Austin move

  Since moving back to Austin in the summer of 2013, there have been many differences in our lives. While down on the Texas Gulf coastal plain, we had a strict weekly schedule of events, we now have more ability to modify our plans. For instance, we now have a good-sized garden plot with some plants already coming up by equinox day. On that same day, we became a larger group of live creatures on the lot by gaining six pullets. Two are Production Rhode Island Reds and four are Dominique. They are about nine weeks old. This will entail a major life change in daily routines.

Ridin' the rails to nowhere

In case you are one of those folks who are desperately in love with old train cars or never got over the tug at your heart over a toy train set, there's this fellow's post. He details some of the interesting homes people have made out of cabooses or other train cars long retired, but still serviceable from a domicile point of view.

I found the page while I was researching a scene from a 1973 trip across the Sierra Madres on a passenger train. It was the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad. Far up in the mountains, I saw families living in old boxcars on short sidings. They had cheery window boxes with flowers in them during the June trip. Children were at play outside of the several boxcars. They had cut doors and windows more suitable for a dwelling in the sides, with stairs leading up to the doors.

From the quick perspective of passing the homes out on a mountain siding, they looked very minimal and near infinitely remote. But think...they had company pass right by several times a week in the form of the train I was on.

Comments welcomed.

The power of one

1

If you only had ONE word to share with the world, what word would that be?
Imagine taking your moment of universal fame and blurting that word to a worldwide audience, some of whom might actually take it in.
Imagine what they would do with it.
Would it change their lives?
If not, then how many words WOULD it take to change ONE person's life?

Would TWO?

Comments welcomed.
[also, see
http://atthewindow.blogspot.com/2011/07/one.html
http://rtmulcahy.wordpress.com/2010/09/]

Social networking?: That’s How We Roll

Who knew that this bizarre looking device was the basis for a whole sport in Germany?
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/04/awesome-rolling-guy-makes-awesome-rolling-contraption.html

I think with my loss of half my balance center (my left inner ear), this might make me very sick. But I would have really enjoyed it, I believe, before this happened. It even seems to be oriented to electrical engineering...at least the way this fellow gained the hoops to use.

Comments welcomed.

May your eyes take in and your mind comprehend

National Geographic <== That organization's magazine's name rings through the centuries (now) as a bastion for the perfect photograph of distant places, scenes, animals, people, insects. Belches of fire from earthly openings below the crust; rushing, raging rivers; along with quiet moments of peaceful tranquility are all shown in its pages. This annual contest seems to distill the best of the best for passive viewers to take in and gasp at pangs of feelings evoked about what we see.

Enjoy!

Comments welcomed.

Recommended blog

A friend is touring India and blogging/photographing as he goes. Check this out:
http://earlfuture.blogspot.com

Things are DIFFERENT in that country from Texas!!!

In the eyes of a five-year-old

I got to see again today just what it is in the eyes of a five-year-old girl that attracts adults normally prone to being serious to buy extremely silly cards and wonderfully silly gifts for the birthday girl. That look of joy when she sees something emerge from the wrap and box is just downright cute!

May we all grin like crazy at some point in the next 24 hours. Dance like no one's watching, etc.

Inaugural Poem

During Tuesday's inauguration, I was really moved by the reading of this wonderful poem, which was by Elizabeth Alexander. Here are a few lines from it, as an example of why it grabbed my attention:

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to preempt grievance

Take a deep breath, exhale slowly and let THOSE words breathe through your consciousness for a little while. Then, go out and live them.

Uncle Jay Explains: Year-end!

A friend wished a Happy New Year and sent this video link along today. Well in the grand ole tradition of remaking Christmas and holiday songs with new words to make a bowl-full of laughs. Or not. Hope you enjoy them. Have a bite...or byte.

Flash! goes the light in my shop!

The deed is done on the 12'x12' workshop electrification project. 18 yards of 10-12" deep trench, finished by a tin can to dump all the dirt out. An electrician friend did the electrical parts. We have lunch once or twice weekly and he rides to ham club with me every month. WHAT A PAL!

Everything that can hurt does hurt...a lot. As I told one correspondent: these hands are used to throw Frisbees and type on keyboards...not smash shovels into hard, dry dirt, swing grubbing hoe/picks for hours on end (with rests about every ten minutes...I am getting on in years) and using leather-palm gloves to use tin cans to scrape and toss all the dirt in the trench. Two Aleve tabs and prolly an early-to-bed for me. The hands will get over the cramping, trembling and bruising in a few days. All is well.