Monthly Archives: November 2010

Monday night – the hush

I just snapped the last of our storm windows in place up stairs.. Each is a giant 4 foot by 6 foot plate of glass in a metal frame. They get held on by spring loaded clips. As each one goes up. a little less air and a little less noise come in to our leaky house.. byt the last window, our house is transformed.. the train that thuners by in the summer is a muted rumble.. the slosh of car wheels out on the snowy road become the sounds of waves on a beach. The smokey outside smells give way to equally smokey but more human smells from inside the house.  We’re closed in to our den like some creaturreally feels like hibernation now that the time has changed . It’s pitch black by 5:30 when I headed for home.. The roads were covered with slush.. I found myself thinking of warm and sunny places.   by 9 oclock we are all yawning and ready to go to sleep..

I think i will….
nite all… nite sam
-me
 

Sunday night – The Beacon Light Grange

Nice slow day again.. much needed. Diane and I used the time to finish washing the windows and to put up the down stairs storm windows.
All in a l, Diane and I washed 540 panes of glass in the last two days.. and we haven’t done the windows in the front.. or the insides of the windows. This old house is a ton of work come season change..

Around 3 we took a break to host the members of the Beacon Light Grange. The grange is a service organization founded 147 years ago.. I found a definition on the National Grange web site:

The

National Grange is the nation’s oldest national agricultural organization, with

grassroots units established in 2,700 local communities in 40 states.  Its

200,000 members provide service to agriculture and rural areas on a wide variety

of issues, including economic development, education, family endeavors, and legislation

designed to assure a strong and viable Rural America. It was formed in the years

following the American Civil War to unite private citizens in improving the economic

and social position of the nation’s farm population.   Over the past 143

years, it has evolved to include non-farm rural families and communities.

The Beacon Light Grange was founded in 1949 and met in our house until about 1970.. They called it the Beacon Light Grange because of the airplane beacon that used to be on the firetower up on Robins Mountain behind the house.

We’d invited the Grange to meet in our house at our friend Jane’s suggestion.  She’s a new member. She figured the others would like to see the plavce after such a long time.  7 members of the Grange showed up . Blanche.. one of the founders (she’s 81).. Alice (used to work at our insurance agents) , Betty. Ann (our good friend Brad’s grandma) , Jane, Durselina the Grange Master, her husband Mike, and Betty. They were all so nice. We sat and tlaked for about 2 hours about the Grange,and about the house. Blanche told us she thought the place was used for a church for awhile.. we learned that there was once some sort of alter upstairs.. and that one of the stairwells up front was blcoked. We heard that there were two wood stoves up stairs.   Thye told us about square dances thta were held here all the time.. and Nickel a Dip dinners. It was great hearing about all the old times here. We took soem of the grangers on a tour of the house..

Blanche even had written a poem to commemorate their visit.   I recoreded as much as I could, then my batteries ran out..


here’s the full text.. I types it in from Blanche’s copy

The Old Grange Hall

This lovely old building which you have renovated to a beautiful home
Originally belonged to the Church of England with it’s charming loft and dome.
Later years it was deeded for use as a school to the Town of Richmond with the stipulation-
When not in public use, the property reverts to the original owner -the farm owned by the Bombardiers.
From 1949-about 1970 the Beacon Light Grange used the building with admiration and glee-
We had more Nickle-A-Dip suppers and Chicken Bar-B-Q’s than you ever did see !
Beacon Light Grange #557 made a float every year for the forth of July Parade.
A picnic ground was cleared by the river-tales and benches were made.
The grass was raked, the fence around the yard was repaired and painted.
I was raking one day and started burning- which I never should have done-
A passerby had a fire extinguisher and quickly quenched the flames.
Than Gd for our Good Samaritan No. !. ,
We have lost many members along the way
But the couple and their baby girl buried in a landslide was the greatest catastrophe of our day.
There was a ig neighbor’s night one time, inviting Grangers far and near, We had about 200 people-
the hall filled to the brim. They had come by the carload to visit us.
One of the new members – a bright young lad, came and was thunderstruck when he saw everyone square dancing –
taking his cap – he got up an left – couldn’t understand all the fuss !
We had served so many lunches, dinners and celebrations- we take great pride in honoring all our local people for all they have done.
We have a blast thanking them every fall. We thank them one by one !
This old building is a great symbol of how we started and what we have accomplished.
We’ve worked with our partners all – churches, libraries, also our schools.
Fire Department, Richmond, Rescue – Richmond Area Business Association, Children’s camping project, Local Food Shelves to name a few – They are all our tools !

Blanche B. Dowd 11/7/2010

It was a great visit from a great organization !

Well. that was it for today.. tune in tomorrow..
nite all.. nite sam
-me

Saturday night – back on snow

Today was a much needed peaceful day ..  we spent most of it near snow. Gabe had two events…. bit rail jams. One was at MMSC.. There’s snow in the mountains, but not yet on the flats, so they used snow from the local ice rink. It was the inaugural event fo rthe team..

Several of us helped clean up some old mattresses that had been a landing mat for tricks.. they were old and wet.. ewwwwwww

The setup was a simple wooden ramp with a box and a single rail. The kids hit it as many times as they could in 3 hours.. The coaches helped them get their bindings set, etc..  I could tell Gabe was happy to be back on snow.

This year the main coach of MMSC is Bud Keene.. he’s the guy that coached Shawn White in the Olympics last year.. It’s fun to see him coaching these young kids.. Some of them are just beginners. He’s a great coach.. kind. patient and fun..

We left Stowe around 1.. came home for a bit.. then headed to Burlington around 4:30 for another rail jam. this one was competitive..   They’d blocked St. Paul street and built a huge wooden ramp and again had a box and a metal rail.. they trucked in 15 loads of snow from a different ice rink. 

Gabe had some nice runs early in the night. ..

Dylan and Matt were there..

As was Luke !.. He was still in the top 5 when we left.. he was looking good !

Super nice day.. glad to be home. More tomorrow..
nite all.. nite sam
-me

Friday night – Guy Falkes night !

Happy Guy Fawkes day folks..

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Pretty uneventful day.. no gunpowder plots.. just a long productive trip back from Austin.. I have a bunch of pictures   from my trip this week.. not much in the way of scenery.. mostly pictures  of very nice folks I just met.. here they are :

Starting back on Tuesday night.. I got into Austin around 6:30. and went straight to Carl W’s house. Hes a friend of my friend Rick M. They bought a tesla coil a it like my old one.. and had offered to lend it to me for my talk. They knew that theirs wasn’t working.. but had thought it just needed minor repair. Carl and I checked it out..

Unfortunately, the whole output stage.. IGBJT’s and clamp diodes were a charred mess. I’d brought some replacement parts.. we went out to Fry’s to get some others.. We worked about 3 hours.. but in the end realized it wasn’t going to be easy. We gave up around 12 because I knew I needed to get sleep before my talks.. in the end.. it worked out just fine not having the coil..

The next morning I took a great run on town lake.. then worked all day in my room at the hotel.

Lots of signs about the famous bats down by the lake. (Caution, never pick up a bat on the ground)

I spent some time in my hotel room meetings assembling props for my talks.. that helped me from getting too nervous..

My first talk was Wednesday night about 6 PM.. I was doing this for my friend Shawn.   My talks were all about promoting engineering, math and science interest in the next generation.. this time I folded in some stuff about my time on the Colony. it’s a fun talk to give..

I dedicated my talk to our good friend Jim Monzel who passed away 2 weeks ago. Jim was very active in the ITC community. .. There were about 600 folks in the hall for the talk.  .. I think

Judging by the reaction. I think the talk went OK.. I had lots of folks coming up total to me afterwords. Many of them had good ideas and good experiences to share about getting kids interested in science and engineering.

Afterwords I went to meet my friends tom and candy for a quick drink.. then met up with a bunch of friends from the conference for a great Mexican dinner.

After dinner we all walked back to our.. …   hey.. !?! where’s my car !.. Oooops..

I though the sign said 9AM – 3PM.. it was 9PM to 3AM.. My car had been towed..

Here’s my freind Bill getting directions to the towing place from the nice cop who’s car was now parked in my spot..

Peillin, Mary. ill and I piled into Peillin’s car and drove the 8 miles out to the impound place.. It was after midnight by that point.

Hey.. therrrrrrrres my car !

I drove to my new hotel and got to sleep just before 2.. .. 7 AM came awfully early..
I went downstairs and met my hosts and freinds  Mike and Bernice.. lovely Hannah’s lovely parents.   Mike had asked me to do the talk many months ago.

Once again. I think the talk went OK.. good crowd reaction.. and again a nice group of folks came up to talk/share. after my talk .

Then it was off to IBM Austin for a series of meetings and rountables.. First thing first.. I met with my friend Kevin.. and his admin, my good old friend Kaye !

I did two sets of roundtables with Austin employees.. and I REALLY loved those.. I love hearing what folks are doing and thinking. We did a bunch of brainstorming on how we can improve our lives at work.

Then it was time for the entrepreneurs event.. there are supposedly about 300 folks there.. though I think it was a smaller crowd than that.. I do know the room was packed. The folks there were all entrepreneurs of one sort or another. The event was cosponsored by IBM ad the city of austin chamber of commerce.

Again.. I thin the tlak went OK.. Afterwords I was pleasantly mobbed.

I didn’t get out of there until about 9:30.. then I went out to dinner with my good freind Dave at a cool package store/ organic grocery// jazz bar / Indian restaurant.   It was awesome food and music.

Huh.. why no picture of Dave.. can’t find one.. bummer.. it was great seeing him !

At that point is was about 11.. I got a text message that Alison for Colony I was finally in town. Her BF Scott just transferred to Dell in Austin.. Alison is commuting. it was SOOOOOOO good seeing her ..

Scott has the collest pub, lela.. awwwww.. look at that face…. !

I walked tot he end of the bar to get a sandwich from the trailer cart there (Austin has this cool gourmet trailer culture now) .. Ths one was run by Lucky from Italy. He ID”ed me and Alison as being from the Colony. He made the most awesome sandwhiches.. He cooked the bread from scratch as you watched in his wood fired oven.. it was really delicious ..

Around 12L30.. I was beat.. back to the h hotel for a few hours of sleep before coming back to VT>

I met Gabe and Diane at Burton for a bit.. then Gabe went off to the Gymnasium.. I went to my hacker meeting for the VT2600 group. It’s such an awesome group of guys. We’re talking about setting up a space to promote ethical/fun  hacking.. We spent a long time trying to figure out what to call our group. (any ideas ?!?!)

OK.. getting sleepy.. time to go to ed.. More tomorrow.. 

nite everyone.. nite sam
-me