Monthly Archives: November 2008

Thinking About the Library

Posted on by

I got an email from a friend today suggesting a book I might read (it is The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up, by Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher; I know little about it but it does sound interesting).  She works in a library so I might just have to borrow it.  In any case, this has me thinking about libraries and our town library in particular.

I love our town library.  I just went to the library’s web site and found that it has been updated with a sleek new look.  Searching the card catalog was a snap as the site has a menu bar for this purpose right at the top.  They did not have the book, I am afraid, but the search feature sure was handy.

We have spent a lot of time there with our children.  Not so much, lately, as our schedules have changed enough that it is not as easy as it once was to get there, but it is still a treat to linger for a while.  They have toys–cars, trains, little people, and so on–so my little boy has a blast whenever we go.  My daughter loves books so the place is dreamy for her.  It means a (mostly) quiet time where everyone is happy for at least a short time.

I spent the day in a different library, meeting students.  Surrounded by books, it is hard not to want to simply drop everything and read.  I used to spend lots of time reading but that time has been reduced over the past several years.  I love to read and I want to make sure that my children see me reading, so I need to poke my nose into books at time other than after those children are asleep.

I am just about through reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation.  It has been an interesting read.  I need a couple more books on deck, however, so I think I will take a trip to our awesome library.  The Thanksgiving holiday is coming up and I will have some time to flip a few pages.  I look forward to that time.  I should make sure I sit where my children can see me read.  They may not let me, preferring to climb on my lap and read a book of their choice to them.  But that will work for me just as well.

First Troublesome Snow

Posted on by
White Out

White Out

We woke this morning to snow on the ground.  It fell in squalls as we readied for the day.  It was snowing when we walked out to meet the bus.  It was snowing when I took my son to school.  It snowed so hard and so fast, in fact, that not only was it difficult to see but it was difficult to drive.

Halfway through our ten-mile drive, we had to turn around.  First, we stopped because everyone one else had stopped.  Then everyone else turned around.  We were at the steep hill and, having slipped a few times, and having seen others slip, I thought it would be prudent to follow the crowd.

I am glad we did.  Cars were sliding all over the place.  It was treacherous.  I watched a few near accidents as we took the long way.  We were late but unsmashed.  Eventually, after leaving him to learn about stars, I stopped driving and got some work done.

It snowed throughout the day, sometimes quite heavily.  It was what my daughter called “a kind of small blizzard” when the bus dropped her off in the afternoon.  As it got dark she went outside with her mother and brother to sled on the thin snow that had gathered on the hill.  It wasn’t much but they managed to slide down anyway.

Drivers will be more cautious now.  Road crews will get out faster.  The first blast of snow seems to always get everyone in gear for winter driving.  That first blast was today.  It was beautiful all day.  I look forward to more.

Driving Around Here

Posted on by

When I was in high school I drove to school.  Not at first, of course.  My parents, in their ever-giving way as parents, drove me to school.  I couldn’t take the bus.  There wasn’t one.  So they drove me and eventually, at least some of the time, I drove myself.  It was a typical commute for someone in Connecticut, less than an hour.  Traffic was always a concern.

Today I drove to a school at which I work a few days each month.  I drove 28 miles each way.  It took about 40 minutes to get there this morning.  I encountered some traffic but nothing worth noting, at least for me.  I stopped at some traffic lights, went the speed limit on the Interstate, and generally kept moving the whole way.  No big deal.

I do encounter delays some days.  If there happens to be an accident in the right place at the right time, traffic can get snarled.  One morning I was an hour or so late getting to this same school and I had to go a long way around to get back.  My drive home took hours, but that was unusual.

The volume of traffic is way higher than when I first moved to this area.  Driving always seemed to be easy, even at the busiest times on the busiest roads.   My wife points this out regularly.  Having grown up here, she has seen the change.  Even since the days we first began to spend time together in her adult years, there are many more cars on the road.  Her typical questions:  “Where did all these people come from?  And where do they all live?”

The thing is, this is nothing.  I remember listening to traffic reports on my high school commute.  Would traffic on the bridge over the Connecticut River on Interstate 91 be slow?  Should we take the other route?  Should we leave a little earlier?  Could we expect to be on time?  Accidents, or at least breakdowns, were common.  There were a lot of people and a lot of cars, and we didn’t even travel through Hartford.  That was busy.

But the roads are getting busy around here.  When I drive north past Burlington during peak commuting time, cars line the highway southbound waiting to exit toward Vermont’s largest city.  It gets crowded.  We have pretty crappy public transportation, partly because of the still somewhat rural nature of the surrounding communities.  The backed up roads seem a good reason to invest in public transportation.  Rail lines already exist in many areas in northwest Vermont, but there is only one commuter train to speak of.

I don’t mind the driving, knowing that it could be a lot worse.  It did used to be much smoother to get around in a car, but I won’t complain.  If it gets so bad that I feel I need to complain, then I need to make sure I am taking action to make a difference.  I don’t know that I can swing commuting on a bicycle 28 miles and still help the kids get to school in the morning, but if I get it together I could travel to other places by bike.  I am working at home tomorrow, so that helps a little.

Really I would rather take the train, or even the bus, but until that happens I will add to the general melee.  I will be one of those about whom people who grew up here wonder.  “Where do all these people come from?” they might ask.  “And why is that guy smiling in all this traffic?”

Digging

Posted on by
Garden Beds Prepped for Spring

Garden Beds Prepped for Spring

I spent a lot of time this weekend prepping the garden for the spring. I wasn’t as good as I might have been at weeding come late summer, and a couple of beds only got used for a short time, so there were some (read lots of) weeds. I dug, I sorted, I raked, I hauled. By the tail end of the last bed I was ready to be done, but I kept going. I’m glad I did.

I am still hoping to mulch the beds. We have cartloads of leaves to dump on top, which will clear the lawn of leaves and feed the dirt while it protects the dirt from the winter. I put that off, however. I was too tired and frankly, sick of it, by late afternoon.

I went inside and made a maple latte and helped my daughter run through a photo slideshow. That revived me. Then I made dinner. That topped off a day that included a hike up Mount Philo. It was a good day.

I am glad I cranked on the garden beds. When spring gets here I will celebrate my productivity. If I can get the beds mulched (and the strawberries for that matter) my future self will give my current self some big fat kudos. But, then again, I’m not in it for the praise, especially from that guy.

New Photographer

Posted on by

Recently I was stacking wood into the back of our garage and my daughter picked up the camera.  She took a lot of photographs.  Digital photography has changed how parents allow children to take photos.  With the old roll of film situation, we would have burned through of couple of long rolls had my daughter shot so much.  As it is, she took lots, got some pearls and some seaweed.

I was impressed by some of her shots.  They have good composition, play with colors and light.  Here are some samples:

Toy Boat on Stones

Toy Boat on Stones

Sleds in Garage

Sleds in Garage

Bark and Stones

Bark and Stones

November Maple

November Maple

Night Coming Early

Posted on by

I pick up my son from school and it is pretty much dark.  Not long from now it will simply be dark, rather than pretty much dark.

He wanted to play outside when we got home.  His usual play spot these days was in the dark.  And it was raining.  We bagged that idea.

In our upstairs play room/office we have poor lighting.  This is no problem in the summer.  Tonight it was a little dim.  We need to get some lamps.  It is not as much fun to play with the trains when you can hardly see them.

We turn on lots of lights these days.  We save a lot on electricity by having poor lighting in our house.  The downside is that we have poor lighting.

It is now 9:00 PM and way dark.  In the summer I might just be coming back from a run.

Winter is pretty much here.  Not long from now it will simply be here.

Bring on the snow.

Messing Around With the Tractor

Posted on by

I was home this morning with my son while my wife worked and my daughter went to school.  He had a good time playing, and I played with him for a while, but then I suggested we head and ride on the tractor.  He loved that idea.  He did not want to wear the ear protection at first but then wanted to make sure he had it on while I cranked it up.

He sat on my lap while we drove to the end of the driveway and tried to smooth out some of the holes.  The town put in a new culvert last spring and we have gotten these big pools there when the weather is wet.  We have a few other dents but the ones at the end are the biggest.  I did a fair job of scooping and dragging and lifting and dumping but I am afraid it is just too muddy.  It will need more attention and, really, some gravel.

At the other end of the driveway we have a gravel imbalance.  The snowplow pushes all the gravel to one end.  It sits on top of the snow piles until it melts, when it gathers in piles.  So the broad area where cars park and turn around has deep gravel on one side and bare dirt on the other.  I smoothed that out a bit today.  I couldn’t get to all of it without a lot more time and some care, but it is better.  Until next spring.

My little guy had a blast.  He didn’t mind the “ear foams, I mean ear phones” as he calls them a bit.  Once we finished he went to play in the garden while I made lunch and we waited for his mother to come home.  We had some quality outside time.  He came in for lunch pretty much filthy, and wearing a huge grin.  He did the work of being a little boy quite well this morning.

Messing around with the tractor, I did my best to set a good example for him.  I think I did all right.

A Few New Things

Posted on by

I attended our annual meeting for the organization for whom I work today.  I came home with a few new things.  I wrote yesterday about the awesome umbrella I received last year as a company gift.  This year we each got a canvas LL Bean bag with the company logo on it.  Not bad.

I use these types of bags all the time.  We got a couple of large ones many years back and they come with us everywhere.  They have carried groceries, beach toys, old and new clothing, library books, ski boots, freshly picked garden vegetables, a computer printer, lunch, jugs of water, whatever.  They are my favorite bags.

I once got a smaller one from my bank.  They were giving them away for opening new accounts.  I already had an account but I wanted one of those bags.  The bank teller told me I could have one when she saw me eyeing it.  That is a benefit to living in a small town.  Of course, not long after, the bank merged and changed its name and logo.  Maybe that makes it a collector’s item?

Anyway, this new bag from today (crisp and clean so far) has slightly longer handles, great for tossing over a shoulder.  I will use it lots.  But that is not all I got.

I have been working there for five years so I got to hear my name announced and go up on stage and get a little gift bag and shake the hands of the president and the VP’s.  The VP of my department even gave me a hug.  That wasn’t weird or anything, as one might suspect.  I genuinely appreciated it.  The gift bag had some goodies in it.

First, there was the mug–stainless steel with (of course) the logo and my initials engraved on one side.  I had previously told the folks in HR that I did not want a mug unless it was high quality.  I have way too many of travel mugs kicking around and another one I will not use unless it is bomber.  I think this one is close enough.  It isn’t the vacuum insulation I was told it would be but heck, it should work fine.

I also got a key chain with the logo (are you catching on to how important the marketing piece is here?) and my initials and “five years of service” printed on the flip side.  That was unexpected and a nice touch.  I am not sure where I will use a key chain (I hate a lot of crap dangling from my key ring; in fact I have all my keys on a mini carabiner so I can take one off at a time easily) but it was nice touch.

Finally, I got a bonus vacation day.  That will get used for sure.  I may even get an extra week of vacation since I have been there for five years, but I won’t count on that until I look it up and confirm it.

I carried my mug and my keychain and my little note from the top brass home in my canvas bag.  That worked out well.  It would have been harder if I had reached five years last year.  An umbrella doesn’t make a great carrying case for much, and certainly for not a stainless steel mug.

Umbrella

Posted on by

Exactly a year ago I got a new umbrella.  It was a gift from the organization that provides my employment.  it bears that organization’s logo.  How nice, I thought at the time, this might come in handy.  Then I stuck it in the closet.

These days, it does come in handy.  This morning, for example, I used it.  We walked as a family out to meet the bus.  We have a long driveway and the walk is a great way for us to start the day.  It is a ritual I like to be part of as often as I can.  Today the rain was just dumping down.  So we used the umbrella.

It is a golf umbrella, with no metal struts or stays.  It is lightweight.  And it is big.  The wind blew and the rain came down, but it protected us well.  If I had not received this umbrella we likely would have thought that we needed one for our daily walk to the meet the bus, but we would not have purchased such a good one.

We would have purchased something smaller, weaker and simpler.  It would probably have been cute or brightly colored but it would not have been nearly as functional.  This one works like a charm and looks sharp as well.  It was a fine gift.  It gets a lot of use.  I am glad I have it.

Tomorrow we have our annual meeting to review the organization’s standing and direction.  It will be a day to mingle and maybe learn a few things and even have some fun.  And I imagine we will get some employee gift.  The umbrella will be hard to top but I have high hopes.  One year we got coolers and mine gets used regularly.  So the track record here is spot on (OK, the exception was the car emergency kit, which was a great idea but contained a plastic bag of drinking water, just in case one of us happened to go off the road in the winter and need some ice).

I foresee we will receive a practical gift, one that will get used rather than tossed in a closet.  But even then, I can always pull it back out, right?

Popcorn Ready at Last

Posted on by

Back in June I planted some popcorn. I planted it later than I wanted but the turkeys, and then the crows, had pulled up all of the sweet corn. I was playing it safe. I hung some old CD’s to blow in the wind and that kept the fowl away. At the end of September (the 22nd) my daughter and I picked it and shucked it. It has been hanging to dry since then.

I tried to pop some last month but it did not work well. It was not dry enough. Today I tried again, heating about ten kernels in hot oil. Every one popped. My son helped me peel the seeds from the cobs. He stripped a few of the mini cobs before declaring “I think I’m done doing this now.” I love his honesty.  I picked up the ones he scattered across the counter.

We did not get too much, just over half a jarful, but it is enough for several batches this fall and (if it lasts) winter.  Here are some visuals of the process this afternoon:

What they looked like before removing the kernels

What they looked like before removing the kernels

Naked cobs

Naked cobs

Off the cob

Off the cob

Storage vessel until time for popping arrives

Storage vessel until time for popping arrives