It ended not with a bang or a whimper, but with a flush..

That's a picture of the digger filling in our "Street Hole."  You can see the pile of dirt from our "Lawn Hole," which has been filled in, but the dirt has yet to settle.  We'll probably have some nice shots of the front yard mud zone this spring.

But we have function, so we're celebrating every flush, every shower, ever load of laundry.  It's nice to have normality back.  As for appreciating the things we have now that we have it back... nah.  Taking infrastructure for granted is fine.

al.. most.. there..

Big dig in the street today.  They were digging this morning when I left for work and Jill got some pictures I'll put up later.  Tonight we might be mostly functional.  But tomorrow they have to do this one thing with this deal and that other thing -- short scoop is no water Tuesday night.  Do Not Flush, Shower, Launder, Dishwash, etc.  

They've sleeved everything from the house to the main in PVC, and it needs to cure.  So it'll be another "drain in the yard" scenario, except this time it's "drain in the hole in the street - which empties into the main.  Which is ok, kinda.  

Tomorrow they'll come back and connect and glue everything and fill it all with a bladder (ironic), which is like a big baloon that will hold everything in place while it dries/cures.  Thus the no water flow.  At all.

But Wednesday morning they'll pull the plug and it'll be wide open.  The guy will run the camera down the length of the whole system and see for himself that it's wide open and ready for another hundred years.

We're still not holding our breath, but wondering just what else could go wrong?  What's left?!

Lily's Gymnastics

Final class today was something of a class and recital and graduation all rolled up into one!

Latest

Sewer Sitrep

They filled in the Big Hole yesterday, as the pipes from the internal system to the outside line and the outside line to the street are done and buttoned down.

Sadly, the connection to the Main is still nonfunctional, so they're bringing out the road BBQ today and will cook it for a few days.

Even sadder still, we're experiencing our annual January cold snap, and they can't work on the street if it's below zero.  So it's likely there is no work to be done this week.  But... apparently the city pays for the street to get repaired when you put big holes in it like we're going to.  Thanks, taxpayers!  (No, really, thanks!)

And when they filled in the hole the rain garden took a pretty big hit.  Hopefully we'll be able to restore it to its former glory as soon as the spring comes back around.

So now is Day 15 and it looks like we're going to be going into the three week territory.  This makes the baby Jesus cry.

That said, we're taking the odd shower here and there and things seem to be draining slowly.  Not going to test that until the work is done though.

Computers Suck

Our internet connection crapped out, too, so the photo albums won't be working until I get it sorted out.  But between work, my super awesome G1 Android phone, and the, er, local public wireless network we're moderately functional on that front.

Commuting

My "check engine" light is on in my car.  I should get that looked at, too.  but I don't drive it much these days due to the Bus To Work Walk Home plan - which is going quite well, actually!  And if you go to the very bottom of my blog you can see where I am.  That is, if my phone has a GPS signal.

Anyway, the walking is going great - even in this cold weather.  Actually, I like it better when it's bitter cold or snowy.   There is less likelyhood that there will be Bad Guys about.  That, and I love it when people say "You WHAT?"  I've got my walking gear all figured out and I'm nice and warm even in the coldest of weather.  I have yet to deal with a real stinging windchill, but feel confident I'll be ok.  I've got different layers and/or options for different temps.  In the coldest weather I have a mask (think disposable dust mask from Walgreens), winter hat, balaclava, hood on the jacket, scarf keeping it all nice and snug, and headphones (under the hood, over the balaclava) which actually act as earmuffs, as well.  All that's exposed to the outside air are my eyes sans glasses due to fogging.  I think I scare people.  :)

My Complaints Of The Morning Journey To Work Written In The Style Of Daniel Defoe, Author of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

* In the time of the early morning, that is to say the beginning of the sunswept moments in this Ante Meridian period, it was occasion for me to rise from my bed.  In the usual manner of awaking I took to the wondrous and true form of news gathering that I often frequent for the latest bleating of our world.  Nay, it was my portable cellular based telephone that allowed me to consume the word of the day regarding our meteorological state.  In reviewing the misery of our time in this season beyond the fall but before the spring I did see the number of the temperature preceded by a slight dash -- indicating a negative number, in this case below the lack of a temperature, or zero.  It was the total of nineteen degrees following the preceding negative indicator that alarmed me.  It is the custom of this land in which we habitate through the good will of our Lord that this period of the calendar be of a bitter cold and temperature that tests not only the stamina and attitude.  While the providence of the land within which we find our lives progressing has alarmed us in the past with it's ability to test even the strongest of men, it always comes as a surprise to the common man, that is, it matters not how many experiences one has it is always but a surprise.  [My phone said it was -19 when I woke up]

  Alas the power and might of the wind, that is, the air that blows our ships and sails across this world, the power of nature that one may no more hold sway over but must accept as an element of ones wicked life, surprised me.  It was in the addition of this wind that the temperature dove deeper than the deepest of oceans, nay, lower than the optimism one holds in this barren land and bitter cold time.  For with the complement of the wind it was apparent that the temperature would seem to every man no matter his station or labor in life, that the degrees were more than four and thirty below the marking of zero on His Lords temperature gauge, or thermometer.  [with a windchill of -34]

  True to the misery in which I find my current situation the passage of waters and wastes that we take for granted in our everyday life were as yet enslaved by the blockage and impassibility of our sewer pipe.  Though it was once a thing of ease and convenience, it lay no longer.  Yet we can still see it lay in the hole we dug for it like a grave in the front of our home.  That is, a large pit in our yard on the western, or front, of our hose.  It still lays open like a wound, mocking our very need to allow nature to pass through us.  We must lay our mercy on the kindness and sympathies of our neighbors and friends.  Which is to say the people who live next door to us on the northern and upper side.  I say upper for it is a combination of home and apartment in the style of the duplex and the friends who lay their lives on the upper floor are those friends which we are most want to call our own.  And it was in the time of the year that preceded this year by only a marker of one passing that they too had the misfortune and misery to see which we saw today. For they had the sadness and grief of a spent and failed sewer as well.  It was the good providence of the Lord that they should have hearts as open as possible in a human who has shared the same pain, and thusly I went forth to their domicile in the temperature of four and thirty below the gash of numbers we call degrees in a thermometer.  I showered.  [Sewer still broken, showered at neighbors]

  I shall not worry the reader with the simple details of my cleansing and the mundanities of my dressing, for it was the usual manner and way with which I passed dirt from my body and clothed my nakedness -- if I may say such a crude thing of a willing reader, for I am in a foul humor from my travels yet and not likely to be dressing my words more prettily than I dressed myself -- for this story is not about the preparing of a man for the day, nor is it a tale of woe for one to heap sympathies and weepings on me.  It is a story of a wasted collection of minutes and warmth and happiness, for it is the story of my conveyance to that place which I was wont to refer to as work.  It is the telling of the misery and unhappiness that lay upon me as I stepped so confidently from my doorstep.  [Yeah, mostly a wasted paragraph.]

  It was this thrill of the cold temperatures which I have described above and shall describe again that made me excited and energetic in the shrill morning outsides.  For it was cold enough for the ancestors of our ancestors to have spoken "It is cold, yes!"  Those ancestors who did not have running waters in their houses like streams or rivers of convenience.  Those generations who did not have warm water in which to thrust their hands and wash them of the daily dirt and labor.  Those families who did not have the ease of knowing the very current and very present temperature that I had by means of a device such as a telephone that even lets me speak with those a world far away, not unlike communicating with the deceased.  For when they went upon their doorstep it was not so much colder than their home - having to heat their hearth by manner of burning woods or coals rather than the furnace and radiators which keep the shining of our souls alight during these cold winter seasons.   [Didn't feel THAT cold]

  Upon relaying my bundled and warmed body and soul across the pile of dirt, past the hole in our land so ugly the new fallen snow could not make it pretty again, I made my way through the street to the station at which I would await a bus.  I say I walked in the area of street as the sidewalks which we would normally be accustomed to using were still burdened by the new fallen snow, rather, they were covered by a new layer of annoyance which compounded the collection of snows laying on the bare sidewalks.  For it is in this season quite usual for snow to fall on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis and not remain clear all the while.  This cold and bitter manna from the heavens does pile up and lay on our sidewalks like the cold lays on our lives.  And being in a lazy mood, being not so excited by the representation of my appearance as I was excited about the extreme in which we discovered our cold, I lay my shoes open like a spent banana peel or rind without tying them and without sealing my lower appendages from the ice and snow.  [Went to the bus stop]

  According to my daily custom, which has not wavered in as long as almost eight fortnights with the exceptions of holidays and other days of merry-making and ignoring those days that I held my person at my own home throughout the day for the benefit of assisting the plumber men who repaired and wrecked my bower so solidly as to result in the lack of the conveniences listed above, I employ passage on a bus in the morning and walk home by night.  All in all above the uncommon I would stand my body there and wait for the transport, or bus as they say in the city, which was number five and thirty over one hundred, for its passage runs to and fro amongst the more gentle folk of the city, passing over and thus providing save harbor from the more restless people of the lower classes and incomes.  And yet it does not charge a higher fare in the custom of the express bus, but reserves itself to stop only in a limited fashion, rather, makes its stoppings and goings a rare occurrence than those of other buses, including the eight and teen bus that makes it route down Nicollet avenue.  I waited there with other passengers for more than ten minutes.  In that sixth of an hour we stood in the dire cold wind in a manner as to turn to face away from the chill of the wind.  In this respect we all appeared as weather vanes, tilting this way and that to avoid our worst temperatures.  And yet the bus that we expected -- that we depended on -- did not arrive.  Nor did it not depart without us above and beyond it's own non-arrival.  Those weary soles with which I waited boarded a following bus which was the aforementioned eight and ten.  I, being of a more logical mind, assumed the typical bus would make its presence known shortly.  It was, sadly, not to be.  It did not arrive nor did it depart, having not arrived.  [The 135 didn't come]

  From this I should have learned and awaited another eight and ten, but my anger was rising and decided in my mind to have a short journey to Nicollet to gather the second route near my house and perhaps find a willing bus ready to take me to my employment.  [Went to Nicollet]

  There approached, after a time, another bus of limited stops, which does not normally engage that stop at which I was present.  But in that it was stopped thusly directly in front of my person and was awaiting traffic to clear since the automobiles were stopped upon the road in a manner of grids and locks, I knocked politely upon his door to hope for possible admittance.  Knowing that the temperature were one and twenty below zero, knowing that he was not moving, and knowing that the other buses of the city were beleaguered by the weather and other cars, yet he still did not yield his blackened heart to see my pity and allow me to join his band of passengers.  Indeed, I was to stand and not board while he stood and not gotten boarded.  I was thusly quite excited by the conversation that we did not have that I almost passed a solitary finger to him by means of gesture, but I was simply too heartbroken to do so.  As it finally left I saw the faces of the souls captured in his hold and they looked at me with such pity and sadness that I fear the drivers karmic fate may have been sealed by all those behind him witnessing his cold heartedness.  [535 blew me off]

  When Finally I was enjoined to a different bus it was the ten and eight bus which stops every few yards.  Though they beg to say they stop every block, or once every street crossing and then some even more, the slowness with which the bus moves and starts and stops makes it feel as though one has been travelling for a long distance, only to be beaten back down upon the shore of hopelessness by the realization that the whole of the bus has merely displaced it's own length but once or twice!  Indeed, this slothfulness was combined with the gluttony of a bus whose predecessors did not do as they were contracted to do, which resulted in a hold of a bus so packed with humanity and the stink of the common man that one would wonder if walking might not have been more comfortable, regardless of the weather.  In as much as the souls on the bus were in a heat of anger for their convenience or rather for their lack of adequate convenience, it become a swamp of heat and humidity inside that vessel.  As more poor passengers joined us the line of journeymen standing became longer and longer until finally the words of the driver and the passengers fought over the remaining few inches of floor.  The driver screamed for the people to move back and the people screamed that they were indeed at the end of their opportunity.  It was a sad sight to see and hear as we all made our way slowly to the city center.  [18 was packed]

  Meanwhile, a travelling girl made her confection audible.  [This girl was chewing her gum really loud and popping it every other chew.  I looked at her like maybe she was annoying me but I don't think it helped.  At least she didn't make the noise more often or louder.  How annoying it that, anyway?  Oh and she and he friend said "he's cute" about a guy who got on the bus but I don't know how they could see that as he was completely covered in winter gear except part of his face.  I suppose that's like how it is in the middle east, isn't it?]

  It is the end of my sad tale.  By and by the vessel emptied itself and I was deposited in the city center, not near my workplace but rather far and away from that place I was heading to.  I took the passages that have been built a full storey above the ground this way and that to finally enter my building, my employer, my job site.  It was here that I finally rested myself at my desk, now a full half of an hour of the day later than one should suppose his self into his work.  It was in this that I realized the providence of the public transportation can be efficient and cheap, or on other days costly in time, money, and spirit.  [Half hour late to work, buses suck sometimes.]

*(I'm listening to the audio book of Robinson Crusoe, and thought it might be fun to do a post in the style of writing that Defoe used.  Common or not at the time, it's a bit annoying.  Yeah, that makes me an idiot for not appreciating classic writing.  Sue me.  Fun though, wasn't it?)

No News is.. boring

Guy coming out today to set up the "grill" so we can thaw the street. They will then dig in the street and address that issue. Ideally, that'd be the last of it and we'd have water again, possibly as early as Wednesday.

But we've learned not to hold our breath. :)

Meanwhile, our Internet is crapping out at home, so fnirt.com won't be responding/working well. But this blog should be alive.

The Great Sewer Chase

It began on New Years Eve.  Early in the day we decided to have the Roto Rooter guy come out and give us a good cleansing, er, rooting.  Nothing major had happened, just a problem with slow drains.  Something usually cured by the removal of roots from our sewer output line to the street.  We'd done it ever year for years and skipped it last year and thought it would be a good idea to nip it in the bud right away.  Especially since we had guests coming..

Ok, let's back up a bit.  A hundred years?  When they built the house they typically (and in our case) connected the main house water output, which was a cast iron pipe (ours was 4" dia.), to a collection of two foot clay pipes connected to one another simply by fitted ends.  Not even glued.   In the old days some leakage into or out of the pipes was considered good.  It kept the system clean.  But those spaces allow roots to get in there and block the line.  Sometimes it's a big root that catches "matter" and causes a blockage.  In other cases, it's a root mass of many fine roots (image not our own or our system) which create something of a filter.  Water still gets through, but it's slow.  And "matter" is more easily stopped for blocking the line, as well.

Well, we had some sort of issue -- the plumber we had out on New Years eve showed up at 5:30pm.  A quick job of snaking the line clean turned into a bit more complicated job.  And then they had to send out for more line, as they'd gotten to the end of theirs.  They came back and kept up the grinding, but it just wasn't giving way.  We rang in the New Year with friends in our living room, but the poor guys were just packing up at that time.  They'd given it their all but had to come back the next day with a smaller blade.

The next day we were heading up to the cabin, but waited to see how the situation developer.  By midday we knew it was a lost cause.  The theory was that there was a blockage that the blades could not clear, but they had this jetting system...  Hydroblasting.

Monday they came back with the jetting system, which would blow massive amounts of water down the line in the hopes of forcing any blockages out of the line.  After a day, it was another lost cause.

At this point it's a collapsed pipe.  Got to be.  These guys have some cool waterproof cameras on wires with lights and all sorts of cool gadgets.  They can literally see what's going on in there.  Right up to the "blockage."  Tuesday night it's declared a pipe collapse and the digger will be in Wednesday to figure out where they're going to have to dig.

Wednesday they decide what's needed is to replace the section outside of the house that was a collapse (possibly 10 feet total) and the connection from the 4" cast iron pipe to the clay 6" pipe.  So we'll replace the broken stuff and the non-broken stuff will get sheathed (a PVC pipe shoved through it to act as a support/replacement).  This will also add a clean-out pipe that makes it so much easier to hydro blast or rotoroot the thing again -- the irony of course being the hopeful lack of a need for those things, since it'll be nice clean and smooth pipe.

This, of course, means we need to make a few changes in the basement.  So my computer desk and all of the technology I own, as well as my hobby/woodworking desk and all of my hobby stuff has to get moved so they can dig up the floor underneath.  If you know anything about me, you must know that my hobby stuff and my computer stuff are pretty .. voluminous?  And I have an evening to get it all moved.  (Upside, the rearranging of the basement once it's all over.)

So now it's Thursday and they're bringing in the big guns.  The digger: 

All of the appropriate people have been out to mark the location of the gas, electric, water, etc lines.  And now the deciding moment -- the dig:

We're actually the third house in a row on our block to do this.  The next door neighbors had to dig a hole last year and the next house down had to do it, also.  In January -- in the street.  They had to have a charcoal heater installed in the street to help thaw out the asphalt.  Took three days.  But we had a BBQ breakfast on it in that time.  For ours we really didn't want to have to deal with that.  But our guys said it wouldn't need thawing, that they could just dig through.

 

After much scraping (and banging of the business end of the shovel) and quite a bit of jackhammering they get through the 6 to 8 inches of permafrost like material and start bringing up dirt.  The ground beneath was actually warm enough that the dirt was steaming when it got piled up. 

By the time I ran out for some lunch (and a public restroom, yay!) they had a hole in the basement and were "looking for" the pipe in the front yard.  They were down deep enough that a guy could stand in the outside hole and still have a foot to go up before the ground level.  But they hadn't had to destroy any sidewalks.  The rain garden is hanging a bit precariously over the hole, but seems like it might survive eventually).
When I went out to pick up the kids from the bus stop (4:15pm, 6 or 7 hours after the dig started) they had located the pipe further down, but it had angled down a bit and done some odd twists and turns.  Surprisingly, this is not a deep hole.  The guy in charge has done a lot of work here in Minneapolis and said it wasn't uncommon to have to go this deep, and sometimes needed to go up to 28 feet down.  I have no idea how they do that!

 In the photo above you can see bits of pipe.  Those are the two foot sections of clay pipe.  When they were placed in the ground Charles Lindbergh was six years old.  And it would be another twenty years of flushes before he'd cross the Atlantic in his airplane.  Sixty years after that pipe was put in the ground Alvin "Creepy" Karpis the gangster finally left Alcatraz prison.  

The pipe in the above picture literally fell apart when they dropped it on that pile of sand.  It had been enduring toilet flushes, laundry loads, and baths and showers for over a hundred years.

Things moved well once they located the outside pipe, and before long we were thrilling to the fumes of PVC cement and the possibility of a working system by the end of the night.  They had pledged to work late to get it done.

The flood lights and flashlights were the first indication things weren't going well.  They had brought back the generator with the hydro blast jet and I was worried that there were more issues.  As they left it at the end of the night the system was looking great from the inside of the house out to the hole.  We even had drying cement in the basement.  Eli placed a hand print in it and I put his initials above, and in trying to keep Lily equal, Jill carried her down from bed to put Lily's hand in the cement.  We put her initials in and called it a night.  

Unfortunately, the pipes from the house lead to.. the hole.  From the hold to the city main there's an issue.  As it stands, it sounds like the pipe goes out to the street and then takes a 90 degree angle straight down, presumably to drop in to the main.  Unfortunately, they can't get the camera or snake to get past the turn, and it sounds like it's blocked or collapsed beyond that.  So they'll finish up the job they came to do by having it all inspected and buried and summed up.  But we'll still have a blocked line.  Except this time it's in the street.

For a day we have a drain pipe that leads to a big hole in the front yard.  I took a shower anyway.  Our own little third world country in our front yard accepting my shower water.

So we'll double the bill and have the next team from the company come out and cut the street and work out the problem there.  Unfortunately, working in the street means not just an inconvenience to the neighbors, but stricter code and OSHA requirements and a whole new level of hassle.  And we won't know until tomorrow if that means we get to set up a thawing rig in the street like the neighbors had to.  So we're looking at next week before we get a working sewer system.  We'll get those New Years dishes done one of these days...

Random other things:

• The pipe coming from the house apparently had a 60 degree turn in it that consisted of one pipe going straight and another pipe at 60 degrees - no joint.
• At some point in the front yard the pipe went down, but then came back up for a pointed arch.  Not a curve, but a "lets make a couple more sharp turns" kind of thing.
• The poor guys who have been working on this are heroes as far as we're concerned.
• The average temperature has been about 5 degrees F.
• Our neighbors rock the house.  They've let us use their facilities with no complaint -- mostly because they were in the exact same situation last year.  We can't thank them enough!
• And at least this happened at the END of the holiday season.  We had three separate groups of folks come through the house for various stays throughout the holidays, and it would have been a nightmare had we not had a working water system.
• I have a new understanding of the concept of basic household niceties.  The ability to output water is an amazing thing and sorely missed when it's gone.
• Insurance only covers stuff that gets wrecked.  So unless it backed up and messed up our carpet, or something like that, this is all just home maintenance costs.  

One thing I've learned though, is that there's always something else down the line.  And until we can send a tennis ball from our toilet to the city main line I'm not going to believe it's over.  But once it's done it's done and we won't have to worry about it.  We knew we were getting into these things when we bought a (now) 100 year old house, and we love it dearly.  But I do have to say I would have loved the convertible sports car that this project could have afforded us.  :)  So far.

Animal Crossing Northern Lights

Caught this image one night after the kids went to bed -- the Northern Lights!  They were all shimmery and pretty!  (Animal Crossing:  City Folk)

The great sewer project of 2009

I'm updating twitter (http://twitter.com/fnirt) with the progress of our sewer line replacement project. Nothing like a little warm dirt on a cold (2F) January day.

Clean/Dirty Flipper

One item, one picture for each side.  It's a "dishwasher flipper thing" that you place on the counter near your dishwasher.  When you empty the dishwasher you flip it to dirty to indicate the contents are (will be) dirty, and when you start the washer you flip it to clean.

This allows everyone to know if they can put their dishes in the washer, as opposed to just leaving them on the counter because "I didn't know if it was clean, and.."

I made six of these and gave them as Christmas presents.  The process involved cutting six thin sheets of dark and light woods (3 each) for each word, and then just swapping out the contents of the words.  The lines across the middle are from the original idea, which was to have each side be half and half up and down, if that makes sense.  But it didn't look good to me, so I went this way.

I learned a lot about doing this kind of thing as I went through the various steps to completion.  One of the most important things being "make a prototype!"

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

Third book cover diorama, this time of Mike Mulligan and his Steam hovel.  I wasn't satisfied with the figure on the right, but like the steam shovel.  You can't tell but the grass is multiple layers as well.  More printed text as a title covered in varnish.

Goodnight Moon

Another book cover diorama, this one for my niece.  Again difficult to do the finer details, and the title ended up being printed text secured with aqua-zar.  (Shellac)

Green Eggs and Ham

I don't know what to call these things -- a book cover diorama?  It's a multi layered scrollsaw pattern that gets painted to look like the cover of a book.  This one was for a nephew as it was one of his favorite books when he was younger.  

Quick and fun to plan and cut, but the painting was a bit of a chore.  Taught me I really need to figure out how to paint in fine detail.

Big pile o' cousins

The cousins are in town from Michigan, and the five kids have been getting along like gangbusters.  Lily sobbed all the way home from Grandma's because she wanted to hang with the cousins more.  Worth it, though, when they're all together.

Initials

These are some puzzles* I scrolled out for my nephews -- and I promise to myself that I shall never ever cut three quarter inch maple again.  It's just not worth it.  Too slow, too many blade breaks, too easy to warp the cut so the pieces don't fit right, too easy to burn the wood, etc.

Never again.

(I'm thinking about making a big dragon out of the remaining wood.  <facepalm>)

* Pic taken before sanding, applying finish, and removing cut guidelines etc.

Merry Christmas

Nothing says Christmas morning like being in your pajamas and a batman mask playing Legos with your sister who is wearing her new hair extensions.  This picture will obviously be showing up on prom night, the grooms dinner, and his children's first Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Blackpool - Boy with a thorn in his side

One of the many reasons I think David Tennant is super awesome:

(Blackpool, aka Viva Blackpool here in the U.S. was a .. musical-mystery mini series or something like that.  I hate musicals.  But I love whatever Blackpool was..)

Best bits start at about a minute in...

Sensory Defensiveness

I have a really aggravating case of Sensory Defensiveness when it comes to food smells and eating sounds.  It's really really really really really really really really annoying and I tend to have Sensory Overload but it's sometimes made worse when I'm in a more than typical depressive state.  This leads to Agitated Depression/Mixed State.  All the price I pay for having such a fun and unique brain.

Robert 1, Weather 0

Wow, am I glad I got these Yaktrax! They make walking on packed snow a snap, rather than like walking in sand on a beach march. I had my balaklava closed so tight you could barely see my eyes. But no issues with the cold at all! Awesome! As usual, sweating and over heating was the biggest challenge. This evenings temperature was eight below with a windchill of twenty five below.

Dear Santa

Lily is finally writing her letter to Santa.  Eli wrote a very eloquent letter last week.  I've been told I can't write one as Santa does not take lists from parents.  Lame.

The Most Beautiful Music In The World

When Lily was three or so I remember being home alone with her one day.  I think it might have been a day her preschool was closed, but it was a wonderful lazy weekday hanging around the house.  We were sitting in the breakfast nook finishing up breakfast or lunch and Lily began to sing.  It was a sweet little "three year old girl song" and she sang it so beautifully.  It was almost as if it was offhand, something she was just letting slip out of her unconsciously.  But it was french.  She sang it like her own language, and I have no idea what it meant.  But it was just the most beautiful thing I may ever hear in my life.

Later she said she would only sing it on days that were "our days" and it was just the two of us home alone.  When you put a little girl on the spot to sing she'll usually clam up, and this was no exception.  As time wore on we forgot it and now when I ask her about it she says she doesn't even remember the name of the song or what it was.  So I will never hear her sing it again.

---

My father never learned how to read sheet music, and he never took lessons.  He taught himself how to play the concertina after he came back from England (he was there with the Air Force during the Korean war - ask me some time about his unlikely loan sharking).  Somewhere in there he sat down at a piano and began picking out music.  

He could play folk tunes on the concertina and often he and my Aunt Jean and Uncle Jerry would sing at family happy hours up at the lake.  It mortified us, of course, as it's sooo embarrasing to have someone you know sing out loud.  (We didn't know what we were talking about, stupid kids.)  Sometimes he would just play on the concertina -- not just play music, but play like he was on a playground.  He would close his eyes and get a look on his face like he was somewhere else and just play and play and play.  It was rarely anything we recognized, and we would complain that it was "too loud" or that we were trying to watch TV and we couldn't hear Charlie's Angels because of the racket.  We never recorded his playing, but I remember it as a wonderful thundering collection of chords and passion.  

He also used to play the piano.  It was within 10 feet of our television, so if you wanted to watch tv after dinner you would have to put on the massive black headphones and plug them into the side of our little black and white tv.  Whenever we got a new tv Dad would solder in a headphone jack on the side just for this purpose.  You would huddle right next to the screen and crank the volume all the way up just to hear over the playing.

His piano playing was completely different.  He showed me how he did it once and maybe I'll try and learn it for good some day.  It involved chords and just hammering random tunes out, but they were seldom chaotic or ugly.  He had one particular tune he used almost like a baseline and then would noodle from there.  In the summer it might be lighter and brighter, in the winter cooler.  At Christmas time you could hear tunes float in and out of the music.  A little reminder of a carol here and there, but it would be fleeting.  He never stopped playing to adjust his tune or start over, he just kept going.  It was almost as if he was directing currents of music.  It was really beautiful.

When his mother died you could hear it getting darker.  It would boom and thunder and darker bass sounds would pass throughout the tune, casting a shadow over his usual music.  But that was a great exposure of his often reserved emotions.  I remember my sister and I being wide eyed and amazed at the grief of it.

Like the concertina, he would play with his eyes closed, head tilted slightly upward as if he was fumbling around in the dark with his hands trying to find a particular note or phrase.

When he was done playing either instrument it was like the sound was sucked out of the world.  The tv would be too loud, the house too quiet, and when you heard him quietly close the cover over the keys or flush the last of the air out of the bellows it was like you could breathe again and everything was as it was before.  But that something very large and important was missing.  It was some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.

I seem to remember once recording his piano playing on a Fisher Price kids tape recorder, set right on top of the piano.  It was just a loud noise and was taped over by some family game.   (We had a "radio station" - JMLB)  Other than that, we have no recording of his piano playing, and since he never read music, he never wrote it either.  So I will never hear him play again.

Snowmobiler killed in fall through Wisconsin lake ice

A grim reminder to stay off the ice until it's ready for you.

This is the lake our family cabin is on.  Lots of winter activity on the lake, but never this early.

The Great Christmas (anti) Miracle of 2001

Jill and Eli warm themselves by the.. stove

A friend was telling me about their recent furnace replacement story (the furnace guy actually pulled up in a Cadillac) when I was reminded of our own story.

The year was 2001.  We were in the midst of a national panic about 9/11 and nobody knew what was going to happen next.  So things seemed bleak from the beginning.  But we had our traditional Christmas gathering and it seemed like everything was normal again.  My wife's family was coming from up and down the state and we were hosting a full house of guests.  Having folks stay at your house can be stressful at times, but her family is pretty awesome, so everything goes well.  Christmas Eve was the usual rush of relatives arriving and coming in and out of the house with their packages and bags.  So many people in our house feels good.  But it also feels warm.  We usually turn the heat down once it gets hopping, but in 2001 we never noticed it getting warmer, so we didn't turn it down.

By the end of the evening we were all winding down and the house seemed a bit cool, but nothing too crazy.  We turned up the thermostat a bit and went to bed.

We woke to 50 degrees of chilly.  By the time I came downstairs I found everyone in the kitchen with the between-room doors closed, warming themselves by the stove.  We called the local UberPlumber.  We knew they would want a ton of money for a fix on Christmas Day, but we were ready for that.  Except they didn't get the message from the answering service.  And the next place didn't answer.  In fact, of all of the plumbers in the book that swore up and down that they were open at extravagant prices after hours and on holidays.. weren't.  Finally got an independant guy who said he'd be over in a bit.

Merry Christmas, extended family, and welcome to my home in which I am housing your beloved and her child -- oh sorry apparently I can't fulfill the only real requirement of shelter -- heating.  Bundle up and huddle around the stove, the guy will be here to fix the "thing that mystifies me" soon.  I'll just pace, it's fine.  It'll keep me warm.

He shows up not too long after and I lead him to the criminal in the basement.  He looks at it for about five seconds and then goes "Hmm." and pulls out a screwdriver.  Flipping it handle out he whacks the furnace once.  Not even that hard.  Fwooosh it goes on.  

"Happens all the time with these auto indexing damper malcontroller adjustment knurled knobs."  (my interpretation of his diagnosis)

He offered to disconnect the doo-hickey from the whatchamacallit so it wouldn't happen again as "you really don't even one of those these days" and to make me feel better for the service call.

The relatives were all leaving for additional stops on their holiday tours, so we bundled them up chilly and sent them into the cold.  By the time they were all gone the house was warming up again, and when we got home from my family gathering the house was toasty warm.

Most expensive screwdriver handle tap I've ever seen.

G1 macro pictures

Good news:  Wicked awesome macro capability.
Bad news:  ewwwww, dirty keyboard!

Youthful Exuberance

I think it's important for every parent to go through the public exhibition that is "your five year old just threw up in the middle of the Saint Clair Broiler at noon on a Sunday."

Oh Christmas Tree

This post not only celebrates our family decorating afternoon, but also serves as an example of the low light

(in)ability of my new Google G1 phone.  But I love it nonetheless!

Scooterville shifty clinic

A snowy afternoon spent at the local scooter shop learning the inner workings and repairs on our scoots..

A duck, the Pope, and Santa walk into a bar..

.. No, really! They did! We really don't know what it was about, but there was a miniature coffin involved, as well. And we remember it happening last year at about this time. Thanksgiving Turkey Funeral?

Bear Lake in Late Fall

Another beautiful weekend at the cabin. The lake hasn't frozen over yet, but there is enough ice that we were able to toss rocks on it to see if it would break. It didn't. And then we had a family discussion about ice safety, mostly for Jill. :)

The Bomb!

The remake of the original jmlb production has finally been released!

Animal Crossing: City Folk, my impressions

Some of my observations, thoughts, etc.  I think I'm trying to convince my friends to get online with this so we can visit each others cities... :)

• We did *not* get the wii speak version, waiting to see if it sucks and if we know anyone else with a speak.
  
• I played it forever on the DS (Wild World), and now on the Wii.  I have no gamecube experience, so some of this might be redundant to the GC, but I never knew it.  :)
  
• I did nooks tasks for me and Eli *and* Lily, so I'm tired of that treadmill, but now that it's over it's cool.
  
• Screen is SO MUCH BIGGER THAN DS.  
  
• It feels like the same old thing, but fresher.  I'm absolutely going to spend many many hours in the wii version.
  
• Subtle improvements here and there in the UI.  Just makes simple menu tasks cleaner.
  
• The city is just all the weekly visitors in one place, which is kinda handy.  Oh and having a hairstylist that's not just at nookingtons.
  
• I got a makeover to look like my Mi.  Works well.  It's a mask though, so you can't add more to it, like glasses on your Mi.  It just swaps out to the original character face.
  
• I've paid off my first mortgage already, but the kids will be stuck in their tiny cabins forever.  I make money faster than the kids, mostly because I don't just goof around, which I probably should do more often.
  
• We all live in our own places, which is really nice.  No more fighting about who changed the wallpaper, but as I said, the kids will lag behind in expansions which could frustrate them.
  
• It means they have to pay their own mortgage, which they don't care about yet.  When their house gets too small for them we'll see how they deal.
  
• The experience on the DS pays off in knowing how to make money, but I'm cool starting over on my bughunt and fishing and stuff.
  
• One player per wii console.  That's going to cause issues.  We have a 20 minute block rule in the house right now which will hopefully help.
  
• I don't know about visiting other towns when they're not there.  Which kinda might suck.
  
• I love how the kids find certain things fun.  Lily is a designer and Eli is a pitfall seed aficianado.
  
• It's gotten Lily reading a lot more, but she DID delete the town once on the DS, so not that well, I guess.  
  
• Fishing is a bit easier with the wiimote -- not in the "jerk to pull the line in" thing, you can use a button instead -- but in ability to aim your shots better and easier.
  
• Right and left on the directional cross swap out tools.  So you can go from net to shovel to fishing pole without doing the inventory screen.  Nice.  (And apparently "down" removes items from your hands.)
  
• When you sell stuff to Tom, you select the items in your inventory -- not moving them, just selecting them.  Much nicer.
  

If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, it's a new game for the Wii, but it previously came out on the Nintendo DS, and before that the Nintendo Game Cube.  It's very freeform and kid friendly, as there's no real death or killing or fighting.  Just fun!

Den 9, Hole 9

Our super fantastic mini golf hole survived the Pack meeting / golf game today. It was lots of fun!

Gadget Guy 2: The House of Locks

Teaser for Gadget Guy 2: The House of Locks

Threads

Threads was a BBC presentation in 1984.  It's split one hour before a nuclear war and one hour of aftermath.  It was done in a somewhat documentary-style, but it has a number of storylines following normal everyday folk.  It has one of the most scientifically accurate predictions of the aftermath including a nuclear winter.

I remember seeing it when it when it came out - they showed it on PBS with tons of warnings about graphic scenes.  It was scarier than "The Day After" because it seemed more real - less like a tv movie.  It also represented the news and information just as we would, via the newspapers and televisions.  When they stop working we lose our connection to the rest of the world, no matter where we live.   (Yeah, and the Internet, but that's probably more fragile than televisions for everyday people.)

But watching it again I was struck not only with the perspective of someone who now has a wife and children, but how things in the world really haven't changed much.  While we don't have a cold war anymore, we do have tensions in the middle east, a fragile infrastructure that would be a trauma to lose, etc.

It's truly horrifying.  Everyone should see it once.

R.I.P. fnirt and Miloton

I don't know how she got past the confirmations, and she doesn't either, but Lily appears to have deleted Miloton.  It was a town on my Animal Crossing Wild World game for the DS.

Ok, so you're wondering why I would be bummed about this?  Well, I've been playing that game for almost two years now, and it took a lot of hours to get my house, my money, all my furniture, etc.  I had a birthday cake from the townsfolk, and just today I found my first four leaf clover.  And did I mention the new version coming out for the Wii would allow you to bring your character over from your DS?  Yeah.

I guess I wouldn't be so upset, but Eli and Lily just got into it.  They finally found out how fun it was and really started to play a lot.  Eli loved writing letters and planting pitfall seeds to annoy the NPCs.  Lily would make shirt after shirt or plant flowers here and there forever.  And I could help them by giving them money or tools or advice.  And they could go to Nookington's instead of just a tiny little shop in the beginning, etc.  I had worked hard on it and I was finally seeing that pay off for the kids.  Lily still doesn't know what she did, but she's sad.  Eli's stopped sobbing (he was really putting in a lot of work already) and I'm slowly getting over it.

But I just don't know if I can plug away at working for Tom Nook and paying off those mortgages anymore.  And farming trees?  I'm not sure I can do that, either.  Maybe I should just buy a fishing pole and live the simple life of a fisherman...

We've all decided to create a new town and call it Craigville.  But maybe I need some time to grieve...

Coming Soon - Gadget Guy 2: The House of Locks

Today we filmed the first set of scenes for Gadget Guy 2:  The House of Locks and hopefully we'll finish shooting tonight after dinner.  Then comes the long and laborious (actually fun) process of editing and composing.  I think this one is going to be great though, and the addition of Gadget Guy's sidekick Gadget Girl is sure to add to the story!

Halloween 1998

Ahhh... memories..

The kids costumes

Eli was Han Solo (with some reasonably dyed hair) and Lily was Leia.  Lily decided at the last minute she didn't like the hair we designed for her, so she went with the hood up.  Looked great anyway.

They preferred the blasters I made them to the ones they made out of legos.  Good call:

As for their pumpkins:  (Eli's)

And (Lily's)

Hallowii-een

Well, we got our costumes done in time for the party down the block, even if a lot of the people there didn't know what a wii-mote was. But as always, there is a joy in being the obscure.

Scrolly Goodness

Someone asked recently if I'm posting these things realtime or am I back filling from my collection. And if it's realtime how on earth do I find the time to do all of this stuff?

Well, a lot of the posts are older items I'm just trying to document, but some of them are realtime. In this post I have a lot of scroll saw items that really don't take that long to do, it's just a matter of planning, executing, and following up. All three steps are difficult for me. :)
J and I were in the garage and while she was sorting something or other I picked up a tiny scrap of wood (final puzzle is about the size of a quarter) and knocked this out in a few minutes:  (yeah, I can be cheesy sometimes, but I always mean it!)

This next one is from a book on Fantasy and Legend Scroll Saw Puzzles, which I really like because of the specificity of subject but the variety of examples.   I've done quite a few of them already, just have to post them:

Finally, three images from a common theme:  Sea Life.  I used some patterns from a simple scroll saw pattern book, and just improvised a bit as well.  Final pieces are about two inches wide/tall.  The original patterns didn't have puzzle shapes cut in them, and I'm just now learning how to cut them so they stay together:

So no restrooms for customers..

.. Just the general public?

Yet another lighthouse

I'm a sucker for the nautical stitchings, apparently. This was fairly easy and a heck of a lot less work than the more detailed 'gold' Dimensions lighthouse with a similar look.

It's no Surly Coffee Bender..

.. But lots of fun anyway. It just didn't have same amount of that coffee taste. And you don't want to know how much it costs per bottle.

The quest continues.

My Worst Nightmare

"Hey dad, come look in the garage" is what the note said. When I opened the door and saw this.. vehicle.. I was surprised but guardedly so. I knew Jill wouldn't just buy a car without me but WTF?

Turned out ok as it's a rental from the dealer while they sort out a troubled seat belt in our car.

Whew!

DMC Ship and flags

Another pattern from the DMC brochure I got with set of floss. It had been a while since I found a pattern I really wanted to do for myself, and this was a fairly simple and quick one. I chose a cream 18 count aida in order to highlight the detail as well as give it a weathered look.

Adriano's fun commute

Nohohon At Night

So I got this toy a year or two ago.  It's a little nodding happy face guy -- called "Nohohon Zoku."  It's solar powered and just nods back and forth.  I've always envisioned it after all the humans die just nodding away.  The post apocalyptic happy face.

But there was some office discussion about whether or not it would keep going -- and it occurred to us that we didn't know if it kept going after dark on the ambient light we get downtown.  So I set a webcam on it and this is the result:

Taylor's Falls

Another beautiful fall afternoon picnicing in the autumn colors.