Saturday night – poopometer


OK.. it’s official.. our septic system is failing.. after more than 30 years of great service it just isn’t going to take it anymore.   It lets us know by backing up into our basement from time to time.. not pleasant. We’re going to have to dig it up and out in a new system as soon as we can get a permit. For the time being, however.. we have to live with it.. If we’re careful  (e.g short showers and using the laundromat) we might be able to make it until the spring. I decided to see if I could make a way of monitoring  how close to the edge we were running the system. First I made a set of corrosion resistant electrodes, then I hooked them to a  long wire with simple resistance measuring circuit and a bright LED.

Then I open the septic tank inspection port and mounted the electrodes so they could sense when the water level went over the drain to the leach field.. When it does that.. it’s about to spill over. Then I put the sensing circuit and light inside our back door so we can see what’s up. It looks like this..

That is until someone took a shower… and this happens.. the bad thing is that the shower water still haven’t drained when we came home 3 hours later.. looks like we’re going to have to be very, very careful…

On the cool side.. it’s nice to have a light that goes on when you flush the toilet.. not many folks have those !

We also took down the trampoline today .. which makes it officially winter. It now has my permission to start snowing and not stop until may.. Diane and I used this hooky thing that Sam made to remove the springs. I like using things he touched…

.. and he touched many folks tonight. Tonight was the movie night at the Jericho Community Center.   Angus and his family and friends had arraigned the whole thing. The place was packed !.. First they showed Angus’s movie ‘Get Some _____’ with Chis F, Max E, Luke H. and friends.. It was great.. they had scenes from their trip to whistler, sugarbush, mad river and, of course, Bolton..

The event and the movie had many fine sponsors.. including Liberty Skis., The Sunken Ship and the Juice Bar on Nantucket. Bolton. John’s Shoe Shop, Botecelli and Phl.. and our good frinds at Talent..

The movie was dedicated to Sam !.. and all profits from the event are goign to the Sam Cohn Foundation… That’s just so wonderful that these kids would do this for Sam and for a good cause…
It really warms our hearts !  I could feel him there tonight…

I wasn’t quick enough to get pics of the 2nd film.. which was ‘It’s Geometry by Sam R. and Garrett. It was awesome too. There were soem great scenes of the Townsends and even a few of Gabe doign some spectacular wipe outs..  I loved the photography in these movies..

Speaking of Talent.. Our beutiful friends Hannah and Dave were there witht Adah and Senyah.. It was Hannah’s brithday !

In honor of that, Diane, Gabe and I went over to Hannah and Daves after the moview to play games.. It was cool walkign in and seeing the Twonsends big old dining room table there..

You can even see where Sam scratched hos name into it.. Bod boy.. but I’mso  glad that you did !

We ended up playineg Caranium and Charades.. Both were a hoot !!! We laughed so much.. It was really nice being there

OK.. time to go recheck the watre level.. Sleep well folks.. we love you Sam..
-me

Thursday night – done-ish

Ugh… just finished my ISSCC paper.. and I’m too tired to write anymore. I’m hoping that the paper and the presentation I’m putting around it  will get some of the folks who  see it interested in helping me get kids more interested in science and technology.  . Here’s an ugly low-res screen version of it using a ‘free’ program that puts a huge watermark on each page.  (If you really want to read the paper and give me comments on content or form.. send me a note and I’ll send you a copy)

I’m going to sleep now.. nite all. nite Sam !
-me

Wednesday night – Proofread

We just finished a great dinner with friend Elizabeth and her kids Burke and Izzy.. It was fun having them over….

As you probably know, I’ve been working on a paper about getting kids more interested in engineering and science.  It’s a topic that’s near and dear to me..so I enjoy the material..  but a paper is a paper and I just hate writing..  we’ll.. it’s not that I hate it so much.. it’s that it’s difficult for me. As you may have noticed.. spelling and grammar are not my strengths. Anyway,  I finished the first draft about a month ago.. now the final draft is due Friday. I’ve gotten feedback from about 10 folks . I stayed up most of Monday night worked all  those comments back in.. It’s fun but hard to try and make sense of people’s comments.  

Taken at 3AM

Yesterday I gave the ‘finished’ copy to good friend Kathy who works as a professional proof reader and editor.  TonightI went up to Kathy’s and she walked me through all the punctuation and wording bugs that were left.. and there were a TON of them..My 19 pages now all look like this

And this ….

And this ….

It’s abotu 11 PM now.. and I’m just sitting down to work in all those corrections.. It’s goign to be a long and boring night.. I’d best get to it..

Lou and Kathy have a picture of the bicentenial photo the town took at the round church.. I always stare at it as I go in their house… 1994.. wow…

And here we are.. Diane with Sam and me with Gabe… frozen in that moment.. surrounded by freinds..
It makes me happy to see…

Remember that, Sam ? Nite
-me

Tuesday night – spaced out

I stayed up until 3 last night working on my paper..  Even though , I still managed to get a good night’s sleep.. I never managed to get going today. I spent a good portion of my day at work just spacing out.
I need to get more organized for the rest of the week. The good news is that I got my paper to Kathy who’s going to help me with final editing and proofing. It feels very good to have that (nearly) behind me.

One funny thing that happened today is that I got notes for a few friends that I’d forgotten to put the link to the Townsend’s travel blog in yesterday’s post. … so here it is .   So Townsends.. if you’re reading this from Peru .. It looks like you have several folks here who are interested in following your travels. .. Please post soemthing soon 🙂

Oh.. one thing I want to get out there is that Angus and his buddies are doign another movie night to raise money for the Sam Cohn foundation . It’s this Saturday, Dec 6th at 7pm in the Jericho Community Center. Ther’e goign to be showing 2 new movies…’It’s Geometry;.. and ‘Get Some’.. Please come and watch some killer boarding and sking .. and support the Sam Cohn Foundations wokr of supporting fun for folks who could use it !  We wall want to thank Angus, his family, the rest of the Tonar crew.. and the sponsors includng The Sunken Ship . and The Juice Bar on Natucket, Bottecelli and Pohl, John’s Shoeshop North and our good frinds t Talent.. Coem and bring a freind or 10 !

OK.. I gotta go beat Gabe up.. more tomorrow.. wish me luck getting focused..
Nite all.. Nite Sam !
-me