A Stroke of Luck

I subscribe to Ancestry.com's on-line services and I received an e-mail yesterday about updates to their site. One of the updates was a change to the user profile section so I decided to update my profile. Then, since I hadn't visited the site in several months, I ran a search on GGGrandpa Stephen, the major dead-end in my genealogical research. I do that as a matter of routine when I visit genealogy sites in the hope that someone, anyone, has posted something new that would give me another clue to where he was born and who his parents were. I got a whole list of stuff, the first being what I already knew and had posted myself and most being about other Stephen Bullards all over the country. The second was the 1850 census (been there, seen that) but the third item was an Army enlistment record. Awesome. I knew he was in the VT Militia during the War of 1812 but the enlistment record tells me when he enlisted, where, who recruited him, that he was 5' 10"" tall with blue eyes and brown hair, a fair complexion and the bit that I have been frustrated by for about two decades, where he was born, Jeffrey, NH. It was like reading the LOTTO numbers in the paper and finding that they matched the ones I played.

Hazards of Garden Photography

Today while I was bending over to shoot this photo of some iris blooms in our garden I felt something land on the back of my neck. It felt sort of hard and bigger than the usual bug.

"A big beetle?" I thought brushing it off with my hand.

As I looked up a house finch flew away.

Why a bird would land on my back, I don't know. I've never been a landing strip for a bird before.

What's in a Name?

I'm in Canada visiting my wife's parents. Yesterday I took a walk along the river in town and met another photographer. His name is Jim as is my friend from Vermontville who is a photographer and my grandfather who was a photographer also. I still have some of grandpa's negatives including a few glass plate negatives. Is there some sort of connection between the name and an interest in photography? Probably not but it is an odd coincidence.

This most recent Jim and I had a long conversation about cameras and the changes that have occurred with the introduction of digital photography. It is always enjoyable to spend some time with people who like the same things you do.

New Phone Numbers Travel Fast?

Two days ago I got a new cell phone. I immediately sent the phone number to family & friends via email. The first call I received was from my brother in Mexico. He has a Skype account and was calling me in Northern NY via his computer for .021¢/minute. That's cool. Since then I have gotten three more phone calls on my new phone, all computer generated tele-marketing calls. You know, the ones that start out "there's nothing wrong with your account but it is very important that you call us back at..." or "please hold the line for an important message". If it is so important why didn't a human being place the call? I occasionally get those same calls on our land line too even though that number is on the NYS and national 'Do-Not-Call' lists. I used to wait to get a human then give them a hard time "Don't you know you can be fined for calling a number on the Do-Not-Call list?" but Diane thought I was being excessively rude so now I just hang up before the human takes over from the computer. If it rings again immediately I just ignore it.

So what's the story here? Is Verison feeding new phone #s to tele-marketers as fast as they issue them? If so, that sucks. Somebody must be since there is no directory of cell numbers. We're paying for this service so I can be in touch with family and friends, not so that there will be a new channel for shoving advertising at me. I guess I'd better get this number listed on the Do-Not-Call list as well. I don't want to spend my day hanging up on computers.

P.S. If you are a friend I neglected to send the number to, email me. I'm not posting the number on a public blog for obvious reasons.

10 minutes later: My new phone is now on the Do Not Call Registry. The registry website (www.donotcall.gov) says it takes about 31 days to take effect. Too bad they can't do it as fast as those who are feeding phone numbers to the tele-marketers.

P.P.S. I tried a reverse phone number lookup on the web to see who it was that was calling. It was an 800# and the reverse lookup wants $14.95 to tell me who it is. Pretty cagey. If you answer the call they get a chance to pitch to you and try to sell you something. If you don't and want to know who it is so you can complain they charge you to find out who is harassing you. I think that is called a win-win situation in business circles except that both wins are for them.

Signs of Spring

Spring has really arrived. How do I know? It isn't because the temperature is rising, or because the snow is melting, or even because the sap is running, although all those things are happening. The problem with those signs is that some or all of them happen even during mid-winter thaws if it gets warm enough for long enough.

The reason I know spring is really here is because when we came home yesterday afternoon there was a bird in the chimney. We have metal chimney that is very tall (20+ feet starting at the 1st floor ceiling) and 8 inches across on the inside. Every spring a young Starling (for some reason it is always a Starling) lands on top, sticks his/her head under the rain cap and wonders "what's down there?". It then proceeds to fall down the chimney. Since it's wing spread is wider than the diameter of the chimney it can't fly back up and out so we hear it scratching around inside the chimney.

If we're lucky we can open up the lower end (which is inside the house) with plastic bag over it and catch the bird which we then deliver to the great outdoors. Yesterday we weren't lucky. The Starling managed to escape the bag inside the house after which a game of 'chase the bird out of the house' ensued. We opened both front doors (can't open windows yet, the storms are still on) and repeatedly prodded the bird from a series of hiding places behind furniture until it spotted an open door and flew out.

Most years that gets repeated 2, 3, 4 or more times before the juvenile Starlings get old enough and smart enough not to fall down the chimney. If we are fortunate however that may be the sole occurrence for this year. We did have one spring when it happened only once. We bought a new pellet stove last December which does not use that chimney so I plan to take it out this summer but then I'll need a new way to tell for sure when spring is really here.

Spring at Last?

Three weeks with no post to the blog. Tsk, tsk. By way of excuse I have been busy though. I've been remodeling, tearing out walls, building new ones and wiring. Wiring is tedious work, figuring out what outlets/switches/etc. you want where and the path the wire needs to take in order to do it.

Friday I was hanging sheetrock. Why do they call it "hanging" sheetrock? It doesn't hang. It's nailed in place. Clothes hang on a line, pictures hang on a wall, both can move. Wallboard can't go anywhere. It is part of the wall. Anyway, I came to an inside corner that needed only 9" to complete that wall and I thought to myself 'If I measure very carefully, I wonder if I could score the sheet from the backside fold it forward and just have it go around the corner with the front paper still in place so I wouldn't have to tape the corner?' I allowed for the thickness of the wallboard plus a 16th of an inch for safety and voila', it worked! I have a perfect corner without taping. Too bad I can't do that with all the corners.

The weather is finally showing signs of breaking here. We had 2 days in the mid-40s this week and there are more coming up next week. The sap is running and the maple syrup producers are all boiling away. I thought this evening that I would see how much snow we had left and I took my aluminum yardstick out to check an average spot in the yard. Unfortunately the snow is like rock (temperatures in the 20s today). It not only holds me up anywhere I walk, the aluminum stick couldn't break through it. I bent it trying. After checking along where I had shoveled I'm guessing about a foot is left. I had thought it was less but now I think a foot is probably about right. There is a pile across the road where it was plowed up from in front of the church that is still about 8' tall.

Is Jack Frost's Wife a Fat Lady?

If so she hasn't sung yet and winter isn't over here. After a relatively mild day yesterday (45ºF) we got 3 or more inches of wet heavy snow last night which I spent about 90 minutes snowblowing/shoveling this morning. It has continued to snow off and on today. It is snowing again as I type and the forecast for tonight is more snow than we got last night. It is projected to end tomorrow morning but snow is forecast for Tuesday & Wednesday of next week as well as Friday & Saturday.

Last night's snow stuck to the trees so that was a good opportunity for snow photos and I took a drive this morning after cleaning up the driveway and walk. The photo at the right is the best of this morning's shoot. I have modified it in Photoshop using various filters.

Addendum at 6:30PM.
We are now having thunder and lightning with our snow and sleet. March is such a lovely month.

Catching Up...

It has been a whole month since I last posted. I've been tearing out the walls of the middle bedroom and am now in the construction phase of turning that floor space into 2 walk-in closets and more floor space for the remaining bedrooms. The 3 bedroom arrangement I had built 30 years ago was functional for us at the time but we'd like to sell the place in the next few years and it was a little too funky for the average home buyer. This change will fit our current needs better and be more sale able down the road.

I began a new blog dedicated to photography where I will post photo tips, reviews of software/books and the like. I'll still post photos with reports of my wanderings here. The other site is more an instructional site for those interested in learning new photography skills.

March 3rd edit: I forgot to give the URL for the new blog. It is http://jimbullardsphotoblog.blogspot.com/

What's the Difference?

In the latest debate Hillary Clinton emphasized her experience again while Barach Obama said that being right on day one was more important than being experienced and ready to take charge on day one.

According to the analysis that I've read there is roughly 5% difference in their positions on the issues so Obama's argument is that, for the sake of that 5%, we should sacrifice experience in handling the other 95% where they are in total agreement. Considering that who's right (in a political discussion I really should say 'who's correct') that other 5% of the time is a matter of opinion, I think Obama is making a pretty feeble argument for abandoning experience in favor of hope.

What's hap'nin...

Yesterday we tore the wallboard off the walls to the 3rd bedroom. I had spent several days getting stuff out of the room and creating space to work. I still have more of that to do but I needed to do the wallboard on the weekend while Diane was here to help. When the job is done there will be 2 bedrooms and each will have a walk-in closet. The remodel will (hopefully) make the place more salable. The 3 bedroom over & under closet arrangement was a bit too much on the funky side.

I went to Home Depot this afternoon to buy some more storage containers, the plastic type with top flaps that interlock. I wanted a small shop vac for sucking ash out of the pellet stove when we clean it but the choices were a $110 one and a $26 one. $110 was more than I cared to pay and the $26 one didn't look up to the job. It had only a non-woven fabric bag for a filter. I'm sure fine ash would go right through that. I checked Sears and they only had a cheap one.

As long as I was t the mall I decided to check the new Steve & Barry's store. It is aimed at the younger crowd, a lot of sweats & tees with logos etc. but they were having their grand opening celebration. For the occasion they had priced everything in the store at $8.98. Yup, everything. I didn't need any clothes but when I saw a down jacket for $8.98... I bought it.

Campaign Coverage

Bill Clinton got it right when he told CNN reporter Jessica Yellin "You live for this. This hurts the people of South Carolina... the people don't care about this," he added. "They never ask about it". Recent media coverage of the democratic campaign reminds me of my high school days when provocateurs would run back and forth between two guys who were antagonists saying 'do you know what so & so said about you?' then run back to the first guy with the response until they got a full fledged fight going. Then they'd stand around the fighting pair in a circle yelling "fight, fight".

That's our media, a bunch of juvenile provocateurs.

I'm all for investigative journalism, for speaking truth to power in the tradition of Edward R. Murrow, but that is not what these people are doing. They are engaging in petty muck raking for the purpose of promoting controversy because it makes 'good TV' (or radio, even NPR's On-Point is guilty) that pumps up ratings. It's time our media grew up and stopped promoting controversy solely for its entertainment value.

Flip-Flop Weather

After getting near record snow in December and into the first few days of January it turned warm. REALLY WARM! At least two days have broken the records for high temperature on that date. Yesterday's low was higher than the previous record high for the day. The snow is virtually gone. Today it is raining off and on with very high winds. If we have any snow left when the next cold front comes through, it will be very little.

The winds took down a cedar that was in our back fence line. It didn't hit the house and caused no damage to anything else. A gust of wind popped a pane of glass from one of the upstairs window sashes and I had to put in a piece of plywood as a temporary sash while I make repairs. The windows on the second floor are all as old as the building (1876) and the glazing compound was all dried out. I'm working on re-glazing the old sashes but haven't gotten to the second floor ones yet. I guess that should be a priority project.

Watching the Debates/Thoughts about Obama

A couple of days ago we watched the back-to-back Republican & Democratic debates on ABC. Apparently from the NH polls since a lot of people were taken by Senator Obama's performance which seemed lackluster to me but watching them did clarify what bothers me about Obama.

When pressed about the 'change' he advocates, instead of making concrete proposals, he responded to the effect that his message inspires people to press for change and he will continue as president to inspire people with the result that the people will be empowered and change will be inevitable. His message is very short on what he has done or will do beyond inspiring people.

This notion that 'if everyone believes, it will happen' is what I call Tinker Bell politics. In the old Peter Pan movie when Tinker Bell is dying Peter looks out of the screen and pleads with the audience to clap saying if everyone believes and claps Tinker Bell will be well. Tinker Bell survived in the movie of course because the movie was following a script and the result was fixed on the film for all time even if no one in the audience clapped. The Bush administration has tried the same philosophy urging everyone to support his war plans and believe even when they are failing, contending that if only everyone would get behind the president it would work. Unfortunately in the real world there is no script and no future outcome is already frozen on film to be played back to reassure the skeptical that belief was justified. To allude to another movie, in Return of the Jedi when asked about the future Yoda replies that "the future is constantly in motion" meaning that it depends on what happens in the present. While belief that change is possible is indeed essential to changing the course of events, to change the direction events take requires more than belief, it requires effective action. We need a president who can not only inspire, but also write the script and direct the action.

When pressed further for an example of the change he advocates from his past record he presented his support for a bill that prevents lobbyists from buying meals for members of congress. As the moderator immediately pointed out however, the ban only applies to sit down meals. Members of congress can still accept meals while standing, so the net effect is that, in future, members will have to be served wine and hors d'oeuvres by lobbyists instead of soup or steak.

Presenting that slight of hand as a serious change strikes me as very Washington insider, old fashioned, political spin, BS. For all his charm and rhetoric, which is admittedly inspiring, I have yet to be convinced that Obama is the candidate who can or will take the action needed.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

It has been snowing AGAIN! I sure picked the right year to buy a snow blower. I have used it almost every day since buying it and now I hear there is another winter storm on the West coast that is headed our way. The snow is already almost over the fence by the driveway. Today we also have cold. It got all the way up to 7°. It was below zero last night and will be again tonight. It will sound like the Grinch but "the thing I hate most" is the cold. Winter would be tolerable if the temperature never went below 20° but we can get as low as -40° around here and -20° is not at all unusual. It is cold days like this that 'almost' make me want to move South. OTOH I don't like heat over 85° either.