWiG) door.

Now I've lowered the outer garage door so that you can see that the gap between the inner and outer doors forms a little shed space.

Finally, when the GWiG doors are closed, the GWiG is isolated from the outer garage. And, hopefully, warmer, too! After all, the whole purpose of this project is to provide a warm place to work on projects for the winter.

Notice that the doors are currently held by clamps. Tomorrow, I need to get the hinges so they'll be "real" doors!

Saturday Raking

2011-11-19T20:40:00.001-08:00

This is how much leaf-raking the kids did today.

Doesn't that look like fun!??!

A Roman Temple

2011-11-18T19:43:00.000-08:00

James has completed his Roman temple!

Can you see where the half-round dowels are used?

This Roman temple even has a Roman god of some kind inside. Who is that?

James says it's Fortunas, the god of gates and keys.

Latin Class and Golden Temples

2011-11-18T06:33:00.001-08:00

So you're probably wondering to yourself, Why on earth would anyone need to cut dowels in half length-wise? (Unless you work in the Interior Decorating, or Carpentry business, in which case the answer is obvious.)

The answer is, of course, for trimming things.

James is taking Latin this year (yes, we're "stunned and amazed", too!), following in the footsteps of his elder brother (but don't tell him that, because he don't follow in nobody's footsteps!); and one of the projects that the Latin students take part in, is the annual Build-an-example-of-Roman-Architecture project. Where they build an example of Roman architecture. Or did you already guess that part?

Adam built a very nice model of a Roman villa a few years back. James decided to build a Roman temple instead. In this case, a temple dedicated to the god of keys and locks. Can't remember his/her name. But the temple is definitely worthy of a Roman diety! All gold-colored, with fancy columns and high ceilings, and even a statue of the diety itself.

The columns are, of course, fake. The ones which grace the exterior of the flat walls are not fully round, they are only half-rounds which are glued onto the wall so as to look fully round.

Which is where the dowel-cutting comes in.

Roman architecture demands strict adherance to symmetry and form, so the columns must look nice. And had we tried to cut the dowels in half (length-wise) without the use of a jig, they would've looked awful.

And we can't have that, now, can we?

Log-Splittin'; or, The Jig is Up!

2011-11-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

Problem:
How do you cut a 6-inch dowel in half length-wise?

Solution:
Make a jig!

Here is the jig that Dad built. 1-inch block base with two 2x2 blocks attached to it, spaced one saw-blade apart. The bottom facing edge of each of the 2x2 blocks is angle-cut to provide room for a dowel to fit between the blocks. Each 2x2 block is secured to the base with screws. An additional screw on each 2x2 block is angled down toward the facing edge to hold the dowel in place.

Here is the dowel being inserted into the jig in the space between the blocks.

Here is the dowel being secured into the jig with the screws.

Here is the dowel being sawn length-wise.

Here is the dowel being pushed out of the jig with the other dowel.

And here are the two halves of neatly-divided dowel, ready for use!

Tomorrow, I'll explain what all this was for.

$575 Later...

2011-11-15T20:02:00.000-08:00

The Subaru is fixed. My wallet is broke.

The diagnosis was exactly what I suspected: the drive shafts needed replacing. The CV boots have probably been cracked for quite a while, letting all kinds of dust and gravel and dirt and debris into the gear mechanism. Once it started making that grinding noise, it's too late to try and salvage it. Just a question of how much it's going to cost.

And it cost plenty. Parts were around $350, labor was around $180. Taxes and miscellaneous items brought it up to something near $575. Yeah, I probably could've gotten a better deal somewhere else, but frankly, I just didn't feel like trying yet another car shop. I still haven't found one I like (non-dealership, I mean). And the dealership is very close to work.

So I brought it in early and sat in their very nice waiting room and took advantage of their free WiFi to work remotely so I didn't miss out on anything, drank my Coke Zero and waited patiently. It only took an hour and a half. They had all the parts right there in the shop.

So an hour and a half later, still somewhat early in the morning, I drove out of the dealership parking lot and went to the office. There were no noises coming from underneath the front end anymore. When I got home from work, I put the car up on the ramps so I could take pictures of the new drive axles and CV boots.

Ain't they pretty??

Grease Monkey

2011-11-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

It was fun, crawling under the car and stuffing big gobs of grease into the outer CV joint of the left front wheel on the Subaru, hoping that the car will make it to the shop in the morning without locking up the bearings. Yes, it's a strange kind of fun, but oddly satisfying.

It's nice to have just a little satisfaction in an otherwise exhausting day.

We went to a joyous wedding yesterday, a wedding which brought together a lovely young lady who not only teaches and guides young children at a day care, but also at church; and a nice young man who has much experience in leading the older youth. Such marriages are rare but wonderful. One can only imagine the possibilities of such a team!

Since the lovely young lady was not going to be around to teach the children this morning, owing to some bizarre custom called a "honey-moon", it fell on me (actually, I leaped at the opportunity) to take over her Sunday morning class. This is the same class where I normally provide assistance, so it wasn't a great leap to take over the primary duties, but, as usual, I went way overboard in doing things my way.

The class is held in a small gymnasium, and normally the kids run around for the first fifteen minutes or so while we're waiting for all the kids to show up. (Some parents are notoriously late in dropping off their kids.) Which, at times, becomes dangerous, owing to the large difference in mass between kid A, who is 10, and kid B, who is 5, especially when kid A is travelling at 5 miles per hour and kid B is wandering aimlessly into the path of kid A. And the fact that the floor is linoleum-covered concrete doesn't help. The kids only bounce so much before serious injury is incurred.

So the number one rule for Today was: No Running! And in order to enforce this rule, I sub-divided the gymnasium using various rolling carts and bookshelves and toy shelves, covering them with various tablecloths and curtains and whatever else I could find. So we had cordoned-off sections for Reading, Singing, Art, Games, Worship, and Lesson. And there wasn't any clear space longer than twenty feet, which was not nearly enough for any of the older boys to build up sufficient speed to knock down any of the little kids.

It took me an hour - or was it two? - on Saturday night (after the wedding dinner) to get all this arranged, since first all the Day Care toys (which are normally left in the gym) have to be stuffed into an unused classroom; then all the items needed for the class on Sunday had to be scavenged from various parts of the building. Which then meant that it would take as much time (if not more) to clean it all up and put things away on Sunday afternoon.

As luck or fate or whatever would have it, my brain started really pounding Sunday afternoon so I took a 3-hour nap instead of going back to the church to clean up, and then by the time I got there - dropping the boys off for their Senior High Youth Group at the same time - the gym had already been cleaned up.

Sorta.

Seems the college student who was in charge of games for the evening decided to use the gym to play some really cool games (centipede dodge ball, which, if you've never played, you've simply got to try it!), and he went down there at some point in the afternoon and put away all the things I'd pulled out. Here, the term "put away" is interpreted as "pushed up against the wall so as to leave a clear space in the middle of the room." This was unsatisfactory to me, so in the half-hour or so that the Youth Group was gathering - before they came down to the gym to play games - I hurriedly put away all the things that were still in there. So by the time they came down to play their game, the gym was really empty.

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but the hitch is that I still had to put back all the Day Care toys so that everything is in place on Monday morning, which meant that I had to wait until the games were done before then pulling all the Day Care toys from the "storage" room.

It was an exhausting evening.

And it wasn't done yet.

Because after the boys and I got home from Youth Group, it was time to have our Family Meeting (to go over the week's activities and plans and schedules) and then I had to go out to the garage and pack the CV joint with grease.

And then look over my work email to see what's coming up for tomorrow.

Thanks to Cheryl and her penchant for baking goodies, there were some yummy chocolate treats to provide me with a much-needed energy boost - just enough to finish up the car, say good-night to the kids, check my work email, and head to bed.

Sisters

2011-11-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

First Snowfall of Winter

2011-11-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

It's official.

Winter is here!

Do You Think I'm Getting Old?

2011-11-08T05:10:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it is just old age settling in, but I was really, really happy that Cheryl volunteered the both of us to babysit on Sunday night even though we had already purchased tickets to the big Christian music concert. And it was fun to give someone else our tickets so they could go in our place.

{The Called to Love Tour.}

But seriously. This was a major event. Four wonderfully talented Christian musical groups, all playing under the same roof. For three solid hours. For an extremely reasonable price. What could be better than that?

Um ... babysitting?

This is the kind of thing that makes me believe old age is creeping up on me. Just the thought of sitting (or standing) in an auditorium (actually a gymnasium/auditorium) for three hours listening to ever-so-slightly-louder-than-I-can-stand music - even though the message and the melodies are wonderful - makes me hesitate for a moment and consider if I really want to go through the hassle.

And I know if the opportunity to babysit had not come up, we would've gone to the concert and had a wonderful time (although I would've brought along some cotton to stuff in my ear canal just in case they started hurting) and bought the albums and shaken hands with the artists (if Security allowed) and considered ourselves blessed and lucky.

But ...

Instead, we dropped off the kids at the church building and let them have the marvelous time with the wonderful music and the talented artists while we went back to the house. And we stayed at our house and took care of two wonderful little toddlers. And pulled out all the old toddler toys. And watched scenes from "Milo and Otis". And "The Little Mermaid". And had apple slices and water for snacks. And read Sandra Boynton stories on the couch. And put them to bed at 8:30 p.m.

And then the toddler's parents came and picked up their children, and then we went to the church building and picked up our children, and both of us - parents and children - agreed that we had spent a wonderful evening of fulfilment and joy, each in our own separate ways.

My Inner Garage

2011-11-06T04:40:00.000-08:00

I'm getting pretty good at making these wall units. Maybe I'll go into business just making walls. It's a lot easier than all that project management stuff at the office. A few 2x4s, a few drywall screws, a few cuts here and there, and there's a wall.

Of course, when I get bored with walls, there's always shelves. Those are fun, too, and the only difference is in the direction of the inner support beams. For walls, they go up and down, since the weight is being distributed vertically. For the shelves, they go across, between the long runs, because they support from underneath.

Maybe I'll get this "inner garage" thing done before winter really kicks in.

I've still got a few little details to finish up, like the drop-down stairwell and the doors. It would be nice if winter held off just a little while longer so those can be finished up. But I'm rapidly running out of free time. It's November already!

There's lots of things to do in November. Adam has college applications and scholarship applications to fill out. And a driving test to pass. James has a birthday, and Part 2 of his Driver Education class. And several Jazz Band concerts. Thanksgiving is coming up, and we haven't figured out our plans for that yet. Christmas is just around the corner. Like everyone else getting ready to send children off to college, we're strapped for cash and wondering just how that's going to work out. We'd really like to get our Christmas cards written up and sent out this year, but 'procrastination' is our middle name.

Oh, and there's that 'work' thing down at the office. I'm supposed to be doing something there, but I can never remember what it is. I always forget about work the minute I'm out the door.

Frankly, building walls is a lot more fun.

Where Have All the Children Gone?

2011-11-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

Three of the children are gone from the house tonight, spending their time either at church retreats (Adam & James) or a friend's house (Deb). Only Mary remains, and she went to bed early since she's dealing with an ear infection.

The house is so quiet.

The boys will be gone until Sunday afternoon, and Deb might be back tomorrow or she might be back Sunday afternoon. It all depends on how long she and her best friend can put up with each other.

So Cheryl and I are sitting here with the cats, each typing on our respective laptops while listening to jazz music on the radio. I'm working on a novel, or short story, or some meaningless string of words all thrown together in an interesting (?) way. She's perusing the political websites to see what's going on in the world. Occasionally she'll point out to me something she's found on some website somewhere. And occasionally I'll yawn, because it's getting late and my brain is about fried.

My friend, Paul Ellis, is trying yet again to write a novel as part of the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) contest or event or whatever you want to call it. I thought about doing something like that, having wanted to write stories for many, many years, but never having the time available to really devote myself. Plus I'm very lazy. And a professional procrastinator. But I thought I'd support the idea by trying to write a little each night on my various storylines and see how many words I can write each time.

Most novels are fifty thousand words or more, so if I was able to write each day for thirty days, that means I'd have to write [50,000 / 30 = ] 1667 words per day. Unfortunately, they can't be the mindless gibberish I put on my blog; it actually has to contain characters and plot and stuff like that. And it would have to make sense.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have to write much more than what I've already written. If I copy what I've written so far and count up the words, I've got ...

About 363 words. So I need to write enough for roughly six blog entries per night. That shouldn't be hard. If I go look at my current story-in-work, "All Quiet on the Midwestern Front", I've got it up to 2,716 words. And I've been working on it now for about two weeks.

Must be all those family interruptions. Or was it work? Either way, it's hard work to be a novelist. Think I'd better stick with engineering.

Oooh, now my head really hurts.

Garage Storage Update

2011-11-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I want to avoid this winter, it's having a garage which is too cold to work in. Which has been the case ever since we moved to Michigan.

The core issue with the garage lies in the overall lack of proper insulation. Apparently, in Michigan, they don't believe in insulating the garages. I'm not sure why, since winter seems to last about a million years around here. But when we bought this house - brand new - there wasn't any insulation in, on or around the garage. The garage doors weren't even insulated. Or sealed. In fact, if you look at the doors from the side, there's nearly a half-inch gap all around the edges, between the door and the door frame. Sure, they put a rubber trim flap around it, but that doesn't help. The winter winds blow right past that, and fill the garage with sub-zero air.

I don't like sub-zero air. Not when I'm trying to work with my tools. My metal tools. Which get very, very cold when exposed to those sub-zero temperatures.

During the spring and summer, I built a wall between the two parts of the garage (the 2-car portion and the 3rd bay). There was already a partial wall there; I merely extended it so that it goes all the way across the garage, making the third bay a separate room.

The plan was to completely seal off the 3rd bay so that it can be used for a winter workshop. But I really can't make the 3rd bay into a separate room until I figure out a way to seal off that 3rd bay garage door so that the cold air doesn't get in every time we open it.

The only problem remaining is the garage door opener.

See, the ceiling of the garage is twelve feet up, but the garage door opener track is only eight feet off the floor. Which leaves me with four feet of 'dead' space above the door opener track which can't be used. For anything.

I want to remove the entire garage-door opener apparatus, but frankly, that didn't make it past the Project Planner. There is the fear that it might not ever go back the way it was. (And that is a likely scenario.)

So ... what to do?

Well, to start out, at the very least, I want some extra storage space up there. So I took the two 4x4 platforms I'd built at the beginning of the summer and put them up like giant shelves. That will give me 32 square feet of additional storage.

(You can see them above the power tools in the picture.)

Of course, I can't use the entire 32 square feet if the garage door is allowed to slide up the rails because it will hit anything that's being stored up there. So until I come up with another idea, I have to leave a narrow lane open for the garage door to go through.

So it's not perfect. But it's a start.

Pumpkin Retrieval

2011-11-03T07:37:00.001-07:00

James had worked very hard on his pumpkin, so it was no surprise that he wanted to retrieve it from the place he'd left it ... before it got thrown out into someone's garden for compost.

On Halloween, he and Bayli sat outside her house and handed out candy while scaring the children with their very-scary zombie costumes. And they were neatly book-ended by the pumpkins they'd carved. Now, two days later, James realized that his pumpkin was still sitting over at her house. So after his Marching Band concert tonight, we went over there and picked it up and brought it back home so that everyone in the family could see it.

Then James put a candle in it and we put it out on the back porch to light the deck.

It wasn't a very bright light.

So we had to turn off the deck light in order to get the full effect.

Can you tell that it's an angel?

Too Lovely to Work

2011-11-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

It was sixty-five degrees today. That's practically seventy!!

Is this really November in Michigan?!?!

Well, in any case, it was far too lovely of a day to spend cooped up inside an office, so I didn't. Besides, there was work to be done at home. Important work.

Oven work.

This is an igniter, specifically a broiler igniter. It's used in those fancy gas stoves that some people out in the Midwest use, where electricity is too expensive. These igniters are kinda like spark plugs; they heat up and 'spark' in order to ignite the gas flame that heats up the top of the oven. Since the oven tries to maintain a specific temperature, the flame goes on and off continually, heating things up for a while, then kicking off when the temperature reaches the right point, then kicking back on when the oven cools down a bit, and so on. So the igniter has to 'spark' many, many times over the course of a single cooking session. Which puts the poor thing through a lot of stress, leading to a kind of breakdown every few years.

Last time we replaced one - it was the main oven igniter - the part and the service call and the labor cost us nearly two hundred dollars. This time, the part alone was a hundred dollars - and the only difference I noticed in the part was in the metal bracket that mounts it. Other than that, they looked identical. Can you say 'scam'?

Well, there's no way I was gonna get ripped off like that again - I mean having someone come out to the house and charge a ridiculous amount of money to put a part in what I could do myself - so Cheryl ordered the part and it showed up the other day, so today - such a gorgeous day! - I went home at lunchtime and put the new part in. And then stayed home and enjoyed the beautiful day. Opened up all the windows and let the fresh, warm air run through the house. Put the plants out by the sliding glass door so they could enjoy it, too. Propped up the tomato plants with a couple sticks to hold on to, since they have grown up so tall and the wind was trying to rip them right out by the roots. Sat at the kitchen table and did work on my laptop (because we geek types love to work remotely from our laptops in order to avoid being interrupted like happens all the time when we're at the office).

It's November. Days like this in November are rare and special, and it's a crime to spend them indoors in a cube farm where there's no fresh, warm breeze and no sunlight. There'll be plenty of that come December. And January. And February. It'll be cold days and even colder nights.

And I still don't have the house all buttoned-up and ready yet. Perhaps another day off would help...

Halloween

2011-11-01T18:22:00.001-07:00

The Zombie Couple at Home

The Zombie Couple Entertaining Friends

Sunday Nite Shots

2011-10-30T19:30:00.001-07:00

Deb was gone for a couple of days at the Junior High retreat, and she was very tired by the time she showed up at church this afternoon. All the kids looked tired, but very happy. They had a great time. And they all wanted to go home and take long naps.

After she got up from her nap, she was ready to work on some writing, which explains the laptop on her lap. My laptop.

Erin and Alfred were hiding most of the afternoon because we had friends over from church (for a very lively discussion of various fun topics). So when our guests departed so that their young son could get ready for the coming week of school, the cats came out and re-claimed the comfy chairs.

Adam spent many happy moments playing piano after lunch. He loves to sit at the piano and work on various scores, and we like to hear how he is improving with time. Our guests were quite pleased with the impromptu performance.

He switches between classic and contemporary pieces, including Queen, Trans Siberian Orchestra, and various movie scores (e.g. Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean).

Snowing in New York, Sunny in Michigan

2011-10-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

Honestly, we don't know what is going on with the weather today. While it was apparently a cold and wintry day in the Northeast, we had it easy in Michigan. Blue skies with occasional puffy white (or grey) clouds, almost fifty degrees, very comfortable to be outside doing fall kinds of things.

Like shooting high-pressure air through the water irrigation pipes in order to remove all the water out of them before they freeze.

That's one of the 'benefits' of living in this neighborhood where practically all of the houses came with built-in irrigation systems. At least once a year, the homeowner must hire someone to come in and attach a high-pressure compressor to the lines and blow all the water out. Otherwise, when the ground gets to the point of a "hard freeze" - typically mid-November - ice will form inside the pipes and burst them. Not fun.

But this savvy homeowner rigged up his own little compressor and spent an hour or so pumping air into the pipes and getting rid of most of the water without going to the trouble of hiring someone else to come in and do it for him.

Kinda stupid, actually, considering that we only had the irrigation water turned on for a grand total of about two hours during the entire summer. What happened to Global Warming??

That was only one of the exciting 'plumbing' jobs for today, though. The most fun was un-clogging the sink, which had been subjected to an attack of overcooked pumpkin seeds en masse. You probably know that the garbage disposal output pipe feeds into the main drain pipe underneath the sink; but did you realize that there is a backflow device inside the pipe which keeps drain water from the other sink from backing up into the garbage disposal? And did you realize that this backflow device reduces the diameter of the outflow pipe by a factor of 2? Which means that if you overload it with a bunch of chopped-up, overcooked pumpkin seeds, the pipe jams up.

It didn't take much to unclog the pipe, but it did take a bit of clean-up when the sudden rush of water behind the seeds decided to jump the bucket and land on the floor instead. Nothing a dozen towels couldn't solve, of course. Or a mop, if I'd had one.

Did you know that wet, chopped pumpkin seeds are very sticky, and very hard to clean off of a dozen towels?

Oh, well, there were more fun things to do out in the garage. It was time to work on the car!

There are three spots on the Subaru which have sufficient rust to warrant special treatment; unfortunately, the largest one required removal of the rear bumper. That was fun! Not. Took me a couple hours to pull it off, de-rust the spots, apply the appropriate chemical sealant, then put the bumper back on. Because Cheryl was about to come home after dropping the boys off at their Youth Group activity and picking up groceries. And I needed to clean the debris off the garage floor and re-park the Subaru so it was out of the way.

After all that fun activity, it was time for me to sit down and watch The Bourne Identity again. With a bowl of chips and some salsa. Love me some Jason Bourne!

Concerts & Scout Projects

2011-10-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Picked up a nasty cold over the past week or so, but didn't have time to rest up much. Got too much to do, what with winter coming on and the car making funny noises and holidays sneaking up behind me like that. Then there's all the weeknights that are plumb over-scheduled. Like tonight.

Had the middle school choir concert tonight, and Mary was going to be singing so there weren't no excuse for missing out. But there was also Scout meeting, and Eagle Scout Project reviews, and being as I'm the one what opens the building up so the Scouts can get in, don't you know I've gotta be there right about the time the concert is fixing to start up. So with a wave of my magic wand, I've gotta be in two places at once.

Actually, we figured it out that I'd drop Mary off at the school early-like, since the choirs have to get all arranged and warmed up and everything, and while they were doing all that carrying on, I'd nip over to the church and let in the Scouts and the Eagle Scouts so they can get started - I wasn't going to be able to hang out with them, not with a kid in the choir.

Took me a bit longer than I'd figured to get everyone squared away, though, so my departure from the church was delayed til nearly twenty minutes past the concert start-time. Luckily, there was a number of choirs from other schools participating, and they got in first on the program, so my wandering in half-way through the first hour didn't affect my ability to witness my nearly-teen-aged daughter's performance.

Naturally, she was awesome, even though it weren't possible to pick her voice out of the ensemble of other voices. If it were, it mighta messed up the whole thing anyway. But the sight of her nearly took my breath away because - my goodness! - she's looking so grown up and everything. Like a big girl, practically an adult. Maybe it's the glasses. Maybe it's the way she carries herself. I dunno.

Kinda makes a dad feel proud. And old. All at the same time.

Got back to the church (after stopping by the house for some celebratory ice cream and apple pie) to make sure everything was locked up, and the Eagle Project reviewers were just leaving. Turns out my Eagle Scout - the one I've been "coaching" - made his presentation and is nearly approved now. Just needs some final signatories and he'll be ready to start. Just in the nick of time.

Looks like November's going to be a busy month, too.

Sunday School

2011-10-23T17:47:00.001-07:00

This is why I do what I do.

Sick Day

2011-10-21T11:06:00.001-07:00

I've been looking forward to a day off for a very long time. That is, a day off where there was nothing to do but lie in bed and write, because there wasn't any energy in my body to do anything requiring extreme physical effort.

Unfortunately, most sick days actually involve feeling bad enough to sleep instead of write; such is the day today, at least for the time leading up to the present moment. My head is still aching and my throat is still aching and if I get up and wander around the house looking for other things to do - and trust me when I tell you that there are plenty of other things to do around here, starting with the basement - my bones and joints will begin complaining loud enough that I will soon crawl back up the stairs to the relative comfort of my bed.

The boys have had two half-days this week (Thursday and Friday) owing to teacher conferences; since today is a half-day and a Friday, Adam invited a group of friends over to hang out and play on the computer and do whatever it is that teenagers like to do when they are facing the prospect of winter followed by spring followed by graduation followed by the Great Unknown Post-High School Mystery.

James disappeared in the direction of his friend's house around the corner.

The girls didn't have half-days this week, so they're still in school.

Cheryl is putting together a grocery list so that she can go to the store in a little while to try to compensate for all the food which will disappear over the course of the next few hours during the Teenager Onslaught.

And I'm monitoring my work email on one laptop while reviewing a Boy Scout Eagle Project on the other.

Last night, we had one of the Scouts over for the evening to help him finish his Eagle Project plan. We've been working on The Plan for several weeks now, trying to get it honed and ready for the review committee. It's a simple project, merely a set of standalone storage shelves for the church, each measuring 4 feet wide by 2 feet deep by 7 feet tall. Made of 2x4s and plywood. It's really a snap to build them. The only complication is that the Scout doesn't get to build them himself; instead, he must act as the project manager and direct the group of volunteers to build the project according to his specifications.

It's not something that most high school kids are used to doing, which is why it takes an Eagle Scout to accomplish. I think this particular Scout is learning a lot about handling projects while going through the planning process. Mostly, he seems to be learning how easy it is to get distracted from the planning process by anything and everything around him. Radio, Internet, television, cell phones - they all distract him from his purpose.

Seeing how he was struggling with this, it reminded me of how we all suffer from the same malady: an overabundance of external input, blinding us and distracting us and deafening us to the things that really matter. Realizing this has caused me to drastically reduce my presence on Facebook and other Net-related entities. It's nice to see what all my friends over the years are up to, but at the same time, it adds to the noise and fuzzes my brain. And with all the things going on in our lives, all the things that need to get done, its imperativeness diminishes. It's difficult to find the time to just sit down and surf anymore. There are things that need to be done, and critical relationships that need attention. With very few years remaining before all the kids have left the house and struck out on their own, there just isn't time to waste.

This Scout has about two months before he is too old to complete his Eagle Project. This writer has about one month before the winter snows arrive with a vengeance, locking him down to mostly indoor activities. There are many things still left to get in proper order before that day arrives, and none of them are on the Internet.

Recovery Weekend

2011-10-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

Marching Band season came to an end on Saturday, which meant that Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest and recovery. But that wasn't quite the case. Perhaps it was the early-morning phone call. Perhaps it was the aches and pains from overstressed muscles and joints. Perhaps it was the kids who were far too hyped up from something to sit still during Sunday School. Or maybe it was the headache which just refused to go away.

Whatever the reason, Sunday evening came and it was time for a complete shutdown by ten-thirty. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and possibly free of the after-effects of a migraine.

We hope.

Adam and I attended the Writer's Group on Sunday afternoon, which was highly enjoyable. One of our favorite authors, Steve, read three chapters of his hilarious and very engrossing story about - well, I can't really tell you what it is about, but if you've ever seen "Moonlighting" or any other movie/show with witty banter between members of the opposite sex, you will understand why we find it so entertaining. (It's so funny that, even though he was really only supposed to read the latest chapter, we made him go back and re-read the first two chapters as well!)

The best part (or worst part, if you are another author envious of his ability to write funny material) is that this is his 'filler' material. You know, the mateiral an author writes when taking a break from the novel. He's afraid that readers may find his 'fluff' stuff more compelling than his main body of work. But that's the risk you take when you're talented!

Adam read a new work which centers around a couple of escaping prisoners who are tied together with a magic chain, similar to the movie 'The 39 Steps' (which, if you haven't seen, you must immediately stop now and go watch. Done? Good.) It is an interesting premise, but very difficult from the writer's standpoint in that one has to consider all the possible ramifications of such an arrangement without letting it get caught up in the logistical details. And keep the main story going.

Lucky for him that he was surrounded by so many amateur writers willing to give lots of advice!

I read my latest, which was intended to be a guest blog entry for Susie's so that she could focus on finishing her novel (which is currently in rewrite).

We stayed far longer than we had intended, but the conversation was interesting and there was much to discuss with regard to the upcoming Writer's Conference in April (mostly about how to justify the $195 cost). I'm not sure that it will be justifiable with regard to our particular situation, considering it's not the main focus, and with so many other things going on in life, all of them requiring serious financial investment (house, kids, college, etc.), it's difficult to see how it could be - but it is an intiguing thought, to spend three days surrounded by the world of reading, writing and publishing.

We had to stop by the office supply store on the way home to pick up some ink for the printer. Can't figure out how we go through it so quickly! And by the time we got home, we had to turn around and head back to church for the High School group. While the boys were engaged in that activity, I spent an hour or so repairing some shelves in the library, replacing the 'emergency' supports (someone attempted to replace broken shlef supports with screws, but the screws had merely collapsed under the weight of all the books), then went home for a while to relax before going back to church with Cheryl and picking up the boys and stopping by the store to grab some milk (an entire gallon had mysteriously disappeared between Sunday morning and Sunday evening - immagine!) and coming home to have our Family Meeting and then -

Well, by then, my head was feeling like a grenade had gone off inside, so I said my good-nights and crawled into bed and disappeared into La-La Land, hoping that today would dawn bright and sunny and pain-free. But, alas, I'm nearly fifty, so that ain't gonna happen any time soon. Too many achy bones and breaky joints.

Last Home Game, then Invitational

2011-10-14T12:05:00.001-07:00

Tonight is the last Home Game, which means we're almost done with Marching Band season. Tomorrow is the big Invitational. Then I can finally rest!

James, unfortunately, will not be able to rest. He has to keep playing with the band. Inside. In the Band Room. Every day.

And we will go back to having our traditional Friday night pizza/movie night.

Maybe.

The weather has turned cold, and that means it's time to hunker down and get everything winterized. Out there in the upper Midwest, it's important to remember that it's going to get very cold for a very long time, which means that there won't be any opportunity to do anything outside for awhile (unless you seriously like to go play out in the snow in your front yard), and you don't want to be trying to get all your insulation and weather-stripping done when it's already cold. Those jobs are best done right before it gets really cold!

I was hoping to complete my third bay project before things got really cold, but that didn't happen. Too many Saturdays got tied up with other things. And everyone keeps scheduling things in the middle of the day, which means that none of the all-day projects (which means most of mine) can even start, because there's no point in starting them early on a Saturday morning when they won't be completed by Sunday night. I need my Saturdays completely free if anything is to be accomplished.

Yes, I'm slower than Christmas when it comes to getting projects done.

Tomorrow, I'll have a few hours to get some of the minor house projects done (hopefully), but when two o'clock rolls around, everything will have to be stopped so we can get ready for the Band Invitational, and that will take the rest of the day, right up til 10 p.m.

Time for a nap now!

Up on the Roof

2011-10-09T17:17:00.001-07:00

Some days your children will drive you crazy; other days they amaze and astound you.

Today was supposed to be a day of rest and meditation and quiet focus on spiritual matters. After a raucous morning with a "billions and billions" of little kids in Sunday School, some of whom were just not in the "church" mood, I was exhausted and ready to spend the entire afternoon in the quiet confines of my bed, napping.

But with the good weather only scheduled to last for a few more days, these fake-summer days (75 degrees in October?!?) must be utilized as best they can to make up for all those real-summer days in which nothing was able to be accomplished. There is a list of "Things To Do" a mile long, including some outside painting.

Up on the Roof.

We had already painted the front porch yesterday, but as we were painting it, we noticed that the trim boards up on the second floor near the bedroom windows were dull and dirty. So, today I was hoping to get up there and finish the job.

But she beat me to it.

Mary, that is. Not only did she go up on the roof and stand outside the windows and paint the trim, she also volunteered to wash the vinyl windows while she was there.

What a trooper!

She enjoys being "at altitude". Kinda reminds me of my brother, Craig. She admits to some nervousness when she's up there -- and she's is adamant about using a safety rope -- but is not afraid of it. In fact, she just seems to enjoy going up ladders and stairs and anything else she can climb.

After we had finished all the painting and cleaning up there, she was hoping to sit out on the roof and watch the world go by. Unfortunately, the wasps and the mosquitoes were getting more active as the sun started to go down, and we opted for the safety of the indoors instead. It's not a good idea to be out on an inclined roof when the bugs start distracting you from things like maintaining your balance.

I'm glad she had a fun time up there. I'm really happy that she was so willing to help out, and even volunteer to do more. Perhaps if we had a climbing tree out in our backyard, she'd be up there all the time. Maybe we should build an indoor jungle gym.

It was a good day.

Post Script
Happy Anniversary to the Meyers in Texas!

Apple Orchard

2011-10-08T19:32:00.001-07:00

James has been looking forward to the Apple Orchard all week long, which is no surprise considering the fact that it will be time spent with his girlfriend. Oh, and his family is invited along as well.

There was only one stipulation in the deal, and that was the timing: we had to get out there early in the morning, about the time they were opening up, so that there would be plenty of time to come back home and get some chores done. The weather has been so nice lately - in the upper seventies and lower eighties - and there is so much outdoor cleanup to do in preparation for the coming winter (like painting and yard work) that we can't afford to spend all of our time playing in the fields of apples.

But we managed to get everyone up and out the door in plenty of time to pick up our guest passenger and head up north to the orchard fields, find the correct one (there are a lot of 'em up there!) and start the fun.

The kids started off by going through the corn maze, which was really made for younger kids, but they had fun anyway. Meanwhile, Cheryl and I looked around at the little farm to see what was going on. They had a store with lots and lots of apples - many different kinds - and apple products in it. They had lots of vegetables for sale, too, including pumpkins and squash and peppers (I was a bit jealous of the peppers). They had a large pen full of peacocks, too. Which explained why they were selling peacock feathers inside the little store.

When the kids were done with the maze, we grabbed our buckets and jumped up on the trailer behind the tractor and took a ride out to the orchards. The driver asked us as we went along which variety of apple we wanted to pick; we went for the SpyGold. The route through the orchard was chosen accordingly. First he dropped off all the other passengers along the way (for the Golden Delicious, Ida Reds, and Fujis), and we were last. Which also meant that we were closest to the exit! So we were able to pick a bushel of yummy SpyGold (for apple sauce and pies) - and some HoneyCrisp for our guest - and then walk 'em back to the store to pay for 'em, then jump in the car and head home.

After all that apple-y fun, it was time for some hard work, so the kids helped me paint the front porch for the afternoon, and then it was time to head over to Lowes for various little hardware items. More projects to work on.

Saturdays are always such fun!

Steve Jobs Quote

2011-10-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on." - 2005

Waiting at the Coffee Shop

2011-10-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Live ... from our Remote Coffee Shop Commentator

Twice a month, I sit here at the coffee shop on a Sunday afternoon, sipping my mocha and reading stories written by some very talented people. Novels, short stories, blog excerpts ... it's all good. We're all here to help one another in our quest to Write Well.

(And Get Published)

Adam is wandering around downtown with his friends, looking at art work and enjoying a beautiful, warm, sunny day. I dropped him off on the way down here. He was very excited about his forthcoming adventure. Ordinarily, he would be with me here at the coffee shop, drinking a non-caffeinated soda and joining in on the stimulating conversations regarding character, plot, theme and meaning, but sometimes the good of the many must be sacrificed for the good of the one. I hope he has a wonderful time!

Meanwhile, I've got a story idea to discuss with the group, and am looking forward to reading some excellent writing. And it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. But I forgot my sweater.

Later that Same Day

Only three of us showed up, but we still managed to hang out til nearly five o'clock. Some of us inherited the chatty gene, I suppose (namely, me). But we had fun. The other two authors had very good stories. Susie actually had two stories: Leaving and Implosion. Steve had one of his hilarious stories (which I can't find anywhere on the web, but that's normal when you're hoping to eventually publish the story elsewhere). And I had my Six Days Seven Nights knock-off, which is the type of story that gets written when I find an interesting nugget of a good premise buried in a forgettable, lackluster movie. Which was, in this case, Harrison Ford as an aging pilot and Ann Heche as his romantic nemesis, crash-landing on a deserted island and destined (?) for romance.

I never bought the idea that they would have a romance. Nah, he's way too old to be her lover. Instead, he should be her mentor, teaching her how to survive in the wild. So when the inevitable Crisis occurs (hurricane, wild animal, head-hunters, pirates, whatever), she responds by demonstrating how much she has grown and matured.

I'm always wanting to fix stupid movies. But no one wants my re-writes. Oh, well.

After a rousing afternoon of literary achievement, it was time to head home so that we could get the boys to their high school devo. And I needed to get over to our friends' house for dinner. And then go pick up the boys from devo. And then have our Family Meeting. And then do our Homework Check. And then make sure the house is ready for Monday morning. Ah, Sundays are always such busy days...

Eagle Project Fail - Lessons Learned

2011-09-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

I felt so sorry for the family of the young Scout who had come in to have his Eagle project reviewed. They had driven quite far, clear across the District, to have the Committee take a look at the Project and see what kind of advice they could give to the candidate.

And our best advice was, Go back and Try Again.

Most of the time, we reviewers sit at our little table with the candidate in front of us, chewing his fingernails while we go through the huge pile of paper describing the plans he's come up with, the drawings he's slaved over, the various details that have caused the sweat to pour from his face, and we see a few things here and there that need to be fleshed out, a few missing details, a few uncrossed T's and undotted I's. Because most of the time, his Eagle Project advisors and his Scoutmaster, who've been down this road before, provide the candidate with sufficient advice and guidance to get him through the tough parts.

But this kid ... oh, it still hurts to think about it.

We only had two projects to review that night, and if everything is good to go, we can be done in half an hour. But we were there with this kid for over an hour, trying desperately to come up with something that wouldn't make his parents' long trip - in the rain - a complete waste of time. We made lots of notes, wrote down lots of ideas, things for him to look at, to go back and think about, but it all boiled down to one statement that the Chairman made over and over: There's nothing we can do for you. You just aren't ready.

He had some bizarre excuses. When we first asked him where his material was - it was obvious from the thin stack of papers he gave us that he didn't have nearly enough detail in the project plans - he tried to tell us that he had "filled all that out on-line". But we had no clue what he was talking about. Everyone knows - don't they? - that when you come to your Eagle Project review, you bring the papers - all of them! - with you; and you bring enough copies for everyone on the Committee. At least three. It was like some kid in a school classroom telling his teacher that he'd emailed the Term Project to her the night before, when she is sitting at her desk waiting for him to hand it to her. Since when is it her responsibility to print out his emailed homework so that she can grade it?

We tried, we really did. We talked to him about the project, asked lots of questions, tried to get an idea of what he'd had in mind. But the more we talked to him, the worse it got. He hadn't actually come up with the project himself; someone had handed it to him because they didn't have enough time to do it themselves. Part of the project was to build a covered bulletin board (like they have in the National Parks at trail heads), or so we thought; actually, it turns out that most of the work to build the covered bulletin board had already been done by someone else, and he was just going to put it together and put it into the ground. OK, maybe that's doable; we just won't count the part where the materials are cut, and only count the part where he assembles it and plants it. But then we try to make sense out of his drawing, and there are dimensions missing and some things in it that just don't add up. Lots of missing detail. How is his team supposed to know how to build this thing? There was no procedural, no step-by-step description of how it was supposed to go together.

So we look at the map of the area which shows the layout of the project. And right off the bat, we notice some things that don't make sense. Not to get into a lot of detail about the project, but it appears that he's going to put concrete pads on the edge of the property, which is most likely on an easement. And he has other part of the project which encroach on parking lots and driveways. How is that supposed to work? We ask him if he's actually visited the site to ensure that the plan will work. He assures us that he has. Yet when we delve further into the details, we find that he is rather fuzzy on certain things. We get the feeling that he hasn't really done his 'homework' in regards to placement of the project items. Then it comes out that the drawing which he gave us was actually given to him by that other guy who was hoping to do the project. And he never bothered to go out to the site to make sure the drawing was correct.

It was hard, so hard, to have to tell the guy he was going to have to try again. But we had some good news for him. The next review is scheduled for October 6th, which is next week. He has a little over a week to make the corrections and get it ready again. We hope he gets it done. It's a really good community project, and a great enhancement to a vital city park. And it would be one of those projects that would garner some really good press for the Boy Scouts.

But it's just not ready yet.

And it reminds me that the Eagle project being planned by one of the guys in our Troop will need to be just as detailed as we expressed to the unready Scout tonight. And that is going to take a lot of work on our part to help him get it to that state. Because it's not even close. And this particular Scout in our Troop is going to "age out" in December.

We don't have much time.

Back Braking

2011-09-24T18:27:00.001-07:00

Before I begin today's exciting episode ...

There, I feel better now.

Didn't get as much done around the house as I was hoping. Too tired. Had such a wonderful time yesterday, hanging out with Cheryl, wandering through Meijer Gardens, admiring the sculpture and art, then going out for some dinner at Arnie's (while the kids did their own home-made pizza dinner ... at home). Such a lovely evening. Then slept in this morning, and had trouble getting up. Spent too much time puttering around in the morning, didn't feel up to anything energetic. Then, around noon, Cheryl and I took James up north to meet his girlfriend, stopping at the store for some groceries.

Finally got up the energy to do some real work, cleaning up the clutter that'd been hanging around the garage. Summer projects to take apart and store, insulation to put up in the attic, all sorts of other miscellaneous tasks. While listening to bluegrass and folk music from the local bluegrass and folk music radio station.

And after dinner, there were cookies.

One of the reasons that things haven't been getting done around here, is that my lower back has been aching. At first, it felt like a muscle got pulled, but after a while, when the pain had not abated, and there were flashes of pain running down my leg, it occurred to me that it was more symptomatic of a pinched nerve than a pulled muscle.

It wouldn't surprise me. There seems to be some history in the family of pinched nerves. I don't recall that anyone else has mentioned it being in the lower back, but mine has always been in this same area (and recurred relatively often) for about the past ten years or so. I used to have a back brace which I wore every time it flared up, and that helped a great deal; but it wasn't to be found anywhere in the house or garage this time, so it was necessary to purchase another one.

It helped. After wearing it yesterday and today, most of the day, my ability to lean over and lift tiny objects is greatly improved. Heavy objects are still off-limits, but it feels as though that might be possible soon enough.

Meanwhile, the back deck is all cleaned off, the attic is slightly warmer, much of the clutter in the garage is put away, and there are still warm cookies on the stove. Yum!

Dreaming of the Simple (Computing) Life

2011-09-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

I'm never going to recover from 1977.

Wasn't that the first year of my real life? I can't remember. It's so hard to remember those "good old days", when life was so simple (except, of course, from my point of view, when life was so full of complications like dealing with parents and siblings and chores and school and homework and acne and all that). 1977. Last year of Junior High, first year of High School. It was somewhere around that time. I'd had my first exposure to programming in 7th or 8th grade (can't quite remember ... whenever the first year of TAG was). Loved it. Addicted. Writing programs that did exactly what you told them to do. So unlike things at home.

No control. Over anything. No job, no car, no girlfriend. Sisters, but no brothers (yet). My only consolation was electronics, because I could build circuits that would actually do what I expected them to do (mostly). And computers, with the little bit of programming I'd learned in TAG. BASIC. On a teletype machine, hooked up to a remote mainframe.

If it is true that we spend the majority of our lives trying to return to the days where we felt most in control, that would probably be my year. That was the year I found a little integrated circuit in the parts bin at the local Radio Shack, the little chip that set my world on fire. A microprocessor. The 8080A, one of the first 8-bit microprocessors, the one that started the PC revolution (long before the IBM PC showed up, there was the MITS Altair and the IMSAI 8080). I had to have it. And they were selling it for only $5!! Naturally, I picked it up.

But it took me over a year of poring over the specs to create a board with something that would run anything. That's because it didn't function very well without the 8224 Clock Generator chip (which was not in the parts bin at Radio Shack), unless you know how to create a two-phase clock from scratch (which I didn't). Took a year before I found an 8224 over at Jameco, and then I finally got the silly thing to run a simple program, entered through switches which had been plugged into a proto-board.

Back then, it was way cool to have a computer with 4K of RAM. I had a 1K chip, so I was only kinda cool. Then it was 'vogue' to have 16K. I dreamed of having 16K! What programs I could run then! But I was happy (kind of) to have my little 1K RAM program. Which I had to enter by hand.

A few years later, I got my first Z80A chip, and upgraded my old 2 megahertz 8080A to a screaming 4 Mhz model. With a new 4K memory chip. Wowsers! Life was good. Not quite the IBM 5100 that was sitting in the Science department over at the high school (and which I diligently programmed from 1979 - 1981). Or the Apple II which they had over in the Mathematics department (which I considered a cute little toy). But it was mine, all mine! Ha ha!

Eventually, my friend, Mark, and I purchased a TRS-80 to "share" at college (it bounced between my college and his), and we used it as a terminal to access the mainframes so that we could get our homework done.

The first IBM PCs showed up at college. Then the PC XTs. Then the portable PCs. The pace of change was increasing. The punch cards disappeared. The old remote terminals were replaced by newer, more capable ones. The old PDP-11/780 in the lab was starting to look a mite shabby and underpowered, especially in the graphics department (but our mainframes could still do some amazing things on the RGB screens).

That pace has never ceased, and each year brings a new change, a new advance, a faster CPU or more memory or more buttons or widgets or gimmicks. Indeed, my now-ancient, 3-year-old Dell laptop is a geezer, with its dual 2 gigahertz processors, 8 gigabytes of RAM, 500 gigabytes of hard disk storage, and HDMI video. It's practically a dinosaur!

But it isn't the newest gadgets which thrill my soul; it's the old hardware, the old chips with their simplistic structures, the ones which captured my imagination back when life was so much easier to handle, when it felt like things were more within my grasp, my control. When I would sit in my stuffy little room with the television propped on the old wooden trunk, its back cover missing so that I could see the glow of the tubes against the back wall, watching Saturday Night Live while I played with my little 8080A computer, toggling switches to enter the trivial programs which sent the electrons flowing through the counters and adders and registers and output ports to the little flashing LEDs, telling me that it was doing exactly what I told it to do.

1977. Oh, how I wish sometimes that I could return to those days; or, rather, that those days would return, bringing back that feeling that I actually had some control over something in my life.

Writer's Group & Movie Quads

2011-09-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Sundays are sometimes the busiest days of the week. We were studying that in Sunday School last week, discussing the transition between the Jewish Sabbath days to the Christian Sabbath-Sunday concept during the First Century church era. It used to really confuse me how the Jews got Saturday off, and the Christians were supposed to honor the Sabbath but we always did our yard work on Saturday, and that certainly wasn't a Sabbath. And people used to talk about taking it easy on Sundays, but in the household of a minister/evangelist, Sunday was always the busiest day.

So for some of us, both Saturday and Sunday are very busy days. When do we get a real day off?

Though today wasn't completely relaxing, it was a fun day, mostly due to the fact that I got to spend a few hours with the kids at church in the morning, then a couple hours with Adam at the Writer's Group meeting during the afternoon.

There's just something about being with those young kids - aged 4 years to 4th grade - that fills me with joy. Not sure if it's because I get to teach them Bible stories, lead them in worship songs, play games, or work on artsy projects with them. Or all of the above. Then there's the part where they call me "Mr. Meyer!" when they want to get my attention in the middle of playtime, to tell me about something they've seen or done or wanted. Or when they sit next to me because they just like to be near me. There are so many wonderful kids there, and they all make me feel so special.

Of course, my own kids make me feel special, too, but it's a vastly different kind of feeling from the one I used to get when they were little. They're almost adults now, and our conversations are quite different than they used to be. They don't hug me as much (mostly the boys, but part of that is due to their father's reticence toward making them uncomfortable). I expect more out of them, and that tends to put a strain on the relationship. Then there's the inevitable desire for more independence without the consequent burden of more responsibility.

Teenagers can be so much fun.

Today, actually, Adam and I did have some fun while attending the twice-monthly meeting of a local Writer's Group. He and I have been a part of the group for a few months, sharing our stories with the others and getting lots of good feedback. Today he shared an allegorical story about Babylon and Heaven which was quite good, and I shared a scene from my forthcoming action/mystery story (soon to be submitted to some nameless monthly detective magazine when I get the nerve). And the rest of the group shared stories ranging from fantasy/allegory to repentance.

On the way home, we stopped by Costco to pick up some milk (we seem to be going through it much more quickly now that the children have become teenagers); and while we were there, I found a great quad-pack of sci-fi movies, including 2001: A Space Odyssey; Soylent Green; The Time Machine (1960 version); and Forbidden Planet, all for only $10! Even though we already had the 2-disc version of Forbidden Planet, I couldn't resist it. Especially when Adam reminded me that none of the kids have seen 2001 before. I've been such a bad parent! To deprive them of such a classic sci-fi movie!

Really, though, I much prefer Forbidden Planet. Robbie the Robot is my hero!

But I let them watch the first half hour of 2001, just so we could laugh at the goofy guys in the ape costumes. And the Pan Am shuttle with the 60s-style stewardesses. And the bizarre telephone call from the guy in the space station to his little girl back home.

And I let them watch the trailer for Soylent Green, so I could try to explain to them the significance of having Edward G. Robinson in the movie. It was, after all, his 101st film.

And I let them watch the first hour of The Time Machine, just so they could see the goofy special effects, which were very state-of-the-art for such a low-budget film back in 1960.

Then it got late, so they had to go to bed. And I should do the same.

Band / Back Blowout

2011-09-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the band did well.

Typical Friday night in high school; the football team loses, but the band plays well. Actually, the football team didn't do as bad this year as they did last year; that was a real blowout. The team had more speed this year, which helped when it came time to run long distance to make those touchdowns.

I was down on the field with the band, helping to put up the yard markers and the drum-major stands. We have to get it timed just right so that the band completes their program and gets off the field within 15 minutes, or there's some kind of penalty. I didn't realize this was a rule until I volunteered to help. What kind of bizarre rule is this? How do you penalize a band??

Anyway, we got it down to an almost-science; there were only twenty seconds or so, but we got 'em on the field, through their program, and off the field, in time.

Had a hard time finding James while the band was performing; having a grounds-eye view isn't as easy as the up-in-the-stands view. And, truth be told, they all do look alike in those uniforms. Except for the girls with the long hair. And the midgets.

The temperature has dropped somewhat, too, so the game felt like a real Fall football game, with crisp air and cloudy skies and What do we do if it starts raining? thoughts in our heads. The stands - aluminum, of course - were cold, so it was a good idea to bring blankets and chairs. But it's going to be even colder at the next home game, which is in October. By Halloween, we should be dealing with icy winds and muddy ground. Oh, joy!

Meanwhile, I spent Saturday attending to the last of the warm-weather outside chores, painting the trim on the front of the house. And trying to not lift things. Because I overdid it on Friday night, lifting the drum major stands. After my back was already hurting, too. Well, I never was one for restraint.

Spiderman!!

2011-09-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

The nights are getting colder, and it was about time that the plants and other things which had been sitting on the back deck, got moved off. During the winter, we only use the back deck to store our snow.

So after a very nice dinner and Bible study with the family, the boys and I went out on the back deck and loaded as much of the soil from the planters into plastic buckets. Some of the mixed soil and gravel, which was at the bottom of the planters, we left in the plastic liner because I really didn't want to get the gravel completely mixed in with the soil. (The intent is to have a bottom layer of gravel to help with the drainage.) So all we had to do, was to lift out the liner with the soil/gravel mix, then move the planter boxes and support stands down to the garage. Simple job.

As I was un-stapling the plastic liner from the planter boxes in preparation for the lifting task, I noticed a little spider dangling from the box, but didn't think any thing of it. Figured he'd drop down to the deck and move on. But I was wrong. He actually went back up the web and crawled into the folds of the plastic liner. And he sat there, motionless and invisible, until my big, blundering finger approached to grasp the liner and lift it out of the box.

Ow! What was that?

It felt like a sharp needle had jabbed my hand. In fact, that's what it was - the sharp, needle-like jab of the spider's fangs. My finger immediately started burning. Sudden images of the effects of brown recluse spider bites filled my mind (thanks, Mr. Internet!). Hurriedly, I rushed into the kitchen and ran cold water over it. Mary gave me some baking soda which I rubbed into the wound. After a few moments, the pain stopped. But Cheryl went ahead and made a little bowl of baking soda paste, just in case. And sure enough, half an hour later, my finger started aching again, so I gave it a baking soda paste path.

Meanwhile, we still had to get the planter boxes and soil put away. The boys toted the planter boxes and stands down to the garage, and we took the buckets down as well. We left the liners with their loads of soil up on the deck so they could be spread out and dried in the sun the next day. (It's generally not a good idea to store damp soil & plant detritus inside the garage in a plastic bag or liner. Either the moisture has to be baked out, or it must be left out in the sun to dry. Unless you like mold & mildew...)

The strangest thing about the incident was the fact that this particular finger was jammed a couple weeks ago on the first night I was helping out the Marching Band. We were opening the back of one of the trailers (where the riding lawn mower and the carts for the timpani and xylophones are stored) and I misjudged the weight and momentum of the gate. My finger got caught between the gate and the asphalt, and I felt it go 'sproing'. And it swelled up a little bit, but only on one side.

And that pesky spider managed to bite me right on top of the swollen part of my finger. He couldn't have planned it better if he'd tried - and he probably didn't plan at all. He just responded to the threat of the approaching digit, as any self-respecting spider would do.

It was disappointing to realize that he wasn't radioactive. I haven't gained any Spiderman powers yet. Rats.

Energy Boost

2011-09-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today would've been a really good day to stay home in bed. There was no energy in my body, and it was aching besides, and there were too many things on my agenda today, and the days when there are too many things on my agenda are the days when it is difficult to find my motivation.

First item on the agenda was the meeting with the suppliers - the guys in a Foreign Country who are doing the Software Testing (of which I am in charge) - where they explain why they are behind schedule, and my boss expects me to beat up on them (verbally, psychologically) so that they better understand this Western concept of "deadlines" and "milestones" and "unnecessary stress". Personally, I think their concept is better: it gets done when it gets done. And a rushed job is better than no job at all. I did not enjoy the meeting. I did not enjoy my boss jumping in half-way through to remind me to bring up the fact that they aren't on schedule and are in danger of missing the (artificial) milestone.

Started feeling not-well about that time.

Then there was the volunteer meeting, the one where a bunch of my colleagues who are interested in off-hours training try to put together a schedule of events and speakers so that our fellow engineers can stay up-to-speed on technical issues, company plans, and other things of varying degrees of interest. We usually hold this meeting around lunch time so that it doesn't cost the company any time. Aren't we generous? Only the number of volunteers has been dropping so we're all having to pick up more on our To-Do lists.

Really not feeling well by now.

Went home afterward, thinking I'd grab some lunch (which I'd skipped during the volunteer meeting) before we headed over to the Title Company to sign the paperwork on our refinance loan. Wasn't sure if it was a good idea to eat at this point, but did it anyway. Went over to the Title Company, where we found out the Bank messed up the loan numbers. Again. They weren't supposed to roll up any of the closing costs into the loan, but they did anyway. It was a little better than last time, when they rolled in the entire closing amount. We were wanting to bring max cash to the table in order to reduce the overall loan. When we saw what they messed up, we quickly estimated how much it would impact the monthly savings, and it wasn't enough to make a big deal out of it. But it was annoying. Strike two for that lender. Never again!

I was really ready to nap by this time.

Got home and, instead of heading back to work (because it was only three o'clock in the afternoon), took a bit of a nap. Right up until dinnertime. Woke up groggy when James stuck his head in my bedroom and shouted, "Food!" (He's always very direct when it comes to such important topics.)

It wasn't until later when the girls and I got to church that my energy level suddenly shot through the roof. And I don't think it was the dinner or the marshmallows I passed out during our family Bible study. I really think it being around the kids at church. They are so much fun, they have so much energy; when they smile, all my troubles just disappear and I just want to play tag and climb on the monkey bars and throw the frisbee and run around like a crazy person and do all the other things we end up doing during class. We cleared out the gym of all the extraneous stuff so the middle schoolers could us it during their class, and then I took my kids (4 years to 3rd grade) to our classroom and we studied the story of Adam and Eve, and we made people out of Play-Doh, using different colors for the arms and the legs and the abdomens and the heads, and we talked about how God made us all special, even more special than the animals, because he made us in his image. And the kids smiled and laughed and had a wonderful time. And I forgot all about how awful I'd been feeling beforehand.

Why can't my job give me this kind of energy?

Falling Apart

2011-09-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between an allergic reaction to an external stimulus, and an immunilogical reaction to an internal bacterial or viral stimulus.

About a week ago, there was something in the air which seemed to be playing havoc with my immune system. The reaction was nearly identical to that of a normal allergen: sneezing, drippy nose, headache, difficulty breathing. Naturally, then, the symptoms were attributed to some kind of plant (or animal) detritus which was floating around in the air with the sole purpose of making me - and some of my family - miserable.

But the conditions persisted over time, and then it became obvious that a simple allergen could not explain the reaction completely. Adam took to bed for a time; my own energy had dropped to extremely low levels. And the normal, over-the-counter medicines weren't helping. All they did was make me feel sleepy.

Now, a week later, we all feel a little better, not like those who have survived the onslaught of an air-borne irritant, but rather those who have beaten off an internal invader. The energy levels are still not quite back up to where they were before, but we are slowly gaining ground.

In the meantime, the entire weekend was spent not getting anything done. Except Cheryl, who on Saturday attended the Beth Moore simulcast with a gathering of other ladies from the area. She wasn't feeling at the top of her physical game, but she sure looked good! And she had a great time. As for the rest of us, we struggled to get through the day doing various things here and there, but nothing of great consequence. The plants continued to die off, the garage continued to be cluttered, the basement continued to be ignored (except by those who spent the majority of their time watching Doctor Who on YouTube, or playing video games, or getting some homework done).

I've had a bee in my bonnet lately about getting back to the basics of my profession. My current position is boring me silly (another management position), and some days it feels as though all my technical knowledge is leaking out of my ears. So the old books are pulled out again, the ones about circuits and transistors and microprocessors and software design and building the Linux kernel from scratch, and an attempt is made to stimulate my brain with these seriously out-dated tomes. And for a few moments, it's the Nineties again, and I'm at the cusp of technology, and everything is new and wonderful and exciting, and no one mistakes me for an ancient fossil.

Which happens sometimes at work.

That's the trouble with technical work. If you don't keep up with the latest advances as part of your working career, there is a danger of becoming the "Old Man and the C" who can't program his way out of a paper bag because he's spent too much time poring over spreadsheets and proposals and budgets and other meaningless trivia, trying to manage teams of bright young engineers instead of being one of those bright young engineers as he once was. And there is a definite need for good managers! But there is not enough time in the day - or in a life - to do both, and do them both well.

At least, not in my experience. Maybe I just work for the wrong company. But in this business, it is rare to find someone who can be both Manager and Engineer. A Manager needs to be able to handle the Executives and their ridiculous focus on the bottom line ("make the shareholders happy!"), while an Engineer needs to be able to focus on creating technological miracles out of the latest, hottest tech toys. Most of the time, though, if you keep the shareholders happy, you end up creating junk (that barely works) out of baling wire and duct tape. And if you make the engineers happy by spending lots of time and money on perfecting the product, you have a company that comes to the brink of bankruptcy.

Sometimes it feels like my "career" is falling apart. But I never really wanted a "career". I just wanted to build computers. Only thing is, I should've been doing that thirty years ago, back when it was still relatively simple. Now it's much too complicated. You don't see any people making them out in their garages anymore. Now it takes teams of people, and lots of money. And good management. And people who are driven by the vision of a great product, not the vision of a big paycheck (or bonus).

Right now, I'm driven by the vision of actually being able to get up in the morning and walk around without feeling any pain.

At some point in the past week, while getting or recovering from this illness (whateve it is), my lower back muscles got pulled. They've been aching something awful. Makes it difficult to lean over, pick things up, sit comfortably, pick up small children during Bible school. And my shoulder aches, too, but I'm not sure why. Old tennis injury, probably. Can't throw a ball overhand without feeling my shoulder screaming. And my finger got jammed a week ago, helping the Marching Band get their instruments out of the trailers.

It could be that my warranty is running out. Guess I should check the paperwork. Or get down to the doctor's for a check-up. See how the old machinery is working these days. Had a stress test two or three years back, and it went very well. But things don't feel as good now as they did back then. This summer, I was having difficulty making a quarter-mile run, wheezing like an old cow. And I thought I was in pretty good shape, after making it up Nevada Falls in Yosemite a couple years go. But it's hard to keep on top of that stuff when you sit in a cubicle all day.

Which is probably a good enough reason to go out at lunchtime today and take a long walk.

First Day of School (Again)

2011-09-06T19:49:00.001-07:00

Summery

2011-09-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

One more day of summer, and then it's all over. The kids are kind of excited. They miss their friends, the classes, the new information, the schedules and activities. I'm depressed. There was so much that needed to get done this summer, and we didn't get around to any of it.

There are just too many things around here that need to get done, and it's too much to juggle. I haven't had time to do anything with the blog, as you probably noticed. Do you miss it? It's hard to tell on a blog like this that gets maybe five or six readers, if I'm lucky. Sometimes it just doesn't feel like it's worth the trouble.

There are so many other things that are screaming for attention. Family, job, house. Priorities. Some days there are simply too many things to juggle in my head, and it brings me to a grinding halt. Other days, the allergies kick in, and the meds make my head all fuzzy, and I can't even think straight enough to handle a simple conversation, let alone several house projects.

We got the garden going, but it didn't last as long as we had hoped. The peppers and watermelon never produced anything at all. Got some broccoli, cucumbers and tomatoes (besides the herbs and spices), but that's about it.

Started learning about wheels and engines, but that kind of fell by the wayside when things got busy near the middle of July.

Did some electronics stuff, but again, it got side-tracked by general busy-ness.

We were pretty good about doing the exercise every morning. Some mornings were easier than others. But we got up on time, went for walks, lifted weights, ran, rode bikes, played soccer and tennis, and kind of kept in shape. Mostly.

The kids finished their summer homework.

But there was so much more to do, and it irks me that there were so many things that didn't get done. Mostly things on my list. And I wasn't working a lot of overtime, so work isn't to blame.

Now school is almost here, and we'll be back to having activities scheduled nearly every night, and then before you know it, winter will set in, and we'll be sitting in the house surrounded by snow again.

Oh, joy.

A Relaxing Weekend

2011-08-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

No matter how much sleep I get, I wake up exhausted. Six a.m. and it doesn't feel like I've slept a wink. And when ten o'clock in the evening rolls around, I'm exhausted. It's beginning to feel like there is absolutely on iron whatsoever in my bloodstream, even though I'm eating my spinach like a good boy.

With Vacation Bible School a happy memory, there was hope for an easy, relaxing, restful weekend. Alas and alack! 'Twas not to be. Spent all day Saturday working on a car, and all afternoon Sunday putting my garage back in some semblance of order.

Funny how relaxing it can be to tear down an engine and put it back together again, my hands black with grease and oil and everything in between. No, really. It's like playing with big-boy Legos. It would be even more fun if the engine worked after all that labor, but you can't have everything.

Actually, part of Saturday was spent throwing together a quick table using a 4'x 4' base that was intended for our backyard shed. Attached a few stray 2x4's for legs, and suddenly there was a nice little table in the middle of the garage, perfect for laying out all the engine parts.

Decided to take advantage of the opportunity by teaching the kids a thing or two about engines. "This is the main block; on top of this, we attach the head. Then the exhaust manifold. Then the intake manifold. And finally, the carbureter. Simple, huh?"

Well, it is kinda simple when you look at it as functional blocks. The only part of the demonstration that didn't impress anyone (except Mary) was the dirt and grime and oil and grease that gets all over your arms and clothes when working on engines. My kids never were into playing with mud pies.

We spent all day tearing apart the engine that was sitting in the car, using the extra one on the table as a guide for knowing how it goes together. Finally got the manifolds pulled away so we could see the side of the block, hoping to figure out why the silly thing was spraying radiator fluid when it was running, but didn't see anything obvious. Took the valve cover off and there were puddles of water mixed with oil all over the place. 'Bout that time, we decided to call it a day.

Next day, Sunday, we pulled the Toyota back out of the garage and put everything away ("A place for everything and everything in its place!") so we could get the other cars back in. It's been raining, you know. And I really don't like leaving my cars out in the rain when there's a perfectly good, dry garage to put them in.

Wish I had more time to work on it. I'd really like to see that Toyota running again. It was a great car.

HP 7 P 2 - Mary's Review

2011-07-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

I found some things missing or wrong in the movie.

- In the book Harry learns of Teddy Lupin at Shell Cottage, and becomes
Teddy's godfather. None of this is mentioned in the movie.

- Harry talks a bit more to Mr. Olivander about wands.

- Harry uses the Imperius curse on two people.

- Griphook does not try to lock them in the vault.

- In Gringotts, Hermione presents Bellatrix's wand as a new one.

- Shell Cottage also had a Fidelius Charm laid upon it.

- At the castle, Harry has to go to Ravenclaw tower to see the diadem.
In the tower he meets one of the Carrows, and McGonagall is supposed
to come to the rescue. Snape confronts her, and THEN he jumps out of
a window.

- When Harry goes to die, he tells Neville to kill the snake.

- Harry sees Ginny comforting another student as he walks out under the
invisibility cloak.

- Harry witnesses Fred's death.

- Percy cries over Fred's body.

- Ginny is also hidden in the Room of Requirement.

- When Harry is 'dead', he talks quite a bit more to Dumbledore. During
their conversation, we learn more about Dumbledore's mysterious past.

- When Harry is carried back, he is laid at Voldemort's feet, and
Voldemort monologues quite a bit.

- Voldemort's silencing charms don't work because of Harry's sacrifice.

- Neville has the sorting hat forced on his head and then it is set on
fire, so when he thrusts it off, he pulls the Sword of Godric
Griffindor out of the hat and chops off Nagini's head in one fluid
movement.

- A lot of important dialogue is cut out, including the very important
final conversation between Harry and Voldemort, and the final battle
between Death Eaters and Hogwart students.

- Grawp is supposed to attack the other giants.

- There was no 'giant bubble' protecting Hogwarts

- Snape's memories were much more complex.

This is a lot of differences, but actually there are a lot more. However, I'm sure you're getting tired of me droning on and on, so let me just say, READ THE BOOK BEFORE YOU WATCH THE MOVIES!!!!!! :) Anyway, they also get some stuff right, but I think if you read the book, I won't have to waste paper and you can just READ THE BOOK ALREADY! DON'T GET LAZY AND READ IT!!!!!!! All the books are excellent, so I just want to say, if you read the books, you will cry at the end of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It really touched me.

So, sorry I didn't give you all the details, but if you read the book for yourselves, you won't need me to tell you what's wrong. Ciao!

Mary

HP 7 P 2 - Deb's Review

2011-07-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

There are several things that are missing or incorrect in the final episode of the Harry Potter movie series. First, the movie did not show that Percy came back after leaving the family and fought with them; second, the movie showed that Ginny was the only Hogwarts student to protest when Harry was 'dead'; third, the movie did not even show that Harry asks if Voldemort ever has any remorse for what he's done.

In the book, after the Room of Requirement scene, Fred and Percy are fighting the Death Eaters, Thicknesse (the minister of magic) and someone else when Percy jokes about resigning from the ministry. Fred is shocked that he actually made a joke. Smiling at the joke is last thing he does, because immediately afterward, something explodes the wall. Harry recovers and we find Ron and Percy weeping over dead Fred, still smiling, so Harry saw Fred die, not just his dead body as in the movie.

In the book, Ginny was not the only one to protest the 'death' of Harry; Neville did, too. When Voldemort asks the assembled students to join his army. Neville answers, “When hell freezes over!” and shouts, “Dumbledore's Army!”

In the book, during the final duel between Harry and Voldemort, Harry tells him that he can still save himself if he will only show some remorse. The movie doesn't even mention the word; it appears that Voldemort is killed merely because he loses the battle with Harry.

One last thing: In the book, Harry uses the Elder Wand to fix his Phoenix-feather wand and then replaces the Elder Wand in the tomb with Dumbledore's body; in the movie, he snaps the Elder Wand in half and throws it off a bridge like in the movie.

So you see? The movie wasn't very accurate, but if you don't really care, it was a great film. For the book fans however, it will always be a kind of disappointment. Anyway, the book usually is better, right? So go read the series and most importantly, read the Deathly Hallows. I missed some stuff, but you'll find it.

By: Deb Meyer

edited for content

HP 7 P 2 - Adam's Review

2011-07-17T17:58:00.001-07:00

First, from our Guest Reviewer, Adam.

Overall, this was an excellent movie. Most of the action scenes were well done, and the whole thing is certainly worth watching at least once. Seeing the stone knights battling Death Eaters and giants was amazing, as was McGonagall's fiery duel with Snape. The only action that lacked something was the duel between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix LaStrange, which consisted of about ten seconds of wand waving and special effects, and ended just as it was getting good. (However, at least they included the most epic line of the book, “not my daughter, you b****!”) Perhaps unexpectedly for such a serious action movie, the humor sprinkled throughout was also well done.

If you judge the movies based on how closely they followed the book, it did rather well. It must be admitted, however, that a few scenes, and very many conversations, were cut. Particular among these were the ones referring to Dumbledore's early life, and his friendship with Grindelwald.

It was not the departures from the book that irked me, however. There were four aspects of the movie that pulled it down from “great and amazing” to just “good”.

First, the entire story seemed to be entirely about the Elder Wand, the first of the Deathly Hallows. In fact, the movie should have been called “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow Part 2”. In virtually every scene, I mentally shouted for the Invisibility Cloak, but it was mentioned very little, and used only once (when they entered Gringotts).

At least the Resurrection Stone got its own scene, although it should have gotten more time than it did. Wasn't the point of the Hallows to contrast the fearful power of the Elder Wand with the quiet humility of the Invisibility Cloak? Yet we saw much of the former, and none of the latter.

Additionally, the final scenes between Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville against Nagini and Voldemort contained too much action, action which should have been in the main battle for Hogwarts. The biggest disappointment here was when Neville pulled out the Sword of Gryffindor and then was suddenly (and anticlimactically) thrown backwards by Voldemort into the ruins of the school. It took another ten minutes of Nagini chasing Harry and Ron and Hermione before Neville finally got to cut off her head. The book had a much more epic conclusion for the snake.

Harry's speech to Voldemort was the climax of the book. The entires book series culminated in that one scene. But not in the movie. Instead, Voldemort chases Harry to the astronomy tower, then the pair of them run (or fly) around Hogwarts, fighting and merging (which was really interesting to see, until I remembered that it shouldn't have been happening, since the horcrux in Harry had been killed, and Harry's link to him had been severed), then finally they return to the courtyard where they attempt the priori incantatem line again, which is only supposed to happen between shared-core wands (but seems to happen in every major duel in the movie series. Oh well.) The priori incantatem line is not the main issue; the problem is that the entire point of the duel is lost. Harry triumphs over Voldemort not because he is more skilled in dueling - which is what the movie seems to be trying to emphasize - but because he can love, and Voldemort cannot.

This fundamental shift results in a loss of emphasis on the intangibles. The duel between Harry and Voldemort was just one place where the emphasis was lost. Another occurred in the King's Cross Station “Dream”, where instead of talking about how Harry has become “Master of Death” and how love conquers all, there is instead a mere re-coining of a phrase from The Chamber of Secrets episode: “Help at Hogwarts will always be given to those who deserve it.” What on earth is that supposed to mean? How is it even relevant? The only possible connection is when Neville pulls the sword out of the hat. But that has nothing to do with Harry’s journey; that only deals with the destruction of the final horcrux.
The final issue is a personal one. If the epilogue for the book was bad - and I'm not convinced it is - then the epilogue in the movie was worse. It was well done, but none of the characters looked a day older than they had in any other portion of the film (except perhaps Ginny) although the scene was supposed to take place nineteen years after the final battle. This made the whole scene awkward. However, as I said, this is just personal.

I would definitely recommend this movie, but more for the fact that it is the last in the Harry Potter series than because of its substance. At its worst, it is a mediocre visual representation of a fantastic novel. At its best, it is just a fun action flick.

Score: 7.5/10

HP 7 P 2

2011-07-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

The plan is to go see Harry Potter 7 part 2 today. Review to come ...

Fruits of our Labors

2011-07-15T17:31:00.001-07:00

Well, they're not quite ready to harvest yet, but there are definitely fruits on the vines!

Fried Finger 3

2011-07-15T17:18:00.001-07:00

It's really starting to look much better, but it's taken on a very strange "twist". There's a bit of a valley in the middle of the wound, and it's filled up with dried blood or raw skin or something - I'm really not sure what - so that it looks kinda weird.

Whaddya think?

Yeah, yeah, it's gross. But it's still cool!

Fried Finger 2

2011-07-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

WARNING - PICTURES OF INFINITE GROSSNESS - NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

Some of us are just fascinated by the design of our bodies, the way they are built to repair themselves. Even when the original wound is gross and disgusting, there's something infinitely wonderful about watching the living body heal itself.

(Yes, I said design. I'm an engineer, fascinated by the work of The Engineer.)

It's been a few days now, and the finger has been covered with a Band-Aid for most of the time. I'm curious to see what it looks like now that the blister has popped and the repair work is underway.

Shall we take a look?

Of course!

Cool, huh? I find that endlessly fascinating, especially since (apparently) the nerve endings are starting to work again and I can feel the skin starting to pull back together; and even though it hurts, the fact that it will soon be back in one piece makes me feel great about it - about the Designer who put it all together.

Now if He could just do something about all those aching bones and drippy sinuses...

2011 Family Reunion in Indiana

2011-07-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

It was a whirlwind trip this time, owing to the fact that we had to be back in GR by Saturday night in order to be in church on Sunday morning so I could teach my Sunday School class.

James got home from his beach trip right on schedule, so after he'd spent an hour or so on the road already, we tossed him into the van and made him spend another five hours on the road getting down to Bloomington. His discomfort was probably mitigated by the fact that his girlfriend, Bayli, came down on the trip with us. She handled it all very well, considering all the crazy relatives she met. But then they weren't quite as crazy as they have been in the past. In fact, there weren't quite as many as there has been in the past, which may explain why the whole event was rather quiet, subdued.

So far as I was concerned, it was a fantastic reunion because my brother, Craig, was there, and my sister, Judy, was there, and my folks were there, and we got to go hiking together (except Mom, who was busy catching up on family stories). And the cousins - my kids and Judy's kids - got to go swimming in the pool. And we got to have our traditional home-made ice cream.

Still, it was far too quick of a visit, and it just made me yearn for more time with everyone. We're probably going to need to have a family reunion down in Texas pretty soon so all the Meyer clan can get together. And we'll have to drop in on the crazy cousins in Huntsville on the way down. Maybe even get out to San Antonio to visit some more with cousin Dale.

But we're rapidly running out of summer, and we had already run out of money, so we're gonna hafta lay low for a while and see what happens next around here first.

Whiny the Pooh and the Blistery Finger

2011-07-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

I can't say that this has been a particularly painful interlude, this blistered finger. That seems to be the nature of things when the nerves beneath the skin have been so utterly destroyed or crippled that they can no longer convey the appropriate level of damage to the central nervous system. So while the wound looked painful, in reality it felt like nothing at all.

Like any toy balloon, of course, it does not handle stress well. Too much touching, poking, prodding, scraping, rubbing or tapping will cause it to break; and a break will lead to leaking; and leaking leads to the inevitable infusion of harmful bacteria; and harmful bacteria move into the interior of the continent and get the natives all upset.

So on the third day of the recovery period, it begins to deflate. And to ache. So a generous amount of anti-bacterial lotion is applied, and a Band-Aid is wrapped around it to hold the precious liquid in place, and we begin the Discomfort Phase.

We went to the pool yesterday. I was a bit hesitant to bring along my wounded finger, but had no place else in which to leave it, so it was foced to come. The Band-Aid, alas, could not resist the siren call of the chlorinated water, and quickly fell away, leaving the poor finger bereft of protection, alone and un-aided. But the chlorine probably cleaned it out nicely, killing off any bacteria which survived the antibaterial lotion's onslaught.

Now the aching begins in earnest. The tender skin beneath the flapping blister's tent sends tendrilistic nerve shoots up to the surface, seeking to re-establish contact with the Outer World; sadly, the Outer World has naught but pain and infection to offer. Yet the growth continues, and eventually a new layer of skin will replace that which has been lost, and the nerve endings will be covered once again, and peace and prosperity will reign in the Universe again.

Until the next time hot solder drips on my fingers.

(In)Fertile Ground

2011-07-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

When we first set up the gardening boxes and filled them with good soil, I foolishly assumed that this good soil was chock-full of nutrients and supplements to make growth a surety.

But I was wrong.

We tested the soil today using our handy-dandy Premium Soil Tester (only $14 from the local hardware store) and discovered, much to our dismay, that while our pH is perfectly balanced, the level of nutrients (potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorous) is appallingly low.

So "good soil" apparently means "will not harm plants", not "will make plants grow at a phenomonal rate".

Now we must research the appropriate levels of fertilizer to add so that the plants are happy. Or at least growing.

Fried Finger

2011-07-05T21:14:00.001-07:00

WARNING -- GRAPHIC CONTENT -- MAY CAUSE TUMMY UPSET

This is what happens when one is stupid enough to attempt a plumbing repair from underneath a floor joist, when the pipe on which one is working, is directly over one's hand. You know, the hand which is holding on to the propane torch. And one must continue to hold on to the propane torch even when a piece of very hot solder has dropped from the pipe onto the finger and is burning a hole it. One is not allowed to yelp! and then drop the torch, because that would be a bad thing. Neither is one allowed to yelp! and rotate the torch in order to immediately extricate the solder from one's hand.
No, one is supposed to carefully place the propane torch on the floor before attempting any removal of said solder. Which, by that time, has burned some serious skin.

Ouch!

The worst part is, the stupid pipe is still leaking. Just a pin-hole, but that's enough to keep me from declaring victory just yet.

Broken Things

2011-07-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

I was at the library the other day and found it in the "Used - For Sale" section for only two dollars. I thought it was a real steal - two dollars for a copy of the dual-disk, wide screen version of Gladiator! And it was a great deal. And it worked great the first time when I put it into my laptop and watched it all the way through one night. But apparently it was only good enough to work the first time.

We were going to watch it today as part of our relaxing Sunday afternoon, so I took the DVD out of the box where it had been resting quietly since the last time I played it in my laptop, and placed it carefully in the DVD player.

"Read" "Read" "Read" went the display.

And then ...

"Unsupported".

Huh?

That didn't make any sense. I know the DVD was working. So I tried resetting it a couple times, but the same thing happened. Then to check my own sanity, I pulled it out of the DVD player and placed it carefully in the laptop (my Linux laptop). But the default Movie Player application didn't pop up. Odd. I checked the System menu, which normally lists all the available drives. And it wasn't listing the DVD. Odder still. I started my alternate DVD player application (VLC) and it actually started to play the intro on the disk ... but then stalled out when I tried to get it to play the actual movie.

Just for fun, I took it out of the Linux laptop and placed it (carefully) in the Windows laptop. And started the tried-and-true DVD player application, whose name escapes me at the moment. And it worked! It actually kicked up the main menu and we were able to start up the movie.

The only problem with the Windows laptop is the built-in security timer that throws the computer into lock mode if you don't touch the keyboard or mouse for five or six minutes. So we were supposed to tap the Shift key every so often just to keep that from happening. But we still managed to get locked out twice. The first time, I was able to log in and get it going again. But the second time, it wouldn't restart. The disk refused to be read. I spent nearly an hour trying various things to get it to restart. Arg!

Out of sheer frustration, I took a good, close look at the disk itself and discovered two things.

First, the inner ring is cracked. Badly. Not sure if that is an issue or not.

Second, the disk is discolored around the inner ring, which seems to indicate that the inner foil has become detached from the plastic and is probably mangled. I pressed on it with my fingers and almost got it back to the original color, but that didn't help it inside the DVD player. It still won't play.

The kids were disappointed that they couldn't finish it. They were almost done. Now we'll have to go find another copy somewhere. It's definitely one of those movies we'll watch over and over again. (I've already seen it at least half a dozen times.)

But the day wasn't over yet. There was more failure to come!

As if our trouble with the DVD wasn't enough, Deb's flash drive - the one on which she keeps all her stories and notes - apparently stopped working today. No reason, just stopped working. When it's plugged into the computer, the little LED inside doesn't light, and the computer doesn't recognize anything plugged in.

I took it apart to see if there was anything obvious wrong with it - broken wires, loose components, anything like that. But the only thing I found was an input pin which was supposed to have a resistor soldered onto it, but it appeared that no resistor had ever been placed there. So that didn't make any sense.

Luckily, we were able to find all her stories on various other computers, and I let her use my flash drive.

But this is just weirdly coincidental, having two things go bad on the same day. Especially when they were working fine yesterday.

If it weren't for the fact that all our troubles are so trivial, I might start thinking that we were being tortured by leprechauns.

Weird Al Rules!

2011-06-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

I didn't find out until today, but Weird Al's latest album, Alpocalypse, was available for streaming as of June 14th! My birthday! What a cool present! And he doesn't even know me!

If you'd like to take a listen to the album, just click HERE.

I really enjoyed it. Of course, the videos I've seen on his website are wonderful, too. So far, I've seen the one for "Perform This Way", "CNR", "Skipper Dan", and "Craigslist". I think I'll spend the rest of the evening watching them again...

My Mom is Having a Birthday Today!

2011-06-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

When we woke up early in the morning on the California trip, my mom was ready to go walking. She had her sweatshirt and her shoes and her smile on, and no matter how far we ended up going, she never complained. That's the kind of person she is. When it's time to spend time with people, doing things that other people want to do, Mom is there with a good attitude and lots of stories to tell, to keep us going.

I've always admired my mom's ability to tell interesting stories. Having spent some time in Indiana with her family, it isn't hard to figure out where it comes from - they're an entire family of good storytellers. And it's nice to listen to stories while getting one's exercise. Makes the miles fly by.

My mom is an amazing person. She puts up with quite a lot, accepting the little twists and turns that happen in life, and she just keeps on going, kind of like the Energizer Bunny. Maybe it's all those years as a nurse, sitting beside people who were dealing with a lot of anxiety and uncertainty, practicing the art of calming them down, tending to both their physical and emotional needs. She has a wonderful capacity to stay calm herself when things are getting a bit out of control; this inner strength must have served her well when attempting to raise six children!

Mom, I hope you have a wonderful birthday, and I also hope to see you soon again, to sit and listen to your wonderful stories, to walk beside you on the trails through the park, to hear your laughter again, and to give you a great, big hug and tell you how much you mean to me.

But don't worry about saving me any cake or ice cream. I probably should just walk a little further instead.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

To my Father on Father's Day

2011-06-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

There are two strong images of my father which have been imprinted on my brain since childhood: a man sitting at a desk surrounded by books and studying his Bible; and a man standing in a pile of sawdust with a piece of wood in his hand. In one image, the man is engaged in learning more so that he can be more like his Father; and in the other, a man is using the knowledge and wisdom which he has learned through years of practice to create something that is both useful and beautiful.

That is my father, in essence. A man after God's own heart, who uses the skills and talents he has been given to serve and save others.

When I think of my father, I think of the Bible. The two are inseparable. My grandmother told me many times that Dad always wanted to be a preacher, and that may be true; but what I witnessed throughout my life was much deeper than that. Dad wants to bring the Good News to people, and he does it from a pulpit or from a kitchen chair or from whatever circumstance he happens to be in. He cares for people, he cares for their hearts and he cares for their souls. He has accepted the mission given him by God and works tirelessly to accomplish as much as is possible in this life. He has truly taken into his own heart the passage in the letter to the Hebrews which states:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Dad has endured, and he continues to run the race. It is probably no coincidence that, along with preaching and teaching and ministering to others, he has always enjoyed physical running as well. It is a marvelous earthly symbol of his own spiritual journey, a constant, steady, determined exercise of his desire to persevere throughout the trials which come.

My father's reputation proceeds him wherever he goes. He exudes honesty and integrity and devotion to God, and this aura is recognized by others. In gatherings both public and private, he is often called upon to pray or to speak words of comfort and hope from the Scriptures. In this he is the living embodiment of the words spoken by Jesus in the sixth chapter of Luke:

"Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."

My father is a good man, a righteous man, whose fruits give evidence of his commitment to the Lord. He is surrounded by people who benefit from his work, who rejoice in knowing him, in being served by him, in learning about the Creator of the Universe from him. His heart is full of love for this lost world, and he expresses this love not only in the words which come out of his mouth, but also in the works which come out of his hands. And as he recognizes that his skills are a gift from God, he creates those fantastic works of wood not out of a desire for gain, but out of a desire to enrich the lives of others and so bring glory and honor to his Lord.

As any son does, I desire to be like my father, and there are times when I find myself doing things that were obviously inspired by the example he set forth. And these things are those acts of service which bring joy or pleasure or comfort to others, for that is his example. And it bring me great joy to think of my father every time I do them, because I want the beneficiaries of those acts to know that I learned them by spending time with my father, being taught by both observation and by training to do what is right and honorable and noble and sacrificial, but above all, showing love to others.

If there is any prayer I would have for my father on this day which we set aside to honor fathers, it would be that he is granted many more years to work and serve upon this earth, with strength of body and strength of mind, with good health and keen mind, to continue the good work which he has started, so that he may, as Paul said,

"... finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace." {Acts 20:24}

God bless you, Dad!

End of School, Summer Gardening Begins

2011-06-11T19:33:00.001-07:00

The end of the school year took me by surprise this year. I just wasn't ready for it. How can it be June already? What are all those green plants doing outside? Where did all the snow go to?

We were kind of overwhelmed by all the activities going on at the end of the school year. The kids had last-minute field trips and parties and tests and exams and that kind of thing; there were also projects and essays and reports and art that had to be completed. And the inevitable music programs, concerts, etc. This time of year is always a bit of a blur.

And then the last day of school came along, and there was absolutely nothing going on. I mean, nothing going on insofar as academics are concerned. There were parties and farewells and movies and more parties, but once the exams are over, what's the point of going to school?

James had a half-day of school and went off with his girlfriend to the the lakeshore. And he actually remembered to use sunscreen, so we didn't get a chance to make fun of his lobster-colored skin. Because he didn't get any. What fun is that?

Deb and Mary went to see Kung Fu Panda II and went bowling and went swimming, all under the guise of a school field trip. What kind of school field trip is that? Where's the educational content? Where's the test to ensure that they come away with some kind of advance in their knowledge base?

And Adam - ! He invited a group of friends over to play games. Not fun games, like cards and dominoes and chess and checkers. No, they played Portal and Civilization and other bizarre computer video games. And watched weird YouTube vidoes. And ate tons of snacks. And drank tons of soda. And, oddly enough, they seemed to enjoy themselves! They were laughing like hyenas down there.

[It must be noted that they also went outside and played Frisbee, which is a normal kind of game, but they did it when the grass was very wet and it looked like it might rain, so that sort of counts like weirdness, so it really fit in with the day.]

We had teased the kids about starting their summer schedule on Saturday instead of Monday, knowing that it really wasn't practical because Adam had to go to the high school at eight in the morning to take the ACT, but Mary was all gung-ho about it, so I got up early with her and we went on our walk around the neighborhood, then took Adam to school, then dropped by Krispy Kreme to use up some of our fundraising coupons (2 for 1) and got two boxes of donuts to celebrate the beginning of the 'summer vacation'.

The kids are still a bit uncertain about our plans to enforce the "early to bed, early to rise" schedule this summer, especially those who have a difficult time getting up in the morning. But Mary is all ready to go. Then again, she has not trouble getting up at six in the morning (or earlier). She obviously inherited some of Grandpa Meyer's genes!

We're really hoping to get the kids to become a little more self-sufficient this summer, teaching them a few things they might not otherwise learn. And part of the whole experience is limiting the amount of energy we use in the form of electricity. So we'll be putting everyone to bed promptly when the sun goes down, and getting everyone out of bed when the sun comes up. It's going to be very difficult, and we're going to get a lot or resistance in the beginning (from everyone but Mary), but we'll deal with it.

Another item on our Summer School Experience goals list is teaching the kids about gardening. We're starting small this year with a vegetable garden, with only a couple plants per child, but the kids are going to be responsible for taking care of them. And the goal is to harvest our vegetables in the fall.

I really, really, really didn't want to dig up the yard to put a garden in, though, so decided instead to build a raised garden. Only my idea of a raised garden doesn't quite the same as Cheryl's. She was thinking of 2x8 boards enclosing a garden which sits on the ground. My idea was 2x8 boards enclosing a box which sits above the ground.

We 'discussed' it at some length, but eventually we decided (ahem) that I could do things my way. This year. Next year's design will depend on this year's results.

I went to the hardware store and got the materials after doing a bit of yard work this morning, helping out with some weed-eating and trimming the spruce trees in the back yard whose branches were lying too low to the ground. Probably shouldn't have waited, but we'd gotten everyone involved (except Adam, who as you'll remember was taking the ACT) and it was simply too much fun being with the family, doing something all together. But eventually I got there and found all the things I needed: garden soil, pebbles, bark, 2x8s, 2x4 plywood, 4x4 posts, black plastic. Then went home and started putting it all together.

Built 2x4 boxes out of the plywood and 2x8s. Built the stands out of 4x4 posts and leftover 2x8 pieces for bracing. Lined it with black plastic. Dumped the pebbles in the bottom for drainage, then covered with 6 inches of garden soil.

There's really nothing like the feeling of running your hands through good soil. The soil came in bags which had been stacked, so it was very compacted and needed to be loosened up. After pouring it out into the boxes, I broke it up first with my hands - oh! the joy of black soil between the fingers! - but then switched to the little garden rake to help spread it out evently.

While I was working on the boxes, Cheryl took the kids to the gardening center to pick out their plants. They found some interesting ones: cucumbers (Deb's favorite), tomatoes, broccoli, watermelon, basil, and cilantro. Supposedly, each child gets two plants to raise, plus there are some extra ones in case something happens, like an attack of squirrels or birds or deer. We're hoping that these plants will start producing by mid-to-late August so we can have them all harvested before school starts again in September, but since it's our first time doing this, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

We were originally planning on putting the garden boxes on the hillside behind the garage, but after taking another look, it occurred to me that it wasn't quite the primes spot I had thought, mainly due to the fact that one of the spruce trees was standing between the spot I'd picked, and the sunlight. Not a big blocker, but enough that it would probably hamper the growth of the plants that need a lot of direct sunlight. This is also one of the chief reasons I wanted to put the garden up on posts, so that it could be moved relatively easily. For the purposes of having the kids transplant their vegetables into the garden boxes, and to capture some of the evening sunlight, we put the garden boxes on the back deck.

Cheryl used duct tape to mark off the 'zones' for each plant. Each box has eight 'zones', and each zone has only one plant in it, so we can hold up to sixteen plants - up to four for each child. That should cover us in case of natural disaster. We hope. Meanwhile, the kids will learn about each type of plant they chose, and how best to take care of it.

It's starting to be an interesting summer already.

Behold the New Solar Clothes Dryer!

2011-05-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoons are typically a good time to catch up on house projects which were not successfully completed on Saturday. Or take a nap. Whichever comes first.

I tried, really tried, to get a nap this afternoon, but there were just too many interruptions. Kids running around, telephones ringing, cats meowing in my face. I finally gave up and went downstairs and into the garage to finish the project we'd started so long ago. The Solar Clothes Dryer.

It really wasn't that difficult, simply a matter of taking the 2x4 and mounting it to the back of the house. I'd already put the mounting bolts in place, the bolts that hold the actual spring-loaded dryer line case onto the 2x4, so all that was necessary, was putting a bizillion screws through the board into the house. I hope they actually got hold of some wood or something inside the house. I'd hate for it to pull off the wall the first time we load down the lines with a ton of wet jeans.

After the 2x4 was mounted, then the dryer case goes on. Simple.

The dryer case contains five lines on a spring-loaded roller. They're attached to a metal bar which pulls out and is then attached to the pole at the other end.

There's a metal bracket on the roller bar which attaches to another bracket mounted on the pole. It's a simple operation to pull the bar up and onto the bracket, and voila! the clothes dryer is up and ready to load.

Naturally, it was all ready to go, and a storm started rolling in.

Friday Night

Oh, but you had asked about Friday night.

Well, we'd promised Adam that we'd have a game night, so we were planning on doing some card games around the table, but it ended up being just the kids playing euchre because, frankly, I just don't get that game. It's too complicated for my feeble brain. So we (the parents) contented ourselves with just watching the kids play. Then after they'd played a couple rounds, the girls got bored and decided to move on to something else.

Leaving me and the boys. And we were going to play Settlers of Catan. (Note that we had an extra boy, James's best friend, who was spending the night, so there were enough players.)

Interestingly enough, even though we had a good game and actually completed it, the boys seemed to have a few ... distractions. Guitars. Adam and James. I couldn't tell if they were trying to play with each other, or against each other. If it was supposed to be some kind of harmony thing, they need more work.

James got hold of some tune and just wailed on it. It was interesting to watch him play his old 3/4 Martin instead of the electric, or his bass. It used to fit him like a glove, and now that he's much bigger, it looks almost like a ukelele in his hands.

Adam was playing Cheryl's old classical guitar, the one I used to play at her house when we were dating. That brought back a lot of memories! And he's worked out some pretty cool tunes. He likes to pick out melodies from Queen, Led Zeppelin, etc.

At one point, he must've hit a really cool chord. The look on his face was amazing!

All Scream (at Ron) for Ice Cream!

2011-05-17T10:56:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Ron for "spilling the beans" about someone's birthday, the very nice folks at Wimpy's treated us to ice cream! And we were really in a kind of a hurry, not wanting to be late to the memorial, but, hey, what can you do? When life hands you ice cream, you eat it! And then ... DRIVE LIKE CRAZY!!

(Not really. Dad was driving, not me. So we got there safe and sound. And on time.)

Mother's Day Activities

2011-05-10T10:43:00.001-07:00

What do you get the Mom who has everything?

Landscaping bark, of course.

So first thing Saturday morning, I rushed over to the landscaping place and purchased three yards of cedar bark (my favorite!), which was to be delivered in the early afternoon. While waiting for the delivery, we put together the wheelbarrow, which had been taken apart at the end of last summer (so it could be stored up in the loft).

There was a bit of a problem with the wheelbarrow. I couldn't find one of the bolts that hold the legs on! So I had to be a little creative, modifying another bolt to fit. That was fun.

There was also a bit of a problem with the tire. Last year, I had noticed that the tire was leaking, so I purchased a self-sealing replacement tube and installed it. It has some goopy green stuff in it that supposedly seals up a hole should one occur. When I pumped it up, it started spraying goopy green stuff all over the place. And not in just one little spot, either. Nope, it turns out an entire seam was cracked and leaking! Kinda hard to self-seal an entire seam (although it was trying valiantly), so I pulled the new tube out and put the old one back in. At least the old one was only a slow leak.

Or so I thought.

Actually, I must've damaged it further while removing it from the wheel, because it was leaking faster than before, and, as a result, the tire would stay up for only about ten minutes before going flat.

Just about the time we (finally!) got the wheelbarrow back together, the landscaping company dropped off the three yards of bark - before noon! That was way ahead of schedule. So we spent the next few hours shovelling the bark into the wheelbarrow and rolling it over to the garden area and raking it out over the plants.

And pumping up the tire every ten minutes.

But we finally got the job done, and now the front yard looks great!

Ah! But we weren't done with our day of activities yet; there was more fun to come.

See, Cheryl wants to save money on our electric bill this summer, so she purchased an outdoor "solar" clothes dryer, one with five pull-out lines which are coiled up inside a metal box; the five lines are attached to this bar thing which is pulled out and stretched from the metal box to a metal post some distance away from the place where the metal box is attached to the house or the deck. It actually came with the post, but we have to provide the house/deck.

The post has to be mounted in concrete. The concrete (in which the pole would be set) had already been purchased, back when Grandma and Grandpa Green were here. The hole had already been dug (mostly), although it still needed a bit more depth. So now it was time to finish digging the hole, set the pole in place, and pour the concrete mix.

James "volunteered" to help, so I let him finish digging the hole. It had to be twenty inches deep and eight inches wide. So he took the digging tool and deepened the hole to the appropriate size while I mixed up the concrete, and then he got to pour the concrete in the hole while we set the pole in place.

We had to set up and level the post in the concrete during the initial cure phase - about five or six hours - and then we were able to pull out the pole (since, by neighborhood rules, such devices must be "temporary") to let the concrete complete the final cure, which is supposed to take a couple days.

Now that the concrete is curing and the post hole is in place, all we have to do is wait a few more days before trying it out. But ... is it appropriate to let her hang out the first wash, or should I volunteer for that duty?

Happy Mother's Day, Cheryl!

Adam's Birthday

2011-05-03T07:33:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Adam's birthday in grand style, heading out to Steak & Shake for dinner, followed by opening presents at home.

Adam had a lovely cake, nicely flavored, sweetly sugared, and surrounded by chocolate!
Afterward, we (naturally) played some games - in this case, "Bang!", which is an hilarious card game full of surprises and lots of table-chatter.

Even though he didn't win the last game, Adam still had a marvelous time, as you can tell.

A Good Friday for Dry-Walling

2011-04-23T04:33:00.001-07:00

It seems a bit odd to get Good Friday off, as this was not the case in most of the jobs I've worked. But things are different out there in Michigan where the CRC (Christian Reformed Church) has a large influence, and celebrating religious holidays is more generally acceptable than in most other places. It had been my impression that these holidays were going to be a thing of the past once GE took over the company, but apparently there has been some kind of 'deal' made whereby the holiday remains. There will be no complaints on that score from this end of the paycheck; I enjoy having the time to spend with family, and to work on projects around the house.

Today's project was hanging drywall in preparation for the upcoming visit from the Green side of the family. I'm not sure if the purpose is to allow the children to sleep downstairs while the grandparents use one of their bedrooms, or if it is to allow the grandparents to sleep downstairs, far from the noisy environs of four sleeping (?) teenagers. Either way, it will be nice to have some walls up. And James is seriously thinking of moving down to the basement afterward to achieve a greater level of privacy. If that is even possible.

We began this adventure with a trip to the local Home Depot to spend money we don't have on things we really need. There were already two sheets of drywall down near the basement, ready for use. According to my calculations, we needed at least ten more. Plus some 1x8 boards for the ledge. And some black plastic to (temporarily) cover up the ceiling so that we wouldn't be staring up at the pipes and/or insulation all night long.

James drove to the store; as a recent graduate of Driver Ed Session #1, he needs the hours. And he needed the practice of backing the car into the garage so we could unload the seats, and later unload the drywall.

We saw one of the Scout leaders at the store and stopped to chat with him a little bit, but not so long as to keep him from his duties (he works there). And although there was a strong temptation to wander through the lumber aisles smelling the freshly-cut wood, we didn't linger unduly as there was was so much work to do back at the house.

It was very nice to have someone with a strong young back and strong young muscles to help load the ten sheets of drywall into the van. My, those sheets have gotten heavier over the years!

Back at the house, we left the drywall in the garage on some wooden platforms and started putting up the two sheets which were already down in the basement, laying them out horizontally below the ledge. I let the boys do most of the work. After a quick demo on measuring and cutting them to size, and on using the scraper tool to level the edges, the boys took the drills and mounted the boards to the wall. Then we set the ledge boards on top to see how they fit.

Okay, they'll need a slight bit of trimming.

But onward. We brought down all the drywall from the garage - huff! puff! - and proceeded to mount two boards onto the east wall. The first merely needed a cutout for the ledge; the second needed a more complicated cutout for the outlet box. That was another opportunity to teach the boys how to measure the cutout and drill the starter hole, then use the hole saw to cut out the box. And it fit perfectly! I was much pleased.

As part of the outlet-hole prep, I took the opportunity to teach the boys how to use the circuit tracer to figure out which circuit the outlet was on so we could locate the breaker for that circuit and turn it off before touching it. Didn't want anyone accidentally frying a finger-bone by putting it inside a live box!

We kept going until nearly five o'clock, then it was time to quit so that we could have dinner and head out to the Good Friday service at church. And I really needed that shower! I was dusty from head to foot. And we were all tired, ready for a rest.

Card Games

2011-04-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

The boys learned this bizarre game called 'euchre' when they were in Scouts. Apparently it is a midwestern game, originally from Pennsylvania but really taken hold in Michigan/Indiana/Ohio. I'd heard of it, of course, but never seen so many people so totally obsessed with it.

I tried it. Didn't really like it.

But we are attempting to play more team-based games, so it seemed like the right thing to do. Teaching the game to the kids, I mean. Well, the boys already know it, but the girls haven't played it before. They know "Go Fish". And "Old Maid".

Instead of going right out and playing euchre from the get-go, I decided to go back to the basics. So in preparation for our euchre-fest, I decided to have a little training session. Tonight was designated as That Session.

We started by playing a simple game (not euchre) of full-deck, player bids & tricks: All cards out, aces low, high card takes the trick. Each player makes a bid, lead sets the suit. First round was easy. Second round, same rules ... except with partners. Now partners are supposed to support each others' bids. That made for a bit of fun and frustration!

Third round was a repeat of the second, just to get them used to it (and give their partners a chance to redeem themselves). Fourth round, threw a bit of a curve by switching to the "standard" aces-high play.

Scoring is always fun with these games. To keep things simple, we just multiplied the number of tricks taken by ten, then added the number of 'extra' tricks taken. And for any team which didn't make its 'book' (number of tricks bid), they lost a number of points equal to the number they had bid.

Next session, we review the concept of 'trump'.

April (Snow) Showers

2011-04-18T19:52:00.001-07:00

How is it possible to have warmth return to the earth, and then be ravaged again by the snows of winter?

What kind of madness is this?

We woke up this morning to a soft blanket of white snow lying across the ground, and a wintry chill in the air. Every house and bush and tree was painted with it, and every car unfortunate enough to have spent the night outside. Of all the nights to leave the car parked outside, naturally this last was the one we inadvertently chose. Which meant brushing off the snow before we could go off to work this morning. Oh, woe is us!

Yet our dismay was not long-lived; just as Cheryl had predicted, the crystalline layer had dissipated by mid-afternoon, and then the boys and I were able to continue our backyard haying festival which had begun over the weekend. The ground was still saturated with moisture, though, which revealed a serious limitation in the ability of James's shoes to repel water; i.e. he had some big holes in the bottoms of his shoes. This resulted in a desire to immediately replace said shoes. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the boys and I went to the shoe store and purchased some "cool" shoes for James, then they spent some time practicing their parking skills in the mall lot: single-point, three-point, and parallel. The boys are definitely improving.

Now to work on their stick-shift skills.

Spaced Out

2011-04-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today is the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight in 1961. Many of my friends in the aerospace industry remember it; like me, they grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, watching the Russians and the Americans dueling each other in space, sending rocket after rocket up into the void. We all expected to join the ranks of the astronauts some day. Our brains were filled with the television images of Apollo, and the words and stories from the great Science Fiction writers of the day. Asimov, Bradbury, Anderson. We looked forward to building our own rockets in our garages much as our fathers built their own hot-rods in theirs.

Such was not to be.

The first disappointment was the failure of the shuttle to be completed in time to rescue Skylab in 1979. Development was taking too long. The sun got cranky and overheated the atmosphere, causing it to blossom out into space and pull the space station back to earth too soon, too soon. My dreams of visiting it came to a dramatic end when it burned up.

The first space shuttle finally orbited in 1981, the year I graduated High School. My space-fanatic friends and I spent our junior and senior years reading up on the amazing technology (in the magazines scattered around the Science Department) while waiting impatiently for the beginning of the Next Big Space Race. We knew the Russians were working on their own Space Shuttle, and imagined that soon the earth would be orbited by multiple space stations serviced by numerous space shuttles of all shapes and nationalities.

Throughout college, my intention was to learn enough engineering to get into a space-related program, to work on the rockets and computers I'd learned about in my earlier years. After graduation, I got a job at Boeing and hoped to work my way into one of those cool aerospace jobs. In the first year, I made a number of friends among those who had worked on the earlier space programs; once they learned of my dreams, they tried to help me get on those programs. And things were starting to look very good for those dreams in January of 1986.

Then things got bad again.

In the aftermath of Challenger, the space programs went into another lull, and lots of people moved on to other things. The space program eventually recovered, but things were different now. The dream of getting into space had hit the wall of reality that said you can't get there unless you are one of the lucky few, the chosen ones, and even then, the odds are stacked. There would never be the great number of flights per year they had promised; the total number of astronauts would be severely limited; the probability of being chosen out of the hundreds of thousands of willing candidates was slim. At some point, the dream sort of fizzled out due to the need to just get on with life.

There was almost the revival of the dream in the early part of this century, when it seemed that there was a possibility of work on a space-related computer system. But then there was Columbia, and that dream, too, disappeared like mist in the ensuing rounds of industry layoffs.

I received a note from a good friend of mine, an amateur radio astronomer, bemoaning the fact that we don't seem to be fulfilling all the promises of those many years ago, those promises of moonbases and Mars colonies and multi-generational, interstellar travels. We have settled for the mundane, the ordinary, the profitable, the safe. We are tied down with all the wars and tragedies and disasters of this world, so overwhelming that we often forget about our hopes for our future Up There. Suddenly all the stories, those classic stories of spacemen and rockets and heroism which filled our minds in those days of yesteryear, they all become moldy and musty like old-fashioned books in the forgotten shelves of the library. We are more interested in American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and iPods and Facebook and all the other trivialities of life which distract us from great accomplishments.

I had hoped to live in a time of great accomplishment in space, to be able to look back on my life and point to some great achievement like establishing bases on the moon or colonies on Mars and say, I helped with that. Now I can only look back and wonder: What does it feel like to be the last person to turn out the lights in the Vehicle Assembly Building, when the last space shuttle has gone off to the museum and there's nothing left to do?

Eighty-two Degrees of Freedom

2011-04-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

This is one of those days that hints of summer, even before springtime has sprung. The air is warm, the wind is light, the sky is blue ... and the car is acting up. Like it wants some attention.

This is what happens when I take too long to hang around after church, chatting with folks, and give my keys to the kids so that they can go sit out in the car and wait for me. They put the keys into the ignition and turn on ACC so that the radio works, and then they listen to the radio, kinda like we used to do when we were kids at Hermitage Road, sitting out in the parking lot listening to Kasey Kasem and the Top 40 Countdown.

Only this time, the key didn't come out of the ignition.

I didn't notice anything was amiss until we got home in the garage and attempted to pull the key out. It wouldn't budge. Normally, you have to nudge it in to the steering post just a bit, then turn it backwards to release it -- but this time, it wouldn't push in. Not a smidgen. I tried for nearly ten minutes to wiggle and waffle it into place, but no dice.

The fun part was, since the key wouldn't turn back, the car wouldn't shut off. Until I killed it by releasing the clutch with the car in gear. KLUNK! That stopped it.

Spent the afternoon taking the steering column apart, figuring out how to pull the air bag out without inflating it, how to get the plastic around the steering column off with the key still dangling out, how to uncouple the keylock mechanism from the steering shaft by using my Dremel tool to make channel grooves in the top of the breakaway screw heads which were holding it in place, and then carefully untighten them so in order to free the mechanism.

Took the whole keylock mechanism into the house and tried to figure out how to crack it open, mindlessly fiddling with the key at the same time. Then - click! The key was suddenly able to be pushed in / turned backwards, and it was free.

Huh?

I played with it for another fifteen minutes or so, trying to make it jam up again, but couldn't find the magic combination. Almost called the kids down to have them give it a try, but decided against it. Took the whole thing back out to the car and worked my way backwards until it was all put back the way it had been before (mostly). Hooked up the battery again, checked that it still worked. Then looked at the clock and realized I'd spent four hours fooling around with this nonsense.

I could think of better ways to spend a gorgeous day like today.

End of Spring Break

2011-04-08T20:58:00.001-07:00

One of the many items on James's agenda today was obtaining a frame for his favorite poster. So when he and his brother were out driving with Cheryl, they stopped at the store and got the frame. And then we hung it up in his room. Ain't it cool? I'm hoping it always reminds him what it takes to be a success in this world: Brains. Filling them with what is good, and using them to the best of one's abilities. I'm trying to ignore the fact that the poster is actually a zombie.

Yesterday during our evening walk, I (somehow) twisted my back, so spent the day at home instead of going into the office. It's typically quieter that way. And I was able to set up all my little worktables around me ("Circle the wagons!") so I could switch between (1) writing The Great American Novel, (2) data mining the databases at work, (3) building and testing electronic circuits, and (4) studying Chinese.

Now if I could just keep up the energy level...

Spring Break

2011-04-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

What better way to spend Spring Break than writing an exciting story? That's what Adam decided to do. While his mouth is healing from the sudden removal of wisdom teeth.

Cheryl is making a lot of treats this week: cookies, muffins, brownies. Sugar stimulates the healing process!

The girls took a video of James after he got back home from the dentist, high on laughing gas. Then they put it on the computer downstairs and watched it. It's hilarious!

So they invited all their friends over to watch it as well.

Why Is It

2011-04-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

The weather is changing, pushing the thermometer up a few degrees from the sub-freezing numbers that have been keeping us inside the house. This week, it appears that the earth (or at least our little corner of it) might start warming up. Forties? Fifties? Maybe even ... Sixties?

Perhaps not that good. But we can dream, can't we?

My body has been craving sleep lately. It's been very difficult to get out of bed in the morning, and there is absolutely no way to resist the call of the pillow when the cats wake me up at 5:15 with their plaintive cries for food and I stumble back upstairs after dumping their food on their plates and it crosses my mind that this would actually be a perfect opportunity to get a couple hours of quiet reading time or study time or websurfing time before everyone else in the house wakes up ... and normally that would be the result. But lately I've been too tired, both mentally and physically. And I crawl back into bed. And then suddenly it's nearly eight o'clock.

Today was no different. The only problem was that eight fifteen is departure time for Chinese lessons!

The Chinese lessons were actually quite fun today. I managed to wake up enough on the drive over that my brain was nearly functional. So I was able to pay attention and learn some very important things - like how to say "wash dishes", "clean house", and other handy chore-related phrases. (We were studying how to say "You are supposed to do X by Y o'clock, but instead you didn't do it until Z o'clock". This is a very useful sentence structure to have handy in a household with teenagers!)

Later on that afternoon, I discovered that my compressor was having difficulty because one of the pressure gauges has a misaligned cover, so it is binding the needle. Had to fiddle with that for while to get it to work right. Not sure why that was making the output pressure insufficient to pump up the tires on the Subaru, since the gauge isn't directly in line with the output, but the plain fact is that the tire wouldn't pump up til I twisted the top of the gauge a bit. Weird.

After dinner tonight, we went for a walk, everyone except James, who was out at the mall hanging out with friends. Adam and Deb proved that they walk much faster than the rest of us, what with those long legs of theirs. Mary hung back with Cheryl and me, content to take things a bit easier. But the temperature wasn't so warm that it was completely comfortable outside, which was supposed to give us extra incentive to walk faster (aerobically). We were definitely ready for the warmth of the house when we got back.

Then we played Scrabble for awhile, and Adam used a lot of Latin words. It didn't help him win, but it was fun to see him practice it. Deb and Mary got a lot of help from Mom, which is probably why one of them won. Poor Dad could barely keep his head above water on that one.

James finally got home some time after seven-thirty, and then it was Bible-reading time. Finished up Galatians, quizzing the kids on what they knew of the church that was meeting there at the time. I'm hoping a lot of this is sinking in to their heads so they'll remember it.

Now that it's nearly midnight, my brain is back to fried again...

Parallel Cats and Crazy Clothes Day

2011-03-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

First, you gotta understand, the cats never sit this close to each other. So when we saw them doing this last night, we had to get a picture of it.
I'm not sure if they're just getting too old to care, or if they're working out their tolerance issues, but this was noteworthy enough to make a record of it. So if they ever have 'issues' again about being next to one another, I'm going to print out this picture and shove it in their faces and say, "Hey! What about this?"
Cats are just so weird.

Today is Mis-matched Clothes Day at the Middle School, and apparently that includes Crazy Hair or something, so the girls are doing their best to fit in. Especially Mary. She's always been the more "fashion-conscious" of the two, so she actually planned out her wardrobe last night. Bright colors, mismatched socks & shoes ... and a tattoo.

We got the tattoo last night at the grocery store. Her brother gave her the odd quarters he'd got back from the can recycling, and she promptly took them over to the gumball/toy machines by the entrance and got a fairy tattoo. And when we got home, she put it on her shoulder so it would be ready to go for school today.

And she made sure that her hair was wet last night when she went to bed so it would be a rat's nest this morning.

Deb didn't have to keep her hair wet. Her hair is so long, if she doesn't brush it, it becomes a rat's nest anyway. As you can see.
(This is also her "I'm too tired to care" look.)

I hope it doesn't bother them that it's 22°F outside.

Permitted!

2011-03-28T13:35:00.001-07:00

We're so happy to have another driver in the family now. Of course, he doesn't realize how much 'fun' it's going to be when we give him a list of errands to run. He's just thinking of the freedom to go where he wants to go, when he wants to go (and with whom he wants to go). Hey! It must be time for him to get a JOB!!

Joory Dooty At Last!!

2011-03-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Finally, after nearly thirty years of adulthood, I've received the coveted Joory Dooty Award for Good Citizenship! Yes, I got my summons in the mail. Or whatever you call it. And there is the possibility that I might actually get to sit on a jury and help decide an important case!

Or not.

Since I'm both a cynic and an engineer, this is the way I envision the proceedings.

"Mr. Meyer, what is your occupation?"

"I'm an engineer."

{sound of lawyers whispering to one another}

"Thank you, Mister Meyer. You are excused."

"May I ask why?"

"We don't want any logical thinkers in the jury. They're not impressionable enough."

Still, the idea of actually being able to take part in the Justice System, even if I don't get picked or accepted or approved, fills me with joy. It's like voting. There's no feeling in the world like coming out of the voting room with the little "I Voted" sticker attached to your forehead (or shirt, if you're boring) and a satisfied feeling in your heart that you have done your Civic Duty.

Oh, how I wish everyone all over the world could feel that feeling!

Publishing Books

2011-03-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Just read an interesting blogsite today concerning the world of book publishing.

{It's been a goal of mine to one day actually publish a book. Once I come up with something worth reading.}

The premise is very interesting. Paper is on its way to becoming a niche market, book-wise. The future is electronic readers. They say. And since there is not much overhead involved with publishing books electronically (once all your readers have purchased the electronic reading device and paid for all those batteries), it makes sense that the bulk of the profit from the sale of the book goes to the actual author.

Instead of a measly 15% of the wholesale price, imagine making 70%!

Hmmm ... let's see ... pull out my calculator here ... What does an average book cost these days, anyway? Hardbacks are in the $20 - $30 range, so let's say $25 to make it easy. That's ($25 * 0.17 = ) $4.25/book. Paperbacks are somewhere between $8 - $15, so let's even it down to $12. That's ($12 * 0.17 = ) $2.04/book. So to make a good living - somewhere in the neighborhood of $80k, perhaps - you'd need 10,000 hardback (a typical number for a first edition), which gives you $42,500, plus 20,000 paperback (20k * $2.04 = $40,800). Thirty thousand books. Per year. And that's assuming you're getting a percentage of the retail cost, not the wholesale production cost. If you're talking wholesale, you've gotta sell roughly twice as many, say sixty thousand.

That's a lot of books.

Naturally, there's a difference in price between the paper books and the electronic books, since there's no paper or binding or glue or actual 'printing' involved. Just an electronic file that gets downloaded to a device. At which point the reader gets to select the color, font, page formatting, and other parameters of the book. The author provides the text (and pictures, diagrams, tables, etc.).

Looking around at some of the eBooks that are available, it looks like the prices vary from $0.99 all the way up to $6.99. Quite a spread, percentage-wise. If we apply the 70% cut to those, we see that the same thirty thousand books nets us somewhere in the range of (30k * $0.99 = ) $30,000 to (30k * $6.99) = $270,000.

Now add in the extra bonus that selling eBooks is a lot easier than selling paper books, since they can be bought and paid for and downloaded all within the comfort of the reader's home, and it becomes obvious that it makes a lot of sense to write - and purchase - eBooks.

Except for needing to buy all those pesky batteries. Or staying near an outlet so there's always a handy power source.

Makes me wonder if there's an even better way of doing it.

Back in the good old days of the Internet, it was all going to be done with PCs. But people found it difficult to cradle their desktops in their laps while reading a good mystery story late at night. Then the laptops came out, and they were better, but it still wasn't as comfortable as a good old-fashioned paperback. Now with the Kindle (et al) readers, it remains to be seen.

I should drag a few of those old stories out of mothballs and see what happens.