Health Care and Climate Change ...

Many are the prognosticators out there and I feel like joining the group. The truth is that there will be no health care bill from the U.S. Congress nor will there be anything meaningful from Copenhagen regarding climate change.

Both will be victims of the same disease ... self interest and acceptance of the status quo and "things as they are". Basically, the world has too significantly high a percentage of conservatives (e.g. Republicans in the U.S.) to do anything meaningful. To them, energy reform means "drill, drill, drill" and global warming is a world wide scientific hoax. The sad part is that there are so many dittoheads that actually buy into it all without making their own assessments of the real data available. Of course, that part of it is just like religion ... very few "believers" ever objectively evaluate what it is they believe in, they believe what their parents and peers have told them to, it's family tradition and it's unchanged for the big three monotheistic religions for at least 2 millenia.

Neither climate change nor health care will be able to get "60 votes" and so a minority along with a subset of the majority will ensure that we do not make any progress in providing health care at reasonable cost nor will there be any new renewable energy industry, at least not in the United States.

It's a sad statement for humanity and humankind. And we will continue to pay the price on healthcare and on the lack of global climate reform. It should be mentioned, regarding global warming, that the wild card, the elephant in the room, is *not* CO2 emissions from developed and developing countries, bad though that truly is. It is the release of methane gas from, for example, the melting permafrost. Methane is many times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat on our planet and it is not yet well represented in super computer climate models, but it will accelerate significantly in the next decade. Regarding climate change, we are not dodging away from a slippery slope, we're already on it, gathering speed. With healthcare, I'm sure we'll probably muddle through, as desired by Republicans, but it seems that you can only be the "do nothing" party for so long before it catches up to you. Hmm, what am I saying, after all ... Bush was elected ... twice. But as Albert Einstein said "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

Photoshop Examined

Since I'm totally convinced that I'll never have enough time on the planet to learn all the things I'm interested in learning, I try to keep picking up something new to work on in fairly rapidfire order. This year I started with learning how to shoot a compound bow and make my own arrows. Hopefully, those skills will prove to be useful when I head up to visit my Uncle Don in Fargo this November to go deer hunting (something I've never done before).

But before I get up there, I've decided that I want to really find out what Photoshop can do. My original goal was to get skilled enough to let me convert a particular picture of Larry and Gary Green into a "masterpiece" that is both fun and interesting. To do this, I've acquired 4 new books, completed one and have scanned the other 3 as I start on the second and third books ... and they're really great. First I got "Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop" and I've completed the 21 lessons in that book. It's a bit more than an introduction, but it gives extremely straightforward steps using Camera Raw and Photoshop to update good pictures with varying flaws. That gave me most of what I needed to make my new picture ... but it also got me interested in digital photography, raw files, DNG and really understanding how it all works.

The other 3 books I have, that I highly recommend, are "Camera Raw With Adobe Photoshop CS3" by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe, "The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book For Digital Photographers", by Scott Kelby and the "Photoshop CS3 Bible", by Laurie Ulrich Fuller and Robert C. Fuller. The only problem I've had so far with these books is minor. It concerns the "humor" that Scott Kelby interjects into his work. It gets to be a little too much. But I already was aware of this when I bought the second Kelby book ... also filled with practical applications of Photoshop ... and the fact that I bought it (anyway) means that I think it's got many fine teaching examples to offer. Of course, the "Bible" is primarily for reference, which I'll need quite a bit of, I'm sure.

Not wanting to leave things half done, I've now also ordered a Nikon D5000 camera so I can take pictures in raw format and go from "A to Z" in the Photoshop process with some of my own shots. Another experiment in learning ... about to take off. We'll see how it goes.

Fun Golf Day

The last 3.5 weeks of weather here in eastern Iowa have been very much like San Diego. Highs in the low to mid-80's with cool nights. Many days have seen highs in the upper 70's. I suppose it's about to come to an end as we also have had no measurable precipitation for almost 4 weeks and it would be nice to get a little moisture for the lawn. At any rate, the weather has been perfect for ... well, just about anything outdoors. So today I took part in a 4-person best shot tournament at St. Andrews (Cedar Rapids, IA) golf course. Great weather and a great time. We shot 58 (12-under par) and took 2nd in the championship round. That was meaningful since it meant we got back $60 each in prize money. Also, I'm feeling better about another tournament coming up the first Friday in October as I was able to hit the ball pretty well today (I was a bit anxious since it was my very first round of the year), which bodes well for 2 weeks from now.

At the end of the round I took a nice quick bicycle ride as the golf was with golf carts and just not much of a workout. But the weather was just great with light winds and about 75 degrees with some clouds.

Of course, the Vikings and the Hawkeye's winning this weekend also put a positive spin on the entire day. And how 'bout them Bears, beating the Steelers! Who'da thunk it ...

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that my Photoshop training has paid a few dividends as I've updated my profile (and website) pictures (of me) with new versions taken in September. This month and the next are going to be filled with studying Photoshop CS3 and learning how to do more with all the (untouched and un-retouched) pictures I have on my computer. Should be a good time.

So many things to do on this earth ... so little time. Well, at least I'm not wasting what time I do have on the supernatural fantasy world of religion. If I'm going for wasting time with fantasy, it'll be with Lord of the Rings or King Kong or Star Trek or Star Wars or Stargate, etc. At least I won't be deluding myself since I both understand and admit that they're *not* real. Enjoy yourselves, folks, because your time can be over far more quickly than you could ever imagine. And it's what you do while you're here and what you leave behind that matters ...

Hiccups Cure

Most (perhaps all) of us have been in a situation at one time or another where we've had the hiccups. When they do strike, one hopes that it's not at a critical time, such as immediately before or during the making of a presentation. But, of course, that isn't always the case, as Murphy's Law will attest. Furthermore, hiccups are uncomfortable and are annoying to have for any length of time greater than about 1 minute. Well, there's good news ... hiccups are easily curable ... read on.

On at least 3 different occasions with 3 different people (including myself), I've found that there is one sure cure for the hiccups. I'd like to give credit for this idea but I cannot remember where, when, or from whom I acquired it. Regardless of the original source, it's simple to try: gulp down one 1-ounce shot of Rose's Lime Juice. This is a sweetened and concentrated lime juice with extreme "pucker power" (i.e., you won't like it but it's better than cod liver oil). Best known for its use in various alcoholic beverages (Cosmopolitan, Martini, Margarita), this mixer is not alcoholic ... just very effective at eliminating hiccups, immediately. I don't know if the same results may be had when taken in its diluted form, as in a tasty Margarita, but that may be something to try, if you've a mind to. But if the Margarita doesn't work, well, at least it would probably have been fun to try and, afterwards, taking the "straight" stuff might be quite a bit easier on the palate.

So next time you have the hiccups and are at your wit's end about how to get rid of them, try Rose's Lime Juice. It really works ...

Lefty?

I didn't know that Barak was a lefty. However, he did make a pretty good (if a bit wussyful) throw from the mound to home (Pujols was the catcher) to open the All-Star game in St. Louis tonight.

On the bicycle riding front, I have been given a new respect for riders that use single gear bikes. This happened because of an encounter I had yesterday on my usual 14.2 mile circuit with a 30-ish guy riding one. We rode together for about 7 miles and I ended up ahead of him ... but pretty much only because I was able to gain a lot of ground on the downhills, where my higher gears took the day. He was a bear on the uphills, although he did them all standing on the pedals. Tough guy. Well, it was a competitive and fun ride and I ended up with a 2009 best personal time of 46:38 for the route (about 18.2 mph) even with a fairly stiff easterly breeze.

1998 Camry Spark Plug Replacement

I had an interesting time replacing the spark plugs on my 98 Camry (4-cylinder) last week. Based on comments from the dealer (who had done some work for me about a month ago), I knew it was probably time to replace them. Sure enough, a records check showed that it was close to 70,000 miles since I'd put in the last set. I like to use the Bosch Platinum-4 plugs, which are gapless and seem to last a very long time. The Toyota recommended plug is the Platinum-2 but I think you get more spark with the -4.

The engine has recessed openings (spark plug "wells") through the valve cover with a rubber boot at the top covering the wells. At the bottom of each well (about 4 inches down) is a spark plug and, in this case, there are 4 wells. First disconnect the plug wires (they run through the well coverings). Then take a few minutes to blow compressed air down each spark plug well to clean out any possible debris so it doesn't get an opportunity to drop into the engine cylinder when the plug is removed. Removing the plugs is straightforward. Using a 5/8" spark plug socket (with a rubber grip in the middle to hold onto a spark plug), they are easily turned out. The grip in the socket will hold them tightly as they are removed from the individual wells.

The tricky part comes when the new plug is installed. If you choose to try to put the plugs in using the same 5/8" spark plug socket, it will seemingly work fine. But after finishing tightening the plug, the socket will stay at the bottom of the well, firmly holding onto the newly installed spark plug, while the extension and wrench are removed. The problem is that the rubber grip of the spark plug socket is "too good" ... it's much stronger than the holding power of the extension rod that is inserted in the socket to reach the bottom of the well, so the extension rod simply pulls out, leaving the socket. The solution is simple. The installation job requires a deep well 5/8" socket that is *not* a "spark plug" socket. This means that it doesn't have the rubber grip insert to hold the spark plug. You can either purchase an additional socket or use a needle nose pliers and remove the gripper (temporarily) from the spark plug socket you already have. If you remove the gripper, re-installation is aided by rubbing a bit of dishwashing soap on the outside of the grip rubber before pushing it back in to the socket.

At this point, there is concern that the socket might not hold onto the spark plug enough and it might be difficult to reacquire it (the plug) if it drops into the bottom of the well. One solution is to put a 1/4" wide piece of duct tape (what else?) vertically down the outside of the socket, terminating around the bottom edge on the inside. This gives the socket just enough additional grip that it easily holds on to the spark plug as it is inserted into the well. For a new engine block, the specified plug torque is 15 ft lbs. For replacing spark plugs in a used engine (the normal case), use 11 ft lbs of torque. Replace the plug wires (you'll hear a firm click) and make sure the well coverings are in place and the job is done.

Father's Day Re-visited

Nice day today. Later in the afternoon (of 6/27), high pressure moved in and a dry northerly breeze provided some welcome relief from the humidity and heat. The Cubs lost to the White Sox and I took a little nap. But I did sing today at The Villages as they were having a big "picnic" ... that ended up being held inside due to the temperature and humidity still in place at noon. Rousing myself, after my nap, I went out to a Mexican restaurant for an enchilada, chips and some salsa ... very good. Then I stopped out to sing at a friend's karaoke show downtown and left there to find a place to dance. Unfortunately, the only nearby place to dance, a bar called the Red Lion, had music that was *much* too loud (DJ problem, not the equipment itself) ... so I quickly gave up on that and decided to come home and finish a book I'd been reading. After the book, I was re-energized and went out to listen to some singers and then, about 12:30am on the 28th, I got home and decided it would be good to watch my Father's Day present, Gran Torino. It's a great movie that goes well with coffee, Hot Tamales and M&M's. So I thank my sons (again) for that movie ... and I'm sure I'll watch it again as time goes by.

Well, tomorrow (later today) I need to do some work on the bicycle and also change plugs in the car. We'll see what else transpires to make it another great day.

363 Days to Father's Day

Yesterday was my 31st Father's Day ... it was a good one, although Tiger did not play very well at the U.S. Open. I spent the day walking, riding bicycle, walking some more and watching the U.S. Open Golf Championship. The boys sent me a BluRay movie, Gran Torino, which arrived today. And it's really getting warm out ... good thing too, since it's already the 2nd day of summer! On today's bicycle ride, the heat was palpable as I heard and felt the road's tar bubbles under the tires. Good sweatin' weather. This evening I had dinner at Carlos O'Kelly's (Mexican restaurant) and watched the fireworks show (right out my back window) over at Hiawatha Hogwild days. I tell 'ya, it's really exciting around here!

I sang using my new Fender PD250 amp system this evening ... and it worked really well, according to both me and the audience. That was my test run in preparation for Saturday's show where I'll be singing outdoors. Frankly, I think it's probably not the greatest idea in the world to have an outdoor party in 90+ degree weather at a rest home ... well, ours is not to question why ... I just hope the audience is successful at *not* keeling over .

It'll be a fun time ... good night.

Terminator ... Goes On

Memorial Day ... always a good day to take in a movie. Today I went to see "Terminator Salvation". In the (seemingly) never ending saga of Skynet and Terminators and John Connor, it's a pretty good action movie that puts interesting pieces of the story of the future together. Don't hesitate to see it, but it will often not make sense to you unless you've seen at least the first two Terminator movies. And even where it does come through, it will be all the better for seeing the first shows. For example, in one scene John Connor says "I'll be back" ... with different inflection than Schwarzenegger, of course, but it did elicit a few knowing chuckles from the audience. And the first appearance of the T-800 (Schwarzenegger style) Terminator is impressive (but, no, it's not actually Arnold). There is one confusion point here as, in the original (1984) movie, the Terminator was described by Kyle Reese as "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101". I can only guess that the model (T-800) in this latest movie is just a very advanced version of the Model 101 (because it looks like the same unit, i.e. Arnold). So maybe they didn't have one available to send back (to 1984) to kill Sarah Connor in the original movie. Note that the next model shown (in Terminator 2), was a T-1000, so the T-800 appellation *does* make some sense ... but it's still a puzzle and, maybe, an error in the latest film.

It's also a good movie to wait for the DVD/BD to arrive on store shelves, especially if you're complementing your existing set of movies at home ... but, either way, it's a good show, if long on action and short on character development. Of course, the characters were largely developed in the 80's and 90's. As a completely separate aside, I recommend against buying anything to eat or drink at the theater, since they are just mind-bogglingly high in price. Even a small soda at the local first-run theater here in Cedar Rapids is $3.75 at a size of about 8 ounces. Decent eats (still just junk food, remember) and a drink at a movie cost more than a meal at a good restaurant ... that's just wrong.

Perfect Day

Today was about as perfect as days get here in Iowa. Mid-70's with a light easterly breeze and a clear sky, full of sunshine. The kind of day that makes it into books where readers lose themselves in lilac laden breezes and in the drone of bees, overloaded with the promise of honey.

This all prompted me to take my usual walk of 3.2 miles and then mow the lawn, after first raising the blade 1/2". The lawn looks pretty good but it's almost time to start working on the fence area out back as well as the edging around the front bushes (also trimmed today).

I also decided to stop in to see the doctor about losing my voice as it's turned into a bit of bronchitis now and I want to be sure to be over it before next Wednesday. Got some antibiotics in case it's a bacterial type infection but I think things will be well in a few days.

Sure would be nice to fire up the grill and make a few burgers on Memorial Day. It's been quite awhile since I've done that. I suppose I will if I have a friend or two around ... otherwise, it doesn't seem to be much fun. We'll see what happens.

Should be a good weekend for motorcycle riding as well ... hmm, so many things to do, so little time. Next thing is to get a few new singing gigs ... need to expand my exposure a bit. But, no rush there, I'm sure there'll be plenty of time to accomplish that, even though I sometimes wish I'd started earlier. Well, you just do what you can do with what you have.

It's a good day to watch Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider ... my kind of preacher.

Finally, today would've been the 60th anniversary of my Uncle Don and Aunt Elaine. She only made it to March 27 but I really wanted to dance with her today at their celebration in Fargo. Have to figure out when I'll make it back up there to see my Uncle. It's about time for him to buy me a beer ... eh?

Of Hamburgers & BLT's

Almost *had* to head up to Toad's in Cedar Falls for a BLT this evening (they have the best!) but ended up doing some riding on the bicycle and then stopping out for a quick burger. My voice is slowly returning and I really hope to be singing again by Memorial Day ... if not, then by Wednesday of next week.

Anyway, I decided that it might not be a bad idea to log some stats at the "beginning" of the riding season (or 2 months into it ... ) so here's where I stand today:

Weight: 157.5 lbs.
Height: 70"
BMI=22.6
BP: 113/66, Pulse=55
2009 Miles Ridden: 560
Age: 56.17 years
Resting heart rate: 46
Eyes: Blue, still twinkling
Smile: still there ;)

And tonight I have a couple of movies to watch and some cherry licorice to consume. Well, I'll also be gargling with warm salt water and having a warm tea/honey/lemon drink. Slowly but surely, the voice is returning ...

May Flowers

Such an interesting month, May. The mirror of September with its warmth, but not too warm, cool nights and sunny days ... better, though, as the window to summer instead of the doorway to winter. As of this May, it appears I have a new mom, one of my best friends turned 80, and I'm really having more fun singing than I ever thought possible. Last Friday I sang for a crowd of about 300 at a local hotel. It was a 45 minute performance but it seemed to pass in about 5 ... so much fun, ending with a standing ovation, an encore and even a request for an autograph (honestly! ... I know, weird, eh?). Fortunately, by the way, my speaker stands arrived just the day before (whew!) ... they were an essential part of the setup.

Almost as important, I worked on my pumpkin bread recipe and, after 4 attempts, ended up with something that seems to be pretty good. Quite a few people tasted and enjoyed it ... I now feel ready for the next potluck dinner .

So May has been interesting, even though I haven't finished cleaning up the fence area in my back yard ... that will come ... and even though I haven't finished sealing my deck (but it's still not even summer yet, so I have time).

Right now my voice is gone but I hope it returns soon ... so many songs, so little time.

New Microphone, Misc News

My new Shure microphone arrived today. It is an SM86 and requires separate (phantom) power but there is a significant difference in sound between it and my (old, reliable, Shure) SM58. So I'll take the SM58 along as a spare but plan to use the SM86 for performances. The phantom power supply box I bought is a Rolls (Mic Power II, PB223) which handles up to 2 microphones (48 volts). I'm not sure if the Rolls is the best power supply but it is a switcher and is supposed to be very "quiet". Plus it was also available from zZounds and I therefore got free shipping as the mic already had free shipping and they just threw them both in the same box (nice).

For singing gigs, I've decided to transfer all my equipment from my (smallish) carry bag (open at the top and made of heavy cloth) to a spare duffel bag that's not doing anything else right now. That will give me room for the extra equipment (mic, power supply) as well as space for an additional XLR cable and, whenever desired, video hookup equipment to drive a separate monitor/TV.

In other news, now that the bathrooms are updated (whew!), I donated the two old toilets to Habitat for Humanity and got them out of my garage. Next on the agenda is to clean up the front entrance with a fresh coat of paint and then clean up a stack of old wood off the back walkout. Having braced the two 4x4's at the ends of the deck earlier this week, I think the house will then be in pretty good shape for company (well, except for an incredible amount of vacuuming, etc., on the inside). Even though I'm not terribly domestic, I'm confident I can get the inside cleaned up if I just pace myself ;) ...

Next week I have 4 singing gigs and can't wait to use the new mic ... plus I talked to a hospice worker last Monday who asked for several of my cards to pass out to places she knows of where they might like to have a singer from time to time. Right now the only new place I have coming up is at Mercy Hospital towards the end of May. It's all fun ... and it does help keep me off the street, hehe.

Garmin Streetpilot 2820 Settings

Having resolved an interesting issue with my Garmin 2820 in the past 10 days or so, I thought I'd publish a few notes here on my observations, problems and steps taken to resolve them. This unit is one I've had for a few years now and I've been very happy with it, overall. While I'd like to say I bought it because my older (Garmin Streetpilot 2610, now discontinued) receiver was "adopted" by my (then) girlfriend, I confess that I also wanted Bluetooth phone capability and, well, it's always fun to play with new toys, eh? Plus I was making good money as a systems engineer and so the price wasn't a big factor ... enter the Streetpilot 2820.

All that said, my experience with commercial GPS receivers is that they are usually quite user friendly but there are settings in the units that sometimes result in receiver outputs that are unexpected and/or difficult to understand. By the way, one of the most useful settings (to me, anyway) is found by going to the Settings>Navigation 2nd page. There you will find "Off-Route Recalculation:" and in a great step towards eliminating unnecessary noise in the cockpit, you can set it to "Auto (Silent)". Without doing this, anytime you are navigating a route and make a turn that is not "correct", according to the Garmin, it announces "Off route, recalculating", repeating it ad nauseam until you "return to the path". By setting it to "Auto (Silent)", two things are accomplished simultaneously: anytime you leave the route a recalculation automatically starts and the voice announcing the recalculation process is (mercifully) silent. In a recent examination of a (newer receiver) Garmin Nuvi 750, I did not see a similar setting, so perhaps that's one thing that they've missed the boat on (although I didn't examine all the Nuvi settings in detail, so maybe it is there ... somewhere).

Back to the main point of this article ... on the same page, Settings>Navigation 2nd page, there is a setting called "Avoidance Setup". On its 3 pages of options, entries are made to do one of three things, Prefer, Avoid, Don't Avoid, for various road conditions. The settings are applicable to driving situations you may find yourself in, including 9 preset categories and a 10th called "Custom Avoids". The 9 preset categories for Avoidance setup are (in order): Major Roads, Medium Roads, Minor Roads, Traffic, Unpaved Roads, U-Turns, Toll Roads, Carpool Lanes and Ferries. Then, under "Custom Avoids", there are two subcategories: "Add New Avoid Area" and "Add New Avoid Road".

To touch briefly on Custom Avoids, this is a nice feature for (primarily) local operation but also, for example, if you are traveling to another city and are made aware that there are specific neighborhoods or streets that are to be preferred or avoided. The two subcategories allow the user to make selections by generating a 4 point "blocked off" area or simply by selecting beginning and ending points of a specific street. This is done directly off a map display. I have not used this feature but mention because it could easily be overlooked and it is pretty cool.

The original problem I ran into involved the first 3 settings identified above. For Major Roads, Medium Roads and Minor Roads, I had set Prefer, Prefer and Avoid, respectively. The reasoning being that I'd like to be on "better" roads than not and "Minor" roads felt like they would not be as good as the other two types. Additionally (although not related directly to this problem as far as I can tell), in deference to my motorcycle's performance and preference for dust/rocks/dirt avoidance, I had set "Unpaved Roads" to "Avoid". I do not know what the internal (to the receiver) definition is for these various road types but I have had multiple times where the Garmin would try to direct me in crazy directions and I never really suspected the road preference settings. Usually, as I now recall, the issues did involve minor vs. major roads and that should have tweaked me ... alas, live and (finally) learn is all I can say. Anyway, I had been again given the runaround as I tried to get to a somewhat "out in the country" address. The 2820 wanted me to go around an extra 1.5 miles or so when I was only .5 miles away via (what I would call) a "minor" road. Having finally had enough, I resolved to pull over and check out my preference settings. In the process, I changed "Minor Roads" to "Prefer" so that it now agreed with the other two (Major and Medium) road settings. To my surprise, it recalculated the route correctly, making me a happy camper (er, driver).

The point here is that the Avoidance settings may have unintended consequences and if you find yourself regularly routed down non-optimal roads, take a look at them and see if some changes might be in order. Perhaps "Minor" road avoidance might be important for, say, a large Recreational Vehicle. But it really was not a problem for my Camry or motorcycle. I am glad that there are categories for both Minor and Unpaved roads, however, as I do want to avoid Unpaved roads, if possible. Again, the "human in the loop" often has a better idea of the correct road to pick than the GPS receiver ... so don't hesitate to use your instincts from time to time. After all, GPS can always "rescue" you if you do get lost somewhere. And that can be a part of the adventure of it too. Happy navigating!

Water Use Efficiency-UPDATE, 5/23/09

Another little project of mine is seeing how much water I use and how to cut back on that (I know, I know, not something Rush would approve, or even think, of ... sadly enough). I noticed that my water usage increased last year when I retired. This makes some sense as I started spending more time at home flushing toilets, drinking water and generally using more resources at my own residence instead of at work. In fact, my water usage went up from 1283 gallons per month in 2007 to 1450 gallons per month in 2008 (I retired at the end of March, 2008). This is a 13% increase and it's probably more like 15-17% since I only had 3/4 of the year where I was home in 2008. As a part of that higher 1450 gallon average, I used 1800 gallons or more in three of the last six months of 2008, a trend that I didn't want to have continue.

My goal is to consistently be under 1000 gallons a month in water usage, with a challenge of 900 and a super challenge level of an 800 gallon per month limit. In terms of daily use limits, 1000 gallons per month equates to a bit less than 33 gallons per day, 900 gallons is about 29.5 gallons per day and 800 gallons is just over 26 gallons per day. My 2008 average of 1450 gallons per month was over 47 gallons of water per day.

Data will almost always provide the answers, if you have enough of it. So I started looking at how all that water was being used in my home. With standard toilets each flush was about 3 gallons of water at a rate of perhaps 9 or 10 times per day. So right there was 27-30 gallons per day. The clothes washer is a front loading high efficiency unit and some measurements via meter read show that it uses 10-25 gallons of water per load, depending on the size of the load and the wash cycle selected. By the same measuring method, a shower could easily take 15-25 gallons of water. The dishwasher, interestingly enough, uses only about 9 gallons of water for the entire cycle.

By my last water bill (March, 2009), water usage was down to 1200 gallons and it will go down further as I get better at this, but here are the conservation steps I've currently implemented:

1. Watering the lawn is out if water conservation is a serious goal, so that's something that's straightforward to do (and I've never done much of it anyway) but I may allow for a little of it from time to time if the grass is really dying. A better solution here may be to put in grass that is extremely hardy and so will easily survive (as much as 2 months) with little or no water.

2. Wait longer to do laundry. Since the washer is easily capable of handling very large loads of clothes, the logic is that it should take less water to do one large load than two smaller ones. This seems to be true and I find that I can easily do laundry every two weeks instead of every week, except the bedding is every week. OK, I will confess that I had to buy some extra underwear to make this one work ;) ...

3. Showers are now "sailor showers". This means that the water is on to wet down, then it is turned off while applying shampoo and soaping. The water is then turned back on to rinse. It's easily possible to take a shower with less than 5 gallons of water using this approach. A bonus here is that this significantly reduces the amount of hot water needed, saving (electricity and natural gas in my case) on running the water heater. Additionally, less time spent under hot water means less dry skin ... especially important for dry midwest winters. Also, when washing hands, it's not necessary to let the water run while the hands are not under the faucet, so turn it off while rubbing the soap in ... every ounce adds up.

4. Run the dishwasher only when it is completely full, in my case about 3 times a month instead of 4 or 5.

5. Install High Efficiency toilets, in my case, 2 toilets, Toto brand, Drake and Gwyneth models. These require 1.6 gallons and 1.3 gallons of water, respectively, per flush. This reduces the water for toilet usage to under 15 gallons per day. Also, it's not necessary to flush the toilet after every use so a few additional flushes can be saved. Installing the high efficiency toilets is no doubt the number one water saver in my home, certain to be even more helpful with a large family. I'm saving between 10 and 20 gallons of water per day with this change alone. If you're "flush" with cash or have really big water bills, look into installing a compost toilet. These are quite expensive for a good one, but water usage is zero and there is a great fertilizer benefit for your garden.

Results:
To test the efficacy of my water conservation steps, I've been collecting meter read data at the same time (9am) every day since March 19. After 20 days, I'm averaging 24.8 gallons per day of water use (about 756 gallons per month). This is well within my set goals and I'm happy with the results so far. It's really a fairly easy change to make in lifestyle (especially for a single guy living alone) but, like many things, one has to be intentional about doing it consistently. Like dieting, it will only last if it becomes a lifestyle choice. For families with children, there seem to be very good reasons why everyone should be taught conservation from an early age. In the long run, it is certainly going to be easier for individuals if they have "always done it that way" and it will definitely help both current and coming generations to have the planetary resources they need to live both comfortably and inconspicuously. Now that's being a good steward.

UPDATE: 4/19/09-After one month, I've used 718 gallons for an average of 23.2 gallons per day (31 days). This is less than 50% of my water usage (average per month) rate in 2008. Gratifying ... and I now see no reason why I shouldn't be able to consistently continue to achieve using 800 gallons per month or less (at least for those months when I don't have any company, which is most of the time, hehe).

UPDATE: 5/23/09-In the second month (as of 5/19/09) I used 662 gallons for an average daily use rate of 22.1 gallons per day (and 22.6 gallons per day over the running total of 61 days). With the exception of times when I have visitors, it now looks like it shouldn't be a problem to stay at between 22 and 24 gallons per day. This means that the (average month) upper limit on my usage of water should be around 30.5*24 or 732 gallons per month. I'm using just 50% of the water I used in 2008 ... gratifying and quite simple to do. All it has seemed to take is spending some time thinking about what I'm doing and then figuring out how to do it better. It did cost some for the new High Efficiency toilets but, as a single person household, I could've gotten by with only one new one instead of two. Otherwise, it's just being conscious about what it is I really need vs. what it is that I'm actually using. Try it ... you may like it.

End Of An Era

My Aunt Elaine passed away today in Fargo, ND. She was a nice person and a good friend to me. I will always remember that her voice was uncannily like my mother's. I saw her several times in the past year, the last being on March 6, 2009. I was hoping to dance with her at her and Don's 60th anniversary party in May. She did good things during her time on earth ... it was great having her here and I will miss her.

Nice Weather Again

Good riding day today as I now have about 65 miles in on the year. And my butt is starting to not notice the bicycle seat anymore. It was never too bad but I certainly have been able to feel it. By the middle of this upcoming week it will be just a distant memory. Yesterday, my right leg was sore and I think it was because I was generally riding in too high a gear. Today I got back to paying attention to the cadence meter and kept it around 80 rpm. Along with a little stretching before the ride, the leg feels good again. Who knows, maybe I'm getting old(er) ... ?!

As I now clearly recall (after eating quite a bit of it), I really do like pumpkin bread. Maybe that will be the "treat of the year" for 2009 (well, along with my favorite ice cream). Especially because it's so easy to make.

Spring Is Sprung

There's probably nothing to write about today that overshadows the fact that it's the Vernal Equinox, which marks the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. Very nice weather, too. I had an opportunity to test out a Garmin Nuvi 760 GPS navigator today and it's a pretty good unit. Only time will tell if it holds up well.

Today I stopped in and had lunch with my boys' grandma, Betty. Then we played a few games of cribbage. It was a nice time. Oh, and I also made her some pumpkin bread ... after all, I ate her pumpkin bread for many, many years. Hope she likes it.

And then I had a nice bicycle ride, not to mention a great sandwich at Milio's on 1st Avenue.

The Ides of Biking ...

Feels so good to ride the bicycle again. Went out and spent 3 hours replacing the wheel bearings and chain today and didn't really plan to ride as it was then quite late in the day. But seeing as how it was 58 degrees out I simply couldn't resist. And so it begins ... again. Seems as though spring is really here this time. The forecast is all the way up to 70 degrees for my parade on Tuesday .

In the past few weeks, I also ordered an arrow saw and materials for making arrows and then learned to make them myself. The first 6 that I made were pretty much a failure as the fletchings all fell off after only a few shots. Back at the drawing board I realized that I had to clean the arrow shafts much better (using hot water and Comet cleanser) and then ensure that I didn't touch (contaminate) them before gluing on the fletches. Success was finally achieved as I've now shot them dozens of times losing nary a fletch! But a few of the inserts (for the arrowheads) ended up pulling out of the shafts and were left in the targets. So the same attention obviously needed to be paid to those and I also switched to a gel "Super glue" (fast drying and very strong) for the inserts. So far so good, but not a lot of experience with them using the indoor range targets (where they originally pulled out). Eventually, the sure answer will arrive, but I'm feeling pretty good about them right now. It's a great experience to make and then shoot your own arrows.

And, good news, NDSU is playing in the NCAA tournament (first game, Friday the 20th in Minneapolis). Besides all that, the best news is that I'm going to see my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Don again at their 60th anniversary party on the 22nd of May.

Dock-N-Talk Works Well-How To Use Line 2

As is (or should be) well known by now, I recently dropped my land line telephone in favor of cell phone only. Of course, I have some pretty good phones in my house that display Caller ID and have convenient locations. But they're not very useful if I'm always required to use the cell phone for calls. Segway to today's subject, Phone Labs' Dock-N-Talk device ... and let's call it DNT for short.

The DNT is a device that connects to your cell phone and then ties in with either a single phone in your house or your house's phone wiring. If tied in to the house's wiring, it must be on a line that does not have telephone company (TelCo) service. In my case, although I no longer have regular phone service, I have a DSL broadband connection coming in from TelCo on Line 1 (L1). I hooked up the system to L1 and it allowed me to make outgoing calls but it would not connect to incoming. Since this kind of trouble was not unexpected I immediately yielded and switched over to Line 2 (L2). On the DNT, this is as easy as flipping a switch. However, without an L2 capable phone, provision must be made to bring the L2 (outer two) conductors of the phone cord connector to the center (inner two) lines so the L1 only phones can "talk" on L2. I installed an L1/L2 capable phone on the kitchen wall and used an idle L1 to L2 "Two-Line Splitter" (Radio Shack part number 279-432) adapter to connect my Panasonic KX-TG8231 phone base to L2 and everything worked ... yours truly was quite happy.

Of course, happiness can be very fleeting and, in this case, I remembered that I still had an older "Trimline" phone in the basement that I wanted to continue using. To avoid a severe case of "engineering unhappiness" I decided I needed to make a trip to Radio Shack for another "Two-Line Splitter". Alas, more unhappiness awaited me there as I found out that this simple little device appears to be what Radio Shack is trying to use to carry it through these tough economic times. They charged me $8.47 (tax included) for this thing ... and I reluctantly paid it and made my way home. On the way, however, the engineering mindset quickly took over, attempting to steer me back to Nirvana. It occurred to me that I might be able to fashion a simple Line 2 to Line 1 swap cable out of home telephone wiring supplies I already had. My supplies on hand comprised a standard RJ-11 stripping/crimping tool, RJ-11 connectors and flat 4-conductor phone cable (all purchased long ago at Menards).

The process is pretty straightforward, as outlined below. As usual, though, the devil is in the details, so let's first go over a little introductory information on the standard RJ-11 connector and home telephone wiring. The RJ-11 connector form factor has six pins and so it can handle up to 6 conductors. Typical home operation uses only 2 or 4 of those conductors. The RJ-11 connector pins have a numbering scheme that will be useful in the discussion below. Holding one up with the connector tab facing away from you and the "business end" of the connector facing up, the pins are numbered 1-6 from left to right.


We will be discussing a common home wiring scheme that uses 4 conductors located in pins 2 through 5 (the outer 2 pins, 1 and 6, are unused) and flat 4-conductor cable with conductor insulation colors of Black, Red, Green and Yellow. Note that more recent telephone wiring that you may buy may use a different conductor color scheme, typically as follows: Black becomes White with an Orange stripe, Red is now Blue with a White stripe, Green becomes White with a Blue stripe and Yellow is now Orange with a White stripe. But regardless of the color scheme of the wiring you use, just translate as necessary (and be consistent throughout) as I will use the "old" (Black, Red, Green, Yellow) colors in this writeup.

In a typical home phone wiring installation, Line 1 (L1) is run through the center two conductors of the RJ-11 connector. These are the Red and Green conductors located on pins 3 and 4. Similarly, Line 2 (L2) is connected through the next most outer pair, pins 2 and 5, using the Black and Yellow colored conductors. The outside 2 pins, 1 and 6, as mentioned earlier, are typically not used. With this background in mind, our goal is to take the Line 2 connection at the wall jack (pins 2 and 5) and make it come out of the Line 1 pins (3 and 4) of the RJ-11 connector at the phone end of our swap cable. Let's look at the details of one way to accomplish this:

Supplies needed: Standard RJ-11 stripping/crimping tool, at least 2 RJ-11 connectors that accept 4 conductor flat cable and a length (as needed for your specific project) of flat, 4 conductor telephone cable.


Detailed steps:

1. Use the stripping/crimping tool's outer insulation stripper twice to obtain about 1/2" of stripped flat telephone cord on one end (i.e., there will be about 1/2" of the 4 conductor wires showing, and note that the individual conductor wire insulation, colored Black, Red, Green, Yellow, is still in place). For discussion purposes here, this is the end that will plug in to the telephone and we'll call it "L2" (since the two center connectors will have become the Black and Yellow "Line 2" conductors, instead of the normal Red and Green "Line 1" conductors, when we're through).

2. Strip the other end to the normal length (1/4") as defined by the tool. This is the end that will plug in to the wall jack and we'll identify it here as the "L1/L2" end (since the two center conductors, Green and Red, will have the L1 signal and the two outer conductors, Yellow and Black, will have the L2 signal ... note that this is a standard RJ-11 wiring convention).

3. Addressing the L2 (more complex) end of the wire first, carefully twist the Yellow/Green pair together so that Yellow conductor ends up in the center. Then twist the Red/Black pair so that Black similarly ends up in the center right next to Yellow. Looking at the 4 wires, you should now have them laid out as Red, Black, Yellow, Green (or Green, Yellow, Black, Red if you're looking at it from the other side).


4. Hold the wires so that they are parallel at the ends and insert them into an RJ-11 4 wire connector (6 wire connectors work too, just be sure to leave the outer two slots in the connector open). The conductor/connector pin relationship should be as follows: Pin 2-Red, Pin 3-Black, Pin 4-Yellow, Pin 5-Green (see Photo above). I found that it was easy for them to "untwist" during the insertion process and I had to redo this a few times to get it right. Another hint that might help is that I noticed some of the leads (for example, the Black wire in the Photo above) were a little longer than others so, just before inserting them into the connector, I made a single cut across the ends to make them all "just right" with a total length (from the end of the flat insulation) of just under 7/16". This seems to be very good for the crimping process but you might be able to shorten it up even more to, say, 5/16" as this would put the flat insulation a little further into the connector, which seems like a good idea. A caution, though, to not trim the conductor wire ends until you have successfully gotten the wires twisted together as it's much more difficult to do that with shorter conductors.

5. Before crimping the connector onto the wires, check carefully (one more time) to be sure that the Black and Yellow conductors are in the two center pins and the Red and Green conductors are in the two outer pins, as described in step 4. We don't really care about the Green and Red conductors but if done as described here, you should also find that L1 from the wall jack is interpreted as L2 at the "phone" end of the cable (just like the Line 2 wires from the wall jack are connected to the Line 1 pins at the "phone" end ... which is our goal). When you're satisfied, use the tool to crimp the connector in place.

6. Addressing the wall jack end of the cable (per #2, above, we're calling it the "L1/L2" end), note first that the connector can be put on the cable in either of two ways. But only one of those two ways is correct. Based on our understanding of the pin numbering scheme of the RJ-11 connector (see introductory material and the first photo, above), the conductor/pin relationship at this end of the cable should be as follows: Pin 2-Yellow, Pin 3-Green, Pin 4-Red, Pin 5-Black. Double check that this is the case (again, remember the old adage, "measure twice, cut once") and, finally, crimp the L1/L2 connector and you're done!

7. To test your new "Wall Jack Line 2" to "Phone Line 1" swap cable, plug it in to the wall and the phone and see if it works as expected. Note that the cable can, in fact, be plugged in either way ... the identification of "wall jack" and "phone" cable ends, above, was done only to facilitate the fabrication process while noting that the "L1/L2" end is the "simple" end of the cable and the "L2" end is the more complex. So if, when you've completed your project, the cable is not right (i.e., your phone test fails), just cut off the offending L1/L2 connector (the simple end) and put a new one on with the opposite orientation with respect to the 4 conductors. This will work if the L2 end was properly built, so if it doesn't work you will probably have to redo the L2 connector. In my case, the 5' cable worked first time (total cost, about $1.65). One final step I took was to use a fine point Sharpie to label the cable "L1-L2 Swap" so I wouldn't confuse it with any other phone cords and so I wouldn't be tempted to cannibalize it for another application. Here's a photo of the finished cable ends:


Using nomenclature from the above description, the L2 end is on the left and the L1/L2 end is on the right.

Now getting back to the DNT, the setup for my cell phone (Nokia 6085) is to synchronize it with the DNT via Bluetooth and then just leave the phone sitting a few feet away. With my new L1-L2 swap cable installed on the basement Trimline phone, every phone in the house can be used for phone calls using the cell phone connection. The DNT handles the interface to the cell phone and supplies dial tone to the rest of the house phones through the local wiring. When a call comes in to the cell phone, all the phones in the house (including the cell phone, if the ringer is active) ring and I can pick it up on any of them. Also, the CallerID is passed along so it appears on whatever devices have the capability to display it.

The DNT will coexist with a second land line phone system as well. So one could have a land line connection on Line 1 and still use Line 2 for the DNT with a cell phone. As you can imagine, this almost cries out for the phones in the house to be capable of 2-line operation ... but it's still nice to know that it would work (might be a great thing for a home business).

Drawbacks of going all cellular:
1. 911 does not have an automatic "go to" address and GPS may not work indoors
2. Burglar alarm systems typically require a "tip & ring" land line connection (and even if you could get one that worked with the DNT/Cell phone hookup, you'd have to leave a cell phone at home, turned on, just to support the Burglar alarm ... I'd say just get/keep a land line in this case).
3. Cell connection is a bit more noisy than a good land line
4. Fax will not work with cell phone connections and DNT
5. Devices like "Dock-N-Talk" are not free

Positives:
1. Cheaper (saves $25-30/month for same features in Qwest land line)
2. No loss of phone features/use at home, even voice dialing works from extensions in the house
3. Payback on Dock-N-Talk is less than a year, then 100% savings on land line cost
4. To turn off all phones in the house just turn off the cell phone
5. "Feels" good ... and you may even learn how to make an L1-L2 swap cable

Let me know if you have any questions about making this work for you. And tomorrow I need to return my "Two-Line Splitter" to Radio Shack ... ahhh, Nirvana.

A New Page Has Been Turned

Interesting day today as I've now joined the ranks of those that have dropped their land line phones. I'm going to install a system that lets me hook up my cell phone to the existing house wiring, though, so I can use the phones in the house with my cell connection. I'm sure I'll have some interesting problems pop up since I still have DSL service coming in on line 1 but I'll figure out how to work around that, if it really becomes an issue.

The second thing that's new today is that I've canceled my Dish service. It's really quite far from being a necessity and I don't feel good about that money going out the door with the economy like it is today. The customer service representative asked me why I was dropping Dish and I told her that there were two reasons:

1. I don't feel that I'm getting good value for my money (like having to subsidize a gazillion shopping channels) and;

2. I contacted (in person, at their office) my local installation representative last October and told them that I was considering dropping my land line (which is also connected to the Dish receiver and is used for things like ordering pay-per-view, etc.). I asked what that might do to my billing and what my options would be. I was told that my options would be to pay an additional $5/month or drop Dish service. I said "are you sure?" and they said "yes". I just smiled and said "good luck with that business plan" and left. So that was my other reason for dropping Dish, I'm not going to pay an extra $5 when I just dropped my land line to save money.

Interestingly enough, Adrianna, the Dish Customer Service representative handling my cancellation order, then told me that, due to the large number of customers that were switching to cell phone only they added a billing option to allow for individuals that no longer had a land line to *not* be billed the extra $5. Of course, too late for me as my mind was made up and also, the hodge podge of junk channels that I felt I was also paying for was not being addressed at all. And don't get me wrong, I knew that I could have set up my own channel list to "just have" the channels in it that I wanted, but that doesn't change the fact that I feel I am subsidizing them and if I could just pick a 10 or 15 channel satellite dish "package" (which does not exist) then I could get something useful for about $20/month. That would have been very nice. Apparently, that's never going to happen. And so I did my part by parting company, which leads to the next interesting development.

Adrianna then told me that I'd be receiving some shipping boxes and labels at my service (home) address in the next 5-7 days. I would then need to follow the (enclosed with the packaging) instructions to remove and pack up the dish antenna and bracket as well as the satellite receiver and associated connection material. So I said, "well, why don't you just have the installers come out and 'uninstall' it all?" ... to which idea she was very cold and simply said that that wasn't how it was done. So I said "OK, so what if I uninstall it and then drop it off at the local Dish installer that put it in?" She said that I "could" do that but that I should beware because it had to be received "somewhere" by Dish within 30 days or they'd "charge it back to the customer". I couldn't help myself as I broke out laughing right there. I said "well, you could do that but it wouldn't be a very good PR thing and, of course, I would make sure I had receipts for the equipment I delivered, so you could "charge" me all you wanted to ... I would have legal paperwork showing I did what was required and then you'd just have to 'go after your installers' that hijacked or resold that equipment." Dead silence from the other end. So I ended the call with a smile and a laugh and said "you're just proving that I'm doing the right thing by canceling Dish and I'll follow your desired procedure of shipping everything back by UPS ... thank you and goodbye."

Whew! Was I glad that was over. So last night was spent reprogramming my Harmony One universal remote to drop all usages of the Echostar Dish receiver and revert back to my good old antenna (only) for the HD TV. After that I put the converter box on my second (analog, 27") TV and then I reconnected my house cable wiring to pick up the antenna from a splitter and feed all the cable jacks in the house. Everything works fine.

Finally, a recommendation to all those folks that have been given the scare treatment (accidentally or, in most cases, I think, on purpose) by cable and satellite signal providers that they "may not" be able to watch their TV anymore unless they get (you guessed it) cable or satellite service ... just don't do it. In most cases, you'll be able to pick up a good digital signal, although I know there will be some folks in fringe reception areas when a snowy analog reception can be had but no digital signal can be found at all (this will be the exception, I think). So just get a converter box and hook it up (or have a relative, friend or neighbor do it for you). The money you save by *not* paying the cable/satellite companies will soon (less than a year, typically) allow you to buy at least a small High Definition Television, complete with its digital (ATSC) tuner and then you can even get rid of the converter box. You'll be glad you did ... and just in time for those stations that switch their broadcast signal to digital only tomorrow (although not all stations are doing that).

I have a recommended antenna if you've been wondering what to try. This antenna has both tuned elements for UHF channels 14-69 and a dipole antenna ("rabbit ears") for VHF channels 2-13. It's amplified (i.e., it needs a place to plug in power as well) and I've found that I can just leave the rabbit ears neatly folded and get all the HD signals in my area by pointing it in the appropriate direction. The model is the Terk Amplified HDTVa Indoor Antenna and it's available at Best Buy for around $75. A bit pricey but it really works well. I've also recently seen it available on Amazon for under $50, if you can wait for the shipping time. This is not to say that I've tested out a lot of antennas ... but this one works very well for the HD broadcasts I receive in the 20-30 mile range. I also recommend that you log on to www.antennaweb.org to find out where the broadcast signals are in your area. This will help you pick an optimal pointing direction for whatever antenna you choose. One drawback I've seen lately is that this antenna, being indoors, does not have very good capability for picking up the lower (below channel 9) VHF stations. So if you have an HD transmitter broadcasting on channels 2-8, it may not work unless you are quite close to the VHF tower ... and in this case, the rabbit ears would definitely need to be extended.

In the archery department, I need to get my bow draw weight adjusted up a bit as I get stronger from shooting and I'll be doing more of that after joining the local archery club Wednesday evening. It's all fun and I'm going to organize my thoughts on what I've learned about being a first time compound bow purchaser and post them here sometime soon.

Happy Birthday Kyla ...

Happy 19th birthday ... I hope you have a great one.

Good Flick ... Gran Torino

I admit that I do like almost all of Clint Eastwood's movies (even those he is not acting in, like "Letters From Iwo Jima") but Gran Torino is really a good show. The ending is something that is a surprise but it's also a movie where you laugh, cry and live. Highly recommended.

Good skiing (cross-country for me) weather here in Iowa today. Looks like it's going to be quite cold over the next week or so. Nice that the days are getting longer though, so it won't be long until the "real cold" days are just a frigid memory.

Yesterday was one of the nicest I've had for quite awhile, and certainly the best of this year ... hmm, maybe the full moon was in control there.

Looks like I'll have at least 10 singing engagements in February, so that'll keep me busy. Would like to get another PC for backup use but it's very difficult to get one with WinXP anymore (sigh). I won't buy a PC with Vista so looks like "the wait is on" until at least Windows 7. Guess I'll have to see what develops there.

Ice Walking

Very nice coating of ice on all the sidewalks (and streets) today. Well, not so nice if you have to be out driving. But for me it was a great opportunity to add some test walking time on my "Get-A-Grip" footwear. They worked very well as almost the entire 3.2 mile route was an ice challenge. This product was just a good purchase decision and stands head and shoulders above the YakTrax.

Watching the Vikings right now it seems as though they may be wanting to do all they can to hurt themselves as the end of the first half approaches. Well, perhaps they'll have luck and will win despite themselves (or Philadelphia will try to give it away ... hehe). Thus goes Wildcard Weekend in the NFL.

Resolved ...

Gotcha! No New Year's resolutions here. My goal is to just keep on keepin' on. In a reminder (for me), as 2009 starts, at age 55.79 years, I weigh in at 159.875 pounds standing 70 inches tall. My blood pressure is 120/68 with a heart rate of 60 and a resting heart rate of 46.

New Year's Eve wasn't too exciting as I went out early to sing but then got tired of the noise and headed home by 10:00. Of all things, I then found a nice pedometer (OMRON HJ-112) online and ordered that. During the winter I do quite a bit of walking, since the bicycle is mostly retired with the advent of ice and snow, so I figured it'd be fun to keep track of things like "steps per day" for awhile. As people reading this blog are probably already aware, I've abandoned the YakTrax for "Get-A-Grip" Advanced to allow fairly safe walking on ice and snow. The Get-A-Grip product really works well and I've updated my review comments on Amazon.com to reflect that. YakTrax just doesn't hold up ... too bad, as it's a fairly decent device.

Quite a few dates scheduled for singing at Retirement homes in the Cedar Rapids area already. One is on the 25th of February (a late Valentine's Day party).

Anyway, in 2009, it seems that Ryan has a girlfriend now. Her name is Christina and she may actually come to Iowa this summer. That would be fun.

As I reflect back, I'm glad that I got to know Larry's mom, sister and step-dad during 2008 and, of course, the many people I've met at Rest homes and in the course of singing, biking in RAGBRAI and going to the occasional dance. But I have to say that I'm glad 2008 is finally over. And it was one of the longest years ever since there was an extra day added for leap year along with 2 leap seconds (one in June and one in December). Overall, 2009 has to be a better year.

Interestingly enough, for the first time in at least 20 years, I don't already have a calendar for the New Year. And it came as a total surprise to me this morning when I went into the kitchen to turn the calendar. Then I realized that I always bought a calendar as a part of something to give to Larry for Christmas ... and that didn't happen this past Fall ... sigh. Well, I plan to head out to Barnes & Noble to get a new calendar today.

As far as resolutions, really, I just hope I can let as many folks as possible enjoy hearing me sing this year. With luck, I may get in to most of the Retirement homes in Cedar Rapids. They enjoy it, I enjoy it and it gets me practicing many new (old) songs as well as allowing the residents to hear some more recent vintage tunes. So it's a win-win.

Have a Happy New Year.