Christmas Time At Work

This year seemed more festive at work for some reason.  I think part of it was because I was convinced to play in the traveling Christmas Band, and the other part is because my boss is trying to make a conscious effort to do more fun things at work, and that involved Christmas as well.

So first, the traveling Christmas Band.  That occurred a week ago Friday.  It has been in existence for more than 50 years now I believe.  Basically about 15 employees in the company get together, practice twice in the week beforehand, and travel around to about 7 different buildings the company owns in the area.  The band plays about a 30 minute set in each place.  It plays some of the traditional ones like Silver Bells, Silent Night, Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bell Rock, Feliz Navidad, etc.  And then we do a couple ones that are only marginally related to Christmas like Linus and Lucy and one called Just Because.

Just Because is Charlie's favorite.  Let's talk about Charlie.  Charlie is a company retiree who comes back once a year to play in the Christmas Band.  He's been in it since about one year after it started.  We estimate his age to be somewhere between 70 and 90.  If you ask him he'll tell you, but we forgot to ask him.  Anyway, Charlie is a fixture, and he stars in the song "Just Because".  When I gave him a ride to lunch, he told me the way to keep your lips from dying (for a saxophone player) is to soak your reeds in whiskey and then let them dry.  Then you use them later to play, and the whiskey numbs your lips so you can play longer.  I think he was serious, but it was somewhat difficult to tell.


The band had about 3 trumpet players, 1 trombonist, 2 saxophones (including Charlie), a flutist, a clarinetist, a bass guitarist, two lead guitarists, a drummer, three singers, and an elf.  Some members (not me) also participate in some imbibing throughout the day, particularly at lunch.  So it's a little bit goofy, but kind of fun.  As one person said to whom I described this, they said it was old working people playing their high school instruments.  That's right.  Except the drummer and guitarists.  They actually play in obscure local bands that sometimes do real gigs and stuff.

The band's last place to play was one of the nursing home / assisted living places in the area.  It kind of reminded me of this.  There's something uplifting about playing music and watching some of the older people sitting there singing along and enjoying it.  It's also amusing to watch them all turn down their hearing aids.  I laughed as I watched one lady sing along with "Just Because".  Here are a couple pictures.

The brass and woodwind section.

The drummer and the infamous Charlie.  Rumor has it Charlie even came to play one year when he had Bell's Palsy.  He taped the paralyzed half of his mouth shut.  Oh, and the drummer's T-shirt that looked like a Santa suit had a button on it that said, "Does this suit make me look fat?"

On to the department festivities.  The department lunch activity yesterday included an ugly sweater contest and a Secret Santa activity.  Both were voluntary, but I figured I'd participate in the spirit of keeping work fun.  There was a $10 limit, so the engineer's name that I drew got two children's coloring books and a large box of crayons (gag gifts were allowed).  He seemed kind of pleased with that.  I was given two dish towels.  Very useful.

And the ugly sweaters.....maybe one third of the engineers participated.  I made an attempt, but it wasn't super great.  And everybody's first reaction (typical of engineers) when we were told about it was, "I don't have an ugly sweater."  Some convincing was done about how you could make an ugly sweater or find one at a thrift store.  And we were also given a how-to guide, which helped.  Work this week and next week will be very quiet.  I'm looking forward to it.  Oh, and I did not win the ugly sweater contest.

Guide to making an ugly sweater.

My attempt at an ugly sweater.

You Might Be A Nerd If.....

.....you're excited because the fund-raiser LED light bulbs your robotics team is selling are based on Cree LED die, which are the "good" kind.

Speaking of robotics, I would like to tell you a lesson that was reinforced again this evening.  If you have a mentor or a coach or a teacher that you really appreciate, take the time to sincerely thank them every once in a while.  They may not be getting paid at all, or what they do get paid isn't enough compared to the value they provide, and it helps to keep them motivated to get a very simple and genuine "thank you".  It can be in the form of a written note or just a simple handshake and a thank you.

A month or so ago when I was feeling in a slight funk from stress at work, I went to a potluck, and one of the ladies there thanked me for being a robotics mentor and being an example.  I don't feel like I hardly talk to that many of the girls on the team because they work on different stuff, but she assured me that sometimes just having a presence there helps and motivates people.  That helped make my day.  You never know who is watching or who you might be helping with your example.  That's both a natural and a spiritual lesson there, folks.

Farm out, man.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #50

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Sunrise - the good thing about it getting light so late is that I sometimes see the sun rise on the way to work.  One day this week was particularly spectacular.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

2.  Mom's banana bread recipe - most delicious slightly warm from the oven or with some Nutella on it.

High 85

Last week the circuit board that we had been slaving over for the last couple months showed up.  The first ten pieces arrived.  Woo-hoo!  I would show you a picture, but it's against company policy to show you confidential stuff that's in development.

This is how I felt!  High 85, peeps!

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #49

I only took one picture this week (maybe I had a case of the after Thanksgiving doldrums).  So it's a little bit lame this week, but here it is.

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  My Socks - this pair is just begging for an international trip.

2.  This Guy - and his name isn't even Bob.

Giving of Thanks 2013

Hello there!  Did you miss me?  Like many of you last week, I took a break from blogging and spent time with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I returned from the holiday to disconnected internet due to my plan to switch my home phone to voice over IP.  However, when they disconnected my phone, they also disconnected my internet.  Voice over IP doesn't work so well when you don't have an IP address.  Just a little tip for you.

I spent the internet-disconnected week finishing the book I started on the plane and doing other non-internet stuff.  Since that is over, here's a little run-down of the Thanksgiving trip to ND:

1. Thanksgiving meal preparation with Mom, Muggles, SIL-Lan, and the nieces (all except the littlest one).  Even the three year old wanted to help out, so I had her collect and dump the sliced apples.
2. Counting calories at the Thanksgiving meal.  Some of us had heard conflicting statistics about how many calories the average person eats for their Thanksgiving meal.  The number was 3500-4500 calories.  I thought that was a little high.  So we counted my calories.  I barely made it to 3000, and that was after a fairly light breakfast and the main meal not starting until about 12:45 PM.  I may have eaten a little more than usual because of peer pressure to get over 3000. And, then I barely ate any supper too.  My stomach doesn't process as fast as it used to.
3. Delicious Thanksgiving stuff:  Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, Mom's homemade stuffing, squash, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, black olives, pickles, pies, homemade apple cider and applesauce, sparkling juices, etc.  There was also homemade egg nog for those who wanted it.
4. Playing kickball with the kids.
5. Playing games:  Scattergories, Acquire, Chutes and Ladders, and Memory.
6. Like Daddy Long Legs said:  I did what I did best and screwed up the plywood.
7. Marathon private shopping session with Mom and Muggles.  I spent so much on clothes that I'll probably have to take a break from shopping for about three years now.
8. Getting some exercise with Mom and SIL-Lan while listening to an exercise record.  Yeah.  We went old school - they even had some exercises to help get rid of some of that extra "girth".
9. Seeing other extended family:  Geneva, Palt and Whirl, Pour it On Jon and his family, Vonnie and Curtis, and many more.
10. Thanksgiving meal leftovers:  More pie, turkey and gravy on mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey noodle soup.

Since it's Thanksgiving, I figured I would maybe list a few of the "big" things I'm thankful for this year:

1. My youngest niece being happy and healthy (mostly - except for getting the stomach flu) - she had a scary entrance into the world at the beginning of the year.
2. Loving and supportive family - not everyone has one of these.  Having a loving family can make life so much easier and enjoyable.
3. Good friends - not everyone has these either, and good friends enrich my life so much.
4. Good health - not everyone has this either, and it can be taken away so quickly.
5. Personal growth - I feel like I've learned some things this year, which is a good thing.  It's not good to remain stagnant or regress.
6. A good job that I enjoy - Because some people don't have a job, and many who have a job don't enjoy their job.

All right, now to the really interesting stuff:  the pictures.

Thanksgiving prep with Muggles and Bugsy.

Tea with Pops.

Counting calories on my Thanksgiving dinner.  Not pictured:  One glass of homemade apple cider that I drank.  I don't waste critical space and calories on bread rolls and pie.  I saved that for supper.

The big spread and some of the people.

The first half of Geneva.

The other half of Geneva with Muggles.

Thanksgiving afternoon games and snacks.

Pour it On Jon with his cute daughter.

The plywood I screwed up.

A ND kind of big rig.

After the kids went to bed, we got wild the crazy:  the DJ "spinning" the tunes.

A true redneck ND Thanksgiving weekend:  Sitting around the record player playing some Charley Pride while sipping from the bottle of the sparkling grape juice.

Reviewing the correct form for doing some "ankle slimmers".

Cutie pie showing off her birthday present from Pops and Gma

 I hope your Thanksgiving was as good or better than mine!

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #48

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Giving Thanks (for so many things)

 
2.  Nieces

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #47

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Spaciousness - it's so much easier to get into my car and to take out the trash without a kayak sticking out into the walkway!

That's it for the week.  Not a lot of amazing things going on - just some "ordinary days".  And I'm thankful for those kind sometimes.

Hardship

A week or two ago at BS one of the older men in meeting talked about growing up in the 30's when things were very tough and a lot of people lived hand-to-mouth, particularly his family since there were 10 kids or something like that.  His dad got sick for a couple weeks, and they wondered what they were going to do.  Other people pitched in and brought food, some contributed some of their paychecks, etc.  That was before the days of Medicaid and Social Security.

This got me thinking about how easy we have it physically these days.  Most people can afford to buy groceries, and we have an unbelievable selection of food at the grocery store.  We can buy fresh fruit and vegetables any time we want.  Maybe some don't have the money to buy all the newest fancy toys and clothes, but most have enough money to eat.  For those who don't have many funds, there is welfare and the Salvation Army and United Way and all kinds of organizations that are willing to feed starving people.  In the U.S. anyway.  Some people still have physically demanding jobs, but there is a growing number of people who work at a computer all day.  It sounds like an easy life, right?

Most of the time I'm of the opinion that the times now aren't any harder or easier than they were 100 years ago or 1000 years ago.  The times are hard in different ways.  So what is the hardship of our time?   I think it's probably mental and emotional stress.  We sit all day at our computers and lose the health benefits of doing something physical all day and sleeping well because we're physically tired.  The government's assistance programs contribute to the loss of community because everybody expects the government to help the poor instead of relationships forming when we directly help those who are less fortunate.  We spend more of our time staring at computer screens forming shallow relationships rather than going out into the real world and talking to real people.  In fact, we probably are losing the skills we have to form meaningful relationships as we do that.

Our brains are working a mile a minute all day every day with no physical outlet for all that mental activity.  We also have too much time to worry about low priority things instead of worrying about big things like where our next meal is going to come from.  Because everything is so convenient and easy to get to immediately, I think we're also losing our capability to plan for the long term future.  Everybody is living longer, so we spend more time in our later years dealing with poor health.

This kind of goes along with a book I recently read.  More on that in a different post.  I'm not sure that I have a big point to this, it was just something I was thinking about and that we probably need to be more aware of.  Now quit surfing blogs and the internet and go live your real life!  :-)

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #46

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Snow - That's right, about 17" of snow on the twelfth of November.

2.  Melt - And it was all pretty much gone within 4 days.  Note the contrast between raked and unraked as well.

Taking A Breath

The last six or eight weeks have been very intense.  My project at work has been screaming along at a breakneck pace with some angst and strife with some of the people I work with.  We finally released the "build" files today, so I have a couple weeks now to get organized and catch up on stuff before the circuit boards arrive.  At the end of the work day today it felt a little bit like when you finish your last final for the semester in May and know you don't have to do any more school stuff until August.  FREEDOM!!!!!!  At work that feeling is much more rare, but it's still nice to experience it every once in a while.

This may also allow for some more consistent blogging.

Hopefully none of you were in the path of any tornadoes yesterday.  The daughter of a guy at work came within a couple blocks of having her house leveled.  It was interesting to see his pictures today.  No big trees came down in my yard yesterday, so that was good.

All for now.  The amazing post regarding last week will have to be tomorrow I guess.

Great America

Whew!  It has been a busy two months.  September and October always seem to fly by.  What with 'vention and then trying to fit in all the stuff I didn't get done during the summer.  And, work has been super busy as well.  It's nice to spend a weekend at home every once in a while.  One of the last weekend trips I chronicled was the yaking trip in the corny state in September.

After that I think I may have spent a weekend at home working on the patio stone stuff.  And then.....the first weekend of October came.  That Saturday was lots of fun.  I met Brudder Jeddles, Chumley, and Amanda R. at Six Flags Great America for a fun day of riding roller coasters.  The highlights from that:

1. At least 17 rides in less than 9 hours.  And, we rode Superman, Batman, and Raging Bull 3 times each I think.
2. Brudder Jeddles got a new nickname.  He is now Daddy Long Legs.
3. My brother and I may be related.  We both wore belts to Six Flags.  Not sure if that's normal for everybody, but apparently wearing a belt is normal for us.
4. Daddy Long Legs was also given a hard time for wearing a "dress shirt" to Six Flags.  It wasn't quite a dress shirt, but it was a fairly nice button-down shirt.  That may come from our up-bring too - one must dress nice when going into "town" for the day.
5. Only one person puked, and ironically it was the 17-year-old guy who did.  Us old and wise ones drank water to stay hydrated.  Chumley chose to down a large container of pop before we ate lunch and then he didn't eat lunch because he didn't feel so well.  That wasn't the best choice.  At least he puked before the next ride and still got to go on the ride and enjoy it.
6. I learned what the rage is with "the kids" these days - a song called "What Does The Fox Say."
7. There was rain for about an hour, but other than that the weather was beautiful with a very nice sunset as the rain clouds cleared out.
8. You know how people talk about their brother from another mother?  Will, I learned the complement to that phrase:  sister from another mister.

That's about all I have on that.  More on other weekends later.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #45

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Sky - both at night and in the daytime.  I saw an awesome moon and tried to take a picture, but the daytime picture turned out better.

2.  Photography - A picture of a picture taken somewhere in China.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #44

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Teamwork - we all pitched in a little bit, and we won the prize for best decorated cubicle.  Of course, that didn't take much because engineers being who they are, not many cubicles accepted the decorating challenge.

The cool team - looking normal and in full costume regalia.

2.  Fall Colors - even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like these.

Drop Everything

The other day when I was watching something on YouTube, I saw an ad by Heineken, and it involved people committing to dropping everything and going wherever the wheel of fortune said they should go.  Here are the two videos about the "project":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqXOiQ1c42c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PenROORvLyw

If we put aside the fact that it's sponsored by Heineken and assume this was being offered by some other company.....would you do it?  Are these people being spontaneous and adventurous, or are they being irresponsible and inconsiderate?  I suppose it depends on what kind of job you have and that kind of stuff.  And whether you were traveling with others or planning to meet someone on the other end.  It's also not very clear how long you have to go to this destination.  For the same length of time you were planning to go somewhere else?  For a month?  A weekend?  I think some of these answers would affect my decision.  Just sayin'.  I'm guessing I would be all responsible and stuff and turn down the offer to drop everything.   But if you caught me at the right time in the right situation, I might go for it.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #43

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Mileage - More than 100,000 miles in 5.5 years.  Not bad.

2.  Creativity.  This picture is also a good one.  I was tempted to buy the T-shirt, but I don't really have an appropriate place to wear it.

New Specs For 2013

A couple weekends ago I made the usual trek to go see Dr. Bambi Blaster for my annual eye exam.  I've had my old pair of glasses for a couple years now.  I really like them and was tempted to just stay with them, but I had been told that I needed to get out of my box 2 or 3 times in the space of 2 days, so I decided that I would.  Check out the new specs that came in the mail on Monday.  I think I picked them out in less than half an hour, so that could explain a few things - impulse buy!

They told me geek chic was in, so I went with it.  At least half way.  Although to me, it seems like in order to get out of my box, I actually went further into my box.  These glasses seem more engineer-y to me.  Or maybe getting a little too close to my rec specs?  My new ones are metal - they're brown on the front, and then the bows are a green color with a small hole pattern in the bows as well.  Only two people commented on them at work over the space of 4 days, so either most people aren't observant or they think they're ugly.  One lady at work did notice right away and said she liked them.  And, 3 or 4 people at meeting this morning told me they liked them, so I think they pass muster.

For those who want to know, the new ones have transition lenses and the anti-glare coating, same as the previous pair.  And digital lenses, whatever that means.  All I know is that it means there are some etchings on the edges of the lenses.  Not sure why.
 

Old Glasses

Geek chic - going deep into the box to get out of the box.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #42

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Hail

2.  Sunshine Power - it feels so much warmer when the sun shines.  A lot of BTUs there, Curtis.

Data Analysis

I finally did it today - I broke down and turned on the furnace.  For the last couple of days it's been kind of chilly in the morning, but then it's been nice enough during the day that the temperature in the house has been remaining above 60 degrees.  However, this evening the temperature was already at 60, and the weather forecast for the next three days is for highs in the 50's and rain.  That means bone-chilling coldness, so I turned on the furnace.  This way it should be a little bit easier to get out of bed tomorrow morning.

I also went back and gathered and graphed some data related to when I turn my furnace on.  I was missing a data point from last year - apparently it wasn't memorable when I turned it on or something because I didn't find a blog record of it, although I do know for sure that I at least made it to September 19th without turning it on in 2012.  It seems as though if I can survive the cold snap that usually comes near the end of September, then it's usually warm enough again that I can go until the third week in October before turning on the furnace.  See the graph below.  It's a bit strange to use the Julian date, but it seemed like the best way I could find at the moment to illustrate my data.  Excel's date-graphing functions aren't the best.  The latest date on record so far is October 21, so this year was fairly respectable at October 17.

Cool Diagnostics

How many of you have been to an audiologist for testing?  I used to think that all they did was test your hearing, but I found out differently yesterday.  I had occasion to go to an audiologist for some testing.  I must say that I found it very interesting.  If you've never been to one, here is how the testing goes (at least how it went for me):

The technician's name was Alissa.  We went into the tiny anechoic room with two chairs, a table, and some test equipment.  The room wasn't much bigger than my cubicle, and the ceiling felt sort of low.  She started out by asking some questions about why I was there, etc.  The first test she did was to put this wand in my ear that gave little puffs of air and played some loud noises to check my inner ear response.  Next came the traditional hearing test where they play tones and you press the button when you hear tones (no matter how faint).  Then, she did an extra thing where she put this apparatus on my head that sort of clamped down and vibrated near the base of my skull, and I was supposed to click the button again if I heard tones.  Apparently they were checking some of the bones in the ear somehow by vibrating my skull?  I'm not completely sure.  I do know that when they were doing low tones it felt kind of good - almost like a massage.  But it also felt kind of weird.



The last part of the test in the anechoic chamber involved listening to a guy saying, "You will say ______."  He went through a whole series of words where I had to repeat the word that he said.  You will say carve.  "Carve".  You will say east.  "East."  You will say ace.  "Ace."  You will say jam.  "Jam."  Like that.  With different words for each ear.  At the end of that, Alissa said my hearing was fine.  And that's good.....


Then we went to a different room and they hooked up the sensors.  One on the outside corner of each of my eyes, one on my forehead, and one underneath my right eye.  Then they had me look at this light bar that was probably 6" x 5'.  The light bar displayed a red dot, and I was supposed to follow the dot with my eyes.   They did both vertical and horizontal movement and had me follow a "train" of dots with my eyes.  I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that might have been their calibration to "learn" my normal eye movements.  Next were some measurements that they took while I closed my eyes and did some mental exercises like counting down from 100 out loud, counting down from 50, counting by 2's, counting by 3's, and counting by 4's.

Next came the most interesting part.  Alissa had me lay down with my eyes closed, and she blew warm air (using a machine, not her breath) in one of my ears for 50 seconds, then she quit and had me do a focus activity again with my eyes still closed.  For example, name a girl's name starting with A, B, C, etc.  Alissa, Becky, Candace, Debbie, Ellen, Faith, Grace, Helen, Irene, Jennifer, Kelly, Melissa, Nancy.  The really interesting thing is that near the end of the 50 seconds of warm air I would start to feel slightly dizzy.  Then, once she removed the hot air, it felt like the table I was laying on started to spin.  It started slowly at first, but then it got to be a stronger sensation once we got to the letter E or somewhere around there.  Weird, huh?  I wonder how people who usually have issues with motion sickness would do with that test.

Then we moved on to the right ear after a minute or two of recovery time.  50 seconds of warm air, and then I had to name boy names while feeling dizzy for a bit.  Aaron, Bob, Charlie, David, Erik, Frank, etc.  Next up:  cold air in the left ear for 50 seconds followed by another focus activity.  Name a city or state that starts with the letter A.....Alabama, Bismarck, Chicago, Denver, E.......ummmm.....East Fargo, Fargo, Grand Rapids, H...........ummmmm......here's a hint - it's an island in the Pacific.....oh yeah, Hawaii......  I may have been feeling a little bit dizzy when I got to E.  :-)  Last but not least......cold air in the right ear.  In this case I felt less like the room was spinning and more like the table was moving up and down like I was on a boat, but there was still some spinning sensation too.  This time I named animals.  Aardvark, Billy goat, Crocodile, Dog, Elephant, Fox, Goat, etc.

For the final test, Alissa had me put on these goggles that had bright lights inside, and the viewing window was such that I couldn't really see out of them, but from the outside it makes your eyes really big.  Then she turned my head quickly and had me lay down quickly.  Apparently some people have positional vertigo, and it makes their eyes go crazy when they do that kind of movement.  I did not have that issue thankfully.

So......that was it.  Quite interesting, huh?

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #41

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Talent - There are so many talented people in the world, but only a few of them become famous.  Sorry the picture is bad - this blog program sometimes is too smart for its own good with its autocorrect.  And thanks to Uncle Bex for the picture.

2.  Close Call - This big guy made a big boom when he fell.  Luckily he only nicked my garage and missed my shed by a hair.  I didn't even lose power, although the meter did get pulled off the side of the garage.

Not So Serious

We've had a couple posts of serious stuff, so today I thought I'd give you a couple links to some amusing stuff:

First up is an advertisement for a product called Poo-pourri.  In my browsing of YouTube, I saw this ad and it made me laugh because it was very clever, yet also informational.  Play the video that's right on the main page there.  I also like the very descriptive words used.  Chem-lab carnations with a touch of feces indeed.  I have never used it, so I can't vouch one way or the other for this product.  I just like amusing stuff.
http://www.poopourri.com/

The other amusing thing is the Obamacare skit that Saturday Night Live did a couple weeks ago right before the official Affordable Care Act "exchanges" kind-of-sort-of opened.  My cubie Kadmium showed me this one.  Very amusing, but also PG-13, so don't watch it with your really little ones hanging around.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/obamacare-cold-open/n41321/ 

Have a good evening folks.

Food for Thought

The other day on facebook one of my friends from high school posted a link to this video - a "Must watch" for women.  So, I watched it.  If you want to form your own opinion, please go and watch the video before you read any further.  If you want to be influenced before you watch it/if you watch it, then read on.

I will say that the presentation was powerful with some good background music.  For about the first third of it though, I was wondering what the point of this really was, and how does he know what I am or what I'm not?  By about the middle, I thought it was starting to get pretty good, and he does make a very good point that we are worth more than we realize because someone did die for us.  But.....the second to last sentence at the end bothers me, the "I Am Awesome" part.  Is that really what we should say?  Or should we say, "I am a daughter of God, and my Father and God is awesome?"  It's a tough balance, isn't it?  To know that we are worthy of love and respect because God loves us and sent his son for us, yet to still be meek and understand how unworthy we are at the same time.  And to be humble enough to repent.  And to have this, I think we need the power and help of God.

The other thought I had was, what about the men?  Why is it only addressed to women?  And if you go to that same link, you will see that there is also a separate video for men.  I didn't think that one was quite as powerful, but maybe that's because I'm not a man.  Or, maybe it was because I had watched the other one first, so I already kind of knew his format and his spiel.

Anyway, just some philosophy for the day.  What's your thought on it?

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #40

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Adrenaline Rush - Few things compare to the feeling of your stomach coming up into your throat as you free fall, feeling weightless for a brief second, or the feeling of a bunch of G's pushing you back into your seat as you round a tight corner on a roller coaster.  And in case you were wondering....this is not a photo of anyone that I know.

2.  Spoken To Again

Free Space

As Ananias mentioned in one of her comments, finishing the patio stone project did free up some space in the garage.  This enabled me to start thinking seriously about what to do with that free space.  And, it also nicely coincided with an idea that had been percolating and a nice sale I found.  So guess what I purchased?  That's right, a guest kayak.  It's the same model as my current kayak but a couple years newer.  And, its official color is mango instead of red.  I'm trying to decide what its name is.  My first thought is Miss Piggy to go along with my kayak's name of Kermit.  Maybe it's not a girl though?  Maybe it should be Grover.  A couple suggestions from the baby name website were Aksel, Rolf, and Waldo.  Waldo might have potential.  Weirdly enough, one of the girl name suggestions was Melissa.  Maybe Percy would work?  Let me know what you think.  Lindee named my kayak Kermit and Devin named my car Herman, so I sometimes do take suggestions.

The new kayak

Freshly swept and partially organized garage.  With two kayaks and only a few stones left.

It's a two-car garage with just enough room for one car and a little bit of space to walk to my car.  Also note some of the new shelving and hooks that I put up and am now using.

The other thing I noticed yesterday is that the last stone I cut so nicely was put in backwards.  Doh!  FAIL.  And I had planned everything else so nicely.  It must not look too bad because it took me several days to notice.

Since we're talking about garage stuff, on Saturday when I was working on the patio stone stuff I left one of my garage doors open.  Later in the afternoon as I walked into the garage when I was about to close the garage doors, I thought I heard a small chipmunk "chirp".  I listed but didn't hear it again, so I shrugged and closed the doors.  Well, Sunday after meeting when I went to open the garage doors, I startled a chipmunk who was running around my garage.  It was on!  I got close enough that I could have stepped on him, but I didn't because I was wearing sandals and didn't want to have to clean the guts off my sandals before going to the kayak shop.  And, I didn't want him to possibly get close enough to bite my toe and give me rabies either.  So I tried to hit him with the kayak cradles I was carrying, but no luck.  He ran underneath the pallets on the other side of the garage.  Then there was probably a good 15 minutes of cat and mouse where I was very still and tried to lure him out so I could hit him with a shovel.  We eventually compromised at the point where he went outside the garage and around the corner.  I closed the doors quick before he could get back in.  That's the news from Lake MI where all the chipmunks are safe (at least until tomorrow) and all the women mean-spirited.

Come on over for a paddle!

Stones of Patio

This post has been a long time coming!  At the beginning of the summer, I said that I would tell you about my Memorial Day weekend.  It's a few weeks after Labor Day, and now I can tell you.  My parents came to visit for a couple days over Memorial Day.  They were exhausted from the end of a busy school year, but I put them to work anyway.  First we did some shower door repair.  Dad brought all the cool tools like his laser level, so we did some planning on Saturday and Sunday for our Monday work.

On Sunday we mostly relaxed except for going to SMM and GM.

Monday we started bright and early in the drizzling rain on my patio stone project.  About 5 or 7 years ago I bought the stones at Lowe's because they had free delivery at one point and I had this great idea.  Then I let them "season" in the garage for several  years while I tried to get motivated.  I had made one unsuccessful start one time by trying to buy bags of sand from Lowe's to use as the sand layer underneath the stones.  I quickly found out that wasn't going to quite cut it.  Mom and Dad came to the rescue to give me the push I needed to get started again.  And they brought some tools I needed like the stomping tool.

I didn't work them all day Monday - we did stop to go to a potluck in the evening, and then they were heading back home on Tuesday morning.  Every Saturday this summer that I actually spent at home was spent doing further work on the project.  On Saturday I cut the final stone, set it in, and did the finishing touches around that stone by filling the cracks with that special crack-filling polymeric sand (locking sand).  Woo-hoo!  It feels good!  Thanks Brudda Jeddles for the tip on buying a masonry blade for my skill saw to get that last stone cut.

Check it out.  The only thing I need to do now is to get rid of a small dirt pile and a small sand pile that are left.  And I might get anal and fill in some opened cracks with locking sand and stuff.  And I might find a good way to use up the broken stones too.  There is an idea for that percolating.

Some pre-work done to pull the ivy back before Mom and Dad arrived.

The graveyard of my previous attempt to get started.

Nearly finished except for that one block around the gas meter.

Finished!  With the locking sand done and everything.

A finished view from the other direction.

The stones around the AC unit.  This was the only disappointment that I had to go around instead of going under.  But, it would have cost a fair amount to do that and I was running out of stones because quite a few stones had broken while sitting on the pallets.  This was the compromise.

One of my cuts to go around the telephone line.

My other cut to go around the natural gas line.  The stones are wet - locking sand curing in progress.  That's the reason for the weird coloring.