Building around El Nino

The lake's full just about to capacity, which is good...I've been delayed in building by rain and snow though. Twice now I've finished the concrete pour while the sleet started coming down, then scrambled to get it all covered up.
If you're like me and don't care to hear about aches and pains, skip this paragraph. My rotator cuffs (both sides, but more the right) have been giving me problems, especially at night. It was frustrating and scary---how'm I gonna build a house with arms that don't work? I decided to ignore it and try to mix 6,000 pounds of concrete and move heavy rocks anyway. Know what? Everything felt GREAT afterwards, much better than before.
The lower wall is all done. This upper wall is right on the property line. What doesn't show is the 'dead man', a concrete girder about 14" x 12" that joins the top of the lower wall with the bottom of the upper wall every 20'. They're covered by the gravel driveway. They'll keep either wall from bowing from the pressure of the hillside over time.
Most time is spent digging. Then build the forms, trying to re-use the lumber and screws as many times as possible. Then line everything with plastic---if you pour right on the soil, too much moisture is drawn from the concrete. Strip the forms. Lay a bed of concrete on the footing, start placing stones, backpour concrete against a temporary form on the backside to lock it all in. Later I'll pour an upper burb that ties everything together, which will have post holders. I have to put a fence on top of this wall since it's going to be parking right on the property line.

Happy St. Valentine's day

http://www.10news.com/news/22563047/detail.html

On a 4 day bender here at work...Day one, 380 pound guy fall from cliff into surf, at night. Day two, retired fireman passed out on Cowles Mountain. Today, this one first then an even more tragic call, not postable.
Busy is good, though

Typical Lauren...

OK. So, Lauren is our middle child. She's in seventh grade. She recently won the school spelling bee (including the eight graders!) but the biggest competition was a fellow seventh grader----Darren. Darren takes spelling bees seriously. (his Dad's the principal, too---a great guy) Darren asks for the word to be repeated, defined, used in a sentence---every time. Spelling bee tactics.
Darren was eliminated by the word 'straightforward'. He spelled it with a 'dash' between 'straight' and 'forward'.
So, Lauren's going on to the county spelling bee. A few days later she was in class writing an essay and got stuck on a word. She said, somewhat absentmindedly, "How do you spell....." When she saw Darren was the person in earshot, she quickly decided she wasn't about to give him the pleasure, so she just said "...Never mind" So Darren started spelling "N-E-V-E-R.." when Lauren blurted out "DASH!"
The class laughed, except for Darren who mustered up his best 'stink-eye' for Lauren. Didn't stop him from asking her to dance with him at the Valentine's dance today though

Horoscope

During my medic rotation where I'm taken from the copter to staff the ambulance (it's to keep current on things and really not a bad idea...Just a lot more work!) I had a patient ask me, on the way to the hospital, what my 'sign' was. She was a Gemini, she said, and her horoscope predicted a medical emergency...
I asked her whether she goes by the dates set over 2,000 years ago, or the actual sign she was born under?
Let me get this straight....The sky is divided into 12, 30 degree sections. (12 because there's usually 12 full moons in a year) Each of these sections of sky falls in the plane of the ecliptic where the sun, moon and planets transit. If you use your imagination, each of these zones has a group of stars that kind of resemble something that was around 2 millenia ago. So, when I was born, the sun shone through this group of stars, raining the attributes of that star formation down upon me. There are planets too. One is really bright, so it's given the attribute of 'beauty'. One is vaguely red, so looks a little like blood, so gives the attribute of 'war'. These planets wander in and out of 'my' constellation, so things about my life can be predicted by this.
Today's horoscope---"Good time for love affairs; you will be in great form, and look handsome. You will be full of energy, and take on the work of Hercules....All this from planets moving through a group of stars!
A few problems with this. First, the sun doesn't shine through the stars---they are very far away. Second, there has been precession over the last 2,000 years due to the earth's wobble, so you were most likely born under the constellation one before what you think you are; If you were born between Nov.29-Dec 17, you're actually born under the sign 'Ophiuchus'. So according to horoscope sites I'm a Taurus, though I was born 'under' Aries the ram. And what about comets? If a planet can move through and make me look handsome, how come a comet can pass through and it doesn't alter my horoscope one bit?
I tried to politely ask my patient some of these things. All she offered was, "I'd fully expect a Taurus to say something like that"

Sir James Clark Ross

You probably haven't heard his name before. He was an explorer. He explored the Arctic on four voyages under Admiral Parry; and later led his own expeditions into the Antarctic.
Ross was employed on the magnetic survey of Great Britain. He was also tasked with discovering the magnetic south pole, and discovered/named many features and bays in Antarctica. Ross ice shelf and the Ross Sea are among things he first identified (later named for him).




Ross was a fanatic recorder, recording tidal, astronomical, and meteorological observations. He sailed to The Isle Of The Dead not far from Point Arthur (Tasmania)with the purpose of providing a benchmark. These are excerpts from his journal, made in 1841..

"The fixing of solid and well secured marks for the purpose of showing the mean sea level of the ocean at a given epoch was suggested by Baron von Humboldt..." (Another traveller, and hero of mine)....
"My principal object in visiting Port Arthur was to afford a comparison of our standard barometer with that which had been employed for several years by Mr. Lempriere, (the Deputy Commissary General) and also to establish a permanent mark at the zero point, or general mean sea level as determined by the tidal observations which Mr. Lempriere had conducted with perseverance and exactness for some time; by which means any secular variation in the relative level of the land and sea, which is known to occur on some coasts, MIGHT AT ANY FUTURE PERIOD BE DETECTED, AND ITS AMOUNT DETERMINED."
Ross gave Lempriere laborers and specific instructions to cut this mark in the exact spot which his tidal observations indicated as the mean sea level of the ocean.
July 1st 1841 the mean sea level mark was made. Careful present day observations put mean sea level, over a century and a half later, more than 4 inches below Ross's mark.
Thanks for the effort, Mr. Ross, but you wasted your time. Science ain't based on keen observation anymore. When your ice shelf seasonally recedes, it's due to our industrial greed. If you ask your average Joe, they'll insist the oceans have significantly risen in spite of the benchmark you provided.

New Job!!

It's been a bit stressful here at SDFD of late. We're already 22 fire stations short in San Diego to meet NFPA standards, and now they're cutting back more. In the 23 years I've worked in Emergency Services in San Diego, there has always been overtime available.
Now they are putting a stop to overtime.
It's kid of foolish, really---they can cover three budgeted positions with two people. It costs a little in overtime, but saves a lot in eliminating a postion you'd have to pay more retirement/benefits/insurance for. All they see, though, is how much a fireman made---not how much time he was at work or the money he brings in from other agencies doing single resource work.
We never set up our finances to be dependent on the OT, but it would really affect our short and long term plans if the OT completely dried up. (It really won't completely dry up...I still teach downtown, and attend monthly Airops meetings, HazMat drills, Paramedic CE, Etc)
Still, AnnaMarie and I talked about it, prayed about it, developed fall back plans, decided to wait and see how things go.
Today I got a call from Washington D.C.....This position wouldn't really affect my current job, would mean more paid travel, and be a way to serve outside the small San Diego pond. There are still some hoops to jump through

Feast of the Epiphany 2010

A family tradition we, and some of my siblings, uphold is celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany. For us, it marks the end of the Christmas season. (It represents the 12th day of Christmas)





AnnaMarie starts cooking a few days before. The reason she looks extra happy here is, she's in her favorite spot. Nothing to do with the half full Corona on the counter.






Dinner, as usual, was excellent. We've found that if you're inviting lots of people that don't know each other, pack them in close and new friends are made.







The whole point, though, is the Epiphany. We have a set of short readings that explains the significance of the event. THe readings are stuffed into numbered balloons. If you are of reading age, you pop your balloon in turn, find your reading, and read it to everybody.
The Magi were probably Zoroastrians from the East. Wise men from the oldest known monotheistic faith reading the stars to recognize the significance of Christ's birth and the dawn of a new religion. Kind of fitting, then, that we invite families of different faiths to attend. Couldn't find any Zoroastrians though.












With the serious business over, it's time for the white elephant gift exchange/stealing. My favorite gift was Lauren's 'Whack-A-Mole'. A Catholic Priest is visiting our parish, his first trip out of the Philippines. He seemed to have a very good time and fully understood gift-stealing. I wonder if he thinks this is a tradition all over America?

Project update Jan 2010

Finally got a day off work, done being sick, caught up at home, Christmas now the domain of Dicken's first ghost. Before I start hand digging the foundation, there's a site inspection to get past. All the disturbed soil had to get covered with straw, for one thing.








The heavy rains caused a large section of the dug-out upper wall washed out before I could get stone work done, so I had to re-dig that all out. The dirt all got wheelbarrowed down to some low spots that needed filling prior to putting the straw down.











The straw bales started the day as something to be king of; later they were rearranged into a fort. They lost interest by the time I needed to cut them open and start scattering.










Ran out of straw, daylight, energy, and bare dirt all at the same time.

More fun at the George's

The Georges hosted us for our last family outing of the year. We arrived before lunch, and Rob gave Patrick some pointers for cooking meat with fire. Celeste is as gracious a host as you'll ever find. Hayley played video games with Patrick. We all played 'bananagrams', which Rob consistently won after learning the rules. After an excellent and nutritious lunch, some of us returned to the bloody parrot for some sort of 'dungeons and dragons' type game. It was new for my kids....Kept us occupied while Celeste and AnnaMarie got caught up. The other cheap thrill was playing with the wall mirror. Good for some giggles

Experiment, Phase Two

A few weeks ago I noticed a gradual diminishing of sunshine. It seemed we were getting ever fewer hours of sunlight. Since all things that are bad, according to the media and popular opinion, are due to capitalism and consumerism I naturally made the assumption----the increased buying and greed around the Holidays are upsetting to mother nature. Nature keeps trying to tell us that we are bad and unless we revert to a stone aged existence, we are all doomed.
So, I stopped spending, supported local measures that taxed people richer than me to help those poorer than me, and learned to see Nancy Pelosi in a positive light. No matter what I've tried, though, the darkness continues to overtake the light. I have a graph I've made that shows the obvious decline. Most scientists agree that without sunlight, things here on earth will be bad.
Well, no more. Trying the progressive liberal mindset hasn't made things better, only worse. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to go back to my Conservative roots. I'm going to take personal responsibility for all my actions. If I see someone needing help, I'll help them directly. I'll work hard to increase productivity. I'll go to church. I'll eat red meat.
Mother nature, if your design for us is to responsibly utilize all your resources to make life better for all, to innovate, to employ, to expand, to produce---and to reap the benefits of our labor without it being taken away by the Government---PLEASE send me a sign. Please, right now, reverse this trend and give us just a little more sunshine each and every day. Then I'll know for sure. If the days continue to shorten, I'll know what was really meant for us and will immediately register as a Democrat.

Mckenna's 16th Birthday

Knott's Berry Farm. Oldest theme park in America, and has aged very well. They have a deal in December where fire/police people get themselves and a guest in free, then additional guests $15. They really decorate up well for Christmas too--and I do mean Christmas, not fetivus or sparkle or other such nonsense...Nativity scenes, 'Merry Christmas' banners, carollers, all that.
I have had 3 days off since Thanksgiving. I got someone to come in early (06:45), jammed home, collected Mckenna and 5 of her friends (3 boys 3 girls) and made the 140 mile trek to Buena Park.
Immediately went my own way..Knott's is great since there's lots to see and do, not just rides. I decided at some point to go on 'Ghostrider', a nearly mile-long wooden rollercoaster. Very fast. The park was nearly empty, and I started making my way through the labyrinth of line rails necessary for busier days....As I got nearer the enclosed part, I noticed two older teen girls in front of me. They kept sort of nervously looking my way and huddling towards each other, like I was some stalker or something. I guess a mid forties man wandering around an amusement park alone IS a bit suspicious...There was nowhere else to go though. When I got the the part where there were lots of people just before the ride and I was right next to them, I caught up on some cellphone calls I needed to make. Man...I really hate times when I just don't know what to do with myself.
So, when McKenna's group found me and asked me to go with them on some of the scarier coasters, I did. Good chance to get some pics too. I sent a cell pic to Byron and sort of bummed him out I think when I wrote "This used to be us". We closed the park down, leaving at 19:00. The plan was dinner and presents at the chicken restaurant but the wait was 90 minutes; we opted for Denny's halfway home. After dropping everyone off all around the extended community of Julian, we got back well after midnight. Had to get up early to start a shift that ends Christmas Eve.
McKenna described it as the best day of her life. I hope that's true only up to this point!