A self-confessed bugman friend of mine recently posed the following question ( Read more... )

The Ripening.


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On July 3rd the first flower began blooming on one of the winter squash plants. It all seems incredulous to me: I started the seeds back in mid-May, planted the seedlings on May 20th (earliest guaranteed frost-free date around here), and the blooming was just beginning to start in early July. The flowers aren’t even self-pollinating - they are ( Read more... )

The last few weeks work have not been very busy, so I have been taking some time off here and there as I am still easing into the whole commuting thing. Besides, I know that next month 3 new projects are going to hit all at once, so I better take time off while I can. So I was “lucky” when storms knocked out power again Monday morning. My ( Read more... )

It’s been an atypical week.   Wednesday I had to conduct an assessment of a county jail in central Pennsylvania.   I always thought it very strange that my employer never did any work in the Keystone State, while we have a presence in neighboring West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana.  As it turned out a colleague in our Virginia office has been “ ( Read more... )

Thursday morning I went to renew my vehicle registration and get a new license as soon as the place opened up.   As is invariably the case, even though I arrived ten minutes early there were three people who had just showed up ahead of me, and they started walking up to the front door as soon as I parked my car.   I can never time these things ( Read more... )

The previous Sunday I finally deemed the weather conditions suitable to mount my long-planned Winter Expedition to find the Eastward Passage.   After studying various maps, I discovered that the end of my street meets up with a strip of land that now leads to - and is part of - the park a 5 minute drive from my house.   Long have I wanted to be ( Read more... )

I woke up on the morning of December 1st to find that Winter's fist had descended on the land and pummeled it without mercy.  Over the course of 24 hours there was at least 18 inches of snow - probably 20 (article containing National Weather Service info: NWS releases snowfall totals from first winter storm of the 2020-2021 season (news5cleveland. ( Read more... )

An excerpt from a chat of me and three friends…

D:  I am really not good at distracting myself. Games, YouTube videos, movies, TV, I’ve got 100 books I should be reading.
Me:  Yeah, it would be best to get back to basics, and resume book reading.
D:  I miss the capacity to get involved in fantasy, to get swept up in entertainment like when I was ( Read more... )

All week I have been trying to find someone to come out and inspect my chimney.  The previous owner was so good about maintaining everything that I doubt it needs to be swept, but I just want the peace of mind of knowing that everything is in working order; my last house turned out to have a seriously cracked chimney flue - almost certainly due to ( Read more... )