Green Envy
Finally got my lawn mowed yesterday. My neighbors were mowing too. I'm going to pout now. Their mower is bigger than my mower. So is the area they have to mow. Maybe if my mower eats its vegetables it will grow up to be big and strong like this. :o)
Harvest Time!
Yesterday and today, the cornfield to the west was being harvested. I will have to get used to the growing season being a couple of weeks ahead down here, relative to central Illinois. I don't know if the cornfield is part of the farm next door or not.
Construction Toys!
I snapped a pic of part of the big crane being hauled away today. They started breaking it down on Friday and there are three trailers of parts left to be hauled away.
To get a better idea of just how big these cranes are, here are some photos of the construction site. This is essentially the view I have out of my office window. I can't wait until they start pouring concrete around those beams.
Anyway, the already very large hospital (more than 600 patient beds) will become HUGE once they're done with this addition. The clerk at the driver's license center said that her son will be working in the new laundry facility they'll build. The hospital will then have TWO laundry facilities. I bet they still run out of clean sheets in the ER.
Work progress:
Still no software installed. Still no access to data. Sent off another e-mail to the IT folks indicating that I'm about at the end of what I can do without software and data. No reply. I even politely asked for a estimated time frame when the software might get installed. Nothing. By the end of the day tomorrow I'll have exhausted what I can do without data and software, unless I brainstorm some busywork tonight. I spent the day reading more syndromic surveillance research papers. Thank goodness I still have access to the UI library system!! My brain glazed over pretty early, but I kept slugging away at it. I have a basic plan outlined. I have no idea if it will actually work, but I have a plan. That's a start.
Local Road Rules:
I'm not sure what it is, but everybody seems to be absolutely bent on driving in excess of 15 miles over the speed limit at all times. That means going >55 mph through the middle of town! Had a guy riding my back bumper yesterday because I was only going 10 miles over the limit up. Eventually he passed me (in a no passing zone, of course), then promptly fish-tailed into the right ditch, but was able to recover before plowing into the end of the culvert at the next driveway. His "recovery" was a bit over done, so he ended up in the opposing lane, fish tailing on the pavement. Fortunately there wasn't any oncoming traffic. He did manage to recover without wrecking his car, but he pulled in to a parking lot to examine the passenger side of his car for damage. I don't mind it if people speed, but I do ask that they do it safely and that they not exceed their actual driving abilities.
Which brings me to the woman who tailgated me through town a couple of weeks ago. I guess I wasn't close enough to the car in front of me for her tastes. The entire grill of her truck was hiding behind my car, she was that close to me (and honking all the time). I wouldn't have minded so much, but she was apparently unfamiliar with the operation of a manual transmission and kept squealing the tires and lurching forward. Perhaps her truck was in sufficiently poor shape that it wouldn't run right unless she achieved a particular constant velocity. Eventually she swerved out from behind me to make a right turn, whereupon she continued the same behavior (complete with honking and lurching) behind a semi-truck's trailer. I'm fairly certain that the semi's driver could neither hear nor see her, given that the front of her truck was no more than 18 inches off of his back bumper. I'm not sure she could see the brake lights on the trailer without having to turn her head. Hope she doesn't drive like that on the freeway. It'd get really interesting about the time a re-tread came unglued....
On the other hand, I think have discovered why there are so many fatal car crashes down here. People just drive like idiots. Or maybe they figure that if the guys on the NASCAR circuit can drive like that on a closed course with racing tires that they ought to be able to do the same thing with their beat up cars and regular tires on city streests. I can only hope that the idiot drivers manage to kill themselves, not other people, although that wasn't how it worked out in Illinois. Perhaps that's different here too.
The Year of the Rodent:
Yet another discovery at the home place..... Either there are some rather uncreative and uninspired crop circle creators frequenting my back yard or I have MOLES taking up residence. Yay! I had found three possible mole hills on Sunday when raking up the clumped up grass clippings. There were four new mole hills added to the collection yesterday. So I'll be buying some mole killer/repellent this week. I think my property must have a deal with Lowe's and receives a kickback every time I buy something there.
Carpet cleaning progress:
It's amazing how much dirt can collect in carpet. I don't think the carpets had been cleaned before. EVER. This wouldn't have been so bad, but I suspect that the previous owners didnt' vacuum very often either, judging from the amount of dog hair I sucked up. The master bedroom carpet wasn't stained in any way before I started (and isn't stained now either), but does look a whole lot better than it did, particularly in the area of the bathroom vanity. The computer room carpet looks a lot better, but still smells. The craft/knitting room carpet still has a visible stain, but isn't smelling nearly as bad as it did. I'll clean both of those rooms again later this week. I think I'm on the winning side of the battle of the stinky, dirty carpet. And I really like my steam cleaner. It's highly effective and even fun to use! Definitely some of the best $130 I've ever spent. I'll add steam cleaning the carpet to the household maintenance calendar, right along with changing the HVAC filter and changing the batteries in the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Tonight's view from the deck:
Here's what tonight's sunset looks like. I'd sit out on the deck and enjoy it with a cold beverage of my choice, but there's a light rain developing.
Harvest Time!
Yesterday and today, the cornfield to the west was being harvested. I will have to get used to the growing season being a couple of weeks ahead down here, relative to central Illinois. I don't know if the cornfield is part of the farm next door or not.
Construction Toys!
I snapped a pic of part of the big crane being hauled away today. They started breaking it down on Friday and there are three trailers of parts left to be hauled away.
To get a better idea of just how big these cranes are, here are some photos of the construction site. This is essentially the view I have out of my office window. I can't wait until they start pouring concrete around those beams.
Anyway, the already very large hospital (more than 600 patient beds) will become HUGE once they're done with this addition. The clerk at the driver's license center said that her son will be working in the new laundry facility they'll build. The hospital will then have TWO laundry facilities. I bet they still run out of clean sheets in the ER.Work progress:
Still no software installed. Still no access to data. Sent off another e-mail to the IT folks indicating that I'm about at the end of what I can do without software and data. No reply. I even politely asked for a estimated time frame when the software might get installed. Nothing. By the end of the day tomorrow I'll have exhausted what I can do without data and software, unless I brainstorm some busywork tonight. I spent the day reading more syndromic surveillance research papers. Thank goodness I still have access to the UI library system!! My brain glazed over pretty early, but I kept slugging away at it. I have a basic plan outlined. I have no idea if it will actually work, but I have a plan. That's a start.
Local Road Rules:
I'm not sure what it is, but everybody seems to be absolutely bent on driving in excess of 15 miles over the speed limit at all times. That means going >55 mph through the middle of town! Had a guy riding my back bumper yesterday because I was only going 10 miles over the limit up. Eventually he passed me (in a no passing zone, of course), then promptly fish-tailed into the right ditch, but was able to recover before plowing into the end of the culvert at the next driveway. His "recovery" was a bit over done, so he ended up in the opposing lane, fish tailing on the pavement. Fortunately there wasn't any oncoming traffic. He did manage to recover without wrecking his car, but he pulled in to a parking lot to examine the passenger side of his car for damage. I don't mind it if people speed, but I do ask that they do it safely and that they not exceed their actual driving abilities.
Which brings me to the woman who tailgated me through town a couple of weeks ago. I guess I wasn't close enough to the car in front of me for her tastes. The entire grill of her truck was hiding behind my car, she was that close to me (and honking all the time). I wouldn't have minded so much, but she was apparently unfamiliar with the operation of a manual transmission and kept squealing the tires and lurching forward. Perhaps her truck was in sufficiently poor shape that it wouldn't run right unless she achieved a particular constant velocity. Eventually she swerved out from behind me to make a right turn, whereupon she continued the same behavior (complete with honking and lurching) behind a semi-truck's trailer. I'm fairly certain that the semi's driver could neither hear nor see her, given that the front of her truck was no more than 18 inches off of his back bumper. I'm not sure she could see the brake lights on the trailer without having to turn her head. Hope she doesn't drive like that on the freeway. It'd get really interesting about the time a re-tread came unglued....
On the other hand, I think have discovered why there are so many fatal car crashes down here. People just drive like idiots. Or maybe they figure that if the guys on the NASCAR circuit can drive like that on a closed course with racing tires that they ought to be able to do the same thing with their beat up cars and regular tires on city streests. I can only hope that the idiot drivers manage to kill themselves, not other people, although that wasn't how it worked out in Illinois. Perhaps that's different here too.
The Year of the Rodent:
Yet another discovery at the home place..... Either there are some rather uncreative and uninspired crop circle creators frequenting my back yard or I have MOLES taking up residence. Yay! I had found three possible mole hills on Sunday when raking up the clumped up grass clippings. There were four new mole hills added to the collection yesterday. So I'll be buying some mole killer/repellent this week. I think my property must have a deal with Lowe's and receives a kickback every time I buy something there.Carpet cleaning progress:
It's amazing how much dirt can collect in carpet. I don't think the carpets had been cleaned before. EVER. This wouldn't have been so bad, but I suspect that the previous owners didnt' vacuum very often either, judging from the amount of dog hair I sucked up. The master bedroom carpet wasn't stained in any way before I started (and isn't stained now either), but does look a whole lot better than it did, particularly in the area of the bathroom vanity. The computer room carpet looks a lot better, but still smells. The craft/knitting room carpet still has a visible stain, but isn't smelling nearly as bad as it did. I'll clean both of those rooms again later this week. I think I'm on the winning side of the battle of the stinky, dirty carpet. And I really like my steam cleaner. It's highly effective and even fun to use! Definitely some of the best $130 I've ever spent. I'll add steam cleaning the carpet to the household maintenance calendar, right along with changing the HVAC filter and changing the batteries in the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Tonight's view from the deck:
Here's what tonight's sunset looks like. I'd sit out on the deck and enjoy it with a cold beverage of my choice, but there's a light rain developing.
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