One Year Without Sammy, Two Years Without Mack

Today is a pretty painful double anniversary. There ain't a day that goes by that I don't miss our boys.

To be of use

by Marge Piercy from “Circles on the Water”

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

The Lake Wall, Part the Second

Finished up the small section of wall that I started yesterday (see photo above) and then started clearing out the section where I plan on putting the steps. Tried getting the huge bottom step stone --- one that's been sitting on an embankment for a couple of years now --- loaded on an old appliance hand truck. I only succeeded in flipping it with a pry bar a couple of times by myself. Two hands just aren't enough to corral several hundred pounds of stone. But, with four hands, it is now loaded and ready to go for tomorrow.

After that, I figured that since I was already sweaty and dirty from the wall work, it was time to mow the lawn. As my philosophy goes (especially in the summer months) I like to "earn my shower" as a way to mentally push myself to do things that need to be done.

For the past couple of years now, after reading some lawn care manuals, I've been letting the grass grow a little longer in general, and cutting it higher than I used to. This way, the roots develop better and the lawn looks much healthier than it did. After doing a deal of grass seeding earlier in the spring, the place is getting closer to the imagined ideal.

After mowing and a quick shower, I went to my brother's down the road where we're watching my niece while they're at Reserve weekend. Made some pasta salad, a lettuce salad and hot dogs, and we finished up a strawberry-rhubarb crisp that I made a couple of days ago. Making food in other people's kitchens is always uncomfortable to me. You don't have the same tools, the same pantry and refrigerator staples, or even the same type of stove. By the by, propane gas range is best and gives the cook more control.

While there, I watched a show about Nikola Tesla on the History Channel, one of the only things on cable television that is worthwhile. I've read about Tesla before and am convinced that in a few hundred years, if mankind is still kickin', he will (or should be) known as the greatest practical and theoretical scientist ever.... Similar to how we hold Leonardo da Vinci in such high regard today. Perhaps his boldest idea was wireless electricity, which was also his biggest failure. Successful on a small scale (e.g. illuminating an unconnected light bulb), the large-scale experiment at the Wardenclyffe Tower was "never fully operational and not completed due to economic problems." I wonder if someone will ever get it to work and what such a world would be like. In an age that must rapidly become obsessed with finding alternate forms of electricity and energy (and possibly distribution methods), Tesla is an excellent role model, even with his personal quirks and disorders. Among Tesla's OCD quirks were an obsession with the number 3 or numbers divisible by 3, and nursing injured pigeons. Rebuffed by Edison early on over some such payment, Tesla worked for a year digging ditches in NYC. He didn't explain things to others; he just saw things and knew things, and when given the resources, he showed his brilliance. Fascinating how what is called a 'disorder' or 'disease' is the very thing that leads to the works of some of the greatest thinkers and doers. Their special way of seeing the world through their illness also enables them to see their metier on a different level than anyone else, even if it's not recognized by their contemporaries.

The Lake Wall

Put on some classic rock today, grabbed my knee-high Wellington boots and got to work re-building a section of a dry stone wall that collapsed during the winter/spring thaw. It is a retaining wall located on lakefront, and so with the two competing forces of frost heaves from the soil side and ice dams, the bottom of some parts of the 3-foot tall and ~75-foot long wall have been pushed toward the shore... and so what started out as a / shape became a \ shape ( some exaggeration as to that pitch, but it's the general idea). I originally built the wall back in the fall of 2004, and nature has taken its tool. You can see it at a lot of the waterfront houses at the lake, where most people seem to have resorted to haphazard stacking, likely b/c they kept losing the battle to the ice.

I've done a goodly amount of stone wall building, and as far as I know, all the rest of it is still standing. This lake wall is just an ongoing thing. But I learn from the failure --- what worked, what didn't. In this rebuild, I'm using some more massive stone toward the bottom, and I am better at the craft than I was in 2004. I'm also going to use the opportunity to put in some steps, using some even more stones that I've accumulated for that purpose, so people can more easily step down into the lake. Still, I don't know if it's going to hold up. In a docking area close by, the frost heaves and ice last winter each shifted two of the supports for the wooden dock --- the supports being half-'Mafia blocks' that weigh 2,000 pounds (read: a ton) each. Good thing for force majeure clauses. If I get a chance, I'll take a picture to share.

Wasn't such a good day weather-wise for such work outdoors, but I did have the canopy from some large maple trees. June has been an unbelievably rainy month this year; I believe we've now had four days of what could be described as good sunshine. Let's hope that July and August aren't totally dry to make up for the rainfall average.

In other news, as everyone not living under a rock knows by now, the self-proclaimed 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson died yesterday. I was not a fan. And despite the fact that he was acquitted on child molestation charges (alongside numerous out-of-court 'hush money' settlements), there was something seriously wrong with the man. Some people say that he was child-like, that he never grew up, blah blah blah. Regardless, his documented behavior around children was totally inappropriate. I admit to being a bit nonplussed at how many people continued to engage in such adoration, even after repeated allegations. My TV is going to be turned off until the Saint Michael love fest ends. Truth is, the world has one less pervert.

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature,
he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
--- John Muir

19 June 2009

It has been a dreary June thus far, with only three days of full sunshine according to the weatherman last night. Stands in the way of much progress outdoors, but I suppose it's good for the lawn and garden. Today the skies don't know what they want to do. Woke up at about 2:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep with the rain on the roof and draining down the gutter on the side of the house just outside of my room. The hard rain stopped and it seemed to clear a bit this morning, but looking out the window a few minutes ago, it is drizzling. Looking out now and it's not.

For all that, yesterday was a good day for soup. So, I threw some potatoes, celery and baby carrots (all chopped) into the large saucepan, then added varying quantities of my staples --- Tone's sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper, dried garlic, dried onion, dried parsley and six chicken bouillon cubes. When the potatoes were nearing their readiness, in went some leftover rosemary chicken (diced) and some Manischewitz alphabet-shaped egg noodles. I had always gotten the straight thin noddles, but noticed the alphabet ones a while back and figured they'd be fun for my nephew and niece (as memory serves, they're slightly cheaper, to boot). We brought my nephew over to my brother's house down the road (we pick him up off the bus and watch him for a few hours until they get home from work. It saves them day-care costs), along with the soup. My nephew, Calvin minus Hobbes (name changed) is leaving Saturday to North Carolina for six weeks with his "far away dad." I'll miss the after-school time with checkers, Legos and homework, but it's also nice to have a break.

When we arrived at my brother's house, come to find out they got a 32" HDTV with a wall mount and a DVD with surround sound speakers. I'm a little miffed that he didn't ask me about the topic and what was the best set he could get for whatever he was looking to spend, but he's like that. He likes to do first (and do it fast, by gum!) and think later. Gave him a hand on the installation and set-up. They have cable TV without the HD package (yet), so the results for them weren't quite what he expected. Even compared to a basic-menu "hospitality" HDTV like ours, the set he got was very sparse. He also didn't seem to understand that he bought a DVD player (which is not Blu-ray, where everything is headed) that was packaged with the surround sound speakers. If it were me, I would have kept his previous up-converting DVD player and gotten an AF/FM/HD radio receiver that has surround sound, and the TV sound could also be routed through that. Oh well. I can't make his decisions for him. I can just be supportive of the decisions he does make, and hope that this attitude might be returned in kind.

Handwashing

It's been a cleaning day chez nous. Four loads of laundry, showering, vacuuming, Swiffer'ing, and dishwashing.

As for the last, for the past several years I have handwashed the dishes. In that time, instances from a "LOST" episode of Jack Shepard (the doctor with the obsessive fix-it personality) to now-President Obama have cited handwashing the dishes as "therapeutic." I can say without hesitation that such a statement comes from someone who doesn't handwash very often. Many times I have the feeling that I am forever washing dishes.

Handwashing really fills the handwasher with a deep of the value of minimizing the number of plates, bowls, pans, etc. that are used in cooking. When I see cooking shows on television, it astounds me how callously the host has bowls for each separate ingredient, and liberally transfers the foods from pot to pan to serving dish to plates to.... It's a sure sign that they have staff who will take care of their messes for them. And then, I seem like a dish Nazi whenever people, like my brother and his family, are visiting. Using a dinner plate for dessert is a thing that doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but it apparently offsets the sensibilities of some who refuse to see the simple rationality that food all goes to the same place anyway, separate dish or no.

In some sense, it isn't much of a choice to handwash. Our kitchen is relatively small and sacrificing what little cabinet space we have to a dishwasher isn't very feasible. But in another sense, it is very much a choice. I've seen the results of a lot of dishwashers --- from the cheaper models to the fancy brands --- and, as always, the theory of a dishwasher varies greatly from the reality. After pre-soaking/rinsing dirty wares, and then having to handwash them anyway because of residual food, a dishwasher doesn't seem like that much of a time-saver to me. Add in the large volume of hot water use; the necessaries of buying soaps, rinse agents and drying liquids; the cost of the dishwasher itself, plus maintenance. For under $10, you can get a good dish rack at Wal-Mart, some 3M sponges with a layer of steel wool for scouring, and a bottle of dish soap that will last 6 months.

As for methodology, I am a stacker, which requires a fairly strict order of attack. I start with plates and bowls, on opposite sides of the rack, each going from smallest at the edge to largest toward the middle. Then, move on the cups and mugs, carefully placed around the perimeter of the metal rack and leaning against the edge of the plastic drainboard. Move on to the big-ticket items such as mixing bowls, 9"X13" baking dishes, metal stove top pans, or cookie sheets. Penultimately, the silverware is sorted into large utensils, sharp items and the generic forks and spoons. As they're washed, I drop each into the washbowl and when finished, round them all up into a bunch, rinse and put into the silverware section of the dish rack. Finally comes the plastic containers and Tupperware.

In a certain way, there is some satisfaction gained from taking the chaos of coffee rings in the mugs, the remnants of pesto sauce in the pan and potato starches on the cutting board and creating order. But it will all have to be done again tomorrow.

Entering the Digital Age

So, the official DTV-Day has finally come. As I had anticipated, just as with the WTIC - WFXT situation, we've now lost WCVB --- channel 5 (real-channel 20) from Boston. This is, no doubt, because WTXX in Hartford was also allocated to real-channel 20. (I have written about this in further detail previously). We've lost FOX (not that we ever really had it) and the most reliable ABC. These situations represent an abject failure of the FCC to fulfill its original purpose, which was to stop people from broadcasting on the same frequencies w/in a specified coverage area. Sent a note about this situation to a New York Times reporter who wrote an article on the digital switch today.

I think I may try ganging the XG-91 antennas to see if it helps. Pain in the rear end to keep having to go up on the roof and tinker with things. All too often it doesn't do anything but waste my time.

On the plus side, WBZ 4 out of Boston is coming in again after being lost to us for the last couple of weeks. They increased their ERP (signal strength) from 825kW to 915kW, and that seems to have pushed us back over the threshold.

As of this writing, WHDH 7 broadcasting from Boston hasn't yet done their so-called "cold switch" of turning off their analog signal on channel 7 and moving their digital signal from real-channel 42 to channel 7. Many stations seem to have done their switching already, but perhaps their engineers are waiting until the midnight deadline for some reason.... Perhaps to show Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Pittsburgh just scored, increasing their lead to 2-0. For the record, I've been rooting for the Penguins in this series. Underdogs have to stick together.

10 June 2009

It was a pretty good day. Had a mental checklist of things I wanted to do, and while I didn't get it all done, I got enough of it done to earn my shower.

Tried tweaking the top teevee antenna by moving it up about 6" to the top of the mast pole and tilting it slightly to point over the leaves. This doesn't appear to have done much of anything, though this probably isn't the day to gauge its effectiveness, given the dreary weather. I tried this because since the leaves came out in full force, we've lost a reliable signal from WBZ-4, WLVI-56 and WSBK-38 (all out of Boston). The meter jumps willy-nilly from mid-20s to mid-60s, to 0, to mid-20s.... The above tweak has been recommended by the technologically-inclined in avsforum.com and the like in the 'Try it and see what happens' milieu. I will leave it as is until after the official digital conversion on Friday. But if it's still a problem then, I still have one item left in my bag of tricks. It's called double-stacking, and with my two XG-91 antennas (an earlier post about our antenna system is required reading to have a better understanding of what I'm saying), the idea is that I would point them both toward the target signal farm (Boston) and connect their two output wires with a good signal combiner (read: a signal splitter, inverted), then connect to the pre-amplifier and into the house. In theory, this would double the signal strength. We'll see if it comes to that. But then again, I'm getting Boston's iON station, 68 (real-channel 32) that has a lower reading than the drop-outs. I just don't know what to make of it other than my "Digital is a finicky b----" line.

While I was on the roof, I took off the lower antenna's pre-amplifier and took it to the campground because reports were that the teevee there wasn't getting good reception of the Hartford channels. Sure enough, 61, 24 and 30 weren't coming in, and channel 3 was spotty at around 50%. I took off the old Radio Shack pre-amp and put on the Channel Master 7778. Went inside, rescanned the tuner (the Best Buy Insignia model) for extra measure and suddenly they were all coming in at 90%+. Wasn't getting channel 59, MyN, which I also haven't have any success with here at the house. All the info I've seen says it should come in, but it doesn't.

Went to the small nursery in the next town over and picked up some nice herb plants --- lavender and sage --- in a buy one-get one sale ($3.50), and two bell pepper plants to finish out the garden. At the big box stores and most other places, $3.50 will get one of the smallest Bonnie seedling plants. And it's nice to support a small, local business. We also dropped off a few items for an annual fund-raising tag sale that the nursery does. The owner's adopted son was killed while serving a tour in Afghanistan a few years ago, and a fund has been set up to build and supply an orphanage in Honduras. This had been the intention of the son even before his death (he was adopted from that country). It's the least we can do to offer some support to someone who made the ultimate sacrifice. ... Got home and put those herbs, a largish rosemary plant, and some others I'd started from seed (dill, parsley and basil) into a strawberry planter that's been hanging out empty for a while. It just feels good to put your hands in the soil and know that your work and care is growing things.

Brought the trailer home and loaded on a pile of wood that I've been wanting to move out of the yard for a while. That will be delivered and burned at the aforementioned campground this weekend. We got it from a nearby house that had a tree (a red oak) cut down and for some reason or other, it was stacked against our woodpile under the deck. It's been sitting here for about two years because it's just slightly too long for our wood stove. Makes quite a difference now that it's gone, and I'm keen on doing something with the spot now. Also, raked up the debris that was under some of the pallets that we stack our wood on, and threw them in the trailer for burning as well... their bottom-side wood was badly deteriorated. We need to either get some new pallets or come up with a different rack system for firewood storage.

Irises

Further to the recent spat of botanical pictures, today I took a few more. I'm not sure of the genus - species name of the flower, but they are a white iris variety. Tried several different modes on the camera and played around with some lighting, as I had to take the pictures indoors, out of natural light (it's been sprinkling or full-on raining outside since about 11 a.m.). The picture on the above left was taken in 'Flower' mode and came out with darker contrast than the picture on the right, which was in 'Text' mode. This lower contrast defines the flower outlines better and minimizes some of the shadowing. Yet the picture on the right looks softer, more natural... more inviting.