Therapeutic

I had meant to update the blog much earlier this month.  It was going to be something along the lines of a retrospective at or around my birthday.  Well that came and went and I find myself here wondering what could possibly be interesting enough to string a few sentences together. 
As for my birthday, it was nice.  That evening I went with Doug on a scout camp-out that has become a sort of tradition in which we launch pumpkins with various mechanical devices.  None of those participating made many changes to their entries other than simple bulking up in some key areas and such.  My floating arm trebuchet had the best launches and we got some smaller pumpkins lofted about 60 - 70 yards.  The next night we had a combined party with some friends, one family of which has a one year old baby with the same birthday as me.  My much appreciated birthday gift was a large cutting board which is great for mu growing interest in developing good cooking skills. 
Something else I had been pondering writing about was a phase of my life that in retrospect has had more of an affect on me than I had given credit for.  After my parents second divorce, my mother was convinced by school personnel that I would benefit from therapeutic counseling sessions.  Apparently this was based on some writing assignments I had completed which seemed overly depressed or focused on the current status of my home environment.  I honestly do not recall these at all but it did seem to concern mom enough to go ahead with the counseling.  This may not seem all that out of character so I have to explain that being from a rural background in the 80s, this seemed to me at least to be a really big deal.  In looking back on it I think I may have been more emotionally traumatized by the thought of being considered 'abnormal' or 'crazy' than by the divorce itself.  I immediately did not trust the counselor and endeavored to prove that I didn't need to be there.  I don't even remember her name but I do recall carefully considering my every word in those sessions.  I don't know if I was especially difficult compared to others but I wish I could apologize to the counselor for who I was then.  That said, I do recall the one thing that stuck with me from those otherwise fruitless meetings.  She would invariably start our conversations each time with the question, "How do you feel today?"  My response would always be, "Normal," to which she would follow-up up with, "What is normal?"  This happened every time.  At first I had to pick and choose how to respond to that follow-up but very soon came to expect the question of what is normal and would be prepared for it.  She was probably never aware of the impact that repetitive set of questions would have on me.  Even after I no longer went to see her, I would find myself wondering what was normal and found that this would lead me to question why something was normal and to realize that normal could be defined very differently for different people and finally, that I could define normal for myself. 

Garden Update

We pulled out first harvest this week and as you can see the carrots are pretty impressive.

The Garden of Eating

This is my second year for a vegetable garden and I am overall pleased with the progress so far from our first attempt last year. Last year we planted what we called a ‘Salsa Garden’ which consisted of Roma tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers and Cilantro. These were planted in a semi-traditional row pattern along a fence line that got a lot of sun. We had a lot of tomatoes and hot peppers come out but the sweet peppers, cilantro and some onions we attempted in some patio containers didn’t amount to much.

This year I built four shallow raised beds of the square foot garden style. They are cheap treated plywood 4’ X 4’ with 6 inches of depth. I filled these with the free compost I got from the City organic waste department and set down a grid pattern with twine to make 1’ squares. Having had the winter to consider it at length, I had a more complex plan for veggies and planting schedule that we kept to fairly closely. I also put in potatoes in some spare bins and a sweet potato in the ground that had sprouted on its own, 10 blueberry seedlings along the back fence line and also two apple and a peach tree. Further discussions with my wife had me plant some sugar snap peas later than I typically would have and also allowing some garden volunteers of tomatoes and cilantro to grow where they were as the ground was not planned for other things.

In the actual beds I again had the tomatoes, peppers and onions but added beets, carrots, chard, garlic, basil, eggplant and acorn squash. I also allocated a square in each bed to marigolds because I had heard they served as a natural insect repellant. Significant April and May showers followed by some real heat in June have turned out some really crowded beds. The squash in the beds were threatening to take over so I had to put in some trellising. I also used trellising for the tomatoes which were overshadowing the peppers. I also pruned about half of the tomatoes to see if that had a good or bad affect. The chard and carrots are much taller than I anticipated so I am wondering if having it all so close together will cause more problems than it solves.

I am pleased though that some early damage from rabbits did not seem to have a lasting impact. The worst of it was that they were attacking the apple trees which looked like someone had hacked them with scissors. The nibbling out of the garden corners was annoying but doesn’t seem to have had too much of an effect on the final outcome. I ended up putting netting over tomato cages to protect the apple trees (for some reason they aren’t interested in the peach). This seems to have worked but I am disappointed it took me so long to figure it out. I think next year I will build much taller boxes (around 2’ tall) for the veggies that will keep them further away from the rabbits and also not require so much kneeling down.

Attached below are some pictures of the garden. See if you can identify the plants.

In Memoriam

This is a rare thing to post so soon after my last but I find that I am compelled by recent events. My first 'real' boss recently passed on and I am left in a nostalgic mood. I had other employment prior to meeting Ed Gresh in the early 90s all of which where your typical fair of High School jobs including shop boy (I believe that was the official title) at a NAPA store and flipping burgers. In each I obviously had supervisor(s) but I always think of Ed as my first boss. I had recently graduated High School and was naively looking for a job in Gainesville closer to the University I would eventually attend. I was lucky really, a friend of a friend had heard that Ed was looking for people and that I was looking for work and arranged for us to meet. Having never interviewed before I had no clue what to expect or prepare for but had a short pleasant conversation with Ed about what he needed done and if I was willing to do it. It seemed like a good fit and so I went for it and never since regretted it.

Along the way I met probably the most diverse cast of characters imaginable. That group became a family in a very real way. To this day we remain brothers both unique as individuals and linked by common bonds. Ed was our patriarch and we even had a crazy weird uncle Jim.

Ed introduced us to in-office politics but at the same time shielded us from much of it. Through my association with Ed I was able to meet the players in Tigert Hall. Even if the University President couldn't recall my name immediately , he knew I was one of 'Ed's guys'. I will not forget going to the home of the Department head of Architecture in the Duck Pond neighborhood for the departing Provost's son's wedding reception. I also have to wonder if Prof. Auxter ever figured out we had went ahead and wired his office anyway while he was out.

We had access to some pretty interesting areas of campus and in many cases foreknowledge of changes coming down the pipe. UF became more than the school I attended but a sort of second home that I still feel an odd sort of ownership in because it was 'our' campus.

Car 285 may be long gone to the scrap heap but back in the day it was the chariot of the gods as we descended on whatever unsuspecting department with power and authority to bring them the gift of being connected to the campus network. We parked wherever we liked no matter if it was paved, marked or was simply a sidewalk. It was as if fear went before us and with good reason with Jim at the helm of our very own Millennium Falcon. Somehow the motor pool kept that sled going long after the original engineers would have pronounced her dead and every dent was a badge of honor. That didn't stop us from trying to pull out some of those dents but we had more success on the other random cars in the parking garage in our incarnation as the mysterious marauding dent pullers.

Ed always wished the best for us. When I left on my mission to the Philippines he wished me luck and told me stories of his time there in the Air Force. When I came back and I had a lunch with all the guys, he asked when I wanted to come back to work. I told him next week and that was it. We picked right back up as if there was never a question or doubt that we would.

I learned what a dumb terminal was from Ed and by insisting on lugging 3278s by myself I earned the nickname 'Moose' from him. The name only came into use when we were moving those boat anchors. We were so excited to move our collection of old iron terminals from the practically haunted Flint to our batcave in Norman hall. It was here that Ed could now hold court.

We had a fridge and space to hang out and call our own. We kept soda in the fridge communally that Sean would crank the cap on so tight we needed pliers to get them off. Ed once tried to shoot a cap off an empty 2 liter bottle at me by jumping on it. I think he got the worst of it when the bottle rolled and he ended up on his back with his feet in the air. As our family grew and the cast of characters moved and changed, it was back to Norman hall basement we would return to see and be seen by those who remained. I wonder if the concrete walk in front of the basement entrance still bears our inscription.

Our significant others knew the secret knocks as well and on more than one occasion my girlfriend/fiance/wife Cheryl would go there either looking for me or some of the other guys when she needed a hand. The two best men for my wedding and favorite friends were in that crew. Sheard, Sean and I were in two weddings that year, we just shifted spots. It was from Ed that I got my most memorable and practical newlywed advice. It was from Norman hall after a day of work that Cheryl was picking me up from that she confirmed her pregnancy with our oldest.

I know that we will never forget Ed or the time that we shared. I am grateful to have known him. Perhaps now that this is written, I can get back to real work.

Short and Un-sweetened

It's been a long time and while i still don't have big news or loads to talk about I have a few short comments.

Royal Wedding - I found it entertaining that so many people seemed to think that their comments online about how irrelevant the wedding was to them was some how more relevant than the wedding itself. I think sometimes the current generations have lost the ability to simply be happy for two lucky people. We seem to say if it didn't happen to me then the system is unfair or I don't care. The real green movement is to be green with envy.

Osama Bin Laden - It took a long to come about but in the end we did what we essentially said we would do. Like any parent you have to follow through on your threats or you have no standing. I have to admit that I am somewhat relieved that this will not be dragged out in a surreal trial and the burial at sea denies supporters of a martyrs shrine although the compound in Pakistan may become such anyway. Were we (the U.S. collectively) right to do it? To quote the great warrior Ash, "Good, Bad, I'm the guy with the gun."

Glee - Jumped the shark and is such a dead show, they just haven't gotten the memo yet. The show is formulaic in the extreme..."tonight on glee it's (insert band/singer) night, watch as character X and Y have an arbitrary conflict leading up to a sing-off with freakishly expensive use it once and forget it costumes and stage props because apparently Lima, OH has the wealthiest school district in the nation"... It's kind of like 90210 got supposedly dropped in the middle of rural Ohio.

Of course the same can be said for American Idol and the D.O.A. 'The Voice' but we like to really wail on our dead horses. I believe the simple truth is that people don't watch the show to see people win, they watch to see who loses. The next days headlines proclaim the weekly loser in bold letters while the 'winners' are labeled as safe ... for now. Don Henley said it in Dirty Laundry that 'people love it when you lose.'

So, I have a challenge to anyone who cares, which I expect to be zero people. When you Blog or tweet or comment etc. Focus on positive personal accomplishments. I very quickly tire of he said / she said crap from supposed grown ups who sound like my kids telling on each other. In that vein, I planted a garden at home. It's four raised beds 4' x 4' with various veggies. I made the boxes, shoveled the compost and mulch and planted the seeds. My oldest daughter occasionally helps which makes it especially nice to connect with her on a personal one on one level. I'm also putting in various fruit bushes and trees in the back yard and am looking forward to watching them grow. I think gardening is one of the ultimate lessons in the rewards of delayed gratification. I'm not keeping careful records of costs but I describe myself as a 'lazy farmer' in that I do not plan to spray or even fertilize beyond the aforementioned compost which will result in a semi-organic garden since I also didn't make a big deal of the seed varieties used. I don't know if this will result in a lowered food bill but it certainly won't increase it by any appreciable amount. I may keep some records of yields when they come in to compare year on year but as this is not a business or competition it probably won't get any more complex than an excel spreadsheet.

Division

If you are the sensitive sort that gets easily offended, I suggest you just pretend this post doesn't exist.


I will start by stating that I am a Caucasian Male of Christian denomination although of a decidedly offbeat brand (LDS) and am part of the so called 'Middle Class.' By almost all common measures I am the plain vanilla of social science. I am putting this at the top of this post as a basis for my comments. I accept that my viewpoint may be tinted by who I am but it doesn't make my questions or observations less valid.

There are two sets of words that have been given skewed connotations in the past few decades. It may be said that both sets are part of the same class called by most, Political Correctness. Within PC are the 'good' and the 'bad' word sets. Instead of the slurs and epithets which do deserve to die from disuse, I am talking about words that describe concepts.

On the bad side are words like discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice. They are seen emblems of rampant social ills. But discrimination take many forms. If in your head you just said to yourself something like, "He doesn't know what discrimination is like because he is a white guy," you have just practiced discrimination. It's OK though, I'm not offended. Everyone practices discrimination at some level. I know I discriminate when it comes to picking which checkout line the go through because I believe I can predict with some accuracy which lane will be faster based on the number of people, how many items they seem to have and a snapshot observation of how efficient the cashier seems to be. I take this limited observational data and select a course of action that I think will be of the most benefit to me. Ta-Da, Discrimination.

Similarly, prejudice and stereotypes are considered irredeemable but at the root they are only descriptive of the practice of assigning attributes and values to subjects (people, places etc.) based on superficial observations. When I think that a guy wearing a camouflage outfit while shopping in Wal-mart must be a hunter and therefore a firearms enthusiast I am using stereotypes. Interestingly, just because I have no proof doesn't mean I am automatically wrong. Stereotypes have their basis in something concrete. I may have observed that the hunters I knew wore camo wherever they went. I think the important thing to remember about prejudice and stereotype is that I must accept that I could be completely wrong about any given individual.

On the other side of the PC coin are the good words like tolerance, respect and diversity. But does not tolerance mean I am tolerating something; allowing an irritation however minor for some greater good? Would it be fair to say that I am discriminating against the irritation of the moment in order to obtain a perceived maximum benefit? Isn't respect the prejudice of faith and trust based on some association with prior observations? Are diversity initiatives by their nature divisive? We can segment our population by as many labels as can be dreamed of. If I say that what this project needs is a female perspective, isn't that a prejudiced statement that an woman has a different perspective than me? Would I be wrong in that prejudice?

I think that saying a given ratio of Men to Women or Whites and Asians in an organization is wrong is the kind of discrimination that should be gotten rid of. Shouldn't we tolerate all monocultural groups even if it is of a flavor not in vogue at the moment? I think we can cross more boundaries by emphasizing what makes us alike rather than what makes us different. Let's advance the cause of the breathing humans club because I think we can agree that we don't like brain-eating zombies. I know that's a prejudiced statement but I just couldn't help myself.

The Joy of Creation

I like to make things (except blog entries). For as long as I can remember, I have derived a special pleasure in the creation of objects. But, from cutout snowflakes and hand-drawn embellishments on notes to Lego creations (usually starships) and wooden infantry rifles; I have found that the happiness peaks at the point of final assembly. The shine starts to fade almost immediately and continues to the point of eventually no longer being interesting. I do not regret this, I simply recognize the tendency. My daughter, Rachel, is similarly possessed. Intensely focused on the project at hand until it is done after which the excitement slowly drains away.

She had recently taken up loom knitting from a church group activity making newborn caps. I realize that this may not seem like 'real' knitting to some but it has its own process that needs to be followed. To further her interests we had gotten her an assortment of round looms for Christmas and I, of course, had to try my hand at it. I soon ended up with a slightly too tall black cap that fit more snuggly than anticipated because I had forgotten my head size is an outlier to the norm. I had planned to wear it but haven't yet even though we are in the depths of winter. I've considered making another one better sized but without a significant change in process or material, I'm not sure if I could muster the interest.

Another recent project was to design and build a floating arm trebuchet to have fun with Doug's scout troop flinging innocent pumpkins to their spectacular demise. This has the potential for some amount of longevity because of the built in variability. One can affect the trajectory by changing factors such as the counterweight, the length of the sling and the weight of the projectile and each of these changes modifies the flight in their own way. Add to that the tweaks of stabilizing the platform and reducing friction and my enjoyment is prolonged because we never really arrive at the completed stage of development.

I have also been enjoying using Google's SketchUp tool to make models of the trebuchet and our house. I have been measuring everything (until the snow came) to try and get it exactly rendered. My goal is to use this model as a sort of sandbox for planned modifications such as new siding or additions to visualize how they would look prior to jumping into the project. I'll probably use it to sketch other upcoming projects such as Doug's loft bed and a engine mount/test stand for type 1 VW engines.

Just sitting here and writing calls to mind many other projects which wait for me such as modifying Patrick's train tables to be double-decker, planting the blueberry hedge and the garage pergola in just the near term alone. I guess at least I am unlikely to run out of things to do.