Category Archives: miscellaneous

miscellaneous

Can’t Stand Those Black "Bees"

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I don’t know that they are bees. They sound like bees, although they over in place. We get them this time of year. They come out in the evening, just when it’s cool enough for my evening walk. The hour before it’s dark enough to call it dark, and even later up until it really is dark. They hover about 18 inches above the asphalt pavement on our quiet, country-like roads.

Once you get accustomed to looking for them, you can see them 30 feet ahead. Sometimes you can change course and not disturb them, except they usually seem disturbed and move—sometimes away from you and sometimes right at you, circling up near your head. In the past I used to swat at them; this year, the few times evening temperatures have been cool enough to walk, I’ve ignored them. Until last night.

I went out about 7:30 PM, a little earlier than usual. The temperature was still 90 deg F, but I decided to go earlier to get out and back before the black bees came out for their evening whatever-it-is-they-do-when-they-hover activity. I wasn’t early enough, however. Just as soon as I got on Scalloway Circle I heard one, I think, but wasn’t bothered by it as it moved off somewhere out of sight. On the next street, 600 feet of Scalloway Drive, I encountered no bees. On the next street, Sherlock Drive, I was attached. I heard one buzz near my head before I saw it. It buzzed me four or five times, circling and circling, retreating and advancing, usually staying out of sight. I couldn’t stand that and swatted at it with my…handkerchief and my hands. I kept grabbing my collar in back and shaking my shirt, lest that pest light on my back and sting me. I must have walked out of its range, for it left me. On the return walk I was not accosted by any black bees, though at the same place I saw one leave its hover and fly away.

I say “bees”, but what are they? They have a cigar shaped body, thin and maybe 2 inches long, and a wing span about the same length. They are all black so far as I can tell. They come out after the sun has set, but seem to disappear after dark; at least I never hear them on later walks. They hover 18 inches above the pavement, and seem to prefer lighter color pavement to darker. Scalloway Drive was just oiled a couple of weeks ago, and is very black. The other two streets were not oiled and are lighter asphalt. The “bees” seem to be on the lighter streets. I’ve seen as many as three of them hovering ahead of me on the street. They never fly off into the woods. The one tonight flew into a back yard, not the woods. They buzz like a bee; hover close to motionless like a hummingbird, and fly in a fairly straight path.

What are these things? I’d like to know. Possibly they don’t sting at all and are just a nuisance I can blissfully ignore. Why do they just appear in late July and August? Are they out in the morning as well, in the lightening hours, or just the evenings? I never see them in the morning. I’m tired of them ruining a month of evening walks.

miscellaneous

Dead Tired, but Carrying On

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As I mentioned in other posts, we had water damage to our walk-out basement due to a leaking hot water heater. Insurance covers all but the hot water heater itself and, of course, a deductible. We decided to also have the insurance company look at some water damage to the downstairs ceiling, over the computer area in our large family room. Over a year ago the garbage disposal went out, pouring large amounts of water into the cabinet under the sink, all right about above the computer room.

The insurance company adjuster (or whatever his title is) did not think the water damage on the ceiling below came from the garbage disposal above, however. He found a number of other places in the ceiling where there were smaller water stains, ones that we hadn’t seen. They continued beyond the computer room into the downstairs bedroom. He thinks it’s something to do with the air conditioning, since they seem to follow ductwork in the ceiling. So I guess I’ll be calling our AC guy today to look at that. The insurance company says they cover everything, with another deductible, except for whatever repairs are needed to the ductwork.

With all this stuff going on, with bookshelves emptied and moved out of the family room, with end tables moved, with the general upheaval, Lynda thought it would be a good time to paint the family room, and the stairway walls from upstairs to down. I have to agree with her that this is a good time to do that. So last night when I got home from school we make a Wal-Mart run, bought the paint and a few newer painting tools than we had, and got to work. Still had to empty and move three bookcases along my target wall, cased that were past where the water damage was. By 11:30 PM that target wall was done, about 1/5 of the total room, I estimate.

I was sweaty and exhausted. Cleaned up tools and hands, then sat at the computer for 15 minutes playing a few mindless games to wind down. At that point I remembered I hadn’t had any supper, but I really wasn’t hungry, and went to bed without any. This morning my hands and fingers hurt, my legs are dead, my mind is tired, and I’m sure my lungs are full of fumes. And I’m only 1/5 of the way done, maybe a little less.

Obviously I’m not going to be getting much writing done for a while. Today I’m going to sign a contract with Buildipedia for a new article, due on the 23rd of August, and turn in my article series idea for next month. Beyond that, I don’t seem much for a couple of weeks. Well, I also have Sunday school lessons to write; guess I’ll keep up on that. And I don’t see myself being able to do much reading during that time. Just finished a small biography of a long time Meade County Kansas resident, and it’s time to see what’s next on the reading pile, but that will have to wait.

Meade, memories, miscellaneous

Something Special: Meade High School, Class of ’67

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This was the fourth reunion I attended of Meade (Kansas) High School class of 1967, my wife’s graduating class. We also attended in 1995, 2000, and 2005. Now some of you may ask how a class with year ending in 7 has reunions in years ending in 0 and 5 instead of 2 and 7. To explain I need to tell you a bit about Meade.
First you need to find it on a map. Look for southwestern Kansas. Find Dodge City, Liberal, and Garden City. Mead in on US Highway 54, about 40 miles southwest of Dodge, 39 miles northeast of Liberal, and about 60 miles southeast of Garden City, about 100 miles east of the Colorado border and 20 miles north of the Oklahoma panhandle. Notice on the map how the towns in this area are ten to fifteen miles apart. The dryland/irrigated agriculture of the regions does not need population centers with services closer than that.

Meade, the city, has somewhere around 1,700 people. It peaked at 2,200 people in past censuses, when agriculture boomed and oil drilling was in full swing. But 90 percent of their high school graduates move away. A few move back ten or twenty hears later to raise their families, and a few people move in in search of jobs, but not enough to replace those who die off.

With the small population, and with the largest graduating class ever being about 64 people, and with a total of 3,400 graduates in the school’s 98 year history, the Meade High Alumni Association decided to have all school reunions on the 5 and 10 years. They hold this on the closing weekend of the county fair. So all interested alumns came to Meade last weekend.

Lynda’s class had 61 graduates, and three “friends of the class” who for whatever reason left the cohort, making for 64 people associated with the class. Near as anyone can figure thirty-two of those attended some or all of the events. We drove in late Thursday afternoon, not knowing her class was holding a party of the early arrivers, so we didn’t attend that. We did attend the Friday evening party. It was supposed to be for the class of ’67, but there were people there from ’57 (kind of old and out of place), ’61, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, and probably ’69. All over town there were similar gatherings that evening.

Saturday was a reunion at Lynda’s home church of returning attendees, then tours of the old school, then a picnic at the park of the classes of ’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, and ’69 (while other groups met elsewhere in town). Then a banquet and program that evening of all the classes, then an after-banquet party for ’67 that sort of fizzled (or started very late), then an ecumenical church service on Sunday morning. At each of the official or semi-official gatherings, the conversations lingered long. Heck, even the check-in on Saturday morning was a reunion, with small grouped engaged in animated conversations.

I enjoy going to these reunions, even though I didn’t attend that school and had met only one of her classmates before 1995. I sit back with the other spouses or significant others, and watch the interactions of the returning classmates. For a long time only two or three lived in Meade. That number is not up to six, so almost all of them are coming in from afar. The interaction is great. Every reunion someone returns who has never been to one before, and that person becomes a star of sorts as everyone tries to catch up. the men keep looking older in five-year chunks, and the women seems to change less, no doubt the chunks mitigated by applied colors and perhaps surgeries. The women all insist the guys take their caps off to see what they are hiding. The guys…make no similar request of the women.

This class of sixty-four has something my class of 725 doesn’t have: a shared school experience, and a shared community experience. They all went to the same grade school and junior high school, actually in the same building as the old high school. When someone tells a story about Mrs. Griffiths, one of the two 6th grade teachers, everyone knows her (even those who had the other one), and can appreciate the story. Everyone in the class knew each other well, and hung out with a large proportion of the class after hours. They shopped at the same grocery store, tormented the same elderly people, vandalized the same vacant houses, and played in the same woods.

In contrast, I doubt if I even knew a hundred people in my graduating class. I think not more than five others from my elementary school spent all twelve grades in the same schools I did, though many others spent more years together. Those shared experiences and relationships with the entire class is what I don’t have with my class. Maybe part of it is because it took me forty years to ever get to one of my reunions. Bit I knew very few of those at my reunion. Of the 79 who attended, I probably knew fifteen. I met about five or ten of my classmates for the first time, even though forty years ago we walked the same halls and hated the same assistant principal.

My class will never have that special bond that Lynda’s class has. It can’t have it. For all the benefits of growing up in a good sized city with a large school, the lack of shared experience is one of the unfortunate drawbacks.

Kudos to Meade High class of ’67. I hope you know what you have.
Buildipedia, miscellaneous, Suite 101

New Gig, First Article Posted

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I arrived home last night at the usual time, anticipating a busy evening, and hurting greatly due to my rheumatoid arthritis. Clean-up of the basement from the hot water heater leak was on the evening schedule. That had consumed most of the at home hours Friday, Saturday, and (less so on) Sunday. I also figured I’d have to cook supper, as my wife has been “on strike” from cooking for a while now. Not on strike in the union sense, but just having no desire to do so.

I whipped up taco salad with ground turkey (low fat, of course). It had been a hot day, but a shower came up as I was driving home, and the brief dash from driveway to garage was through cooler air. I didn’t walk through the house, but put my portfolio and calculator on the kitchen table and went straight to work.

It was hot in the kitchen, but it’s supposed to be hot in the kitchen, so I paid no attention. Then Lynda said she was real hot. I walked across the great room to the thermostat, feeling the heat. It was 87 degrees, and the digital printout said “cooling on”. My first thought was that, during the hot water heater replacement, someone had turned off the wrong breaker by mistake and had never turned it on. But that was Saturday afternoon. Surely we would have felt a warming house on Sunday. I checked: all breakers on; inside air handling unit running; outside heat pump not running.

I went back and forth from stove top to various rooms in the house, opening windows. It was now cooler outside. About the time the taco salad was ready I finally remembered that our AC guy said that the first thing to do if the AC wasn’t running was to turn it off at the thermostat, let it sit a minute, then turn it on. I did so, and immediately that outdoor unit kicked on. Who would have thunk you’d have to re-boot your air conditioner? For 30 minutes I had visions of having to replace something on the AC, and they weren’t pretty visions.

What does all this have to do with the title of this post? Not much really. I went to The Dungeon after supper and did my thing with the carpet shampooer, sucking up more moisture. Then I went to the computer and wrote a new article for Suite101.com, the first in a series on technical analysis for stock trading. I hope to write quite a few in this topic.

During the day I had worked with the editor at Buildipedia.com to put the finishing touches on my first article there, which was scheduled to be posted at midnight. As of 7:45 AM CDT it has already been read 33 times. That’s good exposure. I don’t think I can reveal how much I am being paid for this, but for on-line writing it’s a good amount, much better than the little I earn at Suite101.com. I’m working with the editor at Buildipedia on concepts for several more articles, perhaps as many as 10 to 20. Right now they seem hungry for feature articles, and I hope I can provide many. Here’s the link to the article.

memories, miscellaneous

A Long, Long Time Ago…

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…in a galaxy far, far away, I was in high school. Cranston High School East, to be precise, class of 1970. We had our 40th year reunion last night. This is the first one I attended. Of a class of about 725 (numbers given last night ranged from 700 to 749) 79 came. That seems like a small number, but everyone said it was better than number 35.

I saw three people from the old Dutemple Elementary School. Macia, Roger, and Jimmy all went to the other junior high school, then we were reunited for the high school years. That went back a long way. Grace was there, who I went to church with (though different elementary schools), then jr. high and high school, so we went back a long way. I brought some grade school photo albums, and we got a kick out of looking at them.

Four of us from the old “A” division at Hugh B. Bain Junior High were there: Jane, Sharon, Jeanne, and me. That was fun to see them. Jane was in physics and science with me, and I had brought some memorabilia from that class. She had a great time looking at it. Ginny from that class was also there. She said she needed another drink before looking at what I brought, but never got back to it. Shawn from physics class was also there, I understood, but I never did see her.

Well, I may have seen her, but a lot of people didn’t look the same. Some I had become familiar with their present appearance from Facebook, so wasn’t surprised. A number of people look like a little older versions of themselves, but well preserved. It was casual dress for the guys. The women tended to dress up a bit more, and there was lots of cleavage showing. I told my wife and cousins this morning that I hadn’t seen so much cleavage since Bay Watch was canceled.

Some people I hoped to see weren’t there. Gary, Kenny, Bobby G. Art, Bobby F–all skipped it. And my three closest friends skipped it in favor of our Monday night gathering. Even with many gone, I’m glad I went. Oh, and it was good to see Barbara, whom I was in home room with for six years, but never in class together. That was a pleasant surprise.

So many there I didn’t know, so was meeting for the first time. How could I not know classmates, you wonder? Because there were so many, and I had the circles I was in and didn’t meet a lot of the kids outside of those circles. I was in band, and there were four of us from the band. I played football, and six footballers were there. I ran track, and four of us tracksters talked briefly. Of course, nowadays we’d run the 100 in times we used to have for the 440.

Will I go again? Who knows, but most likely not. They may not have a 45th, and ten years is a long time to plan for. I won’t say no, but possibly this was a once in a lifetime event.

miscellaneous

Well Done, USA Soccer Team

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I fell in love with soccer while living overseas, and seeing weekly matches in the English FA Cup league, and some Italian and Spanish league games. So today I simply say congratulations to the USA team, winning over Algeria and advancing to the next round of the World Cup tournament. Well done.

With two goals disallowed under questionable circumstances, the USA actually scored 6 goals and gave up 3, and should have had two wins and 7 points. A very good performance.

Good luck in the round of 16.

construction, family, miscellaneous

The End is not Yet

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I can’t believe how busy I am. Even while in Oklahoma City this last weekend to celebrate my grandson’s birthday, and Mother’s Day, I had much to do with the church parking lot–e-mails and figuring. By Saturday evening I was mentally exhausted, and sat down to watch Saturday Night Live, something I haven’t done since 1974. And something I won’t do again for perhaps another 36 years. What a disgusting show.

Work is very busy. I have no time to write, no time to read for pleasure. No time to exercise. No time to keep up this blog. I’ll keep trying. The first glimmer of light should pop up around the 19th.

Engineering, miscellaneous

Limited First Day Hob-nobbing

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Well, I made it to the conference fine. Driving down yesterday afternoon and evening I must have been daydreaming, for I missed my preferred exit from I-40. Went to another one, and it was an inferior road. Probably delayed me 10 to 15 minutes. Then, when I got close to downtown Dallas, I missed the road I wanted to take. So I wound up on downtown streets. Fortunately I had studied the map just enough, and have a good enough sense of direction, that I made all the right turns and ended up where I wanted to go.

I turned on to Elm Street, which I thought was one of the streets that went through Dealy Plaza. Sure enough it was, and shortly I bust on to the JFK assassination site, the grassy knoll to my right. It was dark, and I was in traffic, so couldn’t really slow down to see much. But to just be there was enough. I’ve read so much on the assassination, and formed opinions on it. This is my eighth trip to Dallas (not including plane changes at DFW) but it’s the first time I’ve gotten to Dealy Plaza. Friday, after the conference, I hope to get there and maybe park and walk around.

I got the error in my class registration worked out today, and sat through a well-taught class on LID: Low Impact Development (or Design, I keep forgetting). This was exactly the right class for me and for CEI. I’ll take this info back and teach our folks five or six classes on it the rest of the year. Now I have to head up to my room and prepare for tomorrow, figure out which of the concurrent sessions I’ll go to.

And I hope to get 30 pages read in How Now Shall We Live?

career, miscellaneous

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

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I went home on Sunday. Several people who came to church from out my way said the roads weren’t too bad. Then I called out neighbors. They said they had been getting around just fine, although our circle and the road leading to it had not been plowed. They said I would have to park up the hill, near their house.

I went home about 2 in the afternoon. All roads were clear until the collector road leading to our neighborhood. It was awful, though drivable with caution. But the two streets my neighbor said weren’t plowed had been plowed between our phone call and the time I got there, plowed very thoroughly, in fact, down to blacktop in most places. So I parked on the street near the house. The sun was just beginning to show through the clouds, so I shoveled half the width of the drive, gave it a couple of hours of sunshine, and pulled the pick-up in, knowing I could back up the slope in the morning.

Since then, all roads are good, except for that collector street and the road leading to our office. But yesterday we saw improvement in limited sunshine, and today we should see good melting in sun and 42 degrees. Tonight should be a cinch, and hopefully we will have writing critique group.

It’s the second of the month. How did that creep up on me. Time to see how I did on January’s goals and set some for February.

career, miscellaneous

Into the Storm, and Hopefully Through

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Well, I’m the last person in the office today, at least on this side. I think the Big Cheese is still here on the other side, but is fixin’ to leave. I have completed everything I wanted to do today. The four business items and four personal items on my To Do List are crossed out. Time to head out.

Not home though. I’ll go once again to my mother-in-law’s place, for at least one night and possibly two. Since she does not have a computer, I will be AWOC for a couple of days. No posting possible.

It has snowed without ceasing since I got here at 7:20 AM. I think 3 to 4 inches, though I’ll know for sure when I exit the building. If any of my snow driving skills learned in my Rhode Island boyhood, and expanded by some years in Kansas City are still active, I should be out of the storm in thirty to forty-five minutes. I have a couple of writing pads and a thousand ideas. And no place to go. Perhaps I’ll get a little bit done this weekend.