And We're Back!

Well, it has been a busy few days.  My parents came down from Arkansas so we could celebrate my Dad's birthday, and so they could attend the orchestra concert I took part in.  Both parts of the visit were a smashing success, and we had a great time all around. 

When not at concerts or celebrating birthdays, we played some cards (I did rather well, if I do say so myself) and did some antiquing downtown.  Dad found some records, and Mom found a few small items.  There was nothing in the way of what I was looking for, but we did stumble across something Mom and I thought was kind of neat:

This USDA pamphlet describes what was the cutting edge of hive design, suggests how to get bees to move to the "new digs"  and as a bonus recommended the best choice of toxic chemical for the removal of bee colonies in inconvenient locations (in the walls of one's house, for instance). 

Mom also brought me a rooted cutting from her really wonderful fig tree.  I'm really excited about my little guy.  He grew a bit wonky, but I picked up a plant stake, cut a strip of soft cloth,
and along with its cozy tree ring for mulch, it is all tucked in safe and sound. 

My baby fig!

Even though it is due to rain at some point in the latter half of the week, I went ahead and ran it some water from the hose since the poor fellow was only just transplanted over the weekend. 

While picking up the plant stake, I checked to see if Home Depot had any Snapdragons or Portulaca in--still no joy, much to my disgust.  I am going to have to do some serious scouting around town this coming weekend.  But, all is not completely lost: among the many sneaky, unwelcome weeds to "volunteer" to come up in my flower beds was one surprise guest who will be allowed to stay. 

Surprise!

Those heart-shaped leaves are the hallmark of a common Violet, and I have a pretty good guess as to this one's parentage.  It so happens that teh bigger redbud tree came with an extra stowaway, in the form of a violet from Mom and Dad's yard.  Now, Violets are shade-loving and extremely tough, so this one survived a couple of bad brushes with a negligent lawn-guy and has, in fact, managed to thrive.  It has also seeded one whole patch of the backyard with its offspring.  (Violets are also extremely prolific.  One very small pot with maybe two violet plants managed to cover my whole side-yard where I last lived.)  Clearly, yet another of the Stowaway's offspring has appeared, and managed to find itself in some prime real-estate.  This might be called a new approach to weed management:  if you can't beat them, choose them. 

Naturally, my Loyal Furry Assistants were on the scene during today's gardening efforts.  Leo made sure the new baby was safe, and Khan-khan arranged to look very decorative:

My parents also brought another redbud sapling when they made their trip, which was a gift for Super Sociable Guy and his family, who have really been very good friends and very sweet to me.  I delivered it to them yesterday, and they have already picked it a spot and got it securely planted.  I chatted with my friend about it today, and he is quite pleased, and I recommended that he pick up a tree ring to help it along.  It was fun to chat, as always, and I mentioned the new fig.  Sociable Guy smoothly suggested that, you know, if I ever needed any help picking figs down the road when my tree is established that he and his family would be happy to help out.  Just sayin'....

I'm looking forward to it.

A Motley Crew

Working full-time does not necessarily leave a lot of time for a social life, but luckily for me I have several colleagues at work who have become friends to me, and unless some serious scheduling conflict comes up, we like to meet up each workday and go out somewhere for lunch together.  This group was already in existence when I first joined the workforce, and it seems to have cohered largely thanks to one particular colleague who, in light of this being a public blog, I shall refer to as Super Sociable Guy. 

I had hardly been at work for moer than a few days when I was first approached by Super Sociable Guy.  He isn't in my working group, but he's from the next group over (remember, super sociable) and he heard through the grapevine that I have an interest in music.  He had the same interest, and moved quickly to sound me out about joining a community orchestra, one of the two I now play in, and the one which happens to have a concert coming up this weekend.  (Incidentally, he had a hand in forming the second orchestra.  Did I mention super sociable?)  Anyway, in the process of recruiting me to the musical cause, he invited me to join the Lunch Bunch crew.  That being the sociable thing to do, and all. 

The cast of characters who attend most regularly are a colorful lot.  There is myself, and the Super Sociable Guy, of course, who tend to lean towards the left politically.  Opposite us are two other members of the crew, who tend to the conservative.  So once conversation gets rolling (a given with you-know-who in the mix) it can get lively.  The last member of the regular crew sometimes joins in (he seems to align more with myself and Mr. Social when he does) but he also just sits quietly aside sometimes, being a person of more intellectual interests.  Others join us occasionally--friends and family of the main buch, mostly, and the occasional random colleague we manage to snag. 

A typical gathering of the Lunch Bunch goes something like this:  I notice the time, and put in a call to one of the others so they can initiate the Daily Herding of the Cats.  Usually, this is the job of Super Sociable Guy.  He rounds up the others, and if they don't get side-tracked talking to someone (it has a tendency to happen) the gang appear on my doorstep a short while later.  We then select a driver from among our number who has a vehicle suitable to the day's needs, and pile on in.

Then we decide where we might actually want to go for lunch. 

Someone--generally the driver--will ask the group where we all want to go.  We all just look at each-other and shrug: Eh, we dunno.  Where did you want to go?  At this point, no strong opinions being ventured, we proceed to to simply pick a place from the exact same list of seven or so places we always go to.  To ensure a little variety, the rule is that we try not to go to the same place more than once in a given work-week.  That is apparently suffiicent to liven things up. 

Admittedly, our town is not huge, so there aren't exactly a million places to choose from, but even then our list remains pretty short.  I don't know if it is just a facet of the Engineer/Scientist personality type, or if there is some other explanation, but by and large we seem quite content to fall into a routine and keep it.  Not necessarily out of any deep love of the exact routine, but more because we have found soemthing that seems to work, and it saves mental energy to just stick with it. 

Sometimes it strikes me that we (people as a whole) spend a lot of our lives this way, and even if they make us uncomfortable sometimes, I think that people who can enter our lives and nudge us to step out of the familiar from time to time are to be valued highly. 

Ah, well.  At least I know what's for lunch tomorrow! 

Eye of the Tiger?

Having introduced one of my cats, it is only fair now to introduce the other.  Dear, sweet, faithful Sher-khan, named for the tiger of literary fame, has been with me for a long time now.  At nearly 20 years old, (yes, you read right, 20, two-zero) he is very much a senior kitty; He has slowed down a lot from the days of his youth, with some definite stiffness and arthritis in his gait, but he is still able to jump up on the bed for night-time cuddles and he still lets me hear all about it if something isn't right with his world, such as mommy getting home late or a lack of attention, which is naturally supposed to be constant.  And being a Siamese, he's got the pipes to do it with, too.

He is also a cat of many faces.  We have basket-kitty,

outside kitty,

and lap-kitty.

 He is a big-time lap cat, and one of his pet peeves in life is laptops, which take up space that is obviously supposed to belong to a kitty.  He does enjoy excursions out into the back yard, though anymore he only tends to go out a few minutes before coming back inside for a cozy nap (see basket-kitty).

He plays the kindly uncle to Leo, who is still young enough to make a pest of himself sometimes.  Still, they seem to have worked things out between them as to who possesses what space when (I am evidently a time-share) and Sher-khan is still able to find space where he can nap in peace.  If only all our lives could be like his....

A Legend In His Own Mind

As I have said in "about me," I happen to be the parent-person of two felines. The younger of the two is Mr. Leo. He's posing for us below.



Is he not a totally cute cat-cat? Yes, yes he is.



He enjoys his food--rather too much, in fact--but he will tell you that he is merely "extra floofy". He also holds the firm belief that everything--and I do mean everything--is a cat toy. One of his favorite objects to appropriate is my work ID on its lanyard. This can be dragged along by the "neck", which he thinks is fun, because the Mighty Lion is then dragging his Helpless Prey back to its Den.

His other all-time favorite activity is being let out to play in the backyard. That's where he was in the last two pictures, but when not rolling around on the porch he might be hanging out beside the little redbuds next to the porch swing:




No outside play for him today, alas, due to cold and cloudy weather.  But by tomorrow there is a good chance it will be clearer, and the Doorkeeper might just let him out again.  It's a tough life he has. 

May Flowers...Just a Tiny Bit Early

Today's post will be picture-heavy and a little light on the written word, because much of my time this evening has been devoted to a garden project.  I have a very nice planter box on my back porch, so I picked up a few annuals and went to town, so to speak.  There were a lot of other people at the store as well, so we all apparently had the same idea on this absolutely gorgeous day.

So, here the poor planter box sits "before," all alone and empty:

After topping up the soil, it was time to get planting.  Lucky for me, I had some expert help:

My elder kitty, Sher-khan investigates.

As does my younger one, Leo



As we can see, an avid gardener!



 With such excellent assistance, the whole job naturally went very quickly.  Now we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor:

After!

The flowers are all among my favorites: geraniums for the centerpiece, some spreading petunias near the edges, and a passel of bright marigolds to fill in the gaps.  The store did not yet have any snapdragons or portulaca in stock, both of which I also love, so I may have to make another trip in a week or two and pick up some of those to go around/between the irises in my flower beds.

I hope you, dear readers, also had a wonderful day to enjoy.

In the Name of Art

 I am a bit tired today because we wound up running late at Orchestra rehearsal last night.  "We" being myself, and two other locals who make a weekly trek over to the next state to participate in a community orchestra there.  The person who originally snagged me into joining this orchestra hasn't gone in a while, being particularly busy lately with personal commitments, but there are still a couple of folks from my neck of the woods that continue to participate.  It was rainy for the drive back, but not too bad, fortunately.

Now, lest one think that "classical" music (that performed by a modern Symphony Orchestra or a group modeled on same) is stuffy and just for snobs who are connected to it professionally in some way, this particular group happens to be made of of amateur musicians, either retired or professionals in a non-musical career who simply like to play, and gather for the fun of it.  We've played a variety of venues and types of concerts, ranging from seasonal (Christmas or Patriotic themes) to "pops" (not strictly classical, but employing similar forms and instruments) to more high-minded concerts with proper Classical music. 

I happen to generally like the proper classical stuff the best.  In fact, I'm all for making sure to get a little dose of Culture in your day, so with that in mind, I thought I'd share a little video below.  There is not, unfortunately, a recording of our particular group performing this piece, though we have performed it on one very memorable occasion.  However, as this piece holds a very important  place in the Classical repertoire, I scoured YouTube and, happily, managed to locate a video of an excellent performance.  So, for our mutual enrichment, I present Concerto Gross, composed by Robert Hirsch:

The Social Network

Yes, for a while this was me....

I've generally been sort of reluctant to get heavily involved in social media, for a number of reasons.  I wouldn't say I'm an especially public person, especially about the things that mean the most to me.  I also grew up in the era just before "Web 2.0" really became widespread (I still remember when Facebook only accepted registrations from a .edu email), so I had "old fashioned" ideas about friendship being something that happens face-to-face between people that see one-enother frequently in real life.  Only gradually did I come to appreciate the ability of the web to keep a person connected to old friends now-distant, or to connect one with new people who had shared interests.

It was also hard to ignore the familiar litany of privacy and security concerns that go along with social networking.  Is it really safe to let the world know where you are, what your routine is, and what things you're involved with?  Do I really feel like sharing my patterns and preferences with companies that will bombard me with advertising?  Most anyone I've been around who is involved with any sort of network security regards social networking as the Root of All (security) Evil. 

Lately, however, I've really picked up posting on facebook, added a proper Google+ account, and (as we can see) have started blogging again.  On the professional side, I've even brushed up a LinkedIn account, which seemed to be a good idea for networking purposes.

So far, it's been fun.  I've seen some updates from friends, shared my own updates and enjoyed receiving comments and "likes" in return.  I'm still a little ambivalent about it in some ways.  I don't want to "live" on Facebook and not have a life, or become dependent on social media for validation.  So in a way it is a bit hard to pin down exactly why I chose to dive in, and why I chose to do so now.  Sure, I've had a Facebook account for quite a while, but I really didn't use it much and barely checked it at all.  Well, I have to confess that there was a brief spate where I got sucked in by the games, but that got old pretty quick.  Then I went right back to ignoring Facebook. 

I suppose my new embrace of the Social Internet is in part to do with the fact that it is hard to find a lot of like-minded, reasonably-educated people to hang out with fact-to-face where I live.  My colleagues are wonderful, and I do consider some of them good friends, but it seemed to be important to move in a broader circle than that.  Luckily, I feel like I've found some of that wider circle, but many of them live an hour or so away, and a few in particular share extensively on Facebook, so it is the best way to stay connected with them.  I admit that it also feels nice to also be back in touch with some of my good friends from previous days.

I guess only time will tell how everything will work out, but for right now I am really enjoying myself, and I hope to continue to stay connected.  So, I wave hello across the electronic airwaves, and say "welcome" to passers-by.  I'll be seeing you in cyberspace.  

Yard and Garden

Since it is spring, and since the weather has calmed considerably just lately (koff koff) it's a good time to spend a while in my back yard and enjoy my flower beds.  Among other things already in the beds when I moved into my current house are some very nice yellow-orange day-lilies.  There is one in particular in the back flower bed which is as happy as a clam, with a bazillion buds: 



Next to that, are some recently planted irises.  These arrived courtesy of my mom, who had them in a planter bed.  This bunch wound up homeless (long story, there) though mom still has some others in her yard.  I was mostly just hoping that mine would all take this first year and hang in there, as they had been having a rough life before they were replanted, but not only have some of them really settled in, a fair number started to bud out:

Now they have joined the lily in a riot of blumes, creating a bright, cheerful purple-and-yellow canvas:

And last, but not least from the back yard, are two young redbud trees.  These were offspring of a giant redbud mom and dad have in their backyard which produces about sixty-gazillion babies each spring.  So they had a couple of extras. 

The near one was planted not long after I moved in, and it really took off last year (that's MR Redbud to you, thanks) and the other one (harder to see) was planted early last year and is small yet.  Once they reach full size, they should provide some nice shade for the porch and swing. 

My two cats (more on them soon) absolutely love playing in the back yard, which is fenced in, so they can't wander the whole neighborhood and go looking for trouble.  This compromise seems to satisfy all parties, though the cats have been known to turn Marco Polo if for any reason a gate is accidentally left open.  And when the gate is just standing open like that, is it their fault if they can't resist the call to go exploring? 

This is My Life

In lieu of the usual sort of introductory post, I thought I might describe my last couple of weeks, just to illustrate how my life can get and suggest why my blog has the subtitle and address that it does.

So, the other Wednesday, I was having a pretty normal day, the only real wrinkle being that a predicted round of thunderstorms had rolled in that morning.  Because the Friendly Local Weather Man had said these were coming, I didn't think much of them, except to grumble about their inconvenient timing, since when lunchtime rolled around it meant dashing through rain to pile into the truck with the batch of friendly colleagues I usually go to lunch with.  The Lunch Bunch are a great crew--there will doubtless be more about them on this blog--and the Bunch consists mainly of other government-employed geeks like myself, plus a couple of friends and family members who join us occasionally.

Well, we pick one our usual favorite haunts, have a quick bite to eat, and enjoy being back out of the rain, which got pretty heavy on the drive over.  A while later, however, we are in luck as the rain has slackened slightly, so we pile back in to get back to work...when we get a call from one of our other colleagues who is at the office.  The friendly caller wishes to inquire how our lunch has been, where we happen to be at the moment, and--oh, yes--did we know that our building just got hit by a tornado?

<????>
.
.
.
<!>

We receive a lively description of the resulting damage from our on-the-ground colleague, but it could not quite do justice to the actual scene.  One entire corner of the roof had been peeled back like a tin can, and a single car from the front parking lot had been plucked up and artistically placed on the sidewalk.  It was really quite impressive.  In better news, nobody had been hurt, and automotive damage seemed to be mainly limited to the Artistic Sidewalk Car.  My own faithful little vehicle was around the back, tucked safely on the lee side of the building and suffered nothing more than being whimsically decorated by a few strategically-placed gobs of (now wet) windblown insulation. 


In another stroke of good fortune, my office and those of the colleagues I most work with are down in a semi-basement area, and are on the far side of the building from the roof damage.  Still, with part of the roof gone, a lot of water made it down to our level on that far end, making rather a mess.  With the integrity of my own office un-breached, I initially considered riding things out and carrying on work as usual.  I then discovered that the network has gone down, meaning no access and no email communication, putting a pretty big dent in things.  To be fair, the email didn't go down until just after we got back from lunch:  sitting in our inboxes when we returned to our desks was a friendly note advising us that a weather warning had been issued for our area. 

Good to know. 

The Internet outage meant I couldn't work on what I'd been planning to work on, but that was no biggie.  There were some other tasks I could take care of.  I cheerfully booted up my main computer and went to bring up some of the relevant programs.  When a minute later power to our section of the building was cut as a precaution against gas leaks...I conclude that this is One of Those Days when more work is simply not going to happen. 


Now, this probably sounds like plenty of adventure all on its own...but wait, there's more! The next few days were quiet enough, and the weather was as calm and pleasant as could be--as my mom would say, "butter wouldn't melt in its mouth".  Turns out it was just leading us on.  By the beginning of the next week, some tarps had been laid over the damaged section of roof, and we all dug right in to our work, laboring to make sure we had everything back on track after the previous week's disruptions.  It didn't take long for a bout of rain to pass through and demonstrate conclusively that there were a few flaws with the tarp-job.  More water, more cleaning-up down at the far end of the hall. 

We survive the week without (further) major incident, and by the beginning of the week after that, we are protected by a whole new batch of super-tarps which are thoroughly weighted down.  This is sagely agreed-upon as a significant improvement, as the same Friendly Local Weather Man from before has predicted a new round of storms building in around mid-week.  By late afternoon on Monday, I'm really on a roll with work, and not really thinking about weather since that "party" isn't scheduled for a couple of days yet. 

I don't particularly notice when the few wispy clouds overhead at lunchtime gradually grow thicker and start to darken.  I suspect there were a first few quiet, distant rolls of thunder I didn't really register, either.  I'm happily tapping away at my computer.  By the time rain began to patter down and the thunder was picking up some steam, I've noticed what is going on, and I find it rather curious, since nothing was really predicted for another day or two.  I presume that it must just be one of those little heat-storms that springs up now and again, and I shrug and turn back to my work.  By the time it dawns on me that the thunder is still gaining strength, and the storm is looking like it might not be quite so small as I had thought, our Kindly Assistant Team-leader from up the hall drifts by my office.  We chat amiably for a minute, as he gives the occasional glance through the window, taking note that the rain has begun to blow sideways.  Hard.  And there is sort of a rattle-and-bang sound coming from the far end of the building.  It is at this point Kindly Assistant Team-leader casually suggests moving out into the hall...which just so happens to be nice...and secure...and away from all windows.... 

We also gather our one other colleague who happened to be present at the time, and we spend a pleasant little while chatting together, listening to the storm, and (for my part, anyway) admiring the merrily tinkling waterfall that was now gracing the far end of the building.  Again.  So much for the super-tarps. 

While this second storm was "only" straight-line winds, it still managed to do quite a number on the local area; any parts of town which hadn't lost power the first time (my home being one of those) lost it this time around (these including the poor Kindly Assistant Team-leader). 

We can't be sure if there there is some weather god somewhere who just doesn't like us, if we have some bad, water-related Karma, or if we were merely the victims of just plain bad luck.  Then again, my faithful little car ended up surviving both times completely unscathed, so maybe the angry weather god's vengeance only goes so far.  I do know one thing, though:  I am definitely keeping my parking space.