You're looking at the December 31, 2011 Blog
December 31, 2011 Saturday
One last entry for 2011. Happy New Year! Hello 2012.
In the helpful household hints department - the most useful drain opening tool ever invented. Just jab it
into your clogged drain, and pull it back out again - and be amazed! Can you say, hairball?
About 18 inches long, flexible, and will pull up anything up to and just past that first 'J' bend under
one's sink, which is where most clogs reside.
If your problem isn't right there in the undersink trap, then you're back to the Plumbers Helper (plunger)
and the 12 foot 'snake'. Thanks to Dick for the tool.
A last look around the internet for 2011~~
Math is full of unusual surprises... this might be one~
I never claimed that I was not easily entertained.
Example, I got a kick out of this:
ART. It's about painting what you see... sad smile.
The best of the New Year to you and yours. Hope to see you back here again next year!
December 27, 2011 Tuesday
Barbara and Paul put on a Christmas Feast! In attendance, Eric and Debra and their three: Judah, Gideon and Lydia.
Aaron and Heidi and William, Anna and Evelyn, Dick and Laura, Ann and David. Photos by Ann!
December 24, 2011 Saturday
Whatever this day means to you, here's hoping it works.
Had a chance to backtrack a bit today, as seems appropriate, near the end of another year.
Here's some of that...
Ambie's family, as of about six years ago. Ok, maybe longer...
Ann, contemplating the impossible, a few years ago.
Soon, eating bugs will be commonplace, of course...
A few older pix~~
From ten years ago...
Brett, Ambie and Jacob, 80's~
Brett - 90's~
Cousin Darci, doing the Flat Stanley thing, 90's ~
Evelyn - cats - awhile back~
Fae Lamara~
Fran, and Jim Ristine's folks, Dick and Lou... at their place up north in Michigan. 90's.
John and Caroline~
December 23, 2011 Friday
Our smallish, fakish tree as the time draws nigh~ Looking better all the time!
ART - Had to look at this for a bit before we realized that's what it is.
Not so Great Idea Department - Here comes that tank - quick, block the street with your car!
Owl series continued~ The last thing the rabbit saw...
On a more cheerful and traditional note~~
Thanks to BJ~
December 21, 2011 Wednesday
Fae and Cassady must leave for LA - so we celebrated with them the other evening. Ann took a few pix,
as you might expect. I am forever forgetful when it comes to taking one with Ann in it!
Whom but your mom puts toothpaste in your stocking?
Test driving one of gram's knit hats~
Test driving a small dog~
Applying restraint...
What happens when you over tax your computer's graphic capabilities...
More in the flying vein..
The owl has his dinner in hand (claw), but must now react quickly, applying full lifting power.
Thanks to Linda...
December 19, 2011 Monday
Ann and I were discussing entropy, the notion that nature tends from order to disorder. This picture is
a fairly good example of the idea~
Not sure I'd want to be living this close to the edge, knowing that nature (entropy) is at work on the
cliff face.
Look! I can fly! I'm flying, too!
Another 'photo by Ann' - Skagit River
December 17, 2011 Saturday
We've been preoccupied this week, and not in a good way. Chilblain's and fevers. Terminally ill stepmom.
Just looked up chilblain's, and they're not what one might have thought. I guess we just had the regular old
chills and shivers. Cold all over and couldn't stop shaking for some twenty minutes. That gave way to
fevers, and the whole thing only lasted 24 hours, thanks goodness.
Stepmom is hanging on, just barely. No more dialysis, a week or so to live.
Now that we're back in the groove, so to speak - here's a real one in vinyl. This is the groove the needle
tracks along to make analog music from a 33 1/3 record, or vinyl 'platter', enlarged a thousand times or so
until it looks like the Grand Canyon.
Of course, those days are pretty much gone forever, although there has been a resurgence of interest in
vinyl recordings over the last few years. It's retro, and the purists claim nothing digital can compare with
the fullness of the sound. Personally, I'm glad not to have to buy those expensive diamond needles and then have
someone tape a penny to the tone arm to keep the needle in the groove while playing hopelessly worn out records.
Also gone forever are the days remembered by Chief Two Eagles...
Hope you can make out his words.
Our friends in the Railroad business are getting into the holiday spirit, it seems.
So are we - here is the Holiday electronic letter Ann prepared.
Wires were mentioned in the last post. And, here they are, mentioned again.
This board is hand wired, and programs an early (1960's) computer to sort IBM Cards, or print from them.
To change the program, the wires are pulled out by hand and re plugged in different locations.
December 13, 2011 Tuesday
Support from the coffee shop for Finals Week~
The moon was full, the winds were blowing. Ann steps out with the dogs and sees an owl (actually two, but
one flew) in the top of a 60 foot Spruce tree, two doors down. Grabbing camera and tripod, she got these~
My wife is an amazing photographer...
In the world of electricity, it's always about getting it from here to there. This is a simple wiring
set up. (not recommended for home use)
This is somewhat more advanced~
December 11, 2011 Sunday
I love when the good news just simply outweighs all else.
Which was the case today, when we found that stepmom Fran has responded favorably to dialysis.
Thanks to Trisha for this picture...
OK, Evelyn ~~ maybe recent, maybe not~~
A repeat, but still noteworthy...
Laura's anatomically correct gingerbread cookies!
When storms come up so fast they over ride the built in safety shut down features~
Still, these alternative energy sources are the hope for our grandkids...
Of course...
The underside of the hood of my Saab, a recent comparison that we won't go into now~
Suffice it to sat that we keep it maintained, after almost twenty years...
Samurai?
December 09, 2011 Friday
Still noodling around this day, yet to begin anything too serious. Mostly because it's way too cold outside,
as in, freezing.
Around the web then:
Well, that's weird...
This got a chuckle - the things folks notice, and the questions they ask...
Yes, well, notice this sentiment~ sorry it isn't a tad more legible, but the message is good. Notice spelling of, 'around'~~
December 06, 2011 Tuesday
Adam's way cool ID tag -
A friend and I were discussing, gadgets. Here are my favorites, which see everyday use...
The Tascam audio recorder, The Blackberry phone, The Sony video camera 'bloggie', my antique digital camera,
(perfect for internet use), and the GPS, without which we would be perennially lost.
December 04, 2011 Sunday
The old mini video camera, purchased several years ago at the then bargain basement price of over a hundred
bucks, stopped recharging. A rechargeable battery will only recharge so many times, and we must have hit that limit.
It wasn't a bad camera, for the limited amount of video we shoot, and considering that the cell phone also
records video.
Still, that left us without a 'for real' video camera. Enter, the 'Bloggie'.
The jury is still out, but so far we like it. Hopefully post some video soonish.
This area was valued for it's timber, back in the day. Trees of this size were abundant.
Found this on a website, and immediately thought - I know that exit! Just north of the suburbs, Big Beaver
is the equivalent of 16 mile road. Our old house in Highland Park, would have been about four mile road,
as these roads are determined going out from the center of Detroit.
I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I've driven by this exit, as it used to be on my work route,
when I worked at Ford.
Still finding interesting pictures from the great Tsunami that hit Japan.
December 02, 2011 Friday
2011 is winding down and we are finally getting started on the December 2011 Blog page.
Since today is Paul's Birthday (Happy Day!) here are a few Schwulst photos. Pretty sure some photo credit
goes to their daughter, Heidi. Here's Barb and Paul with all four grandkids (Eric and Debra's three,
Gideon, Judah and Lydia, and Aaron and Heidi's William).
Themselves, at Deception Pass this summer.
Recent of Eric, Debra, Gideon, Judah and Lydia~
Ann's cousin Darci (with husband Ron) is working a dental clinic near Morales, Guatemala
The impressive lifting power of the Atlas V rocket, which uses a Russian-built RD-180 engine burning kerosene
and liquid oxygen to power its first stage and an American-built RL10 engine burning liquid hydrogen and
liquid oxygen to power its Centaur upper stage. Seen here lifting the Moon rover, Curiosity, on its way.
Didn't see the end of last month?
Click here: November '11 BLOG
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