Merry Christmas

For Christmas, I give you the gift of song. The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend rendering one of the great Carols.
Enjoy!

Holiday mood

I just found this photo of dad, doing his best 'Cousin Eddie' impression. Nothing puts you in the spirit like a poorly grounded outlet!

Now Boarding

If you ever listen to Harry Shearer's radio program, you've heard his songs that pay tribute to the fine statesmen and women of the Bush Administration. this one. Here's the video for one of the best from his latest album - enjoy! (thanks to Beef)

New Look

The weekend wasn't all spent riding trains and rubbing elbows with other train geeks...

Since we bought the house, I've wanted to do something, anything, with the back porch. It was sort of fenced in with plastic lattice panels, and was pretty dated looking. Shaunn painted them a few years ago, but that just made them more obvious. It just needed a new look.
I knew that they had some large bamboo rolls at Home Depot - I'd seen them earlier this summer when garden shopping. I thought they'd be perfect to replace the lattice and update the look. The nice weather gave me no excuses to stay indoors, so sunday was the day.

I bought them and was pleasantly suprised that they were cheaper than they were in June. ($17 each instead of $25) They each measure 16 by 6 feet, so I could cut them in half and make it double-sided.
We took down the old lattice, and then cut them to hang in their place. The panels are pretty light, so they don't need heavy duty mounting. I secured them with some cable ties.


The result is much better, and more open feeling, while offering more privacy. Not bad for $50 and about 2 hours of work! Now to do something about that tin roof.

Steam Festival

We took advantage of the nice weather and made a day trip out to Byesville (near Hellotown) for their annual Steam and Mining festival today. We were both noobs there, but we fit in all right. It was fun - an hour long train ride, with narrators in the cars who told the story of the railiroad and the mines that operated in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The fun thing is everything there is hands on - you can even get up into the engineer's cab (I didn't have time to before they were stoking the boiler for the next run). They hold it every year, but I figured with the economy the way it is, a volunteer run operation might have to cut back after this season. But who cares? It's a big goddamn steam engine!

Butterfly

I noticed a small pod-looking thing hanging form the roof of our porch a few days ago. I didn't look closely to see what it was, but I no longer have to wonder. It was a chrysalis for a Monarch butterfly, which emerged just an hour or so ago.



I added a few additional photos to my Flickr account. Rabbits, birds, butterflies...our back yard has seen a lot of action this year.

The Classic Fake

Bringing lunch to work just got a little more interesting...

moldy sandwich bags

Where were these when I was in 4th grade? Just think of the possibilities...

Safety First

So a good portion of the city was still without power on friday. At least the weather was nice this week, but that’s small comfort to people going on day 6 with no lights.

Columbus city schools opened friday for the first time of the week. The news mentioned that on thursday evening about every 3 minutes, and kept reminding all of us idiots to watch out for them, especially at the intersections where the lights are out. The implication being that we know you're all shiatty drivers but we need you to straighten up just this once because the kids will be out there, and this is SERIOUS because it’s dangerous with all the non working traffic signals. It’s so serious that the police will have officers at every single intersection with no working lights to help the little snowflakes get across.

So friday morning, I pulled up to the one light that was still out on my commute. It's a busy intersection downtown (Broad & Washington). All the traffic is treating it like a 4 way stop intersection - with the exception of one vehicle driving down Broad St. in the opposite direction from me. It gets closer, and I realize it’s not stopping. It blows right on through the other stopped traffic and the intersection, not even flinching – luckily the car on Washington was paying attention. Now, that’s bad enough, when people are so self absorbed that they don’t even notice or question why everyone around them is stopping.

The best part? The miscreant was driving a large, yellow vehicle, with ‘Columbus City Schools’ painted on the side, and I’m sure a few rows’ worth of children on board. Yep. And no police anywhere to be seen. Well, at least the children are safe. Except maybe the ones on that driver’s route.

Windy McBlowsalot Comes To Town

Well, we officially don’t like Ike.

While we didn’t get any rain, we got substantial wind for several hours yesterday. The winds were sustained between 60-75 mph for several hours in the area, according to the local news. Yowza. When I left work tonight, AEP was still reporting a little over 300,000 people without power in Columbus. That's about 55% of their customers. It's a similar story in the Cincinnati and Cleveland areas.

At home, our power went out about 6 times, but they were all momentary interruptions, where the circuit resets itself (if it can) after something contacts the line. On our property, damage was pretty minimal. The only casualties were an ugly trellis, and the top of the car shelter frayed a bit from the winds. I think a little clear tape should take care of that. And I have replacement trellises that I bought earlier this year, so this gives me a reason to finally get rid of the tacky old ones.

We were lucky, there’s large trees down and property damage all over the state. Nala said he and Giga were out yesterday, they witnessed roofs and siding being pulled off buildings, transformers blowing (that was not a Michael Bay critique), just wild crazy stuff.

I don’t know how the shelter made it through…when the wind was getting strong, I decided to take off the end panel, so wind could pass through it rather than turn it into a kite. I also moved the car out of it, and had a utility knife on standby in case I had to slash the fabric to relieve the wind pressure. Amazingly, it held up under the ass kicking that Mother Nature threw down yesterday.

For a more colorful story, check out Naladahc's blog, who has even less love for Ike. Er, he will, once their power is restored!

Palin around

Vet Voice

The Commander of the Alaska National Guard was causing some problems for Palins' claims of experience. He had explained that as Governor, she has no direct oversight in their operations.
That is until he had a talking to last week. Suddenly he began praising her oversight and direction. I guess she found time for that in between firing her safety director and asking people to pray for her pipeline project.
Well, surprise surprise, the Commander has been promoted for his sudden change of heart. The link takes you to the rundown of events.

Waterworld postponed

Well, the basement seems to be rated for at least 3 inches of rain without leaking. But lately with the several recent hurricanes and tropical storms wandering all over the eastern us, we could have been socked with a motherload of water. So far, so good, nothing of note has hit the Cowlands.
Ike was turning out to be the latest potential headache. Yesterday they were planning on it marching right thru the center of Ohio, and one forecast said we'd see 5-10 inches of rain here. Ouch.
But, it looks like it's fizzling fast and has changed course slightly. Now, we're forecast to have maybe a tenth of an inch of rain.
Whew!

Unfortunately, my relatives in Chicago have a different story to tell about that.

The race

Forget the hockey mom and Skeletor, or the other guy who has the nerve to pronounce 'nuclear' like a grown up. How uppity.

Silence. Here is the candidate who will save us all. All we have to do is kneel.

Zod for President

The view from the Buggalo ranch

Martian Sky

A short video clip of clouds moving across the Martian sky, taken by the Phoenix Polar Lander. Would be even cooler if NASA had upgraded to a color camera for an additional $29.

Garden Plans

When I decided to cultivate a garden this year, I made a decision to only buy perennials. That was mainly because I figured the plants would come back fuller and better every year. While that is true, the one aspect I didn’t know about was that most perennials only bloom for short periods of time, a few weeks or so. And for a new garden, until the plants are established and there’s a selection of things that bloom at different times, you’ve got a garden full of non blooming plants. While that can be nice, and green trumps brown for garden color, I’d like some more variety. Besides, I can’t tell if half of the plants in there now are just invasive weeds. So next year. I’ll be stocking up on annuals to fill in the areas that were let down by plants that only bloomed for a few weeks.

In addition, my veggie plot will be started this fall to get a jump on spring planting. I’m pretty sure where it will be, now it’s down to devoting the time to the project. Those trains will have to run themselves for a while.

I might even go whole hog and start some indoor seedlings late in the winter, to make sure we're not waiting until August for something to eat!

Vacation

We just returned from our week's vacation - already!
There's too much to post right now, so until I can get the details, I uploaded one batch of photos to fickr, you can view them here.These are from the first couple of days, so there's more to see and much to tell...but in a nutshell, it was wonderful.

Camera

Well, I broke down and bought a new camera. They had one on clearance on Sears that had a nice large lens for good light gathering, and a nice 12x optical zoom - most of the point and clicks go to 4 or maybe 5x. That's nice for my train blog, where 75% of my pictures are taken.

I need a little practice with the focus settings...I tried to zoom in on this new bloomer in the garden, but it seemed to focus on the background plants.

Besides seeming to have a pretty healthy appetite for batteries, I'm happy with it so far. Can't wait to get some shots in Southold with it!

Photo Free

Well, I've managed to lose the camera. It' s probably in Toledo, where it's gotten to who knows where. So the blog has been light on posting, as I'm a visual kind of person.
Anyway, you've gotta see the herbs...and the jalepeno pepper plant I bought a few months ago is huge. I picked the first one today, it went into a marinade for steak. Shaunn has never seen me jump around like a little kid fanning my lips, but that's what he got when I took the first slice from it. But they're so god, I had 2 more before adding them to the marinade. Shaunn can't eat anything that has ever been within 40 miles of spicy, so mine is sequestered to a far corner of the fridge inside a hermetically sealed container.

We're taking our first bona fide vacation in years next week. We're going to my Uncle Preston's beach house in Long Island NY with Madre, Cate Don and little Geo. My grandparents bought the house around 1940 for a song, and it's been the family getaway ever since. A week of lounging and watching the waves. I can't wait!

Real Genius

Today the cashier at Kroger and I were talking about vegetables. I had Cilantro, she had assumed it was Parsley. She'd never heard of Cilantro. Well, whatever, she admitted that she didn't know what they were, and we weren't arguing or anything. The bagger said something, and she turned to him and said "Well his hat says he's a genius, so he must know what he's talking about". I stopped for a second, wondering what she meant. And then I remembered I was wearing this:
I guess she thought my iq was either 17 or 59.

Summer Reading

This is what occupied most of my dad's free time for the last several years of his life. The family genealogy project. I had promised myself that I would finish this for him.
He had amassed all kinds of information, most of it from his mother's side of the family. On his father's side, his great-grandfather Daniel Harrington arrived from Ireland around 1840 when he was about 6 years old.

Research into any history prior to that was hampered by a fateful turn of events. In 1916, the Irish government ordered all churches in the country to submit all birth, marriage and death records to the Public Record Office of Ireland for safekeeping.
During the Irish Civil War in 1922, the Records Office was destroyed in a fire. A thousand years of family histories, land records, court documents...all lost. I think that's when they coined the phrase "Luck O' The Irish".

At any rate, dad has done a lot of research, obviously. I've seen bits of pieces of it before, but I now have all of it in here with me. I'm trying to read through an envelope a night, to get a sense of what's here. I hope I can start putting some of it together to share with relatives later this year.

Finally

I was able to drop the car off yesterday for the new navigation unit. Everything went fine this time, and it was done in plenty of time for me to pick it up after work. The repair cost was about $192, which is the total sum of all repairs I've spent on my last two Hondas. Hopefully this unit will be trouble-free, but just in case it does have an additional 12 month warranty. Sadly, this one doesn't have a Mr. T voice option either. Sigh.

Next time I get a car, I'll probably pass on the Navigation, as the hand held units are so much cheaper than they were 5 years ago. Back then, finding one for less than about $700 was rare. Now you can probably get them in Happy Meals.

But with the credit crunch and gas prices where they are, I'm not in the market for a new car. I think we'll hang onto it for a few more years. And now once again I can talk to the car, instead of swearing at it.

Water

The joy of homeownership…I feel like some kind of idiot scientist…performing experiments to see what works, or doesn’t to keep water out or the basement. And my only testing method is waiting for the rains to come.

Our driveway, which was re-poured a couple of years before we bought the house, is evidently sloped ever so slightly towards the house. This must be a fairly recent development, as we never had water issues in the area of the basement until last year – that’s now where the majority of the problem is.

I learned this by standing out there during a downpour to see where the hell the water was coming from. The water ran off the driveway’s edge and formed a pool by the base of the chimney that quickly disappeared once the rain stopped. It was sneaky.

Another smaller issue was the runoff from the car shelter is now directed right into the bed between the driveway and the house at the upper end. I’ve drylocked the interior walls, so the water is less of an issue there, but I had to deal with that as well, as the water will pool there alarmingly just a couple feet from the house in heavy rain.

So anyway, onto the fix(es)…

I called 2 companies that do concrete leveling. But apparently they have all the business they can handle right now, as 2 calls with promised call backs and nothing else is as far as I’ve gotten. So until I find another reputable company, it’s up to me.

I figured that the water by the chimney, while a large volume, isn’t under any pressure. If I can stop the runoff at the edge, that low spot will fill to a point and then the water will either run off the other side or down the steep slope which begins just a few feet away.

So, my temporary fix…composite fiberglass edging, which is water and rot resistant. I bought one section (16 feet) and installed it so that it was flush with the edge of the concrete slab. For the seam between the two surfaces, I used a butyl rubber caulk intended for gutters and flashing. I put a nice thick bead along the whole thing, so it would expand outward forming a raised edge as it dried for a waterproof seal. I’ll have to keep an eye on it to see how long it lasts, but even if I have to replace the caulk once or twice a year, that’s definitely preferable to having water in the basement.

For the shelter, I bought a few sections of open channel gutter, and placed it so that the edge of the shelter falls directly into it when water runs off the lower lip. I angled it slightly so that the water will run off at the far end of the driveway. It looks better than I thought. I trimmed a couple of inches off the bottom edge of the tarp so that when the wind blows, it can move freely, but won’t get caught on the outer lip when it ‘flops’ back to vertical. I want to secure it to the shelter’s legs with plastic ties, but it hasn’t budged over the last couple of breezy days, so maybe I should leave well enough alone for now.

So far, so good…the rain we had Monday morning stayed where I wanted it to, and the surrounding ground was dry to the touch afterward – bone dry. I’ll have to see how these do in a heavy rain before I can declare a temporary victory.

Mo Basement Fun

We had huge amounts of rain over the past 2 days. Not at all like some other places had, but we saw at least 5 inches in our end of town.

The basement, although not dry, held up fairly well considering the deluge. Thursday was the worst, we had close to 3 inches in just a couple of hours. The basement remained dry for that. It didn't leak until last night when we had another downpour, but I was able to clean it up in about 10 minutes. But then we had more downpours early this am, and I was awakened by the sound of water trickling into the floor drain. It's stopped seeping in now. But apparently 3+ inches of rain is the new breaking point -a step up from how it used to flood any time we saw more than one.
I've been able finally find the source of the problem -driveway runoff that all pools in one spot by the chimney. So I'm off to Lowe's to buy materials to hatch yet another cunning plan.

Great

Well, the appointment to have the Honda’s navigation system repaired was made for last Monday the 9th. And it was not quite what I hoped for.

I made the appointment early so I could drop the car off, get the loaner and arrive at work at a decent time. I drove the 20 or so miles to the dealer, and arrived at 7am. When I got there, they couldn’t find my paperwork for the appointment, which was a bad omen. They spent a good 10 minutes searching to no avail, and finally had to go back to the service office to print it out, as it wasn’t in their daily pile o’ crap to do.

It gets better…as the tech was walking over with the work order, I heard another voice telling him something about ‘backordered’. The part that I was supposed to have swapped out wasn’t there yet.

So why didn’t anyone tell me this prior to my arrival in the service bay? Good question. But I’ve learned not to ask questions I already know the answer to. Helps to keep my blood pressure at a relatively constant value.

Apologies ensued, and they promised a call as soon as it came in. Well, I got a call yesterday that it had arrived. They set me up for Friday the 20^th. This time I’m calling the day before to confirm everything.

Happy 1974

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For years, Detroit’s Big 3 have churned out umpteen types of large pickups and SUVs, and mroe or less outsourced their small car programs - releasing half-assed attempts of their own, or selling rebadged versions of other cars from Suzuki, Daewoo, and others. If any critics ever questioned them about this long-term strategy, they blew them off and said that people will always need the trucks, and therefore, the market was pretty secure, so that's where they'll focus their business. So they continued to develop and market 12-mpg Suburbans and Expeditions, and hoped for the best.

People will always need something, and pay through the nose for it. Isn’t that what they used to say about housing?

It looks like May 2008 may have been a watershed moment in the auto industry. For the first time since the late 1970s, the best selling vehicle in the U.S. wasn’t the Ford F-Series or Chevy Silverado. Not even a Dodge Ram.

It was the lowly Honda Civic, with monthly sales of 53,299.

So the Ford was in second, right? Nope. Second was the Toyota Corolla, at 52,826.

Third was the Toyota Camry, at 51,291. Fourth was the Honda Accord with 43,728.

The F-series is back in fifth, with monthly sales of 42,973. The Silverado is down to 6^th, at 37,020. That’s less than half of what they were selling just a few years ago.

Mom went car shopping a few days ago, she had a hard time finding Hondas and Toyotas she could drive. No wonder.

Now, imagine how things would look if over the last 10 years, Detroit had taken at least some of the money poured into development of trucks and spent it on cars instead. I mean GM and Ford each have maybe one or two decent, competitive cars for sale. But that’s stacked against the dozen or so truck models each one has sitting in their showrooms.

This week, both companies have announced massive layoffs, and factory closings, in an attempt to counter the reality that they’re selling ice cream during a blizzard.

It would be sad, if they hadn’t gone through the exact same thing in the 1970s when gas prices spiked and they had showrooms full of full size vehicles that no one wanted to buy. The Japanese automakers, however, had showrooms full of fuel efficient cars for sale, and sold as many as they could.

All they could do was damage control - and close plants and layoff scores of workers, who paid the price for their employer’s poor business decisions. But then gas prices stabilized, and they decided to give up on the small cars that they had never really figured out anyway, went back to business as usual, and started the cycle all over again.

New Old Plants

At happy hour a couple weeks ago, a coworker of mine mentioned that she had several daylilies and hostas that she wanted to thin out - she said they were free to anyone who wanted to stop over and get them. I wanted more plants to finish off our front garden, and these would be perfect.
Now a job like this needs a truck, so I enlisted Gigamatt for help - he's the only person I know with a truck - and we went over saturday morning to get them. The plants were arranged around the edge of Cindi's deck, and had been there for at least 10 years. They were enormous. After an hour or so of digging, we'd taken at least a dozen plants - and even split in half, they were still about 2 feet wide.

By the time we loaded the plants, stopped off for mulch, had breakfast, and got back to my house, it was going on 1pm. Giga set off with a few plants for his place, and I decided it was too hot to start digging up the front. So I put them all in a shady spot, and watered them a few times the rest of the day.
The plants survived overnight, and I set out early sunday morning to get them in the ground. There wasn't space for them all up front - I planted 3 lilies and a hosta in a smaller bed by the back door. They took up a lot more space than I realized, but that's fine - I don't think we need anything else for this year. I can't wait until these really start to fill in!

Nice

Just when you thought customer service had gone the way of the Dodo and powdered wigs, along comes this.

You might recall that our car’s navigation system had started acting up occasionally a few months ago. Right now, it works about half the time. Lucky for me, I know where I’m going the other half of the time.

Well, I finally made an appointment to have it looked at again by the dealer, Roush Honda. When I dropped it off yesterday, I asked the service tech if he’d ever seen this problem before. He said that he had, but they had a software update that fixed the issue ‘most of the time’. The cost for the diagnostic and software upload was $84. That seemed fair to me.

So I got my loaner and drove to work, to await The Call.

The call came a little after 4pm. It was the same guy who I’d spoken to that morning. He explained that the software update didn’t do the trick, the unit couldn’t triangulate the car’s location correctly – and it appeared that the drive unit for the system was dying. As our car is long out of warranty (it just had the 75k mile oil change last month), the cost for a new unit would be…wait for it…

$4100.

Wow. I didn’t say anything. Luckily, he did. He explained that they could see that I’ve brought the car in to them for every service interval, and have been a longtime customer. He’d talked it over with the service manager, and they’d agreed to do this as a warranty exchange. They would swap out the unit and my only cost for that would be labor, for a total of $225 plus tax. I said, “So, you’re giving roughly a 95% discount?” He said “Well it’s not like you bought the car 4 years ago, disappeared, and showed up today demanding special treatment. We’re willing to work something out in situations like yours.” I’d say they certainly do.

I had been ready for a fight, and was ready to bring up the fact that I had came to them for service, etc etc. But I didn’t have to. I didn’t have to argue, complain, ask to talk to anyone higher up…none of that.

And as a little extra bonus, they didn’t charge me the $84 for the diagnostic, because the software upload didn’t fix the problem.

The units have to be specially ordered, and one won’t be in until June 1. So only a couple more weeks.

And they’ve just earned a customer for life.

Gardening

We decided to do something about our long neglected front garden We'd planted some hostas and a few perennials a few years ago, but that was about it. None of them really did too well.
So this year, I wanted to do it right. The existing soil is a very heavy clay that apparently kills plants or seriously stunts their growth. I bought some soil conditioners on the advise of Mr. and Mrs. Pickles and a few gardening books (compost and cow poop) and mixed those in with some new topsoil.
Then I added a few perennials - white Daisys, yellow Coreopisis, purple Salvias, and various Lilies. I figured red was covered by the Japanese Maple, which is doing much better this year - maybe due to less saturated soil?
I moved most of the hostas to the front corner of the bed to make room for the new plants.














Not a victory garden yet, but these should start to fill in nicely in a year or two. The Coreopsis is already sending out runners after only a week. I'm going to get a few more plants next week, then we'll mulch the bed and see what happens.

My Favorite Ho

Ding Ho, the local Chinese restaurant that's old enough for an AARP card, is still open.
They had moved abruptly from their previous location on Broad St. during the winter, and I was worried that the bad timing combined with the struggling economy would spell their doom. I'm glad to see I was wrong.
My mom was in town for a brief visit on thursday, and discovered that they were up and running in their new location on Philippi Rd, right next to Kohl's.
We stopped in and ordered some carryout. We also sampled their margaritas to make sure they were up to snuff. While there, I asked the bartender what prompted the sudden move. She explained that a family dispute caused it all...her uncle owned the building of their former location, while her father had the rights to the business. The uncle wanted a controlling interest, and when that was refused, he forced the restaurant out.
Business seemed good for a random thursday evening. The new location is a lot more visible from the road, so that should help bring people in. They're also adding an outdoor patio that looked about ready to open.
The food was just as good as it was at the old location, so the only thing you'll miss is the old dingy restaurant.

My Albatross

This year, my goal is to do something, anything with our landscaping. It’s been more or less neglected since we moved in. Other than removing some ugly bushes and planting a handful of Hostas, we haven’t really got serious about anything yet.

But this year will be different. It’s not going to be an HGTV quality makeover, but we’re making some plans and some improvements that can be handled without stressing ourselves financially to do it.

The basic outline so far…

Front Tree

replant hostas, add phlox ground cover to fill in the raised bed area.

Front bed

Raise and rework soil

Replace red mulch with black

Plant bed with hostas along sidewalk, bed filled with flowering plants and tall grasses behind

Trellis(es) against house with climbing flowering plants

Low trellis wall to frame porch perimeter w/ planting boxes on top

Back Yard

Add small patio behind covered porch

Rose bushes along south fence

Along the back (west) fence…not sure yet. Probably medium evergreens and hydrangeas mixed

Add planting beds around NW corner and by shed for veggies and herbs

That’s a lot to get accomplished in a few months and a small budget. But dirt and plants aren’t that expensive, the main cost is in time and effort. But we’re tired of looking out at patchy grass and neglected flower beds. Time to do something about it!

The Weekend

This past weekend, Shaunn and I met up with the family in Chicago for the ABTA fundraising 5k run/walk which was held on Saturday morning along the lakefront.

The weather on Friday was too good to be true, so that wasn’t going to hold up. The 80 degrees and sunshine gave way Friday night to tornado watches and strong storms. Saturday it was dry, but temps were in the 40s and the wind was howling, even for Chicago.

When we got out of the car at the park where the walk was being organized, we were greeted by the sight of the wind blowing over 3 port-a-johns that had been set up for the crowd. I resolved then and there to hold everything until we got home.

The run/walk attracted the largest crowd ever for the event, and almost all teams had made their own shirts commemorating the person or people they were walking for. We got several compliments on ours, and naturally we thought they were the best.

My 2 sisters, Beef’s husband Richard, my neice Lindsay’s boyfriend Scott, and my mom all took part in the run. The rest of us, Lindsay, Don, little Geo, and me resolved to walk instead, as we had nothing to prove. It was a nice walk in spite of the cold wind, and the vistas along the lakefront are beautiful enough to take your mind off anything.

After a couple hours, we headed home to rest and get some food in us. It was a great experience, and we’re already talking about when to start raising money for next year. Later that day we stopped off to visit grandma for a bit and had a great-but too brief- visit.

On the way back from Chicago, Shaunn and I stopped off in Yellow Springs to visit my friend Jennifer, who I haven’t seen in a few years. It was great to see her and get caught up on our so called lives.

Visitors

We were a temporary home for a couple of critters over the weekend. I thought I heard something rustling around on the back porch Friday night, but didn't think anything of it. Saturday we were clearing off the porch and heard it again, coming form the basement window well. I pulled away the well cover, not knowing what I'd find...
Two baby rabbits! We don't know if they intended to go in there, or once they got in realized they couldn't get out. I put some alfalfa in the well, and lowered a dish of water down to them. I also placed a wooden shelf inside as a ramp to the top- they were trying to hop out occasionally without much success.
By late sunday, they had managed to climb out and they were gone, we haven't seen them since. Hey, at least it wasn't raccoons.

Damn Spam

I had to turn on the word verification for comments...I seemed to suddenly be attracting toner salesmen from Brazil this weekend, which isn't as glamourous as it sounds.

Weekend Plans

A friend of ours passed away this week, so my plans for a rib fest this weekend were dashed - Shaunn thought we could use some down time instead. So, I thought I can get some outside work done - mow the grass, maybe get a couple of garden beds ready. But now they're calling for rain all weekend. So, no ribs, no gardening. Where's that remote?

Dry Basement

Storms last night, storms off and on all day today, and not a drop of water in the basement. Wow. Is it fixed?

The True Story of the Enterprise

I've been a fan of Star Trek since I was a kid...over the last several years that interest has waned, partly due to the same story being rehashed over and over, and mostly due to other sci fi shows finally coming along that illustrate how bad it really is...but now I've fallen in love with the Enterprise all over again.
The History Channel is in the middle of a weekly series called Battle 360. It's the story of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in WW2. It's an extremely well produced program, with first hand accounts, incredible cgi effects, and a riveting story to tell.
Most people know that there were other ships called Enterprise besides the one in Gene Rodenberry's imagination. But the WW2-vintage Enterprise was absolutely vital in the Pacific fleet...for several months, it was the only operational US carrier in that theater, all her sisters being put out of commission. It went on to become the most decorated and revered US ship of the war.
No wonder "Enterprise" was the name chosen, to honor the memory of the real crew that served.
The series will apparently be 10 episodes long...ending early in May. It's worth a look.

No Water

Well, I may have fixed part of the problem…we had plenty of rain thursday night and friday. Not a ton, but more than we had earlier in the week, when water came in yet again.
The basement – in all areas, was completely, utterly bone dry. Not even a hint of moisture along the floor/wall seams.
In recent weeks, after all the snow melt, and the constant rains, we could expect some basement water if we had over say a half inch or so. Instead of seeping in all around the foundation, it’s now being pumped into the back yard.
But this was the first time I can really remember not seeing any water, anywhere after a decent rain. and the ground is still pretty soaked from all the fucked weather we had in March - 20 inches of snow, then almost half a foot of rain over the next 2 weeks? Gah.
I still have to take care of the grading problems, but I can probably scale that back a bit from the 7 cubic yards of dirt I was ready to order.
At this point, yeah, it’s a big difference, but it wasn’t a real heavy soaking rain. If we get 3 inches of rain, and the basement remains dry, I can call it a victory. This being springtime in the Midwest, I’m sure I won’t have to wait very long.

Litmus Test

Well, cautious optimism is the word of the day…

You may recall that I replaced the sump pump a few weeks back. Since then, whenever it runs, as the water goes into the underground pipe, it finishes off with a gurgling, and the excess water comes up out of the former downspout connection. So that pipe is blocked. I knew I had to fix that.

In my head, I finally put it together over the weekend. Some water is gurgling out, but not all. That means the pipe is broken at some point, but I wasn’t sure if that could be the only source, it had to be the major one, as none of the ground in the problem area gets very wet during a rain.

Well, we were having another round of rain Tuesday. I decided the sooner I got to work the better, now that I had a plan. I disconnected the sump discharge line from the underground connection (unplugging the pump first!), and ran to Lowe’s to get some pvc to run it out into the yard, just like the gutter downspout. 15 feet of pvc and a connector It cost me all of $6.98. (btw, I learned that a 10 foot section of pipe will fit in the car, with the trunk closed. Cool)

I was racing the clock, as the pump was unplugged, and it was raining, and I had no idea how quickly that water could fill the sump pit. Naturally, it seemed everyone in front of me was driving 29mph.

Once I got home, it took me a couple of minutes to get it all connected up and pointed where I wanted it.

I went down to the basement, plugged it in, and the pump kicked on immediately. I went outside to watch, and the water was flowing leak-free out into the yard well outside the foundation area.

The pump ran for a good 30 seconds to drain the pit, after being off for an hour. The pump will take 40 gallons per minute out of the well. Assuming it was nearly empty when it started, it pumped 20 gallons of water that previously had been leaking out around the house. In a full day of rain, that could easily explain the basement water we were seeing.

Now, as soon as the little demo was done, the clouds broke and the sun came out. Kind of the opposite of when you wash the car, so I must be onto something.

The test will be tomorrow, when we’re supposed to see some heavy rain. Will it make a difference, or are we just pissing in the wind?

Happy Easter

Water Woes

Well, the recent deluge and melting snow caused all sorts of fun in the basement. I thought I’d set a record last year when I filled our 10-gallon shop vac 6 times when this happened last year. This year…I had to spend the evening Tuesday and all day Wednesday running the vacuum every 20 minutes (I mean every 20 minutes) just to keep up with the inflow. I started to lose count after I’d drained the shop vac for the 15^th time.

Tuesday night I kept it up until about 10:30, and realized there’s only so much I could do. I’d have to go to bed and let the inevitable happen. When I got up at 6am the next morning, I was greeted with the sight of water running from the fireplace all the way into the bathroom 20 feet away. I was able to get it cleaned up and kept it at bay in the fireplace area, and laying towels to corral the water, and then changing those out when they got saturated. But it was constant work. I laid down for a quick nap around 2:30, and I paid for it when I let it go for about 40 minutes without attention. It never stopped coming in until about noon on Thursday. Shaunn took care of the final vaccing and cleanup on Thursday when I went back to work.

During the 16 or so hours of this party, I had plenty of time to contemplate various ways to solve the problem. The first and most needed thing is to fix the poor grading around the house. I intended to do it last year, but after the spring rains, we had a dry spell that lasted most of the year, so it was forgotten as a priority. I’ve found a company that will deliver it – right where I want it around the house perimeter – for about double what it would cost to have it dumped in the driveway for me to handle. I think it’s worth it, as my back still has not so find memories of filling in my parent’s in-ground pool in 2005. A cubic yard of dirt weighs about as much as a car, and we’re getting 7 of them delivered. Shoveling that and moving it around the house would take a few days even with help, and then I would no energy left for the other project to fix the basement.

Down Time

One benefit of being cooped up in the house all weekend was...free time. Lots and lots of free time. I've officially caught up on all the shows that the dvr has been capturing...
I just watched another episode of a show that I really recommend for jazz lovers, called Legends of Jazz With Ramsey Lewis . It's a PBS program that's been on public radio for a few years, and I discovered the television version this week on our public tv HD channel. They don't make it easy though, with an airtime of 3:30 am on weekdays.

Ramsey Lewis is a legend in his own right, trust me, you've probably heard him at one time or another. The show is only 30 minutes, and it looks at different styles and influences, with performances from artists specializing in the style du jour.

The first episode I saw featured Dave Brubeck (yes, he's still alive) and Billie Taylor. I just watched the American Songbook episode, with two performers that I admittedly haven't heard of before, but they were excellent. Other episodes look at influences from the blues, tenors, latin jazz...it looks like a great series. If he ever has Diana Krall on, I may wet myself.

The Aftermath

The airport officially received 20.4", a new all time record. I don't think we had quite that much here, but it has to be close. I know my cousin in Wisconsin is wondering what the big deal is.

The snow started to force the back wall of the shelter out of the way...



Clearing the driveway is not an option in snow like this. The snow was higher than the intake opening for the snowblower. I thought it would just choke and die, but it was able to get through it - I just had to treat it like when you're trying to cut very tall grass with a mower. It took about 30 minutes to clear a path wide enough for the car. This is going to be fun when it all starts to melt.

And what was my reward for doing all this? I figured this would do...a steak that would have been given its own chapter in an Icelandic Saga.

And it keeps coming

Believe it or not, I cleared our front porch last night when I got home. This is what we've gotten since then. Keep in mind our door is about 5 inches above the porch level.

The Weather Channel just said we've had 18 inches of snow.
I'd cleared the area between the car shelter and the house last night too, but today it's been lovely. I had to go out early this morning and remove the snow from the shelter's roof, so it didn't bring the thing down. So all that plus the snow that's fallen and drifted over there, made for waist-high snow to be cleared, just to be able to reach the driveway. I can't remember snow like this since I lived in Chicago in the 70s!

Over a foot, easily

And it's supposed to keep snowing all day.

Storm of the Century of the Week

Well, it's not the end of everything...but for the Cowlands, it's pretty significant. I don't know how much we really got, since wind is drifting it everywhere. But I checked 3 areas with my trusty ruler, and they were all 5 inches or thereabouts. And we're supposed to get another 5-8 into tonight and during tomorrow.
I left work at 4, and it took me about 50 minutes to get home. I was expecting at least an hour, so I was kinda pleased. The highways were moving 20-25mph, when they were moving. Luckily, most drivers were relatively level headed, no glaring idiots at least on my drive.
So I got home, cleared the driveway, and took a few pics:It's hard to believe it was 70 degrees just on tuesday.

Basement Blues

Well, 3 inches of rain, the day after a few inches of snow finished melting = basement water. I shouldn't be surprised at this point (and I wasn't), but this is getting old. It's not bad, and I have really improved some areas that were just awful when we moved in...but we now have a bad issue with water coming in around the chimney. It never leaked the first year, it wasn't until after we'd used the chimney during the winter of 05-06. Gotta be a connection - perhaps heat expansion of the flue is cracking the mortar up at the top. I've eliminated runoff or roof drainage as suspects, so now it's time to get up there to redo the crown and seal all the cracks.
I also need to get a truckload of dirt delivered to make sure the grading all around the house is as it should be, because there's spots where it most definitely ain't.
Then seal and/or replace the gutters. And then seal the interior basement walls. After that...witch doctor?

Big In Japan

An Art Car show in the U.S. would be totally shamed by one of these:


I give you the Dekotora, which simply means Decorated Trucks. If your retinas are still intact, you can check out more here.

Back on the air

We had a new HD dvr box delivered by Time Warner late monday afternoon. The guy hooked it all up, and when it finally booted up, it displayed an error saying the box wasn't properly authorized. He said it was just loading its channels and would be fine.
So 4 hours later, as I'm on hold with TW, they say they'll have to send someone out as they have no idea what the problem is. But they couldn't send out before today. I could at least get the basic channels on tv by just bypassing the cable box, but the next day..our internet connection wouldn't...connect. Again i called TW, they said it could be somehow caused by the dvr - you think?
So today, the evil cable box was removed, and an authorized one was installed. And everything works again. Now I have to get back to the land of HD.

You'll Never Beat The Irish

Last night I drove to Cleveland to see the band The Wolfe Tones perform with mom, Cate, Don, and little Geo. My parents have been groupies of the band since 1989...enough that the band members talk to mom pretty much like an old friend after the show.
Dad felt a special connection to the band, who take their name from Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Dad's middle name was Tone, and had found through his genealogy research that we're descendants of Theobald.
It's a style of Irish music that is pretty much an unknown quantity outside of Ireland...a lot of it is songs about rebellion, British tyranny, and the struggles of Northern Ireland. That's why Jools Holland has never had them on. Very energetic, angry, melancholy music.
This will tell you all you need to know about the band...they've been together for 44 years, and warm up for their act...how? By sitting at the bar, about 20 feet from the front door, putting back a couple of pints. Totally approachable guys.
That being said...this is the second year we've seen them at the West Side Irish Club in Cleveland. It's a club for older (very older) people who only move when it's time to leave. It's got to be embarrassing for the band...one of the members will tell a little story and finish up with something like "And that's why the Irish are the greatest people in the world!" This should get a loud yell from the crowd, some table pounding, and probably some beer spilled on several people. But at this place...we were the only table making any noise, apart from about a half dozen guys at the back who were drunk enough to yell at wallpaper. It's not an exaggeration to say we were the only ones. At other Wolfe Tones shows I've seen, half the crowd is standing on the tables and chairs for the last 30 minutes of the show. If we made any such moves last night, we would have been shown to the door.
At any rate, we had a great time.

A Thousand Words

I was watching the national news a few nights ago, and they were running one of their "housing market in the toilet" stories. When I suddenly had to pause the channel and grab my camera.

Well, that was...a non event

We got 3-4 inches of snow at our house today. So, I broke out the snowthrower when I got home from work. I started it up, got to plowing, or throwing...and it took all of 5 minutes to clear the 60 or so feet of driveway from the shelter down to the street, and the sidewalk to the front door. Seriously, about as hard as walking. Wow. If you have a driveway, and you're wondering what to get with your tax refund...you can't live without one of these.

Sump Thing

Today is of course the day when we observe the birthdays of our great leaders by holding a huge mattress sale. Instead of getting in on the fantastic bargains, I decided to start some work on the train layout.
I went into the utility room to start, and when I entered, I could hear the motor from the sump pump running. only it didn't sound right. Plus, it shouldn't just be running like that.
When I went over to the pit where it lives, I removed the cover and was greeted by the sight of a nearly full sump pit. At least it wasn't raining today.
I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the pump, mostly because I have no idea what to look for. I went to the computer and checked the Lowe's website to get an idea of how much this was going to cost. Luckily, the first pump that appeared looked identical to the one that I'd just removed. I checked the part numbers and it was a match. Plus, it was pretty inexpensive - only about $80...I was expecting a few hundred.
I drove over and bought it and returned home. I put it together, installed it in the pit, and plugged it in. About as simple as it could get. It drained the pit in about 20 seconds, and the motor is nice and quiet.
Now, here's the funny part. If I wasn't going in that room to get ready to work on the layout, I never would have known anything was wrong, and probably wouldn't have gone in there until I needed a light bulb or something. The pit would have filled and flooded the basement like it's never been flooded before. The train layout, in a roundabout sense, has saved the house.
So, train layouts are an essential part of home safety. I'm going to see if I can get funding to start an awareness campaign.

The Best Laid Plans

Remember that deorbiting spy satellite I mentioned? It must hate freedom...W has decided that the Pentagon needs to launch a missile at it. Which will create a cloud of orbiting pieces of ex satellite.
This is s step that has never been taken before.
Never mind that our country got all high and mighty and scolded China about being irresponsible when they did the same thing to destroy one of theirs last year...and this couldn't possibly be a show of force after Iran launched a satellite earlier this month.
Either that, or it has a decent chance of hitting a populated area. But I'm sorry, with W involved the first thing to question is his motivation.

Snow day

I had scheduled today off work a couple weeks back. Perfect timing so I could avoid the snowy rush hour drive today.
Plus...I'd get to try out the snowblower!
So I stepped outside this morning to start it for the first time. I get it (and my hands and winter coat) gassed up and pull the starter cord. It comes to life right away. Nice.
The snow auger that chews into the snow has a clutch handle like a lawn mower blade..so I pull the handle, and the auger starts spinning. I release the handle to stop it...and the auger keeps spinning. Hmmm. I jiggle the handle's control cable, and still no change. I shut it off, and start messing with the cable, which was attached but was pretty loose. After about 30 minutes of adjusting and re-adjusting, I have it taut enough so that the handle stops the fun when I want it to.
I go inside for a fresh coffee, come back out, and...it's raining. Lovely.

They should eat more fresh fruit

So, went home from work with the flu yesterday. Today has been spent sleeping, getting up to get more water, and sleeping. Boo.

Numbers

This link takes you to the latest wide-ranging poll number on American's opinions on life, the universe, and W. It also displays the historical responses to the same questions ranging back to 2002 or so, with some going back to the early 1990s. Interesting to see how much some opinions have changed, and those that have largely remained the same.

In Memoriam

Never Forget.

F=MA

This may get a little more press coverage in the coming weeks...

Large spy satellite could hit North America

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is developing contingency plans to deal with the possibility that a large spy satellite expected to fall to Earth in late February or early March could hit North America. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who heads U.S. Northern Command, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the size of the satellite suggests that some number of pieces will not burn up as the orbiting vehicle re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and will hit the ground. "We're aware that this satellite is out there," Renuart said. "We're aware it is a fairly substantial size. And we know there is at least some percentage that it could land on ground as opposed to in the water." A U.S. official confirmed that the spy satellite, which lost power and no longer can be controlled, was launched in December 2006 and could weigh as much as 10,000 pounds. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor but the satellite's central computer failed shortly after launch. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret, said the satellite is designated by the military as US 193, but it never reached its final orbit and the Pentagon declared it a total loss in early 2007. Renuart added that, "As it looks like it might re-enter into the North American area," then the U.S. military along with the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will either have to deal with the impact or assist Canadian or Mexican authorities.

Deciphering deductibles

So the W2s arrived by mail last night, which allowed me to plug those in and file my taxes. S'funny how you look forward to it when you're a homeowner. I used Turbotax as I have in past years...the software costs around $50, and it is a good program.
But it's not all roses...when you're done, you have the option of having the taxes filed electronically, for ~$18, per return. Okay, fine. Then there was an option to have them just deduct the fee from your refund. Yeah, sure, that's even easier.
But if you select that, you're then told this option costs an additional $29.95..okay hold on. After I sought out your product, and am agreeing to file electronically, you want me to shell out again what I paid for the software just to file? And pay double that if I wanted that done with my state taxes too, for a grand total of $150? I could walk into an H&R Block office and have a somewhat sentient human do it all for me for less than that. There must be a lot of lazy people out there...
Luckily a stamp still costs 40-odd cents, and I can file the state taxes via phone.
I remember now why I didn't use Turbotax last year.

Storing a Hankie in Your Sleeve?

This is something I've seen a few people do. I figured it was mostly because it kept one handy, and who cared what other people think. (My grandmother does this, and who is going to tell her any different - besides, it's so cute when she does it.)
Then I watched the film 'Wilde' starring Steven Fry as the witty Victorian this weekend. There's a scene where Oscar Wilde has a cold and is laid up. He repeatedly produces a hankie from his sleeve, wipes his nose, and tucks it back in.
Is the hankie in your shirtsleeve a sign of high society, like holding your pinkie up when sipping tea? Maybe I should test this theory out.