Looking back on yesterday’s car wreck there are so many places where I should’ve questioned things but did not. Oh how I wish things would’ve turned out differently. The one thing I wouldn’t change is the fact that Travis and I were not injured.

We had finished spreading mulch this weekend and were about to return the trailer we borrowed back to our friends. There were still areas of the yard we wanted to mulch but had not yet done. I debated just buying bagged mulch for this but talked myself into making another trip to the yard waste center. The plan was to go first thing this morning so that Kelly had it available to spread as she found time during this week. Travis loves to help with projects and volunteered to join me, in spite of the early hour. So, a little after seven this morning, I strapped Travis into his seat and we headed off to the Yard Waste Center, towing the empty trailer.
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I’m still feeling the adrenaline from this morning’s car wreck. Its like I drank a whole pot of coffee. I can’t sit still this morning. All I want is for my afternoon meetings to be over so I can take a brisk walk outside. Earlier I was thinking of taking the bus home but it might do me more good to walk.

All I can think of now is “damn, I wish I hadn’t done that.”

I wrecked our minivan this morning as I was returning to our home towing a trailer of mulch. Travis was with me and fortunately neither one of us was hurt. The minivan, however, might not make it through. I think the frame got bent.

More details later today.

We spent a good deal of time this weekend putting down weed block and spreading mulch in our flowerbeds. I can feel every shovel-full of mulch in my tired muscles. The flowerbeds look damn good, however.

Saturday we took a break from shoveling to go to the fall festival at Hallie’s school. It was fun watching the kids play, though Kelly had to work at a table for most of our visit.

After the festival we were happy to host an old friend of ours: C.O. Green, the CSX train driver who would always wave to us as he passed by our Hobhouse home every morning. This was the first time C.O. has had to meet the kids he had only previously seen from the cab of his train as he rode by. The kids enjoyed his visit, too, as you can see by the picture.

We enjoyed pizza and chatting with C.O., whom we discovered will be getting married next summer. We hope we get a chance to meet C.O.’s wife someday. Tar Heel or no Tar Heel, we think he’s pretty cool!

Computer scientists from UCSD have come up with a method which allows keys to be duplicated from a long-distance photograph of the keys. Using software called Sneakey, the scientists were able to accurately measure the key cuts and use this information to create a duplicate key.

Having worked with locks and keys before, I can say that while this development makes for an interesting computer problem to solve, it isn’t all that practical from a criminal’s point of view. There are far, far easier ways of gaining entry to a home or building: keys can be borrowed and pressed into a wax mold, the lock could be picked, or the door could be bypassed all together by breaking a window. And who leaves their keys in plain view where they can be photographed by outsiders?

The software likely can’t handle commercial keys like those for Medeco locks. Each cut of a Medeco key has an angled groove. If that groove doesn’t line up with the ridge in its corresponding pin the lock does not open. Thus, there are three dimensions which would need to be captured in order to correctly measure such a key. Its unlikely a photographer could get into a position in which she could accurately photograph these grooves.

Interesting problem to solve, but not exactly practical.