August 2006

There were 46 posts published in August 2006 (this is page 4 of 5).

Boated Most Popular

Savvy MT.Net readers might have noticed a few nautically-themed pictures in the gallery. There was also this post of lyrics to a sailing-themed song. Putting two and two together might lead you to guess that we’ve been looking at buying a boat. And you’d be right. On our “date day” two weekends ago, Kelly and I drove down Leesville Road from the stables to Lake Crabtree for some sailing. We passed this boat with a “for sale” sign on it and decided to have a closer look at it once we were done sailing. While Kelly waited in the car, I spent 5 minutes walking around it taking pictures.

The next day I called the owner, who proceeded to talk my ear off about the boat. He was sailing it because his family was growing to three kids and could no longer fit on it. I made arrangements for Ralph, my sailing mate, to take a look at it with me, which he did tonight. Soon after returning home and discussing it with Kelly, we made the decision to buy it.

It’s a 1985 Spindrift 22, similar to this one. It has a trailer, plenty of room for the family, sink, stove, motor, marine radio, and cd player. And its in great shape. Ralph was really impressed with its condition, which gave me comfort.

I’ve been sailing for sixteen years but this is the first boat I’ve ever owned. Things are a bit different when you’re the owner. Kelly and I both have a lot to learn about its care and feeding, though the sailing part should be a cinch.

We’re imagining a future where we spend weekends with the kids sailing around. I think early exposure to sailing will open up whole worlds for our kids. Hallie is excited about it and I know Travis will love it, too.

Once we’ve got it ready to go I’ll be happy to take MT.Net readers out for a cruise. Ahoy!

City Manager Passes on Plensa Art Project

Amen to Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen for speaking out against the Plensa-designed art project for downtown Fayetteville Street. I love the idea of public art but this particular art doesn’t make any sense.

I can’t help but think that stringing up wires with LEDs is going to attract pigeons, which will then add their own, uh, “artwork” to the wires and anyone foolish enough to be under them. The LEDs likely won’t be bright enough to be seen during the daytime, especially if they’re viewed with the sky in the background (i.e., from the ground). And what happens when it snows or ices? Boom, the whole thing comes down in an expensive, tangled mess.

I’m all for world-class, signature art. I really am. I just don’t think bird-magnet LED netting is the message we want to send to the world. If Plensa wants to take a second swing at this, let’s let him come up with something bold. Bold but fitting, too. Let’s work towards having the PR this thing generates be good PR and do it right the first time.

Let’s pull the plug on the LEDs. Please.

Sailing Takes Me (And Hallie) Away

We spent Sunday with the Naylors at their Lake Gaston lakehouse. As always, it was great to see them as well as David, Anna, and Wesley; Hallie and Travis’s new cousin. We visited a bit before having lunch. Kelly dressed the kids in life vests and sunscreen and then we brought them down to the edge of the lake. It was so hot and muggy that Travis practically fell alseep standing up. I was holding his hand on the dock and he was actually flopping around. I think the tight vest, sun, and heat made him sleepy.

Kelly took Hallie out on the rowboat before lunch for a quick ride. After she put Travis down for his nap, it was my turn to take Hallie out – this time on a sailboat. She joined Ralph, Matthew, and me for a rather show and unexciting sail around the lake. She was a great sport and loved it when the wind would gust. The heat eventually got to her, though, and she declared she was sleepy. I asked her if she’d like to take a nap and she replied “but I have to wave to the boats!” That was the “job” I gave her and she was so dedicated she didn’t want to miss a boat!

Once we came in, we enjoyed a great game of UNO, with Kelly, me, Hallie and Suzzanne playing. Hallie really enjoyed playing, until it became apparent the game was going to go on forever. Then she excused herself and Kelly, Suzzanne, and I played for a good 30-45 minutes more. Smart girl, that Hallie.

We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, said our goodbyes, and headed home, rolling in around 7:30. We put the kids to bed and spent the rest of the evening catching up on things. It was a very fun, relaxing day.

See Kelly’s account on the Hallie and Travis page.

Fun In The Attic

I must be crazy. I mean, how else can you explain it? Fed up with an air conditioner that can never cool off the upstairs of our house, I finally did something about it. When my niece’s birthday party getting cancelled coincided with a cooler, overcast Saturday morning, I knew I had to act.

Whoever did the initial insulating of the house claimed to have put down over 12 inches of blown in insulation in the attic. I measured it myself and found it to be at a little over 6 inches! Insulation usually settles in time but not into half its original height! Judging by that and the fact that our home inspector discovered places in the attic not even covered by insulation, I decided the first guy never finished the job. It was time to lay another layer of insulation in the attic! Kelly agreed to take the kids to the museum while I went to Lowe’s to gather up materials.

I bought a car full of Cocoon blown-in insulation in one store, then drove 10 miles to another store to pick up a blower as the first store was out. I found it amusing that the folks behind the counter took 10 minutes trying to find the paperwork for the blower. Apparently they don’t loan them out too often.

I returned to the house with the materials about the time the family returned from the museum. After Kelly and I put the kids down for their naps, she joined me for the labor-intensive task of installing blown insulation. She would stand outside and feed insulation bags into the blower machine while I stood in the attic and spread the insulation from the hose.

Yes, I was headed for the attic in the heat of summer. That’s how nuts I am.

I brought with me a thermometer, a big thermos of icewater, a box fan, and a huge determination to get this done. The thermometer read a little over 100 degrees when I began around 2:30, by which time the sun soon came out and began cooking things. As I worked up there without the fan running (because it blew dust everywhere), the temperature leapt to 128 degrees! Turning on the fan rapidly cooled things off, if you can call it that. Within 2 minutes of running, the fan brought the temperature down to 120. After three hours up there I was almost used to it, to be honest. It reminded me of the time I spent in the Persian Gulf, one of the hottest places I’ve been.

I took frequent breaks and communicated with Kelly via cellphone whenever I needed the blower turned off. Things semeed to work fine until I reached for my phone only to realize its battery was now buried somewhere in the insulation! It was a needle in the haystack by that point. I consoled myself remembering it was on its last legs anyway and wouldn’t hold a charge.

While I was up there, I discoverd the attic fan I had installed (and almost lost a finger to) was mysteriously not working. I had sealed the outside of it with duct tape in an effort to improve its efficiency. I found the tape was hanging from the fan’s lifeless blades, one possible clue to its demise. I’m hoping it blew an internal fuse, rather than burn out the motor. There’s no way of knowing until I unscrew it from the wall and take it apart. After seeing what the box fan could do to cool the attic, a working attic fan must make a big difference, too.

I found another interesting thing when I reached down to adjust the supply duct for the upstairs air conditioning. Right where it bent to come into the attic, I felt a cold spot. In an attic heated to 125 degrees, one should not feel a cold spot on the outside of an insulated supply duct! Thinking the air was getting trapped at the turn, I twisted it a bit to clear the blockage. The cold spot seemed to go away and the air coming out of the upstairs registers began to feel a bit stronger.

Three hours and 15 bags later the attic insulation was four inches deeper. That brought it up from a value of R-19 to above R-30 – quite a difference! Not only that, but I was thrilled to see the air conditioner actually cooling the upstairs. My neighbors’ air conditioners were whining away while ours took a breather. Not bad for a humid day in the upper 90s!

And don’t think Kelly was just slouching around while I was in the hot attic. Though she was outside in the breeze, Kelly worked just as hard as I did, pouring 20-pound insulation bags into the hopper in the 100 degree sun. By the time we were done were both covered in cellulose dust and looked like we’d crawled out of a swamp somwhere. In spite of this we were happy. Well, at least I was happy. I had led Kelly to believe this was a 90 minute job when instead it took twice as long. She forgave me, though, and I certainly couldn’t have done it without her help.

Yeah, it was a lot of hot, sweaty work. Yeah, it was insane to try to do it on a hot summer’s day. But, it made a huge difference in our comfort and it only cost 120 bucks and three hours! Once that insulation is there it will always work for us. The upstairs not only is cooler, I swear it is quieter, too. The outside noise I took for granted is greatly reduced thanks to that new blanket of insulation.

If you’re looking to make a big impact on your home’s comfort and you don’t mind getting a little dirty in the process, consider putting in some blown-in insulation. For us it seems well worth it.

Raleigh Parks Ignores Public On Horseshoe Farm Park

I was disappointed to learn that last week the Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Greenways Board rejected plans to keep Horseshoe Farm park natural, in spite of overwhelming public opinion to do just that. The Board went against the recommendations of a master plan committee which worked for 14 difficult months and instead recommended a big, dumb gynmasium be put on this special property.

As I mentioned before in my blog, while I love a good pick-up game of basketball and would like to see a court near my home, even I have to admit that its insane to put it at Horseshoe Farm.

People, this is a freakin’ river park! How many parks do we have that are bordered on three sides by a river? This place is special, and adding a gym will completely spoil it. As The Independent Weekly’s Bob Geary points out, you can put up a stupid gym anywhere, like one of the many rotting strip-malls dotting the city.

The Council takes up the issue this Tuesday, August 8th. Hopefully the City Council will see the light and go with what the people want. Let them know how you feel by visiting the Horseshoe Farm website and following their link to contact the Council.

Going Overboard

Going Overboard
The Fixx
From the album The Ultimate Collection

So it’s flotsam and jetsam
You leave the ship
Sinking slowly
When you do the plank
It’s bridge talk for deathtrap
So Aquanautic
But I’m anchored electric
Release the jib
Continue reading →

Soldiers Returning From Iraq Suffer From Impaired Cognition

That America-hating newspaper The New York Times says that duty in Iraq appears to have a significant impact on U.S. soldiers’ ability to think:

The research team led by Dr. Vasterling administered a battery of mental tests to 654 male and female soldiers who served in Iraq at various times from April 2003 to May 2005. The tests, more than 20 in all, were given before and after deployment, and included one in which participants had to pay close attention to a computer screen as letters flashed by, waiting to flag each F they saw. In another test, they were asked to memorize simple diagrams and try to recreate them 30 minutes later.

The soldiers did significantly worse in tasks that measured spatial memory, verbal memory and their ability to focus than did 307 soldiers who had not been deployed to Iraq.

Sound familiar? Veterans returning from the Persian Gulf War of 1991 reported similar congnitive problems. Some researchers have attributed this to exposure to nerve gases, the wearing of pesticide collars, and plain old post-traumatic stress syndrome. Could these two be related?

I am a Gulf War veteran myself, but one who has never seen combat, worn a pesticide collar, got gassed, been abducted by space aliens or experienced any of the other potential causes blamed for Gulf War Illness. In spite of this, I have occasional night sweats, chills, rashes, aching joints, low-grade fever. Even occasional dizziness and cognitive issues. Usually I’m just fine. Even great at times. But occasionally things get bad enough to miss work. On those days I’m actually afraid to drive.

I have tried to have an open mind about potential causes and not point the finger at my service in the Gulf but no one has been able to tell me otherwise. In fourteen years of various tests, doctors are clueless as to the cause. All they can do is rule things out. What’s even more frustrating was signing up for a Gulf War study at the local VA hospital a few years back. I had high hopes that by going to a group familiar with Gulf War Illness, I’d finally get a decent diagnosis. Instead, I was told that according to the survey I submitted I was “too healthy” to participate! Perhaps I’m better off, as the few interactions I’ve had with the VA have been less than inspiring, to say the least.

So veterans like me are left to fend for themselves, as the federal government is so eager to explain it away lest it has to actually do something. Meanwhile, the chickenhawks in Congress and the White House happily trade VA funding for large tax cuts, all the while whistling a patriotic tune. It’s so easy to “Support The Troops” when they’re marching off to war and so easy to neglect them when they return.

I say ‘welcome home’ to the soldiers and sailors leaving Iraq. Just don’t count on Iraq leaving you any time soon.

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Uninvited Vacation Guest

The Turner family vacation to Florida is nine days away and already the storms are circling like sharks. It looks like Tropical Storm Chris will wander into the Gulf, but the Bermuda high now cooking the southeast may be enough to keep it safely offshore. I don’t see anything lining up behind Chris so we may squeak out a dry vacation yet.

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As A Matter Of Fact It IS Hot Enough For Me

Okay, so everyone knows its hot by now. Does the media really need to make this their top story? I mean, isn’t it pretty self-evident when you step outside? Why have the bimbo anchor on the cable network ruin my enjoyment of a cool, dark restaurant by reminding me how blasted hot it is outside? We know already!

Now get back to covering the corruption in the Republican-controlled Congress and the Democratic-controlled N.C. House before I run out of things to rant about. Sheesh.