Wondering if we learn more.

In this modern day and age, we have more information readily available right at our fingertips than ever before. With all this abundant information, I wonder if we really learn anything. Human beings are basically lazy as our all parts of our body. Any aids to our body do not make the affected parts get any stronger, just the same or weaker. You know, like wearing glasses or hearing aids or having your arm in a sling.

The glasses help you see better, but the body becomes dependent on them and does not try harder to see better, same with hearing aids, etc. If you carry your arm in a sling, your arm will become weaker. I need not go on, you get my point, which is, the easier we get information the less we learn by ourselves or try to work things out ourselves.

I know that is true for me. I never could spell very well, but now with the aid of spell checkers, my spelling has become worse. And why should I remember anything, when with a few keystrokes I can retrieve any fact, address, telephone number, etc. that I want to know. Even when driving somewhere, my GPS system tells me where to go, even more than the wife does.

I commented on Gypsy’s blog yesterday telling her about an aid to identifying celestial objects. It is called the SkyScout by Celestron. You just aim it at any one of 50,000 objects in the sky and a 5 line text and a graphics display describes them while you listen through earbuds to stories and facts about the object.

I suppose a gadget like that will help you learn the sky. That is, if you don’t get lazy and depend on it. Which do you think would happen?

Monday again,

Well this is Monday morning again. Actually, now that I am retired and just plain tired, Mondays are not that special. Of course since I was self employed and worked out of my home, Mondays were not then a big deal, either. Hope your Monday is going great.

Yesterday was beautiful. It got up to the low 70’s and with a breeze, was very comfortable. We went to the flea market just to get some walking in and to see all the different stuff that was for sell. I spotted another neat car parked there. Must be a favorite destination for people with classic or unusual vehicles. Here is a picture:

I told you once about my friend Les who was also a HAM. We were always in radio contact, even when I moved to Texas. I kept a schedule with him on 15 meters. He was a neat fellow and lived in an area of Pennsylvania where I loved to go deer hunting or camping or just for a walk or a drive in the woods. I can tell you lots of radio related things that he and I got into, but since most of you are not Amateur Radio operators, I will not bore with them, although some are quite hilarious.

One of his other hobbies was collecting antique tractors. Here is a picture taken in 1983 of Les and three of his tractors. The one in front is a 1923 Fordson, then a 1942 John Deere “LA” and the last is a 1946 John Deere “LA”. These pictures were taken in Leslie’s front yard.

Neat tractors, don’t you think?

Young Campers

Do you remember back when you where a kid and went camping with a friend? Maybe it was just out in the back yard up close to the house or maybe it was far off in the woods. No matter where you went camping, it was an adventure, fun, and exciting experience. I grew up in a camping family. Both my parents grew up camping.

After World War Two, there was a lot of military surplus stuff to use for camping. One thing I remember is the tent halves. Why halves, you ask? Back then, canvas was what tents were made from and it was heavy. A soldier in the field had a lot of other important things to carry with him, so each soldier carried a tent half. It could be used alone as a one man shelter, but if he had a buddy, they could attach the two halves together and have a fairly roomy two man pup tent.

Well, I had both halves, so with a little help from my Dad, I would pitch a tent up in the woods or at the edge of the woods on the back of our property. He even taught me how to trench it so the rain would not get inside.
Well, my best friend and companion who lived within a mile of my home, used to come up and we would camp out. Here is a picture of the two of us:

He and I have been best friends ever since I can remember. He is a year younger than me, but back when we were growing up, he was the bigger of the two of us. Not only did we camp by ourselves, but we would go off to a church camp for a week every summer.

Here is a picture of my buddy and one of the cabins we stayed in:


And the creek that we swam in:

It had leaches and was really cold. After a few years, they built swimming pool and we used that instead. We really had good times at that camp, except for the early morning calisthenics. And the time I fell out of bed. I was sleeping in the top bunk all wrapped up inside a sleeping bag. I must have rolled off and didn’t wake up until I was half way to the floor. My arms were held to my side by the twisted sleeping bag and I landed face down on the wood floor without the ability to slow the fall with my hands. Of course, being young helped me get over that. Got back up in bed and don’t believe I even woke anyone else.

The good old days. How about you, have any camping stories when you were young?

Did you miss me?

First day I missed a post since I started blogging. Did you miss me? Took the day off, had other things that needed attention.

Didn’t have anything to say yesterday and not much today. Almost everyone had bad weather yesterday. We were supposed to get up to 3” of snow, but instead we got an ice storm that pretty much closed down Houston. Didn’t bother me any, since I didn’t have anywhere that I needed to be.

Remember my post about the mistletoe? Well the day before yesterday, when that front blew through here, some of it was blown out of the tree. Here is a picture of a sprig of it:

Last evening, the ice was still around. Just before the sun set, I snapped this picture of the ice sparkling in an oak tree. Actually looked better in person:

The ice was not all pretty. Less than a mile from me there was a fatal accident on the bridge over Caney Creek. The news said Houston had over 800 reported accidents. A baby was born while the mother was stuck trying to get to the hospital. Yesterday will have stories told about it for years to come.

How did you make out at your place?

Word Hunt

I did this once before when I didn’t know what to write about and I am going to do it again today. I got out my big old dictionary, the one with 1716 pages. With my eyes closed, I touched a spot and opened it to that page. I then, with eyes still closed, pointed to somewhere on the pages. I opened my eyes to see what word I selected; figured it would be just some simple word that I was familiar with, right? Wrong!! The word was “aerostat”. OK, I have never heard that word, have you?

At first I figured it meant some kind of statistic about flying or maybe some kind of an air control device. You know, a thermostat controls the heat so an aerostat would control air, maybe air flow. Wrong again.

You got it figured out yet? If you do, I will have to give you credit, because I sure didn’t know what it meant. I am thinking that maybe Ben knows what it means. Do you Ben?



OK, enough is enough. This word aerostat means “an airship, balloon, or other aircraft that is lifted and sustained by means of one or more containers filled with gas lighter than air.” How many of you knew that? I sure didn’t.

Well, at least I learned a new word today.

Not this week!!

I was wondering when Spring would get here. Well, one thing I know for sure, it ain’t going to be this week!! Now, I really should not complain, I don’t have it near as bad as most people in our great country. And my water is still running when I turn on the spigot. It was just a hair below 20 degrees when I got up a few hours ago and hasn’t gone up much since then, just less than two degrees.

It is not how low the temperature gets, but how long it stays there, that causes the problems. If it stays cold long enough to freeze the surface of the ground and doesn’t warm up enough to thaw it out, then more things will freeze the next night when it dips below freezing. That warmth that radiates from unfrozen earth sure does make a difference, and when it is absent, water pipes and such freeze up much faster. Tonight will be the most dangerous for the pipes. If we get past tonight, we should be OK. Winter was a little slow getting to this area, but it is sure making up for lost time.

Hey, I am not complaining, most of you out there are having much worse weather. When I lived in Pennsylvania, it was much, much worse than it ever could get here. The difference is, up there the buildings and infrastructure was designed for cold below freezing weather. Where I live, freezing temperatures are never in the mind of the builder. It is up to the home owner to take precautions.

I always get prepared . . . well, maybe a few days after it gets cold. Why do today what you can put off until . . . . .

Stay warm out there.

*****
Our friends in Australia are about to be hit with the largest cyclone to hit them in years, if ever. yesterday it had winds up to 175 mph. I wouldn't want to be in the path of that one and a lot of good people are. Let us hope and pray for the best outcome possible.

Is it Spring yet?

Has Spring sprung around here? Heck, I thought it had, all those nice days in the 70’s and the balmy nights with the frogs yelling their heads off out there in my swamp. Well, that all came to an end just before 06:00 this morning. A cold front came charging through here slamming into all this warm, balmy, humid air and everything just exploded. Wham-Bang, all “you know what” broke loose. High winds, hail, rain, wind, lightning, and of course a very sharp drop in temperatures. At least, so far, the white stuff is staying up Ben’s way.

Do you think this change in our weather was brought on by the Pittsburgh Steelers coming down to Cowboy Stadium for the “big” game? That will make them feel right at home. I guess it will be the same for Green Bay. It was really very nice of the Dallas-Fort Worth area to be so accommodating. I just wish that they would have kept it all up there and not bothered to share it with us, also.

Temperatures are supposed to plummet and be below freezing for many hours during this coming week. I have a couple of tarps thrown over my well, pump, and pressure tanks. Sometime today, I will get a trouble light going under the tarps to keep anything from freezing.

For years, I always told all my friends that live up north that the last two weeks in January and the first two weeks in February are usually the worst, if we do have winter. Of course I only admitted that after I had told them that last year, winter was on a Thursday. . .

I remember some bad winters in this area. So far, this one has not been high on the list, but it is sure working its way up. Potato planting time is the middle of February, so that gives you gardeners an example of when Spring time comes to this area. I do remember times when I had to hill dirt up over the potato plants when a late frost was expected to arrive.

Last night the frogs and owls were telling me that Spring was almost here. OK, I am waiting.