Category Archives: Miscellaneous

The Quiet Man for St. Patrick’s Day

It’s just about time to pull out the DVD to watch The Quiet Man (John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald and Ward Bond). It’s got the best fistfight scene in any movie ever made 😉 Coffee and Irish whisky ready! It’s an annual tradition; my wife and I have been watching this for probably 25 years. Of course, we know most of the best lines! We’ve invited the next door neighbor over to watch with us. We’ve got appropriate weather today, overcast, windy, a bit damp and about 50F. It’s a nice soft night to talk a little treason 😉

I found my pocket knife!

A southern boy likes to have a pocket knife, and better yet, a Leatherman. I’ve got several, but after New Year’s, I could not find my small Leatherman “juice” model (which is small enough to go in my pocket to work). It has blade, pliers, screwdrivers, a corkscrew and a bottle opener/can opener. What else do you need? I’d given up on it, figuring that I’d not see it again…but tonight, I did a presentation at a Scout meeting, and as I was unpacking the computer bag, the Leatherman was in the pocket with the dongles and cords. I think I put it there during our holiday travels at some time and forgot it was there. That particular bag is one I sometimes use for traveling but not day-to-day going to work, so I’d not looked there. I’m a happy camper!

A bit of plumbing

Gotta love SharkBites! I’m willing to try lots of home repair projects, but plumbing historically vexed me. I’ve now used SharkBites on several projects, and I am glad I found ’em. I needed to replace the cutoff valve for the feed to my fridge icemaker/water dispenser; it was leaking after putting in a new fridge. Something about disconnecting things that have been in place for 25 years can create problems 😉 

Anyway, a couple connectors, a bit of pex and a valve and I’m back in business!

Happy birthday to my blog…

…well, not until September 15, actually – best I can tell, I started gingerly experimenting with the blogosphere 6 years ago, with this highly informative posting 🙂 . My blogging has never been very serious, but it is interesting to look back longitudinally from time to time and see what was interesting to me.

Just sittin’ on the deck at the beach tonight, saw that I needed a blog posting for September, and this is what you get…

Slowing down for the holidays…

I’m off work now until Jan. 2nd (yep, that will be a one day week, but I need to cover for my colleagues in the office that day). The last couple of weeks have been very hectic, and I’m looking forward to sleeping late, reading, catching up on odd jobs (digital & physical), and a bit of general sloth. Today is a gray, cloudy day, and that’s a good way to say, hey, slow down, stay inside, listen to some tunes (Pandora.com, Wallflowers right now…), have some tea…you get the general idea.

Went running with the dogs this morning before it started raining, glad I did that. Did some weights afterwards; have to try to ward off the holiday goodies. Will head out to do a bit of Christmas shopping in a few minutes. (Pandora just queued up Cold Play) Need to take inventory of what we’ve bought and what we still need to procure. I can just feel the stress oozing out and mellowness seeping in 😉

Happy Holidays all!

Pig Whisperer

Our neighbors came over for some wine & watermelon on the patio last night. A fine evening to listen to tree frogs and enjoy July in the south. He’s the facilities manager at a local “eco institute”, and they have some new piglets there. As we were visiting, his cell buzzed with a text message…it seems that the pigs had opened the gate, but were still in the electric fence. No emergency, but one that would take attention in the morning. With apologies to Robert Redford, my wife asked our neighbor if he was a Pig Whisperer 😉 (and apparently, this was the title of a 1996 episode of “Spin City”, but heck, I’d never even heard of that). She then mused that perhaps “Dances with Pigs” might be more appropriate. At any rate, we ordered a “pig whisperer” t-shirt for him as a gag. You too can have one if you feel the need!

Halloween tradition…

Last night, as has become a tradition in the Gibbon Drive cul-de-sac, we set up tables, chairs and a portable fire pit at the street. Each house contributed bottles of wine, we ordered pizza, and brought our collective candy for trick or treaters. We also had “give away” cups for the adults ;-). It was a great, warm night, and we had a good number of kids coming by. Also, a increasing number of parents came by, and many brought their empty wine glasses to be filled for their “treat”. A lot more fun than simply waiting at the door, plus my dogs don’t have to put up with the doorbell!