Yup, today is the official start of the Spring Project Season. Everything that you didn’t finish before the snow buried it, is now thawed out and exposed to the ridicule of your buddies. Of course, they aren’t going to say much because their unfinished projects are out there too. Once the snow is gone, it’s “Yes, Dear” and out the door we go.

The Good Lord watches over me. Notice that the truck bed is the same height as the saw horse? Yup, I planned it that way (snicker). And I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

This is the time of year to organize,clean, toss what you don’t need, retrieve those treasures that Best Gal didn’t think you needed anymore, and so forth. I am (finally) clearing out some of my projects. Man, I had some really cool ideas for tech projects years ago. I even had subscriptions to those electronics/robotics magazines that showed you how to build stuff. Now I look at my idea and realize that there’s an App for that.

So…..out the door go some of my projects. I don’t just toss-no sir, I realize the world is full of people who love projects more than I do. My unwanted projects end up going one of the local online auction houses that have sprung up. Used to be that there might be a local auction house that would take consignments, but the market was pretty limited. Now, you put something up for sale in an online auction, and people are bidding from all over the region. I haven’t made any money yet-these auctions have some pretty useful stuff, if you know what I mean.

I’ve got to finish up now. Tomorrow I’ll show you some ideas for organizing your treasures.

Sawing straight for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

From KTTC in Rochester: Senator Al  Franken was in Rochester Friday, “collecting stories from older Minnesotans about the high price of prescription drugs.” He also “wants to tell seniors about what they can do to make medicine more affordable.” Go buy them from Canada or Mexico? Or Amazon? Seems that every time the government helps us, stuff gets more expensive.

Loved the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou”.  I’m waiting for the remake ” Bro ? u @”

Seem to be getting a lot of motivational quotes from folks, some Book of Face updates and emails and texts.  I like to discover the source of these nuggets of wisdom. If I’m supposed to change my life to follow this path, I want it to be more than the GPS Voice that announces “Turn left here” before I turn and drive off the cliff.

So I look up the original source for these nuggets. Go online and search. OK, here’s Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest, more Pinterest, then I can get to chasing down the original source of the quote. You have got to be kidding me – a person with a fish on their bumper and an embroidered cover on the Good Book has sent me a series of Hindu or Taoist quotes? I understand (I think) why the quotes sound good – every one wants to believe in karma when they get cut off in traffic.  I just think that if we are going to be held accountable someday, for every word we’ve said and action we’ve done, we should put more thought into what we say and do.

In case you want to do your own search, New York Public Library has a good blog article on that. Follow the link here: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/11/22/how-to-research-quotations.

Well, the Crankasauris has to go get groceries now.

Growling for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

Is the day after tomorrow, and it’s snowing.  Christmas time, this snow would be gorgeous. Light, fluffy flakes softly floating down past the streetlights, covering the lawn in puffy blanket of white. Makes me want to go back into hibernation for a couple more weeks-wake me up in time for the walleye opener!

This isn’t the latest I’ve seen it snow. Many years ago I was flying a small plane up to Grand Dudes cabin. Scudding snow, flurries here and there, and a terrible headwind. About halfway there, I figured out what my groundspeed was-I was traveling slower than the cars on the interstate below me! My arrival was a bit later than planned. Such a headwind when I got to the airport. I pulled the throttle back for my descent to land, and stopped moving forward! I looked out the side window, and could tell I was stationary over the lake! Had to give it full throttle just to get to the runway and land.

A few years earlier than that, Best Gal and the Munchkinettes drove with me to Grand Dudes cabin. Memorial weekend, nice, though a little cold. Driving back home (5 hours south) as we got close to home, we encountered cars with fresh snow piled on them. Found out that there had been 6 inches of new snow while we were gone.

Not the record, though. Latest measurable recorded snow was in Mizpah, Koochiching County on June 4, 1935 (betcha Google that one to figure out what state!). Earliest snow was a trace that fell on August 31, 1949 at the Duluth airport. (May have given the answer away with that one.) Wouldn’t be much of a summer that year.

Back when I was a bit younger (silly statement, any stories that started “when I was older” wouldn’t have happened yet) I interviewed for a job on the North Shore in Wisconsin (gotta understand that the North Shore in Wisconsin is the south shore of Lake Superior). Best Gal and I were looking at a realtors’ listing of homes for sale. I remember thinking, does everybody sell their homes in the winter here? Later I realized there weren’t to many months in that area without snow on the ground. Might have been a little more snow than I was prepared to handle.

Well, hibernation does sound good right now,

Snoring for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

 

 

So we can have a little more time to celebrate, here’s some cool facts from the site Mental Floss (mentalfloss.com)

1. WE SHOULD REALLY WEAR BLUE

Saint Patrick himself would have to deal with pinching on his feast day. His color was “Saint Patrick’s blue,” a light shade. The color green only became associated with the big day after it was linked to the Irish independence movement in the late 18th century.

2. SAINT PATRICK WAS BRITISH

Although he made his mark by introducing Christianity to Ireland in the year 432, Patrick wasn’t Irish himself. He was born to Roman parents in Scotland or Wales in the late fourth century.

3. THE IRISH TAKE SAINT PATRICK’S DAY SERIOUSLY

As you might expect, Saint Patrick’s Day is a huge deal in his old stomping grounds. It’s a national holiday in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

4. SO DO NEW YORKERS

New York City’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the world’s largest parades. Since 1762, 250,000 marchers have traipsed up Fifth Avenue on foot – the parade still doesn’t allow floats, cars, or other modern trappings.

5. CHICAGO FEELS LUCKY, TOO

New York may have more manpower, but Chicago has a spectacle all its own. The city has been celebrating Saint Patrick by dumping green dye into the Chicago River since 1962. It takes 40 tons of dye to get the river to a suitably festive shade!

6. IT USED TO BE A DRY HOLIDAY

For most of the 20th century, Saint Patrick’s Day was considered a strictly religious holiday in Ireland, which meant that the nation’s pubs were closed for business on March 17. (The one exception went to beer vendors at the big national dog show, which was always held on Saint Patrick’s Day.) In 1970, the day was converted to a national holiday, and the stout resumed flowing.

7. IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS

Not every city goes all-out in its celebratory efforts. From 1999 to 2007, the Irish village of Dripsey proudly touted that it hosted the Shortest Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the World. The route ran for 26 yards between two pubs. Today, Hot Springs, Arkansas claims the title for brevity – its brief parade runs for 98 feet.

8. THERE’S A REASON FOR THE SHAMROCKS

How did the shamrock become associated with Saint Patrick? According to Irish legend, the saint used the three-leafed plant as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity when he was first introducing Christianity to Ireland.

9. COLD WEATHER HELPED SAINT PATRICK’S LEGEND

In Irish lore, Saint Patrick gets credit for driving all the snakes out of Ireland. Modern scientists suggest that the job might not have been too hard – according to the fossil record, Ireland has never been home to any snakes. Through the Ice Age, Ireland was too cold to host any reptiles, and the surrounding seas have staved off serpentine invaders ever since. Modern scholars think the “snakes” Saint Patrick drove away were likely metaphorical.

10. THERE’S NO CORN IN THAT BEEF

Corned beef and cabbage, a traditional Saint Patrick’s Day staple, doesn’t have anything to do with the grain corn. Instead, it’s a nod to the large grains of salt that were historically used to cure meats, which were also known as “corns.”

11. THE WORLD RUNS UP QUITE A BAR TAB

All of the Saint Patrick’s Day revelry around the globe is great news for brewers. A 2012 estimate pegged the total amount spent on beer for Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations at $245 million. And that’s before tips to pubs’ bartenders.

12. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SAINT MAEWYN’S DAY

According to Irish legend, Saint Patrick wasn’t originally called Patrick. His birth name was Maewyn Succat, but he changed his name to Patricius after becoming a priest.

13. THERE ARE NO FEMALE LEPRECHAUNS

Don’t be fooled by any holiday decorations showing lady leprechauns. In traditional Irish folk tales, there are no female leprechauns, only nattily attired little guys.

14. BUT THE LEPRECHAUN ECONOMY IS THRIVING

Another little-known fact from Irish lore: Leprechauns earned that gold they’re guarding. According to legend, leprechauns spend their days making and mending shoes. It’s hard work, so you can’t blame them for being territorial about their pots of gold.

15. THE LINGO MAKES SENSE

You can’t attend a Saint Patrick’s Day event without hearing a cry of “Erin go Bragh.” What’s the phrase mean? It’s a corruption of the Irish Éirinn go Brách, which means roughly “Ireland Forever.”

Much thanks to the folks at Mental Floss! Enjoy your day!

For it’s all downhill from here……

Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike! Guess what day it is! Guess What Day It Is!

It’s Hump Day!!!!! (Apologies to Caleb the Camel. And the gecko company.)

Ah, Wednesday. Looking for the weekend. Making plans. Except……..here comes somebody with a 4 day project that needs to ship Monday. I’m still looking for the calendar that had a Monday on each end of the week.  Made it much easier to say that you’d have it done on Monday. Sort of like Wimpy promising to pay for a hamburger on the second Tuesday of next week.

Not dating myself-nope nope nope. Must be cable bringing back the old cartoons late at night.  Remember Saturday mornings (at least when I was a kid) when you would grab a bowl of cereal and plop down in front of the TV for a morning of cartoons? Those were the days-you’d finish your cereal and still have a layer of sugar sludge in the bottom of the bowl. Road Runner and Pink Panther cartoons were the best – couldn’t understand why my sisters thought they were stupid. Maybe they were stupid, but they were funny.

(Alert! Alert! Grumpy Old Guy Warning!) I just don’t understand how the cartoons have turned into half hour commercials, with bad animation and worse storylines. I guess that’s why “You of the Tube” has become so popular-they’ve got the best cartoons. Someday I will figure out how to link the best ones so we can share a laugh. (I know, I know – watch videos on YouTube to learn how.)

Be Green tomorrow, but don’t party so hearty you’re green on Friday!

Being Green for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

Wow. Just. Wow.

Where did all the weirdness come from? It’s not just the crazy people trying to pass you on the off ramp when you’re going to work – actually, I want to know where they work, because it must be a great job if they’re in such a hurry to get there.  No, I’m wondering if your Rice Krispies have a extra little whiz to the snap and crackle this morning.  Not going to say more-you’ll have to look it up yourself. I guess there’s a video, too. Not planning on watching it myself.

As long as we’re talking weirdness, are the elections over yet?  Please?  Never thought I’d see a non-Democrat making a good showing in the race for the nomination.  Shoot, the Greens, Libertarians, and all the others could have shown up at the Democratic caucus and they might have done pretty well.

And then there are the people that can take three sides in a two sided argument. You know the ones I’m talking about. They can solve problems that don’t exist, create processes to document information that no one needs, and just when you’ve figured out how to do something, change it. I guess I’m still talking about politicians, aren’t I?

Well, it’s been a long day. Monday sort of leaked into Tuesday, everyone seems shorthanded, and the “You’ve got to be kidding me” moments are popping up like rabbits out of a magicians hat. My Best Gal handed me the bill for replacing the car starter (what is that thing made out of? Platinum rotors with sterling silver brushes?) At least I didn’t have to lay in the mud to change it. That’s me – always looking on the bright side.

Looking at the bright side for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

 

 

It’s March, and the year doesn’t know what to do with itself. Little ice hard snowdrifts are desperately trying to hang on to winter, but the tree buds are popping loose all over.  Birds are singin’ spring in (at least on the warm days). I’m ready for spring, yes indeed.

Except for the mud.

Not the good, honest mud from a summer rain, the kind of mud that makes you take your shoes off and run through the puddles. The good squishy-between-the-toes mud. The let’s throw rocks in the water puddle mud.

Nope, I’m talking the mud that shows up because everything melted and the ground is still frozen. The kind of mud that fools you into parking the truck on the grass, and when you need to leave, the tires just spin. (Come on, the truck is parked on flat ground!)

This is the kind of mud that follows you out to the road and then down the road a ways, leaving a thin smear that will try to upset any two wheel vehicle. The mud that laughs at you when you wash the truck. Actually, it should laugh at you for washing the truck.  A clean truck lacks character, unless you’re going to church or picking up your girl for a night out.

I guess I’ll have to wait a couple weeks. The mud should firm up, and I’ll have to find something else to grumble about.

Squishing through the mud for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

Standing next to an Intelligent Young Man about half my height and many years my junior,  I was commenting on an animated display of dinosaurs.

“Those are velociraptors? I though they were bigger than that.”

Young Man : “That’s the right size. They were only 3 feet long”

“In the movie they looked 8 feet tall. Weren’t they big?”

Young Man: (sigh) “No, the movie was wrong. These are wrong, too. They should have feathers.”

The rest of the afternoon followed the same pattern. I make a comment, followed by a gentle correction. When we left, we were carrying a bag of books, mostly so I could learn about what I thought I already knew. (And yes, current research shows that velociraptors had feathers.)

My error, I guess. I learn something, figure “that’s settled” and move on-never realizing that as new information becomes available, my ‘facts’ were not much more than someone’s opinion.

Wow. How am I so far behind?  How am I supposed to keep up? (Followed by another sigh, the advice “Watch videos on Youtube”, and I think a rolling of the eyes)

Makes sense-if you want to learn a new way of doing something, what better way than watch someone show you?

Left in the dust, I am. I still want to see an anchor-something printed, something tagged true, or marked false. Electrons and Bytes can be changed on a whim, voices on video can mean whatever you want them to mean.

How else can you mark progress, except by comparing now with what happened before? How can you tell an error, except by comparing it to the truth?

Standing for the Good and True,

Billy Acre