More than one use

Most of us like to get the most for their money. What's one of the major considerations when buying a car? 'What does the gas mileage look like? Really, it's often printed up in large numbers on the window sticker.

We make the most of our groceries. The wife and I can cut up a chicken or pork loin and have it go for three or four meals. I've actually passed up tools that I know will only be used once. That's not to say I don't have things gathering dust in my garage. Sad to say I've not had an opportunity to use my router on a project lately.

That may change. 

This morning I corked 14 more bottles of mead. Tomorrow if all goes well, I might be corking another 20 of a different flavor. Why am I mentioning meads when my kids asked me not to?

We're gonna need a bigger rack

I have a plethora of bottles. (I don't get to use that word very often.)

My house is modest in many ways. We have to use every square foot wisely to get the most out of living here. Also we have to do it on a budget. 

Some scrap wood. A few judicious cuts. Screws to hold it all together. The wife doesn't think much of my carpentry skills. Then again her grandfather was a master carpenter, so there's no way I could come close to her expectations. Still, I give it my best shot. Let's me blunt here. I need to store over 125 bottles in a corner space four feet square. Right now I'm over halfway to that number and I have 15 gallons by the desk ready (or nearly ready) to go.

I also don't have enough bottles to do the job. <Sigh> It's a good thing I like a challenge!

Bluebonnets and Birthdays

They haven't been seen yet, but I know they're around the corner. Those fields of blue causing me to stop and stare in wonder. I've lived in several states and many climates, but none spoke to me in a way those azure pastures do.

Connecticut was always a grey place for me. Florida felt plastic and fake. Pennsylvania had it's moments, but in the end Central Texas struck me with how diverse and amazing it could be. For what seemed like lifetimes I found I could relax and be myself.
There are times where I want to simply get out of whatever box I find myself in. A short drive takes me to some of the best fishing, camping or hiking spots you could ask for. Yes, the heat is high in the summer, but the humidity is low. Hands down nothing beats a day tubing down the river. Nothing.
One Christmas I drove up to meet my wife in Fredricksberg. The drive up into the Hill Country was chilly, but when I came over the hill crest I saw an amazing sight. A village complete with decorations adorning the streets and houses gave the town a warm cozy feeling. It was as if I'd stepped into a Norman Rockwell painting. And yes, it was snowing. Small flurries to make it look picturesque, but not enough to make you worry about getting stranded.
One night not too long ago, I found myself driving down a lonely section of road. Outside of a city, street lights are few and far between. Pulling over, I turned out all the lights in my Dodge and stepped into the bracing night air. Leaning back over the hood of the truck, I gazed up at the milky way. Excess heat from the engine kept me from getting cold, but I could take a few minutes and stare up at the meteors that were predicted to streak across the night sky. I wasn't disappointed.
No city outline on the horizon. No lights from civilization. Taking a few minutes from our busy lives certainly puts things in perspective. 
Long ago the wife and I threw a couple of sleeping bags into the back of my truck and we headed out to snuggle under the canopy of stars. I think it's time I do that again. This time I'll take extra padding and more pillows.
Change is good.
Why am I feeling nostalgic? Musketeer number three turned sixteen today. She asked about her drivers license. Seems like yesterday I was changing her diapers. Daughter number two is graduating high school in a few weeks. Where did the time go?  

Civics

Today and tomorrow are important days for my family. The oldest two daughters are eligible to vote. In fact, they insisted on getting registered on their birthdays. To say I was overcome with pride about that little fact would be an understatement.
Tonight I'm going to flex my Google-fu muscles and come up with a list of candidates, who endorses them, and their political voting record.
Yes, voting in the Presidential elections are important. You have to vote in the primaries in order to vote in the election. What's more important is voting in the state and local elections.
Despite it's name, the Texas Railroad commission does not have control over the railroads and commerce. It has a more important role: jurisdiction over the oil and gas industries. All the pipelines of natural gas, surface mining, and utilities to name a few. They have regulatory and enforcement responsibilities under the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation Recovery Act.
These guys are the ones who control how much my utilities bill is going to be as well as the quality of water coming out of the tap. So yes, I want to be familiar with them.
When I talk to my friends about voting, the typical response is, 'Oh, that's today?'
That's why I try and get in on early voting as much as possible.
If you don't vote, you can't bitch.
On the other hand, I think it's an awareness problem. People are honestly too busy running in a circle. Work, home, sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat.
"I have to do what differently today?"
When I first heard the idea of making voting day a holiday, I thought; 'Why not?' We'd certainly get better turnouts. I know far too many people who are afraid to take time off their job to go vote. Scary, no? It's like going to the dentist. People don't go out of their way unless there is a problem. The same mentality applies here.
If you don't vote, you are letting someone else decide your future. There is a part of me that is thinking my children are trying to take control of their lives by being active participants.
Really, I couldn't care who they vote for. It's a bit personal. I want someone who reflects my ideals and who I feel will represent me in a responsible manner.
Not only do I pay attention to who's running in the election, I get the news letters and e-mails from my senators and representatives. When they do screw up, I make a note of it and stick it in the back of my mind for when that person is up for re-election.

One of my rules is I don't do fear. That's not to say I'm never scared or afraid. I've faced my personal demons, stared them down even. When some politician tries to incite fear and paranoia in me, I know this is a person not worthy of my time. When he demonizes whole populations with broad strokes, I know this person is dangerous. More to the point: He's a waste of oxygen.

Don't trust a man who doesn't know how to play a musical instrument or create something by hand: He doesn't have patience or discipline. Beware of soft men who have no callouses on their hands. They don't know the meaning of work. That goes for scars too.
Most of all watch out for the guy who says; 'God wants me to run for office.' It's curious that his personal beliefs are exactly what he claims God wants.
No matter what color on the political spectrum you fall, get out and vote. 

Deaf movie review, no spoilers

Come April it will be anniversary number 25 with my gal and main squeeze Carolyn. Seriously, she's the only woman who will put up with me. But that's not what I'm writing about. The girls gave us (mostly) an afternoon off to enjoy Valentines day. So the two of us went and saw Deadpool. We enjoyed the movie. A combination of snark, humor and cartoon violence. Enough about that though, don't take the kids.
Long time readers know I've had a running battle with Regal cinemas and their spotty record at captioning movies. In my book, they're 4 in 10. Even if the captioning worked, the device I had to wear gave me a headache and pinched my nose and temples to the point where I was useless after the movie. For having to endure such torture, I have six or seven free movie passes from them. If anyone wants them, let me know. Gee, go back to a theater that causes you pain and there is a more than 60/40 chance they're going botch things up. No thanks.
So I did the smart thing: voted with my wallet. The wife and I went to the Rialto Santikos theater off of Perrin-Bietel on loop 410. I hope I'm spelling it right, because it's giving spell check a run for it's money.
The listening device had a round puck on one end that went into the armchair cupholder. From there a flexible cable arm snaked out with a box on the end of it. It resembled a desk lamp or one of those viewfinder toys we had as kids. I never wanted to make a Star Trek joke so badly before. It resembled that thing Sulu peered into while steering the Enterprise.
That said, I was able to follow the movie. I positioned the device so it was just below the screen, allowing me to glance up/ glance down. It's a good thing I can read fast.
They served beer. Sure the nachos and draft beer were way overpriced, but come on, it's a movie theater we're talking about. In all honesty, I've seen worse price gouging and the food wasn't bad. Nothing to write home about, mind you, but it didn't come with a free case of salmonella. A plus in my book. 
So, no headache. I enjoyed a movie with my sweetheart. Didn't have to sneak a beer into the theater. There wasn't really a downside to this.
The deaf guy says check it out.

The trend I've noticed

Mankind has a tendency to imagine possibilities before they become fact or reality. Was that sentence vague enough? Last week, scientists detected gravitational waves first predicted by Einstein one hundred years ago. There's a fair amount of science stuff that might go over people's heads in this next link, but skip down to the paragraph entitled 'Relativity'. The whole article is worth a read. I'm still trying to comprehend how dense a neutron star is. The scale is quite staggering to my meager imagination.
What does that mean for us? Well for starters, we are understanding our universe a bit better. Seeing things that were previously invisible to us. Gravity is invisible, but now we are bringing it to a visible spectrum. A picture we can see, quantify and relate to.
This reminds me of when Voyager 1 flew past Io, one of Jupiter's moons. Before the flyby, it was generally believed the moons were dead rocks floating in space. Oh how wrong we were. A scientist at JPL flipped a switch and viewed the Jovian moon in an infrared spectrum, something we couldn't do until a short time before. In that one moment we had to re-write what we thought about the solar system. All that from being able to view the universe in an otherwise invisible spectrum. Now that we know what to look for, I imagine a few more books are going to need editing.


First we imagine it, then we do it.
Da Vinci imagined the parachute and helicopter, among other ideas. Those were the first two inventions that sprang to my mind.
Jules Verne wrote about going to the moon and under the sea. Now we have submarines and rockets. I don't think the originators of the ideas they imagined would be done in just such a way. 
The original helicopter 'screw'

seems almost comical compared to this


The concept of the spinning rotor is the same, but everything else...
Different, but tied together.
You might recognize this equation: E=mc2. Think about those two black holes in the article above. The emitted energy when they collided and we can finally detect, measure and understand what happened. A quote from Tesla springs to mind: "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."
Sound waves, light waves and now, gravity waves. Infrared, ultra violet, X-ray and visible light. I see the connections and others more knowledgeable than myself understand it better. I'm humbled by the possibilities this brings. 

Spring, sort of

In a little while I'm going to be calling in to work. The cold that I've been trying to shake all week finally caught up to me. Slight fever, can't breathe and I'm coughing up all sorts of nasty stuff. I want to blame it on the weather, but it's actually been on the mild side lately. This is supposed to be my last week of visiting every store in the area, but we're 98% done with that. Getting up before sunrise and getting home after sunset can be considered burning the candles at both ends. I'm sure that factored in health-wise too.
But my biological clock is temporarily(?) set to wake me now so here I am, filling in the blank spaces. More than likely I'll get a nap in today.
Cleaning all those stores made me take a look at my living space. Now that I'm about to have more time to do stuff, I think there's going to be a purge, perhaps a garage sale. A neighbor lent me her power washer and I've started to do the sidewalk/driveway. The difference is astounding. Truly, I was unaware of how dirty the walk was.

Night and day, huh?

So I got started on the driveway last night and kinda, sorta pressure washed the street curb numbers off. They needed to be redone anyway. One project leads to another. Break out the stencils...

Projects

My 'special assignment' is almost complete. For the last two months or so I've been driving to all the Lowe's in the city and outlying areas. What do I do there? In short, we clean. Officially it's been called the downstocking initiative. We bring merchandise off the top shelves and fill the nooks and crannies. Twenty-odd people including myself descend on a store to do what's called zone, front, and left justify. That is retail speak for fill the shelves, present the merchandise at the front of the shelf, and neatly organize and label stuff. There is also a lot of dusting. 

I've been gifted with a fairly robust immune system. Some family will dispute that, however I've noticed that I suffer less from colds and allergies. The dust in these stores challenges that notion. Lately I've come to think of it not in the terms of allergens, but of tolerance levels. After cleaning all those stores, I've almost reached my limit. Fortunately there is only one more store to go. We also do it very early in the morning. 6 AM finds me at work getting a morning briefing and because the store is on the far side of town or in another town all together, most of the time I'm on the road anywhere between 30 minutes to an  hour.

Side note: Texans measure distance in time. In full disclosure, the store of the week can be anywhere between 20 and 40 miles away. At five AM there isn't that much traffic and some routes I manage to catch a lot of green lights.

People don't appreciate how abrasive dust is. Even with constant washing and skin  lotion, my hands feel like rough grade sand paper, and we all know how that can kill your love life. 

So this is starting to come off as a bit of whining, having a few hours sleep, having to get up before the crack of dawn and drive to places you only have heard about in passing. I'm at the point where I wonder what I did before my travelling adventures.