A Blog for the Mill Memorial Library?

The Mill Memorial Library will be having a Book & Bake Sale on Monday, June 18 and Tuesday, June 19, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The library is located on the corner of Kosciuszko and Main streets in Nanticoke, directly across from the CVS. Directions: When entering Nanticoke from the East, turn left onto Kosciuszko Street at the first traffic light on Main Street. The entrance to the library will be on your right.

Now, how do I know this? Is it because I live just a few blocks from the library, and drive past it every time I come into town? Is it because I am currently unemployed, and therefore strategically positioned to take advantage of the library's services? Is it because of their website, or their other website?

Nah. It's because they had a plug in my church bulletin this past weekend. Otherwise I would have no clue. Even when I went to the last sale back in April, the little old ladies working there told me that they would be having another one "sometime in November".

I like blogs. I like blogging. I wish everyone in the world had a blog. Of course, if that were the case, nobody would have time to read more than a few, especially since they would be busy with their own blogs. But blogs are a way of letting the world know what you have to say. And they're not just for individuals - they work great for organizations, too.

I had this idea for a library blog a long time ago, but I've never acted on it. As I see it, it could be a sort of open-ended newsletter, a place for a library to make announcements, to list upcoming events, to solicit donations, to feature recent acquisitions, maybe even to spotlight book reviews by patrons. It would be a way of getting the community involved in the library without even having to be there.

One of the attractive features of blogs is that, ideally, they are frequently updated, so readers will return again and again to see what's new. Websites in the traditional sense tend to be far more static, reliables place that people can navigate to find the information they want without having to worry too much about design changes. But as such they tend to be dull. It's hard to tell the difference between a website that has reached a mature, stable state and one that is simply no longer being maintained.

Most websites require a "webmaster", somebody who knows and understands things like html code and SQL. Blogs are also incredibly simple to create and use, designed so that anybody can make one in just a few minutes, can maintain it with ease, and can update it with no more effort than typing an e-mail. I happen to use and favor Blogger, the free program that allows users to create and customize their blogs with incredible ease, but there are plenty of other blogging platforms out there, some free, some for a fee. Most websites are also only available for an annual fee, but Blogger hands out Blogspot domains for free, though it also gives the option of using the Blogger platform on your own website.

So I'd like to propose a Mill Memorial Library blog. I could create it for them, and then after they've botten to know the program I would transfer the administration to anyone willing to accept that awesome responsibility. This isn't even a new or radical idea, as a Google search on the words "library blogs" will reveal. But I don't know if any of the other libraries in the area have blogs. I could see this rapidly spiraling into a network of blogs for all the local libraries, complementing and working with their existing websites. I could even see non-library organizations getting into the act - the YMCA and local historical societies, churches and synagogues, community organizations , even local governments. I would be happy to link them all from the NEPA Blogs site.

Maybe, somehow, I could even make a living from this. "Do what you love and the money will follow", the saying goes. We'll see about that.

But all this has to get started somehow, somewhere. Maybe this post is that start.

Ads

Long-time readers of this blog may have noticed a certain change in recent weeks. Like MAD Magazine, for a long time I avoided having any ads on my pages. Like MAD Magazine, I finally gave in and started carrying ads. And like MAD Magazine, this wasn't really the first time ads had graced these pages; in both cases they were there, briefly, in the very earliest days.

I avoided carrying ads on my blog because of some abstract sense of blogtistic purity. Hah. Back in April I found myself wondering if there was any way that I could possibly use blogging to earn some extra revenue. After all, blogging is something that I like to do, that I do every day, and that I think I'm good at. The Google Adsense program seemed like an easy place to start. It's a known commodity, it's integrated directly into the Blogger templates, and, hey, everybody's doing it.

And the ad revenue is just pouring in. Since I started posting ads in April, I've earned $4.81. They cut a check after $100. At this rate, I can look forward to that first big payday in just over three years.

I expanded from a single ad to multiple ads yesterday, mainly because I only just figured out how to do this. (Here's the trick: you have to select an ad box that's big enough to hold multiple ads, and then it just fills itself up with as many ads as will fit.) The ads are supposed to be content-based, but a quick scan will show that this is a hit-and-miss proposition: some ads are well-targeted based on the posts that they appear on, but some are just...odd. A mention of Windows Vista the other day seems to have prompted a flurry of ads for replacement window services. Other ads seem more appropriate, but when I checked recently one of my most popular posts (responsible for nearly 50% of my site traffic in recent months - thanks, Firefox, for not addressing the js3250.dll issue!) is only getting non-revenue-generating Public Service Ads. (This happens whenever AdSense can't figure out which ads might be appropriate based on keywords. I guess keywords like "Mozilla", "Firefox", "Google", "Mozillazine", "js3250.dll", "ipvmonl.dll", and "malware" aren't explicit enough for AdSense.)

AdSense rules prohibit me from asking anyone to actually click on my ads, so I won't. Check them out if you like, and see if they're appropriate - the rules also prohibit me from clicking on my own ads, so I don't know how well these ads are targeted. But as far as I know, the rules don't prohibit me from telling you to click on the ads on somebody else's site! So I'm encouraging you to go visit The Domestic Zoo and click on the ads on the Domestic Zookeeper's site! Baby needs a new...well, everything, you probably know how expensive babies can be! Plus, the DZ's subject matter covers such a broad array of topics, she's sure to have a lot of interesting ads being generated. So, go there, check out her ads, and put a few coins in her pockets. In, maybe, three years or so.

Spyware

Last night this computer just kept crashing. I would open up a list of e-mails, see them, click on one, and CRASH. Open up a different browser, open up a web page, and CRASH. It wasn't even very hot in the room.

Finally I decided to run AdAware, the free Spyware/Adware detector from Lavasoft.

It took a while to load. Apparently, it had been over a month since I had last run it, and I needed to get new updates. (Updates are usually posted once a week.) The updates took a while to load. Once I had them I cleared my IE cache, deleted any remaining Temporary Internet Files, and did a "deep scan." An hour and some 159,777 scanned items later, it came back with the result: 78 instances of Spyware and Adware found, some with hundreds of "hits".

I deleted these 78 items and, on a whim, logged back on to the Internet. I checked out a few innocuous sites, sites that I routinely visit each day and that I wouldn't suspect of harboring any malicious programs that would slow down and spy on my computer. Performance was good, and I didn't crash once. After a half hour or so I logged back off and did a "smart scan", which only took a few minutes and only scanned 65,332 items. There were six new items of Spyware and/or Adware.

So now I am going to integrate running AdAware into my daily routine. I don't know if the items it detected were responsible for my performance issues and frequent crashes, but I do know that I'm happy to have them off my computer.

Back to the job search

After a small detour as I raced to finish my required home repairs, I'm now throwing myself back at the job search.

This computer isn't making it easy. I will almost certainly buy a new one this week. That's an expense I would rather not have right now, but it's the cost of doing business - or finding business to do. Here's a summary of my situation:

- I was good at my old job, and I liked it, at least when there was work to be done. Hell, I helped to invent the job, or at least defined it after others had worked out the rough outlines. There is one other company in this area that actually does the same thing. I have submitted a résumé there, and will follow-up soon, but I'm thinking that the prospects there are not so good. Maybe the DVD industry is suffering worse than I thought.

- At one point in my career I was intensely involved with Continuous Improvement. I was a Statistical Process Control Coordinator for years, helping departments monitor and understand process variation, to know when to act and when not to act. In the last few years many companies have lazily and foolishly turned over this sort of work to computers, which may or may not be programmed to apply the proven rules for avoiding ignoring signals and avoiding reacting to noise. There is a local company that is looking for a Continuous Improvement "Champion". This job was brought to my attention some time ago by a friend. I applied for it a while ago, but am still waiting to hear anything from the company. (The job is still open, according to their website.)

- I have considered becoming a teacher, and many people who know me - including those who are teachers - are encouraging me to pursue this. However, teaching requires certification, which would involve taking several semesters of classes during which time I would not be able to work full-time. I don't think I can survive on a part-time income, especially if I am also dealing with the expense of additional classes. There is such a thing as "emergency certification", a program whereby a school district can hire a person qualified in a subject who does not yet have official teaching certification. I am being told that there is great demand for people knowledgeable of Physics. I have sent a letter to the local superintendent of schools, the Big Cheese in the local school district, but have heard nothing.

(One drawback to trying to get into teaching right now: there are numerous school districts going out on strike locally. I don't want to be called in to work as a strike-breaker. I object to that personally, and such a thing would probably negatively affect my long-term teaching prospects.)

- Northeastern Pennsylvania is host to one nuclear power plant, in Berwick. We are also seeing several wind farms pop up along mountain ridges. I would rather see this area deal with the problems associated with wind-driven generators (I prefer to call them "windmills") than with the problems associated with nuclear power plants. I have contacted one of the two companies that I know is operating a wind farm locally, but their website does not indicate any jobs that fit my talents, knowledge, and skills.

- Then there's everything else. I haven't ruled anything out, including taking a job with my old employer if one becomes available.

So that's where I stand. Computer permitting, I will continue my search today and into the future, but I have a feeling this computer will not allow me to do very much today. I'm amazed I've been able to type all this in one sitting!

New computer time?

OK, the answer to that question is obviously "yes", as anyone who has read this site during a heat wave like the one we just went through (which finally broke with last night's rain) can tell you. I am working on a 1999-vintage Compaq Presario 7478 running Windows 98SE and accessing the Internet through AOL on a dialup connection. This computer malfunctions at a rate that increases dramatically as room temperature rises above 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

The problem is, of course, that I am currently without a job. That limits my spending power a bit. Even when I was working I was very reluctant to part with any money at all - otherwise I would have bought a new computer last year, or the year before that. Still, prices have gone down dramatically in the years since I bought this. In 1999 this computer cost more than $2000, and that was without a monitor - the 19" monitor was purchased separately for over $400. Now a new machine comes complete with everything I need for between $500 and $800, after rebates.

Then there is the issue of technology. Windows Vista came out a few months ago and is now standard on all new machines. But I don't trust any new product from Microsoft, at all. I consider this to be the "early beta" phase for Vista, where Microsoft is collating all the complaints from the field and packaging the fixes together as a Service Pack, or perhaps for Windows Vista Second Edition. Additionally, as I stated earlier, I am working on a dialup connection. I am not going to switch to broadband for this beast, so any new computer I buy will go through a transitional period where it is still on dialup. Do new computers even have dialup modems anymore? It seems like I may just as well be looking for a new computer with a slot for 5 1/2" floppies.

Gort has recommended a place to custom-build a computer, but there was always an issue of time - I was so busy with work, and my weekends were fairly packed. Now that's not an issue anymore, but I still think I may get an off-the-shelf model to replace this one. Whatever computer I buy now will probably be left behind when I eventually move into my new house, and my mom will inherit it for e-mail and Internet use. My computing needs are minimal, as they have always been, so I'm really just looking for something that will stably and reliably allow me to post blog entries, surf the Internet, and do job searches. Eventually I will get a computer custom-built, but not this one.

And finally there's the temperature issue. How well will a new computer perform at a room temperature of 85 degrees? I suspect that newer computers will actually generate more heat than this one, so that will also be a problem. Maybe I need to buy a room air conditioner, too?

Chaos in the forecast

It was supposed to rain yesterday. It didn't.

Weather forecasting has always seemed to most people to be little more than a guessing game. Part of the problem is that forecasts are often made for very large areas, and weather can be an extremely local thing. Advances in recent decades resulted in impressive improvements in forecasting accuracy; if the morning was sunny and the forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon, I would carry my umbrella into work - and sometimes be the only one of us who made it back to my car dry.

But those days seem to be over. I've always watched the weather forecasts pretty closely. As a gardener and backyard astronomer, it's important to me to know when I will have to worry about watering my plants and when I can let nature water them for me, when I can count on clear skies at night and when I can plan to do my stargazing in a book. In recent months I have found that I can rely on the daily forecasts almost not at all.

Yesterday, for example, several different sources declared that it was absolutely certain that it would rain in the afternoon. There were maps and computer simulations and satellite images to back this up. Yet not a drop of rain fell here or anywhere else within about 30 miles. Fronts did not move as they were expected to move, precipitation did not develop where it had been expected to develop, and rain fell somewhere else, somewhere the rain had not been predicted. By the evening, everyone was backpedaling on their earlier predictions, suggesting that what had happened was exactly what they had expected would happen.

Long-range forecasts are worse. It is the nature of complex , recursive, non-linear systems like the weather to be inherently unpredictable to an arbitrary degree of precision over long periods of time. (This is one weapon in the arsenal of climate change deniers: "Just because all the data shows a consistent increase in temperature over time, there's no reason to expect that temperatures will continue to rise." They adopt the "argument from ignorance" position that since we don't know precisely what is going to happen in the future, there is no point in worrying about it or trying to change it.) Yet as greater and greater computing power has become available to even the local weatherman, long range forecasts have been pushed out from five days to seven or even ten days. If you can't tell me whether or not it's going to rain this afternoon, why should I believe you when you say that a week from Tuesday it will be partly cloudy with a daytime high of 82 and an overnight low of 65?

Long-range forecasts depend on two factors: viewers are easily impressed, and viewers have short memories. Ten-day forecasts exist simply because they are more impressive-looking than five-day or seven-day forecasts. And how many people remember what the weather forecast for today was a week and a half ago? Someday I think I will make a record of the long-range forecasts for a period of several weeks, noting how the prediction for a given point in the future changes from day to day and how it compares with the actual weather for that day.

But long-range forecasts aren't what I'm worried about. I want to know: do I need to water the cherry trees and blueberries that I planted last week? Will I be able to see the stars tonight? Once upon a time, not very long ago, I could count on the weather forecast to tell me. But I fear that one aspect of the climate change that is a fact of our lives is an increase in the chaotic dynamism of the weather. Fronts don't move like they're expected to move, precipitation doesn't form where it's expected to form, and the weather doesn't do what the weather forecasters expected it to do. So while long-range forecasts have always been suspect, now we can say goodbye to the accuracy of short-range forecasts, too.

Will it rain this afternoon? Your guess is as good as mine.

My day so far

I woke up this morning and decided to pick fresh strawberries for breakfast. I had noticed a bumper crop in my garden the other evening, but I knew that berries are best when picked in the morning. I stepped outside just a little after 8:00 in the morning and saw that the temperature was nearly 90 degrees.

My plan for the day was to have breakfast, check my e-mail, write a blog entry, and then run over to the other house to mow the lawn before the storms blow through this afternoon. Realizing that the temperature might rise above this computer's maximum happy temperature of 80 degrees fairly quickly, I jumped right into the e-mails. I was in the middle of writing a response to one when...

The police scanner went off, announcing a fire call to a house two doors down from mine. That could be bad. The houses there are very close together. Less than ten feet separate my house and my neighbor's house, and the house next to him - the one where the fire trucks were going - is even closer than that. A fire could easily jump to his house, and then to mine...

I quickly headed over, not sure what I would do. I was not quite there when I saw a fire truck driving away. It turned out it was an ambulance call, and the fire truck just went over as a matter of policy.

So, since I was over there anyway, I decided to mow my lawn. While mowing the lawn (and talking to the next-door neighbor on the other side) I noticed that my front porch could use a good mopping. After that, I made a few phone calls, and then headed back here to finish my e-mail, two hours after I started. When I hit "Send", I didn't get a copy sent to my "Sent" folder - so either that option has become unchecked somehow, or this rather long letter never got sent.

Which brings us to here. The temperature is now 81.9 degree Fahrenheit in this room and climbing. I hope this post gets through. If it's this hot now, what will it be like in August?

Nothing day

Yesterday was weird. No classes needed attending, no garages needed painting, no concrete needed pouring, no trees needed planting. I have gotten so used to driving up to Scranton for classes at Career Link, to scraping and sanding and painting while bumblebees hover over my head, to hauling 80 lb. sacks of concrete out of my car and along the side of my house to mix and pour by hand, to digging holes and planting things, that it felt unnatural to basically have a day off. It was too hot to mow the lawn or use the computer, so my day consisted of taking my mom grocery shopping using one of the 20%-off coupons I got as a parting gift from work, driving out to see my brother's family's new kitten, and then dropping off and picking up my mom and aunt at the church where they were singing in the choir for the final graduation from Nanticoke's last remaining Catholic school.

(A side note: as a consequence of all that lifting and hauling and digging and scraping, I have developed some more-visible-than-usual muscles along my arms and shoulders, as well as a lovely unhealthy tan on my arms, face, and neck. These muscles, born of toil and effort, are often quite sore and are badly in need of massaging by a lovely young lady. Contact me via the e-mail address in the right-hand sidebar under "Contact Information" to arrange for a personal audition.)

Today I may assemble and use the new lawnmower I bought last week. It has a 20" cut as opposed to the old mower's 18" cut, which means I should be able to mow the lawn in slightly less time. It should be less scorchingly hot outside today than yesterday, when it was nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit at midday, so there is a chance I will not die while mowing the lawn. Maybe. We'll see.

July in May

I slept late today. Even though I didn't do all that much yesterday - more of the day was devoted to a shopping trip to get the window glaze, a caulking gun, some new keys, and some decorations for the front windows, and then to redecorating the front windows, than it was to actually doing stuff that I consider work - I still felt like I had been hit by a truck. But I slept in, knowing that there would be no bumblebee taskmasters hovering over me today, reminding me that I should have done more when the weather was cool. For the moment I am done with doing things at the house. For the moment.

I need to keep this brief. The forecast is for July-like temperatures today, and I expect that this computer will spend much of the day masquerading as a brick. I need to figure out how much I can spend on a new computer in the next few weeks. I have about a 2-to-1 ratio of time spent trying to make this computer work to time actually spent using it. That doesn't really work for me if I want to be doing an internet-based job search.

I didn't want to believe the things I heard about sites like Careerbuilder and Monster.com, but it turns out that they're true. The special e-mail account I created for my job search is filling up with spam and scam e-mails. There may be a few legitimate job opportunities hidden in there, too, but that signal (if it's there at all) is being drowned out by the noise.

So, better sign off now while I still can. I've got the temperature down to 77.8 degrees Fahrenheit in here, and it's not even 10:30 AM. The computer has already crashed three times. I hope I find a job soon.

Title reference: It's a comment on the weather forecast for today and a play on the name of one of my favorite authors, Julian May.

Done and done

I finished the windows. Once again, they're not pretty and they're not perfect, but they're done, and a hell of a lot better than they were before. All of my insurance-company-required tasks are completed, with one day to spare.

I also finished planting the plants that arrived last week. In the past two days I put in two dwarf cherry trees (CompacStella and Lapins), two new grapevines (Canadice), and six blueberry bushes (Ivanhoe, Atlantic, Bluecrop, Herbert, Jersey, and Blueray, in that order.) I will still do a bit more planting, but that will mostly involve transplanting things from here to there.

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of me buying the house, and I finally feel like it's mine.

I also finally redecorated my front windows. The snowflake, shamrock, and leprechaun window clings surrounding the anthropomorphic bunny rabbits were a bit out of date. Now my windows are full of tropical fish of all sizes, giving the appearance that my house is a giant aquarium. Maybe tomorrow I'll get pictures.

Now that all this is done, I suppose I don't have any excuses left for not throwing all of my energy into finding a new job.

Glazier's putty and masking tape

If you haven't read "Gather 'Round All You Home Renovators" from Anne's Almost Quintessence, please do so now. It was one of the first posts I ever read by her, and since at that time I was already planning to buy and renovate (well, "restore", really) my grandmother's old house, I paid special attention to it. Plus it's damned funny. And completely true.

Today I put the finishing touches on the last of my required tasks - I think. The grapevine wall is repaired, the cracked pavement in the grapevine sidewalk has been smoothed over and filled in, and the garage is completely painted. The last bit I had to do was paint the recesses of the windows and the window frames themselves. The recesses are white and the frames are dark green, so this required a bit of masking tape. I didn't mask the frames when I did the recesses, because I figured that any white could easily be painted over with green, but I did mask the panes of glass themselves - it would be easy enough to scrape any drips or splashes off of the glass, but I decided to avoid the issue entirely. After the white was completely dry, I masked that off and painted the frames green. After that was dry, I began to remove the masking tape...

...and discovered that much of the putty around the window glass had begun to crumble and fall off, and at this point the masking tape was pretty much the only thing holding the windows in the frames.

OK. New problem, new skill to learn. Tomorrow I will buy glazier's putty and use one of my putty knives for its intended purpose. Yay team me. And I hope none of the windows decides to tumble out of its frame and shatter on my head. Maybe I'd better wear goggles.

(Oh dear. I found this on Anne's site, too...but she was trying to do this in the cold of early December...)

In other news, I planted my two cherry trees and two grapevines today, leaving only the six blueberries to be planted. My eightysomething neighbor is looking forward to tasting the grapes and cherries! Given his stamina, I wouldn't be surprised if he's around a few years down the road when these things actually begin to bear fruit.

Or all the dead unburied

Walking a dog can be boring business. Down this street, over this one, cross here, when are they gonna get that curb fixed? oh wait she stopped, is she pooping or just sniffing? how are we doing for time? what should I have for breakfast? is that a skunk? oh she stopped again... You get a lot of exercise, it's true, and you get to spend a lot of time with your best friend, and you get to do a lot of observing of nature and the pre-dawn existence of your hometown, but...well, it can also be, as I said, downright boring.

So you think about things. Things that you've read, things that you've written, things that you'd like to write. You listen to songs in your head, because you're too smart to walk in the morning twilight with headphones blotting out your hearing. (Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days" was a good song to play to myself. The beat really made me pick up the pace.) I wrote a background for a TV series in my head once, and revised it on subsequent walks, and I still might actually do something with it so I won't give details here. I also wrote short stories and came up with ideas for several essays while Haley and I walked around Nanticoke. This is one of them.

I can tell you exactly where we were when I had the idea. We were a few blocks into our walk, in front of my brother's old house across the street from the library, heading West. It was a Monday, I think, because one of the seeds of the thought was (of all things) a Family Circus cartoon from that Sunday. In it some of the kids were walking through the woods with their father, and one of them said something like "Wow! I bet we're the first people to ever walk here!", and all around them were the ghosts of everyone who had walked there before: American Indians, European colonists, kids from all ages.

Then another thought came into my mind, words from Abraham Lincoln's beautiful Gettysburg address:

...we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

And then the two thoughts came together: What if the body of every person who had ever died in a conflict were to remain forever at the spot where they had died, unchanging, undecomposing, an eternal monument to their deaths and the conflict that had brought them to pass? I saw the world suddenly as a histogram of war, of conflict, of hate, the bodies piled high at Manassas and Normandy and throughout the Middle East and anywhere else there had ever been deaths that resulted from conflicts. Bodies everywhere: Before me there lies some nameless Indian who died in some conflict on the banks of the Susquehanna hundreds of years before Europeans came to this land. The seas are choked with the unbloated corpses of sailors. Some three thousand office workers and firefighters and police and airline passengers stand on a relatively small piece of land in New York City. Everywhere an eternal testimony to violence and the death that comes from it. And what changes? What do we learn?

Nothing changes. We learn nothing. The dead are buried, if they can be found, tucked away in little memorial parks with granite or marble monuments and pretty trees, or burned to ashes and stored on mantelpieces or tossed to the four winds. Perhaps we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. Perhaps their struggle has consecrated it above our power to add and detract. But we still have the power to forget.

The vision passed, and I was glad of it. Haley and I walked on, breathing in the pre-dawn air. And I tried not to forget.

Title reference: I have no idea where this title came from. It arrived at the same time as the original thought some early morning back in 2004. It may be from the Hugo-winning Science Fiction short story "Or All the Seas with Oysters."

Heat, heroes, and cowards

It's not too hot right now, but the day is still young. Soon the temperature in this room will exceed the maximum stable operating temperature for this computer, and it will be impossible to use it. Like it was last night.

This is a bit of an obstacle when you're trying to do internet-based job searches, or just want to do regular computer activities like writing blog entries, checking mail, reading other people's blogs, and chatting online with friends. I also need to remember to file for my Unemployment check today, or sometime within the next week. Unfortunately I took all of my necessary information over to my other house in anticipation of my sister's visit. Maybe I'll file by phone later today.

I've got a Memorial Day entry in mind, something I actually thought of years ago, but it's pretty long and I cant imagine the computer holding up for the whole thing. Blogger has recently introduced once-a-minute blog entry autosaving, which works much better than the spotty "Recover Post" feature. So maybe I'll actually be better off writing it online, since WordPad doesn't autosave, and Word is kaput on this computer.

I also need to say one other thing, something I don't want to besmirch my actual Memorial Day post with. And that's the sense of outrage I feel when I think about all the dead that we remember on Memorial Day, all the sacrifices that have been made by men and women who have fought and died not to "defend our freedom" (as the local newsreaders like to say), not for some noble cause or abstract concept, but because they made a promise to their nation that they would serve and fight and die wherever and whenever they were told to go, and they chose to honor that promise and serve and fight and die. And then I look at the coward who sits in the White House, a coward who made that same promise but who then did everything in his power and his rich daddy's power to avoid serving, a coward who decided that working on the political campaign of a family friend was the functional equivalent of the service he had promised to his nation, a coward for whom there are barely enough records to prove he was alive during that term of duty, and I think about how he and his co-conspirators slandered and sullied the reputations of people like Al Gore and John Kerry and John McCain, people who did keep their promise and who did serve their country in time of war, and I think about all the brave and honorable men and women George W. Bush has sent to fight and die who have obeyed his orders because that's what they promised to do. And I am filled with rage.

Memorial Day. Remember those who have served and fought and died. And hang your head in shame if you voted for the coward George W. Bush.

Busy busy busy

Yes, I've been pretty busy lately. So busy that I failed to mention the sixth anniversary of Douglas Adams' death on May 11, or the second anniversary of Haley's death on May 23. Sorry about that.

Now, I have to get busy again. No rest for the unemployed...

Status

Painting: Done. Except for around the window recesses, and the threshold of the doorway. Must get green paint. And I managed to not get stung by the bumblebees, even though I was actually painting a location where I had seen them entering and exiting the garage.

Wall: Done. It ain't pretty and it ain't perfect, but I don't believe either of those were requirements by my insurance company.

Sidewalk: Nearly done. This will be a hodgepodge of materials when I am done. Where pieces were in good shape, I left them alone. Loose pieces I removed and replaced with fresh concrete, which is light gray. Uneven spots I filled in with dark gray Sand Mix, which finished up much nicer than I expected. Cracks I filled in with yellow-orange sand, which I then swept in and wet down. One end of the sidewalk - where, frankly, I didn't have enough concrete to go all the way out to where the grass started - I filled in with dark gray gravel. I still have a few more uneven spots to level out with sand mix. I sprayed all of the cracks down with weed killer - it goes against everything I believe in to use this poison, but it's something I had to do. I expect to be able to finish this up after this weekend's rains have passed.

I still need to put a little Bondo patch on the wrought iron in front.

I managed to mow about a third of the lawn here, and used a weed-whacker on the tall weeds that the reel mower won't touch. I need to finish mowing here and take this mower over to my house tomorrow, since the one I have there is worn out. I bought a new, wider-cut one for this house.

I also need to buy some peat moss for the cherry trees and soil acidifier for the blueberries. I also have to take my digging tools over there, as well as the spray that is supposed to stop Black Rot on the grapes. Plus I need to clean up this room, which used to be my sister's bedroom - she's coming in tomorrow and will want to use it.

And then, at some point, I need to find a job.

Seven days to go

Today I finished painting two more sides of the garage. One more to go and it's done. I had the worst time with the bumblebees today - this time there were four of them, and they would sometimes come at me two at a time. But I don't have the luxury of waiting for cool weather, so I'll have to take my chances.

New thing learned: Sand Mix does not cling to vertical surfaces. At all. It works pretty well for what it's supposed to do, which is level out uneven spots in concrete between 1/4" and two inches (that's something like 6 mm to 5 cm for you European metric hippies.) But I may need to use more Mortar mix to finish off the wall. I think I also need more concrete for one end of the sidewalk - one last 80-lb bag should do it.

I also learned that while old, junky T-shirts are fine as work shirts, there comes a point where they will simply fall apart. My T-shirt did that yesterday. I had to put a different one on underneath and then throw the junky one on top as a sort of apron, to absorb the paint and dust. That worked out pretty well.

My trees and plants arrived today. I ordered two cherry trees (CompacStella and Lapins), one blueberry collection (six plants of different varieties), and two Canadice grapes (red, sweet, and spicy, to replace the now-absent Spice grapes that used to be in the grapevine) from Miller Nurseries. Unfortunately, they were sold out of Shademaster Locusts, which I intended to use to shade the house from the Summer sun - oh, well, I'll order them next year. Fortunately, the plants were shipped dormant and will keep for up to three weeks in their packaging. I expect to get them planted in a few days.

My right shoulder hurts. My legs hurt. I am fairly well sunburned on my forearms and the back of my neck. My hair feels like it's full of cement dust. I need a shower. Then some sleep. Then it's back off nice and early tomorrow morning to see if I can finish this up. Then I have to spray my grapevines, and plant my trees and other plants, and assemble the new lawnmower, and mow two lawns, and...

Home stretch

Today I learned that scraping, sanding, and painting while standing on a ladder is a lot different from scraping, sanding, and painting while standing on the ground. It also takes a lot longer. For an added challenge, painting around a window while standing on a ladder creates the very real possibility that you and/or the ladder will go through the window.

I got one wall completely finished today. And by "completely finished" I mean "painted white." Sure, it could probably use a second coat, And I need to paint the inside edge of the window recesses, and I need to paint the window frames and sills a shade of green that closely matches the faded paint that is flaking off the window, but those are all things I'll save for later.

The bumblebees are back, so we can all stop worrying about them. Today they seemed more curious than threatening, though I'm not sure what the "curiosity" function is for a bumblebee for things that are not flowers and may be enemies. Tomorrow I'll try to get an earlier start and try to do the "easy" wall, which is unbroken by windows or doors - just two boards and a strip of molding that need painting. Bumblebees permitting, I'll also take a stab at the "door" wall - maybe I should just paint the door first thing regardless, so it will be dry when I close up for the day.

I'm nearly done with the concrete, which means that I've bought and/or used nearly every concrete product made by Quikrete. These include:

- Mortar mix
- Concrete adhesive (for helping concrete bond to existing concrete)
- Concrete mix
- Sand mix (for thin-layer topping and evening out of uneven spots)
- Acrylic bonding agent (for Sand mix under 1" in thickness)
- Vinyl patch (same idea as the Sand mix with Acrylic bonding agent)
- Concrete resurfacing mix (a very expensive product that I probably won't end up using)

So far I've used the first three products. Tomorrow I will probably use the next two, and possibly the Vinyl patch as well. I'll need to keep track of what I used where so I can judge how well each item holds up.

While taking breaks from the garage-painting I also strung wire across the places where the grapevine boards had collapsed or been removed and pruned out all the dead wood from the grapevines. The grapes have had 100% crop losses for the past ten years or so due to a condition that makes the grapes turn bronze before they even begin to ripen and then shrivel up into dry black raisins on the vine. This is something I've meant to try to rectify with some stuff called Bordeaux Mixture. Unfortunately, this mixture is very toxic and must be washed off the grapes before they can be eaten. Until last year there were tenants living on the other side of the house, and I didn't want to risk any liability, especially since I didn't yet own the house. Still, even now I'm having qualms about using the mixture to fight this condition. Maybe we'll let things go one more season.

Yesterday I ordered two dwarf cherry trees, five blueberry bushes, and two red grapevines. They should arrive within a week or so, delivered to my new house, and then it will be time to get planting. By then I should have all the insurance company-mandated repairs done to the house, and I will be able to start focusing on making this house a home!

And now, Saturn

The Moon continued its romp along the ecliptic tonight, passing by Saturn. Saturn is not especially bright right now, so tonight's unspectacular conjunction served mainly to help locate Saturn in the sky. And here it is:

The Moon and Saturn, May 22, 2007 9:14 PM EDT

This picture was taken from the parking lot of the Wilkes-Barre Lowe's. Lowe's doesn't have sharpening kits for reel lawn mowers. Neither do Home Depot or Sears. Sears closes at 9:00. Lowe's and Home Depot close at 10:00. I may have to mail order one from Lee Valley.

The rest of these photos have been contrast-enhanced to preserve detail.

The Moon, Saturn, and Venus, May 22 2007, 9:15 PM EDT

The Moon is now nearly too far away from Venus to capture them both in the same field.

Ecliptic portrait, May 22 2007, 9:56 PM EDT

Here's a fun shot. I could see two bright stars above the Moon, and I knew that the two bright stars above Venus were Pollux and Castor (in that order) in Gemini. The star chart on Heavens Above indicated that the Moon is in Leo tonight, nestled right in the Sickle, the backwards question mark that makes up Leo's head, mane, and chest. It took some digging, and an extremely contrast-enhanced image...
...to reveal that these two stars are Alpha Leonis (Regulus) and Gamma Leonis (Algieba).

(UPDATE, 5/23/07, 9:03 AM: Here's an image I should have put together last night:
It's a detail of my super-contrast-enhanced image overlaid with the constellation chart for Leo stolen from Heavens Above. You can see how the stars on the chart overlay the stars in the photo, and how Saturn's blue circle on the chart fits over the red dot of Saturn in the photo. The big difference is the position of the Moon: the photo was taken at 9:56 last night, while the chart shows the location of the Moon at 8:40 or so this morning, a difference of nearly eleven hours. Visual interpolation suggests that the Moon will pass closest to Regulus in about two or three hours from now.)

If you happen to live in Europe or points East, keep an eye on the Moon tomorrow night; it may have a close encounter with Regulus, though you'll have to check your local listings for exact time and channel. The Moon also looks to be having a close encounter with Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion and the Rival of Mars, on the 31st. Sometime, somewhere, on the night of the 1st, the Moon will pass by Jupiter as it makes its rounds.

Check out Heavens Above's All-Sky Chart for precise predictions for your location - enter either your location or your latitude and longitude, then select the date and time you want to see, and you'll get a customized map of the sky for that time, date, and location.

The Moon, Venus, and Mercury!

I saw Mercury tonight! Got some pictures, too. Now if I can just convince this computer to upload them...

The Moon and Venus, May 21 2007, 8:32 PM EDT

Started out again tonight trying to pluck Venus out of a bright blue sky. As the Moon pulls away from Venus this will become a more and more difficult task. Again, Venus is in the lower right-hand corner. Compare to yesterday's photos.

The Western sky after sunset, May 21 2007, 8:35 PM

Thanks to a comment on Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog, I remembered that Mercury would be visible below Venus and low in the sky - it is at its greatest elongation from the Sun (I think) and is best positioned for observing. Clouds on the Western horizon made it seem unlikely that I would see Mercury. Only after carefully reviewing this photo did I notice...

Venus and Mercury, May 21 2007, 8:35 PM EDT

...the smallish bright point in the lower right-hand corner of this image. Could it be Mercury? Not many things can show up in the early twilight when even Venus is having a hard time showing through...but Mercury can!

Mercury above the rooftops, May 21 2007, 9:03 PM EDT

It was only after another half-our of scanning the horizon with my bare eyes that I noticed a bright pinpoint low on the horizon, about to disappear behind the rooftop of a neighbor. I got myself in position, stabilized the camera, and took the shot.

Venus and Mercury. May 21 2007, 9:04 PM EDT

With a minute or so to spare, I got this family portrait of Venus and Mercury. Again, Mercury is barely visible just above the rooftop in the lower right.

The Moon and Venus, May 21 2007, 9:05 EDT

Finally, I decided to wrap up the night with one more shot of the Moon and Venus. I love the color gradations brought on by twilight and the clouds in this picture (somewhat exaggerated by the jpeg compression.)

Tomorrow the Moon will probably be too far from Venus to get any meaningful images. But next month there's an occultation of Venus by the Moon on June 18th! It's a daytime event, so better sharpen up those daytime Moon-finding skills!

The Moon & Venus & Castor & Pollux

Well, I may have missed one of the most beautiful conjunctions of the Moon and Venus last night, but that doesn't mean I couldn't see where they were tonight. First I decided to try to see both Venus and the Moon in daylight. This photo is from 7:54 PM, shortly before sunset. I had to punch up the brightness a bit, otherwise the jpegification of the large-format photo would render Venus invisible.

The Moon and Venus, 7:54 PM May 20, 2007

Venus is already pretty hard to see here - it's tucked into the extreme lower right corner. You may have to go to the enlarged version to see.

The Moon, Venus, Castor, and Pollux, 9:35 PM May 20, 2007

Here is the scene a little more than an hour and a half later. Now Venus is a lot more obvious, and the Moon is joined by Castor and Pollux*, the Gemini Twins! (Again, you may need to go to the large version to see them.) On June 1st and 2nd Venus will be in a line with these two bright stars.

Thanks to whim for the link to this blog which has an excellent photo of last night's conjunction!

*Not in that order. Pollux is on the left, near the top center of the image, and Castor is on the right.