"People who know little are usually great talkers, 
while men who know much say little." 
--- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Making A Liar Out of Me

A while back, in the street sign entry I wrote that there hasn't been any vandalism on them in quite a while. That kids are more busy today, more lazy, and (I hoped) more civic-minded.

Today, I was informed that one of them on the main road around the lake was lying into the street. It was one that we dug a new hole for and re-set in fresh concrete back in October. The concrete mass was the end in the road... so even with 50+ m.p.h. wind gusts today, I would say it likely had help getting in such a position. There wasn't any damage besides a few scuff marks in the new paint where it must have hit the ground. A mound of fresh dirt was visible. Not much to do other than dig out the hole a little deeper, make sure the street names are aligned properly, fill it in and hope that someone's wild oats have been sown enough. So that's what I did.

Don't quite get it, though. Tearing out your own street sign is a lot like kicking yourself in the balls.

27 November 2009

Had an interesting Turkey Day yesterday. Preparation was a little discombobulated, as we didn't find out for sure what the arrangements were until Tuesday evening. Took a 9-lb. turkey breast out of the chest freezer then and it was still a little solid near the giblet bag ~ noon yesterday. The freezer does its job well. Otherwise, I made some pumpkin pie, stuffing, butternut squash and mashed potatoes. It was a quiet Thanksgiving for the first time in several years.
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Today was a farmer's holiday, with some wind gusts added to the rain. Got a bit of a head start on the Christmas decorations. Fixed the front door wreath and the attic door pull with some knit/fabric ornaments. Also brought down an old 3' plastic Santa. We'll see if that stays or goes back into storage.
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Lit the wood stove for the first time this past week, so it is warm and toasty in the basement. Bit of a late start with the stove this year. Not like we need to conserve the woodpile... it's stacked with about 5 1/2 cords; plus, six large kindling bags for starting fuel. Having the woodlot across town has saved a lot of money over the years --- it just requires some time and effort. Got a nice blend of red oak, white oak and maple in the stack this year, all of which burn very well. As my UConn botany professor, Dr. Lewis said, wood stoves are a relatively inexpensive and environmentally conscious choice for heating, in the absence of solar or geothermal systems that are still not in wide use due to cost. Wood burns clean CO2, doesn't create pollution/degradation to get it, is a renewable resource, and you can use the (cooled) ashes as compost fill.

21 November 2009

Buffalo Bills coach Dick Jauron was fired on Tuesday this week. It's the first step of a long road toward turning the franchise back toward respectability. There's a lot that needs to be fixed in the hierarchy of the front office. The multiple-VP 'consensus' system that was initiated a couple of years ago is not what's required in the NFL. So far, the rumor-mill has generated the name of former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who would ostensibly be brought in either late this season in an advisory role (similar to Bill Parcells' post with the Miami Dolphins) and perhaps be named as the head coach and/or GM after the season concludes. The issue of how much control a new hire would have is something that will have to be worked out. Ralph Wilson, the Bills' owner, is rightly making generic statements, but hinted that established big-name coaches are on the radar. For an owner who has run his team on the cheap for the last ten years (and who has meddled with his toy to the team's detriment since the start) I'll believe in change when I see it.
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Started building a new tailgate for the trailer this week, in addition to re-jiggering the tail light wiring. It will soon be street legal again. The tailgate is a pattern of three horizontal pressure-treated 1" x 6" boards with a 6" gap between them, and bolted together with four shorter vertical sections. Will have to post a picture when it's complete. This is, I hope, ahead of doing some more extensive repairs on the trailer itself in the spring. The plywood sides have certainly seen better days and the frame could use a fresh coat of paint.
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Built a replacement birdhouse this afternoon, essentially making a copy of the design of the old one whose wood was weathering away. The entry hole had been hacked away to about 4" in diameter, and it's been awhile since I noticed any birds in residence. Building it better, painting it 'Colonial Red' and also making a roof covering out of a pair of old Connecticut license plates that were from our '86 Bronco (which had quite the same color scheme as the new CT plates). That was something I'd seen in a magazine some time back, and it seemed like a interesting idea. This, too, I'll have to share a picture of when it's done.
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The UConn football team beat Notre Dame this afternoon in double OT. Undoubtedly the biggest win in the program's young history... and surely an emotional victory for the team with all that's happened in the past month.
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I recently rejoined Facebook. After the family reunion "pumpkin carving party" just before Hallowe'en, it made me rethink the decision. Made a few changes, edited the 'Friend' list a bit and it seems a little more palatable now. Not on it all day (not that I ever was)... just now and then. We'll see how it goes.

The Leonids

The annual Leonid meteor shower this year is expected to be above-average viewing.

Some quality links:
◦ Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning

◦ November's Best: The Legendary Leonids

Drag yourself out of bed after midnight tonight (peak is reportedly 1 a.m. - 4 a.m.), grab a blanket and sit by the window to watch falling space debris. The forecast is for clear skies, and we are moonless (officially called a "new moon"), so it doesn't get much better, weather-wise.

We have not had a very good viewing year here in the Northeast since 2001. I remember that I had been up that night writing a paper (not last-minute... I just did a lot of my best writing in college in the pre-dawn hours) and intermittently got up and sat at the French doors in the living room that overlook the lake. That show was quite good, and especially at that time, it served as a reminder --- for me at least --- to maintain perspective. There are constants even in our ever-changing world.

According to The [New London] Day link above, there should be about 500 meteors an hour. Enjoy the show!

(Image © Juraj Toth, Modra Observatory, 1998)

"When I finished it, I thought, 

'Well, I guess this will change the world.' It didn't. ... 

I thought I would win the Nobel Prize. ... Nothing happened." 

--- William Gaddis, about his book "The Recognitions" (1955)

Banking Some Green

Got in some kale the other night. They're the last plants left in the garden (well, besides the unused swiss chard that's going to get tilled in). Like many in the brassica genus, kale keeps growing after the frosts hit --- actually, many people comment that it tastes better after the first frost. I don't know why that is, but it's probably due to not drawing up a certain nutrient(s) from the ground in cold weather.

Kale is a great plant to grow in the garden. Dark, leafy greens are good for the brain, and high on the desirable list in the new food pyramid released by the USDA a couple of years back. My grandparents in WNY used to have this in their garden every year, and it can probably be attributed to my their mental acuity even as their bodies were failing from old age. Kale and garlic were staples there. I have usually used it in making soups and stews --- one recipe is basically chicken broth, diced potatoes, a significant amount of kale and kielbasa. That recipe card gets a decent amount of action in the winter months. I've also been using it in pea soups. Takes a while to cook down, and it seems like it tastes best when it cooks slowly versus just cooking some on the stove-top.

Anyway, I put in four kale plants this year and they did very well. Harvesting, as I have always done it, consists of doing a preliminary wash with the garden hose while still on the plant, snapping the leaves and bringing them inside. Then, tearing the greens off of the stems, washing, doing a couple of turns in the salad spinner and packing them tightly in Ziploc quart-size freezer bags (and squeezing out excess air). I put them in the freezer and take them out as I need them over the winter.

Agassi Opens Up

Had to say that I was surprised as all get out last week when I read that Andre Agassi's tell-all book, titled "Open" reveals that he used crystal meth repeatedly in 1997.

First comes the disappointment that a player I loved to watch when the majors were on television would do something something so stupid. But then there's the grudging acceptance... that's just how things are a lot of the time. Watching the interview on "60 Minutes" last night also went a long way toward seeing it in a different light. In "Open" (a double meaning of tennis's biggest matches and Agassi coming clean about exactly what happened) you can see a man wanting to set the record straight on his own initiative, and you can see him asking for forgiveness. The cover of the book is striking itself, with a full-frame close-up sending the message that this is the story front and center, no hiding, no weaseling.

One can also see that crystal meth is not a performance-enhancing drug. Agassi is not on the level of a number of baseball stars who admittedly, or according to official drug testing, used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. I think most of their (and Major League Baseball's) fault lies in trying to conceal what they did. Still, to sweep illegal drug use under the rug as if it's OK sends the wrong message.

Seems that the larger lesson that Agassi wants to communicate is his personal redemption. Getting caught by the pro tour's drug-testing lab was a wake-up call for him. And wake up he did. His play from 1999 to his retirement in 2006 produced a lot of great tennis. Most of all, the classic U.S. Open final against Pete Sampras.

Some in the tennis world have come down pretty hard on Agassi, including legend Martina Navratilova, and current phenoms Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The American public has an amazing capacity for forgiveness --- but only when they are told the truth. This story would have been many times worse had it been revealed any number of years in the future. Agassi does deserve some compassion right now, and while I remain disappointed, I'm also glad he told the story honestly --- and openly --- on his own.

"There Are No Warnings, Only Signs"

It was about two weeks ago that I finished painting the road signs in the lake community where I live. Started on a fast tack with two coats of white back in mid-May. Then, it started raining for the next two months, and painting anything outside was next to impossible. As easy as rolling the white fence paint on was, two coats of black lettering was tedious, time-consuming, and required a steady painting hand. The black paint for the lettering took about 2 hours for each sign. I managed to stay at it, getting them done a section at a time --- the hill one day, over by the store a few days later. From thick mosquitoes (especially up on the Pine Hill section) and humidity to falling leaves and wind chills. Add in some unforeseen occurrences, a population that really doesn't volunteer much (nor, apparently, do we have many good painters) and you can see how it might lag on until mid-October.

The signs were originally my oldest brother's Eagle Scout project in the Boy Scouts, which happened almost 20 years ago now. Ever since, the family has done maintenance on the signs, and as I've gotten older, I have worked steadily to finish some of the remaining signs that never quite got done. At this point, there are 30 signs that mark both association-owned and town-owned roads. At right is a representative example of the street signs. They consist of pressure-treated 4x4 posts, crowned at the top, with 3-inch stencil street names routered down all four sides. They are then anchored in concrete about a foot to a foot-and-a-half down into the ground (or as far as you can dig without hitting a huge rock).

Over the years, there has been some vandalism to the signs. Mostly, though, that happened shortly after they were first put up in the early '90s by a group of teenagers who apparently resented easily identifiable street signs that aid police, fire department, delivery trucks, mail trucks, etc. It was just a rough element here that rebelled, probably mostly because it was my family that put them up. They have moved on. And apparently, either kids are more civic-minded these days... or, as the darker theory goes, they're too busy with sports, video games or "hooking up." I would like to think they see the value of the signs, and I hope they're appreciated as a kind of unifying theme for the lake community... a kind of functional artwork in themselves. It's important to foster a sense of pride, ownership, and duty around the lake. I'm not going to say that a few coats of paint can work miracles, but I believe it contributes.

Pond Project

The next few entries will be catching up on some promised pictures.

The pond project is functionally completed until next spring when the drainage ditch is expected to be continued down the edge of the lawn and woods. The homeowner would like to create a tick barrier next year.

Anyway, these are some photos that I took at the time, showing a bit of the process. Dug a ditch down the center of the pond that serves as a fail-safe drainage for whatever water gets under the liner; placed a layer of landscape fabric in, placed in some perforated pipe and 3/4" gravel, then wrapped it over to prevent debris from clogging the pipe. This ditch was pretty hard digging. Had to use a pick ax and shovel a little bit at a time. Got a couple of blisters from that, don't you know.

There is quite a lapse from the time of the layer of sand stage (to protect the PVC liner from puncture on the bottom side) to where there is only a bit of the liner visible. Installing the liner itself goes pretty fast. Piling rocks next to it, and on the shelf inside of the pond went a little less fast. Was able to drive up stones I selected elsewhere on the property to the pond site via a lawn tractor and old Wheel Horse lawn trailer. I believe I've written about that previously, so there's no need to repeat myself.

It began as a tradition... of leaving some relic(s) of the time period behind in every stone project I've been a part of since 2003, either with a great friend of mine or in solo work.  There's just the air that as we found old things inside of some walls that we deconstructed or "cannibalized" --- one along an old route in Scotland, Conn., near the home of Samuel Huntington, the first president of the Continental Congress --- we should put items in the stonework that will be discovered many years from now.

Usually, it is a soda bottle or other odd knick-knack found elsewhere on the site. Sometimes it is hidden entirely, other times, it's been a blatantly visible Pepsi bottle in a crevice in an otherwise historic 19th c. barn re-creation. It certainly won't have the cachet of finding coinage of the realm, etc. in other time capsules, but it we considered it our "calling card."

This picture came out quite blurry for some reason. I remember that it was pretty cold out that day and my hands were in the water, so they may not have been very steady. Working on this in the fall may not have provided the neatest work site, but the leaves are going to fall in it every year anyway. Can't do anything about that except rake them out late in the year or in the spring.

Can still see a bit of the liner showing. I moved the two large stones that had been in the middle of the lower pond section to the side, and placed the liner over them. Before that, I placed some old shop towels against the rocks for a buffer (FYI: this is not entirely unconventional. The manufacturer suggests old carpet sections).

In this last group you see the "functionally complete" pond. The water level is very high right now, but the ground nearby is reasonably dry... which was the point of the project. Tried putting one of the water lilies in a container (wrapped the soil with landscape fabric) and transferred it to the lower section. We'll see how that survives the winter. Also removed a number of thorn bushes that had been to the left side, which clears out the area a bit and makes it both more enjoyable to walk around, and possible to mow.

There are some stone outcroppings into the water in the lower section to allow for some frog landings next summer. As it was, they were staying mostly in the upper section... then again, the construction probably scared them off a bit. It'll be interesting to see how they like the new habitat. Also reinforced the bridge with some large flat stones.... Then again, I don't want to encourage any walking across of the bridge. As the ice moves things around, I'm not sure it will not remain as stable as it is now.

All in all, not a bad little project.