Too Busy to Post Today – A Whine

Posted on 08/29/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

Life has been so busy lately that I just can’t figure out what’s been happening. Let’s see – grandkids showed up, messed up all my Lego boxes (they had 1×4 grays in with the 2×4 reds and robot parts in the people parts) and then they sadly went home – just as I was getting use to the joyous chaos . Heather and I took a week camping to recover then got the house ready (transplanting shrubs, moving heavy furniture, going to the dump) for the construction crew who installed new windows in the kitchen – well it started out as replacing windows and ended up rebuilding walls. Then we painted after the crew left and I dug out two ex-planters that are going to get cemented over to create a larger patio space.  We just finished putting back the big pieces of furniture but I am sure I’ve forgotten to do something.

 
And somewhere in all that I started a new job and saw my finical adviser to find out when and if I ever get to retire (I’ve got a report but am afraid to read it). The new job has a different medical plan than my old job so I switched doctors – to a doctor I had before, who I really like. Then the doctor sent me to this physical therapy class for my shoulder after I complained about pain in my elbow – yeah I’m still trying to figure that out (weird but it’s working).  Then she, my doctor, sent me up for all these blood tests and asked a lot of questions about my prostate that I’d rather not repeat. I can’t be completely sure but I believe I went to the dentist for a cleaning and check up – well I do remember a comment from a dental like person about being ‘long in the tooth’ – apparently there’s a tooth paste for that.  The eye doctor finally convinced me to buy the prescription sunglasses he’s been after me for, just before telling me that my eye pressure increased this time so we’ve got to start checking for glaucoma every 12 months.  My grandmother had glaucoma but seems like I told the eye doctor that already or maybe he treated my grandmother – I don’t remember.

 
And my church committee had coffee host duty this month – I get a barely pass there as I forgot to get a crew for one Sunday (good thing I’ve got a great team that is willing to cover my butt from time to time) and one Sunday I screwed up the schedule cause it turned out that I was liturgist and the guy making coffee on the same Sunday – Heather helped me cover that one up.  The only good news is that I am on the verge of convincing the church council that I shouldn’t be  in charge of ‘hospitality hour.’ Then there’s a new pastor dude at church, Jim I think.  Yes, now I am sure of it – he’s new and his name is Jim.  I had breakfast with him last month? I think, yes, I did – he didn’t get the coffee cake but he had coffee.

 
I keep thinking that I need to write a new blog post but that keeps slipping into ‘tomorrow.’  It’s been tomorrow for about six weeks now.  I keep checking the status on this blog and am surprised to find that my most popular post is the one about my table saw stand closely followed by the unfinished posts on the Murphy bed.  I will take some pride in my Memorial day posts as they were my highest single day activity but on a day to day basis people seem more interested in Murphy beds and table saw stands than they are about our veterans. I’d like to do some really good posts but just about the time I think of a good one something new and better has happened so I start thinking out a blog post for that.  Never seem to get one written.  I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve opened my editor only to close it two days later without ever having written anything.

 
Well tonight my brain has kind of exploded.  This post started out as a tweet but then I ran over the 140 character limit so I moved on to a Facebook status update.  But then I went over that limit and FB suggested I do a note.  Somewhere around 400 words I cut and pasted the whole thing into the editor window I opened last Saturday and I rewrote all of this. At some level I feel I should apologize for the whiny tone of this post but at another level it just feels good to have a nice whine.

 
A wise man would delete the whole thing and just go to bed but I can’t be accused of being wise…

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Change

Posted on 07/15/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

This has been a month of changes for me.  Nothing I really planned for but I knew they were possible.  Change is change.  Some good some bad.  With change comes change.  Change encourages change.  Change accelerates change.  Some times I yearn for change – beg for it to happen – only to later wish that things had stayed the same.

In somethings I am resistant to change.  I have had my hair cut the same way by the same barber since 1964 (except for the summer when was six when mother got me a ‘crew cut’).  My world will be destroyed the day Lee Roy can no longer cut my hair.  If he ever retires or heaven forbid, dies, I shall just let my hair grow long and tie in a pony tail and become a geriatric hippy.

Same with the way I dress – I wear slacks and a button down dress shirt to the office every day except Friday when I wear my blue jeans and a Hawaiian shirt.  Been doing that since the 80’s.  Since I went over the 50 year mark I no longer care what others think about how I look.  If you don’t like my button down shirt and polyester pants, don’t look at me.  I am doing fine.  Actually, given that most people at my office wear t-shirts, shorts and flip flops – I am the rebel going against the grain of modern high-tech society by wearing old-fashioned clothing that covers most of my skin (I also wear socks every day).

Even some of my habits haven’t changed in years – like reading the comics every morning.  Ever since I could read I’ve started out the morning by reading the comics in the newspaper.  Back in the day the newspaper – printed on real physical paper – was delivered to the house by a live newspaper boy (i.e. a human male child typically around 12 to 14 years of age).

That habit has changed only slightly.  I still read the comics every morning but today I go to my web browser and click on the “comics” bookmark and magically the 10 funnies I follow are downloaded into tabs and I read them.  All electronic.  No trees cut down and the paper boy gets to sleep in but I still get my comics.  Don’t think I’ve missed a day of the “Wizard of Id” since 1967.

Now I have been able to change over the years.  I will wear shorts and t-shirt on a Saturday and lately I’ve started to read the comic, “Stone Soup.” But I refuse to compromise on my hair – well I have been known to not shave for almost a week – when camping and no one but my wife can see the gray in my beard (okay – I have enough vanity left for that).

For the most part I stay with my habits and resist change.

The strange part of my resistance to change is my job.  I work in a software specialty call SCM.  Depending on who you talk to it is either software configuration management or software change management.  I am the guy in the software development group that tracks the changes made in a software product and regularly rebuilds the product so changes can be propagated to the world – engineering, QA, customers…  I’m the guy you should blame when your computer wants to down load yet another software update.  It’s my fault.  I’m the guy that built those bits.

In fact, I live for change in technology.  In my work I live near the bleeding edge of computing technology.  If I haven’t updated it this month, it must be old.  I can’t stand static systems in my work.  All systems I work with have to be planned for growth and obsolescence.  If I’ve been doing the same process for six months I know something must be wrong and I have to change it.

Change is constant.  Static technology is dead technology.  PSTN, IPv4, XP, Solaris and soon even Apache and MySql all need to be replaced.  They’re old and have no place in my future utopian technocratic based society…

Except for my cellphone.  I like my cellphone.  I bought it in 2002 and it still works.  No camera, no touch screen, no iTunes, no ring tones – just a keypad and caller id.  You dial numbers and people answer.  In any case, few people call me on my phone and I need glasses to read anything on it.  I’ve thought about getting an iPhone but first I’ll need stronger glasses to read the darn little screen.  Well, maybe it’s more about needing glasses than the phone.  Wonder if they have a large print iPhone?  When will technology developers consider the needs of aging technocrats?

So what has changed in my life recent that caused all these thoughts to pop up?

I got a new job.
I and my wife built a new bed for the guest room.
I got new computers at home.
I got a new fence on the side yard.
I got a new scroll saw for the shop.
I bought new pants and shirts (new underwear too).
I got a new pastor at church.
I got three grand kids staying with me for the month –  9 year old and twin 7 year old boys – there’s a routine changer.

Yeah, some of the changes are trivial.  Some were planned.  Some last minute.  Some unplanned.  Some welcomed and some not.

Some have changed my daily routine.  Some have caused me to rethink things.  Some have brought joy and others sadness.
Now I drive a different way to work on a cutting edge product that is frying my brain.
Now I install software on computers I’ll personally use.
Now I read Scrollsaw Woodwooker magazine and plan my next evening’s work in the shop.
Now I recount my spiritual journey to new spiritual leader.
Now I come home to the joyous chaos of kids trying to ‘help’ gran make dinner.

But life is about change.  You’ve heard the saying, “The only time you’re not changing is when you’re dead.”

I am not dead.

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Grandpa’s Journal Entry

Posted on 07/09/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

Right now the grand kids are writing in their journals so grandpa thought he’d write one too.  Gran thought it would be a great idea to had the kids take a little time each day to practice writing to help them learned and give them something quiet to do.  Judging from the noise in the living room the quiet part isn’t working out so well but for seven and nine year olds they are writing very well.  I doubt I was anywhere near that good at that age.

Now I am much older and write much better.  It’s good to have the kids around to remind me how far I’ve come in life.  Sitting here in the middle years of my life I am amazed how much I have learn and humbled by how there is still to learn.

I am at the other end of the house as I write this but even with my hearing loss I hear gran helping the kids spell the hard words and her working to keep them focused on their work.  She’s a great grandmother – the kind of grandma every kid should have: kind, fun loving, caring and when needed tough as nails.

The kid’s task is to write about their day and I’ll finish this entry with my version of what has happened today.

Today I got up early and went to my men’s group at church, the Gathering of Men (GOM).  It was very early when I got there and I had a bagel and juice for my breakfast.  Our new church pastor was there so we all got to meet him.  We sat in a big circle and took turns saying our name and telling everyone at little bit about what we’ve been doing.  We also told Pastor Jim how when we started going to the church and why we keep coming back.

I was supposed to call gran after the meeting but I forgot my cell phone and had to drive home to get it.  When I got home I found that gran and the kids had made lunches for our hike and were all ready to go.  I got my pack together and helped load everything into the car.  Then we all got in and I drove us to the mountains.

The kids had a lot of questions about what kind of animals we’d see when we got there and gran and I did our best to answer all the questions.  We drove up a twisty road and went past a fire station.  Then we parked in this big dirt parking lot and read all the warning signs about ticks, mountain lions and rattle snakes.  Once everyone knew what to do in case we saw a mountain lion we hiked up this long trail to the top of the mountain.

From the top of the mountain we could see all around but the was a lot of fog over the ocean so we didn’t see much of that.  We tried to see if we could see our house but I think it was behind a hill and we couldn’t find it.

Then we hiked back to the car and got our lunches.  There was this tunnel we walked through to get to the picnic tables where we ate lunch.  Next to the picnic area was a nature center and we all went inside.  There were animal bones and fur that we could touch and this big wall with descriptions of animals.  Next to the wall were the pictures of the animals and you had to match the picture with the description.  We did that for a long time.

Then we went to the pond and looked for fish.  There were a lot of fish in the pond but you’re not allowed to fish there.

After looking at the fish we drove back.  We stopped at Starbuck’s so gran and grandpa could get their afternoon treat.  We also stopped at the office store so gran could buy more stars to put on the kid’s chores sheets.  She also got extra write pads so everyone now has their own.

We got home gran let the kids pick out a Sobees drink for their treat drinks and we all had quiet time until dinner time.  Gran made a great dinner and we all had seconds and thirds.  We ate it all.  It was delicious.

Well now it time for a quiet evening and since we’re all very tired we’ll go to bed early tonight.

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The Great Murphy Bed Project – Update 2

Posted on 06/25/2011 by Andrew Reynolds

Today Heather and I did the final installation of the Murphy bed.  I’ll do a project wrap up post with more details and pictures tomorrow but I wanted to get a couple of quick pictures up.

Finished parts ready for installation

Here are the major pieces all assembled and ready for installation.  You’ll note that the parts are set up outside on the patio.  I have a very small work shop and a project this size just does fit so we set up the canopy and did much of the work in the back yard.  Heather applied all the finish out here.

And here is the bed installed in the guest room.  This bed is mostly for visiting grandkids so we kept the style very simple.  It was built as a functional piece and not as ‘fine furniture.’

The installed bed

It was a lot of work to do.  We’ve spent just about every Saturday in June working on it and Heather’s spent a few hours each day last week staining and putting on the finish.

So the question I most often get is, “was it worth it?”

Yes and no.

The hardware kit and planes were great and well worth the money.  If you want to build a Murphy bed, this is the way to go.  Now that it is done, we’ve got a piece that we can proudly point to and say, “we built that.” That’s important to me so, yes, the project was worth it to me.

But, it wasn’t as cheap as other bed options (futons, cheap metal frame or even other factory made Murphy beds) and it was a lot of work.  I didn’t keep track but it was easily 40 hours between Heather and I.  A better equipped shop might have done it faster.

Still as a hobby thing and a project that we could do together, I’d build another – in a few years.

Our next project together is going to involve smaller pieces of wood – I’m thinking a doll bed for our granddaughter’s “American Girl” doll.

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