It Really Creates Negative Pressure

My new vacuum cleaner, that is. I got sucked (no pun intended) into buying one when I went to a discount sale thing they were having last weekend. I bet it inspired me to vacuum for like a whole five minutes when I brought it home.

The nice thing about this one is that the little peg things that you wrap the cord up on are actually long enough that they contain all of the cord. I think it's the first one I've ever used where that's the case. Usually there's always about the last one or two wraps of the cord that tend to not fit, and then the cord is always falling off / unraveling.

Mmm...mmmmm...mmmm

There's nothing quite like potatoes cooked with a roast. They get that special meaty taste with them so that all you need to put on top of them is some butter. Delicious. And then the skins - just a tad crunchy in a few places with that extra flavor. Yum. There is no comparison of the roast cooked potato to the sterile microwaved one. The microwave ones usually require more "doctoring" to taste good, and then they never really meet the standards of ones cooked in the oven or the crockpot. I'm just saying, that's all.

Big Drip

Yesterday morning about 15 minutes before my alarm went off, I was starting to come out of my deep sleep and be minimally aware of my surroundings. As I lay there drifting in and out of sleep and wondering if I should get up before my alarm went off, I could hear the rain pattering on my skylights. Soon I could also hear a steady "drip......drip.....drip.....drip". And that dripping was much more distinct than the dripping on the skylights. Uh-oh! That sound like it's right here in my bedroom!

I leaped out of bed, turned on the lights, and headed to my closet to check the leak spot previously mentioned. Dry. Not dripping at all. Hmmm.......then where is this dripping coming from? I walked back into my bedroom and listened intently. It sounded like it was coming from the chimney/window area into my dining room. I walked over there. Definitely louder. I felt the carpet. A little bit damp around there. I checked the ceiling. No obvious water spots. I crouched down and listened again. It was definitely coming from right around there. The space isn't that big there - where was it coming from? I crouched down to listen. It sounded like it was coming from the chimney. I felt the carpet again right near the chimney. Jackpot!

The water appeared to be running from the chimney, down a couple smooth inches of sheetrock, and then it hit the texture on the ceiling and was dripping off the texture onto the carpet. I went downstairs and got a bowl for the water to drip in so I could assess how drastically it was leaking and save the carpet. In the 45 minutes it took me to get ready, there was probably less than a centimeter of water in the bowl, which wasn't very big. I went to get a slightly larger bowl just to make sure it didn't overflow while I was at work. Then, it was off to work while it was pouring down rain. I mentally crossed my fingers.

Luckily the weather cleared in the afternoon, I was able to leave work a little bit early, and I went to Lowe's. I bought some patch tar stuff (and the fabric coated in asphalt), a trowel, some tar removal chemical, and attempted to patch up the tar around the chimney following the instructions on the can. We haven't had any hard rain since, so I'm not sure yet if my mission was successful. We'll see. While I was up there, I took a closer look at the other suspected leak spot and glopped some tar around there too. This is what happens when you own your house too long. You have to start making repairs.

Medical Musings

Did you know that one pound of body fat is about 3500 calories? That means if you normally consume the "average" of 2000 calories a day, even if you starved yourself for a whole day and only drank water, you would lose less than a pound that day. To lose a pound in a week, you would have to cut your calorie consumption by 500 calories. Or some combination of exercise and calorie cutting to cause a difference of 500 calories.

BIL-Dan challenge question: During a typical flu season, are most people exposed to the flu virus and their immune systems are able to fight the bug? Or, do fewer people get exposed, and if they are exposed they are very likely to get the flu?

Monday Meanderings

• The goofy cardinal is back playing chicken with my window. He took a hiatus from it for a while this summer.
  
• Usually I cook my fried eggs in a pan on the stove, but the other day since I had the griddle out to make pancakes, I cooked them on that. They turned out really fluffy and delicious. Why? Because it's at a lower temperature than when I do them on the stove? Is it the George Forman griddle? I'm not really sure. Maybe some wise mother or grandmother knows.
• When I play racquetball against a 14-year old kid, am I supposed to ever let him win? I think not. So far I haven't anyway. He does get kind of mad when I beat him, but I'm sure it builds character. And that's what the Y specializes in.
• What about when grown men have temper tantrums because I'm beating them at racquetball? Do I need to let them win to soothe their egos?
  
• Yesterday I saw the hand of God as illustrated below.

Opinion Needed

I've had this spot in my closet for a couple years now where the sheetrock looks like it has gotten wet before, likely because of some kind of leak in the roof since my closet ceiling is right below the roof in my loft area. Recently the spot seems like it might be getting bigger, but I'm not positive on that. See the pictures below of the spot on the sheetrock and the place on the roof above the spot. Any theories on how major the fix will be and what I should do to fix it? I've thought of a few options.

1. Be an ostrich. It's probably not that bad. I'm sure it will be fine the whole winter.
   
2. Go easy. Call a handyman to get a quote and have him fix it ASAP.
3. Solicit opinions and then try to solicit some volunteers to help fix it.
4. Go big. Start tearing up the shingles and fix it yourself!

Is the source of the leak the roof vent, the metal edging stuff (not sure of its purpose), or some part of the vent pipe for the main floor bathroom? Or something else?

Operation Beach Kayak: FAILED

• Thursday 10:00 PM. Checked the weather - saw it was forecast to be clear on Saturday. Formed plan for Operation Beach Kayak to be executed on Saturday morning.
• Friday 3:00 PM. Heavy clouds and drizzle start to clear. Operation plan still looking feasible.
• Saturday 9:31 AM. Woke up after a good night's sleep. Had breakfast and did the morning routine while contemplating whether Operation Kayak should still be on.
• Saturday 10:30 AM. Brushed teeth and played the piano a bit. Final decision: Operation Kayak is a go!
• Saturday 10:45 AM. Dressed in warm clothing, thick socks, stocking hat, and sandals anticipating upcoming mission. Put valuables in waterproof sack.
• Saturday 11:00 AM. Loaded kayak on wheels and began trek to beach.
• Saturday 11:10 AM. Reached stairs to beach. Met couple who questioned my sanity of going forward with Operation Kayak in the 1 to 2 foot waves coming on the beach.
• Saturday 11:12 AM. Reached water's edge. Removed socks and put sandals back on.
• Saturday 11:14 AM. Began efforts to launch kayak. Waves making it difficult. Try to time going farther out in water with waves coming in. Plans for Operation Beach Kayak beginning to go awry.
• Saturday 11:22 AM. Kayak dumps Mel in waves while still trying to get past them out to calmer waters. Mel is wearing life jacket.
  
• Saturday 11:23 AM. Water is freezing cold! Gasping for air in chilly water, manage to clutch paddle and let waves carry self and kayak on to beach while crawling out of water.
• Saturday 11:24 AM. Make sure all stuff is accounted for and begin to haul kayak from water's edge up the beach to the stairs.
• Saturday 11: 26 AM. Put kayak back on wheels and begin retreat back to house. Coldness hasn't sunk in, possibly due to adrenaline and physical exertion required.
• Saturday 11:35 AM. Reach house again. Try to dump water out of kayak. Neighbor kid comes by on bike with running Mom.
• Saturday 11:37 AM. Neighbor kid stops to watch cleanup of Operation Kayak while his mom goes around the loop. Start to feel cold seeping in.
  
• Saturday 11: 45 AM. Finished washing off kayak and mopping it out. Carry wet gear inside.
• Saturday 11:47 AM. Load wet clothes into washer.
• Saturday 11:49 AM. Take hot shower.
• Saturday 11:59 AM. Exit shower, with clean-up of Operation Beach Kayak complete. All before noon on a Saturday.
• Saturday 12:10 PM. Make hot tea, turn thermostat up to 70 degrees, and put on warm fleece. Contemplate lessons learned.
• Lesson learned: If the waves are big, put a full dry suit on! Or, put in on the river where it isn't so wavy. :-)
  

Nostalgia

As I drove home from the Y today, I grew a little nostalgic when I was passing through my pre-set radio stations and heard a college hockey game being broadcast.

• I missed the smell of a brisk fall evening, or the bite of -20 on my cheeks in the winter as I walked to the arena.
• I missed the almost euphoric feeling of leaving the homework behind for a few hours and spending some time with friends cheering on "our" team.
• I missed knowing all the names of the players and all the student rituals surrounding the game.
• I missed the anticipation of spending time after the game with the aforementioned friends playing rook or going out to eat at Applebee's for half price appetizers.
• And I was thankful that I can look back on that period of my life with such fond memories, and I'm thankful for the people who helped them to be that way.

Now that I'm talking about the "good old days", that probably means I'm getting old.

Mercy

Today I read this article about Ford recalling vehicles because of a potential fire hazard due to a cruise control switch. Last week I saw Toyota did a recall on a bunch of their floormats that could get wedged under the gas pedal and cause the car's speed to keep increasing. I don't know what you think or feel when you read articles like that, but I always get a little bit sick to my stomach with sympathy for the engineers who worked on that product. Because no matter how diligent you are, nothing is completely fail-safe or fool-proof. The Challenger and Columbia proved that. All companies and government agencies occasionally have quality problems, and the good ones manage to have fewer quality problems than others. There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Just to let you know, before a company makes any kind of recall, probably a whole team of engineers and lawyers have reviewed all the data, estimated the likelihood of the incident happening, the severity of the incident, estimated how much it will cost the company, estimated how much it will damage the company's reputation, and done a whole host of other things I probably don't even know about.

The Monday morning quarterback type might think "How could the company let this happen?" Well, let me tell you, there are a multitude of reasons why this could happen. Whatever the article says is the root cause is probably not the whole story or is a badly interpreted story. Below is just a start on the list of reasons why/how this could happen. Disclaimer: just to be clear, I am not an employee for any auto company and am not speaking these as fact for them. These are just possibilities.

• There was a failure mode no one had seen before or could imagine would happen, so no actions could be taken to prevent it.
• The failure modes and effects analysis was done by inexperienced people or not reviewed properly.
• Testing was run incorrectly in the lab.
  
• The design was perfect, but the supplier produced "bad" parts.
• Someone working on the project was so incompetent that others could not compensate for him/her.
• Design requirements changed at the last minute, causing a scramble of activity around redesign and retesting, and something got lost in the shuffle.
• The person/lab who did the testing and/or reviewed the results on that part had a bad day and missed something.
• Not enough resources were on the project, causing some of the work that should have been done to not be done.
• Marketing wanted it done ASAP or launching to market was considered business critical, so a few corners were cut to meet the schedule.
• The business people said "full steam ahead" when the engineers were saying "no". If the business people have more power, then it's "carry on" and "we're willing to accept that risk".

P.S. Almost always, the people who make the mess are not the ones who have to clean it up after the disaster strikes. More's the pity.

Dear Dr. Beau

Thank you for selling me my rec specs. They are working great for racquetball. Every time I use them my eyes feel very safe. They are also so stylish that I am attracting boys in droves. Unless it's the knee-high socks that are doing it. Sometimes it's so difficult to know.

Thanks again,
MelBMarvis

Squirrel Heaven...

...is what my yard is. I spent three hours yesterday raking my lawn to get all the acorns and some leaves and branches off of it so that it would be clean enough to mow. Total I probably hauled off more than three wheelbarrows full of acorns. If you've seen my postage stamp sized lawn, you can imagine how thick they must have been.

Ho-Hum Time

There's nothing too exciting to blog about around here, so I'll have to use some of my old fodder for this post. As alluded to several weeks ago, I had another possible ND travel post. This is it. I have recently started receiving the magazine "Time". I'm not a faithful reader of the magazine yet (there's a big pile of unreads on the counter), but they are good for reading on plane rides. Here are some interesting things I found in a couple of the issues I was reading. Taken from the August 31st and September 14th, 2009 issues of "Time" magazine.

• "Afghanistan produces the raw opium for more than 90% of the world's heroin."
• "Before the European Union's ban on incandescent light bulbs went into effect on Sept. 1, consumers across Europe raided stores to stockpile the familiar bulbs. Under the new rules, retailers can continue to sell what they have in stock but won't be able to buy or import more. The policy forces shoppers to switch to environmentally friendly compact fluorescent lamps, which use 80% less electricity. But fans of the traditional lights argue that the new bulbs don't glow as warmly - and that they cost more than twice as much."
• This isn't a quote from the magazine, but I noticed that there are a couple advertisement pages made of slightly different paper that have region/area specific advertisements on them. I wonder how complicated the system is that keeps track of managing inserting the correct regional ad pages and getting the right magazine shipped to the right place with the specialized advertising?
• "This teaches us a lesson: that combinations of biologic treatments are more powerful than their individual components," says Schwartzentruber" Mel comment: It's called an interaction - we learned about them in Six Sigma training. Now they need to run some scientific experiments on those interactions while varying several factors.
• The five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is 99%. Breast cancer is 89%. Leukemia is 51%. Ovarian cancer is 46%. Pancreatic cancer is 5%. For all cancers on average the survival rate after five years is 66%.
• Rick Ludwin, NBC's executive vice president in charge of prime time and late night: "We're not the National Endowment for the Arts. This is business."
• "The feast of the assumption is one of the holiest days on the Roman Catholic calendar, marking the time the Virgin Mary is believed to have been physically taken into heaven after death." Mel comment: This is in reference to a holiday in Sri Lanka, but seriously, what scripture are they reading to know this? The feast of the assumption sounds like an appropriate name.
• "There is no Republican health-care alternative in 2009." Mel comment: Why do they need to propose an alternative? Can't they just oppose an idea if they don't think it's a good one? I miss laissez-faire.

That's it for now peeps. Tune in for another installment later.

Random Stuff and Things

• Work was better today. It's amazing how a weekend helps you get some fresh perspective and patience.
  
• As part of my supper tonight I ate a whole can of corn. According to the can, that's like six servings worth. Vegetables today: check.
  
• Was in WI for the weekend and got to go to probably a once-in-a-lifetime meeting. That was interesting and reassuring.
• When I go to WI now, I feel like I know quite a few people. Some from getting to know them in person, some from their blogs. It's in my "top five" of "home" places along with ND, here, Fergus, and WY/MT. I won't prioritize them specifically since I don't even know what the order would be.
  
• I may have mentioned this before, but speaking of getting to know someone from their blog. It's very strange in some cases to actually spend time with people you get to know virtually. Like people from work. Some of them I instant message many times a day and spend several hours on the phone in meetings or screen sharing with them every week. Often you know what they look like because you've met them before or have seen a picture in the company directory, but still you sort of form a mental image in your head of their personality. Anyway, I'm just saying when you actually spend time in person with them you hardly know what to do without a computer in front of you and hundreds/thousands of miles of cable between you. Still, in person is always better than virtually.
  
• When I powered up my computer today the hard drive was running like crazy for like an hour. I'm pretty sure it was just windows updates. Hopefully. I think.
  
• Nothing tastes quite as good as someone else's home cooking. Especially if it involves mashed potatoes.
• I saw someone this weekend who is terminally ill. I don't know if it would be better or worse to know beforehand that you were going to die. It seems like the anticipation/dread would almost kill you (pun intended). Thankfully we don't have to choose and can trust that however it is for us will be the best way for each of us.
  
• Sadly, I didn't have any profound thoughts on my drive home yesterday, so this is all you get from the weekend. Toodleoo!
  

Aaaaarrrrggghhh

It must be nice to be one of the guys near the top. First you tell the engineers that they must have two suppliers for every part. After that, you have a legal dispute with one of the suppliers and tell the engineers they can't use one of the aforementioned suppliers. Then, when you have supply chain issues because you have a single supplier, you blame the engineers for not having multiple suppliers and for not being able to predict the usage volumes six months into the future. *Sigh*......Thank goodness it's the weekend.

Make the best of it even if it is cold and rainy!

It's Official...

...I'm a wimp. I didn't even make it through the month of September without turning on my furnace. This summer I used my AC also. I know, it's a total disgrace. Last year I made it all the way to October 21st. This year it was only September 29th. I got discouraged by the weather forecast, which said it probably would barely get above 60 degrees for the next week, so I figured I might as well break down early and be comfortable. Or, maybe this just means I'm getting older and wiser.

Question: What do you talk about with someone on the phone when you barely know the person you're talking to? Especially if it's not a conference call because you aren't at work.

And, I'm thankful for GM to help give me a boost after a frustrating hour at work at the end of the day. Have I mentioned how I'm not impressed with our computer help desk at work? It proves once again you get what you pay for.

P.S. I forgot to mention the concert I went to the other day. It's an acappella group called Vocal Union that sings in the Southern Gospel genre. I'm not a huge fan of southern gospel, but I am a huge fan of acappella, especially when it's done as well as they do it. Out of the songs they sang, I liked "I Wanna Love You", "Heavenly Music", and "Old Ship Of Zion". Too bad that last one isn't on YouTube. It has a bass part in there with notes so low it makes the room rattle and sends shivers up your spine. Much to my dismay they didn't sing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" or "Ride The Chariot".

New Toy

Check out the "stork" with my new baby. And the view I had of the river today while I was using it.




I paid several hundred more than what I thought was my upper "limit", but I think it was worth it for the extra comfort and stability. Going and sitting in the kayaks I did at the recommendation of Dad's friend, so I can blame my extra expenditure on him. :-)

Kayaking, anyone?

Miscellaneous

Joke overheard at the Y today:
Do you know what the difference is between bird flu and swine flu? For the bird flu you need tweetment, and for the swine flue you need oinkment.

As I was leaving work today, I was doing some loose word association in my head, and it went something like this:
color : LED : bins : grain : seed : apple : fruit : me : Kevin Bacon

That's all for today folks. Stay out of jail!

'Vention Rerun Part II

I just got back from convention again - went home to ND for it. It was most excellent. There was lots of food both spiritually and naturally of course. Some other things of note:

• In my opinion, they have the best stroganoff ever there. Hands down.
• All those kids who used to be less than four feet tall when I left several years ago are now seniors in high school and six feet tall, which means I'm getting old.
• I saw a guy at the airport who looked nice, so I picked him up and brought him to convention.
• Corn on the cob apparently looks like potentially dangerous substances on the TSA security X-ray machine.
• It gives you a warm fuzzy to go out to the raspberry and corn patch with a bunch of your relatives to pick some fresh produce to eat.
• If you're not from the prairie, you don't know the wind. You can't know the wind.
• Also had some very delicious homemade applesauce. Once you've tasted that stuff, it pretty much ruins you on eating any of that mealy store-bought stuff.
• The new meeting shed is huge - plenty of room for everyone with lots of leg room!
• Beautiful weather made it extra good. Temps in the 80's every day (except today when I was flying home).

I have some other stuff related to the trip I'm going to write, but I'll do it in a separate post later. Bye for now!

Bric and Brac

• Irony. Sign printing on door at local store branch: "Sears. Where it begins." Large yellow temporary sign above it: "6 days remaining of store close-out sale."
• Eighty miles in one day on my bicycle is about my limit in my current physical condition. Unless it's all downhill of course.
• Eighty miles on my bike vs. driving 45 minutes to go clothes shopping.....the choice is easy.
  
• September here is usually a nice month and has been so far this year. The water and land temperatures are about the same, so there are lots of sunny, clear skies and comfortable temperatures.
• I bought a meat thermometer to try to grill better - so my meat would be more tender and juicy. So far the chicken is burned and dry by the time the meat thermometer says it has reached an acceptable temperature.
• I wish clothing store sections were more clearly delineated and labeled. You know, instead of Misses and Women sections grouped by brand with no rhyme or reason, they need sections like "25 and younger (very revealing)", "All jeans, All brands 25 and younger", "All jeans, All brands 25 and older", "Button downs with stripes or check patterns", "Sensible professional clothes", "T-shirts (all sleeve lengths)", "Polo shirts", "Sweaters", etc. Then they should put walls or clear dividers between these sections.
  
• I often accidentally wander to the maternity section and start wondering why all the clothes look so much larger than before.
• Part of my shopping problem may be that my brain goes into overload, especially on sale racks. Too many colors and patterns mixed together prohibits me from concentrating.
  

Odds and Ends

• The air handling system at work might be going through menopause or something. Yesterday down by the model shop it felt like a meat locker. Today at my desk in the morning it was might chilly too. I was almost wishing for a second sweater until around lunch time when it started to get awfully toasty to the point I was wishing for a thinner short sleeved shirt. By the end of the day it was almost sweater time again.
• Yesterday as I was biking to work I almost hit these two guys. They were standing alongside the road. If I had seen them a little bit sooner, I could almost have reached out and touched one of them. They still have their spots.
• I noticed someone wearing grayish tan old man velcro shoes today. Can you still buy them in stores today, or are they left over from a few years ago?