Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Please Explain

I love Jacob's sense of humor, it's not that far off from mine. We find the same things funny and gleefully point them out to each other. Case in point, the can Jacob noticed on the shelf at Walmart.

Neither of us could get over the fact that the label boldly proclaims "Texas Brand" with smaller letters stating "made in Wisconsin." So many questions, is it Texan or is it Wisconsin. Clearly not from the lone star state, since it it is made in Wisconsin and yet Texas Brand, Thus is it just Texas style? Also why the big deal that it is made in Wisconsin.

We will probably never learn the reasoning behind this label, but it did amuse us and was worthy of a picture.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Well That was Annoying

Last month my computer died and I went on hiatus until its replacement arrived and I got everything squared away on the new system. I had just gotten back in the swing of posting when Friday the modem called it quits as I was writing a very involved email.

Nuts.

I did the usual power cycling and it refused to work. One long phone call later I got Comcast's blessing to swap out the old for a new one. All I wanted was a functional modem. the tech support guy wanted to get me a discount on my service and determined we would be eligible for the latest and greatest of their modems. It is an all in one unit that functions as a modem, digital phone jack, a wireless router, and could poop rainbows. Honestly I tuned out halfway through. All I cared about was the reduction in my internet bill. Then he started to schedule me for and installation appointment for either Monday or Tuesday. Whoa, that was too long to be without internet service and I can do this myself.

Why can't I just pick it up at the service center that is less than 20 minutes away?

I got some song in dance that it is only on the service trucks and can't be just "picked up at the service center." I could, however, have it shipped to my house directly. Which, of course, would be next Friday. Ouch. We settled on my getting the basic that day and turning it back in when the new one shows up. Amusingly I was offered the new fancy dancey one at the service center. Score one for diy.

Sadly my victory was short lived, the new one didn't work either. So another call to Comcast and this time with the tentative diagnoses of bad wiring. and I could be scheduled in for Tuesday for a service call. Ugh, we are now even further back to getting the internet back. Fortunately the whole thing resolved itself when the magical modem suddenly powered up. That said, I'm still waiting on the modem thing to start pooping rainbows.

Thursday, August 08, 2013

We Got the Power

After years of sitting on the fence, my in-laws pushed us off  and got us a generator.

We don't lose power very often and it generally comes back quickly. It takes a fairly major storm, ie a hurricane, to knock out the power for any significant length of time. And yet it is a concern when at any one time you have well over a $1000 worth of medications that must be kept refrigerated. Meryl is always happy to take us in and allow us to abuse her refrigerator, but it's a royal pain in the neck going back and forth.

So now we are the proud owners of a 4,400 watt generator that runs on either liquid propane or gas. I guess this means we won't be losing power for quite some time.

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Artist of the Week: Sand Huts

Soccer Max by Teckelcar
Soccer Max, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
Max is this week's artist and he is pictured here with the coaches from last week's British Challenger soccer camp. Originally Jacob was to be the one attending the camp, but the Thursday beforehand he did something wonky with his foot and was unable to attend. As we were trying to figure out to do Max mentioned that he wished he was going to te same camp.We didn't sign him up this year because his travel team has a team camp scheduled the following week. Since Max and Jacob are in the same age group we substituted Max for his brother.

The coaches were fine with the idea, but suggested that maybe on the following day Max should come back and be with the earlier, younger group. I told them to just let him give it a try, Max may be small, but he is a good player. When I came back three hours later to pick up Max the coaches agreed that Max was in the right group, he would be running rings around the younger kids.

Sand huts by Teckelcar
Sand huts, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
Which brings me to Max's sand constructions, he is a good little builder that likes to make rings around his buildings. We had gone to visit friends in Syracuse, NY and went to a couple of lakes in the area. Max always views a beach as an opportunity to build. He made a series of small huts or caves with well defined moat surrounding them. Off to the upper right side you can see a field where the crops are grown. He then went on to make bigger and better structures which I did not photograph. Silly me, I wanted to swim and socialize, not stand around and take pictures. But really he made quite a complex, which was very challenging considering how crowded the beach was at the time.

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Oh Deer

Deer by Teckelcar
Deer, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
When I say we have a lot of deer in the neighborhood, this is what I'm talking about.

Normally we have just a couple of does and several fawns (one doe always seems to have twins, it must be something in the water). Very rarely will there be a buck. This year, however, we have seen a buck fairly often with our resident does. This small family grouping is part of a larger herd that I was able to photograph last week.

The photo quality is terrible, but in my defense it was twilight and the deer were not going to stay still and let me get close enough for the flash to work.  That said, you can plainly see the buck, he is on the right side of the herd. Also this may look like a lot of deer, but quite a few had left by the time I got outside with the camera. This is just a small portion of the deer popution in my neighborhood.

So yeah, gardening is kind of pointless with this amount of deer in the area.

Monday, August 05, 2013

Sign Language

I'm back with a new computer. It took a week for the new system to arrive and another to transfer my pictures and load programs. I must say it's nice having a system from this decade. I didn't lose anything, most of my pictures wee backed up andmy old system gave its final gasp after I was done with it.

So anyhoodle, here is a sweet short film that was the Grand Prize Winner Virgin Media Shorts 2010.