Oddities

I realized that I take a variety of pictures that have little or no artistic value whatsoever. They are utilitarian, or just fun.

For me.

I used to post things like that more. But then the internet jumped the shark and I found other things to do.

Not better, of course. Just different.

I tried to use capillary action to water my plants during a long vacation. It didn't work. It was more like slow-motion syphon action. When I returned, the water reservoir was empty and the plant pots were overflowing. Oops.

Something I made

In the process of making something else

Homebrew baton.

This small mammal comes to my table at lunch and tries to take my lunch from me.

Nice wheels.

I miss that shirt.

 This holds the cable to the pole

Someone does not like having her picture taken.

Rock on!

 Finger licker.

Northern Virginia is Allergy Hell. And car hell.

It lived.

Wait, that's not a sheltie.

Two weeks ago, I tripped and my apple almost made the leap. I would have been lunchless.

I remember spring.

It might be Fall now.

The heat's kicked on a few times. The trees are definitely starting to change. Hell, you can smell it if you breath in hard. I'm drinking more coffee again now that there's not sweat pouring out of my pores every second of the day.

It's probably obvious, with it not being in the 80's and 90's anymore.

The sidewalks are clogged with people walking and running during prime dog-walking hours.

The signs are everywhere. Stop dicking around on the internet and tune in.

I know you can't.

It might be Fall now.

But I still remember spring.

Garbage Gold

We were walking the dog a couple of weeks ago, and past a large truckbed sized dumpster outside of someones house. Fall cleaning? It was not filled with construction debris, but the sort of detritus that builds up in a garage, basement, or shed over the years. I climbed up on the the rungs of the thing, and peered in. Within arms reach were some very vintage looking candle lanterns. Cheap chinese junk vintage, as chrome and brass coats were being overwhelmed by rust, but antiqued is antiqued, no mater how it got there. One had a crushed globe, but the other 3 were fine. I hauled one out and presented it to the Girly. She approved, so we walked home with one old friend and 3 new ones. With a little decorative chain and random screws and brackets from our basement, the patio grew a little character.

Lately, I have been finding that a lot of things are old but still work well enough not to justify new. I realized that several of my favorite technical books were penned before I was born: my analog electronics book was written in 1972, and on of the vacuum books was written in 1958. I keep using the mac on a nearly daily basis, though it is nearly 11 years old. The eggbeaters appear to be of a 1960's vintage. A thank you card works wonders. Nothing helps keep you organized like a little notebook.

There are some facts, concepts, and methods that do not change quickly over time, if at all.

I think that we are so dazzled by the digitization and automation of things, and the following huge revolution in the way we deal with information and communication, that we have set up a generic prototype that assumes that new things implicitly work better old ones, though that situation is not the case. There things that do not necessarily become less useful compared to their replacements, just older. Sometimes, a hammer really is a hammer.

Digitization can be confusing. Automation means that some aspect of a process is no longer thought out. Re-writing the book does not always make it better. The mechanics of the tools can obscure the original goals of the task. The impact of the outcome is always the final measure quality.

Bull Run Park

A few photos from Bull Run creek.

A lazy reach for October

It is almost October again.

I can't say that it's more so than last year, or even less so.

It is different.

The oppression of the heat has let up, but the humidity shows little signs of giving in. Everything is moist to the touch. Towels won't dry. Car seats feel damp to sit in. Counters stay damp for hours. The house smells of decay. The forest is filled with mushrooms, and mold grows shamelessly on dead leaves.

The attic fan is rumbling, sucking cold morning ick around my ankles. I sit at breakfast, trying to read papers, but they are almost moist enough to be soggy, and sag in my hands, making reading from one hand a challenge. My cereal grows soggy too.

It's clear autumn is creeping in. The trees are taking on color. It's dark too late and then too soon. We took rakes out and dredged up the early leaves smattering the yard. A wet, sticky job that pissed off the spiders. Where will we put the Halloween decorations?

Autumn takes so long here, just like it did in New Hampshire. Growing up, there was about a week, maybe two when the aspens suddenly turned yellow and dropped their leaves. About that time it would start to snow. That was the cue that it was going to be pretty cold for the next 8 months or so. In my mind, to casual memory, Colorado is always winter.

The chill is making me miss the coffee shops in New England.

So, this is where they made Pyridine...

We were driving around the hilly region to the Northeast of New York City, looking for our hotel in Central Valley. We had, by that point, missed the turn a couple of times. Things were going swell, by which I mean swelling with impatience.

Suddenly, suburbs and stripmalls gave way to a brief flash of industrial decay: heavy rail, rust, smokestacks, distilling towers. Big stone buildings. What was that? We made a note to do a followup investigation the next day.

That was the (now defunct) Nepera Chemical Company. Apparently caught by tightening environmental regulations, it closed in the 2000s. It's nearby disposal area is now an EPA Superfund Site. It appears to be crumbling while it waits to be transformed into suburbs and strip malls.

We stopped to take pictures from outside the fence, and admire how entropy takes over things.

Of course, you'll have to ask someone else what it looks like inside.