Back from J Milo Seward Gymnasium still whistling the WAHS fight song after a classic 64-62 Canary triumph over the Green Hornets from across the creek in Emmaus. It was a great game: well coached, well officiated, well played, and well cheered. Both teams had chances down the stretch and it was fun to watch. Now we're home, lofting. Jenelle's showing off her new work computer - hooray CFF grant! - and we're wondering what the cats are thinking about when they plop on the floor on stare into space.
posted at 9:50 PM - comments
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Last night's board meeting was a bit more edgy; citizens poured out to protest park expansion and two things were new: citizens at the meeting and protests.
The weather has been the big happenings here, though I'm not sure why. Jenelle had Wednesday off and a delay this morning, and there were a boatload of absentees at KNL. Ultimately it was relatively slick by midday, but at no point did I need the 4wd capabilities of the truck. Jenelle shoveled the heavy snow and the Commonwealth applied a liberal dosage of salt to the roads and now it could be July as far as the roads feel. I have no rationalization for this disproportionate response to winter weather.
There's supposed to be a big winter storm coming so we bought 1800 loaves of bread and 50 five gallon drums of water and are prepared to stay in our house until spring. Hope we don't get all four of the inches that are forecast or we might have to eat the cats.
I skied up at Bear Creek Mountain Resort last evening with a couple of guys from PD. It was great to get out after work, work on turns, and get to know folks better. I got a six-session pass and have five sessions left so I think my Monday evenings just got fuller. BCMR isn't a whopper of a hill but it's amazing what some carvy skis, tunes, and a couple friends can do for the local slope.
My old boss whose initials form the first half of the acronym MPYD has written a well-though-out and compelling article in Professional Boatbuilder about the 'greening' of the motoryacht. His points are well made, but as with much of the sustainability movement the consumer incentives need a little work.
Part of why and how I came to like manufacturing so much is my experience at Tauber Institute of Global Operations. This Friday I was back on campus - in the beautiful new campus of Ross - to present a project for students to consider; I think this went about as well as could have been expected. It was a whirlwind trip with Donny G from EG, and it was a good chance to get to know him better, which, in turn, will come in handy come March.
Today we took it easy given my late arrival last night. Jenelle said she wanted to take it easy and 'go for a ride' so that's what we did. Doylestown, Smokin' Lil's, bookshops, sunny roads. Now we're back in LMT enjoying the loft and Prairie Home.
I expect today is about the internet's peak bandwidth day, half due to streaming video around noon (we got a warning at work that the LAN was experiencing rolling outages due to extremely high personal internet use) and half due to inauguration posts just like this one.
Martin Sheen, as Jed Bartlet, was famously always asking "what's next?" His tone wasn't a question of wonder but rather process. He knew there was much work to do and had the tasks in mind, and "what's next?" was the prompt to move forward. I've noticed coworkers asking themselves, when things are hectic and we've got much to do, "what's next?" That's what they said when the speech was over and we trickled down from the loft.
The bedrock core of my belief in this country is manufacturing. The framers set up a system with incredible flexibility and foresight, but ultimately our economy makes those documents stand up and ours is a manufacturing economy. I hope it stays that way; for the first time, somebody important has said that it will.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
I loved that roll-up-our-sleeves aspect to this day. Celebrating is good but now it's time to get to it. The makers of things are ready. What's next?
Martin Luther King Jr Day and the last day of ski party coincide; it was meant to be a day off but I found myself in the office for the middle part of the day.
The weekend went well, with smaller-than-expected crowds at home and at the bottom of lifts. A perfect storm of colds and conflicts meant that Nick, Bonnie, and Ryan were the only folks able to make it out. We had a great time skiing Blue Mountain on Saturday and Camelback Elk Mountain Sunday. The weather was crisp but manageable and we got a little pow in between to make things a bit softer for tired legs. I was also trying out some new gear, which performed incredibly well. Being an early adopter of helmets was very safe, but man have things changed from boeri Myto circa 1997 to Giro Talon circa 2008. Back on Fresh Meadow we had food with beans, planned unintentionally but still quite good, and ice cream sundaes during 'Out Cold' to wrap up the weekend.
One time when we were driving over the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in Groton '96 Tears' by ? and the Mysterians came on the radio and I was, to put it mildly, rocking my face off with the air keyboard. A car we happened to be passing sped back up to pass us, and as they went by the whole family was rocking their faces off on various air instruments. That's what I like.
Work has been continuously strenuous as I keep my head down on two point five projects. Hours have picked up a bit, but not so much that I couldn't play hoops last night with Ryan from the KNL down at Perkiomen Academy. I played pathetically, incredibly poorly but later realized that I literally had not taken a single warm-up shot or stretched or anything so maybe I can mulligan that outing. East Penn's spring adult ed calendar arrived last night and there's hoops and ultimate on the docket, so my spring may feature sports two to four nights a week. Maybe then I wouldn't be so sore the next day....or maybe I'd be sore all the time. Either way, fun.
Nine days into this great year and one week in the books; if they are all like the one just past, this promises to be one for the ages. The days were nonstop busy from Monday morning to Friday afternoon and thus the week evaporated. In the slim evenings there were new Top Gear, a Parks & Rec board meeting, and a gym date this evening. Now it's late, we've offset the gym with Cold Stone and it's Friday night at home and I haven't gotten an email in three hours....weekend.
posted at 10:20 PM - comments
Monday, January 05, 2009
I got up early on Saturday, the second of three straight bristol days, and saw fit to don my new cycling apparel and head out for a ride around the Sauerkraut/100/LowerMac block. It was crazy! I was comfortable - though not exactly fit - throughout despite a biting wind and temps around 35. Whooo!
With the rest of the day we painted the laundry room, watched a movie, went to the gym, and generally made it feel like a regular Saturday. Sunday was lazier; we got up late (can't tell you when but it rhymes with 'schmen schmirty'), busted out some serious organizing, and watched some UM hoops with fervor not seen in a decade. It felt like a Sunday and that was fitting since this morning was Monday and we got up and went to work.
We had resolved to ski today but that just wasn't going to happen. It was just to early in the day, NYE had been too late, and the cats were too cute to get out of bed and into clothes made of synthetic fibers. Instead we kicked it at home, having fun with epoxy, emailing people on VRBO, and watching football.
posted at 10:39 PM - comments
Thursday, January 01, 2009
We're at home, recovering from the Rose Bowl Game Brent & Herbie Try to Get Pete Carroll's Number Bowl which was frustrating in every way. We had an awesome NYE in Baltimore, though, so it's cool.
Our brief holiday started at National Aquarium Baltimore, which we enjoyed but were a little perplexed by. Somehow when you say 'National' something and are near DC, innocent tourists equate this with a Smithsonian-quality museum. We didn't think the aquarium quite measured up. It was cool to see sharks and dolphins and fishes galore, but a few times we were kinda stuck with heads to the side going "awwww that's sad for the poor old octopus in that little tank." Very high winds messed up our previous plans for evening revelry and fireworks; in their stead we did some window shopping along Light Street in Federal Hill and then settled in for dinner at Cork's, where we happily ate in the New Year and celebrated with some very excellent wine. There was an elegant simplicity all around - in the food, the place, and even the idea of being at dinner when 2009 arrived - and it seemed to match our mood.
Friday, January 30, 2009