Going to the Fair

About a week or so back when A was doing one of her big trips to the big city, N was slated to hang out at home with his boring parents when the clouds parted and a glorious message was left on the phone by some his friends inquiring if he wanted to join them at the Tunbridge Fair. This was an exciting development because not only did he want to go, but he was joining two beautiful girls that are older than him. Talk about a crazy night out on the town.

Of course, the situation was not without a big of drama, as you can imagine. There was a message on the phone from AH asking if N wanted to join them at the fair. Now AH has a boyfriend and is a few years older, but her sister IH, who is a good friend of N's, was wondering if he would join the party. Then, to add to the fun, their other friend, NMP, who is also a good friend, was going, as well. N was enthusiastic about going, and this initiated the logistical drama that seems to be an integral part of my life.

I had to work that night, and mom was at work while the planning was going on. AH was going to drive, and she needed to pick the girls up from school after work. I had to be at work in the afternoon so I had to drop N off at a place where she could get him, but I couldn't get ahold of her. I spoke with their father, AG, and he said I should just bring N to his office in the big city and he could wait until his daughter showed up.

Now this would have been all fine and dandy if not for the fact that he didn't seem totally sure if his daughter was actually going to come to his office. The problem I faced was that if I dropped N off at his office and the girls didn't show up, he was sort of stranded there. AG assured me that it would all work out (he knows how neurotic I am), but just in case, I told N that mom could come get him if need be. In reality, AG lives right down the street from us, and AH was going to pick the girls up at some point, so N was basically all set.

So, I dropped him off, the girls picked him up, and they had a blast at the fair. It happened to be middle and high school night, so he saw a bunch of his buddies. They stayed until pretty late, and even I got home well before he did, not that it mattered because we figured when you're out on the town with a bunch of cute girls, you just can't rush the situation.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Jacob Haller for the pic.

The Heat Is On

Talk about crazy weather, this past week has been crazy hot, so much so that I can't seem to bring myself to do some much needed yard work, not to mention working on the woodpile. This past summer was definitely on the mild side, and I guess nature is getting her revenge by slamming us with heat in the fall. The past few days have been well into the high 80s and low 90s. This is a shot of the thermometer in our kitchen window showing 104 degrees, which is not accurate because it's in the direct sunlight, but it's sort of funny just the same.

Today the heat finally broke and we're getting some more seasonal weather, which is A-okay by me. Everyone I know is happy about this, and I'm glad that I can finally get outside and work on being a real man. I know once winter comes and it's 10 degrees everyone will be complaining about the cold (I won't, I like the cold), but for now, I'm all for some cooler weather.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Getting the Splitter and Squeaking By With Our Boiler

I had the day all planned out in the quest to fulfill numerous goals, and all the circumstances changed and I had to change things on the fly. It was a little crazy, but things worked out in the end. I sure do love when that happens.

The biggest item on the agenda was getting our boiler serviced and inspected. Now I am not proud to admit to this, but I've never had the thing cleaned, and it wasn't until last year that I learned that you're supposed to have it cleaned every year. Boy did I feel stupid. There was this whole drama last year when I scheduled a cleaning and the guy came to do an inspection but not a cleaning. I was a little miffed and complained to Irving because I was going to have to pay for another visit to get the thing cleaned. They basically told me to take a hike, and there wasn't much I could do. Then this summer I saw they were offering a good deal on cleaning so I took advantage of it, scheduling it for today. There was no way I was going to screw this one up, so I made sure to be here when it happened.

Now the funny thing about things like this is that, like getting your phone hooked up or cable installed, they don't give you an exact time but a range of time. I was told they'd be here somewhere between 12 and 4. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I also wanted to get over to AM's house to borrow her wood splitter. However, she had guests over and didn't want to disturb them, so I had a window of time when I could get the splitter. To further complicate this situation (what else is new?), I also had to arrange transportation, because I don't have a trailer hitch on my car. I asked our neighbor and good friend JH if he could help, and he said he could, but not until later in the day. Sounds like a plan, right?

Well, Irving called in the morning and said there was a cancellation and that he could come by around 10:00. Then JH called and said his morning appointment ended early and he, too, could help me get the splitter in the morning. This would all have been good news except that I had a specified window of time to get the splitter, and it didn't involve the morning. I quickly texted AM and asked if I could go around 11:00 instead, but didn't hear from her.

Meanwhile, the guy was cleaning and inspecting the boiler, and I wasn't completely sure when JH would show up. As it turns out, the boiler was in excellent shape (a massive sigh of relief on that front), so he gave me the paperwork and was on his way. Literally as he started his truck and moved forward, JH pulled into our driveway with his truck. I jumped into his vehicle and we were on our way. I wasn't sure what the time was, but I think it was around 11:30, and I was hoping that AM's guests would be gone, which they were. We picked up the splitter, brought it home, and I was grateful that things worked out despite the changes in plans.

After JH left, I brought out my chainsaw and cut several logs, but had to stop at some point because the heat was just too much. N and I then went to get some lunch and go to the driving range (which is shaded), stopping to get A's guitar from her on the way because she had so many things she needed to do.

Then it was back home to make supper, and then finally, a moment of rest. Boy, talk about too many moving parts. Then again, without all the chaos, life wouldn't be as interesting, or at least this blog wouldn't be.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to VeloBusDriver for the pic.

Staying in Shape

I've noticed that as I get older (actually, I've noticed a lot of things as I get older), my flexibility goes out the window, and I'm more prone to injury. Funny how that works. I've also been told that with aging it's beneficial to stretch regularly to hopefully avoid this situation and maintain a range of motion. So with this in mind, I've started a regular regimen of stretching and strength exercises, with the goal of looking like this guy... yeah, right. Truth be told, I'm doing the former to help avoid hurting my tired old body, and the latter to help with my surfing. As you can imagine, it's not easy.

I've found that the hardest part, like all things in life, is just doing it. It's a chore to mobilize and motivate at any given time of the day, and this is especially true at the end of the day, when it seems to be the most opportune time. I'm just so darn tired, and who wants to expend time and energy on something that doesn't involve eating ice cream or being in a horizontal position? Not me, that's for sure.

But stretch and strengthen I do, and for all it's worth, I feel better for it. Something about stretching makes me actually sweat and feel good, and if I can do the strengthening stuff, all the better. Eventually I'd like to do some conditioning before hockey season, but that's a pretty tall order. I will pay the price for this once I hit the ice.

I'm not even sure how much benefit I'm deriving when I surf, because I'm exhausted and working like a dog out in the water. I guess that's a workout in and of itself. And as anyone who exercises knows, any sort of interruption in the regimen throws the whole process out of whack. We've been traveling a fair amount and every time we go away, it's back to ground zero.

Oh well, at least when I'm surfing or playing hockey my body is getting worked over, so I don't have to feel so guilty about that bowl of ice cream after dinner.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to ddman_70 for the pic.

More On Our Budding Engineer

Our budding engineer is continuing to impress yours truly with some of his exploits. Just recently he made what I believe is a Tesla coil and demonstrated it to mom and dad the other night. Now I hope I'm getting the name right, but it hooked up to a power source and then allowed him to wirelessly transmit electricity to a light bulb. Talk about too cool for words. I was impressed, and you could tell by looking at it that it took some initiative and diligence to make, not to mention patience. This pic shows the bulb lighting with no wires.

On other fronts, he has gotten in touch with one of the teachers at the local high school who has a 3D printer and is getting involved with that. The teacher, KL, is a pretty cool cat, and he is very supportive of kids who are interested in engineering projects. He has the technology and wants to share it, which I think is really cool. Best of all, this could be something cool for N to pursue in the coming years. We'll keep an eye on that one.

He has also become interested in various audio projects. He's been making amplifiers and speakers like there's no tomorrow, and they sound good. He gathers the parts from various old radios (and not so old) appliances, or he procures them from the Listen Center or the dump, and then he goes to work. It usually involves taking stuff apart for the required parts, then soldering them back together in the configuration he wants. The power needed comes from amplifiers that he is builds, usually from parts ordered online. Also, when he gets ahold of an old computer or radio, he collect various transistor and capacitors for future use. I'm not completely familiar with the whole process or the names of the parts, but suffice it to say that it's pretty cool stuff. I used to love doing stuff like this when I was a kid but I was severely limited by the access (or lack thereof) to parts and tools. This guys got the world at his fingertips.

Finally, he's been doing his drone building, and that's pretty high tech stuff. It's amazing to me how affordable and accessible technology is today. It's a different world we live in, so we might as well make the most of it.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Home Improvement Warrior

In my continuing quest to be a real man, I'm still toiling away on the home improvement front and just recently I put another feather in my cap in that arena by installing a new toilet seat. Admittedly this isn't the most rigorous or manly of jobs, but suffice it to say that I wasn't passionately drawn to the task, and consequently it sat unattended for many months. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it took me awhile before I even realized that it needed to be replaced.

I use the downstairs bathroom a lot and every now and then, contrary to what mom might say, I clean the toilet. It doesn't take much, just a dash of soap and a good scrub with the brush. Along with the inside, I also clean the rim of the bowl, which as anyone who lives with men can attest to, gets pretty nasty. Regular clean up helps one to avoid the massive super-gnarly mess that makes most men faint.

Several months back I began noticing that there was small piles of crud at specific places on the rim. I wasn't really up for inspecting them too closely so I just wiped them away, but they kept appearing. I realized that they were the result of the pads on the toilet seat disintegrating. I figured it wasn't such a big deal and I would just replace the pads. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I learned that you can't really replace the pads, you have to replace the whole seat. Isn't that just like everything in life? You have to buy a completely new thing rather than fix a small part of it.

Whatever be the case, I finally decided to replace the thing and headed over to Home Depot. As you can imagine, they had quite the selection of toilets and toilet seats, a fact that baffles me but shouldn't surprise me. I went into standard mode and bought one of the cheaper ones. When I got it home I put it in the bathroom and wondered in the back of my mind how long it would be before I actually put the thing in. Well, as luck would have it, that was sooner than I thought - I put it in the same day that I bought it.

Best of all, it wasn't that difficult, nor was it that disgusting. Sure, it was a little nasty because anything involving that part of the body is going to get some residues of a mysterious nature, but nothing a baby wipe and paper towel couldn't handle. If anything, the harder part was laying down on the floor to screw the seat in - you just never know what's been on the floor around a toilet.

It took about 15 minutes, and I couldn't wait to try out the new seat and break it in, though that happened soon enough and I won't burden you with the details. Part of me wonders if I should have gotten a slightly higher-end seat, but this one was so cheap that replacing it wouldn't be that awful. Wasteful, yes, but not painful. Or, I'll just get over my OCD and live with a perfectly functional toilet seat. We'll see where this line of thinking goes.

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Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to saragoldsmith for the pic.

New Hockey Frontiers

With hockey starting soon, I think it's good for me to reflect a little on the big changes that are happening this year, namely that we've left our old hockey program with completely bad vibes (on my part, N holds no grudges) and are playing in a new program over in the big city. It's a big change and one that I didn't think we'd ever make, at least not yet.

In the past, playing over in the big city always meant being more competitive and driven. It's a stronger program and churns out more high end players, which means that the parents have high expectations, i.e., they're way more intense. Then again, hockey parents are hockey parents, right? Several players from our old program moved over to the big city in the past because they wanted various things for out of it - from a bright future in the NHL of just parental bragging rights that their kids were in a kick-ass program. For full disclosure, the level of skill seems to drop off at the level that N is playing at, probably because the really high end players move on to select teams or go play at prep schools. It's still a solid program in the big city, just not at an elite level, which suits us just fine.

So given all the crap we had to endure last year at our old program, we made the decision to move over. There were many reasons for this change, most of them spiteful on my part, but it never would have happened if N didn't agree to it. His strongest motivator was the level of uncertainty in the old program. They go through this every year, never sure how certain teams are going to shape up, or if they're even going to have a team. This is the case with N's level, and as far as I can see, they are going to have a hard time putting together a team. Besides, despite all of my juvenile bad feelings for the old program, it would be nice to see N play on a team where his teammates were a little closer in skill level (at his old program, the players were all over the map), but more importantly, came out, worked hard, and gave some semblance of effort, i.e., didn't have crappy attitudes. This was rarely the case on his old team. In fact, I think it's fair to say that most kids on his team rarely, if ever, gave 100%. It was discouraging and telling at the same time.

Finally, N will more than likely do some high school work over in the big city, just like his sister, so this is the world that he will be inhabiting. It's not a bad time to get a foot in the proverbial door of this new environment. I'm not saying this is the promised land and we're going to have nothing but warm fuzzy feelings about life in the big city, but at this point, anything is better than being “over there” at the old program. I am done with that place.

This should be interesting, and like all things in our lives, will probably be filled with drama. I can't wait. At the very least, more of our lives are stationed over in the big city, including work, school, and friends. It's easier for us to get to the big city than the “other place,” (just a quick jaunt on the highway), there's way more to do in the big city (there's nothing going on “over there,” it's the epitome of dull), and a lot of these kids that are on his team will potentially be his future classmates. Coupled with my complete disdain for the old program, one could make the case that this change is a no-brainer. Then again, I could eat my words in a few weeks. You just never know.

Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and make changes where you think they're needed, especially if you're unhappy with your current situation. Life's too short to endure people treating you like crap, don't you think?

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Until the next time, thanks for reading.