Seems I was watching the Wimbledon semi-final match between Federer and Nadal today. Federer won. I turned to my computer and searched “Wimbledon scores”. The following shows the returned web page with Google’s take on the search results and some suggested “Top Stories” for that subject. Well News18.COM seems to have not paid attention to the match and Google grabbed that info to show it to me as a possible next choice. Yeah, no, Nadal did NOT defeat Federer! The linked story from the “picture” does have the heading corrected to “Federer defeats Nadal …”. I propose a fine of $2,000 – payable to me.
(The above image is a portion of a news article published on June 22, 2019 by a longtime TV station as part of their news coverage on their web site. The article describes some of the worst crashes in New England since 2000. In this one case here, perhaps voice feedback proofreading would have caught this unfortunate mistake.)
The USS Lyndon B Johnson was christened this morning, April 27, 2019, at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath Maine. The north gates opened at 9 AM and shuttle buses provided the transportation for us folks to travel to the south end of the shipyard where the ceremony was to take place. A steady rain had fallen overnight and into the morning , but only a foggy mist remained visible in the distance and up around the shipyard crane tops. Fortunately the ceremony went through without any rainfall. The cool breeze was another matter – coming off the Kennebec River, it was a reminder that it was still spring in Maine.
The event was not without its controversy though, as a group of protesters lined Washington Street near the north gate parking entrance. It was reported that some were arrested for impeding vehicle traffic by lying in the road but when we drove through, that was not the case. That’s what is great about America, one can voice one’s free speech rights in various ways, but in this case, lying in the road just might be pushing the envelope.
At any rate, once on BIW property, the hosts provided great service from assisting in parking in the tight confines of the North gate parking lot all the way down to the event itself. Brochures and ship tokens were handed out after stepping off the bus, and friendly staff helped make sure we got to the seating area. Ship hats and sweatshirts were available to purchase. If you didn’t get it there, you can probably order it from the ship’s website.
Notable BIW employees at the event included, among many, Bob D, Mark B, Louise D, and Gary S. Have a great retirement Gary (starting next week). I will also note that I had worked with these particular folks a few years ago, so it was nice to see some familiar faces. I also saw Bill C, but that was in quick passing (just too many people to stop at that point to strike up a conversation).
We sat in the green section using our blue tickets. That’s one thing about rain the previous night – some folks don’t show up. This allowed us to be 20 feet or so closer to the ceremonial tent, or whatever it is called, as compared to if we had sat in the actual light blue section based on our tickets. That’s right we did that!
And off to the side was a nice looking VIP bus, which likely held the Ship sponsors and maids/matrons of honor(LBJ’s daughters and grand-daughters), the Maine congressional delegation, some Naval brass, and a couple other speakers. They were inside while the several hundred of us Mainers braved the elements prior to the ceremony start at about 10am. The speakers eventually made their way to center stage, introduced, and made their speeches. It was actually nice to have Senator Collins, Senator King, Representative Pingree, and Representative Golden give appropriately themed speeches.
The highlight speech of course was from Lynda Johnson Robb, LBJ’s daughter, the christening sponsor. It was highly personal, as she referred to LBJ as “daddy”. Somewhere about half way through her speech, she briefly held her gift to the ship’s prospective commanding officer – a hand-sized Texas long-horned steer ( a symbolic gesture of the LBJ ranch, and as she said it wouldn’t be appropriate to have brought a full sized real one). I guess they put these things on the ship’s bridge!
And with the speeches concluded, LBJs two daughters Lynda and Luci, proceeded onto the ship and up towards the bow where they christened the ship by breaking two bottles of champagne on a white metal star which appeared to be about 3 feet in diameter and situated on a small pedestal. I believe the star represents both the state of Texas and for the silver star LBJ was awarded during World War II.
And that officially concluded the ceremony with pomp and circumstance provided by the Navy Band.
Spring has arrived and all about the yard, things are abuzz with change that this time of year brings forth. From these pictures you can tell such things are clearly happening as the snow melts away flowing to nearby seasonal brooks. This patio chair, for example, was blown by a winter storm a few months ago and became encased in the icy snow that day. Now, with a few more sunny days, winter’s icy grip will have melted away and the chair will be returned to it’s summer home a hundred or so feet away. The larger area about here, or I should say below, is a snow covered seasonal pond used for ice skating.
Nearby, this bench attests to likely slow process of being freed any time soon – perhaps by mid to late April. Then, it will be time to give it a little care before the wood becomes part of the lawn that grows about the area.
Moving west about 50 feet, this lone oak leaf has melted itself on a slow paced journey of a few inches into the lightly crusted snow. All its leafy friends are likely buried a few feet below in the nearby drainage ditch or, more likely, in the woods a few hundred feet away where the nearest oak tree stands. In my younger years this probably would not have caught my attention.
Time to have a Spring bonfire before the snow goes.
My Chevy frame silently waiting for a redo and the rest of its nearby parts. My sons tell me they are getting closer to working on it.
Closer to the woods, where this Chevy frame sits, a few bare sections of ground are visible. Still brown though of course. Hey look there are oak leaves out here. This area will eventually just get mowed every now and then. So I head back to the house knowing that this white stuff could still fall on occasion for another month or so. But I do make a stop on the eastern side of the house, and the only color, other than my JD 410, are these plants starting their annual Spring surge as they shoot above the softer and warmer soil around the house foundation.
Color!
Eventually these become orange tiger lilies and some white daffodils.
So I guess things aren’t really abuzz that much just yet – it’s more of a slower paced journey until the ground thaws out more. Once that happens – boom – mosquitoes, but that’s another story.
Blazing yule logs, what is going on here? Fresh back to planet Earth, we see that not all things can ever be perfect. That’s right, that’s not a guitar, it’s a lawn mower, also known as George.
Frozen Chores
Not being in harmony with the other tools in the shed, this mega-sensitive lawn mower refused to call it quits at the beginning of this early winter season back this past November. Indeed it had yet to complete the mowing of this fenced-in portion of our yard at that time. Amazingly, I received a letter from the Lawn Tool Civil Liberties Union, or LTCLU, and their attorney that I was not to store away said lawn mower until it got the chance to take one last whack at the grass it had not yet cut. And to think the paperwork specified that I was to keep it running with a full tank of gas. Yeah right, the nerve of the AI of things today. And so it froze to the ground. Now, here it is 3 months later on February 25th, and the stubbornness of this contraption lingers under the snow awaiting for the moment the spring thaw arrives and its wheels become unfrozen from the ground. But ya know that could be April or so around here. It does have a full tank of gas, but it sputtered out one night long ago. I drew the line at restarting it, again.
Oh, seeing that this thing is about 6 years old, I don’t believe it will recall what it was working on before the cold and snow hit. I’m gonna have to repeat myself, like I so often did with my kids when they were that age. Come to think of it, that really never stops, even in their twenties.
In a few months we’ll see how things mend with the other members of the group in the shed. Mr lawn mower might have to improve up on his performance and mature into the lead role on his own ideas. Sometimes playing the right chord is the key to success, and having outside help from friends like Eric, can muster enough motivation to create a long lasting impression. Indeed.
I’m not exactly sure where that last thought came from, but until then, this lawn mower will be mowing your strawberry fields forever. And don’t forget the rodents.
Yes!! Patriots win a defensive game with the offense taking the weekend off. There were some good plays on both sides of the ball, but did NE dominate the first half clock or what? A few flubs on offense kept the game lower scoring that it should have, but some key plays by NE on the RAMS offense in or near the end zone simply kept this a low scorer. A few inches here or there and the score could have easily been 20-10, with NE still on top. There were a few drives that the Rams would have been better punting on first down! Can you say Edelman, Edelman, Edelman? That must have what the Rams saw, or didn’t see, on the field as he racked up some serious yards. Gronk caught some key passes in the TD drive and some key first downs by Sony Michele and Rex Burkhead. No this wasn’t a high scoring game everyone thought it might be. But the Patriots Nation won. It was pretty much a won game before it even started.
Update: Based on intercepted interstellar transmissions, only about 132 Ram fans were watching the Superbowl during the second half – the rest were outside practice punting.
Jigsaw puzzles! One thousand piece jigsaw puzzles – whew. It seems like these pastime favorites in this house attract a few people at first, then during “construction” a few other family members chip in and then you have those that simply walk by and just look at it, off to do their own thing. Other times someone comes by and picks up a piece and places it in the right place in the puzzle and moves one. Someone else says “Hey, I was looking for that!”
The subject puzzle of this post.
“I was looking for that”, yeah right. A few days ago my daughter Cezarie and I completed this puzzle seen here. My wife helped at the start.
Our strategy was simple – get the edge pieces and finish in record time. Cezarie did most of the edge. We were able to get the face, the owl, some moon pieces, and put those into position. Building the puzzle generally went from right to left, with mostly the top dark portion getting little attention. Cezarie, being somewhat organized, was working on the next pieces abutting the edges. We spent about a day getting about a quarter of it done.
Some pieces were insanely cut along the edge of a color change, making some searches difficult. Soon the discussion became “Think you’ll want to do this puzzle again?”. Some answers from the younger half of the puzzle team duo was a teenagerish “Probably, well, maybe, probably maybe, not really”. Something like that. I was more on to the thought that I’d make it into part of a summer bonfire out in the yard.
The second day brought the puzzle to conclusion, although it took most of the day and night. The last part to complete was the dark portion from the crown and up a bit and over to the left as vines/branches and morphing into riders on horses. What’s that you say? Riders? Yeah, with flags on poles, beards, torch, and the like – all typical stuff that you CAN’T SEE. Turns out the puzzle is more black in the black ink than the picture on the puzzle box. At the point of finishing the last hundred or two hundred, some fits were simply a guess or a methodical journey to check every piece in a certain spot. Get one in, they all look the same. Seem to come in twos – get two in and then take 10 minutes to find another two. Maddening.
Here it is Wednesday the 23rd of January. The NFL conference championships were held on the 20th, 3 days ago. My predictions are therefore a little late, so we’ll dispense with those and just publish the results of the games, both of which went into overtime:
New England Patriots over Kansas City Chiefs 36-31. The Chiefs forgot to play in the first half, but that was quite the last quarter we all saw. In overtime, Patriots took possession on the coin toss and marched down the field and score a touchdown – game over.
Los Angeles Rams over the New Orleans Saints 26-23. That certainly was a missed pass interference which should have been called on the Rams in the waning minutes of the game. It is arguably a no-call that resulted in a missed opportunity for the Saints to be in the Superbowl. Instead, as it was, the Rams won in overtime with a field goal.
No that isn’t a football score, it’s a wintertime annual event when it snows – and the score for this 3 mile stretch of road. Here in Lisbon Falls, Maine several of the snow storms this winter have been the type mixed with rain, resulting in some slush galore. Gadzooks when that freezes, which it has. And watch out for sure when the snow plow goes by on a fast clearing run. A clearing run will throw the snow from the street into the shoulders and way beyond. The velocity of the flying snow will knock out just about anything, especially these country mailboxes – metal, plastic, it doesn’t matter. So this here mailbox took a flight into the shrubs leaving just the post – the board the box itself was mounted to was split in two. As any Mainer would do, I screwed the two pieces back to the post with 4 inch decking screws. But in true Maine fashion I duct taped the darn box a few times around back to the boards. If I could have somehow put a tarp into this fix, I’d be a real redneck for sure. At least the red tape looks kind of like reflectors. The bottom hinged door almost didn’t make the repair, but some red duct tape put there makes it somewhat usable. There are in reality a few resilient mailboxes back up the ridge, and I can only imagine what the plow drivers have in their thoughts with an approaching snowstorm just a few days away. Note the metal post about 30 feet further down the road: It used to have a 3 x 5 aluminum MDOT reflector – it’s gone.
My mailbox on a mild 34F degree day, January 16th, in Lisbon Falls.
The above graph shows two data streams. The blue line represents the data downloaded from the Central Maine Power (CMP) website, which is essentially the data from the smart meter attached to my house. The orange line represents the data collected by my own AEON home energy monitor attached to the mains at the circuit breaker box in my basement. That data is fed wireless via ZWave protocol to a local computer for processing by the openHAB software. Both data sets are imported into an SQL database for comparison and plotting.
The graph is showing 66 days from November 8th 2018 to January 12th 2019. The CMP data for January 12th is missing the data for one hour (11pm to midnight), but overall, there is no large difference between the two measuring devices. Whereas the AEON HEM is not completely calibrated for voltage level and temperature variations, I believe the CMP smart meter is likely to be. The CMP smart meter does not have a UL label on it, so I’m not sure what independent agency can confirm its accuracy versus any other. It may be on the UL website as simply existing, which I believe to be misleading.
In number format, the data for the above graph is as follow:
