Long, Slow Burn

I took my wife and boys to Dragon*Con this Sunday. We focused on some of the Science tracks of the show but we saw plenty of the costume characters in and around the show. We saw lots of celebrities walking around. Very cool stuff.

From the "Are we alone" session

Star Wars Revisited

Adam Savage

Hellboy in front of an office

Glamor at Dragon*Con (who knew!)

This is the first post of the blog about building our new shed even though this is the second day.

On day 0 (zero) the kids helped me cut down a large sweetgum tree. Sweetgum trees are the weeds of trees. They drop pointy sweetgum balls all over the yard that fly about when you mow over them and are a general nuicanse. We’ll be planting some evergreen shrubs between us and our neighbors to help soften the edges of our shed.

Here is what the shed is supposed to look like:

On day 1, my neighbor Tom came over and helped me start framing the deck of the shed. The nail gun helped us get that done is short fashion. The only thing that threw me is that the deck of the 8′x12′ shed is really just 7′5″. I thought we got shorted on some of the timbers but it was just me mis-reading the plans. Tom had to leave for a conference call so I used Kim’s parents post hole digger to dig up holes where the posts were supposed to go. By the time I got that finished, it was close to being dark.

On day 2, Tom came back over in the morning and we shimmed up the platform, and used the nail gun again to tack in the 4×4 posts in the holes. We then started mixing cement and filled in the holes with the 4×4s in place. There it must stay for 24 hours while it cures.

Later today, we’ll be framing the walls. My wife will be painting the exterior walls.

I’m really feeling it in my muscles after digging those holes but overall I’m really happy with how the shed is coming along.

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I’m sorry to have to expose you to this joke.  If you know German, please do not follow this link to the documentary about the joke.  Sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjbYNgIi5ss

Argh.  I couldn’t take the default look of this blog any longer.  I’m supposed to be a computer guy, and here I am with the default template?!?  Not any more.

I hopped over to Template Monster and picked me out a free theme.  I’m definitely going to use them for design work in the future.  It just doesn’t pay to do the graphical design when they are doing such a great job.  I’ll focus on the content.

Anyway, new look installed in about 5 minutes.  Now I just need to think of interesting things to say.  Naw!  Too much work!

Today is an “off” day.  I’m working but I’m taking care of a bunch of tasks that need taken care of  but are pushed off when getting a software project out the door.

I’m heading back to my office from checking in on some details about our upcoming vacation, and the phone rings.  It’s Janice from down the street.  She’s got a snake in her garage and her son needs to know how to get it out the door, or how best to separate its head from its body.

Stop.  Stop right there.  I’m a snake lover.  I find them fascinating, beneficial, and yes, beautiful.

I tell her to have her son get a broom and just sweep it outside.  If Plan A won’t work for them to give me a call and I’ll come over for the snake and release it in my yard.  Yes, my yard.  From the sound of it, it sounded like either a Black Racer or a Rat Snake.  Both of these snakes are non-poisonous and relatively harmless.  I get the call a couple of minutes later asking if I could come over.

I got a pillow case and a short wooden stick and rushed over before they got the hoe out.  There it was in the corner.  A beautiful Rat Snake at about three feet long.  I put the pillow case down next to it and hoped that it would crawl in for safety.  No such luck.  With a little prodding from the stick, it made a run for it.  I pinched it down with the stick and attempted to grab it with my gloved hand.  It struck out at my hand but the fangs didn’t pierce the leather, and I was able to get a hold of it.  The son handed me the pillow case and the snake was relieved to have a quiet place to re-gather some strength.  Two minutes worth of work.
I tried to inform the son what a great benefit snakes are to have around but I don’t really think it sunk in.  I asked him to call me the next time they had a snake in their garage, as opposed to the alternative.

While walking back to my house, snake in pillow-case, another neighbor was heading to her mailbox.  She asked what I had in the pillow-case and I told her that it was a snake.  She informed me that I could stop right where I was as she wasn’t a fan of snakes.  I told her what I told the son, that snakes are great to have around and … I don’t think it sunk in.  Her husband loves snakes.  She doesn’t.

Back at my house, I called my kids and wife outside for the releasing of the snake.  My dog Gala was there too.  We went to the woods on the side of the house, released the snake and it made a quick get away to a brush pile.   “Welcome to the neighborhood!”

I like snakes.  They’re always welcome at my house.  (Unless they’re poisonous which most of Georgia snakes are not.)

Ark. Researcher Says Some Bats Bounce Back

I just wish some of our bats would find our bat house again!

I’ve got a carpenter bee problem. Or I had a carpenter bee problem. The carpenter bees have been ravaging my siding for several years with little I could do about it. It seems like some Pilated Woodpeckers decided to help me out by ripping open the siding and getting the larvae from their tunnels. I’ve got a series of 3 and 4 inch gashes in my siding. I’ve got to decide on whether to patch the holes or to replace the facia boards. I needed more to do.

I had a visitor early this morning. At 4:50am, I felt something crawling on me. Thinking it was a spider, I tried to brush it away but before I could I felt a sting on the inside of my left arm, by my bicep. I went into the bathroom to turn on the lights and I could see a red area on my arm but not the actual location of what I thought was a bite.

I went back and woke Kim up saying that I thought there was a spider in the bed. We turned on the lights but we didn’t see anything. I had hopped back into bed and we were about to turn off the lights when Kim spotted something crawling around on the covers. I had the arachnid part right, but not the genus. Crawling around on the bed was a two inch scorpion.

Normally, I’m pretty scorpion friendly and when I find one in the kitchen or in the house I’ll turn it loose in our woods. At 5am though, I was less hospitable. He probably didn’t feel a thing.

This morning, you can definitely see where I was stung and I have slight numbness in my left arm. Not too bad. Yellowjacket stings are much more painful. I’m thinking he didn’t get a good sting and didn’t get a full complement of venom into me.

I’ve got one more creature to add to my list of creatures that have stung me. {grin}