Abbey Road

Those of us of a certain age remember the release of the Beatles Abbey Road album. I was in college and it was the beginning of my acceptance of the Beatles. I'd never liked them before.

When they first arrived, I was in the seventh grade and all the girls in our school went nuts over them. Somehow, it didn't seem like a very "manly" thing to like them. And anyway, they were foreigners!

Later, as both their music and I matured, I started to recognize that their music was well written and performed but then John Lennon said something stupid about them being more popular than Jesus. So, once again, I mostly ignored them.

Then, Abbey Road was released in my freshman year at college and every stereo on our floor was either playing Abbey Road or Led Zeppelin's second album (along with Creedence Clearwater Revival, Blood Sweat and Tears,  Gordon Lightfoot, and some Motown albums). So, hearing their songs every day, made me really appreciate the Beatles' musicianship.

Then of course, there were the rumors about Paul being dead! Notice his bare feet in the picture and the fact that he's walking out of step with the others. These were big clues! So, the other day I ran into a link for a webcam outside the Abbey Road studios in London that shows the road crossing from the Abbey Road album cover. It's amazing how many people, after all of these years, still stop to have their picture taken in this same crosswalk - often long enough to hold up the traffic. And many of them try to imitate the positions of the four lads. The webcam is looking in the opposite direction from the picture here but you'll recognize it.

Today, as I was looking at the "This Day in History" website, I noticed that on this day back in 1964, the Beatles were knocked out of the top spot in the Billboard Hot 100 list by an unlikely source. They'd held the top spot for three and a half months! I'll leave it as a mystery that you can solve by looking at this link. You'll never guess it.

On my way into work today

Here's another interesting scene from my trip into work. I pass this farm every day (if I ride my scooter - it's on a back road) and see horses in the field from time to time. But they are not often out at the times I pass and sometimes they are in a different field. Most of the time, I'm running late and can't afford the time to stop and take a picture. But today, everything worked together. Click on the picture to enlarge it. I left it in its original size, 2816 x 1584, so it may take a while to load.

I've always liked horses but I have to admit I'm a little afraid of them. Not at this range with a fence between us. When I stand close to horse, though, I'm amazed at their size and the power they have. I know they are usually gentle but I always imagine the worst and can vividly picture them trampling me into a pulp. So, I leave the riding of horses to my wife. They are magnificent animals with a long history with humans. I love the tranquility of this scene. The horses moved slowly and ate leisurely. They knew they were in no danger. They seem to be well cared for and pampered. The fence not only keeps them from wandering into danger but also keeps danger away.

There are many nice scenes along my way to work. I hope to include more in the future.

Take a deep breath and begin again

"End of the Trail" by James Earle Fraser

Well, our big, rush project is finished and I hope I'll be able to calm down and not be so weary in my off time. Then, maybe, I can catch up on my blog. I was going to title this post, "Back in the Saddle Again," after the Gene Autry song. But I feel like the past few months have been all in the saddle with no breaks and what I need is to get out of the saddle.

My part of this project, let's call it Project 3, started right after a previous project, lets call it Project 2, that had finished in early January. That's right, I had to shorten my Christmas vacation because we had to finish Project 2 over the holidays. And before Project 2, another project, we'll call that Project 1, had been scheduled to finish in the second week of November.

I hadn't been able to visit my mother for over a year and had been planning to see her for a week in October (she lives about 600 miles away). But then they moved the end of Project 1 up a week to the first week of November. I worried that my week at Mom's was too close to that deadline so I canceled my trip to see Mom until after Project 1 finished. The day after I canceled my tickets and other plans, they moved the end of Project 1 back to the original date - the second week of November! It was too late to change my trip to the earlier time so I planned to visit Mom after Project 1 completed. Then my wife broke her foot and I needed to stay home to help her. As sad as I was, it was harder for my wife because she had to limp along over Thanksgiving.

Of course, I figured I'd just visit my mother after Project 2 was finished after Christmas but then Project 3 was announced and that it was a "fast track" project to see if we could get it done faster than we normally do. It was a much bigger project that involved new equipment and more departments. Oh boy. I'd have to wait again.

So, we're finally done and I've bought tickets to visit my mother again. It's been over two years since I've been able to visit her. As has been the case the last few times I've made the trip, I'll be going alone. While she would love to see my wife and our kids, we just don't travel well as a family for long trips like that. Also, she has a lot of work needing to be done around her house so it's better if I just go alone. As lonely as it will be and for as much as I will miss my family, it just needs to be done.

So, I hope to write up a bunch of posts before I travel on May 16 and I hope to schedule some for the week I'm gone. Let's hope I can get back in the groove again. I really enjoy writing in my blog and I always feel badly when I can't. It's like not going for a walk.

Sometimes I surprise myself

I just remembered this and want to write it down before I forget it - again.

I was at a meeting or conference one time a long time ago. Just as we were getting started, someone walked into the room and announced, "There's red car with license number ABC-123 outside with its headlights on." And, in a completely uncharacteristic bit of quick thinking and outspokenness, I piped up, "Don't worry, they'll go out after a while." I was pleasantly surprised at how many people thought that was funny.

I made that joke up on the spot. At least, I don't remember ever hearing it before. But maybe it's like The Dick Van Dyke Show episode when Laura writes what she thinks is a wonderful children's story only to realize later that it's a story her mother used to read to her when she was a child. But I don't think that was the case with this joke. I really believe I came up with it myself. But even more amazing was that I felt confident enough to say it out loud! That was very unlike me but it made me happy. I wonder if I'd have been as happy if no one laughed?

[Update: I like blogging. Writing this blog post not only let me get this story down so I'd remember it but as I thought about it, it brought more of the story to mind. I now remember where I was when this happened and it might make an interesting post of its own. I was taking a class in assembly language programming for the Hewlett-Packard 21MX series minicomputer. They were primitive compared to today's computers but they were quite advanced for their day.]

I'm a lumberjack...

...and I'm OK. I'd sleep all night if our dog would let me. There are people who dispute that I work all day. And don't even think about the rest of the song!

This was a case of my not being able to find a pruning saw I often use to cut up branches that fall down. I looked and looked but I couldn't find it and figured it was finally time to figure out how to use the chain saw my father-in-law had left (Ralph died over ten years ago). It's an electric one (a Poulan EL-14) and I was less afraid of it than I am of the gasoline ones. But I still wasn't sure about it. I didn't know if I'd need to tighten the chain and I wasn't sure how to oil the chain. It turned out to be much easier than I thought. It has a manual oiler that can take regular 10W30 motor oil and you just push the top of the cap to get a little oil on the blade when you need it.

It took me a few tries to get the hang of it and I think the blade was a little dull after ten years or more of no use. But after about five minutes, I was sawing through branches about five or six inches in diameter. We're getting ready for another burning session in a week or two and I wanted to be better prepared this time.

So, in the end, I'm glad I wasn't able to find my pruning saw. But where did I put that thing?

On my ride into work today

It was a bit chilly this morning when I got ready to ride my scooter into work. I had already taken our dog Charlie for his walk and it didn't seem too bad to me. My wife, of course, worries about me and I'm glad she does but I assured her it wasn't too cold.

Then I got to the cranberry bogs along my route and saw this. The cranberry plants have already started to bud and frost can damage them. I don't know too much about how spraying water and having it freeze on the plants is better than regular frost but these farmers know what they are doing and wouldn't do this (and spend all the money for water for the sprinklers) if it didn't help.

Another interesting aspect to this is that at one point, one of our products was being considered by our local growers to help in this situation. We make a line of products that measure various properties like temperature, relative humidity, air pressure etc. Our instrument can be programmed to look at a number of properties and decide if frost is imminent and close a relay (or send an email) when the conditions are right. The relay could then turn on the sprinklers. It turns out that the farmers needed more control than we could offer. So, they still have to get up early on a cold morning and start the sprinklers. Just in case.

An inadvertent April Fool's Day joke

From the NIST website about WWV controlled clocks

Happy April Fool's Day. I hope the jokes played on you today are gentle and truly funny and don't cause you harm. At least not too much harm. My wife got my daughter and me this morning with a story about the Easter Egg Hunt being this morning instead of on Easter Sunday. Then my daughter immediately, upon being reminded of the day, ran over to my mother-in-law's place to tell her a "story". Our son would be getting up later but we knew he'd be getting up in time to go to church. But, he surprised us by getting up early. When he looked up at the clock, though, he realized he'd gotten up an hour earlier than he wanted to.

It turns out, the April Fool's Day joke played on him wasn't planned. It was caused by the 2007 change made to the rules for when we lose or gain an hour for Daylight Saving Time. The clock we bought him before 2007 is one of those that receive the radio signal from the WWV station in Fort Collins, Colorado. That information is used to keep the time on the clock corrected to the atomic clocks at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). You can read more about those types of clock here.

Unfortunately, this particular clock doesn't use all of the information that NIST includes in the WWV signal that indicates whether Daylight Saving Time is in effect or not. The clock has its own internal program to decide when to change the time. So, this morning was the old pre-2007 time for changing the clocks and the clock finally caught up to the official Daylight Saving Time and our son found out that 7 AM really was 7 AM. April Fool!

We've known about this since 2007, of course, and usually changed the clock ourselves - twice. Once on the official time and again (the opposite way) when the clock changed itself. But then my son just decided to "remember" that his clock was wrong for a few weeks each year. Well, I think we'll change that before the next time change. We'll either get him a new clock or see if we can keep this one from automatically changing the hour.

[Update - Boy, was this post written poorly. It's still not very well written but at least it's a bit better after this update.]