All posts by djones

friday high five

Five Signs Of Being Confuzzled

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Time once more for

Five Signs Of Being Confuzzled

(Confuzzled – the state of being fuzzy and confused due to doing too many things at once.)

  • Getting called by L in the wee hours of the morning because the bears (momma and two cubs) are in the garbage again in the mountains. And my first thought is that it is not like I’m going to be able do anything from more than 3 hours away.
  • Waking up at the (relatively) late hour of 7am and already having three messages waiting on the phone.
  • Planning to mosey over to XXX’s mid-morning to do her therapy and getting nailed by call after call before I can get out the door.
  • Walking over to XXX’s and thinking my right shoe doesn’t feel right; shrugging it off to just not tying the laces tight enough. Without ever looking down at my feet!
  • Returning from XXX’s and taking off my shoes to change out of my walking shoes and back to my around-the-office shoes only to discover this:

Notice that the left foot has my standard lace up walking shoe on while the right foot has my around-the-office strap on shoe on. Is it any wonder that the right foot felt like I hadn’t tied it tight? I must have been so confuzzled by the spate of phone calls as I was attempting to get out the door that I only got one shoe changed. Highly observant of me, I know. At least they weren’t different colors!

writer's challenge

They’re Out To Get Me

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Time once more for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. This week the prompts are:

1.) Tell us about a “dirt cheap” you’ve taken this summer.
(inspired by Anti-Supermom)

2.) When I grow up I want to be like…
(inspired by Jenny Says What?)

3.) Describe a difficult moment that you survived.
(inspired by Sarah M.)

4.) List 5 things you like to do while camping…or 5 places you’d like to go.
(inspired by Kisatrtle)

5.) What are you paranoid about?
(inspired by Melissa)

What is the best prompt for me this week?

#1 – I can eliminate this right off the bat. The only place I have been this summer is to the corporate meeting with L in Vail. Although it was dirt cheap to me, since I was playing corporate wife, I still don’t think it qualifies as a dirt cheap in this sense.




#2 – Who I want to be like when I grow up could be seen as redundant. Many people would claim I am already grown up. But in one of those oddities of life, the older you get, the more it seems like so many things might be possible (and yet there are any number of other things that become physically harder). The person I would most like to emulate as I age would have to be be Richard P. Feynman. He carried on an intense and wide ranging interest and intellectual curiosity in the world right up to his death.

I still remember a conversation I had with him all the way back in my graduate school days. In it he happened to mention that he didn’t think that one of the fashionable models of reality that was making the rounds of speculation at the time would turn out to be viable. When I asked him why he thought that way, he said he had a very simple rule for determining if he really understood some part of physics. If he could understand the outcome using a simple mental model that required no insane mathematical finesse to work, he felt he was probably on the right track. The theory in question failed that test and was later shown to be wrong. I always thought that was pretty good advice coming from a Nobel laureate and great all around physicist.

#3 – I have survived a number of difficult moments in my life. So many that it is in fact it is hard to choose just one. I guess I’ll go with the time I was the tensest and most worried in my life.

Where I went to graduate school, there were three main criteria for getting a doctorate in physics. The first was a written test on all of physics (the qualifier). The second was a specific oral exam before a committee to determine if you were smart enough and/or capable enough to proceed to do original research (the oral). The third was a thesis of original research, published in refereed journals, and approved by a thesis committee (the thesis defense).

The qualifier was given once a year at the start of the academic year. It was a three day exam, from 8am to 5pm with an hour off for lunch. You got two chances to pass it or your career as a graduate student was over. I had only minimal doubt about the qualifier and passed on the first try. I can only say that some of the most socially awkward scenes in graduate school occurred the day the results came out and your friend and colleague had not passed on their last attempt. What can you say to them? What can they say to you?

Unlike the qualifier, the oral was scheduled once you had passed the qualifier and proven proficiency in the core curriculum (electromagnetic fields, mechanics, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, quantum field theory, etc.) The committee to examine you was selected by the university, not you or your advisor. I was the first one in my incoming cohort of graduate students to be scheduled for my oral, so information was a bit sketchy as to how bad it really was. My friends were almost funereal when they saw my committee. Of the seven committee members, I happened to get three of the most cantankerous and anti-graduate student professors in the institution. And that was just the physics professors. There was also a professor from mathematics, another from applied science, one from the medical school, and one humanities professor.

At the duly appointed hour, I showed up for my oral, as nervous and as tense as could be. I recognized the three physics professors, but hadn’t met any of the others. The first hour was pretty simple questions, more like brain warm-ups than serious kill the graduate student questions. The second hour specialized in more and more detailed questions, some of which had no answer. Questions like “why is the sky blue?” (Raleigh scattering) and “prove that a modified version of the MVT holds in the presence of a countable number of singularities.” interspersed with off the wall ones like “what would happen if all people grew five inches taller?” All pretty simple if sometimes tediously long to work out on the blackboard. And then I was asked the question that left me blank. I literally have no memory from then to the end of the oral. To this day I cannot remember what the question was. All I remember is that it was asked by the professor from the medical school. I must have had a good answer, because I passed. But that was the first and last time in my life where I have had that kind of a stress induced blank out.

Needless to say, after the oral ordeal, defending my thesis was trivial.

#4 – An easy one. I DO NOT LIKE TO CAMP! Years of camping as a Boy Scout left me with a firm preference not to camp. So you all can camp out, but I am going to be staying over there at the cabin that has running water, a bed, a stove, electric lights, and maybe even a heater or air conditioner. I’ll see you in the morning.

#5 – It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you. Actually, I am probably one of the least paranoid people around. I have a deep seated belief that people will do the right thing if you let them. If they don’t, then they just aren’t a part of my life for long. Because I believe in people, people sense it and generally do the right thing. So I don’t have to waste time being paranoid.

garden, oddness, weeds

Weeds, Weeds, Weeds Everywhere

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Today after therapy for XXX, I went over to chop, pull, hoe, stare at, rant at, and finally come to an uneasy coexistence with all the weeds in the garden. Parts of the garden were still too wet from Sunday’s downpour to even attempt to enter. But the other side was dry enough so I spent about 6 hours weeding. I think I need a motto like the U.S. Postal Service: neither heat nor weeds above my head will keep me from my appointed hoeing. What do you think?

Leaving the weeds behind, a couple of odd things.

Do you ever look in your spam folder to see what is being sent to you? I do from time to time because I run my own mail servers and filter spam rather aggressively, so it behooves me to make sure I’m not throwing away “real” mail. Spam in general is not overly interesting, but I find the types of spam being sent seems to cycle from time to time.

Today when I looked on the server at the collected spam of the last week, I was astonished to note that there wasn’t a single sexually oriented message. No penis extender ads, no ads for fake Viagra, no young nubile girls desiring me to call them for cybersex. None. Nada. it must really be a bad economy when the sex related spammers slack off.

On the other hand, the number of ads for ersatz debit cards that work just like a credit card seem to be rising fast. So too are the work at home scams.  And the refinance shills are working the internet mails as well.

One surprising spam was one I haven’t seem before. It was offering home cleaning services. I have to wonder how many people would invite unknown people to their abode to clean on the basis of a spam email. I have my doubts that there is any cleaning service behind the email – I suspect it is simply a way to collect valid email addresses cross matched with a physical address. Perhaps a targeted list of home owners by region?

Second odd thing.

Tonight three different people called and left messages about mayor business after 7pm. They all three obviously didn’t expect to talk to me (they assumed I’d be in the normal Tueday night council meeting, but there wasn’t one this week) and in that they were not disappointed since I was fixing supper when they called. But the odd part is that all three said they had a meeting and would be tied up until 9:30pm and for me to give them a call after 9:30. It is going to be interesting to see what meeting they were at and why it couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Hope it is interesting.

Time to go get cleaned up so I can mosey down to the radio station in the morning. After that, I have a speaking engagement for lunch with the Rotary club. Since they are changing officers and holding the meeting as a pool party, I’m wearing swim trunks and a Hawaiian shirt. That way if there is any truth to the rumor of plans to throw the mayor in the pool, I’ll be prepared. {*grin*}

monday, weather

Meandering Monday

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Early this morning L headed back to the mountains. A slight difference of climate between the two locales. When we talked this afternoon, it was in the fifties in the mountains but pushing the mid-nineties here on the plains. At least tonight there was no more of the anomalous rain here.

Speaking of rain, it was amusing this morning to count the number of people who drove up along side me as I was walking to banter about the storm of last night. I can’t count the number of people who asked what I did to cause all this rain. I finally fessed up and told them that the rain of last night was due to the fact that I watered my lawn, thus tempting the rain gods. To understand why this is funny, you need to understand that in a normal summer out here you have to water your lawn every other day or so or it turns brown and dies. The watering I did on Sunday afternoon was only the third time I have watered my lawn *all year* this year. Think we have been getting a bit of anomalous moisture?

It was interesting the number of odd calls I got today as well. I’ve never figured out how people always know to call at the most inopportune times. No calls early in the morning, just a couple of emails saying call me about this and that. But the minute I walked outside on my way over to do the morning therapy session with XXX, my phone was busy the entire walk to and from XXX’s. Got back to my office and not another call until in the afternoon. I’ve taken to walking with my cellular headset (I prefer the wired one rather than the blue tooth one) in my ear and plugged in. Makes me suspect there is a lookout posted that tells everyone to call me as soon as I walk out the door.

Supper tonight was packed with things from the garden. Raw turnips, peeled and lightly salted. A salad with fresh picked chopped green onions, Chinese peas, sliced radishes (both white and red), lettuce, and a touch of chopped cucumber. Pretty close to vegetarian if I hadn’t had that macaroon for desert. I am looking forward to later when our cucumbers and peppers start getting ready.

My final meeting of the day was the Boy Scout Troop Committee meeting tonight. Once again the topic was all the rain and weather we’ve been having. Got the real business done along with the normal bs’ing and headed back home in time to see that the Rockies managed to win – must have been because they didn’t have to call on the bull pen.

Molly the dog is still lying around and moping, morning L’s departure. I have faith Molly will be back up to her normal “let’s go, c’mom, let’s go” personality by sunrise. So I guess I’d better head for the bed so I can be ready when she is. Nothing is worse than the smell of doggie breath and a mouth full of fur when she jumps up on the side of the bed to make sure you are getting with the program and you aren’t up yet. Goodnight.

Fourth of July, garden, weather

The Partially Eventful Weekend

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The Fourth of July was a generally good weekend here. It kicked off on Friday with the reception opening the Heritage Festival and beginning the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the city. I was fortunate enough to limit my official engagements this weekend to just a quickie at the reception. We handed out a neat covered wagon doodad to those who attended the reception:

 
  
 (Of course we also gave the attendees a wooden nickel.)
After the reception, L and I headed on over to our friends for a BBQ. Brats, burgers, red hots, and sausage off the grill plus shrimp and fresh fruit and chips of many kinds plus dips and vegetables – then topped off by pie and pistachio cake. Luckily we were seated in the garage, since the skies dumped yet another unseasonable rain shower during the evening. It was a great time sitting around and eating, talking to friends, and generally just relaxing. It is especially poignant because the male half of the couple is going to be having some pretty serious spinal surgery later in the month and it isn’t clear when he’ll up and about following the surgery. (We’ve known each other since grade school – so I know he doesn’t handle being on bed rest well. This will be interesting, to say the least.) At the close of the evening, L and I walked home and sat back to let all the food settle.
The 4th itself was pretty much a day to ourselves except for XXX’s therapy. So we mowed the lawn and trimmed the bushes and (of course!) pulled the weeds. Got cleaned up early in the evening and journeyed over to Mom’s where the MIL, L and I had a nice 4th of July supper. L and her mother went to watch the city fireworks display while Mom and I visited and I got ready to bring the leftovers home. On the way home, I saw some of the municpal fireworks display just as yet another unusal rain shower set in. Got home in time to see the Rockies blow it from the bull pen once again. That has to hurt to be a starting pitcher and see the bull pen come in and lose it time after time.
Today we had XXX’s therapy, I put in a new dryer vent for the MIL and then we ate lunch at the MIL’s. Then in the afternoon, I picked up Mom and we went over to the home of one of my childhood friends (the hosue is now occupied by his brother) and cut a bunch of rhubarb – probably a couple of gallons worth anyway. Then we came back to Mom’s and pulled radishes and turnips from the garden, then sat on the front porch topping and chopping before we took it all in to wash. Along the way I got to take Mom’s vacuum apart and replace a belt. During this time L was back at our house cleaning. So when I got home she wanted to head out for the Rockies Tacos (although they lost, they did score the requisite 7 runs for Taco Bell and Rockies Tacos). As we came home, the sky was starting to look a bit vicious, but it looked like it was north of us and weather here generally moves to the north.
Needless to say, the vicious weather didn’t move north. First the wind came up, then the tornado warning sirens fired up, followed by the police and fire trucks running up and down the streets, running their bullhorns telling people that there was a warning and to take cover, followed by the skies opening up and water coming down in sheets. For almost an hour, the sirens fired anew with each new warning. (Not all tornado warnings!) The warning I thought most unique was “Urban Flash Flood Warning” about midway through the whole process. It was raining so hard and fast that the streets and yards were literally flooding since the water arriving was more than could be drained.
After all the excitement settled down (No known tornado touchdown, only some wind and water damage.) life returned to normal about 25 degrees cooler. Some trees lost limbs in the area, but our major damage was simply the blown over basketball hoop. An hour or two after the all clear, it looked like this:

I set it back up and then looked up to see one of the biggest rainbows I’ve ever seen around here. Pardon my spectacularly poor photography, but hopefully you can see what I’m talking about.