2011
One year of CT
So today marks the 1 year anniversary of our Connecticut house. 365 days ago, we were plunking down a lot of money for our new adventure here. Reflecting back, a lot has happened in that time. Here's a few tidbits:
First, there's the house.
Before painting (circa end of July):
Then after painting a few weeks later:
Declan started Kindergarten:
Then Fall came and we did things like apple picking:
And we had a tree come down:
Zandra became a famous radio personality:
And James actually ran a 5k (sick and totally congested the day after flying home from a business trip):
Our first Christmas in our new house:
And then it snowed:
And snowed:
And snowed:
And then the ice and water damage:
Thankfully, Spring did show up eventually and we now have a garden:
Declan graduated Kindergarten:
And we're all still here, in CT. Sane (for the most part), happy, and another year older and wiser.
What's next? Stay tuned to find out!
Comments
Decision Making by Social Networking
May 15, 2011 09:42 PM Filed in: Personal
Many I'm sure have heard about the saga of James Tate - the high school boy from Shelton, CT (two towns away from me) who was banned from his prom after coming up with an extremely creative way of asking his date to the prom.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/11/conn-teen-posted-prom-invite-barred-dance/
So while I happen to side with the teenager (and am happy with the ultimate decision to let him go to his prom) you have to wonder about this story in the context of modern social networking. Had this happened, oh, say 25 years ago, it probably would have gotten local TV coverage, maybe even national TV coverage. And a writeup in the newspaper. Certainly not the global, viral response (where approximately 200,000 people "Liked" the Facebook page dedicated to James Tate's cause).
I'm not sure whether this is good or bad.
Granted, this made what appears to have been an overly-inflexible policy and extreme reaction to an offense visible, and plainly obvious. (Obvious to everyone except the headmaster that is.) It probably allowed a creative, apparently upstanding person to attend his prom. It probably got an unfair policy overturned (even though there was possibly past precedent for the change). And, I think it allowed creative romance to bloom (you have to admit, it was a cute way to ask someone to the prom).
But it brings up the concern that now the world can micro-manage every decision made by people place in positions of authority or power. Sure, there are obvious injustices where social networking is going to allow the word to get out faster. But there are (and have been) much less clear situations where, truth be told, maybe the world didn't really need to hear about all the details. And the discussion turns into a bit of a free-for-all, with the person elected or appointed to make a decision getting really caught in the middle.
It's an opinion here that social networking and the increased speed and availability of information to people is becoming detrimental to the functioning of our government and other long established processes. We voted for - hired even - people to make decisions on our behalf and run entities on our behalf. We vote them in and out based on their records. But we also trust them to do a job for us so that we can continue to do our jobs. Social networking (and maybe the Internet in general) has allowed us to micromanage and critique individual decisions made by those in authority on a daily basis, objecting to every little thing we don't like, and probably putting many into "analysis paralysis": an inability to make any decision for the need to analyze every possible repercussion of a decision. Not to mention that less-than-clear decisions can now tend to become polarizing, resulting in even more disagreement, inaction, and paralysis.
There's no doubt that the increased visibility allows better accountability, but at a high granularity level that we now have, the "lose sight of the forest for the trees" seems to begin to apply.
I feel for the headmaster at the school. While I think her initial decision was incorrect, she's been convicted in the Court of Public Opinion, and will probably have what was otherwise a good career irreparably damaged.
My ears say it's broken
Having a fun time with the iPod interface with the wife's new car. I've discovered, through careful experimentation, that the iPod interface on the car seems to not play vocals and certain parts of music out of the left speakers. It's very odd. It's like someone mixed out certain instruments, tracks, and parts of the songs. Only the iPod playing through the digital MDI interface. Satellite radio, AM/FM radio, etc., all work fine.
Took the car into the VW dealer today, and they agreed it sounded wrong, but said it was the way I had ripped my music from CDs on to the iPod. Um....no. I would have noticed that problem years ago. And, it can't happen on iTunes songs and every single album we own. "But it's a digital stream and the diagnostics say the unit is fine." It's not the music. Here - let me interface the same iPod, playing the same song, to the same system, but play it through the aux jack of the car instead of the digital interface. "Hey, that sounds right." New MDI interface on order.
I do have to say, I agree with VW. I am perplexed because this is certainly a bizarre failure mode. I hope the new MDI unit cures whatever ills this system. And maybe I can get them to mount the unit differently when they replace it (it takes up a big chunk of the glove compartment, and I'm sure there must be space to mount it somewhere else....
Sigh. I hate technology.
Viral tag
No updates the last few weeks because we've been busy playing viral tag in this household. Not that that shouldn't be a surprise this time of year, and especially this year with temperatures swinging 40 degrees from one day to the next.
I'm hoping we're finished, with the beginning and end both being Declan. Traveling with a viral momento from Declan made my typical quarterly trip all the more tiring. Only to return to him having another one.
All I can say is, next week, during Spring Break, we better all be healthy!
Walk observations
When traveling, I often like to take long walks to explore. It's a form of exercise (to work off the extra calories from dinners) but it's also a chance to see the place where you are at a little more closely.
Traveling by airplane, you rarely see much of anything (except the seat back in front of you smashed into your face). Driving around in a car, you see more, but especially if you're driving, you still miss a lot of details. Walks are slow and you're not surrounded by steel and glass so you get to observe a little more. I think I observe odd things though....rambling thoughts below:
Walking a couple of blocks in Las Vegas (that's the equivalent of a couple of miles to the unenlightened) was kind of interesting, especially since I was a bit off the beaten track (I walked between Las Vegas Blvd. and Paradise Rd.). First the trash. Yeah, cigarette butts as expected. Soda cans/cups. Beer bottles. Then the more interesting things - used rubber gloves and a screwdriver? Socks? Hmmm....the same thought process that goes through my mind standing at the grocery store checkout applies here....the one that wonders what you make with the food that the person in front of you is buying....
It's also interesting to walk by some of the apartments near the Strip which advertise weekly rates. They look like converted motels (and they probably are). But they look relatively clean and neat. More interesting are the kids. Lots and lots of kids. Waiting for the school bus like anywhere else, except that they are in the shadow of skyscraper hotels. You have to wonder what the stories are. These apartments seem so out of place 1 block from the Strip. You would think most of the people who live there must work on the Strip.
Noticeably absent: pets. Maybe there were lots of cats inside those places (the signs for the complexes advertised "Pet Friendly"). No barking dogs. No pet waste laying around. Seemingly unusual. Maybe the wrong time of day - there's not much going on at 8am besides kids going off to school and the weird tourist taking a walk.
Abandoned buildings and properties. Notably, the ones with signs that say something on the order of "This property is the site of a future resort and casino". Half-finished buildings with permit dates that expired two years ago. All signs of the building bust that the town is experiencing. All within sight of the massive City Center project which barely finished.
Interesting town.
Laptop withdrawal? (NO!)
I made it! No laptop withdrawal after 3 days without access to a real computer. And it really wasn't too bad.
The iPad allowed me to do everything I needed to (and a few things I didn't). I did at times wish for a real keyboard in order to help with typing, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. It was slightly easier getting through security, only because I didn't have to lug the laptop backpack around in addition to my clothes (the backpack flips open so I don't need to remove the laptop).
I'm going to have to travel like this more often!
And I think my next camera is going to be a DSLR (whenever I get around to it - way down on the list). For a point and shoot, I'm convinced the iPhone 4 camera does the job now. I don't need another one!
Laptop withdrawal?
I'm about to embark on my first extended trip without a laptop. I feel a little odd doing so. I don't think I've gone away more than 24 hours without having a laptop in years. I'm replacing my laptop with my iPad (and no, I don't have an iPad 2 yet). This is a bit of a vacation. I don't need a word processor, and the iPad can pretty much do everything else.
I'm also not taking a digital camera - the iPhone4 is going to serve that role.
When I get back on Wednesday night, I'll let you know if I've survived and write about the experience. Yes, only James could probably write several paragraphs on what it was like not to have a real computer in front of him for 2.5 days...
iPod domination in the car (part 2)
Mini must have read my blog entry about how primitive the Mini's iPod interface is in my car. I saw this today:
Oh boy.
iPod proliferation
Around the time of my last post, I decided to pick up a couple of older iPod Nanos (Nanoes?) from the Apple refurb site. I've not been that crazy about the newer iPod Nanos because I've felt the new touch interface is a little overkill for such a small device. I also like the long and skinny form factor of the previous generation. When some 8GB black iPod Nanos from the previous generation showed up on the refurb site for $99 I jumped at the deal. In fact, I got the last 2.
The timing was great (see "Timing is everything") - what I was looking for, cheap price, oh, and my venerable iPod Mini had just seemingly played its last (though, it revived itself after a complete battery drain about 24 hours later). But one thing I hadn't realized I was buying: more iPod cables. More iPod earbuds. More iPod docking adapters (which I've never figured out how to use). Looking in Apple Cable Purgatory (the box in my office where all Apple cables go to sit when not in use, sometimes for a long time), I realized I've got quite the collection of cables. Extra cables. Extra earbuds. Extra chargers (from the days when Apple actually gave you one with your iPod).
And while we're on the topic of chargers, the disorganization is maddening. I used to have one cable and one charger per device. Now, they're all over. In fact, there's even an iPod charging station in our bedroom (a power strip with at the moment 4 iPod chargers plugged in). One downstairs in the kitchen. Cables hanging out of each desktop computer. Interfaces in each car (see "iPod domination in the car"). Travel cables and chargers in my backpack. OMG, WTH?
And what are these things supporting? iPod inventory time: 1 iPod Classic. 2 old iPod Minis. 1 iPod touch 32GB. 1 old iPod Nano. 2 new iPod Nanos (though one is going to my wife's office as a donation). Not counting the dead iPod Classics in Apple Cable Purgatory (they make nice door stops - I kid you not) we have 1.5 iPods per capita. I think I have all iPods accounted for. How did this happen?
Oh. Can't forget. If you add in the two iPads, now we have 2 per capita.
But wait! There's more! It's worse than Ginsu steak knives! There's the old original iPhone we have turned into an iPod touch. There's our 2 iPhones. Even our nanny has an iPhone. These devices are EVERYWHERE IN OUR HOUSE! Stop the Insanity!
Is there an iDevice Anonymous group anywhere?
Oh, and the iPad 2 comes out in a week. That doesn't help this problem either.
Help. Please.
iPod domination in the car
So after the little reshuffling of vehicles (some intended, some not quite as intended), we now have 3 cars which we can plug our iPods directly into and control via the head units. For quite a while, only the Mini had any kind of an iPod interface. Of course, 5 years is a long time and now the Mini's interface is positively primitive compared to the Jetta and the Mazda.
Admittedly, I had recently driven a Ford Edge with the new "MyTouch" version of the Ford Sync system. Arguably, that is the best system around right now. It's pretty speedy, the voice recognition is excellent, and it just plain looks nice. It even displays album covers if your iPod has them downloaded. The Jetta and Mazda though are still quite nice with you being able to access any music on the iPod by artist, playlist, album, or song name. The Mini is now the most limited by only being able to play selected playlists prefixed with "MINI" in it. I'm going to have to take some pictures. Expect those in a future posting.
What amazes me is the number of options I now have for playing music in the car. I used to think that the Mini, being able to play an iPod or CD (along with AM/FM) was just absolutely fantastic. But it now pales in comparison to the Mazda which has iPod, aux input via a headphone-like jack, streaming Bluetooth (from an iPhone for example), Sirius/XM satellite radio, CD player, and of course, AM/FM. With 130+ satellite radio stations, 8GB of iPod music, and 7 hours of music on CD, along with whatever is playing on public airwaves, how can you not find something to keep you entertained? Just deciding which form of entertainment to utilize on a trip can be overwhelming! Yikes!
Thankfully, in the transitions, we lost the one form of entertainment we really wanted to lose: the DVD player in the wife's car. You'd think it would be entertainment, but what it turned out to be was argument after argument about who was watching what, when, for how long, and whether we could bring DVDs on a trip to the gas station. Geez. Won't miss that a bit!
Again, more commentary coming shortly.
Timing is everything
February 25, 2011 09:33 PM Filed in: Personal
I've decided that the phrase "Timing is everything" really fits us these days.
Good Timing: With oil skyrocketing, I timed an oil contract just right this summer, so I'm now paying $1 less per gallon for heating oil than current market price. A good thing given we slurp hundreds of gallons of the stuff per month keeping the house warm.
Bad Timing: Our choices of locations during the last two winters. We've gotten pummeled.
Good Timing: Trading for a more fuel efficient car about 10 days ago. Before prices started rocketing up 10% this week.
Bad Timing: Moving into a house with leak problems *before* a bad winter.
Good Timing: At least being around this morning to see the new leak and get it dealt with (or scheduled to be dealt with). Yes, we have a new leak. At least this one's in the garage.
Bad Timing: Don't have our tax refund yet (at least we hope we get a refund)
I could go on. That said, I'm not upset about the bad timing stuff. We're really fortunate for the good things. I just wish we would stop going back and forth....
Riding an arpeggiator
February 17, 2011 10:19 AM Filed in: Personal
I've decided I need to write about something other than my house...
Let's talk music for a bit, shall we?Having recently gotten SiriusXM radio, I've gotten a chance to slowly work my way through the myriad of different satellite radio stations in an almost nostalgic way. I find I end up stopping on Channel 8 (80's on 8) and Channel 22 (First Wave aka early New Wave). It's interesting listening to techno music from that era and realizing the advances in synthesizer technology since then.
I own a Roland D-70 synthesizer which was state of the art when I purchased it (way back in the 1990's) so I know a thing or two about synthesizers. One thing that always kind of intrigued me was an arpeggiator - essentially a device that could play the notes of a chord individually (and usually programmatically). In the early days of synthesizers, before technology allowed them to easily play more than a couple of notes simultaneously, a trick to generate a chord on a synthesizer used to be to use an arpeggiator. If you cranked it up to max speed, it could play the notes on a chord fast enough to almost make the synth sound like it was playing a chord. Even though it couldn't.
Listening to music of the 80's and early New Wave, I realize how much they must have been reliant on arpeggiators. Berlin's "The Metro" demonstrates this (and the song is where I derived the topic of this posting).
Try listening to the synthesizers, and now listen to 80's and early New Wave again. I bet the arpeggiators stick out from now on.
Thank goodness for advances in synthesizer technology and polyphony! I think I'd fall asleep on the road if every song relied on an arpeggiator for its melody....
Better News!
February 12, 2011 08:11 PM Filed in: House
In my last blog post, I was hoping for better news - there is some! It looks like the fungus is just ordinary tree fungus, and the mold is very limited and will be coming out with the affected outer wall (which the dry rot necessitates its replacement).
Samples taken, but it's looking more hopeful. That and that I've actually been able to find 3 contractors to come out and look at the mess....hopefully one gives a reasonable estimate and can do the work!
Quarantine
February 10, 2011 09:55 PM Filed in: House
This is getting oh so much more fun. We now have an active mold/fungus problem in our outer wall.
I'd post pictures, but it would gross you out. We discovered this after enough insulation blew off for us to notice what was going on underneath. Apparently a leak for a very long time has caused this.
The dining room is now sealed off. Hoping for better news soon. Actually, just for a carpenter who is available to fix this wall (since we can't keep it long this way...)
I LOVE SNOW!
February 08, 2011 10:37 PM Filed in: Personal
My apologies to those who might be easily offended. Saw this posting of an "oldie but a goodie" on a favorite mailing list. Summarizes this winter....and no, I do *not* really feel this way!
December 8: 6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the season and my wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses. So romantic, we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!
December 9: We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow now covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a lovelier place in the Whole World? Moving here was the best idea I've ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years, felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life.
December 12: The sun has melted all our lovely snow, such a disappointment. My neighbor tells me not to worry; we'll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter that I'll never want to see snow again. I don't think that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbor.
December 14: Snow, lovely snow! Eight more inches last night. The temperature dropped to -20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life! The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I didn't realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I'll certainly get back in shape this way. I wish I wouldn't huff and puff so.
December 15: 20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife's car and two extra shovels. Stocked the freezer. The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's silly. We aren't in Alaska, after all.
December 16: Ice storm this morning. Fell on my ass on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like hell. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think was very cruel.
December 17: Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity was off for five hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do now but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should've bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. God I hate it when she's right. I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.
December 20: Electricity's back on, but had another 14" of the damn stuff last night. More shoveling. Took all day. Goddamn snowplow came by twice. Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower, and they're out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.
December 22: Bob was right about a white Christmas, because 13 more inches of the white shit fell today, and it's so cold it probably won't melt 'till August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel, and then I had to piss. By the time I got undressed, pissed and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel! Tried to hire Bob, who has a plow on his truck, for the rest of the winter; but he says he's too busy. I think the ass hole is lying.
December 23: Only 2" of snow today, and it warmed up to "0". The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What, is she nuts!!! Why didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did, but I think she's lying.
December 24: 6". Snow packed so hard by snowplow, I broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the son-of-a-bitch who drives that snowplow, I'll drag him through the snow by his balls and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me finish shoveling and then he comes down the street at 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over everywhere I've just been! Tonight the wife wants me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I am too busy watching for the Goddamn snowplow.
December 25: Merry freaking Christmas. 20 more inches of the @%$* slop tonight. Snowed in. The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. God, I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she's a fricking idiot. If I have to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" one more time, I'm going to stuff her into the microwave.
December 26: Still snowed in. Why the hell did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She's really getting on my nerves.
December 27: Temperature dropped to minus 50, and the pipes froze. Plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him; he only charged me $1,400 to replace all my pipes.
December 28: Warmed up to above -30. Still snowed in. The BITCH is driving me crazy!!!!!
December 29: Ten more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That's the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?
December 30: Roof caved in. I beat up the snowplow driver. He is now suing me for a million dollars; not for only the beating I gave him, but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up his ass. The wife went home to her mother. Trudged through the snow to the post office to mail letterbomb to Bob. 9" of snow predicted tonight.
December 31: I set fire to what's left of the house. No more shoveling.
January 8: Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?
Going Rustic
February 06, 2011 10:16 PM Filed in: House
Water damage to the house is far worse than expected. The water went quite a ways, and there looks like there's previous damage from leakage. I'm wondering if the outside structure board needs to be replaced in one section - it doesn't look very strong as it is.
Tired of the droning of the commercial dehumidifier and drying fans that have been going non-stop since Saturday.
Hopefully it will be over soon.
The "rustic" look for the dining room below...
The drying equipment....
How much snow?
February 04, 2011 09:21 PM Filed in: House
How much snow have we gotten? Well, after the leak, we had the roof cleared off. Afterwards, had big piles of snow all around the house. The picture below is *after* they knocked the mound down a bit.
At one point, you could have gone skiing down the roof, down the pile of snow, down the front yard, and into the street...
Hope that Groundhog was right about an early spring...
Ice (Hoover) Dam(age)
Woke up to this this morning:
Sigh. What you can't see is the hardwood floor. Which is warping from the water damage.
Is Winter Over Yet?
I'm ready for Spring. As much as I like snow, I'm ready for Spring.
Snow is fine until it starts costing me money. In this case, I've got a growing tab to fix things the snow has damaged. Like a dining room. Paying to get the snow off the roof. Probably the roof. Oh so frustrating.
Will have to post more details of the damage to the dining room later. Right now, I can't turn the light on in the dining room for fear of a short caused by water running down the chandelier. Yes, it's that bad.
No more Threat Level Elmo
January 26, 2011 08:11 PM Filed in: Travel
They're getting rid of the threat level colors. See http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/01/26/threat.level.system.change/index.html?hpt=T2
This also means the end of Threat Level Elmo. I think this came out almost 5 years ago - a humorous editorial on the threat level colors and their usefulness. We've been on Threat Level Ernie forever.
Bye Elmo.
Light bulb insanity
I'm sure I over analyze things, but since moving in to our new house, one of the things that has driven me nuts are the light bulbs in the house.
First, there's the burned out light bulbs. Everywhere. It seemed like every fixture in the house had at least one burned out bulb. I guess if you're moving out of a house, you don't want to spend money on light bulbs. After all, you're not going to be around to use them.
Then, there's the light bulb wattage selection. 40W bulbs to light a 3-car garage (only 3 of them). Yet, 3 100W bulbs *per*vanity* upstairs in the Master Bath. Guess you really want to see what you look like in the morning.
Finally, the wrong sized bulbs. Bulbs in fixtures that are too small. So not only do they look goofy, but because they don't fit right, they let a lot of cold air from the ceiling down into the house. So massive heat loss...
Maybe I'm too picky, but the right light bulb seems to make things better. And it's a cheap way to save energy....
Consequences of blog rust
January 24, 2011 02:33 PM Filed in: Personal
Consequence of letting the blog get rusty - the comments feed is broken. Well, not exactly, it's more like suspended animation. My blog uses an external service to support comments, and the service has started charging. A lot. Given how much I blog and the comments I get, each blog comment will cost me approximately $5 to support per comment!
Needless to say, I'm working on switching to a different service. Sorry, but this probably means previous comments will get lost.
Creak and Squeak
Creak and squeak. This blog is rusty. I haven't written a thing in over 7 months.
I think I have good excuses. The least of which are the purchase of a house, the sale of a house, a move, getting kids settled, getting *me* settled, and getting life in order in a short amount of time.
This is a "ping" so to speak. Going to see if I can write anything over the next few weeks. Or I might just hang this whole thing up if I find I can't.
For more recent status updates, visit me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/jystickman
But let's see if I can throw some shorter (less editorial pieces) down here. Stay tuned.