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March 27, 2024 – The 1990s Called, They Want Their Fountain Back

March 27, 2024 /

Spring is in the air. No, it is not exactly here but I think that we are past the worst of winter. A water feature that I purchased for my wife’s birthday a couple of years ago sat idly on the deck. I know for a lot of people, the sound of water brings serenity. Not me, but she wanted it on.

She came in frantic saying that it was broken. I feared that freezing weather might break the glazed clay structure. I had drained all the water, but that wasn’t enough as the base had split. I felt bad because nerves about upcoming biopsy was getting the best of her. Sure, we can replace it but that isn’t going to calm nerves the night before a hospital stay and potentially life altering information.

Back in the late 1990s there was a trend to to have these small, table-top, serenity fountains. We had one as well (from here on out, I will call it mine). It had sat in storage for years (and years). I remembered that we had it, so I sprung into action.

The one I had was home built, meaning the pump was purchased separately from the bowl and the bedrock and the focal rock. We had used a piece of bamboo to conceal some PVC tube from the pump and it never quite flowed the way we wanted it. After a month or so of running, the bamboo would break and then I would run around and try to find a suitable replacement. To top it off, I filled the bowl with aquarium gravel and that took all of the volume in the bowl so it was always running dry.

Being much older and wiser (and tool richer) now, I thought I will drill a hole in the focal rock for the water to come out of. Forget the bamboo and the tubing and it will look a lot nicer too. The roughly and poorly adhered slices of slate cemented together broke in three pieces. but I did get a through hole in two of the pieces. So, I forced the PVC tubing through the two so that they would roughly look like they belonged.

I have some work to do still. But, you can see it is working and I think it looks better than it did before. I want to put some hardware cloth down for the rocks to sit on. I tried a couple of steel rods that I had with some window screen over the top. It kind of worked, but I didn’t have time to wait for serenity.

Changes to make.

  1. Weld up a steel super structure.
  2. Purchase hardware cloth (wire mesh) and cut to fit the bowl
  3. Layer the window screen on top of the hardware cloth
  4. Adhere the two pieces of focal rock back together and place
  5. Finally, add the base rock
  6. Maybe, embellish a little more with craft store or aquarium finds
  7. And now we are back in the 1990s, but much better

End Your Programming Routine: This fountain does not make the noise of the outdoor fountain. But, I think it has the potential to look nice and it does take it out of storage. I can also put it in a place that my wife can enjoy it while going through treatment even if winter continues.

March 26, 2024 – Gearing Up For Battle

March 26, 2024 /

I am going to tell you, being a support person to someone going through a life-threatening illness is not the hardest thing. It doesn’t compare in a long way to the person going through the battle. But, it is not easy either. For better or worse, I know a little something about this.

Today, I want to talk about making the support role successful. The obvious priority is for the ill person to focus solely on healing. My first foray into this was in 2010. My kids were two and four. At least life is a little easier in that I don’t need childcare anymore. Here are the basics.

  1. Communicate Proactively- In the US, we have a social benefit of Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Your job will be protected up to six months of providing support if you choose to file it. You may not get paid for that time, but you won’t be fired either. I was lucky in that I could work from the hospital and come and go from the office as needed.
  2. Anticipate that you will lose control of the situation. One hour doctor’s visits turn into an all day battery of tests. You are just going to have prioritize your support role over jobs and deliverables. Be prepared for the unexpected.
  3. Simplify- Do whatever you can to simplify your life. Extra curricular activities, hobbies and anything not related to survival will take a back seat. It is OK if you communicate proactively, people will understand. Even things as simple as meals are a victim here. I will talk about some strategies later.
  4. Take advantage of all of those people that said they would help. I rotated help with child care primarily. Yes, I would take my boys with me sometimes, but they got bored after a couple of hours. So, I would take them to the hospital and then drop them off or have someone watch them while I went to the hospital. But, they can also make good companions or drivers or even pet feeders.
  5. Pack a go bag – I lived out of my backpack for several months. I had my work, my entertainment, my hygiene and snacks with me. I could leave one day and come home the next depending on what was going on.
  6. Stash supplies – I kept meals and clothes at the office. This allowed me to come straight from the hospital if I needed to. I didn’t need to worry about stopping or going home.
  7. Keep being a parent- You cant just forget about the kids. They also need attention, maybe even more so than before. You still have conferences and sporting events and their activities. Keeping some normalcy helps them cope with the situation as well.
  8. Support people need a break too- There were some times that I was just worn out. I would call my spouse and check-in and take the night off. This is a very difficult role, especially if it happens abruptly we can’t also add guilt to the list of problems.
  9. Temporarily suspend principles- Things like strict bedtime or drive through windows go a long way in remaining flexible. I rarely eat fast food. I say rarely because it has its place and the place is on the way to the hospital. It is a terrible way to live but when you are exhausted and everything is uncertain, it solves a problem that isn’t needed.
  10. Keep an open mind- The support person needs to be a positive and supportive attitude for the patient. The support person also needs to plan for the future and that future needs to consider the patient not being in it. Do the best you can to focus on the next step but don’t get locked into an outcome until it is clear.

Depending on the illness, an extended hospital stay is less likely. In some ways, it is easier when the patient is in the hospital, but in other ways it is more difficult. These strategies will work in both cases. I would say that I was lucky that hospitals and doctors were only thirty minutes away. Some people are hours away or even plane rides away. Modify these techniques as necessary for your situation.

End Your Programming Routine: It has been twelve years since I have had to go to battle. I am not looking forward to it, but at least I know what to expect and way too much experience. Pray for the doctors, the patient, the family and a positive outcome. If I could impress one thing, be prepared for and embrace the unexpected.

March 25, 2024 – The Words You Never Want To Hear

March 25, 2024 /

Today is an emotional response to some recent developments. I talk about being an advocate for your own health and my own experience of the health care system. I have been saving this up until I get all of the right and proper details, but after a month of waiting I just couldn’t anymore. So, while this journey has already begun, it is early. Surely, there will be a lot more to come.

March 22, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Conclusion

March 22, 2024 /

Let’s take a moment to breath. It hasn’t been too many pages but the ones that are there are rough ones. There is a lot of innuendo and recent history to Dante as well as mythology and biblical references that we had to wade through. It was many a night that it took me two hours to get through 30 pages.

I should go back to the very beginning. I first read this book in AP English, in high school. My version was a straight translation and I really had no idea what was going on. It wasn’t until the classroom discussion that I had any clue that there was more to the book than the story. We didn’t have the internet so any sort of analysis had to come from sources like Cliff Notes that you had to find and buy if you were so inclined.

I really didn’t appreciate what we read in that class. From the titles that I remember, it was Canterbury Tales, Gulliver’s Travels and Moby Dick to name a few. None of them I cared for. Thirty years post, I thought that maybe I could give Dante another shot. From what I remember of his work, I thought that I could find some common ground between what I do and what he did.

I am here to say that my memory failed me. What I thought I knew was wrong. I was thinking that Dante took more of a biblical approach rather than a mythological and personal one. Were I to do it all over again, I would probably have skipped this one and left it in the memory hole because I am more than sure that I don’t agree with Dante’s view of the afterworld.

We are going to go on to Purgatory because I said so. That being said, I am not holding out any hope that this will work out any more favorably than it has so far. I won’t say that I hated the book, I didn’t. It is disappointing that it is not what I thought I was doing. That is hard to come back from.

The monsters, creatures and tortures were fun. I give Dante credit for what he did and then adding a personal vendetta to the whole thing. I have come to understand that Dante had some monastic training and this played strongly into the whole story. But to the accuracy and the theological logic was pretty shaky in my opinion.

In general, I think society’s mores have changed a lot since the 1300s. I suspect that disconnect makes me not empathize nearly as strongly with the crimes and punishments. According to common law (English middle ages in origin), we rank crimes against people over crimes against property. Then we still also have some Puritan in us so we have crimes against ourselves or so called victimless crimes. If I read things right, Dante puts hypocrisy (regardless of the victim) over murder and graft; something that we don’t give a second thought about.

It does remain to be seen that sin and crime are not synonymous. In a world created by god, in his image for us to spend eternity with him, it is hard to appreciate heresy being smaller sin than hypocrisy. Adam was created to be a friend of God, how is it possible that God’s betrayal be worse than man’s? I mean that the whole hierarchy made little to no sense to me other than gross categories.

Moving forward, as a protestant I don’t jive with Purgatory. It is not something that I believe nor have I invested much energy into learning about it. From what I have ascertained so far, Purgatory is a place to atone for sins before you can ascend to Heaven. It also appears that some of the same sins in Hell are also found in Purgatory. Next week it will be the first nine Cantos in Purgatory.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t mean to be down on Dante, we just don’t believe the same things. We also come from different times and cultures. If you haven’t read the Inferno, it is a must read to round you out as a person, not to give you insight into the afterlife. This is fiction and entertainment just like “The Good Place“. Just keep that in perspective.

March 21, 2024 – Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)

March 21, 2024 /

I have been incredibly blessed in my life. But I don’t really appreciate it. I have had some perspective to be able to see the mirror but it is so hard to grasp it. For instance, I have never broken a bone. I have never been admitted to the emergency room, I don’t take any maintenance medicines and I don’t need glasses to see.

For some strange reason, I hear songs in my head. I was thinking about titling this something like ‘You cant lose what you never had’ and then this song came into my mind. I started listening and writing.

This started out as a story about my vision. I went to the eye doctor recently because my vision seems to be rapidly getting worse. Now, I go to the eye doctor a lot because both of my parents have glaucoma and I have been ‘glaucoma suspect’ for all of my life. In fact, I gave my son that gift as well.

It is not the effects of glaucoma that I am suffering, it is the effects of age. I am comfortable with the monitoring that is happening and all of my numbers are stable. I was buying spray paint in the fall and I was trying to read the label for the coverage area in a can. I could not read the text. I finally gave up and bought two cans.

The other night, my wife asked me to read the tag on a piece of clothing. I couldn’t make out the letters. It looked like a jumbled mass. My son said, “it’s upside down.” Well no wonder, but I didn’t recognize it.

My vision is generally good. I don’t really need glasses to see. They help a lot in low light and small text up close. I have had glasses for several years that I try to wear when I work. But, I have been very poor about doing it religiously. Last week, I noticed at the end of the day I was worn out, like I just wanted a nap. I thought it was just me sitting in front of the computer all day, but it turns out that when I didn’t have my glasses on I would end the day fatigued.

I am going to have a lot to say about this topic coming up in the near future, just not today. But, having been a spouse to person having life-threatening medical issues, it makes a person realize that we don’t appreciate health when we have it. I don’t carry my glasses to the store to read labels because I never needed to before. It was actually a shock that I couldn’t read the writing. I didn’t know what to do.

It is hard for me to write with this perspective, because I don’t really have it. But, lots of people have glasses. I feel like, if your vision has been bad for all of your life, you don’t give it a second thought that vision correction is necessary to function. When you have never needed it, it is kind of humbling to realize that you are at that point.

End Your Programming Routine: Health is one of those few areas that most of us have a similar journey. Unless you are taken out in an accident or something pre-maturely, we are all going to have issues that we have never had before. I would like to find a way to appreciate those things without having to lose them. I just don’t know if it is in our nature. Maybe the way we appreciate it is that we don’t have to worry about it?

March 20, 2024 – Is Story Telling a Superpower?

March 20, 2024 /

Recently, I was listening to ‘The Art of Manliness’ podcast about how to tell a better story. It was the guest’s position that learning the art of story telling has major benefits. After listening to his perspective, I can certainly buy some of his position. No doubt that you can become a more compelling social person if you have the capability to tell a story on a whim.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that I think I am a decent story teller. In fact, much of what I write and talk about are stories. They stem from something that I observe in the course of my day which then spurs me to offer an opinion or analysis. Most of my podcasts are stories. I was observing that I often take the majority of the time setting up the background only to have the last quarter or so be the punchline. That sounds like a story to me.

I will never be a social person, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize the value of being able to use social skills effectively. I have spoken in the past about my benefit in doing this work and how it has translated in other areas of my life. I have always been a thoughtful communicator, choosing my words and interactions carefully. I have been very bad at impromptu interactions.

I remember this one point in my life where I actually observed a shift in nature. I was at a project site in Denver Colorado. Things were not going well and the client was getting upset and asking me very demanding questions. I had been travelling with several peers for months and they were not present this week. There was a group of new programmers with me, so I was seen as the leader.

Well, the questions were not about my work and I was not expecting this social dynamic. I faltered and one of the other programmers took over. From that moment on, his career skyrocketed. He became the project manager, then the program manager and finally the general manager in the course of three years. It was as if in that moment, I was watching an opportunity slip from my grasp.

That was almost fifteen years ago and I am a different person today. I am much more confident in the unknown and I have a better developed sense of business acumen. I should have been more prepared to understand what my expectations were going to be going into that week and it took that experience for me to learn. I am not upset or bitter about it, I was naïve. That was a story to tell that story telling has value. How about that?

There was one other profound thing that I heard in this podcast and that is a day not remembered is a day lost. The concept is being in the moment and then later reflecting on it as the genesis of finding story worthy moments. It fits into the Earnest Hemmingway quote perfectly “slowly, then rapidly”. The slowly part is all the things that were lost into how this situation happened. It is the not paying attention and then all of the sudden the moment is here.

End Your Programming Routine: I actually do not think that story telling is a superpower. In fact, I found the story at the end of the podcast very egocentric and a bit of a downer on an otherwise novel discussion. It felt forced and contrived. Being able to come up with a story is one skill, relating it to the situation well is another. Another tactic that I have studied in sales is silence. Know when to use it rather than a narcissistic story.

March 19, 2024 – Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit…

March 19, 2024 /

I like beans. They are inexpensive and store well. They are culinarily versatile and bridge the gap between the omnivore and the vegetarian. So, what is not to like? The people that eat beans, know beans. The process is not hard but it can come with some hidden variables. Let me explain.

The thought of a good pot of beans and a hunk of bread makes a good thought for a winter’s dinner. The last couple I have made didn’t go so well. The reason being is that the beans were from old stock. After a standard amount of cooking, they were still hard. After double amount of cooking, they were still hard. After another day’s worth of cooking, they were edible, but still harder than I would like.

Dried beans are just that. They are shelled after the pod matures and then dried for later use. Old beans are more thoroughly dried. They don’t change materially, they just continue what is natural. My failures were the result of not knowing the status of my beans and mis-planning accordingly. When beans are part of the menu, you want to make sure they are done before your planned dinner.

For this reason, many of today’s cooks just go straight to canned beans. I can certainly understand the consistency factor, just heat. I find canned beans to be easily overly cooked. They also don’t take up the broth and can be a little lifeless as a result. For weeknights, canned beans can help alleviate planning problems. The place where I find the best use is when quantities are small.

In certain ethnic circles, beans are well known. It is not just for Latin and Texmex foods, but African and European foods use different beans as well. Asian foods tend to use the sprouted form because beans are seeds in reality. You are not going to do that with canned beans.

The thing I always think about is the phrase ‘beans, bullets and band-aids’ that refers preparedness minded people buying a bunch of beans for their potential future. It is true that they are inexpensive calories that store well and can be neatly packed. However, if they are not getting rotated, when that time comes to actually eat them a rude surprise is awaiting. This goes back to me saying, those who eat beans, know beans.

One technique that I wish to try is cooking beans using a pressure cooker. If I owned a pressure cooker, then I would. There are two techniques commonly used (on the hard beans, not lentils). One is soaking the beans overnight with a one-ish hour boil. Anecdotally, dump the soaking water the next morning. I swear that it reduces the amount of flatulence that comes with beans. The second is a hard boil followed by a rest and a second boil. I tend to use the first method because when I make beans, I usually use the crockpot. I have heard that the pressure cooker combines the steps into 15 minutes or so.

As I alluded above, not all items found in the bean isle are the same. Lentils, split pea, garbanzo and black eyed peas are some that do not require so much cooking. These are ones to be looked to for the weeknight or days that less planning has been done. Pinto, black, kidney, navy or white beans need that more aggressive and longer preparation. In fact, the former will turn to mush with too much cooking. So, you have to know your beans.

End Your Programming Routine: My black beans turned out great. I got lucky that they weren’t too old yet and had plenty of flavor to go with the tamales we bought from a fundraiser. I started them with four hours to spare, just in case. Learn to cook beans and it will open a whole culinary world.

March 18, 2024 – What Will They Say?

March 18, 2024 /

Memorializing someone else’s life makes me evaluate my own. I can’t help that hearing about all the goodness that they exuded makes me wonder if I am up to the same standard. Today I relate a personal story in both my connection and my failures. You be the judge.

March 15, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto XXXII – XXXIV

March 15, 2024 /

Finally, we made it to the bottom and it is only uphill from here. Interestingly enough, hell is frozen rather than flame filled. I suppose to me, it is fitting. I find cold to be worse than heat any day. Especially when we are talking true pain, cold is much more painful. Heat makes me lethargic and maybe even moody, but not painful like cold.

Deadliest catch is on right now. They talk about -30 degrees with the wind blowing and all wet. I honestly don’t think I can do that. I remember taking shifts at the Christmas tree lot. I was bundled up and sitting in front of a space heater to have my feet numb from the cold. I guess that is why I work in front of a computer all day.

It turns out that the worst level of hell is the compound fraudsters. To be one hundred percent honest I didn’t see a lot of difference between what happened on other levels and this one. Dante talks about several occurrences of a character that lures a group of individuals to dinner and then kills them all.

I guess to me, luring them to death and killing them isn’t any different than stabbing them in the back when they aren’t looking. I guess you had to be there. In the three levels of circle nine, each of the characters were a bit more frozen. In level one, the characters are frozen up to the neck. In the second level, their heads are frozen face down. I the third level, they are completely encased into the ice.

On the second level, there was a long story about a man and his sons who were imprisoned and ultimately starved to death. The father and the captor were frozen close enough whereby the father could bite the captor, a nod to his starvation. I am not sure the sins of the father to be honest but for some reason this situation drew a lot of condemnation from Dante.

Satan is where you would expect, at the very bottom. Here is out look at him. Satan is frozen solid. He has three faces, Judas, Brutus and Cassius (more on that in a minute). He has wings and is hairy.

I find the three faces of Satan very interesting. Judas’ face is flanked on either side by Cassius and Brutus. These were two senators involved in the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar. As an Italian, I suppose Dante’s Roman history was in his blood so to speak. That being said, In this era of city states I wonder about Dante’s affinity for Rome. It would be like us Americans reminiscing about King George III or something.

I think that I have to take issue with Judas. First of all, I understand that Judas betrayed Jesus. That being said, without the crucifixion of Jesus, we would not have redemption. I would say his actions were fundamental to Christianity. Second, Jesus know he was going to be betrayed by Judas, it was all part of the plan.

Allegedly, the devil was a fallen angel that fell into disfavor with god. As a matter of fact, the original serpent from Genesis was the devil. Therefore, I say Satan predates the beginning of man and earth. So, I guess that I am going to disagree with Dante on the theology of the devil.

In order to leave hell, Dante and Virgil have to crawl over and down the Devil. Apparently, there is a hole underneath him that straddles Hell and Purgatory. When they cross over, it is described as going from night to day. The hole apparently goes through the center of the earth hence the difference in daylight.

End Your Programming Routine: I am happy to to be moving on. It is depressing to spend life in Hell. I appreciate the ice setting and the gruesome torture. I have no idea what to expect in purgatory. I am definitely going to have words to say when I wrap up next week. So, I will save it for then.

March 14, 2024 – You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

March 14, 2024 /

Back in my day… The picture below is of a partial ammunition box that was purchased over 25 years ago. I was in college and I was working a part time job for beer and ammo money. I read the magazines and they said that you have to find what brand is the most accurate and reliable for your own equipment.

If you read my post yesterday, then you would know the weather has been pretty crappy lately. When I set my plans, I was going to go to the outdoor range to do other things. But, we also have an indoor range that almost nobody uses. The primary use is the target leagues which meet on weeknights. It has heat and light which sounds pretty good on a windy and snowy day.

I suspect that it would get more use if it wasn’t restricted to 22LR (or air rifle) and under 150 ft/lbs of energy. Apparently, the backstop has a limit of 150 ft/lbs. If you know what that means, then good on you. The only way I really know is to actually measure and calculate the energy.

I thought that I would measure some velocities out of a little pistol that I like to carry around. I also thought that I would like to compare the pistol to a rifle and check its capability to the cartridges potential and so that is what I did (for the most part). Along the way, I learned a bunch more things as well. The first thing I learned was that it had been almost five months since I had been to the range. When I was looking at the data, my last entry was in October. That is too long.

During the Obama years and one of the recent and lengthy ammunition droughts, for some reason premium 22LR ammunition was still on the shelf. I suspect that being 10X the cost of bulk had something to do with it. But, that led me to do extensive reliability testing for my pistol with all different brands of ammunition. I settled on two that I liked CCI Stinger and Aguila Interceptor.

Despite firing and cycling reliably, I didn’t really have a standard for performance. I wanted to measure velocity and calculate energy. I thought that instead of freezing my butt off, I would do some scientific work. Unfortunately, the Stinger caused too much flame to reliably measure on my chronograph. But, through a 16″ rifle barrel, it generated 186 ft/lbs of energy. Too much for this range. I didn’t know that and I never would have if I didn’t calculate it.

I don’t think the Stinger would be a problem out of the 3″ barrel because in my next test I compared Remington Thunderbolt. In that case, I got 152 ft/lbs out of the rifle and 37 ft/lbs out of the pistol. I was hoping that maybe I could build an offset with several other brands and apply it to the Stinger. But I was running a little short on time.

The other test I did was with subsonic ammunition using the Aguila Colibri. What I found interesting with that is that my pellet rifle actually generates more energy. It is definitely quiet and I bought this ammunition before I owned my Crossman Optimus. My thought being that I could reload much quicker that pumping eight times for a follow-up shot with the Crossman Legacy. But, the Colibri didn’t cycle the action in a semi-automatic. It is weaker than an air rifle and I haven’t seen it on the shelf in years. The data says, use an air rifle but it was good to know.

The last thing I learned was revisiting my first test years ago. I want to say that in my head my pistol reliability was just as reliable as a rifle, meaning most of the variability was with the ammo itself. I have to say that pistol did not prove as reliable as I liked. Not only were there more failure to fire in the pistol. But I saw a trigger reset problem that occurred about 10% of the time.

I took everything apart and cleaned it when I got home. I saw no visible or obvious reason for the trigger problem. But, a cleaning more than once every couple of years can’t hurt. I do plan to do more of this so this is something to keep an eye on. Right now, I have to consider that pistol’s reliability suspect.

End Your Programming Routine: I found a new load that I want to test. It is the Federal Punch. This is a specifically designed self-defense, 22LR load. What I thought to be true, may not be exactly so. But, this is why I try to do the most scientific and realistic testing that I can. Truth can only be decided with real data, the rest is just anecdotal.