A Tour Of The International Space Station

In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on Nov. 18, just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

It's 25 minutes long but doesn't seem like it.  Worth a go, I'd say.  Sure beats trying to come up with a real post when I just don't feel like it.


Reposted from Bits & Pieces and YouTube.

A Late Flower

In the corner between the house, porch, stairs and air conditioner, among the leaf litter and mulch, a day lily flower opened today.  All the others are gone except this one stem, and it even has a couple more buds on it that may open.  Here it is, late November, there have been several frosts and cold stretches.  But there it is.  Have a good upcoming holiday, everyone.

Highest Resolution Machu Picchu Picture

See the pic here.

The Last Nice Day?

Yesterday was beautiful for this time of year, sunny and in the mid-sixties.  Probably the last time we will see anything that good until Spring, and unfortunately that also meant that this was to be a workday.  So, after an inauspicious start to the day, I got to work outside, took a break to watch the Badger game, then was joined by my wife outside for even more work.  Gutters, leaves, mulch, house washing, stairs scrubbing, garden cleanup and more.  But now the yard looks good and ready for Winter, I just hope we are, too.
The garden has not been done yet in this pic, there will be more pictures and discussion of the garden and compost bin shortly over at my garden blog.  I'll try to do it soon, but I'm not really in a writing mood right now, it just takes too long to get it juuuust right.  OCD, y'know.






I'm already eyeing up a possible Spring project for next year, cleaning up along the side of the garage.  This past year I pretty well poisoned with Round-Up every weed that tried to grow over there.  My first thoughts are to remove and wash the rock that is there, even out the dirt, and put down a good landscape cloth.  Then I think we will get several stepping stones and use the same rock around them.  Then, hopefully, it will stay neat with little maintenance for years to come.

We have not decided what we are doing for some of the holidays yet, but no one should hold their breath.  I've always hated to travel and if you expect that to change then you're nuts.

PTFO

Blogs and Writers

I got started reading blogs long ago, shortly after we got the internet.  Over time I have read many blogs that either ran out of steam or I grew bored with and moved on, but there are some that I still read to this day or was referred to from one of those first ones I read.  Most of it started with the old blog 'Random Acts of Reality' by Brian Kellet, aka Tom Reynolds.  That blog is no longer, but I do have a link to his current page on the right.  From there I moved out to Diamond Geezer and Bill Sticker, all of these from across the pond, and looking at their blogrolls I picked up on Tears Before Pearls and others that are no longer on my radar.  Thus, most of what I read originated from the UK, and most just happened to have something to do with healthcare, since most started from an ambulance driver's blog.

What I have come to realize, however, is that many bloggers are actual writers.  At least the ones I read, and that may not be coincidence.  Writers should be able to put together a pretty well written post normally and that is what makes it enjoyable to read and keep coming back.  Even my newest blog on my reading list turns out to be a writer in Georgia, Mike Firesmith.

I'm no writer.  Oh, I write here, and I enjoy it, but I am no storyteller or wordsmith.  I know my limitations and am comfortable with them.  My place may not be much and it may not be very interesting to too many other people, but I like it.  Thank you to all who I read and have read in the past.  You may have inspired me to start this little page, but believe me, I know I am not a writer and I have no aspirations to be one.  But, please, continue what you do, I enjoy all of you!

These blogs and more listed in the right column.

Election Day

If one more person tells me to vote I'm going to pop a friggin blood vessel.  I am so sick of the flyers, phone calls, mailings and door knockers I want to scream (sound familiar?).  I should refuse to vote anymore until we have more realistic campaign periods, like a reasonable six weeks instead of two-plus god damn years.

I will be off to cast my ballot soon tonight.

If there are any higher powers then they better help whoever knocks on my door or calls my phone tonight.  I am almost enraged.  Here's what I don't get:

Why the hell isn't everybody?

Leaves and Candy

Today seems almost like a weekday and I'm playing hooky from work.  My wife was required to work today so she got up and left early, also there is no Badger game today, this is their bye week.  Nonetheless, it is Saturday and I had stuff to do.  I finally left for the grocery store late this morning, and when I got back it was time to tackle leaves.

Most of the leaves have fallen in the neighborhood, our tree in back is still holding on to a bunch for some reason.  Today is cool, dry and overcast, good leaf raking and mulching weather.  I started by raking all the leaves in front into one big pile that I then attacked with the mulcher.  Then I moved on to the back alternately using the rake, blower and mulcher.  By the time I was done I had barely enough leaf mulch for our flower beds, but I'll probably have to do it once more with fewer leaves in a couple weeks when I do the gutters.  I don't think I'll ever put leaves by the street again, in fact, I think I only put some out there the first year we were here.  It's so easy to mulch the leaves, like I did or with the mower exclusively like my neighbor Dave, and not have to put anything out for collection.  Of course, if I had 2 or 3 more trees I might feel differently.

On Wednesday night we had somewhere between 30 and 50 trick or treaters, not as many as we expected, but there were many cute costumes and even some parents were dressed up in nice costumes.  They came in several small groups and when it got fully dark there was nothing, not even teenage stragglers.  Now we have tons of leftover candy that I don't need and my wife doesn't want.  Problems, sweet problems, eh?

Now the rest of the day is mine.  Later on, my wife will be coming home from work and a couple hours later a friend is coming over for movies and pizza.  Happy Saturday to you!

Happy Halloween 2012

Another Wednesday post, I have the time this day of the week to do it.  My half day was pretty unplanned this week until I broke my headphones at work yesterday.  So I had to make a trip to a local store for a replacement set and a couple odds and ends.  Then, after an early lunch out, I had tentatively planned on doing some work in the yard, raking and mulching leaves.  Well, there are still leaves to fall and all the plants in the flowerbeds aren't even done yet, we still have day lilies blooming outside the back door, so I've made the rest of the day mine to be lazy and relax a bit.  There is still plenty of time to clean up the yard, perhaps another 6 weeks or so, by my reckoning.

About the time I left work kids were starting to come through.  In this department people are allowed to go home and get the kids to come and trick or treat at work.  I only saw a few by the time I left, but we'll have plenty more here at home tonight.  Kate is worried that we will run out of candy, but I think if we stick to only 2 pieces per kid we should be okay.  And if we run out, oh well, I want to go to bed early anyway.  Happy Halloween!

A Day, Part Two

Last week I obviously got a little frustrated with cats and a list of things to do.  The good news is that I felt much better after writing that post and managed to get most things listed done, and even a few things more.

Today my half day off got off to a bad start.  When I left work I noticed a ding in my windshield that was not there 4 hours earlier, I would have noticed - I couldn't have not noticed with the location.  I abandoned my errands and drove home like a grandma, hoping it would not spiderweb before I could get it fixed.  I've watched windshield cracks grow in front of me before, it's not a good feeling to watch it grow from a free repair (with insurance) to a few hundred dollar new windshield (at my cost).  The security guard at work has reviewed the tape and no one apparently approached my vehicle, so it was probably just a rock kicked up from somewhere.  Just my dumb luck.  I called around and found a place that should be able to fix it later this afternoon so at least I won't have to miss time at work getting it fixed.

So aside from that, there are a few things I can get done around here while I'm stuck at home.  I have already done the little bit of painting in the living room.  I'm hoping it matches better when dry or else I may have to get a darker shade of white.  (Why are there a million different kinds of white paint?)  I was able to mow to mulch leaves a few days ago on Saturday.  It should dry out a bit more later this afternoon so I can do the back yard again.  Almost all of the neighbor's Black Walnut leaves have fallen so I hope to mulch up what is on the lawn so I can use the rest of the leaves that fall as mulch in the flower beds.  Also, I am overdue (once again) for a garden blog update.  I just took some pics a bit ago, but I may wait for it to dry out so I can blow some of the leaves out of the garden before I post pics over there.

In the meantime, I may just have to put my feet up for a bit....  PTFO

I'm Having A Day

Today is Wednesday.  Wednesday is supposed to be my day.  I work 9 hour shifts every other weekday, Wednesdays I usually get off at ten in the morning.  My last task at work was a headache,  I had to make some sense out of a messed up batch of work.  When I got home the cats just would not leave me alone, still won't.  I tried to find a fix for our end table situation in the living room.  It does need upgrading($) eventually, but what we have now seemed to be working for the time being until my wife suddenly wanted them rearranged last night.  I'm also trying to make a cheesecake for us now but I can't find the right measuring spoons anywhere in the kitchen.  I finally found the beaters but I don't know where the hell the mixer is, and I've looked, and looked.  I wasn't planning on mowing because I thought it was going to rain, but it's not, so I should.  I'm hoping to go out to lunch, then I'm tasked with some scraping, spackling and eventually sanding and painting in the living room.

I'm not very happy at the moment.  Most will get done, but not all.  I will go out to lunch and then just take it from there.

Just Spilling My Brain

It has been some time since I have spilled my gray matter all over the page, so it is time to start typing again and see what comes out...

• As I sat to write this it occurred to me that I hadn't gotten back to childhood chum after several weeks, so I paused this to write him a reply.  It seems there is talk of a possible reunion of our small parochial school class.  If it comes to be, I think it would be pretty interesting to meet and get to know them now, as adults.  We'll see.
• The weather is turning cooler, leaves are falling, and this weekend we are getting the rain we missed all summer.  I have started some of the yard cleanup for Winter, but there should still be plenty of time, especially with another very mild Winter expected again.  Even though I am not a huge fan of Winter, I would trade a mild one for a more seasonable Spring and Summer next year.
• We had friends over a week ago Saturday for what we expect will be the last fire pit party of the year.  Temperatures were in the low 40's, but the fire made it much nicer to be outside.  Our friends, B&Z, brought over their home brew for trying, but again it was forgotten over the course of the evening.  Last time they came over they brought homemade apple crisp using the apples from their tree and again it was forgotten in the festivities.  I'm sorry, B&Z, the slights have not been intentional.
• I managed to throw out my back again on Thursday after work.  I missed work Friday, but I'm feeling better already.  I've certainly hurt it worse than this in the past, but I am no longer used to the muscle relaxers that I take so often, and without that tolerance they make me very tired.  So at least I got some good sleep!
• Family-wise, my sister has a dog, her kids have emails now (that I haven't used yet), and they are all settling into their new home a state away.  My brother I have not heard from in a while, but if he's like me then no news is good news.  My Mom still wants me to go a different neighboring state to see her new home.  I hate to travel and now we are more scattered than ever.  Sigh.
• A couple weeks ago when we returned home from a weekend away with the in-laws we had no cable, phone or internet.  It was fixed after a few hours, but after terrible customer service over 2 days and 3 long phone calls I gave them a piece of my mind and now I have the sports tier on cable for free for 3 months.  Speaking of, the NFL Red Zone Channel is on right now...

PTFO - and Go Packers tonight!

A Guided Tour Of The View From The ISS At Night

Reposted from Bits & Pieces.  Thanks, Jonco!