What do I have to be Thankful For?

1. Jay, my Sweet Loving Bear - the light of my life for over 21 years
2. Family that somehow manages to be functional most of the time
3. My sister Karen and her husband Pete for the extraordinary hands on care they are providing for my frail parents  
4. An intact mind and memory 
5. A job that I enjoy and that gives me the flexibility to take on interesting projects 
6. The ability to live comfortably and pay my way in the world 
7. Having been able to travel and see so much of the country and Europe. 
8. Home - 
9. Friends - in person and cyber
10. The ability to indulge in hobbies 

What would be in the jars?

Cinnamon and peach pie hooch of unknown origin. The cinnamon is quite good,  straight or over ice. I didn't try the peach pie. No idea how it ended up on the back of someone's pickup truck,  but a very natural place for it to be. 

A Couple of Cruise Ships in Port Canaveral

Old Familiar Places

Having lived in five states and no longer having strong connections to any of them, I find it hard to answer the question "where are you from," and yet I find an emotional connection to old and familiar places.  The other day I drove through Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.  I spent many happy years there getting a four year degree. Intellectually I really grew up there. It is also were I first poked my head out of the closet and found people like me, oh and love, I found love there.  My sweet bear was an adjunct professor there when we met (I had a faculty parking sticker the last year I was a student there.) Just driving by, brings on a sense of calm and a desire to get back in the classroom again. When I am back in Lexington I always need to drive down Main Street and back up Vine Street.  I like driving past my former offices.  In the town my parents live in, I always need to drive along the old road along the Indian River, great views of the Space Center, and quiet and calming memories. I don't remember a lot of Arizona, I was in the first grade the winter we lived there, but I remember the smell of the high desert on a cold winter morning.  Smells have strong memory associations for me.  It has been about a decade since I was last in the area I was born in - in Michigan.  Even there the place evokes memories - but I have little desire to visit and no desire to ever live there again.  But still even after nearly four decades, there is a sense of familiarity. People, and buildings and even roads have changed, but the place remains hauntingly familiar.

Sounds

Most of the time, I live on the 3rd floor of a 16 story high-rise.  The condo building is cast concrete with brick on the outside.  It is the quietest place I have ever lived.  I was surprised when I moved there at how quiet it is.  There are 250 units in the building, and I seldom hear my neighbors.  I don't hear traffic, in the dead of the night if you listen carefully you can hear the passing freight trains a mile and a half away - but not the subway station less then half a mile away.

I woke up this morning to the sound of thunder and rain.  It is kind of loud if you are not use to it. I am at my parent's house for Thanksgiving. We are in the semi tropics and it rains (it takes liquid sunshine to keep Florida green.) I dare not look at what the thermostat is set, likely in the high 70's or low 80's, old age and decades in a semi tropical environment and the house is kept rather warm and humid. So I have my door closed, a window open and a fan has been running in my room constantly since I have been here.  I bought the fan in self defense a decade ago and it has been a constant presence in the guest room ever since  So I can hear the hum of the fan.  Not something I hear at home, where I control the temperature, set year around in the low 70's in the condo (the new climate control system in the condo switches between heat and air conditioning automatically - I don't have to touch the controls for months on end.) Because of the design if the system in the condo, I can't hear it run unless I am standing next to the utility closet in the living room.

It is still early, maybe I will lay back and listen to the rain.

Near my parents house in Florida

Indian River in Titusville Florida: http://youtu.be/hUS5hgeizLk

Immigration

We are a nation of immigrants.  My father's mother was born in London, her father was born in London, her mother in Wales. My family roots have been traced to the Mayflower, we were early immigrants.  We believe, but lack documentation, that my great grandmother on my mother's side was native American.  But pretty much all the rest of the ancestry is European.  British, Irish, German. The arrivals in the last century arrived with paperwork in order, my grandmother was able to bypass Ellis Island and go directly to her father on the piers in New York, he had been here for sometime working and had filed all of the paperwork so his wife and kids were legal before they left Southampton.

Immigration is a hot topic in the United States at the moment.  It is estimated that there are between 12 and 20 - million illegal aliens in the country.  I know I just crossed the politically correct line, by referring to persons who violated the laws and entered the country without legal permission as illegal aliens.  It is what they are in the word of the law. I can recall attending a workshop 10-12 years ago on this issue and being admonished that "no person is illegal, you must never refer to anyone as an illegal alien, it makes them sound like they are from another planet."  First they control the words, then they seek to control the thoughts.  A non-citizen is an alien in the words of our immigration laws.  If they lack the legal authority to enter or remain in the country they are breaking the law and hence are illegal.  If people don't like the law, they should get Congress to change it.

As a moderate, working in a world of liberals, I am troubled by the issue of 12-20-million illegals living in the United States.  We have two very long and very uncontrolled boarders.  We don't get a lot of unauthorized crossings from the north, though that boarder has tightened because of fears that people who wish to harm the country will take advantage of the thousands of miles of boarder in largely rural areas.  The southern boarder has more fences and security- but still leaks like a sieve. No political power has ever had the guts to spend what is necessary to properly defend our southern boarder and the vast majority of our illegal aliens have entered there.  Our neighbors to the north live in a prosperous, stable, lawful country and have fewer reasons to want to break into the US; our neighbors to the south experience relative poverty, brutality and instability. During the W years, we spent a fortune trying to create an electronic monitoring system on critical boarder zones, an effort that only succeeding at generating profits for the contractors that designed and built a system that didn't work.

I am troubled by allowing 12-20-million people who entered the country illegally remain, while millions of others world-wide wait for years, sometimes decades for permission to enter legally.  I have asked people who immigrated legally how they feel about others jumping the line, and the answer if complicated.  They frequently have friends or family who are in the country illegally that they don't want to have shipped home. This leads to a couple of issues. Families that are a mixture of legal and illegal - how do we ship out the illegals without breaking apart families.  Few of those with legal status, are going to accompany their illegal family back to poverty.  And how do we justify deporting people who are vital and productive parts of our communities and economy? Underlying this is the hard truth that without the 12-million plus illegals we would have critical labor shortages in agriculture, and some building trades.

We are a nation of laws.  Among those laws are laws controlling entry to the country by non-citizens. Underlying all of this for me, is a personal value, that if you want to be a part of this civil society, you agree to comply with at least the majority of the laws - and especially the big ones.  Legal status to be here is a big law.  I am troubled by somehow overlooking the fact that 12-20-million people broke a significant law. They are by and large good people, but forgiving them, while holding others to the same law, seems wrong to me.  Would I load 12,000,000 people on 747's and fly them home?  I don't know.  But how can we overlook breaking the law, by people who want to be here and be a part of a nation of laws? There is no easy answer on this issue.

Dinner Music

Good local shrimp and a fun piano player

It is my Father's Fault

My father liked the great American road trip, growing up we went to Arizona twice and Florida seven times.  So, his geographic interest was limited, but he did like to pile the family into the car and drive - for long endless days.  I hated it.  By the time he squeezed in another 100 miles and pulled off for the night my body would hurt. And I loved it, because I got to see the differences in other parts of the country.  Now unlike a friend of my sisters, I didn't expect the landscape to change colors when we crossed state lines, like it did on the maps, but I knew that people lived differently and thought differently in different parts of the country.

Rolling across the landscape on my latest adventure a few things struck me.  There are a lot of dead deer on the roadsides.   Hunting has become politically incorrect and the deer population has exploded.  It seems that the only natural predator left is traffic.  People still let their dogs run loose, a couple of dogs splattered along the expressway makes me sad. The owners who let them loose should be forced to come face to face with the fate of their dog.  In North Carolina I saw several business with billboards saying, American Owned and Operated.  Do we really dislike immigrants that much?  It can be frustrating trying to do business with someone who does not speak the language or does not understand the culture.  But I always appreciate the immigrant who is working hard to earn a better life and doing a good job of it. NPR is nearly constant, I have to change stations every hundred miles or so, but I was able to follow NPR for over 400 miles.  I like NPR, yes they can be a little liberal, but because they are not beholden to advertisers, they will take the time to report stories that no one else will.  As a country we need that.

I have learned to pace my road trips.  If I make hotel reservations ahead of time it forces me to stop.  Hopefully in time to smell the roses at the end of a day crossing the landscape.

Oh My!

Oh My, it has been a week since my last post.  I have been busy getting ready for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  I have moved most of the end of the year projects off my desk (one big one left to do in December.) All is reasonably well, I am getting ready for some quality time with family over the next week.

Town Branch distillery

Town Branch Distillery is relatively new, starting about six years ago just west of downtown Lexington, Kentucky.  The founder is Pearce Lyons, an Irishmen with a masters degree in yeast and a Phd in biochemistry.  About three decades ago, he was brought to Kentucky to look into a yeast crisis, he liked the area and stayed.  He formed a company called Altech to culture and grow yeast for the distilling industry.  From that he developed a line of livestock nutrition products. About 20 years ago he was developing yeast for beer brewing and bought the Lexington Brewing company, so he could brew large batches of beer legally to test the yeast.  The beer proved popular and Lexington Brewing produces a high quality line of specialty beers, if you get a chance try the Bourbon Barrel Stout. Through the fermentation process distilling and brewing are essentially the same process.  The natural progressing was to open a distillery. 

Town Branch uses two huge copper Scottish pot stills and cypress fermentation tanks. The still room is in a spectacular stone and glass room on a small hill. They distill, barrel and bottle in Lexington, the aging is done in Bardstown. Lexington limits the number of barrels they can have onsite in Lexington for fire reasons.  The last fire in a Kentucky barrel warehouse was at Wild Turkey and took two weeks to burn itself out. The last fire in Bardstown ended with a river of flaming bourbon running down hill to the Kentucky River. 

They make a fine single malt.  Single malt is made with malted barley, yeast and water.  All scotch whiskey is malt whiskey, but malt whiskey can only be called scotch if it is made in Scotland.  Pearce Lyons Reserve is a fine American malt whiskey.  Wonderful malt whiskeys are made all over the world, I have excellent examples from Scotland, the US, France and Japan.  Town Branch is named after a stream that use to run through downtown Lexington, Kentucky, it now runs under downtown Lexington.  It was buried about 100 years ago.  Town Branch also makes a good blended Bourbon and a coffee liqueur. 

The Tour costs $7, and covers both the brewery and the distillery. It includes up to four samples of the products, I tried two beers, the single malt and the coffee liqueur.  

Barrel House Distillery

The Barrel House Distillery in Lexington, Kentucky opened in 2008.  It is tiny operation, five staff members, only a couple of them full time in less space then the average home.  They are located in part of the long closed Pepper Distillery - Pepper quit distilling in 1958 and emptied the aging warehouse in the mid 60's. They started with rum.  Why rum, white rum requires very little aging and can generate cash flow.   They are currently selling three products, an Oak Aged Rum, a good quality vodka, and Devil John Moonshine.  They have bourbon aging, for release sometime in the next year.  

They mix and cook in a stainless steel tank, with a power stir, and ferment in plastic totes holding 300-400 gallons.  They use a traditional copper pot still that was made in Portugal.  They fire with natural gas - very rare - most distilleries heat the still with hot water or steam - the good stuff boils off below the boiling point of water.  

So what are the differences in the products?  

The primary sugar for rum is sugar cane.  They import sugar cane juice or molasses from the south, ferment, distill, and age in oak. Currently they are selling an oak aged rum, with about 4 years in oak.  It is mellow and smooth.  Rum is run through the still twice.  It is bottled at barrel strength - each batch varies in proof. 

Vodka can be made from almost any starch source. Vodka will have some flavor difference based on the starch source.   Barrel House makes a grain based vodka, using wheat and corn.  It is distilled four times, bottled at 80 proof and is a very nice craft made vodka. 

Moonshine is an American term for an un-aged whiskey.  The tradition in the Appalachian regions was for un-taxed - illegal whiskey to be made at night.  Hence the term Moonshine. Devil John Moonshine is made with an old family recipe of corn and cane sugar. It is distilled twice adjusted to 100 proof and bottled.  The first sip has a little bit of a bite, then it is smooth.  It is slightly sweet and has a mild floral scent.  Moonshine is undergoing a renaissance in  the US.  I have never sampled the illegal kind, but a lot of legal distilleries are selling un-aged whiskey.  Last summer I bought an un-aged Rye whiskey from the Mt Vernon distillery - it would qualify as moonshine. There is no legal definition for moonshine in the US.  The grain mix can vary widely and with it the flavor and aroma.  Distilling is part science and part art.  The first vapor that comes out of the still, is dangerous and potentially lethal.  I would be uncomfortable with a back yard distiller, the pros know then to cut from heads, to hearts, and tales.  You want hearts. 

I am Back

I am back from a road trip to Kentucky.  Jay's 60th birthday was Friday and I went for that, and took advantage of being there to "stock-up."  It is not as bad as it looks, this will last a year.  There are half a dozen good single barrel Bourbons, three specialty liqueurs, two bottles of vodka and a bottle of moonshine.  Three of these are only available at the distillery, the moonshine, the bourbon cream and the Wheatley vodka.   There are two bottles of Wathens Bourbon, I think it is one of the hidden gems of the single barrel world.  Since I moved to DC, Kentucky has changed he law and distilleries can now serve small samples and sell onsite.  This seems to have greatly expanded the world of bourbon tourism.  I will ramble on about the three distillery tours over the next few days.  None of the bourbons on the table came from any of the distilleries I visited. The products of one are very widely distribute and there is no reason to haul them home, the other I have on hand.  The third one is a few months from releasing their first bourbon.  Good bourbon takes time, and can't be rushed.    

What is a traveling penguin doing in West Virginia?

I just logged my 31st night in hotels this year.  West Virginia has lots of natural beauty, the Appalachian Mountains dominate the landscape of much of the state.  There are a couple of navigable rivers in the state, bringing with them hydro electric power, bringing with it energy intensive industries of steel making and chemicals.  West Virginia has a lot of coal - increasingly mined using open pit, also known as surface mining, also known as mountain top removal mining.  I was reminded as I drove across WV that you only get one chance to do coal mining, and the results remain for a long-long-long time.  Sometimes it is done well, other times it leaves scars on the landscape.  There is a big push underway to enforce the surface mining act that was passed 30+ years ago, I believe it was signed into law by President Reagan. Because the enforcement of the act began under President Obama, he gets blamed for forcing people to comply with a law that they have known about and ignored for decades.  If Congress does not like the effect of the Act on mining, they should amend or repeal it, not blame the administration for enforcing a law that should have been enforced 30 years ago. The EPA gave the mining industry time to come into compliance, like 30 years to adjust. What am I doing in West Virginia.  There is still a lot of logging in West Virginia.  A lot of the land is to steep to farm, but growing trees works.  Properly managed, timber farming creates a long term sustainable resource.  Selective cutting, planting and regrowth, and over time the forests regrow.  The hardwood of today is third or forth growth for much of the state.  Earlier I passed through the region of the state that had a major chemical spill into the water supply last year, leaving hundreds of thousands drinking bottled water for weeks.  The chemical company responsible, was a tiny corporation, shielding the investors from liability, that as I recall filed for bankruptcy before lawsuits were filed, leaving the injured with nothing to compensate them for their loss.  If you are going to endanger the water supply to a few hundred thousand people, shouldn't you have to have assets at risk, or and insurance company willing to protect the bystanders? Apparently not in WV. What am I doing here?  Passing through. It is between home and home.

Cool Wet Afternoon in Kentucky

It is early November in Lexington, Kentucky.  The leaves are about half off the trees and some of what is left is very pretty.  This is the front drive at Keeneland Race Course.  There was a horse auction going on.  I toured a couple of distilleries - I will post on them and their quality products soon.

Good Bourbon

The picture is the first still used by Maker's Mark.  Maker's is decent bourbon,  a little raw or bitter for my taste.    I have been to Loretto to see it made and bottled. I like select single barrel bourbon.  Most bourbon is a blend, mixing the best,  the average and the not so great for a consistent flavor profile.  Single barrel bourbon is the best,  one barrel at a time.  They tend to be older. Bourbon changes over time in the barrel.  The best get smoother, more mellow in flavor.  There are some super select blends of the finest old barrels.  There are also some double barrel bourbons that have a second aging in seasoned barrels.  I am off in search of the really good stuff.

Election Day

Time to get dressed and go vote this morning.  A Senate race and Congressional race on the ballot, both are easily predictable outcomes, but there are a lot of close races across the country.  We also have a bond issue and a State Constitutional question on the ballot.  The Bond issue is a routine transportation bond, under Virginia law the county can't sell bonds without voter approval.  The State Constitutional question I didn't know about until yesterday, it would allow a property tax exemption for surviving spouses of military personnel killed in the line of duty.  So the surviving spouse who is drawing a survivors pension for life, would get a break on property taxes - I know how I am going to vote on that one.

I have missed a couple of elections in my adult life.  I was busy and skipped a governors election in Florida one time, I spent the next four years telling myself, I can't complain about the moron governor I didn't vote for him, I didn't vote against him.  He was still a moron! I missed an election when I started working in DC and was still registered to vote in Kentucky.  I couldn't make it back there to vote, and I was not registered here. Again I lost my right to complain about the officials elected in that election.

Go vote! Earn your right to complain about our elected officials.

Rockets

In the news over the past couple of days was the explosion of a private resupply rocket headed to the international space station. Rockets are complex, and this one was not helped by the fact that it was powered with rocket engines made in Russia in the 1960's.  Not just 1960's engineering, but actually made in the 1960's.  Two reasons were given, very few rocket engines have been designed and built in the past 20 years, and the surplus Russian engines were a bargain, until they went boom. 

The picture above is another kind of a rocket,  Now either it is a hard top convertible, or owner has two of them.  There was a Ferrari with top down in that space the day before.  This is in the parking garage at the office.  I bet it goes like a rocket, if I won the lottery I'd buy a red convertible. Zoom-Zoom - wosh! 

When I lived in Orlando I ran regularly with the local Front Runners group.  There were identical twin brothers who ran with the group.  One of them was a dancer at Disney, the other one was a rocket scientist, an engineer on the space shuttle main engines.  You could tell them apart, one wore a T-shirt that said "My Brother is Rocket Scientist" and the other a T-shirt that said "As a Matter of Fact I am A Rocket Scientist."  Two very talented young men. 

Making Progress

A quick update.
After a couple of nights in bed with my ankles above my head, I am walking better. Not that kind of nights, the recommendation was to elevate my sprained ankles above the heart. My feet have been propped up on one very large pillow. It seems to be helping, the swelling is down and I am moving somewhat better.

To minimize walking I drove to the office yesterday, and will again today. To take the subway I have a couple of large stations I need to navigate, including a change of lines that requires changing levels in a very busy station. I seldom drive to work, like 4 or 5 times over the past six years.  But it is much less walking, the car is parked near the door to the condo tower, and there is valet parking in the office building ($12 a day plus a tip.) It is about 10 miles from home to the office, it took me just over an hour yesterday morning, I can ride there on my bike in 55 minutes (when my ankles are not messed up.)  Coming home last night, the first three miles took me 32 minutes - Ms.Garmin took me across through Georgetown.  I HATE driving in Georgetown, it has the worst traffic in this complicated city.

Limping along

On Friday I was walking back to my office from a meeting and I rolled my right ankle (not unusual, this happens from time to time) and sprained my left ankle when I fell in a heap on the floor. It was literally, help I have fallen and I can't get up.  The arthritis in my knees has been bad the last couple of months, and with both ankles hurting, I couldn't get up.  Fortunately a couple of people came to my rescue, after a couple of false starts, I was able to lift myself onto a chair and walk from there.  My insurance has a call and RN service that they recommend calling before racking up the emergency room deductible for what they later decide is not an emergency and hence won't pay.  Her diagnosis was a bad sprain and to treat at home (in other words, they won't pay the first $500 if I go to the emergency room.)

The wrong body type and 10 years of running, my hips, knees and ankles are a mess. Even on a good day, I walk funny, and not for the reasons a man might wish for.

When did emergency rooms replace walk in office hours at the neighborhood physician?  I grew up in a rural area, there were two doctors in town. The one my family saw had walk in office hours four or five afternoons a week. You could make an appointment, but if you walked in, the doctor would see you before he went home for night. He lived in a brick home next door. I hated sitting in the waiting room - but only now know how lucky we were to be able to walk in.  Today, appointments take weeks to get, and non-emergency care fills emergency rooms, with hospital level care and cost for things the old country Docs treated as it came in the door. For Dr. G medicine was a calling, he lived well, but money was secondary to caring for the people in the community. His church in California paid for him to go to Medical School (late 40's early 50's) and when he was done asked him to go to an undeserved community whose only doctor had died (reportedly in his office between patients.)  When my family started spending winters in Florida in the mid 70's, I could sense that he missed living in cities and warmer climates.  But his commitment to the community kept him there until he retired.

In the end his skills were a little dated, he missed a diagnosis on my grandmother that was life threatening. She was having some trouble and was a bit of a hypochondriac, so she had been to see him and he had told her it was nothing to worry about. The next day she as visiting my father who was in the hospital with a kidney stone. His doctor came in, looked at her and said, "do you mind if I look in your ear?" 24 hours later she was in a teaching hospital with the head or neurology doing surgery to remove an infection the size of a tennis ball. No one is perfect, he provided a great service to the community.  I miss the corner Doctor.

Good Morning

Another crazy busy week.  I sorted out the top of my desk yesterday for the first time in months.  Now I know what archeologists feel like, digging through history layer by layer.  The bottom layer was January,  actually one folder for the shredder was from August of 2013.

Board meeting today.  Tomorrow I spent the day interviewing students for next summers interns.

I am almost done with site selection for next year's big conference. 

From Nice to Not-so-Nice in 1-second

I waited for a discrete moment, and mentioned to a colleague that we had made a mistake on a significant but not critical detail on the Conference.  The agenda included two hours of "ethics"credit and only one of them had been submitted for accreditation.  Likely I was the only one who noticed, I had designed the agenda and selected the sessions specifically to include two ethics sessions.  My colleagues response was that "Pat must have thought that there was only one session eligible for ethics credit."   - WRONG ANSWER, resorting to an excuse.

Why is the immediate reaction to my pointing out a mistake to look for an excuse, rather then to admit that someone made a mistake?  I know we have a generation of "everyone gets a trophy" soccer players, but in the real world we all make mistakes.  The best course of action is to say, oops, sorry, let me see if anything can be done to fix it. If it is your mistake, to take ownership of it. Doing so keeps me from going from Mr Nice Guy to Mr Asshole in 1 second or less.  I like Mr Nice guy better.

Three 14 hour days

I am back home.  Three long days of work.  Wednesday was an annual project meeting,  followed by two hours of emails.  Thursday and Friday were the national conference I have been working on since January.  The conference was a major success.  Other then three fire alarms and some av issues, everything went better than expected.  It is nice to be home. 

Columbus Day - the week ahead

It is Columbus Day, you know he was lost - didn't know where he was.  He was likely not the first European to "discover" what we know as North America - he was brave enough to publicly defy "common sense" and sail west across the Atlantic knowing he would find land. There is something for being brave. I have read his logs of the trip.  His description of the people he encountered was very degrading - he thought them barely fit to serve as slaves at the same time they were kicking his crews' ass (holding some of them prisoner.) I don't really understand a national holiday in honor of Columbus.

Columbus Day is a day off.  I am normally in Lexington visiting my sweet bear this weekend.  But I have a couple of massively busy weeks ahead and the bear has a special decennial-birthday coming up the first weekend in November - so I am going to Lexington for that instead this year.

Wednesday is the annual partners meeting for the project that funds 80% of my work.  There are five grantees in the project. Once a month we have a conference call, once a year we meet for a day in person. The money is here in DC and has difficulty traveling, so we always meet in DC.  The five partners take turns organizing the meeting. But only two of us have meeting space that works for hosting.  Actually my office conference space is the largest and most accommodating.    I provide the space and one of the other partners plans the agenda and pays for lunch.  I also organize and host monthly conference calls for all of the partners.

Thursday and Friday I am hosting a National Conference.  I have mentioned this in the past, again to keep the content of this blog, from becoming the intellectual property of my employer, I can't mention the name of the conference.  Putting the Conference together has been a massive project, starting last December.  We have over 140 people registered, we would be well over 150 but we ran out of space. The attendance projections were maybe 100 people would attend.  We went with a venue that holds 140 maximum, and sold out six weeks before show time.  We have an agenda of four plenary sessions and 19 workshops.  There are about 70 speakers, some new voices, and a couple of superstars.  I have a MacArthur Genius award winner as a speaker (pain in the ass I will never work with her again - she has no idea what a deadline is - let alone how to meet one.)  I have two high ranking government officials, an assistant cabinet secretary and the second in command at a federal bureau.  It will be two long and intense days.  Oh, and J and I's anniversary is on Friday.

Next week we have our quarterly board meeting, that we hold three times a year.  Only a bunch of lawyers would hold a quarterly meeting three times a year.  And then on Saturday I interview students for next summers' internships.  I need to finish that process up and make offers before I can leave for Thanksgiving in Florida.

October 11th is National Coming Out Day

Coming out is a description of an LGBT person telling others or being open about being LGBT. I doubt that it will come as a surprise to anyone reading this that I am gay.  This is something I figured out when I was a teenager, but denied and hid from for many years. For me probably the toughest was self acceptance.  It took me years to do so. I can still remember the first time I attended the LGBT group at Rollins College, it was the first time in a social setting that I felt comfortable in my own skin. For the most part I have avoided dramatic scenes when coming out. Early on a wise person told me to live my life honestly and openly and friends and family would figure it out. I decided by the time I brought the same man home for Easter the second or third year, family would figure it out, and they did, my family has been very welcoming for the two of us.  Jay and I are coming up on 22 years together. Every time I meet someone, I have to make the decision on how I describe my personal life. Most of the time, I tell it like it is; other times if the relationship is not important it is easier use gender neutral terms and ignore Jay being spoken of as she, I am not into confrontation.  I have only run into hostility a handful of times, usually a result of someone’s prejudice or insecurity.  I have learned to be out with employers, I was outed to a boss by a coworker and lost a job that I really needed a couple of years before I left Orlando in the mid 90’s.  From the time I moved to Lexington in 1995, every employer has known up front.  It has paid some nice dividends. I have had a chance to do some rewarding research, published several articles on LGBT aging (I am finishing two book chapters on LGBT aging) and spoken at the National LGBT Bar Associations’ Lavender Law Conference three times. I am happy and comfortable with my life.  

Come out- come out wherever you are!

A Step Closer to Spouse and Spouse

"Across Virginia, county clerks are readying for an influx of marriage license applications now that same-sex couples in the commonwealth are allowed to marry. The new marriage licenses, which contain spaces for spouse and spouse instead of bride and groom, became available around 1 p.m. Monday." 

The Supreme Court spoke volumes by not taking the appeal on same-sex marriage cases. I had predicted that the Court would decline to hear the appeals.  There are several reasons. All of the Federal Circuit Courts (federal appeals courts)  that have ruled, have ruled that same sex marriage can not be prohibited. The only contrary ruling is in a Federal District Court, that ruling will be appealed to a Circuit Court and as long as Circuit court ruling is in accord with the other circuits, the Supremes can avoid the issue. The Court really does not have an obligation to hear the case, if there is no real disagreement in the Circuits. 

From my point of view, the Chief Justice is trying to keep the Court from being politicized. He can't always do this, but he has done a much better job then most expected. 

It can also be inferred that the Justices didn't see any fundamental flaws in law or logic used in the Circuit Court Decisions. 

I think some of the Justices want to avoid the issue, so they can avoid agreeing with same sex marriage or writing an opinion not easily supported by Constitutional law.  I can just imagine a couple of them writing that the authors of the Constitution had no more intention of equal protection protecting same sex marriage then they did people marrying their pet ducks. Equal Protection, full faith and credit, apply today to a lot of things that the framers could not have imagined. It was un-imaginable when the Constitution was written that you could talk in Philadelphia and be heard in New York, that a machine could could be read around the world instantly, that you could take the heart out of one man and use it to keep another man alive, women voting, women owning property in their own name, a great deal has changed in 225 years. The essence of a common law system, the basis of our Constitutional law system, is that the law is a living thing that changes and grows as society and technology change. 

The Court could have taken the cases if they wanted to.  The underlying reasons used by the Federal Circuit Courts to rule that states can not prohibit same sex marriage, varied slightly, but meaningfully from Circuit to Circuit.  The outcome was all the same, but the reasons were different.   At this point, the reason is not important, unless and until you are using these decisions to try to arrive at a conclusion on another issue. 

If the fight is continued, one state at a time, one circuit at a time, it will take several more years to resolve the issue in all 50 states. Because of jobs, Jay and I are in two federal circuits, Virginia now allows marriage, Kentucky is waiting on a Circuit court ruling. If one of the Federal Circuits rules in a contrary manner, the Supremes are likely to take on the issue of the Century. 

It is a simple question

It is a simple question, where are you from?  My answer is complicated.  I have lived in five states and at the moment, don't feel a strong connection to any of them.  I have been reading a book by a college student from Kansas who was awarded a scholarship to study in France for a year, and spent the year homesick for Kansas.  Where would I feel homesick for?  I was born in Michigan.  Before the first grade I had visited Florida and Arizona.  I went to half of the first grade on Phoenix.  My parents were farmers in a seasonal farming operation in Michigan and my father was trying to escape the cold Michigan winters.  Phoenix didn't work well and we didn't do that again until I was in the 8th grade.  That is when my snowbird years began,  I would start school in Michigan in September, in late October early November we would go to Florida, I would go to school in Florida, in late March we would go back to Michigan.  I did that the rest of the way through high school.  I left Michigan the fall after finishing High School and moved to Florida.  For a couple of years I ran around saying, "back home we did it a different way."  After a while people convinced me that they really don't care how you do it back home.  I thought I would stay in Florida forever.  I grew frustrated with the work I was doing and I fell in love.  When sweetie bear was offered the job in Kentucky, I readily agreed to move.  It was a fresh break and a chance to go back to school.  I lived in Kentucky for 13 years.  I adjusted well, but responded to where are you from, with, I live here but I am not from around here. Almost six years ago, I moved to northern Virginia, for the job in DC.  I rented for a while, I have owned the condo for almost five years and it still does not register as home.  So where am I from?  No place that I feel homesick for.

Opps, I did it again

I learned the fine art of sarcasm from a master, my dear father.  Then I studied communications and law, making me a trained professional at verbal war.  My father once said that I have "a tongue that could drop an elephant at 50 yards."  In a moment - no make that a day filled with - frustration that I described as chasing idiots, I let loose yesterday and "crushed" someone with just a one paragraph.

This started with looking at a calendar and sending an email request.  I have a big meeting coming up on October 16 and 17th.  We will send a last minute details email to the attendees, normally three days before the meeting date.  Looking at the calendar, that would be Monday October 13th, Columbus Day, we are closed.  So I emailed the person responsible for sending the email and said, we need to send the attendee emails on Friday October 10th.  She replied that she would send it on Tuesday October 14th. In a moment of supreme "kitchen sinking"* I replied in an email with 5 numbered paragraphs, each expressing my opinions on a different screw up relating to this meeting.  Paragraph number 3 went something like this:

"The attendee emails MUST BE SENT ON FRIDAY OCTOBER 10th.  About 1/3 of the 140  attendees will be attending a meeting on October 15th, I know this because I am hosting that meeting in my office.  If we send the email on the 14th, they will get it when they are at the airport, making it impossible for them to print the 17 pages we are asking them to print before they leave for the conference.  When I asked for the 10th, I had thought through this and didn't expect to have to argue or justify my request."

I went to far, I am told I scared people because a couple of paragraphs had passages all in CAPITAL letters.  Yes I was shouting, be glad you weren't in the room with me.  The above passage, sent someone blubbering to her boss, that "he thinks I am an idiot."   Opps, I didn't mean that.  I think one of her coworkers is an idiot, but the unfortunate target of that passage is actually one of the best people I have worked with on this project.

I get frustrated with debating or being asked to justify minor decisions and requests, and my collaborators on this project specialize in sweating the small stuff.  I think I will send them the classic book, "The Peter Principle" for Christmas.  One of the principles is that people spend too much time on the little decisions, because they understand the little decisions, and too little time on the major issues, because big decisions are frightening and hard to understand, so they quickly agree and move onto things within their comfort zone. How can people not know this and understand that the big issues deserve time, and on little shit, it is easier to do it the way the @sshole wants then it is to argue with him.

I don't do this often, but sometimes feel bad when I do, I write a great apology email (took a class in how to do it.) I hope I did a good job today - she was talking to me again this afternoon. In six years I have only eviscerated two people that I felt bad about.  I did it again, I wish I hadn't, I should have let someone else have the full treatment in a couple of the other paragraphs in that email - I was tired of dealing idiots.

*Kitchen Sinking, is throwing in everything including the kitchen sink when frustrated, mad or upset.  A simple rule of dealing with an angry person is to let them talk until they throw in the kitchen sink.

A tour of Richmond, with Jay in Virginia

Jay, of Jay in Virginia, http://jayinva.blogspot.com/ met me at my hotel this morning and took me on a tour of his city, Richmond, Virginia.  We had a nice breakfast in Richmond's hipster town, that is not how they describe it, but it is certainly how I would describe it.  There are three thriving bike shops on one block - how much more hipster can you get.  We went in Monument row to downtown passing the museum campus along the way.  The Capital is downtown, past that under the expressways and around the train station is a wonderful warehouse district.  From there we went across the James river and slightly west to a park, with wonderful rocks and rapids.  My aging knees are bothering me, so we didn't make it out onto the rocks.  It is clear that Jay loves his city and it is obvious why.  The city appears prosperous, I was struck by the number of obviously local and successful business, shops, stores and restaurants. There are a couple of Universities that keep the city young, a mix of old and new money.  Fine older neighborhoods and modern condos downtown.  It looks like a fun and interesting place.  THANK YOU to Jay for showing me around.  If you want to see a city, have a local show you around.  

Dinner Conversation

I was in Richmond for a meeting today and met Jay Murphy for dinner.  Three hours of sharing our life stories over great local barbecue.  Much fun was had. Some bloggers are real people. 

Working in Circles

Some days, I think I should have studied drafting so I would be better prepared for working in circles.  This morning I was waiting for someone to call me back, so I could complain about waiting.

I have been waiting since the first week in August for information on a proposed project, that the person I was waiting to have call me back, was getting from someone else who does not talk to me, despite the fact that we work for the same company.  When I finally talked to my guy, his answer, was that he had the information I have been waiting for since August, but it was wrong, so he hadn't told me he had it.  I explained that if had told me it had come in and it was messed up, I would be angry at the person who messed it up, instead of him for keeping me waiting.  I'd still be waiting, and frustrated, but I would be angry at someone else - the person who won't talk to me despite the fact that we work for the same company. They won't talk to me because we don't contract with them and they report to a different management line. But we do work for the same company.  Some days I think I work in the middle of a Monty Python skit.

Months ago I had a meeting with another person and detailed the timeline of when I needed various products for a major project I am working on.  She showed me her standard production timeline and I said no, this is a different audience and I need the products sooner to meet the needs of this group. I have gotten everything on her time line, about two months later then I needed it all along the project timeline.  She listened and nodded her head and then did it her way.  I told her boss this afternoon that I would not work with her again, he said I didn't have a choice, I pointed out that I do, I can contract with someone else to do that part of the project next year - someone who will listen to when I need things.  Did I break the circle there?  Time will tell.

I really just wish we could all listen and treat one another as we would wish to me treated. But then that is circular. I feel like a dog chasing it's tail - the dog is likely having more fun.

Better then the Raccoon

Nice weekend, I slept, did some grocery shopping, went to the farmers market, did laundry and a little housekeeping.  I didn't win the Power-ball lottery - no one did.  Weekends give me time to read more blogs.  I have my daily list of a dozen or so blogs that I read everyday or almost everyday.  Three or four get comments on a daily basis, others get occasional comments.  On weekends, I bring up the legacy web browser and read and expanded list of blogs including 4 or 5 more ex-pats living in Europe, a couple of food blogs and several gay bloggers.  I enjoy the expanded list, but time is limited on work days.  Sleep, eating well and getting a little exercise each day have to take priority.  Take care of yourself, or you won't be able to care for others.

The a colleague stopped by my office this morning to comment on a sticker taped to my office window "Work is the new retirement."  She is retired military, gone back to work.  We discussed how work is a central part of our identity.  Her husband is trying to adjust to life after 30+ years in the military. It is difficult not having the structure of work after a lifetime of doing so. I can't imagine not working. She also admired the two paintings in my office - she knows how to get on my good side.

Oh, the raccoon, he was decomposing in the middle of the road to the metro this morning, we are all probably having a better day then the raccoon.

Random Ramblings

It has been a busy week.  I was out of town last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.  Monday I tried to catch up on the backlog from those three days, and needed to leave by 1:45 for the in-town conference.  Monday evening was Hillary Clinton, a very likely candidate for President in the next election and then Tuesday was conference all day long, including the lunch speech by the Vice President. I was pleased that I passed the secret service screening for the VP.  They were running around with pictures on I-Phones tapping people on the shoulder and asking them to leave.  There was an article in the Washington Post today about the number of places in DC where someone is eavesdropping on your cell phone activity - no big surprise. I was surprised that I was able to post to Facebook while the VP was in the room, they have the ability to block all the phones near the protected asset. Today I had a Conference planning call, a meet and greet for our fall semester interns and spent the rest of the day trying to cut an article from 2,800 words to 2,000 words.  I have it down to 2012 words, about as close as I am going to get.  They want exactly 2,000 words, not 1,999 and not 2001. These people are crazier then I am.

Charleston was great fun.  The hotel was plush and comfy.  We took a horse drawn carriage tour with a very entertaining local guide.  Charleston has become very up-scale over the last 30 years.  The guide said, houses from this point to the bay start at one-million-dollars and go up.  Someone asked where the money comes from and he drolly responded, we just assume that all Yankees are millionaires. Gucci and Louis Vuitton both had stores on the block the hotel was on.  A nice place to visit, but I couldn't afford to spend a lot of time there.  Boeing has an assembly plant at the airport in Charleston, I got to watch one of the Boeing super 747 freighters take off.  I like big planes.

VP

Okay,  I knew Hillary was invited when I agreed to attend this conference,  but I didn't know that Joe Biden was the lunch speaker until I checked in yesterday.  I cleared security, my picture didn't show up on the get this person out of the room list.  Security was tight.  He spoke for almost half an hour,  ignoring the teleprompter,  and consulting his notes only at the end.  How fun. I have met Jill Biden a couple of years ago at a Veterans program in Delaware that my office had funded in part. Neat real people. 

Selfie

The special speaker this evening was Hillary Clinton.  She was founder of a legal aid program early in her Arkansas days. Security was tight, I had to stand for over an hour and it was worth it.

Space on planes

So there have been several fights over knee room or seat recline on airliners recently.  The manufacturers can build bigger planes, but they cost more to operate and the airlines don't fly them. Great example here ready to take off. Wonderful piece of engineering,  either that or everyone on board passed gas at once.

Exceptions

There are exceptions to my love of airports and flying, like this morning when the plane broke. 

We were delayed for a mechanical, then they put us on a bus to go to the plane, then they took us off the bus, then they they put us back on the bus, we got to the plane and waited for the repair man to leave, we boarded, waited for the repair man to come back, the first officer got off and talked with him, the repair guy left, we waited another 20 minutes and we started to move.  We used 90% of the main runway to get airborne and climbed very-very slowly, I saw the Pentagon at an angle seldom seen except by birds and generals (generals get to helicopter in and out sometimes.) It took a long time to get to Charleston.  As we were getting off they were announcing that the outgoing flight was canceled and the plane was flying out on it's remaining engine for major repairs (so that explains the problem.) 

The plane in the picture, they are putting tape over the leading edge of the peeling paint on the tail.  Duck-tape will solve anything but a wonky engine. 

I am in Charleston SC for a meeting.  

A few of my favorite things

I like airports.  they are the best for people watching,  people coming and going to points across the globe. 

Air travel is still magic.  I can flap my arms all I want and I can't fly without a plane.  There is the majesty of the machine and the quickness.  Journeys that took my grandmother a week 100 years ago. I can do today in 6 hours. 

I can't believe how cheap air travel is. I can't put gas in my car for what this trip cost by air. Yes airfare has gone up and it is harder to find a bargain,  but there are bargains to be had if you plan ahead. 

I like traveling.  I wouldn't do it every day.  Interesting hypothetical question. If air travel was free,  how much more would you really travel? 

Random Rant

On the subway coming home, the women sitting behind me dialed up the voice mail on her cell phone and left her phone on speaker so all within 2-3 rows could hear.  When the second message started, I commented "clueless" and the guy sitting next to me turned around and handed her a headset saying "use these before you reveal anymore national security secrets to the entire train car."  Were we out of line?  Should we have said anything?

My X posted on Facebook about waking up Sunday morning with a roach in her ear (yes, I was married to a women once, it didn't work for either of us.)  I resisted the urge to post a comment about her housekeeping having not improved.  I was being especially good.

Several posts in a row without pictures, I know, I know, I need to take pictures with my Cell to post easily to blogger and I just haven't been doing so.

Chickens

A couple of cyber friends keep back-yard chickens.  They seem to enjoy the birds, and enjoy the fresh eggs.  But they don’t seem interested in moving from “farm to fork” with the chickens.  There is a farm near here that teaches a Saturday course in poultry processing, I think it starts something like take one chicken, remove head, set aside head.  I know my grandmothers knew how to kill and clean chickens, but modernity had settled in by the time I came along and they no longer processed their own.  I am not sure I ever saw my mother start with a whole chicken.  I can only remember her buying them cut up and them mostly just parts.  Parts is parts.  My grandmother, taught me to cut up a whole chicken.  Fewer and fewer people seem to know what to do with a whole chicken. It really is basics of good cooking and good value. When cutting up chickens, among other things you rapidly realize that a chicken does not have nuggets, nuggets don’t correspond to any part of the anatomy of that bird. I don’t think you should be able to graduate from high school without knowing how to cut up a chicken.  

Check another one off the bucket list

The President has been in Wales for a few days, no doubt checking in with John and the dogs.  On the way out of the country, he stopped by Stonehenge and remarked that this checked another one of the bucket list. It was on my list. It is a neat place!  We stopped on the way to Swansea.  If you are hoping to push on the rocks and prove that they are real, it is not the right place to visit. A few years ago I was driving between the Grand Canyon and Phoenix and pulled off to see native American cliff dwellings.  Really neat.  A few weeks later I was having dinner with a friend of ours who is a history professor, and she asked how much of the cliff dwellings you are able to climb around. The answer is none, they are very fragile, if the hordes marched through centuries of preservation would crumble in a few years. She said she wouldn't be bothered visiting it would be like Stonehenge where they won't let you touch anything. A historian with no sense of historic preservation, check another one off the bucket list.  

Weekend Report

I have been quiet this weekend.  Some weird bug. I came home early on Friday and have slept and slept and not eaten much.  Interesting digestive adventures that I won't go into.  I am back eating a little and I think I will survive. 

Good week at the office.  I found a student intern.  I had lost her. I had interviewed her in March,  by video from home on a snow day and agreed she would spend the fall semester with us.  When I got back to the office I lost her resume.  In May when I tried to confirmed fall interns I couldn't find her.  And her classmate backed out.  She emailed me,  so I guess she found me. We pushed the paperwork through.  She starts Tuesday. 

I am making progress on planning a teaching trip to Hawaii next winter.  Two tickets to paradise and someone is going to pay me to do this.  And it is work I love doing.

The little conference I have been working on for the past few months,  SOLD OUT the venue on Friday,  six weeks before the program date.  I was worried that we would not sell enough seats to break even - blew that out of the water. 

Caves

I like the DC metro rail system.  I moved here in part to have access to a subway system.  I like leaving the driving to metro.   It is a modern system,  opening about 35 years ago.  The first clue to the age of the system is the extraordinary large underground stations.  Real caves. Atlanta and LA have similar designs. Much different than the older systems like Chicago and New York. 

Calling all muses

My muses seem to be out on a late summer vacation.  I don't have much to say and what I do have to say is frequently grumpy.  Late August has always been a strange time of the year for me.  It was end of the summer harvest season when I was growing up,   lots of work and lots of stress.  My father didn't deal well with stress.  My birthday is this week, and that has a history of stress for me.  There are unresolved issues from 45 years ago.  Hard to let go of some things.  I have to remember that forgiveness is something you do for you,  not the other person.  I miss going back to school. 

I had scheduled a meeting this morning to discuss a project.  Everyone and their pet duck showed up. Maybe they were prepared for me to be a bitch. I wasn't.  It was a walk in the park. 

Left my bag unattended for five minutes

I left my bag unattended for five minutes yesterday to say hi to a friend and when I came back some had slipped this into it. Wonderfully welcoming people.  I like this conference. 

Older Indians Conference

The last time I attended this conference, the earth moved - we had an earthquake.  A very welcoming crowd. 

Fading Away

This little guy has been fading away for several weeks.  I think he flew into the glass on the side of the shuttle bus shelter, he was pretty fresh when I first saw him 2-3 weeks ago.  The next day the aunts were having a feast.  He was still there a week later (I don't ride the bus often.) This afternoon he was still there, or at least the essence of him.  How far can he fade and still be recognizable as a bird.  Feathers, beak, his claw like feet, he still has the essence of bird. How much farther can he fade.  

I do research on aging.  We look at adults, fading, the same question, how far can we fade and still be recognized as the person we started out as? 

Better Day

There was nearly no one in the office today.  Fewer idiots around today. 

My Week With Stupid People

So, I am responsible for planning a national conference for this October 16 & 17th. We have made good progress, I have a strong agenda, great speakers (over 70 of them) and for the first time ever the majority of the workshop materials were submitted by the due date (1 August.)

Then there was this weeks's encounters with morons.

Tuesday morning I was on a call unrelated to the Conference and someone proudly announced that the White House is planning to sending representatives to the Conference to conduct a listening session to gather input for a conference they are planning sometime next year.  This was news to me, and I am THE person responsible for the Conference - I am personally responsible for the agenda.  One of my planning committee members had suggested it to the White House and then left town on vacation without emailing or calling me.  I am thrilled at the honor, but shocked that someone would add something to my program without asking if I had room in an agenda that has been packed to the brim since April.  I was mildly unpleasant to a couple of people.

Today's idiot encounter.
The Conference meeting space will hold 140 people, fire code that is the maximum number of chairs we can place in the largest room at the venue.  We have known this since January.  When we opened registration we set a cap of 125, a month ago we raised that to 132, and last week I raised it to 140. This week I noticed that the cap was back down to 132.  I figured it was an IT backup issue so I emailed asking for it to be raised back to 140 and the moron storm erupted.  Staff had lowered it (without talking to me) to 132 to allow for walk in registrations. We are nearing a sell-out 8 weeks before the program date(121 as of this afternoon,) and they want to hold seats for people who might or might not show up at the last minute.  I responded that I thought this unwise. I then received an email saying that when they thought about it we have not factored in last minute cancellation and no-shows. Could I please find statistics on what the average cancellation rate is for similar conferences (2% by the way.)  So we went from we need to hold back seats for walk in registrations to we need to figure out how much we can oversell the conference to factor in no shows. So if we go to the original cap of 140, and we have the predicted 2% no show rate, we have 3-4 seats for walk ins that may or may not happen.  Kind of back to what I asked for originally.  But it 2 1/2 hours of my life, that I will never get back went into getting back to the original point (and I have six people that I know of that are registered for the conference, but only showing up for their session and leaving - if anyone listened to me or read my emails they would know I have six people on the list who are not really attending.)

I only spent a few seconds pounding my head against the wall.  I have been home nearly an hour, and I have not started drinking.  A good sign of self control.

And I am thinking of working with these people for a repeat program in 2015.  Who is the idiot?

Better Day

Complicated week,  this was a better day.  In the words of Zorba we must dance

No Rubbish

No Rubbish, only the good stuff.  

Reeducation Camps

Progress continues on K's garage, the posting on FB this morning was watching cement dry.  I couldn't help myself, I was once referred to the concrete industry counsel reeducation program for blatant misuse of cement.

If your cement dries, before it cures, you have a problem.  Water mixed with Portland cement, causes a chemical reaction that causes the cement to "cure' or harden.  Cement, is mixed with aggregate, generally crushed or size sorted rock, to form concrete.  What K was watching was concrete curing.  It will cure underwater, but if it dries before it cures it will never reach it's full hardness.

Next lesson is cinder blocks versus concrete blocks.  Cinder blocks are made with "cinders" traditionally the incombustible left overs from burning coal.  Cinder blocks are kind of like popcorn glued together.  The are lite weight, brittle and have limited weight bearing capacity. Concrete blocks are made from Portland cement and aggregate.  Concrete blocks are heavy, have a high tensile strength and can bear significant weight.  Cinder blocks are used for non-structural infill such as partition walls, Concrete blocks are used in foundations, structural walls, in applications where the finished wall is exposed, and in weight bearing applications. Cinder blocks are in inferior substitute.

The Concrete Industry Council is very protective of the name and reacts unkindly to miss characterization of the product they are so proud of.  Apparently their reeducation program was very successful.  If we could only reeducate the drivers in this town as effectively.

Construction

Friends of ours are building a new garage.  They started last week by tearing down the old one.  K posted with several hours delay on starting tearing things down.  This morning it was waiting for grading and site preparation.  The contractor said they would start at 8:00. K kept posting on Facebook that they were due to start any minute, due 30 minutes ago, due to an hour ago, where the hell are they and why didn't I sleep in today.  I finally posted that I could translate construction worker. When a construction crew says we will start at about 8:00 am, it means that they will meet at Denny's for breakfast at 8:00.  They will wait for Joey to show up, he had a hot date last night, is a little hung over and his truck wouldn't start this morning.  Once he shows up it will take a while for his breakfast order and while waiting he will tell them about how he ended up leaving the headlights on last night running the battery down. After breakfast they have to head off to the building supply store for hammer bolts, then stop for gas, then drive very-very slowly to the job site.  They will be there in time to break for lunch.  If they say they will be there tomorrow, be prepared, they didn't say which tomorrow, it probably means this week, but likely not the day after today.  If they say they will be there next week and don't give you a specific day, start looking for another contractor.  

Kitchen Adventures

On the way home from last weekends bear adventures, we stopped and picked blueberries and I bought half a bushel of tomatoes.  Monday evening I made 12 pints of tomato sauce and canned it.  I had never done that before.  25 pounds is a lot of tomatoes, the food-mill attachment on the Kitchen-Aid mixer did a wonderful job of separating the peels and seeds. This morning I decided to make a tart with the rest of the blueberries.  Sometimes bad things happen to good pastry, I dropped the first tart shell taking it out of oven.  After cleaning up the mess, I tried again  - sooner or later I will overcome my pastry-phobia.  I have a loaf of bread baking at the moment, it smells yummy around here today. 

Bah bah

If I had 10 acres in the country, I would want a flock of sheep, black-sheep.  So much warm fluffiness.  Why black-sheep - they are shunned from flocks, every family has one, they are the underdogs of the sheep world, and the wool has a wonderful color without any dye.  Bah-bah!