A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
I had hoped to have the clubhouse finished by Christmas. We are so close! I have a new obstacle; One of the dogs has taken to chewing the extension cords. I lost a 100′ extension cord that had served me well for 20 years. And yesterday, I lost a 50′ extension cord that I had used once. Looks like I’m going to a totally 18v rechargeable workshop.
We are now officially done with step 16 of 27. Count Amy’s wardrobe changes.
And a brief night time attempt that failed to accomplish anything.
I know some of you get twitches in your toes with the weather is changing, or migraines when the storm is approaching. The full moon sets me off. Perhaps there’s a little werewolf in me. As Luna grows large, I am struck with insomnia, passionate energy, and animalism. Tonight promises to be quite sleepless.
This lunar eclipse falls on the date of the northern winter solstice. How rare is that? Total lunar eclipses in northern winter are fairly common. There have been three of them in the past ten years alone. A lunar eclipse smack-dab on the date of the solstice, however, is unusual. Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years. "Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21," says Chester. "Fortunately we won’t have to wait 372 years for the next one…that will be on 2094 DEC 21." [Source, NASA Science, Solstice Lunar Eclipse]
Blessed be!
This morning I had the occasion to explain life to my 20 year old:
You eat, sleep, shit, shower, contribute to society, and play. Live a simple, honest life. Basically, follow the 12 points of the Scout Law and you’ll be happy.
Gingerbreading-
And now for 9 minutes of my posterior…with some guest appearances by Amy, Evan, Tommy, our neighbor friend and the dogs.
Last night, my wife concluded that I’m trying to rebuild our house one square foot at a time.
I suppose having Life as a House and The Money Pit on my list of favorite movies may have subconsciously influenced me.
Evan, 5 years old on the drive to pre-school: "beotch beotch beotch!"
Me, failing to contain shock and anger: "Who taught you that?!"
Evan: "No one."
Me, hypocrite, liar: "I get mad at lies not mistakes."
Evan, confessing and ratting out his friend: *he says his friend’s name. It starts with A but I won’t rat him out here*
Me: *relieved that he didn’t say my name, his mother’s name or any of his older siblings. I really expected it to be from Noah.*
Sometimes getting the children to school on time is not as important as those extra 4.5 minutes under the warm covers.
Fighting a brain cloud today.
"Do as I say, not as I do."
insomnia – It’s worth staying up for.
The next step toward getting the roof shingled on Amy’s club house is finishing the gingerbreading and drip rails. Gingerbreading has begun!
Years ago I decided to quit using Alkaline batteries and instead move to rechargeable. Of course, old nickle cadium (NiCd) batteries were horrible. They were prone to "memory" problems where a the recharging/discharging cycle could result in a loss of capacity. NiCDs also discharged quickly and just could not power some higher demand devices like today’s digital cameras.
I initially bought name brand but the Energizer NiMH were weak. Their D cell rechargeable batteries turned out to be spacers to fill the size of a D but with only a AA inside which I supposed doesn’t really matter except that "D cells are typically used in high current drain applications" [Source, Wikipedia, D battery] Duracell rechargeable batteries were equally disappointing. Now for years I chose Rayovac alkaline AA batteries for most applications and Energizer Max AAs for digital cameras. One day in Target, hidden toward the bottom of the batteries and off to the side, I found a package of generic looking rechargeable batteries labeled "Hybrid." I pleasantly discovered this was a Rayovac product and it rocked! In addition to being a great battery, Rayovac didn’t require a Rayovac charger.
Eventually Rayovac switched to a green label and then a blue label. It felt like the redheaded stepchild of rechargeable batteries but I loved the performance. Over time a cell or two died but I didn’t have the knowledge for using my multimeter to determine a good cell from bad. We just bought more batteries and soon our house had enough rechargeable batteries that we rarely use alkaline batteries anymore. Eventually I discovered the Ansmann 5207123 Energy 16 Charger
So today I was reading a review of the new hotness, nickle zinc (NiZn) batteries. Despite the good words about PowerGenix’s Nickel Zinc AA
In the review, I discovered that Rayovac has discontinued their Hybrid AA/AAAs! Turns out, Hybrid is from 2007; it was rebranded to a blue wrapper in 2009 and is now (2010) called Rayovac Platinum Pre-Charged
We now use the Rayovac batteries in all the kids toys and our various electronic devices. For Cathy’s digital camera, we use Sanyo Eneloop
This year we are striving to do most of our shopping online. I know it goes against "buy local" but if buy local means fighting crowds in a big chain store that isn’t locally owned then I’d rather shop in my pajamas through Amazon. I participate in Amazon’s affiliate program. When I refer people to Amazon, I get rewarded by Amazon. It does not raise the price of the person referred nor cost them in any way. So, if you are inclined to do your shopping online and do not participate in the affiliate program yourself, please consider getting to Amazon by using the link http://amazon.djuggler.net/ which simply goes to http://www.amazon.com/?linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393193&tag=sidesigns-20. Much obliged!
Just because you’re an asshole doesn’t mean you have to act like an asshole.
