July 2009

There were 56 posts published in July 2009 (this is page 2 of 6).

Late-night fireworks

I guess it’s the time of year when late-night summer thunderstorms drift slowly overhead. The skies were looking pretty calm until about 8 PM, when lightning chased us from the kids’ swim meet at Lake Johnson Pool. It rained a modest bit at home but was largely quiet when we went to bed.

I awoke at 1:30 AM to thunder and lightning. The dog was freaking out and doing all he could to squeeze himself under the bedroom door so he could join us. The storms lingered for a while, with popping lightning and earth-shaking thunder. Then about 20 minutes later it would move on and all would be quiet. We got another batch of storms a few hours later with the same activity: slow-moving, lightning-spewing clouds.

Kelly and I awoke today feeling like we never really went to sleep. I don’t think it’ll be a late night for us tonight!

Choosing a calendar server

So I’ve got a few things going on between my home life, my work, and the various boards I serve on. I would never know where I was supposed to be without a decent calendar.

I’ve been using Google Calendar for most of my events and it works well for that. However, I want to keep a separate calendar for the East CAC that members can subscribe to. This can be done through the setting up of a CalDAV, ical, or WCAP-based calendar server.
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They

I’m down to my last 15 hours of free Pandora for the month. Yikes! Guess I’m in their top 10% of listeners after all. If the music industry were smart (now THERE’S a ludicrous thought), they would comp Pandora’s licensing fees. No one markets music better than Pandora!

They (YouTube)
Jem (warning:self-playing music)

Who made up all the rules?
We follow them like fools,
Believe them to be true,
Don’t care to think them through

And I’m sorry, so sorry
I’m sorry it’s like this
I’m sorry, so sorry
I’m sorry we do this
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Alberto Contador

Stage 17 is done for the Tour de France. On the climb, race leader Alberto Contador dropped his Astana teammate Andreas Kloden, leaving himself isolated and dropping Andreas to fifth in the rankings. Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong is fourth in the standings, behind Contador and the Schleck brothers.

Contador tells interviewers that it takes a team for a cyclist to win the Tour, yet he seems to disregard this when he’s riding. He’s certainly a talented rider but his attitude is beginning to wear on me. Dropping your teammates is a good way to not have a team the next time around.

The Onion has been “sold” to the Chinese

This week, The Onion (formerly “America’s Finest News Source”) was “sold” to the Chinese. Since then, The Onion has been running articles as if they were written by the Chinese Communist Party. Some bits miss the mark but some are quite clever.

In that theme, The Onion posted this status update on Facebook and made me laugh out loud:

The Onion NEWSWIRE: Disgusting U.S. Citizen Allows Saliva To Collect In Mouth.

As one person commented:

Chris Ross
Whoever is writing this I think has been to China – yes, that’s right, saliva (with the various “additives” they can add to it) belongs on the sidewalk and if that isn’t possible – indoor potted plants.

Any Westerner who has visited China nods knowingly at this fake headline. I saw it myself when I visited China. Thanks, Onion, for the memory and the laugh!

Another stellar East CAC meeting

Just when I think I’ve hit the high mark for the East CAC meetings, a meeting comes along that tops it. Tonight’s was such a meeting. We had probably 70 neighbors in attendance: the largest crowd in my time as CAC chair and possibly its largest crowd ever. We had so many neighbors we had to open the back room to accommodate them all.

The folks weren’t there to hear me tell jokes, but to become informed. We first had a presentation about the nomination of Longview from Martha Hobbs about Longview Gardens’ nomination a historic district. Then Police Chief Harry Dolan conducted a brainstorming session to see what the residents’ concerns were. We also heard about the RPD Volunteer program as well. In attendance were two City Councilors. It was great to see everyone enjoying the meeting and building a community.

Before the meeting began, one longtime attendee asked me if being a CAC chair was a full-time job for me. I laughed and said it was simply a hobby. She complimented me on how well I was doing and how informative and tactful my emails have been. I thanked her for the compliments!

On the way home, though, I realized I gave her the wrong answer. Leading the neighborhoods is not simply a hobby of mine. It’s more than that: it’s a passion! It’s a bona fide passion. Sure, it takes organization and planning and setting a course – and there’s some effort behind all that. But when the third Monday rolls around and I walk out of the room with a smile on my face, knowing I’ve made a real difference in my neighborhood – that’s the reward. That makes it all worthwhile.

Getting tanked

I thought I was slick when I positioned my 330-gallon “Lake Turner” rain tank next to my garden. I was even slicker when I hooked up a timer to it a few weeks ago so that it automagically watered my tomato plants. However, my feeling smug stopped yesterday when I realized there was no water flowing through my drip hose.

Oops. It sure looked slick, though! No wonder some of my plants were looking a bit withered.

It turns out the timer I used was dutifully opening at the set time but the water pressure from the tank wasn’t enough to push through it. I switched to a different kind of timer yesterday and suddenly had a pleasing stream of water going to my ‘maters.

The moral of this story is to “measure twice,” as they say!

Cheap thoughts: digital clocks

Why do digital clocks always reset to 12:00 AM? I know 12:00 AM is the start of a day, but most people spend the majority of their days in the afternoon and evening. Any clock-setting will most likely occur after noon, so why not make the clock show noon by default?

Then again, maybe if clock makers provided easier ways of setting clocks this wouldn’t be an issue.