It has been an incredibly hot and dry summer so far. Everyone knew it would be hot and dry, because spring was so warm. I think it rained once in June/July, and I believe May was pretty dry, too. Some of the trees are starting to show signs of stress. My oaks are doing great, but the leaves on the maple I planted a few years ago are wilting. My ( Read more... )

I stopped cycling when I got Sadie. We went for walks, instead. We were hardcore about our walks for a long time. Hot weather didn't stop us, a little rain didn't stop us (but a lot of rain did).

Then, Sadie got lazy. And she learned that if she moved with reluctance, we would turn around. So now she's in control, to a large degree, and if it's a ( Read more... )

I have a book recommendation: The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue ( Read more... )

I was thinking about moving around some of the money I have in my 401k account. Right now I'm 100% in equities. I believe the market may be set for a correction, so I'd like to move some of the money into a safe spot so I can re-invested it after the price decrease. Of course, it's a bit of a risk, because the market could continue to climb upward ( Read more... )

My computer is giving me problems. Thanks to the internet I came up with a quick solution, but it involved resetting the CMOS jumpers on my motherboard. Apparently nTunes [software for Nvidia video drivers] can mess computers up.

I thought at first my hard drive had failed. I'm glad the HD is fine. I can't afford expensive computer equipment right

I have spent the last 2-3 days looking for a digital camera to replace the camera that is currently in my wastebasket. Maybe I didn't spend the ENTIRE time looking for a new camera, but it feels that way ( Read more... )

My house is surrounded by trees to the north, south, and east. Unfortunately there are no trees to the west, and as a result, summer sunlight hits the house directly and really heats things up! Earlier in the year I decided to remedy this problem by planting a tree on the west side. I had to be a little careful about the type of tree I planted, ( Read more... )

I took a walk with Sadie this morning in a conservation area I've visited a few times before. The trail was narrow but well maintained. The walk lasted an hour and a half, max. During the walk, I picked about two dozen ticks out of Sadie's hair. I picked off another half dozen in the car on the way home. Once home, I picked a dozen out with ( Read more... )

Earlier tonight I climbed into bed and invited Sadie to join me. She hopped up but instead of curling up, promptly started to root around the bed like she was searching for something. At first I thought she was a little nuts, but then I decided to turn on the light to make sure there wasn't a big spider in bed with me. I searched the sheets - ( Read more... )

Microsleep - this is from Wikipedia:

"A microsleep is an episode of sleep which may last for a fraction of a second or up to thirty seconds.... People who experience microsleeps usually remain unaware of them, instead believing themselves to have been awake the whole time, or feeling a sensation of 'spacing out'. One example is called "gap driving ( Read more... )