7 March 2010 Sleeping in should be easy
I fully intended to sleep in this morning. Something awakened me at 0500. From that point I made every effort to drop back into solid sleep. But I never found the path back. It seemed as if every 15 minutes I was staring at the alarm clock, trying to avoid rolling out of bed. Finally, around 0730 I gave up and got up to avoid waking Gloria. Make the coffee, drag the dot, stoke up the stove, retrieve the paper, take my morning meds, the whole routine kicked in and here I sit, having had less sleep than on a normal day.
There’s every probability that I will spend the evening dozing and snoring on the couch, trying not to drop off but unable to prevent it. I hate falling into that classic caricature. I’d like to think I’m able to avoid aging so inelegantly. But I find myself fitting into the classic rhyme by Carroll:
“'You are old, Father William', the young man said,
'And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head --
Do you think, at your age, it is right?'
'In my youth', Father William replied to his son,
'I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.'”
Of course, I do not stand on my head. My neck and back would quickly remind me that such unwanted compression should never be attempted again. But the positions that result from dozing off on a couch do result in some rather painful reminders that the spine, alone, will not support the human head while the body checks out briefly.
Further honesty requires that I admit my hair is rather more gray than white where it was once black. And I am pleased to admit that I have decreased in girth and mass over the last several months. I’m not really certain what is the source of such reduction. Attending classes three days/week has limited hikes with Mike. I’ve not really changed any eating patterns that I can think of. All the lab numbers were good at the last sampling interval.
Most of my bad habits no longer have hold over me. Yet I enjoy life far more than I once did. Thank you, Gloria, for prolonging my life and giving me reason to enjoy the prolongation.
Back to the matter of somnolence, in search of longer repose. I’m game for another attempt tomorrow morning. Film at 2300.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
6 March 2010 Software updates exchanges and other things dear to Cheney’s mechanical heart.
6 March 2010 Software updates exchanges and other things dear to Cheney’s mechanical heart.
Yesterday I received e-mail from Comcast, our ISP and cable vendor. They wrote to let me and millions of others know that the “free” subscription to McAfee security software which protects my computer will be replaced by Norton security software. I run security software on several computers.
Today’s high point was the discovery that I would no longer need to purchase protection for Gloria’s computers and my old notebook. The low point will come somewhere after I have installed the new Norton software onto all the systems in our home network.
I haven’t used Norton for anything in ten years. It is going to take some re-familiarization time and patience as I relearn its ins and outs.
Tonight, we will man the gate at Jonesborough’s contra dance. Good! I can use the music and a break from “reboot required.”
Yesterday I received e-mail from Comcast, our ISP and cable vendor. They wrote to let me and millions of others know that the “free” subscription to McAfee security software which protects my computer will be replaced by Norton security software. I run security software on several computers.
Today’s high point was the discovery that I would no longer need to purchase protection for Gloria’s computers and my old notebook. The low point will come somewhere after I have installed the new Norton software onto all the systems in our home network.
I haven’t used Norton for anything in ten years. It is going to take some re-familiarization time and patience as I relearn its ins and outs.
Tonight, we will man the gate at Jonesborough’s contra dance. Good! I can use the music and a break from “reboot required.”
Friday, March 5, 2010
5 March 2010 Alcohol-fueled tourism trumps reality every year
5 March 2010 Alcohol-fueled tourism trumps reality every year
Texas police warn spring breakers: Stay out of Mexico border towns
4 MARCH 2010
In the past, students were urged to be careful in Mexico, but this year "we decided to step it up," a spokeswoman said.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Texas Department of Public Safety: Mexican border cities a "bad idea" for spring break
It is the agency's first specific advisory against travel, spokeswoman says
State Department renewed a travel alert to Mexico last month
Alert noted a rapid growth in violent crimes in areas along the U.S.-Mexico border
(CNN) -- The Texas Department of Public Safety took the unprecedented step Thursday of telling college students not to visit Mexican border cities during spring break because they are just too dangerous.
Several universities issued similar warnings last year, but this was the first time the Texas law enforcement agency had issued the specific advisory against travel, said spokeswoman Tela Mange. In the past, she said, Texas authorities had just urged students to be careful.
Today is the final day of class before spring break at ETSU. My history class had normal attendance, a few empty seats that have often been empty on Friday. My CSI class is taught by at TA who takes roll every session. She walked in this morning, announced that she would be showing a video related to the class material, and that she would not be taking roll. Fully ¾ of the class stood up and left. Frankly, I was embarrassed. I moved to a better seat and watched the video. It was germane to the course and it was interesting.
Those students, who left, bolted as if they had planes holding at the gate for them to arrive. I don’t know how many of them actually had plans to travel to their homes, how many simply get a week with no classes while they work or carry on with their normal lives. I certainly don’t know how many of them are traveling to some week-long Bacchanalia on our seacoasts or in some Latin American resort. I suspect that some of them will seek out a place with television cameras, poorly enforced alcohol codes, and other students willing to risk their lives to benefit of MTV’s ratings.
I never went on spring break. I never felt entitled to spring break. I don’t like crowds and I really don’t like drunken crowds.
For some reason, I don’t believe that it is necessary to spend a week binge drinking after two months of school. For some reason, I don’t think that liquor laws should be relaxed to allow under-age binge drinking even if such month long parties make or break the local economy. I don’t believe that the presence of television crews and marketing teams from every major brewer and distiller is good for a community or the mobs that flock to it in hopes of getting drunk, laid, and on television,
I also don’t believe that high school graduates should be packed off on package trips to Mexico or Caribbean islands to engage in binge drinking and partying after they are handed their diplomas.
For some reasons, all of which involve money; we’ve decided that allowing our young to travel to nations where they can legally drink to the point of oblivion is alright. We now have travel companies that solicit high school students for such trips. Parents, who should know better, allow their children to make such trips, often pay for the trips. Never mind the damage to their young livers. There is also the risk of accidental injury – while drunk; drowning – while drunk; accidental pregnancy – while drunk; and STD’s, physical altercations, kidnappings, rapes, and murders. The travel agencies never mention such possibilities and the trips are, for the most part, entirely un-chaperoned. Not that all young people need to be chaperoned or protected from industry marketing teams or from their own lack of experience or stupidity. But enough do.
Every so often we hear about nice young students who fail to come back from such trips. The ones we hear about are almost always blonde females, “good girls” who never drank or engaged in risky behavior. Of course they didn’t. That’s why they wanted to make the trip, so that they could. They were almost always last seen in the company of young men and intoxicated. And they never show up alive.
But it must be OK. The MTV network says it is OK to party like drunken idiots. So too, say the liquor and beer distributors and the resort owners. After all, most of them go home safely. Most of them don’t wind up as free anatomy demonstrators on videos sold late at night. And it is almost impossible to fix a percentage who acquire STD’s or hepatitis.
They’re not my children or kin. I’m not responsible for their behavior or its consequences. I won’t know the ones who get kidnapped and never come home. But I will get tired of hearing about them on the news night after night. I will get tired of their parents crying, demanding our government take some action, and wondering why it happened to their child.
Here’s the thing. The government took action – recall those age requirements for drinking alcohol. You sort of helped your kid circumvent them. It happened to your child because you sent them off to some place that makes all its revenue on alcohol and motels, where the cops don’t get too involved as long as the mob stays off the main streets and on the party island or beaches. I’m sort of sorry for your loss. But it isn’t as if you haven’t been warned year after year.
18 year old high school graduates don’t need to go to the Caribbean. They need to go to the library and read until they learn all the things they will need to find and hold a job that doesn’t involve ordering sandwiches by picture. College students don’t need televised bacchanalia. They need to catch up on their sleep by not passing out.
I’m going to sleep an hour later each morning for the next week.
Shabbat shalom!
Texas police warn spring breakers: Stay out of Mexico border towns
4 MARCH 2010
In the past, students were urged to be careful in Mexico, but this year "we decided to step it up," a spokeswoman said.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Texas Department of Public Safety: Mexican border cities a "bad idea" for spring break
It is the agency's first specific advisory against travel, spokeswoman says
State Department renewed a travel alert to Mexico last month
Alert noted a rapid growth in violent crimes in areas along the U.S.-Mexico border
(CNN) -- The Texas Department of Public Safety took the unprecedented step Thursday of telling college students not to visit Mexican border cities during spring break because they are just too dangerous.
Several universities issued similar warnings last year, but this was the first time the Texas law enforcement agency had issued the specific advisory against travel, said spokeswoman Tela Mange. In the past, she said, Texas authorities had just urged students to be careful.
Today is the final day of class before spring break at ETSU. My history class had normal attendance, a few empty seats that have often been empty on Friday. My CSI class is taught by at TA who takes roll every session. She walked in this morning, announced that she would be showing a video related to the class material, and that she would not be taking roll. Fully ¾ of the class stood up and left. Frankly, I was embarrassed. I moved to a better seat and watched the video. It was germane to the course and it was interesting.
Those students, who left, bolted as if they had planes holding at the gate for them to arrive. I don’t know how many of them actually had plans to travel to their homes, how many simply get a week with no classes while they work or carry on with their normal lives. I certainly don’t know how many of them are traveling to some week-long Bacchanalia on our seacoasts or in some Latin American resort. I suspect that some of them will seek out a place with television cameras, poorly enforced alcohol codes, and other students willing to risk their lives to benefit of MTV’s ratings.
I never went on spring break. I never felt entitled to spring break. I don’t like crowds and I really don’t like drunken crowds.
For some reason, I don’t believe that it is necessary to spend a week binge drinking after two months of school. For some reason, I don’t think that liquor laws should be relaxed to allow under-age binge drinking even if such month long parties make or break the local economy. I don’t believe that the presence of television crews and marketing teams from every major brewer and distiller is good for a community or the mobs that flock to it in hopes of getting drunk, laid, and on television,
I also don’t believe that high school graduates should be packed off on package trips to Mexico or Caribbean islands to engage in binge drinking and partying after they are handed their diplomas.
For some reasons, all of which involve money; we’ve decided that allowing our young to travel to nations where they can legally drink to the point of oblivion is alright. We now have travel companies that solicit high school students for such trips. Parents, who should know better, allow their children to make such trips, often pay for the trips. Never mind the damage to their young livers. There is also the risk of accidental injury – while drunk; drowning – while drunk; accidental pregnancy – while drunk; and STD’s, physical altercations, kidnappings, rapes, and murders. The travel agencies never mention such possibilities and the trips are, for the most part, entirely un-chaperoned. Not that all young people need to be chaperoned or protected from industry marketing teams or from their own lack of experience or stupidity. But enough do.
Every so often we hear about nice young students who fail to come back from such trips. The ones we hear about are almost always blonde females, “good girls” who never drank or engaged in risky behavior. Of course they didn’t. That’s why they wanted to make the trip, so that they could. They were almost always last seen in the company of young men and intoxicated. And they never show up alive.
But it must be OK. The MTV network says it is OK to party like drunken idiots. So too, say the liquor and beer distributors and the resort owners. After all, most of them go home safely. Most of them don’t wind up as free anatomy demonstrators on videos sold late at night. And it is almost impossible to fix a percentage who acquire STD’s or hepatitis.
They’re not my children or kin. I’m not responsible for their behavior or its consequences. I won’t know the ones who get kidnapped and never come home. But I will get tired of hearing about them on the news night after night. I will get tired of their parents crying, demanding our government take some action, and wondering why it happened to their child.
Here’s the thing. The government took action – recall those age requirements for drinking alcohol. You sort of helped your kid circumvent them. It happened to your child because you sent them off to some place that makes all its revenue on alcohol and motels, where the cops don’t get too involved as long as the mob stays off the main streets and on the party island or beaches. I’m sort of sorry for your loss. But it isn’t as if you haven’t been warned year after year.
18 year old high school graduates don’t need to go to the Caribbean. They need to go to the library and read until they learn all the things they will need to find and hold a job that doesn’t involve ordering sandwiches by picture. College students don’t need televised bacchanalia. They need to catch up on their sleep by not passing out.
I’m going to sleep an hour later each morning for the next week.
Shabbat shalom!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
4 March 2010 It is not so much the denial that scares me as the indifference.
4 March 2010
It is not so much the denial that scares me as the indifference.
I’ve been sitting in the back of the classroom during “History of the Holocaust” for nearly two months now. I’ve been diligently taking notes, listening intently to the professor, and hoping that my fellow students would begin to show some indication that they truly understand the enormity and horror of the Holocaust. As yet, it hasn’t happened.
At some point in every class session, I’ve been compelled to politely raise my hand and then offer either a comment germane to the material being presented or a question designed to amplify something coming from the front of the room. Every time I hope someone else will jump into the potential discussion. It never happens. I’ve sat there; disappointed, astounded that no one else cares enough to get involved. I’m trying to remember that I am the student, not the professor. Fritz has a wealth of material linked and ready for students to follow. I don’t see any indication that they are.
During yesterday’s class I came to the horrifying realization that Fritz was going to leave the period during the German invasion of the USSR, the period when Einsatzgruppen with the eager assistance of local Ukrainians and Russians slaughter ca. 1.5 million Jews in the Shtetls of the Pale and in the cities of Ukraine and the Baltic states; without ever presenting any information from the people who were able to document what happened at the Shtetls, at Kiev, at Babi Yar.
It is important to know what drove the Nazis and what allowed German troops and auxiliaries to commit wholesale face-to-face murders of thousands of people, to wipe out entire villages day after day. But it is even more important to understand what happened from the vantage point of the Jews, dying in the thousands with no hope of reprieve and no hope of rescue. How does anyone presume to teach the Holocaust without telling the victims’ stories?
I’m firmly convinced that most of this class is unable to relate to the slaughter of millions, hearing only numbers, excuses from authors who have no personal stake in the matter, statistics that deal with numbers too immense to relate to. I doubt that anyone of them can look at a Yitzkor book and see family names and the entry” murdered by the Nazis Sept 1941.” I imagine their family trees don’t have entire branches that end in 1941, 42, or 43. If I had 30 minutes I could lay the information about a single shtetl before their un-opened eyes and try to make them aware of the unique position occupied by the Jews of Eastern Europe at the beginning of WWII and during the invasion of the USSR.
If I ask the right questions, can I actually open their eyes and cause them to recognize how willingly their neighbors and countrymen handed over the bulk of the Jewish populace to be killed? Could I bring them to understand how few righteous gentiles were willing to risk their own lives and those of their families to save Jews from certain death by handgun or at the camps? I don’t think so. I’m not that adept a speaker, not inclined to be a teacher, even at a university level. And most problematic of all, I don’t think the facts really matter to them. Jews are people who live somewhere else. Some of them dress funny, some talk funny. Jews don’t eat bacon, Jews think Saturday is the Sabbath, and Jews don’t love Jesus. They have little or no reason to really care what happened to a bunch of foreign Jews when their grandfathers were sent to fight WWII that was probably started by Jews anyway.
No, I don’t think I can wake them up, make them see something that they have never seen before, Jews as ordinary people. But I have to try. If I don’t try and others like me don’t try, the growing distance and disconnection from the Holocaust makes it all too likely to happen again.
It is not so much the denial that scares me as the indifference.
I’ve been sitting in the back of the classroom during “History of the Holocaust” for nearly two months now. I’ve been diligently taking notes, listening intently to the professor, and hoping that my fellow students would begin to show some indication that they truly understand the enormity and horror of the Holocaust. As yet, it hasn’t happened.
At some point in every class session, I’ve been compelled to politely raise my hand and then offer either a comment germane to the material being presented or a question designed to amplify something coming from the front of the room. Every time I hope someone else will jump into the potential discussion. It never happens. I’ve sat there; disappointed, astounded that no one else cares enough to get involved. I’m trying to remember that I am the student, not the professor. Fritz has a wealth of material linked and ready for students to follow. I don’t see any indication that they are.
During yesterday’s class I came to the horrifying realization that Fritz was going to leave the period during the German invasion of the USSR, the period when Einsatzgruppen with the eager assistance of local Ukrainians and Russians slaughter ca. 1.5 million Jews in the Shtetls of the Pale and in the cities of Ukraine and the Baltic states; without ever presenting any information from the people who were able to document what happened at the Shtetls, at Kiev, at Babi Yar.
It is important to know what drove the Nazis and what allowed German troops and auxiliaries to commit wholesale face-to-face murders of thousands of people, to wipe out entire villages day after day. But it is even more important to understand what happened from the vantage point of the Jews, dying in the thousands with no hope of reprieve and no hope of rescue. How does anyone presume to teach the Holocaust without telling the victims’ stories?
I’m firmly convinced that most of this class is unable to relate to the slaughter of millions, hearing only numbers, excuses from authors who have no personal stake in the matter, statistics that deal with numbers too immense to relate to. I doubt that anyone of them can look at a Yitzkor book and see family names and the entry” murdered by the Nazis Sept 1941.” I imagine their family trees don’t have entire branches that end in 1941, 42, or 43. If I had 30 minutes I could lay the information about a single shtetl before their un-opened eyes and try to make them aware of the unique position occupied by the Jews of Eastern Europe at the beginning of WWII and during the invasion of the USSR.
If I ask the right questions, can I actually open their eyes and cause them to recognize how willingly their neighbors and countrymen handed over the bulk of the Jewish populace to be killed? Could I bring them to understand how few righteous gentiles were willing to risk their own lives and those of their families to save Jews from certain death by handgun or at the camps? I don’t think so. I’m not that adept a speaker, not inclined to be a teacher, even at a university level. And most problematic of all, I don’t think the facts really matter to them. Jews are people who live somewhere else. Some of them dress funny, some talk funny. Jews don’t eat bacon, Jews think Saturday is the Sabbath, and Jews don’t love Jesus. They have little or no reason to really care what happened to a bunch of foreign Jews when their grandfathers were sent to fight WWII that was probably started by Jews anyway.
No, I don’t think I can wake them up, make them see something that they have never seen before, Jews as ordinary people. But I have to try. If I don’t try and others like me don’t try, the growing distance and disconnection from the Holocaust makes it all too likely to happen again.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
3 March 2010 Parking lot blues
3 March 2010 Parking lot blues
More snow this morning. The roads were mostly clear but there was a treacherous feeling to some of the curves, particularly the steeply banked hairpin sequences that abound on TN 67. The drive in was, by far, the easiest part of the morning. Once I got here I joined other cars in the interminable “Danse de asphalt” as we circled, re-circled, craned our necks, and looked for any space that we could slip our vehicles into without incurring a parking ticket, being towed, or both. While I have the option of using disabled parking spots and the “20 minute only” slots that appear near some offices, I found nothing open this morning. After approximately ten circles of the lots where I normally find a slot, I spotted what looked to be a possible disabled slot up the hill toward the student center. When I got there, it was occupied. But around the corner was an empty disabled slot that was not visible until I committed to entering a narrow lot with a single exit. That was all I needed; slipped into it, hung my tag for all to see, and limped off to class with the wind in my face.
Until I began classes at ETSU I measured local parking lots by the Mountain Home VA situation. There are never enough spaces on the VA campus. ETSU has about 13 K students enrolled. Ca. 10,000 live off campus and must join the parking lot dance every time they go to class. Obviously, not all drive to class. Some live near enough to public transportation to use it if they choose. Others may actually walk or bicycle. Some, no doubt, live farther from campus than we do. But the largest part of us drive to class and then waste time and fuel slot hunting. I need to see which remote lots have shuttle access and what time the shuttles run.
Spring break begins next Monday. That brings a chance to sleep in a little later for a week. I never had any desire to spend a week in some over-priced resort; drinking alcohol until passing out was inevitable. Fortunately, I don’t have to. That is probably a sign of aging. I’m not that concerned, though. There are many more signs evident in the mirror.
More snow this morning. The roads were mostly clear but there was a treacherous feeling to some of the curves, particularly the steeply banked hairpin sequences that abound on TN 67. The drive in was, by far, the easiest part of the morning. Once I got here I joined other cars in the interminable “Danse de asphalt” as we circled, re-circled, craned our necks, and looked for any space that we could slip our vehicles into without incurring a parking ticket, being towed, or both. While I have the option of using disabled parking spots and the “20 minute only” slots that appear near some offices, I found nothing open this morning. After approximately ten circles of the lots where I normally find a slot, I spotted what looked to be a possible disabled slot up the hill toward the student center. When I got there, it was occupied. But around the corner was an empty disabled slot that was not visible until I committed to entering a narrow lot with a single exit. That was all I needed; slipped into it, hung my tag for all to see, and limped off to class with the wind in my face.
Until I began classes at ETSU I measured local parking lots by the Mountain Home VA situation. There are never enough spaces on the VA campus. ETSU has about 13 K students enrolled. Ca. 10,000 live off campus and must join the parking lot dance every time they go to class. Obviously, not all drive to class. Some live near enough to public transportation to use it if they choose. Others may actually walk or bicycle. Some, no doubt, live farther from campus than we do. But the largest part of us drive to class and then waste time and fuel slot hunting. I need to see which remote lots have shuttle access and what time the shuttles run.
Spring break begins next Monday. That brings a chance to sleep in a little later for a week. I never had any desire to spend a week in some over-priced resort; drinking alcohol until passing out was inevitable. Fortunately, I don’t have to. That is probably a sign of aging. I’m not that concerned, though. There are many more signs evident in the mirror.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
2 March 2010 Well, not right now
2 March 2010 Well, not right now
By yesterday evening the water had cleared sufficiently that we decided to cancel the service call scheduled for this morning. I called the company at 0800 and let them know we didn’t want them to have to work in the mixed snow and rain that has been falling off and on all day.
I’m not certain that the problem has resolved, there is still more turbidity than I would like to see in the outflow from our faucets. Gloria pronounced it drinkable this morning and she’s fairly picky about water tastes. However, there is some history of turbidity during periods of higher water in the creek, slow long rains, and other events that may increase the inflow of water to the well. There’s still a lot of snow on the high peaks today so we may have to live with this for a while. The mini-filter system in the kitchen will provide clear water for drinking. The water we get directly from the well is clear enough for all other uses.
We heard last night that the undesirable neighbor across the road sold two lots. We’ve been looking up restrictions dealing with sewage systems and wells. One source, state laws indicates a requirement of 500 feet from a well. A local source just indicated 50 feet was the limit. This will require more investigation. Since all building permits are public information we should get some warning. We have no idea who bought the property or for what purpose they bought it. It is time for careful but measured attention to this problem. While single family housing would be minimally acceptable, a trailer park would be unacceptable. We need a better source of information than we currently have. But that is not going to happen.
Dinner tonight will be built around two Mahi-mahi fillets. I’m thinking along the lines of fixing them en papillote. I have zucchini, carrots, onions, lemons, and limes to make the meal both nutritious and palatable.
Hike with Mike this morning took place in the mixed rain and snow. Loki tagged along, saying little, while Mike and I discussed gun control in Chicago as presented by NPR. Nothing of earth-shattering import was broached or resolved.
I need to make an attempt at writing the mid-term for my history course. If I do, I’m going to take a position that directly opposes what the professor holds to be true concerning Hitler’s initial intent to kill European Jews. He believes that the decision to actually murder rather than transport or banish Jews was arrived at due to many influences, perhaps even partially accidental. I hold that Hitler intended to do exactly as he did prior to obtaining power over Germany. His view of the Holocaust certainly differs from mine.
By yesterday evening the water had cleared sufficiently that we decided to cancel the service call scheduled for this morning. I called the company at 0800 and let them know we didn’t want them to have to work in the mixed snow and rain that has been falling off and on all day.
I’m not certain that the problem has resolved, there is still more turbidity than I would like to see in the outflow from our faucets. Gloria pronounced it drinkable this morning and she’s fairly picky about water tastes. However, there is some history of turbidity during periods of higher water in the creek, slow long rains, and other events that may increase the inflow of water to the well. There’s still a lot of snow on the high peaks today so we may have to live with this for a while. The mini-filter system in the kitchen will provide clear water for drinking. The water we get directly from the well is clear enough for all other uses.
We heard last night that the undesirable neighbor across the road sold two lots. We’ve been looking up restrictions dealing with sewage systems and wells. One source, state laws indicates a requirement of 500 feet from a well. A local source just indicated 50 feet was the limit. This will require more investigation. Since all building permits are public information we should get some warning. We have no idea who bought the property or for what purpose they bought it. It is time for careful but measured attention to this problem. While single family housing would be minimally acceptable, a trailer park would be unacceptable. We need a better source of information than we currently have. But that is not going to happen.
Dinner tonight will be built around two Mahi-mahi fillets. I’m thinking along the lines of fixing them en papillote. I have zucchini, carrots, onions, lemons, and limes to make the meal both nutritious and palatable.
Hike with Mike this morning took place in the mixed rain and snow. Loki tagged along, saying little, while Mike and I discussed gun control in Chicago as presented by NPR. Nothing of earth-shattering import was broached or resolved.
I need to make an attempt at writing the mid-term for my history course. If I do, I’m going to take a position that directly opposes what the professor holds to be true concerning Hitler’s initial intent to kill European Jews. He believes that the decision to actually murder rather than transport or banish Jews was arrived at due to many influences, perhaps even partially accidental. I hold that Hitler intended to do exactly as he did prior to obtaining power over Germany. His view of the Holocaust certainly differs from mine.
Monday, March 1, 2010
1 March 2010 Well well well
1 March 2010 Well well well
When you think things are going well, be on guard.
It does not do to let your guard down, ever!
Gloria told me Friday that the shower temperature was hard to regulate. Neither of us noticed it Saturday or yesterday. This morning I had problems regulating the temperature and the flow rate was erratic. In addition, the water from the faucets was the dirty brown water we have come to know indicates some sort of problem. The color is largely due to the iron content in the well water. The turbidity is due to the shallow nature of our well and the somewhat questionable nature of the well itself. Both mean expense.
I called the well company that has been our best source of help with this well and asked for a service call tomorrow. If we are lucky, we may get by with a new pressure switch and gauge. Of course, there will be a service call and labor charge. Since any repairs will involve crawling under the house on a cold and probably snowy day, working in the crawl space , they are certainly going to be performing work that we are neither able to do nor desire to perform; we will trade off fees for service. The good side of the situation is that both Gloria and I trust the company and its employees to advise us honestly and to perform any work capably and competently.
There is an unanswered question about whether or not out current practice of leaving a faucet dripping is causing the flow variation. We’ll ask when the work crew gets here. If it is, then we will need to find some other means of preventing our out-door filters from freezing.
We also need to find another load of wood to burn for the next two months. I found a note offering hard wood, delivered and stacked, at a reasonable price last Wednesday. I’ve been trying to contact the seller at the phone number on the note to buy some wood but haven’t been able to connect. If I can’t get him today, I’ll have to find another source to deliver this week. I have some remaining segments of ash and poplar in the front yard that can be split, cut to length, and burned. But the act of splitting those segments, cut too long by the company that took the trees down, will be incredibly painful hammer and wedge work followed by much lifting and carrying to the hydraulic splitter, followed by cutting to length, followed by more lifting and carrying. It can be done but it will leave me unable to lift my hands above my waist for a week. It also requires that I have a period of dry weather in which to work.
The well water tastes great when all the systems are working. Given the amount of snow this winter we shouldn’t need to worry about well depletion. What we do have to worry about is the actions, once again, of the perpetual problem neighbor across the street. In need of money, he has decided to sell part of his land. Given the zoning and the region, the most likely buyers would be people wanting to park a mobile home on the land. This and the utility situation will create another problem for us.
There is no municipal water service to those parcels of land. Anyone wanting to live there would either need to run water lines or sink a well. Drilling a new well might disturb ours. Worse, by far, is the sewage situation. Anyone building will have to put in a septic tank or settling lagoon. Either will lie uphill of our well and most likely contaminate our well. We need to find out what restrictions exist concerning how close new construction of leach fields can be to existing wells.
This is probably going to wind up becoming a legal problem if anyone does buy the land. If so, we would demand that whoever builds or develops pays to run municipal water to our house and plumb it all in. That is not an unreasonable request if their construction ruins our well.
If the well folks come out tomorrow we’ll try to get some input from them about how much risk we would be incurring. Obviously it will depend upon the types of soil and how the strata lie beneath the surface. Also a factor that may help us is Cassi Creek, flowing from the Cherokee National Forest which borders our property. Fingers crossed.
The best possible solution would be for no one to buy his land. We can hope.
Well, well, well, Who’s that drilling?
Well, well, well, off my land.
Well, well, well, creek’s off limits
Water is flowing all under the land.
Well, well, well!
When you think things are going well, be on guard.
It does not do to let your guard down, ever!
Gloria told me Friday that the shower temperature was hard to regulate. Neither of us noticed it Saturday or yesterday. This morning I had problems regulating the temperature and the flow rate was erratic. In addition, the water from the faucets was the dirty brown water we have come to know indicates some sort of problem. The color is largely due to the iron content in the well water. The turbidity is due to the shallow nature of our well and the somewhat questionable nature of the well itself. Both mean expense.
I called the well company that has been our best source of help with this well and asked for a service call tomorrow. If we are lucky, we may get by with a new pressure switch and gauge. Of course, there will be a service call and labor charge. Since any repairs will involve crawling under the house on a cold and probably snowy day, working in the crawl space , they are certainly going to be performing work that we are neither able to do nor desire to perform; we will trade off fees for service. The good side of the situation is that both Gloria and I trust the company and its employees to advise us honestly and to perform any work capably and competently.
There is an unanswered question about whether or not out current practice of leaving a faucet dripping is causing the flow variation. We’ll ask when the work crew gets here. If it is, then we will need to find some other means of preventing our out-door filters from freezing.
We also need to find another load of wood to burn for the next two months. I found a note offering hard wood, delivered and stacked, at a reasonable price last Wednesday. I’ve been trying to contact the seller at the phone number on the note to buy some wood but haven’t been able to connect. If I can’t get him today, I’ll have to find another source to deliver this week. I have some remaining segments of ash and poplar in the front yard that can be split, cut to length, and burned. But the act of splitting those segments, cut too long by the company that took the trees down, will be incredibly painful hammer and wedge work followed by much lifting and carrying to the hydraulic splitter, followed by cutting to length, followed by more lifting and carrying. It can be done but it will leave me unable to lift my hands above my waist for a week. It also requires that I have a period of dry weather in which to work.
The well water tastes great when all the systems are working. Given the amount of snow this winter we shouldn’t need to worry about well depletion. What we do have to worry about is the actions, once again, of the perpetual problem neighbor across the street. In need of money, he has decided to sell part of his land. Given the zoning and the region, the most likely buyers would be people wanting to park a mobile home on the land. This and the utility situation will create another problem for us.
There is no municipal water service to those parcels of land. Anyone wanting to live there would either need to run water lines or sink a well. Drilling a new well might disturb ours. Worse, by far, is the sewage situation. Anyone building will have to put in a septic tank or settling lagoon. Either will lie uphill of our well and most likely contaminate our well. We need to find out what restrictions exist concerning how close new construction of leach fields can be to existing wells.
This is probably going to wind up becoming a legal problem if anyone does buy the land. If so, we would demand that whoever builds or develops pays to run municipal water to our house and plumb it all in. That is not an unreasonable request if their construction ruins our well.
If the well folks come out tomorrow we’ll try to get some input from them about how much risk we would be incurring. Obviously it will depend upon the types of soil and how the strata lie beneath the surface. Also a factor that may help us is Cassi Creek, flowing from the Cherokee National Forest which borders our property. Fingers crossed.
The best possible solution would be for no one to buy his land. We can hope.
Well, well, well, Who’s that drilling?
Well, well, well, off my land.
Well, well, well, creek’s off limits
Water is flowing all under the land.
Well, well, well!
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