All posts by warren

Ham it up

March 15, 2012TechnologyTechnologywarren

I was in grad school in computer science a bunch of years ago and one of the professors was into amateur radio (AKA Ham radio). I went into his office early one morning to talk with him about how to get started in the hobby. We were doing a bunch of electronics projects and some pretty cool stuff in his class so amateur radio seemed like a pretty natural step. He pretty much said I shouldn’t bother…get a cell phone and forget about it.

Well I showed him! Last weekend I went to a cram course for the technician class ham radio license and I passed! I am now a licensed ham operator! I do have a cell phone so it may seem pretty weird why I bothered getting into amateur radio too. I think the best answer is because I can. I also like the idea of being able to communicate with people all over apart from the cellular network. I also still like the challenge of building electronic circuits and learning new stuff like I did in Professor CellPhone’s class.

My father-in-law also wanted to become a licensed ham operator since he was a kid and he is also licensed now too! I figure we will probably talk to each other a lot at first as we try to learn how this whole process works. There really is a lot to amateur radio and apparently the FCC takes a lot of it very seriously…I’ll have to be careful not to have an audio Janet-Jackson-in-the-Super-Bowl moment on air!

There is a lot to learn so I am in search of an Elmer – a ham willing to help a newbie learn the ropes. Much like beekeeping, it seems that the number of people entering the hobbies are declining. I do not fully understand why but I hope to do my part to keep both hobbies middle-age friendly!

Finishing up Christmas

March 14, 2012ThoughtsThoughtswarren

We are pathetic.

Christmas was almost 3 months ago and we still have all of the ornaments from our tree sitting in a pile in our living room. We took them off of the tree so we could haul the tree out but never got a chance to actually put the ornaments into their boxes and then into the attic.

I remember as a kid that it seemed like time took so long. It was a wait until Christmas and it seemed like we enjoyed the build-up for months in school. We made paper chains and strung popcorn and sang carols and all sorts of Christmasy things. Now it seems like Thanksgiving was just yesterday and here it is almost Spring!

I read somewhere about a theory as to why that happens…when you are a kid, a single day is a much higher percentage of your life than when you are an adult. Days as an adult seem much shorter/faster when compared against all of the days that have already bee lived.

Grandpa with our magnolia tree — Grandpa

We are travelling to PA this weekend to celebrate my Grandpa’s 98th trip around the Sun. I suppose that time must really fly for him. He’s seen so many changes in his lifetime. I remember his talking about the first time he saw a car and the first time he saw a plane fly overhead. Neither were common where he lived when he was a kid. So much has happened since then.

I was talking with my kids just the other night about things. I got a shortwave radio and we were doing a bang-up job of tuning in several stations that were broadcasting static (I don’t know why so many stations broadcast static 😉 ). Abigail asked me what that noise was and it occurred to me that with digital tuners and memory buttons on our radios, she had never heard static. It started me to thinking about TV when I was a kid…we got 3 stations on good days and had to wait for the set to warm up. Channel changes were manual (and the job of the kids) and so was turning the antenna. Cell phones didn’t exist and neither did home computers. I just saw in the news that Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer be printing its volumes. These changes are no where near as drastic as those my Grandpa has seen but still, holy cow! When I think about it, my kids do live in a much different world than I did at their age.

Kids under the Christmas tree - a Christmas tradition

I guess when it comes down to it, our Christmas ornaments are just fine sitting on the armoire. Time doesn’t have to fly. It’s still Christmasy around our house, at least a little bit. Maybe I’ll have to ask my Grandpa how he feels about the ornaments on display…I bet he’ll just chuckle…”Well Christmas was just yesterday!”

My kids, the explorers

March 13, 2012Awesome, Family, Nature, ThoughtsFamily, Nature, Thoughtswarren

I grew up in the woods in Pennsylvania. I really only ever knew the woods as the nearest “city” of 3500 or so folks was 25 miles away. I never saw any real city until I was much older and to me, that very much felt like living dangerously. Cars moved so fast (except for when they didn’t) and then there were the people. People were louder and looked different and talked different. The city was very scary indeed but the woods were easy and safe.

Years later now, my kids are city kids. They see people and roads and city stuff as normal and safe. They like to mess around at our place in the country but they never really stray too far from where Emily and I were. I am always amazed at how they like to sit inside the shell of our cabin and read rather than being outside playing in the stream or rolling in the dirt.

So, the kids were at the place last weekend and, to my amazement, wanted to explore in the woods. “Sure” I said figuring they would take two steps into the tree line and come running back. A neighbor girl came over too and the three of them ventured off.

An hour passed very quickly, so when I looked up and they weren’t back, I was a bit worried. You see, city kids just don’t venture off into the woods for an hour. They were out of sight and hearing range so I didn’t know what they were up to. I waited and eventually they traipsed up the hill with flushed cheeks and big smiles…and mud.

It occurred to me that kids used to be gone all day and the parents had no idea where they were. Emily’s granddad talks about swimming cross the local river (with barge traffic and chemical plants, etc) before he was 10. Likewise, my grandpa hopped trains and rode around as a teenager. I can’t imagine allowing my kids to do that but I am absolutely thrilled that they struck out on their own and acted like kids in the woods should act.

There are many books and discussions on letting your kids experience a little danger. Isaac took me down to their “end-point” and I was surprised how far they had gotten and how wild the area was. There was a little danger for sure and I think they enjoyed the thrill. It worried me a little but they loved it and I couldn’t be happier to see their “country eyes” light up. The city may always be good with them, but I surely hope they come to understand and love the woods too!

Yoga Booty

March 12, 2012Cabin, LandCabin, Landwarren

Our winter was not a winter and I couldn’t be happier! Still, we had to take a break from working on the cabin as the rains and soccer interrupted our schedule for most of January. This weekend was free and absolutely beautiful so we got back to work! Both of the kids came up on Saturday and explored the woods a good bunch with the girl down the road. Emily and I discovered just how out of shape our ladder climbing legs had become. We also discovered just how pasty white our skin had become. I ended up getting another ridiculous basball cap ring from the sun this weekend…geez.

Anyhow, we got the soffit and fascia up on the back end of the house a few weeks ago. This weekend we got it up on both sides of the cabin so now there are no places for critters to get inside. Spring is apparently here and the birds will soon be looking for nesting spots and the open eaves would have been prime real estate. Crisis averted! The drag is, installing soffit goes up 12 inches at a time so getting both sides installed took a million trips up and down the ladder. I just cannot manage more than one piece at a time while trying to hold on to the ladder and the hammer. Maybe I will end up with a yoga booty when this is all done!

Finishing the ends/corners of the soffit and fascia can be done several different ways. I guess everyone has a preference without knowing it…the only thing is, when you see what you don’t like, it stands out like crazy…I think. Maybe I am crazy. Anyhow, we did it the right way so I am pretty pleased with the end result.

Soccer is about to start up again (we play fall, winter and spring leagues…gee whiz…too much soccer) so I am not sure what the coming weeks look like for progress but we will add the ledger boards for the deck (the board that hooks to the house) and then get siding up. Siding should go up fast since we can cover large areas in short time with the long pieces. We have already started to see the effects of UV on the weather guard. The orange plastic caps on the nails we used to hang the house wrap are faded to nearly white on the two sides that get the most sun (the picture right above is a good example…compare the white nail caps with the orange caps in the picture right below). Siding is UV resistant and is critical before summer gets here.

Soffit and fascia really cleaned up the look

I can tell by the look on your face that you are not nearly as excited as I am to see the soffit and fascia in place, but just you wait until I get my yoga booty going! Maybe I can work on a soffit and fascia work-out tape! Call me the next Richard Simmons!

See all of the progress on the cabin

Some things

March 7, 2012FamilyFamilywarren

Sometimes it seems like this thing with kids may drive me nuts. Abigail is taking flute lessons and during her practice sessions, one might think that the flute is made of acid and barbed wire. Within a few notes, she often goes into fits of frustration that cause the cats to run. And Isaac…sometimes homework is just too tough to turn in. Doing it isn’t a problem, but turning it in is over the line. What parent would expect a kid to both do homework and turn it in?!

Seph baby

So, frustration has been a little elevated at the house and some perspective was due. The other night, when tornadoes were ravaging various parts of the country, we too were under tornado warnings. The weather radar showed pretty ugly stuff headed our way so we headed to the basement. It was a strange time and luckily, we had no truly severe weather. It sort of makes the little storms about homework and flute lessons a little less important.

Flash

No need to get all serious or anything…in fact, here is a picture of Flash during our time in the basement. She was not impressed. We had all of the animals with us except for Madeline, our oldest cat. We sort of figured that she has had a good life (at age 16) and hanging out with the other critters might kill her outright. Isaac attended our time in the basement but he had a Flash-like look as well.

A blog-friend of mine, Maria, often posts pictures and titles it, “Moments like this”. As funny as it sounds, our tornado drill was a moment that was sort of special “like that”.

Well, the next day, we went out and were very thankful that we were unscathed. In fact, I saw these maple blooms that seemingly came out in the storm. Aren’t maple blooms cool? The bees are enjoying them as well so spring must surely be near! It was good for all of us to get realigned. Spring is near afterall…no time for worrying about silly stuff when there are maple blooms to be seen!

Bees…on the flower setting

March 1, 2012Bees, NatureBees, Honeybees, Naturewarren

A little while ago I posted about my discovery of the flower setting on my camera. I never knew I could take macro pictures without buying a lot of special equipment. I think I have always liked close-ups better than landscapes as a general rule and now I can take mediocre pictures in both formats!

Ok, so before you go on, you have to promise me you will click on these pics and get the close-up view…this thumbnail view doesn’t do them justice! Promise? Ok then…

Close-up of honeybees — Two bees are kissing...

So I was home at lunch the other day and the bees that remain at the house (4 hives…only until April or so when I move them to the country) were super active. I put some sugar water on them to feed them a little since there isn’t much blooming yet. Maples should bloom any time now but they aren’t out yet. Anyhow, sugar water always makes them very active (not in a bad way) and the bright sun made it even more so.

As I watched, I noticed that there was a ton of pollen coming in from somewhere. I saw bright yellows and greens and everything in between. Bees flying with pollen are often pretty funny to watch. They can be so packed down that they look like they are a wounded plane coming in after battle, just barely in the air but still making it.

I sat down in their flight path and used my flower setting and took a bunch of close-up pics. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

You’re welcome Landau

February 27, 2012Awesome, Family, Fun, WVAwesome, Family, Fun, WVwarren

I just thought I would take a chance to tell Landau Eugene Murphy Jr that he is welcome. You see, he had the privilege of singing with my daughter on Friday night. I suspect it is a night he will never forget.

For those of you who don’t know Landau, he is a West Virginian who recently won the tv show, “America’s Got Talent” (Seriously, click the link and watch the video!) Abigail sings with the Appalachian Children’s Chorus and they had their annual benefit concert on Friday night. This event was a pretty important one because all of the money from the event benefits both the ACC and the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, an organization that takes care of and helps place children no longer living with their biological parents.

The Clay Center in Charleston was pretty much packed on Friday night and we were not disappointed. Landau got to sing a few songs with the ACC which was so cool. Oh yeah, he sang a lot on his own too. He’s really a great performer. He sort of became famous for his dreadlocks and his perfect crooner voice. As Howie Mandel noted, what better way to bring back Frank Sinatra than with Landau’s look. I couldn’t agree more. I think he is equally or maybe more talented singing Motown though. He has a great deep voice that is a delight to hear.

More importantly though, he is a really sweet spirit. Before winning the show, he worked as a car washer in a coal town in WV. In his spare time, even then, he worked with the Children’s Home Society to share music with the kids in their care. This concert was a perfect opportunity for him to broaden that work and bring more attention to those children.

He is funny and uses physical humor like a pro. Maybe someday he will have the opportunity to sing with Abigail again. I am pretty sure she would be delighted!

Well here it is January already

February 23, 2012Family, Fun, ThoughtsFamily, Fun, Thoughtswarren

Where did December go? Wait…what? It’s the end of February? What happened to winter? Who cares?! I love a non-winter! But where did all of the time go? I have been lax in posting on here because it seems like we aren’t doing anything interesting…I guess that’s because we are so busy doing things!

Indoor soccer continues to rage so weekends are taken up with that. Work has been wild with no near hope of slowing down. I haven’t been to the place in the country for awhile…at least not to work on the house.

Ah yes, that brings me to something we did do. Isaac and I went out in the woods last weekend to do some ballistics testing…for science of course. We mainly wanted to see if gunpowder would still propel a bullet out the end of a gun. Folks, I am pleased to report that gun powder still works! In my last post, I promised that we would delve into the maths in this post.

Now I know that math freaks a lot of people out. As I do computer programming for a living, I guess I have grown accustomed to it so I often do not think of how other people think about the maths. Friends, I hope you will bear with this discussion on the topic. As part of our testing, we discovered that the gun powder worked 100% of the time. Many of the bullets obviously had anomalies though as not all of the bullets made it from the muzzle of the gun to the target as they should have. I cannot find any explanation other than bullet defects. I am going to use a technical term here but we hit the target “most” of the time. It’s hard to quantify “most” so lets’ call that the mystery of math.

Target shooting with a single action — This is an old single action revolver...lots of fun to shoot. We feel like quite the cowboys!

Anyhow, back to ciphering…we enjoyed 100% of our time shooting 228 bullets from 3 separate firearms. The maximum number of bullets we shot in a single volley was 19. The minimum was 19 also (it is so much fun emptying a clip all at once…why would you ever shoot less than the max?!)

Dear friends, it seems that the maths aren’t too hard when it comes to target practice. I am apparently suffering from being unable to count the months. I am not sure if there is a cure…besides maybe more target shooting…

Bee poop and skeeters

February 17, 2012Bees, NatureBees, Honeybees, Naturewarren

One of these things does not belong…well, really neither thing belongs but bee poop in the middle of February is not too uncommon. There are usually a few warmish days here and there where the bees can get out and flex their…guts. It has been a super mild winter for us so the bees have actually had a pretty regular schedule for keeping…regular. I guess it has been awhile though because on Wednesday when it was so sunny (and I was out of town for work), the bees covered my car in yellow poop.

Now I know you are wanting to ask so go ahead and ask – Warren, does bee poop stink? For science, of course, I decided to do the sniff test. I am (not so) pleased to report that I have an answer…bee poop does stink! Now I didn’t take too many samples, but we may have to let other labs verify my results. So, dear friends, you have just witnessed science in action!

In other science news, mosquitoes do not belong.

Also, mosquitoes do not belong outside in February, but just last week as I returned from the great out of doors and a dirty rotten mosquito followed me in the house. I know what she was after. Mosquitoes don’t care a lick for me but they absolutely love Emily. I really don’t mind mosquitoes themselves, but the was they make Emily whine and fuss is my problem. I killed that dang whine-making mosquito in a preemptive strike. I have no regrets. It had to be done.

Since we are doing science here, folks, I want to take an opportunity to draw the correlation between bee poop and skeeters. I checked around and 9 out of 10 living creatures agree – both bee poop and skeeters stink! There you have it! Science rules!

Stay tuned dear friends, in our next post, we will discuss the maths!

Apple of my eye

February 13, 2012Fun, TechnologyFun, Technologywarren

I got a camera quite awhile ago (the beginning of December) and have tinkered some with it but never bothered to read the manual. Having a full male chromosome set, that should surprise no one I suppose. I had a thing I had to do for work that required a few pictures which were turning out terribly and I was sure it was because of the settings I was using. The camera is supposedly decent (and it had better be for the price I paid) so I knew it was capable of taking ok pictures.

After I found the manual holding up the table leg in the basement craft area, I discovered that I was in fact using improper settings. I also discovered that I could take macro pictures. I also learned that many cameras have a macro setting (it’s the picture of the flower on the settings dial) that really takes nice close-up pictures. It may not be as nice as a true macro lens on a fancy camera but I was pretty happy with the discovery nonetheless!

These views don’t really do the pics justice…click on each of them for the larger view…I was sort of blown away!

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!