Saturday, June 26, 2010

Divided Highway

There are few perks to waking up at 5AM on a Saturday…when you'll be heading to work shortly, and just finished a 12 hour shift and countless lodge dealings. Add in a freak overnight thunderstorm delivering wind gusts, pounding rain and strobe-light-esque lightning the likes you only get in the country and you've got a recipe for a restless night. No matter, it's not everyday you catch the backside of a storm illuminated by a low-rising sun.

I wrote up a long-winded tome Monday evening but it never made the likes of the net…probably because we didn't have the net. Though now we do. Sort of. The iPad has arrived, the unlimited plan situation has been rectified and I'm enjoying loading up on the apps at speeds approaching 28.8. This is the Edge network and I can literally enjoy a book at my side while pages load. BUT, it's better than nothing, and the Pandora app more than makes up for it. The big time shortcomings, which I knew previously, is that the iPad is NOT a computer replacement. I'm very much OK with this (which is why I bought one) even if it is occasionally a real PITA.

If a person did nothing more than net surf, it might work, supposing that you visited a friend or Apple store for updates, and didn't care about losing purchased apps should a reset be necessary, and you had someway of getting your DVDs onto the thing, and bought the camera kit to load your pictures, and all your music fit into the RAM with your apps…and you didn't regularly use apps that required pointer precision any greater than the bluntness of your finger (like 3D modeling, CAD layout, graphics and photoshop, etc.) If you doubt me, I'll gladly show you Adobe Ideas, which takes a stab at it.


Mostly though, the iPad has no visibly organized, easily accessible, file system. There are apps that seek to rectify this, but it's like running MultiFinder on a Mac 128k. In a desktop world where documents have equal footing to applications, the iPad/iPhone structure essentially buries your files within applications that can only run at one time. This format works great on pocket sized devices where you might tackle straightforward tasks, like crafting an email or checking your stocks in a business app, but the concept doesn't scale to larger devices (like the iPad) that have the hardware power and capability to do things you wouldn't normally do on a tiny pocket screen where modifying and 'bringing together' multiple documents is very realistic, like making a powerpoint. It's like running At Ease where you can only launch apps, not docs, you have no HD privileges, and the floppy drive is unavailable for temp storage. Now how are you going to write an email with rich text, attachments, and in-line photos that require a quick cropping and size adjustment? Better free up your evening.

Baby steps, and it'll get better. In a lot of ways, it's the Newton file system.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

How Much Would you Pay for this Purple Rhodium Compound?

A fine extended weekend it was. Took full advantage of the Wright & Like 2010 tour in Racine, taking in the big hits, like Wingspread and the Johnson Wax Admin Bldg, and the smaller, but just as impactful, like Trilogy and the William Mason house. The weather for traveling Friday mid-day was superb and the diesel transported us economically along the interstate system; no backroads or limping transmissions this time.

Friday night, then, we attempted to dine at "Oh Dennis! Saloon and Charcoal Grill" but, arriving in pouring rain at 9:01PM, discovered they kill the grills at 9:00PM. We backtracked to another spot I had heard good things about. Infusino's Pizza. Ordered the recommended House Pan and have to admit, 1- simply the best pizza anywhere, 2- the medium was too much for us to handle, and 3- the price couldn't be beat. Some chicago style pizzas focus on mass to garner their Pan claim. Not this one, and it's all the better for it. Bad part of town? Ooooh Yeaaahhh. Ghettos seemed to be the hallmark of the Racine trip. We rustled up some local bottled brews and cold Labatt's and enjoyed at the hotel.

Saturday night after a day of touring, and hitting up ALL the tour destinations, we returned to "Oh Dennis!"'s for their speciality: ribs. Came darn close to the Hickory House for falling right off the bone and not being too wet nor dry. Cara's fries were done to perfection and encrusted with parmesan cheese crumbs. I still give the HH a tip of my hat due to their sweeter sauce; Cara begs to differ. Full house of course, with a half hour wait. The dank, busy atmosphere, heavy paneling and prompt servers and bartenders helped speed the clock. Alas, no good brews on tap.

The spoils of the trip include a good folder of shots, slides, motivation, and Schlitz 12 packs for $9.49. By end of day Sunday I had forgotten what the factory even looked like.

It can be both motivating and difficult to see such unique, atypical structures in person. The motivation is often self serving, such as "I've considered that", or "that's how I did it". And the difficult, when you shake your head how anything so gutsy, aggressive and perfectly executed can exceed your wildest dreams. When it comes to Wright, his engineering standards and grasp on the physical environment was at times….shaky. On the other hand, by seldom tanking those things into account they never even entered his mind as limitations when laying out a design. Doors that have to be caulked shut at the bottom to keep out the rain, leaky windows and sagging roofs tend to characterize a lot of his work. Then again, why shouldn't it?

On the motivation front, I was up Monday and off to work on a list of tasks scribbled out Sunday night. Things I had not been looking forward to, but needed to be done. Chiefly, moving furniture and clearing the area in front of the rec room tri-window. I moved the saw, stand and tools out to the front deck and started work on trimming that fixed window out. It required several cuts exceeding the capability of the saw but I managed. Late in the afternoon, more re-arranging, and mahog end caps to the soffit light in the bedroom. Backing up to the AM in the kitchen, installed rolling racks in the lower cupboards and got a handle on our "kitchen stuff" situation. Finally, I think the pieces are coming together. As the sun set and Cara started dinner, I pressed forward on shortening the wooden blinds in the north upstairs windows and adjusting cord lengths; trickiest part is the time consuming removal of warning labels on the wood in half a dozen languages. I'll do okay if I can managed two per night.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Sycophantic Homonyms

I may be getting closer to the shore despite the waves that occasionally toss me back to sea. I may have mentioned the thoughts and feelings that compelled me, nay, drove me, to seek something more all these months but have recently waned and been replaced with bewilderment and the thought that "they pay me for this?". This is both good and bad, obviously, because it means the day to day is kid-stuff, but also that I'm ultimately short-changing myself. The redemption is that success is difficult unless there's drive, so schedules and dates mean little without motivation; I'd short-change myself either way at the moment.

I think this has to do with the recent move. Before, the apt had been "settled" by living there. Often a mess, it was temporary and home and required little advance planning or work to be done. Meanwhile, the Lodge didn't necessarily need to be neat, orderly and 100% correct; it was a side project moving forward like other side projects. With the apartment out of the picture, the only thing running at 100% is the day job. That means everything else is ultimately chaos. I'm beginning to realize a lot of people must live their life this way.


But what a weekend! Slaved away the better part of the break but took the day off on Monday. Got off "early" on Friday (which meant 10 hours) and ran errands- dropping things off at the parents then to the lodge to putter and clean. Attempted to run the tractor and discovered I was out of fuel. Back into town for gas, extension cords and a case of oil I had at the parents. Ben came out later that eve and landed a hand on some projector trials out in the DI lot; I was beat as was he and he took off in short order. Managed a decent night's sleep.

Saturday was my big fix-up day. That's actually what I called it. The big fix-up day. I started with the tractor: first an oil change, then the filter..that turned into a fiasco. I'm thinking it had been a few years based on the remains of the metal cartridge I removed. Cara went off to run errands and I moved on to changing the oil in Blazer. Next was dragging two different lengths of aluminum ladders to each telegraph pole along the tracks. One, lightweight but only long enough to reach the lower crossarms, the other heavy as all sin, especially when being drug through waist-high weeds, avoiding holes and mounds from hidden, rotting ties. If you're looking for an exhilarating experience, try clinging to the top of a ladder perched in a thicket of sumac on un-even ground, leaning against a 100-year old creosote pole full of holes, with cross arms attached by luck and perseverance. I managed to get the old galvanized hardware to cinch-up after years of wind and storms had worked the nuts loose several inches(!). Obviously the crossarms were mostly swiss-cheese but they're no longer at risk of failing due to loose hardware.

Heat-stroke nearly set in on this little task, but the job is done. After a break I moved detritus from the side yard out to the fenceline, cursed at the mole and wired up a low-voltage control box in the pumphouse. Next, time to mow. I got the Farmall going and tackled mowing up at the road and started on the parcel south of the lodge. Cara took over the push mower and worked the west side. By twilight we had most of it done and settled down for burgers on the grill. A perfect evening, too. Cara's friends came out later that night for a tour but I was bushed.

Sunday, more of the same. A late breakfast also brought an unknown comedy- "The Last Time I Saw Archie", starring Robert Mitchum and Jack Webb. It was going to be a hot-one so I took the opportunity to make a no-bake Oreo dessert for later.


Cara ran the mower and we cleared the side yard entirely. I augured a hole for the clothesline post, filled it with peagravel then mixed up cement. With Cara's aid we plumbed the post and let it set up for the day. I moved on to raking down the hill-o-dirt in the septic area and then fought the dry ground, burying the horseshoe pit frames and filling with 70lb tube sand. I put together a patio table I had on hand and found a shaded niche for it under one of our few large trees, out near the pits.

Ben, Cam and Katherine showed up shortly after the work was done and we settled down for a mediocre game of bocce-ball followed up with a series of practice rounds of horseshoes. The weather was more fitting for conversation than a test of skill but nobody was interested in making a big night of it. Just as well, we were whooped. The next day was set for leisure. After organizing the upstairs, Cara got laundry going while I tackled ironing. I pushed the Kirby around while she scrubbed the bathroom. We packed cold chicken, the picnic blanket, the AM radio and some high life's and hit the road.

The Parkersburg recovery is nothing short of astounding. Eerie, actually, being that _everything_ is new. Two years ago the tornado came through and we had driven the same route 24 hours before. This time, we picked up snacks, lemonade and pasta salad at the new grocery store, Brother's Market. Excellent prices for a small town affair. The afternoon was terrific for a picnic at Pine Lake and 1330 came in crystal clear. After traipsing around the countryside we made it home around 7:30 with enough evening light to sit outside and take in the cleared yard and lazy sunset. I wish the sleep that night were as relaxing but a whole lot of bumps-in-the-night and an over-zealous bat made it a rough one.