On A Cold Winter's Night...

OK, technically Winter hadn't started yet... but it sure felt that way. Winter was less the 24 hours away. And for the first time in 372 years the Cold Moon occurred on the Winter Solstice, passing through the earth's shadow for a total lunar eclipse.

Normally, a December night in Florida would be clear and mild. This year, we had a cold front pass by just two days ago. After 3 days of overcast, an unusual event in Florida when not associated with a tropical system, Monday turned clear and cold... for us. Monday night was going to be even colder.



When I was in college I had an attachment for my old Pentax K1000 that let me mount it on my old refractor telescope. I can remember sitting in the doorway of the garage in Massachusetts trying to stay out of the wind so the telescope would stay steady. It was winter then, too. Back then I only had 36 odd chances to get it right, and I didn't know if I did until about a week later, when my film came back from the developer. I got one shot right that year. I still have it.


A few years ago I bought an attachment for my new telescope, so that I could shoot pictures through it with my new camera, a Pentax K10D. A new generation of Pentax. Much to my chagrin, the attachment did not work all that well. My first try went fairly unsuccessfully as I tried to focus the camera through the telescope. Mounting the camera where the lens goes results in too long a focus, and as a result I have to disassemble most of the eyepiece holder just to get a configuration that will let me focus the light on the camera's image plane. The mount it self is only a tube. With no aperture controls, so I only have the shutter speed to control the amount of light.

Earlier in the week, I got the telescope out and started playing with the configuration. I wanted to see if I had missed something in the dark the last time I tried to shoot through it. I set up the scope in the living room and shot down the street. Once I figured out what I was doing, I took it out into the front yard. I had it working well enough that I felt I could at least try, provided the weather cooperated. At the time I wasn't sure it would. But Monday dawned clear and cold. The weather was going to be perfect. The only problem now... the eclipse didn't start until 1:30 am. If I did this, it was going to be a long night.

At about 9:00 that night I decided this was an opportunity I shouldn't miss. I got the scope out and set about configuring it. Then took it out got a few test shoots. The moon was full and bright. The show hadn't started yet. My plan was to set the scope up and leave it in the garage. The space right outside the side garage door was going to be perfect. By the time the eclipse started, the moon would be right over head, in the gap between the trees. I just had to remember to stay quiet as that put me literally three feet off my neighbor's bedroom window. I moved everything into the garage, the camera, the camera charger, and computer. I wanted to check pictures and things progressed. Then I locked everything up, and went to bed.

When the alarm went off an hour and a half later, it was already cold in the house. Edward was still sleeping, so I got up and headed out. By the time I got outside, the show had started. The moon was just entering the umbral shadow. The dragon had taken it's first bite. We were on our way.

It's easy to focus on the moon when it's big and bright. So I took lots of pictures, bracketing the shot solely by the shutter speed, so that I got the right exposure. Then I took the camera inside to look at what I got.

"Inside" was a relative term. The computer was set up in the garage on the work bench, only minimally warmer then out by the telescope. I could bring the camera in, download the pictures and have a look. I couldn't do that 30+ years ago. I knew right away I was getting good shots. I was psyched. I'd take 10 or 12 pictures, take the camera in, look at them, pick the best and post it to Flickr. Then post the link to Facebook. Then back out to the waiting telescope for more pictures.

As the moon got closer and closer to totality, my shutter speed got slower and slower. With the promise of an orange moon, it was going to get pretty slow. The good news was, there was no wind that night to shake the telescope, or feel even colder to me.

My telescope has a polar mount. That means you set it up with one axis parallel to the north star and you can track objects in the field of view with just one knob. Unfortunately, that knob is relatively close to the focus knob and just as the moon reached it's dimmest, I grabbed the wrong knob, and lost focus. That meant I spent the next hour of totality trying to find the right focus. I got close, but I don't think I got one that was really crisp. Chalk it up to a learning experience. Next time, get it focused, then tape down the knob so you can't mess it up.

I got Edward up at 3:00 am, right before the peak of the eclipse. He came out to join me for about an hour. The moon didn't pass through the very heart of the earth shadow, so there was a brighter side that seemed to rotate around the limb of the moon. Slowly at about ten minutes to 4:00 the moon began to peak out from the umbral shadow. Totality was over. The good news was I had something to focus on again.











I watched the end of the eclipse posting pictures as it continued. That's when I discovered just how many other people I know were also up watching the eclipse. Some across town, some across the country, a few on the other side of the world. Some I knew were going to be watching, others I didn't. As it turns out, a friend in Seattle couldn't see the show due to cloudy skies. So instead, he watched through me, and the pictures I posted. Then he posted my Flickr link for others of his friends to see.

I finally wrapped things up at about 5:20 am. The moon had slipped out of the umbral shadow, and only the keenest eyes could tell that the eclipse itself wasn't over. All the friends I'd seen on Facebook had fallen silent, probably smarter then I, having already headed off to bed. As for me, the cold finally caught up. It was around 43F and I'd been standing outside for the last 4 hours in my sneakers. I probably should have put on warmer shoes. It took until about 11:00 the next morning for me to finally feel like I'd shaken off the cold.


Was it worth it? Oh yeah. Got some great pictures, enjoyed posting them for others, and got to see an event that won't happen again until 2094. Sure there will be other total eclipses, and plenty more winter solstices. But not at the same time, at least in my lifetime. I'd do it again, too. Because to tell the truth, I didn't feel cold until toward the very end. I was too excited about watching the eclipse on our special holiday, the Winter Solstice, when a cold, dark winter's night marks the start of world's slow march toward warmth and light again.

Composite image:

Maintenance...

Drove the Jeep to work yesterday. That's cause I dropped the Rav4 off at the mechanic on the way home the night before. There'd been a soft thump, thump, thump coming from one back tire for a little while and I figured I better stop ignoring it. Their first thought was that it was either the tires going bad, or the wheel bearings needed to be replaced. After the mechanic heard the noise, he thought it might be the bearings, but needed to get it up on the lift and inspect the bearings and the tire itself. Since there wasn't a lift free it would be the next morning before they get a chance to look at it. Diagnosis: Bad tires, but only the two back ones. So we had them put two new tires on the the Rav, up front, and move the older front tires to the back. It's a front wheel drive. The good news is it wasn't the bearings.

While they had it, I had them change the oil and the air filter, and they said the power steering fluid was dirty, so they changed that, too. Other then that, they didn't find any problems. For an 8.5 yr old car (and a Toyota, no less, considering all the recent recalls) that's pretty darn good.

There was one other thing. The Rav came equipped with two cigarette lighter plugs. One traditional "cigarette lighter" plug in the dash and one "12V/120W" plug in the center console. I don't use either one very much. Which explains why I never tried to use the second plug until about a month after the warrantee ran out. That's when I noticed that it didn't work.

Being that the car hasn't need much work, it wasn't until yesterday that Edward reminded me to ask the guys at the shop to take a look at the plug in the console while they had it, but if it was going to be expensive not to bother. They took a quick look and said that they could see the bottom of the plug and it wasn't connected to anything. Someone at the factory forgot to connect that plug, most likely. I told them it was only worth about $40 (an hour's labor) to see if they could fix it, which meant they were taking apart the center console. He thought they could do that, and I said go for it.

When I picked up the car I had two new tires, a new air filter, clean oil and clean power steering fluid... and for the first time since I bought the car... a second working cigarette lighter plug. Now I can plug in both the Ipod and the Iphone if I want to. Sad to think it only took 8.5 years to get it fixed.

Sanderlings

You've all seen them. The small gray and white shore birds that flit and skitter along the beach in front of you as you walk along the waves. They're cute, quick...

...and tough to photograph.

You either end up focused on the sand behind them...
or catching them as they leave....
But while we were in Englewood this week, I managed to get a few good ones.

As well as the single birds, and a few pairs, there were several flocks of them along the shore. They would dash back and forth with the waves, searching for whatever tasty morsel they could find in the swash.









If we got too close, they would dash past between us and the waves..
Then go back to searching for that elusive meal...
And if you hang around long enough, you might even catch them resting on the beach...
catching a little shut eye....


while one of them keeps watch for beach combers.

Survivor....

My survivor's pendant.

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Edward and I have decided to publish his writing from the time when I was undergoing treatment "The Chronicles of Karen: You Are Always the Hero of Your Own Story" is a combination of updates to family and friends and Edward's exercise in creative writing about what we were going through. The "adventures" portion of the posting is all of the treatments and trails, re-imagined in a fantasy setting. They helped me get through treatment. All the messages, save the Introduction, were written in 2007.

To read the Chronicles please visit the Blog:
The Chronicles of Karen: Tales of a Breast Cancer Survivor
the-chronicles-of-karen.blogspot.com/

Gator Aid...

Yeah, that's an alligator... sitting in the middle of the road in front of the house. He's fine, just out for walkies.

Edward and I were sitting in the front room the other day when we both looked up to see an alligator nonchalantly walking across the front yard. Yes, the front yard. He was about 2.0-2.5 feet long. He must have decided to go for a stroll from the ditch in the back.


Now what? Edward ran to get his shoes on, and I went to get my camera. Someone has a little bit skewed priorities here, but we won't mention her name. We had to do something to get this guy back into the park before someone got hurt.



He bolted toward the street when I opened the front door. Doh. Didn't think about that, the noise spooked him. Believe people when they say that gators can move quick. This one sure did. Then he decided he would lay down and hide... in the middle of the street. I walked around him to the far side. He watched me the whole way. I was hoping that if he spooked again at least he would run toward the park. We didn't want to have to call animal control. They would have taken him away. We just wanted to see him back where he belonged.

I stood in the street ready to block traffic, should there be any, in my socks. Like I said, maybe I wasn't the brightest one here. Edward came out with his shoes on, and two brooms.


We, rather Edward, started herding him back towards the house. He, the gator, wasn't to keen on that idea and hissed the whole way. He wasn't about to be rushed. In fact, he acted like he wasn't going to do anything he, or she(?), didn't want to do. More then once he hunkered down, trying to get an angle on the brooms from which he could defend himself. Once he did get a hold of one of the brooms. Better that then an ankle, or an arm.









Eventually Edward got him to go under the back fence and off toward the ditch. We didn't open the gate, but watched him saunter down the top of the ditch and eventually down the side out of sight, as if he owned the place.



Perhaps he did, who were we to tell him otherwise.

DragonCon 2010: Out of Context

"I can not English today."

Even the best of us stumble every once and a while. This quote was from a linguist giving a talk on how to develop your own language when writing a novel or screenplay. He was having trouble with his native language... He explained the principles behind the International Phonetic Alphabet, a universal phonetic spelling symbology seen commonly in Wikipedia these days. He showed how using those simple (?) rules, you can learn to pronounce anything in any language, whether it was Japanese, Elvish, Korean, Na'vi, Tanzanian, Klingon... or English. It was a fascinating talk about how languages are constructed, starting from the basic building blocks of a language, the sounds and how they are made with your mouth, to putting those sounds together to make words, phrases and grammar. He used real world examples as well as fictional examples from our favorite movies and novels. A "conlang", or constructed language, also has to have a context, a logical reason for existing, that will make your language, and your story, come alive. With out that context, you'll simply have a bunch of nonsensical sounds and phrases that will make it difficult for anyone to learn your language.

That said, some of us still have trouble. Perhaps more of the convention attendees should have sat in on that talk...


"I can't wait to take off these f*in shoes and put on my combat boots."

"Ooo... I have ice boobies..."

"When he's in his Manties, he's unreliable."

"Midgets are my worst enemy. I trip over those things."

"Brown people should not go window shopping at gun shops in Tennessee, no matter how road weary."

"She was acting like a prepubescent 48-year-old."

"Did you see her in that muffin-top corset?"

"Important safety tip: Don't ride-share in the car carrying the magic brownies."

"The monsters in my sketches always come out preciously horrible. They make you want to give them tea and cookies."

"With a skirt that short, yeah, all they are looking at is your hair."

"If you don't know how something is going to work, call it nano-material"

"How do you disperse a crowd? Naked fat guys."

"When you clone a whole army from one guy, you should at least pick one that can hit the target."

"Smart bullets. The problem is eventually they start arguing with you."

"That's the biggest damned yoda I've ever seen. MegaYoda."

"He's like an SUV waiting for a rollover."

"It was an MC Escher, Chthulhu-style dungeon."

"Hello, Master. I have something I need to tell you." (at the very pregnant, I Dream of Jeannie).

"Aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper?" "I get that a LOT." (at the very cute, female stormtrooper with her helmet off).

"If I were a Tylenol or an Advil in this hotel, where would I be?"

"What's the difference between science and science fiction? Timing." - Lamar Anderson


Timing is everything......

Problem Solving....

I was up until 12:30 last night. Edward and I were trying to figure out if something in the front room was causing our lights to flicker. It had gotten so bad that Edward's UPS was shutting down his computer to project it. We were getting drop outs in power and had lights dimming or flashing off and on. It would do this for 10 minutes or so then quit. Then start again. We'd had the power company out twice and they said the power was clean coming into the house.

We figured out what was going on this morning by accident. We started by changing out some sockets around house, thinking they might be shorting out. The first was outside by AC unit. It looked a little rusted and not sealed, so we bought a new cover for it and installed that. While we were doing that we noticed the power line from the house to the outside part of the AC was cracked and rusted. Aha! We thought, we've found our problem. So we called an electrician to come out and replace the line. Oh, and while he was out here, could he see if he could track down why the lights were flickering.

He got out here late morning and started with the junction box in the garage to see if he could figure out why the lights were flickering. He put his hand on the breakers... "Nothing's warm". The house was built in 1979, so it had an old junction box. It doesn't have a single main breakers that will shut down the whole house. That wasn't required by code in 1979. There are five big breakers that need to be thrown to bring the whole house down. One for the AC, one for the range. Those and two others are for 220V. The one labeled "main lighting" will take down all the 110V in the house. Below that there are more breakers that will take down regions in the house. He poked and tested for a few minutes, then ZZziiitt! "Well, we're making progress." He said cheerfully. Edward and I just started laughing. He worked the main lighting breaker out of the box. Yup, there was the problem. One of the contacts on the breaker looked scored and pitted. Not good. That would explain why all the lights in the house would flicker at the same time. Luckily for us, there was a spare breaker of the size he needed right there in the box. So he switched out the breakers, and reconnected everything. Then he disabled the bad one and stuck it back in the place the spare had been, so that there weren't any live contacts exposed, and closed up the box. The lights haven't flickered since.

Next he fixed the power line to the AC. Turns out that was fine and would have been so for quite a while. The outer casing was cracked but there was steel under that what wasn't even close to leaking. The wires themselves were fine. He replaced the casing, threading the same wires through the new casing and reconnected it to the AC.

The lights have been solid ever since. What a relief. Electricity makes me nervous. Electricians scare me. They have a reputation for using you to "make their next boat payment". This guy was nice. He didn't try to sell us a new junction box, or anything else. Our office uses this company to do work in the building, so I had a recommendation form the office operations manager before I called him. It'll be about $200, maybe a little more. He left saying they'd send us a bill. We're glad its done. Both of us were worried about the AC getting damaged, or the microwave, the TV, the stereo, never mind that we were afraid it would start a fire if we couldn't find it. Turns out that what we called them out for wasn't what was causing the lights to flicker at all. I guess that's the way it works sometimes, the problem that wasn't a problem, gets the problem solved...

Mara's Little Adventure...

Edward called me at work this morning. "I think we need to take Mara in." Ok. What's she doing...? "Well, she was in the box for about a minute and didn't pee much." That's a bad sign. It usually indicates a UTI or something serious.

I called the Mobile Vet. "The Doctor's not in today. I can put you on the schedule for tomorrow." Not sure we wanted to wait that long. So I called our old vet. "How about 11:15?" Sounds good. So, I went home at 10:15, picked up Edward and Mara and off we went.

We thought it would take both of us to get her there. Turns out she was better then we thought she would be. She was hiding under the bed when it was time to leave so Edward pulled her out. Then we wrapped her in a towel and I covered her head with it. She didn't realize what was going on until she was half way into the carrier and the door rattled. I could feel her tense up, but by that point all I had to do was put a hand on her behind and push. By the time she got untangled from the towel, we had the door latched. She was not a happy girl. But she didn't struggle or try to get out of the carrier like last time, and she didn't cry much at all on the way to the vet. She even started out of the carrier when we opened the door once we were in the examining room, instead of cowering in the back and having to be unceremoniously dumped out.

We kept telling her she wasn't going back to PetSmart, and we promised we'd take her back home just as soon as the doctor was finished with her. I don't think she believed us.

The doctor gave her a good look over, felt her bladder and said it felt a little thick, like she had an infection. She also took a blood sample to check her kidneys and other organ function. Then she sent us home with some antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory to help her feel better.

Grand total: $179.57. Vet trips ain't cheap.

We put her back in the carrier and took her home. She cried a little more this time and once tried to dig her way out of the carrier before we got here. When we opened the door we had to catch her and give her the first antibiotic. Luckily, she's not a hard cat to pill. Then she got the anti-inflammatory. Then she got some treats... We were both surprised that she didn't run and go hide under the bed again. She stayed out, had a few mouthfuls of dry food and rubbed on everything she got near. It was like she was marking everything to make sure it was all still hers. Or maybe, she was saying "I'm so glad to be home!" Like a frightened flier kissing the ground after a particularly rough flight.

We think this all may have been brought on by the rough last few days we've all had. During all the tree work, she was hiding under the beds. It was unnerving enough for us to listen to the thud, thud of heavy branches hitting the ground on top of the roar of the chain saws. Add to that visitors for two days earlier in the week. She hides then, too. It's entirely likely that she just hadn't been drinking enough. But we think we caught this early enough. While she's been hiding under the bed some, it hasn't been all the time. Last night she was on the bed and up on the bookcases, the only place in the whole house where she chases her own tail. I'm pretty sure she'll be OK... I hope so. 'Cause we don't like these little adventures any more then she does....

Legal Immigrants....

We were back over at the Kennedy Space Center this week. The weather and wave conditions had finally combined to give us flat seas and clear skies. The bathymetry survey that we had tried to conduct 3 weeks ago, but had to scrub due to engine failure, was finally on.

I got to go because, at the same time, we were making adjustments to the dune monitoring camera that we had installed back in April. That April day when we installed the camera was the day the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

The bathy survey took three days. The boat crew left early on Tuesday and started the survey before we got there on Tuesday evening. Wednesday was camera work day. So we were back on the Eagle 4 tower on the north edge of the Space Center property. Thursday, I was on site with Kara, who was monitoring the GPS base station and serving as NASA Security contact and weather watcher. I was finishing camera adjustments and helping with the base station, which wasn't much. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go out on the boat.

Wednesday evening we had dinner with Jon, a marine biologist at NASA in charge of numerous projects on the Space Center. Jon made us an offer Kara and I could not refuse... There was a load of sea turtle eggs arriving the next morning. Refugees from the Gulf of Mexico. Would we like to see them unload the next boxes?

A little background: The northern Gulf of Mexico beaches are nesting grounds for several species of endangered sea turtles. As part of a joint effort by NASA, FWS, FL FWCC, NPS and FedEx, turtle nests are being moved from the oiled or threatened beaches to the Kennedy Space Center, where the turtles are being released after they hatch. 30 nests arrived Thursday... more then 700 nests will be rescued. Most are loggerhead nests, but they including leatherback, green, and Kemp Ridley turtle nests as well.

Jane Provancha is the lead biologist on the project. She told us that initially, they didn't know how successful the project would be. So everyone involved kept things quiet. If moving the nests was unsuccessful, there would have been a lot of criticism of the effort. The nests are excavated 45 days after they are laid. This gives the embryos time for critical development, including attaching to their shell, orienting themselves and for their sex to be determined, which is a function of the nest temperature early in incubation. After that 45 day period, the next is carefully excavated. Each egg must be individually lifted out and placed in the styrofoam nest box. Then they are covered with sand. If the egg is turned over, the embryo will detached from the shell and die. If the box was rotated too quickly when being moved, the torque could detach the embryo from the shell. If the egg is jostled too much, the embryo might try to hatch prematurely, and die. If the temp for the nest becomes too hot or too cool, and they would loose the whole nest. There were many, many factors that could endanger the survival of the hatchlings.

FedEx donated the time and trucks for this project. They use a special critical care vehicle, climate controlled and stabilized, with special racks inside to hold the nest boxes. Currently two shipments of nest boxes are arriving weekly. But this is just the beginning of the hatching season. Soon they will be getting 3 to 4 shipments a week and in August they may get them 7 days a week.

The next boxes are begin kept in an old, previously unused, building on the Space Center grounds. The building is kept at 80-89°F. No pictures are allow for security reasons, and to not disturb the hatchlings. These photos are from NASA's website. My shutter finger was twitching the whole time, but I was good and didn't even get my camera out. Then someone handed me a NASA camera and I went to town, not that I could keep any of the shots. There is more information on the project click here.

When we got there, one of the tech showed us two boxes from a nest that had been rescued. During that night the eggs had hatched. Resting quietly in there temporary home where about 2 dozen three-inch long hatchlings. They had emerged from their shells, burrowed out of the sand were waiting for their chance to make a break for the ocean... which would require some help from the staff. They were covered with a black cloth to keep them quiet. Later that night they would be released somewhere on the Space Center's 100 miles of natural beaches, where other turtles lay their own nests every year. Wednesday night the staff had released 120 hatchlings.

I asked Jane what their survival rate was. In nature, 15-20% of a nest's hatchlings might survive to get to the water. Fewer then that survive to adulthood. These nest boxes are hatching at a rate of 85-95% survival.

No one is sure what will happen to these turtles. Like salmon, a sea turtle will return to the beach it was born on. These little guys were laid on a Gulf beach, born in a box, and will be released into the Atlantic. Jane couldn't tell us if they would someday return to the beaches of the Space Center, or somehow make their way back to the beaches in the Gulf. Researchers think that turtles imprint the magnetic signature of the beach where they originate from, but no one knows when that happens. Did they imprint the Gulf of Mexico, or will they imprint the Space Center? They aren't doing anything to track these turtles. They are simply being released when they hatch, with well wishes and hopes for a long life. No one knows if they will return to the Space Center to lay their eggs.

Maybe this year more of the hatchlings will survive to adulthood, because more of them made it to the water. Their chances of survival in the Gulf this year were estimated to be near zero. Thanks to the dedication of the biologists at NASA, FWS, FWCC, and NPS, as well as Fedex, all those hatchlings will make it to the water, clean water next to oil free beaches. After that, they are on their own. But at least this year, these little guys will have a fighting chance...



For More Information Visit...
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/turtles.html
For more pictures...
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=27

The Joys of Home Ownership...

We've been dealing with a leaky side door to the garage, pretty much since we moved into the house. The first door frame and door itself, for us at least, pretty much rotted out a few years after we moved in. So, when we replaced the front door, we had the side door replaced at the same time. Several years after that we noticed the frame at the bottom of the door was soft. It, too, had rotted out. We had that repaired, and hoped we'd fixed the problem. In September of 2008, we had the door replaced again, not because of a problem, although it, too, had leaked, but to make it hurricane rated. Once again we struggled with a leaky door. We caulked it, we painted it, we sealed it to within an inch of it's life. To no avail. After all the rain we had last week, we noticed again that the door was leaking. So we started looking again for a cause. Again.

Let me back up about 10 months, to a day after another particularly heavy rain and standing water inside the door. We started inspecting it and we discovered that there is no caulking behind the hinges. The door opens out, so the hinges are on the outside, in the elements. It probably opens out because of some building code requiring it to do so. All the side garage doors in the neighborhood do. Being that the bottom hinge is only 18 inches off the ground and gets wet during heavy rain from the south, and water was running behind the hinge, and into the door frame. We caulked behind all the hinges, and hoped that we had caught it in time. All we probably did was seal in the moisture, and seal the fate of the door frame.

Thursday, Edward started looking at the door again, trying to find where it was leaking. Again the bottom of the frame was soft, so he got out the box cutter and started pealing old caulk, which pulled off the paint, and revealed wet, rotten wood. The bottom 12 inches of the door frame, on both sides, was completely rotted out. Again. It wasn't like we'd been ignoring the problem. We'd caulked, we'd sealed, we'd painted. Everything would seem to be fine. We'd even get that south rain again and it would be dry, but maybe it just wasn't leaking enough to show.

We called the handyman that had done the work for us. Could he please come out and have a look? It was going to need repair and fast. One, we had a break in the weather. After a week of rain, we weren't supposed to get any for a few days. Two, I'm supposed to go out of town next week. I like to be here when we have work done on the house. Edward and I tag team the people we hire to make sure they know we're watching and do the work right. That is the theory at least.

Our handyman came out the next morning and looked at the door frame. Yeah, it needed to be done and he thought he could do it that afternoon. Great. How about doing the work free of charge? He'd always said he stood by his work. OK, here's his chance to prove it. We told him that we'd found no caulk behind the hinges. He gave us a some an dance about needing a gutter to keep the rain from splashing onto the door. Or maybe, I thought, if the hinge had been sealed correctly, it wouldn't have leaked and rotted. None-the-less, if it had been done right, it wouldn't have rotted in less then 2 years. He agreed to do the work at no charge. I figure he thought the same thing.

He had another job that morning, but returned at about 4:00 to do the work. It took about 2 hours. He had to cut out the bad wood, high enough to reach wood that was still good. Then he had to fit in new door jam, a specific pre-made piece, add a 1x1 inch trim piece, caulk it in, and restall the weather striping. He did a passable job. We wanted to be sure the joints were flush. They were... for the most part. The door frame boards was primed already, but he covered the trim piece with caulk. "Painted" with caulk, he said, that'll seal it. Yeah, maybe.

After dinner we did a little extra work. We sanded the joined frame flush on the handle side and touched up the caulking a little bit. The hinge side was more of a problem, since we couldn't get the sander in the space. Oh, and when the handyman left, there was still no caulk behind the bottom hinge. There was before we finished with. His attention to detail does seem to be lacking a little bit. We learned that after the last work he did for us.

This morning I got up and primed the entire door frame. Four hours later, the first coat of paint, and five hours after that, a second coat of paint. We also sealed the door frame where the locks go in with an expanding foam that is supposed to be water tight. I can't imagine where this door would leak again. I've thought that before, only to have it leak again. Tomorrow morning we'll reinstall the weather stripping and cross our fingers.

We'd done all the things we were supposed to do when we hired him. We got recommendations, we checked his license, and we checked work he'd already done. The first work he did for us we were happy with. The second job, not as much. By the time this came up, we had already decided not to use him again. The only reason we did for this was because he agreed to do the work for free. He stood behind his work. I'll give him that. If he'd insisted on charging us, we would have hired someone else. Today he was next door, doing some work for our neighbor. She's been happy with him. That's OK with me. But we won't have him out again.

So now we wait for a strong southern rain. It might be next week, it might be next month. The door didn't leak every time it rained, nor every time it rain from the south. Who knows if we've got it this time. We caulked everything we could think of, short of caulking the door itself shut, or bricking the thing up entirely and putting in a window, which with our luck would leak as well. At least we caught it before it has gone any further. Or more importantly, before the carpenter ants or the termites found it. That only would have made a bad situation worse.

Maintenance is one of the many joys of home ownership. It requires constant vigilance. We'll keep our eyes on this door and in six months, leak or no leak, we'll probably caulk and paint it again.

World Cup Out of Context, Part III: Separated by a Common Language...

“They may not be speaking the same language, but they understood each other.” JP Dellacamera

Which is more then I can say for us sometimes…

We don’t just call this game by different names, Soccer vs. Football, we also call the game different ways. American commentators seem to need to fill every moment with talk. If the action is slow, they’ll talk about the player’s lives off the field, or even what they had for breakfast. The English commentators take a more laid back approach, often simply stating the name of the player with the ball then stating the name of the next player with the ball: Donovan… to Dempsey… to Altidore… back to Dempsey. They let you enjoy the run of play, and fill in the details as necessary. The English also have a more colorful palette of idiom from which to choose, some of which has left me scratching my head and trying to figure out what it was he just said. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe we share a common language….

“He’s kept a clean sheet”

“James responds with a nice slide rule ball…”

“That would really put the cat amongst the pigeons…” Ross Dyer

“He put a bulge in the old onion bag!!!” Tommy Smyth

“They’re signing from different hymn sheets…”

“Their passes are bright as a button…”

“The ball was perfectly measured…” Ian Darke

“He has some more cantering, perhaps galloping, left to do…” Derek Rae

“Goals are no longer on ration.” Ian Darke

“Paraguay is very much bossing the show” Adrian Healy

“These players are going to go absolutely potty if this score holds” Adrian Healy

“No one wants to take the game by the scruff of the neck and go forward…” Steve McManaman

“[The Dutch] are capable of beautifully embroidered football” Derek Rae

"It's a Swiss defense that is tighter than a taxman's wallet." Martin Tyler

“It's getting a bit spikey out there.” Adrian Healy

“He's away like an express train.” Adrian Healy

“They are on the Boil!” Martin Tyler

“Mexico has been at 6’s and 7’s for some time.” Ian Darke

“A cracking day of action.” Ian Darke

“Slaps it into the top of the old onion bag.” Tommy Smyth

“He’s got the pedigree to stride on and give it a crack.”

“Spain has passed them to death” Tommy Smyth

“They’re signing from different hymn sheets…”

“[Spain] are giving Portugal a torrid time here” Tommy Smyth

World Cup Out of Context, Part II: Ow, Quit it…

“We’ve seen a lot of good teams at this World Cup… England is not one of them” Shep Messing

You have to wonder sometimes if the commentators plan out everything they mean to say during a game, or if quips sometimes just tumble out of their mouths. I supposed that’s part of the commentators craft, being on the ball, so to speak, with the witty, if not well-timed, analysis. Sometimes it's insightful, other times pithy, and sometimes it’s just plan snarky… and nobody does snarky like British football commentators, we could all learn something from them…



“The French will have to retreat and dig in here…” Adrian Healy They’re used to that!

“That’s what he’s so good at, that’s what he’s so adept at… narrowly missing the target…” Derek Rae of Zigic

“[Gronjaer and Rommedal] are a couple of years beyond their “sale by” date in the Premier League.” Ian Darke

“Orange figures prominently in the stands, but there’s no zest for the men wearing orange in the first half.” Derek Rea

“After the Inquisition they faced after the goalless draw against Uruguay, what awaits [the French] after this result?” “Are they still using the guillotine?” Adrian Healy and Efan Ekoku

“This looks like they’re on a training field, it looks like they were doing it against cones.” Kyle Martino

“The English fans, you have to believe, have a superior advantage in blood alcohol content over their Algerian counterparts…” Chris Fowler

The Player of the Tournament: The Crossbar. The Man of the Match: The Post.

“They do come from the land of Hans Christian Anderson, maybe they do believe in Fairy Tales.” Ian Darke

“Dysfunction at it’s absolute finest. – French Football” Mike Tirico

“The English aren’t just delusional, they’re also miserable.” Chris Fowler

“They’re a country that can punch above their weight generally, but maybe some of the players are just coming to the end of their shelf life.” Ian Darke

"No goals in this game ... ones that count anyway" Ian Darke

“Did you ever realize you could get so many nice moves out of a Honda?” Tommy Smyth

"North Korea lost the plot in the second half." John Harkes

[Brazil] are not role models.” But perhaps they are roll models!

“Flights are getting booked tonight, window seats picked out, and neck pillows are getting blown up. Some teams are going home.”

"Has anyone seen Ronaldo? I can't find him, Portugal can't find him." Tommy Symth

"Portugal is getting dizzy the way Spain is dribbling around them" Tommy Symth

World Cup: Out of Context

“All we’re seeing are preliminary skirmishes in a very long battle… “ So begins the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

We are very much enjoying watching the World Cup this summer. For the first two weeks it was like being on vacation. Nothing gets done around the house, we don’t listen to the news and we ignore the phone (OK, maybe not that last thing, except when there is actually a game on.) Since we no longer have Cable TV, we’ve been watching the games on the Spanish Channels, Univision and Telefutura. For a while we had ESPN3.com providing English commentary in the back ground, until they remembered they were supposed to be restricting the feed and shut it down. Now it’s ESPN Radio, when the local station deigns to put it on instead of their bass fishing special…

Watching the World Cup is almost as much fun for the commentary as the game itself. This Cup, ESPN has recruited a large and varied contingent of English soccer commentators to help fill in for a US sports corps distinctly lacking in soccer expertise. Although why J.P Dellacamera, arguably ESPN’s best and most knowledgeable soccer play-by-play man, was relegated to the ESPN Radio is still baffling. The English commentators have brought with them their own special terminology for the game. Be they snarky remarks, things that, even though we share a common language, make your brain hurt trying to figure out what they just said, or things that, taken out of context are just way too funny..…

As JP Dellacamera said, “Our seatbelts are securely fastened.” Sit back and enjoy the ride…


"Those who aren't interested in football are, of course, welcome to keep working," Stephan Schwarz, head of GRG Services. (Germany)

"It was a masterpiece, if you like fake Rembrandts." Jurgen Klinsmann of Luis Fabiano’s two-handed goal against Ivory Coast.

“I apparently understand the rules of football so well that I know when two Slovenians mug an American, the American gets called for a foul.” Andy Roddick, U.S. Tennis

Dempsey’s playing Greco Roman style…

“A threesome is hard to come by.” Martin Tyler     Isn’t that the story of everybody’s life.

“You just feel like death, you don’t actually die… we get these letters, you see…” Ian Darke explaining the meaning of “Group of Death”

“That’s the only way to slow them down, to stop them by kicking them.” John Harkes

"I shouldn't laugh... there's another bash in the face in case he was needing one." Ally McCoist

“Three points aren’t going to do [the Ivory Coast] any good on the field, they need another touchdown.” JP Dellacamera

"It's a Swiss defense that is tighter than a taxman's wallet." Martin Tyler

“We just wonder if this coffee growing country can give the world a shot of espresso.” Martin Tyler at the start of the Ivory Coast’s last game.

“I think some one slipped an Ambien into his Gatorade at half time.” Glenn Davis

"You begin to understand the game when the legs go. It's a cruelty of life."

"I still prefer women. I am dating Veronica, who is blonde and 31 years old." Diego Maradona after he hugged all of his player before the start of the first game.

"Their skin-tight shirts, replete with nipple-enhancing technology, will be clinging to beer bellies from Glasgow to the Isle of Skye." Roger Bennett (ESPN blog)

“He’s a Mexican Payton Manning…” “A Mexican Who?” The Mexican goalie, Memo Ochoa, who was featured in ads for Powerade, Allstate and several other corporations… but didn’t play in any games….

“I’m looking forward to the injection on Friday.” Tim Howard after suffering a severe rib bruise in the U.S.’s First game.

“Stay out of the net Donovan, put the ball in instead…” Tommy Smyth He did, Tommy, he did.

“It’s Day 9 of the Vuvuzela hangover we all have…” Mike Tirico

The Danish “Van”-guard: van der Wiel, Van Brommel, Van Brockhorst, Van Persie and van der Vaart

“He’s got a left foot you can open a can of soup with…” Derek Rea

“There could be a few drunk Vikings tonight” Efan Ekoku

“Beating England [in 1950] is not winning the World Cup.”

“We just wonder if this coffee growing country can give the world a shot of espresso.” Martin Tyler

Once again, we wonder who's writing coach Bob Bradley's halftime speeches -- Mel Gibson in "Braveheart"? Gene Hackman in "Hoosiers"? John Belushi in "Animal House"? David Hirshey

And last but not least...

"We don't want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object," said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group. (Somalia)

Vampires... the Good Kind....

Also known as Florida Blood Services.

I tried to give blood today. Only my blood didn't cooperate. They only got about 1/3 of what they needed. Then a clot stopped the flow... I'll spare you all the gory details. Suffice to say, she didn't do a very good job finding the vein. In the end, there wasn't enough to be useful, except to give me my cholesterol results in 72 hours. ;-(

As the tech aborted the donation she said "You won't have a bruise". Right. Like I believed that. Anything short of getting the vein with the initial stab leaves me bruised. And sometimes, when they do get it on the first stab, I still get a bruise. Today my arm is sore, and yeah, it's bruising....

Every time they "miss" or my arm ends up sore, I wonder why I keep trying. I can't give with my left arm anymore, where there is a larger vein. It's getting to be like some strange game of chance... Will she or won't she get through the donation. Anymore, it's a 50-50 chance that they can't get a full pint. These folks are talented in what they do, but I need more than talent, I need virtuosity, to get my veins. I guess I keep trying because my Dad has a rare blood type. My parents have been donating as long as I can remember. It's a family tradition... so to speak.

I have 2 more pints to go until I have donated 5 gallons in Florida. I have more then 5 gallons, if you count the pints I gave in MA, NY and MD before moving to FL. If and when I get that 5th gallon, I'll seriously consider retiring my veins... Lords knows, they've done their part...

Stepping Out of the Past....

On the banks of the Connecticut River in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in a little known spot, there is exposed the bed of an ancient river, swamp, or inland lake. Preserved in the mud, now turned to rock and tilted toward the river, are ripple marks, bits of plants and tracks... dinosaur tracks.


I never knew about this spot when I was growing up. I always loved dinosaurs. Little did I know that evidence they had walked the earth was just 15 miles away from my home. It wasn't until I was in college, on a field trip, that I first visited the site.

The prints are thought to have been made by a small herd of Eubrontes, 15 foot high, 20 foot long, bipedal carnivores, likely to have been ancestors of the T-rex. There are some 130 prints, which crisscross the outcrop, most walking away from today's river. They left their prints in the mud some 190 million years ago.

We were there after some group had visited to study the three-toed tracks. Most were outlined in chalk, and marked with letters and numbers, to identify each individual. You could easily walk in the steps of a dinosaur, their stride being 4 to 5 feet long, with most individuals tracks numbering 8 to 10 steps across the sloping outcrop. Most prints were about 12-14 inches long and 8 inches wide, but there were a few smaller ones. Were those the tracks of younger individuals? I suppose that is a questions for the experts to answer.

We stayed about 30 minutes. Below us, toward the river, were railroad tracks and more rocks. The sign at the parking area asked people not to cross the tracks. I was tempted to go look, but we didn't go down to the water. Several families were swimming there. One group of teenagers, climbed the hill to look at tracks. To them, there was nothing impressive. The tracks weren't at all what they were expecting. Perhaps they weren't as clear or distinct as they thought they should be. Perhaps they expected models of the creatures that made them to be standing nearby. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. Each to their own.

I thought the tracks were neat. So much so that I wanted to share them. I specifically took Edward down Route 5 in search of them, wanting to show them to him as much as I wanted to see them again for myself, 27-odd years after my first visit. They hold as much intrigue for me now as they did then. It's what has always fascinated me about geology, and is a large part of why I choose that as my career. One simple question: What was here before me? In this spot, beside a highway, down a shallow slope and hidden from view of the road lies an answer to part of that question. Dinosaurs were here, stepping out of the past, to walk across the present and say "I was here before you."



For more information: Dinosaur Footprints, Holyoke, MA